“It’s not being shut down,” Vicki said. “The project has been put on hold until everything with the library has been sorted out.”
“That’s right,” Vanessa said. “The Oakmont Street Project is yours, isn’t it, Vic?” She looked from Vicki to April. “How interesting.”
April sighed. Despite April’s protestations, it was clear that Vanessa didn’t believe that nothing was going on between April and Vicki. It didn’t help that she had seen them at Lilith’s Den together.
Mel, however, didn’t share Vanessa’s amusement. Her wariness of Vicki was clear on her face. She turned to address April. “Assuming the library is staying open, we should talk about setting up a partnership between the Legal Services Project and the Oakmont Street Library,” Mel said. “We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for people who need our services to find us.”
“That would be amazing,” April said. “We get a lot of people coming in to look up legal reference books because they can’t afford lawyers.”
“Great,” Mel said. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Why don’t we leave these two alone?” Vanessa wrapped her arm around Mel’s waist. “It was lovely to see you again, April.”
Mel said goodbye to April and gave Vicki another withering look before she and Vanessa walked off.
April turned to Vicki. “No one knows me here, huh?”
“I wasn’t planning on running into Vanessa,” Vicki said.
“And all those other people we’ve run into? That was intentional?”
“Yes. I’m proving a point.”
“Which is?” April asked.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” Vicki said.
“All this mingling and this mysterious ‘something’ you want to show me has yet to materialize.” April crossed her arms. “I’m starting to suspect you have an ulterior motive.”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“I don’t know, to drag me around this party drinking champagne with you?”
Vicki lifted her glass. “You make it sound like such an awful thing.”
“Victoria!”
“I was kidding,” Vicki said. “I assure you, there’s a point to all this. Trust me.”
“Okay then,” April said. “By the way, what did you do to get on Mel’s bad side?”
Vicki waved her hand dismissively. “I made a few harmless comments to her at a ball just like this one, and apparently she took them the wrong way.”
Before April could question her further, Vicki’s eyes landed on a group of half a dozen people, standing around with drinks in their hands.
“Come on.” Vicki held out her arm for April to take. “Try not to lose your temper, okay?”
“What do you mean?” April asked.
Vicki didn’t answer her. Instead, she pulled April over to the group, slipping into a gap in the circle.
“Good to see you, Vicki,” the woman next to April said. She had straight brown hair and a warm smile, and she looked to be around forty.
“Camilla. This is April,” Vicki said. “April, Camilla.”
April and Camilla exchanged a brief greeting. As the conversation continued around them, Vicki quietly spoke in April’s ear, telling April who everyone was. There was one woman, an older lady, who Vicki simply referred to as ‘the Duchess.’ Next to her was Senator Williams, who April recognized from TV, and his wife. Everyone looked like they’d had plenty to drink.
When the conversation died down, Camilla addressed Vicki again. “How are things at Oasis? I hear you’ve been having some trouble with one of your major projects?”