The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Dinner with Destiny

Previously: "Valentine's Date" 

That's going to be me. I'm going to be her.

And what is wrong with me that I can't stop thinking that?

It's long since you have been so mesmerized—so helplessly gripped—by the prospect of an impersonation. In your profession you don and doff personas and bodies the way others change their clothes, and like clothes your impersonations are worn in the service of a job, not because they make you feel good. Few of them ever have made you feel good. The bodies you take are typically drab, flabby, and worn, and the personas tired, disappointed, and compromised by life. Shapeshifting spy is not a job that sounds like it should be drudgery. But the impersonated lives all too usually are.

But this prospect before you, now?

"Gabriel," Kali Valentine trills in a low, quiet voice, and turns her head slightly to accept a cheek-kiss with a small smile of delight. "I hope I am not early." Her eye settles on you and White, and a glint comes into it. "Or am I the last to arrive?"

"Fashionably late, Kali," Gabriel says. "Well, certainly fashionable. My God, look are stunning. Daniel!" he calls over his shoulder.

"What?" his husband screams back.

"My sweetmeat is busy steaming," Gabriel murmurs with a grimace. "Earlier he was just simmering, but the temperature's gone up." He gestures her toward you. "So, this Lisa and this is David."

Kali beams at you and advances, and you have to stop yourself from taking a step back.

She is tall—certainly taller than you—and slim, with thick hair that falls in gentle ringlets to settle about the tops of her shoulders. Her skin is a pale cocoa, and her eyes are large and dark. Her face, under a broad, smooth brow, is angular without being sharp or pointed, and her expression is warm but grave. Queenly? you ask yourself as she glides gracefully toward you with grace and gravity. No, not quite, not exactly. But she does carry herself with a quiet, aristocratic air.

"I'm so charmed to meet you," she says. "I'm Kali Valentine." She extends an elegantly limp hand.

"Likewise," you gabble as you accept the gentlest of handshakes from her. "I mean—! I'm Lisa. Gannon. Um, Gabriel's right, that's a beautiful outfit!"

It should be only a pleasantry—and a meaningless one—but you are suddenly aware of just how stunning (elegantly simple) her two-piece ensemble is. Beneath, she is wearing a loose-fitting, plum-colored jumpsuit of silk, unadorned, undecorated, and unbelted, with a square-cut collar just across the tops of her breast. Over it she has draped a soft, champagne-colored duster, also of silk it appears, whose hem falls to the tops of her calves. Except for the asymmetrical earrings—one a long, dangling spiral; the other a hoop—she wears no jewelry.

"Why, thank you!" she replies with a warm smile, then turns to your colleague. "Kali Valentine," she introduces herself again to him, and puts out the same limp hand. "Are you colleagues of Gabriel or Daniel?"

"What?" White looks startled. "Oh, no, just friends," he protests.

"We all went to college together," Gabriel hastily says. He catches your eye with a worried expression. "What I mean is, they went to college with Daniel and my brother Carlos. We've kept in touch."

"I see," Kali says. Then she asks, "Are you two together?"

It would be a bold—almost a rude—question but she asks it with an air of quiet puzzlement.

Then, as you and White stare, she adds, "I do apologize. Only you seem so at ease with each other that I was about to assume that you were."

"Er—"

Before you can extend your stammer, Kali reaches out to lightly touch you and White on the forearms.

Much later you come to understand what happened. But in the moment it is startling, almost eerie.

It begins as nothing more than a short shiver—not unpleasant, only sharp, as when you step out of a closed, stale house onto a fresh, cool porch. Then the shiver fades into a prickle, as though you are being touched in a thousand places by tiny points of light. The light of the room seems to warm and dim, and without knowing why you twist around to look up at White, who has already turned to look at you. His mouth is hanging slightly open; not until you've clamped it shut do you realize your own jaw is slack as well.

For it suddenly occurs to you what an extraordinarily attractive man he is. And, if his expression is anything to go by, he is having a reciprocal thought about you.

"Kali." The voice seems to come from miles away. "Would you like some wine? I have a merlot."

"That would be lovely, but I'll only trouble you for what Lisa and David are having."

"Lisa, can I get you any more? Lisa?"

It takes all your willpower to tear your gaze away from White. Almost you are caught and trapped by Kali's warm, benevolent expression, and you feel yourself gaping as you look past her to Gabriel. He looks alarmed.

"What?" you stammer.

"Can I touch you up there?" he asks.

And because her back is to him, Kali doesn't see as he touches the pocket where he carries the snoozegun.

"No!" you gasp. "Later." Gabriel frowns, but you want to see this woman in action before you tap her and replace her.

"I'm afraid I've been very forward," she is saying. "If we still have a little time before dinner, perhaps we can all sit and begin again." With a wide but slightly knowing smile, she drapes herself onto a sofa and crosses her legs. You nearly trip over yourself—and White—as you struggle to a seat of your own.

* * * * *

Daniel is in a better mood after you're all seated at the table (and he has changed into a fresh, sharply tailored suit). You don't understand what all his stress was about—it's just stir-fried beef, lobster tossed with noodles, and some braised fish—but your guest of honor seems quite taken aback by it.

"This XO sauce is extraordinary," she exclaims after sampling her first bite of beef; she balances her chopsticks elegantly in mid-air. "Did you make it?"

"I did, thank you," Daniel replies.

"Wherever did you learn?"

"He taught himself," Gabriel says, and shakes his head. "I think that week was the closest we ever came to breaking up."

"But it was worth it," Daniel retorts. To Kali: "I was trying to sign Kim Ye-jun to the agency, and this was my secret weapon."

"Your secret sauce, you mean," White says. Like you, he is eating his noodles with a fork.

Kali laughs, and her eyes sparkle as Daniel adds, "My spies told me that XO was a favorite of his. I got his name on a contract before dessert that night."

"And why do I merit the same extraordinary treatment?" Kali laughs lightly.

Daniel glances meaningfully at you. "Tonight's an important night."

"And this abalone." She pops a tiny portion into her mouth. "May I say this is the subtlest manifestation of boasting I have ever encountered?" Daniel dimples with pleasure.

"Is there something special about it I don't know about?" you timorously ask, and wince a little as all eyes turn toward you.

"It's hard to make," Daniel says.

"It is very easy to make," Kali corrects him. "But extraordinarily difficult to conjure this well."

Conversation shifts and drifts liquidly from topic to topic. Kali confesses that she has visited China (and Japan and Korea) many times, both for business and pleasure; she discusses the state of the stock market with Gabriel; and she is politely grateful for Daniel's offer to introduce her professionally to some of his clients, some of whom might easily be talked into refurbishing and redecorating their homes.

And to your dismay she tries to be equally gracious and interested in you and White as well. This is awkward because you don't have a persona to fall back upon, and feel somewhat dazzled by her attention.

"I'm afraid we've been rather neglecting you," she declares as Daniel is bringing in a salad. "Did Gabriel say you went to college with Daniel?" Out of the corner of your eye, you see him stumble a little.

"Yes. And with Gabriel's brother, Carlos," you quickly add. "Mostly we hung out with Carlos."

"Gabriel basically adopted them," Daniel says. He catches your eye.

"And which college was this?"

"NYU," White says when no one else answers.

"And you all end up in Los Angeles. How pleasant that must be for you all!"

"Well, that's only recently," you improvise. "I was living in Georgia until just a few months ago. And David, you were in—?"

"Michigan."

"And I came out here to see Carlos, and got reconnected with Gabriel and Daniel, and—"

You feel short of breath, for though Kali's gaze and smile are encouraging, there is also something watchful behind them; and as she picks carefully at her salad, you have the sense that she is picking through and assessing your conversation as well. Why are you so goddamned flustered? you curse yourself as you wade deeper into a morass of biography that you are sure is replete with contradictions. You've ten years experience improving at these kinds of situations. Why has she got you stuttering like a fucking trainee?

"Savannah?" Kali exclaims with arched surprise when (in a frantic grab) you claim that as your hometown. "How extraordinary. I lived three years there back in— Oh gracious, I don't want to think how long ago that was. But it would be about the time you came along."

And just like that, you can't take it anymore.

"Well, we didn't live there long," you say. "But can you all excuse me? My phone just vibrated and nearly scared the— Scared me out of my chair." Everyone murmurs politely as you scramble up out of your seat and hurry away.

In the the bathroom you tap out a typo-riddled text to Daniel, ordering him to hit Kali with a snoozegun. You then pat your face all over with some cold water, and give yourself a once over in the mirror. "Snap out of it, motherfucker," you growl.

Fortunately there is no more need to pretend. White—the biggest and strongest in the room—is hefting the unconscious Kali Valentine into his arms when you return to the dining room.

Next: "Who Calls My Name?" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"