“It’s the Bellafonte curse,” Hartley whispers, “they are all fucking perfect but stuck in their ivory tower!”
I look at her surprised, wondering if she has had too much champagne.
“I’m joking Ginny! But, you should have come to the Riviera with us. I know it's not your scene but I missed you, I know how special your summers are with your Grandpa. I am honestly just playing, I’m sorry,” Hartley says while grabbing and holding my hand, letting it go when she sees my smile. I take my seat next to her a little tentatively after her strange outburst.
“Sounds like my kind of summer. Hi Ginny, as Drew said, I am Dom,” Dom is still standing and bending over to my seated form to kiss my cheek in greeting. “He is damn right, you are a very beautiful creature,” he finishes softly into my ear.
I am such an eyes person, and Dom’s, well Dom’s eyes are damn near perfect. Actually all of him is very nice to look at. He sits next to me and I watch him out of the corner of my eye. Yep, he is a looker alright.
“Dom, leave her. Okay, here we go,” Drew says quickly, his voice dropping as the noise around us does too. We all stop our introductions and turn in our seats. Just in time it seems, the Headmaster starts walking across the stage as the ballroom quickly descends into silence.
“Welcome to St Joseph’s new students and welcome back to our returning students. My name if we have not yet been introduced is Dr. Nelson. Tonight, really is a very informal evening, more like a mixer, where I want you all to mingle, introduce yourself. The relationships that you form tonight and over your time with us, will undoubtedly lead to life long bonds be it of friendship or at the very least relationships with people that you do business with. The person sitting to your right may just be on the board with you, or the person across from you may be our next governor. Make no mistake, every person in this room will be involved in your life in some way, shape, or form. We have our country’s next lawmakers, leaders, politicians, doctors, scientists, CEOs, you name it, here in this one room. St Joseph’s, you are our future,” he says as he throws his arms up in a move characteristic of a showman. And the room erupts in rousing applause.
I peek a look over at Drew, Caleb, and Dom, the twins are transfixed to the headmaster on the stage but Dom, Dom is staring intently at me. I return his stare, he is not hard to look at, with steely grey eyes, long ashy blonde hair dramatically flopping over his face. But, it is the combination of that with his lips, his mouth, that is mesmerizing. He is hard not to keep watching and he lets me ogle him, his eyes full of encouragement and that perfect mouth of his offering a slight smile, until the headmaster beckons my focus again, only for a moment. I throw a quick glance back to Dom and his pretty eyes again before physically turning in my seat away from him. He is that distracting. I really wonder about St Joseph’s, full of beautiful, like, gorgeous people that are all confident in themselves and in this setting already, I am not sure I will have what you need to survive here. I already feel like a fish out of water.
“We have a series of smaller gathering’s coming up over the next couple of days and you will be expected to attend. Those evenings will break us up into year levels and will be an opportunity for you to meet department heads as well as your cohort. Tonight though we will also present to you the School Captains and our School Champion, and then we will get to enjoy a lovely dinner. Before I start with the awards, I remind you that classes commence bright and early, tomorrow at eight am. Now please let me introduce to our newest students, our School Captains, Beatrice Hastings and Connor McDougall,” he sweeps his arm to the curtained area off the left of the stage and I watch as both Beatrice and green-eyed Connor walk out and go to stand next to the headmaster on the stage, they shake hands warmly with each other and you get a real sense of genuine regard.
“Thank you Dr. Nelson for your kind words, Beatrice and I are looking forward to this academic year and meeting all the new St Joseph attendees. We have been asked to keep it very short and simple, so that is what we do. I will take the opportunity however to reiterate, that we are your elected representatives, so please know that our door is always open. Stay safe and work hard. Thank you again Dr,” Connor finishes by grabbing Dr. Nelson in another handshake while Betsy smiles on.
Dr. Nelson is a suave, fit, fifty-ish looking man with salt and pepper hair, dressed and groomed impeccably. He wears the academic robes of a doctor of philosophy and it certainly suits him. He walks back to the microphone, “Now new students, this may be you in twelve months, although our award winner, our school Champion who sets a very, very high standard. We certainly encourage you to achieve your goals, set them high for the rewards are endless. Tonight I have the privilege of presenting to you our academic award winner. It is really no surprise, he has taken out this prestigious award surpassing his peers, despite his age, for the past two years. He is academically brilliant and we are blessed that he continues to accept the honorary scholarship we offer him, please congratulate Hunter Hollingsworth,” he finishes and the room is suddenly alive with thundering feet and whoops from around the room.
And there he is again.
I am not sure how I react, maybe I gasp out loud, but Drew looks at me quickly, his eyebrow quirking up in question before we are thankfully interrupted by the food service. I really don’t want to explain knowing Hunter, it just sounds so silly, him refusing to acknowledge me, and me for some reason agreeing to it.
The meals are all set down as the applause dies down to a few lingering claps, the waiters continue around the ballroom discretely finishing the service as Hunter addresses the ballroom. Honestly, I will not be able to tell you what he says, I barely hear anything over the ringing in my ears. Hunter finishes his acceptance speech on stage and Dr. Nelson completes the announcements for the evening to exit the stage with Hunter, Betsy, and Connor trailing behind him. Pretty much all the students continue to watch Dr. Nelson and the others leave the stage, all smiling, they disappear behind the curtains only to reappear at the stairs to make their way to their table. As one the entire ballroom stands to their feet, I am a little slow off the mark, but I quickly stand despite my wobbly legs. We all wait until they are at their table and seated, before we follow suit. A soft murmur stirs through the room as people relax around their tables and chat amongst themselves.
Everyone at my table sits down and they immediately start on the entree, the guys are talking quietly with each other and Hartley is on her phone. I am still a little shocked, as I sit back to catch my breath. I can’t help the pull I feel towards his table, despite my best intention to ignore everything about Hunter, something about him calls to me and I quickly look in his direction. Hunter is seated between Betsy and another beautiful girl our age, her blonde hair rolled in a chignon and even from here she looks like a young Grace Kelly. His whole table is in animated happiness, and I feel like I am intruding upon their celebration, as I take note of their happy smiles, handshakes. And then the pretty Grace Kelly sitting next to him, leans into Hunter and pulls his face to hers to kiss him chastely on the lips. He smiles into her kiss. My hands are shaking so badly after watching them, that I drop my glass and it smashes to the travertine floor, the sound echoing around the room.
I am pretty sure that everyone turns to stare at me. Including Hunter, his eyes flash at me in anger.