Lies and Weddings(106)

Rufus got down on the floor and hugged his sister. “I’m so sorry, Augie,” he said softly as she continued to sob in his arms.

“You are most welcome to lie down and breathe with her,” Gopal Das said.

“Oh, okay. What do I do?”

“It’s a three-stage breath. The first breath fills your lower belly, and the second breath fills your upper chest, then you exhale it all out.”

Rufus nodded. “Just like pranayama yogic breathwork.”

“Exactly!” Gopal Das said, impressed that Rufus knew.

Brother and sister began to breathe on the floor in unison, holding hands. Suddenly Augie cried out, “It’s all my fault it’s all my fault it’s all my fault.”

“Shall we examine that thought? Why do you think this is your fault?” Gopal Das asked in a neutral tone.

“I allowed it to happen. I was generous and open, I wasn’t possessive. When she was vomiting into the bucket after her first dose of the ayahuasca, I told Maxxie to go help her. I mean, there was such an immense amount of honk coming out of her, someone had to hold her hair back. Maxxie loves women in distress, that’s his biggest turn-on.”

“What I’m hearing is that you are generous and open. What I’m hearing is that you are confident and self-actualized and Maxxie doesn’t feel like he deserves you. Repeat after me: I deserve to be loved by someone who deserves me. You say it too, Rufus.”

“I deserve to be loved by someone who deserves me,” Rufus and Augie chanted together as Rufus thought, I don’t deserve to be loved by Eden but she loves me anyway.

“Gopal Das, something else is coming to me in the breathwork. I don’t know if it’s a positive thought or a negative one,” Augie said.

“Just let the thought out. Let it exist in the universe,” Gopal Das said.

“Do you really think Mummy’s right? That Maxxie had an Asian fetish and I wasn’t quite Asian enough for him after all because I’m only half?”

“I believe Maxxie is in conflict with his body. What his heart desires is at war with what his loins desire,” Gopal Das ruminated.

“I can tell you Maxxie’s loins desire everyone. Asian, half Asian, it didn’t make a difference. He even came on to me,” Rufus said.

“HE DID?” Gopal Das and Augie said in unison.

“Loads of times. I think Maxxie is just an equal-opportunity horndog.”

There was a knock on the door, and Anya the housemaid peeked her head in.

“Sorry. Viscount St. Ives, her ladyship would like to see you in her boudoir at once.”

“Tell her I’ll be there soon,” Rufus said at first, but the look of terror on Anya’s face made him change his mind. “Actually, why don’t I come with you now.”





(IN THE COUNTESS’S BOUDOIR…)


Rufus walked into his mother’s boudoir to find her lying on her Carlo Bugatti chaise longue, the Korean beauty mask draped over her face making her resemble an Egyptian mummy. What was with all these Gresham women and their propensity for putting things over their faces, Rufus wondered.

“Rufus, is that you?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Why didn’t you come to see me at once?”

“I went to check on Augie first.”

“Don’t lie to me. You went to talk to Bea first, and then you proceeded to Augie. I know everything that happens in this house.”

“Not lying, Mum. I didn’t realize you needed to see me so urgently,” Rufus said patiently.

“Of course I need you urgently! Look what you’ve done!”

“What have I done?”

“Your poor sister and her disaster of a honeymoon! All this is your doing!”

Rufus took a deep breath and sank into an armchair. “So now it’s my turn. First it was Bea’s fault, and now it’s mine. I’d love to know how I was responsible…”

“If you would have gotten engaged to Solène de Courcy like a good boy, none of this would have happened! We could have merged our hotels with the de Courcys’ and all our money problems would have been solved!”

“First of all, I was never in love with Solène de Courcy, so nothing would have ever happened. Second, merging Bella Resorts with the De Courcy Group—if the de Courcys would even allow such a thing to happen—would not have solved a thing. But I fail to see what any of it has to do with Augie’s problems.”

Arabella let out a sigh that sounded a bit like a gurgle through her gooey face mask. “My stupid boy, you are sooo na?ve! Maxxie found out that we’re going broke and that’s the real reason he left Augie.”

“Not what I heard. Maxxie apparently fell for some girl who had a vomiting fit.”

“That’s just what Augie wants to believe, that he married her for love. Maxxie married her for her money!”

“Wait a minute, I thought Augie married Maxxie for his money?”

“Hiyah, they both married each other for their money, except there is no money left! Maxxie’s father is down to his last Bacon and the mama only has a ranch full of useless llamas.[*1] Do you know who that vomiting girl is that Maxxie ran off with? She’s not just some random Chinese girl, you know. Rosina told me she was married to several of the richest men in Asia and just won a huge divorce settlement from an Arab sheikh! She’s a billionairess who can fund Maxxie’s princely lifestyle and his eco-tech dreams.”