Love In the Time of Contracts by Jethro Collins

Author:Jethro Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, gay, marriage, humor, romantic comedy, chick lit, janet evanovich, scientology, humor comedy, satire humor
Publisher: Jethro Collins

CHAPTER 11

ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS A BALLROOM

The ballroom obsession started early. Bebe recalled seeing an image of the ballroom at the Royal Palace of Brussels when she was a young girl. Its glittering chandeliers and wood floors possessed her, and she could think of nothing else. Banquet halls, hotels, and even night clubs—any time she saw a wide patch of wood floor and some velvet drapes—she was a goner. When she and Charles started house shopping, it was the only feature that mattered. A woman obsessed knows no boundaries. Especially when that woman has no budget.

The original ballroom on Bebe’s estate was only large enough to hold 200 people. That simply wasn’t lavish enough for Bebe, so, in 1966, she demolished it and built a larger, grander ballroom that could hold up to 500 people. It stretched from the formal English gardens past the tennis courts. It divided the estate in half and had a perfectly situated view of the swimming pool. It was perfection, and no detail was spared.

Bebe used to be fabulous. Hosting the most elaborate parties in Hollywood. Racy parties, even by the standards of the late 1960s. Neighbors would complain and call the police and then Bebe would politely invite the officers in and successfully get them drunk on expensive cocktails or pay them off with envelopes of cash and autographs. “Good-deed money” she called it. She was, perhaps, the only woman in the world to ever successfully charm every officer in Beverly Hills into staying for at least one gin and tonic.

She once filled the pool with thousands of glowing bouncy balls for John’s 10th birthday. The gardener still occasionally finds them half-buried in the dirt when he plants the annual African Marigolds in the flower garden next to the pool. He initially thought they were alien babies or pods until he saw Made in China imprinted on them.

The parties ended. Nobody had entered the ballroom since 1997. That was the year that Charles died and the final ending of Bebe going outside. It wasn’t so much agoraphobia as it was a lack of interest in doing anything that brought her joy. The world seemed empty without him and too full to comprehend all at the same time. She couldn’t bear to dance without him. The room hurt her heart and her eyes. Bebe locked the doors and never allowed anyone to enter the room again. And so the grand ballroom sat there, quietly rotting on the property with its ornate stone arches and huge floor-to-ceiling windows and doors. Like some sort of sad monument to their endless love.

“I brought you a present,” Jenna said as she entered the living room with two large handled paper bags. Chadwick and Joe lingered behind her, hovering in the doorway like scared children waiting to be scolded.

“Jenna, darling, so good to see you,” Bebe said as she looked up from her book. “And your new blonde lesbian hair and very orange skin. What did you bring?”

“Records, lots of them,” Jenna answered, ignoring the comment about her new haircut and spray tan.

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