Justin

As it gets later, the crowd thins, and Eleanor, having already worked over everyone in the room, comes to rest her head against his shoulder. "This is going really well," she says, surreptitiously sliding her hand up under his shirt, "We've sold so many prints." Justin has tried making peace with the idea that other people are going to be hanging his pictures on their own walls, but it isn't quite happening. Why? he wonders. He wouldn't want pictures of them on his walls...Eleanor squeezes his arm as her head lifts up from his shoulder, alert & energized. "It's my Aunt Beatrix," she says, leaving him to greet a late-comer to this party, a tall, fair woman who looks in no way related to his Eleanor. Eleanor guides the woman around the gallery, giving the same glowing, animated spiel she's given eveyone tonight, but now it's more personal. The tour ends with Justin himself, and Eleanor introduces him first as 'the artist', and then adds, "And the love of my life. I'm so happy you can meet him, Beatrix." Justin is actually struck dumb, can barely function to shake the woman's hand & greet her. He was preparing himself to stand down, pretend in front of this relative as he was made to do in front of her parents, that he's not hers: being introduced like that was more than a complete shock. The woman looks him over with avid eyes, tells him how impressed she is with the art & how pleased she is to see Eleanor so happy. Justin honestly does not know what to say or do, and is happy both women have enough to say between them that his participation isn't required. Eventually, Eleanor leads her aunt to what's left of the food table, bragging now about his talents as a chef, too.

As they get out to his car, Eleanor stops to kiss him, and tell him again how well it went. "You were magnificent, Elle," Justin congratulates her, "You do an amazing job with the hard sell. You'll even have me believing I'm a genius if you keep it up." Eleanor looks up at him, brows furrowed & serious. "Justin, I did do a bit of 'salemanship' in there. That's the business. But you are brilliant, you know, and I believe everything I've been saying about you in there," she says. "Since when, Elle? Because of these pictures? I just don't get it, how all of a sudden I'm a different person, just because of these pictures..." Justin says, wishing he could find the words for what he wants to express. She caresses his face, his hair, "No, not all of a sudden, Tiger," she whispers, "It's taken me so long to recognize it, I'm ashamed of myself. I never paid attention to you at all, when we first met, I didn't see you for what you are, I told myself you were someone else, until you made me see you. Every day, I learn things about you that make me love you more, I'm always thrilled & amazed by you. Nothing has changed, about you, about me...I just see things more clearly now. I love you Justin, I always will."

Eleanor tells him on the drive home that Beatrix isn't really her aunt, but a close friend of her mother's, and she's only in L.A. for another day: she's just returned from a business trip to Tokyo & has some things to attend to here before returning back east. And she tells him how much she admired this woman, when she was girl, how she modeled herself on her, rather than on her mother. "I invited her for lunch tomorrow, I hope that's all right," she says, as though Justin would turn her down. His refrigerator is always well stocked & he's always ready to to prepare a meal for guests: this particular guest he most especially wants to impress, because she's important to Eleanor. Beatrix turns out to be a world class gourmand, and glows ecstatically over the lunch Justin prepares, "Really, Eleanor, you should lock him up, make sure no finds out what a treasure you have here. Tell me, has he got other talents?" Eleanor's mother had the same habit of discussing him as though he weren't right there: at least this 'aunt' does it in a complimentary way, though Justin doesn't see what Eleanor admires so much about her. She hasn't got half Eleanor's character. More than anything, he wants to make a good impression, for Eleanor's sake, and he finds he doesn't have to do anything special at all to accomplish that. As easy as it was to earn her mother's contempt, Justin has earned this aunt's respect, just by being there. Beatrix remarks several times that she's happy to see Eleanor's happiness, and that makes her all right with Justin, snooty Cambridge accent and all.

"Justin, darling, it's Mother," the voice on the line says. The words swim around in Justin's head, meaningless. No one in his entire life has ever called Justin 'darling', not even Eleanor, who has one pet name for him, 'Tiger' which she uses very sparingly, either to soothe or arouse him, depending on the circumstance. That the unheard of 'Justin, darling' should be followed by 'it's Mother' is twice as unbelievable. His own mother not only didn't call him 'darling' or anything remotely like that, she didn't refer to herself as 'mother'. Though he hasn't heard his mother's voice in many many years, he knows this strident tone isn't hers, and he knows who it does belong to. But that's even more improbable..."Helen?" he finally asks, sure it could only be Eleanor's mother, the hell-bitch. "Of course, darling. But I insist you call me 'mother'," she says, and Justin is happily relieved to have Eleanor snatch the receiver from his hand before he even needs to think about reacting. "Mother?" she asks, and Justin supresses a growl as he watches Eleanor cringe under her mother's voice. After a moment, Eleanor raps her knuckles against the table, straightens her spine & speaks in a sharp hiss, "You didn't listen to anything I told you about him, you wouldn't have believed this either." Her knuckles continue to rap impatiently against the table as she listens, head bent, hair falling over her face. And when she hangs up, there are tears in her eyes. "Elle, what was that about?" he asks, rising to hold her. Her head falls against his chest, "Beatrix told her about meeting you. Now the bitch is mad at me for not telling her you were an artist...She says to congratulate you. I guess she doesn't think my opening a new gallery was worth remarking on," she says, sobbing against him. Justin pulls her face up by the chin, "Not two days ago, that woman despised me. Now, because I've got pictures in a gallery, she wants me to call her 'mother'. She's..I don't even have a word for what she is, I don't want or need her approval. And you don't need it either, Elle. The bitch is trash, she clearly enjoys putting you down. She'll never approve of anything you do, because she's already made up her mind about it, she doesn't want you to be happy. She wants to keep you down. Don't take it, Elle, you're stronger than that." She's so beautiful like this, wet eyed & trembling, but it's far more lovely to watch her steel her back & purse her lips in furious determination. "You don't have to call her 'mother'," she says, dark eyes brilliant & angry. "I had no intention," Justin answers, leaning in to kiss her irresitible pout. "I've taken down bigger bullies than your mother, Princess. I'm not caving to this one."

NEXT