The Essence of Perfection Read online

  The shocked expressions from earlier were now filled with encouragement and appreciation. Her mom nodded her approval from her seat at a table in the front of the room. She didn’t want to admit it, but she knew Damien was seated three tables back and to the right of her mother. She staunchly gave the rest of her speech to the left side of the room. She got into the flow of things and forgot about being nervous. Once again, Nicola had to come in and save the day, and once again she didn’t mind doing her part to keep the family’s reputation clear.

  * * *

  After her speech, Nicola sat at the table with her mom and Quinn while the director of the association gave out awards, thanked their donors, and gave highlights of some of their projects over the year. Her mom paid close attention to the speeches. Nicola tried to focus on the talks, even though her mind kept bouncing between the various projects she had waiting in the lab and wondering why Damien was there. He must be a contributor to the foundation. He was an artist, so it only made sense. Would she get to talk to him again after the luncheon ended?

  She checked her watch again. When would the luncheon end? She’d gotten here late, and they were still an hour and a half in. She had so much work to do.

  Quinn didn’t bother to pretend she was paying attention. Her fingers tapped quickly and silently on the screen of her phone as the texted or updated her social media accounts. When Nicola tried to ease closer to look at what her sister was doing, Quinn picked her phone up off the table and leaned away.

  The moment the luncheon finally ended, Quinn stood and pressed her phone to her ear. Instead of being able to escape back to her office or search the room to see if Damien was sticking around to talk, Nicola was pulled into a conversation with one of the members by her mom. Nicola did as was expected. Smiled, nodded, answered questions, and listened. Never once checking her watch to see how much time had passed even though the need to check the time was like a hot poker in her chest.

  When the board member finally walked away to talk to someone else, her mom gave her a hug. The scent of roses, undertones of vanilla, and high notes of cedar surrounded Nicola. Their signature scent. The one that saved the company and her mom wore every day.

  “I’m still mad at you for being late, but thank goodness you got here when you did.” Adele’s husky voice was filled with gratitude. Her mom looked like the head of a cosmetics company. Reddish brown skin, soft black natural hair, and makeup always flawless. She looked more like Nicola’s cousin than her mother. Nicola refused to say sister.

  “Quinn could have finished her speech,” Nicola said after pulling back.

  Adele shook her head. “No. I don’t know what road your sister was meandering down, but it was the wrong one. I love Quinn, but there’s a reason she isn’t the face of the company.”

  “You know she could just as easily be the face of the company.” If things had worked out differently, she would be the face of the company.

  “She had her chance to do so and she chose not to. Quinn has her strengths, but we all know she was never really interested in doing more than what she’s doing now.” Her mom looked over her shoulder and waved. “Oh wait, I need to talk to Roger before he leaves. Thanks again for coming.”

  Nicola kissed her mom’s cheek and gave her another hug. “No problem at all. I’ll give you a call later.”

  “Do that. And call your grandfather while you’re at it. He’s been acting weird. You’ve always had a good way of getting through to him.”

  “Weird how?”

  Her only living grandfather was the epitome of crotchety old man. He yelled at the kids in the neighborhood if their shoes dared to touch his lawn. He called the police regularly if something seemed fishy at a neighbor’s house. And, as the president of his homeowner’s association, he frequently walked around giving out citations to neighbors without a hint of remorse. He wasn’t weird, he’d just been in a bad mood for as long as Nicola could remember.

  “He’s grumbling about something at the clubhouse. Some kind of fundraiser he doesn’t want to do, but as a member of the community center he has to participate. It’s got him riled up. Just give him a call and try to calm him down, okay?”

  Her mom walked away without waiting for a confirmation. Nicola pulled out her phone and opened her task list. She added Call Grandad to the list of things she needed to do. Even though he was unpleasant most of the time, she loved her grandfather. Partly because he viewed her as indifferently as her mom considered Quinn. In his eye, she wasn’t the savior of Queen Couture. She was just another relative who didn’t appreciate the sacrifices he went through for them to live the good life. It was nice to be just another unappreciative grandkid. Which is why she’d call him and get to the bottom of whatever had him riled up now.

  “Good speech.”

  Nicola’s skin pebbled. A rush went through her midsection as her attention went away from her phone and focused on Damien Hawkins’s handsome face. She’d thought he was gone. She’d seen him slip out the door when her mom hooked her into the conversation with the board member. She’d been disappointed, but also resigned. What was she really going to do? Ask him out?

  Nicola ran a hand over the smooth black hair of her ponytail before smiling nervously. “Thank you. I hope it was beneficial.”

  “It sounded rehearsed. Do you give the same speech often?”

  Her spine stiffened as her defenses rose. She did give the same speech pretty much everywhere she went. She would change it up a bit every year, but she was busy. Writing a new speech every time she had to speak at one of her mom’s functions wasn’t practical.

  She lifted her chin. “I like to focus on a few key points whenever I talk.”

  “I didn’t mean anything by it. Just noticed that it seemed kind of practiced. The words were great, they just didn’t have a lot of passion behind them.”

  Nicola crossed her arms over her chest. “I wasn’t aware you critiqued speeches.”

  The corner of his mouth tilted up. He settled back on his heels and held out his hands in acquiescence. “I don’t. Again, the words were great. I agree with everything you said.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you want to admit that.”

  He hooked his fingers into the back pocket of his pants. His shirt stretched across his broad chest revealing the chains he wore. “I just wondered, the work that you do making perfume. Do you love it? The way you talk about it doesn’t sound as if it’s your calling.”

  Nicola jerked her gaze away from the chains resting against the base of his throat. “I love what I do. I have a great job and I get to meet lots of interesting people.” Her voice came out sharper than she’d intended. At least that hid how breathless she felt.

  “I’m sorry. I obviously came about this the wrong way. You did a great job. Thank you for coming out to talk to our group today.”

  “You’re a member of the foundation?”

  “I’m on the board. I think it would be great if you came and spoke to one of our youth groups. Tell them how you turned a degree in chemistry into something in the high-end fashion world. Would you be interested?”

  “I don’t know. I may not convey my enthusiasm for what I do,” she replied.

  Damien chuckled and pressed a hand to his chest. “I deserve that. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a genius when it comes to working with clay, but I’m not always the best when it comes to expressing my thoughts. You did a great job on the speech, and, if you can find it in your heart to overlook the foot I put in my mouth, give me a call and let me know if you can make it to one of our youth events.”

  He pulled a card out of his back pocket and held it out to her. Nicola’s heart flipped in her chest. A giggle bubbled in her chest. Her actual crush was giving her his card and telling her to call him.

  Yeah, so you can talk to kids. Don’t forget he said you didn’t convey passion.

  She swallowed the giggle, took the card and slipped it into her purse. “Thank you. I’ll check my schedule and get b
ack to you. Things are kind of hectic for me right now.”

  “Just consider it. I hope to hear from you.” He gave her one last easy but heart stopping smile then strolled away.

  Quinn came back into the banquet hall as Damien left Nicola’s side. A bright, calculating smile spread across her sister’s face and she hurried to her.

  “I wondered if you knew he was here,” Quinn said. “Girl, I take back everything I said the other night. You do have some fire in you. Going after Damien when you finally have him in the vicinity.”

  “I’m not going after Damien. He’s on the board. He wanted to tell me my speech was good and ask me to speak to one of their youth groups.”

  Quinn’s smile deflated. “Oh.”

  Nicola was pretty sure the disappointment in Quinn’s voice was more for Nicola failing to entice Damien to ask her out. Nicola hid her discontent with a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah, oh. Don’t worry. He’s nice, but I don’t think he’s my type or that I’m his type.”

  “How do you know that?” Quinn asked with a don’t be ridiculous eye roll.

  “I just do. No sparks.” None on his side at least. “Now forget about him. I’m sorry about the way Mom pushed you off the stage.”

  Quinn waved a hand. “Please, I never should have been up there. I’m just glad you arrived when you did. I never know what to say at these things.”

  “You’re really funny. You should go with that.” Nicola had seen Quinn speak. When she was relaxed and comfortable with the crowd, she always did great.

  “This group didn’t come here to listen to me try to be a comedian,” Quinn said flippantly. “They came to hear about all of the great things their money goes toward and how we’re happy to continue receiving their money to do great things. In other words, they needed your inspiration.”

  “Yeah, well, my inspiration is ready to go.” Nicola checked her watch. Man, she’d have to work until nearly eight to make up for this lost time.

  “So am I, but I’ll at least do one round and make nice with Mom’s friends.”

  “You did spend most of the day on your phone. Mind telling me who you were texting?”

  “Oh, I was talking to Joseph. He was serious about using me for a campaign. I’m going to have drinks with him later to talk about it more.” The words flew out of Quinn’s mouth easily, as if going out to drinks with someone other than her husband wasn’t a big deal.

  Nicola raised a brow. “Drinks? Are you sure that’s smart?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be? You’re always giving me a hard time about being social media famous. Well, this is my chance to move to a bigger level.”

  “Not that. What about Omar?”

  Quinn sucked her teeth. “This is not a date. It’s business. Omar will understand. In fact, he’s already excited about being able to tell his friends his wife is a real model, not just online. Don’t worry about him at all.”

  Nicola thought about Quinn’s irritation when Omar showed up at the club. The way she’d tried to usher him out, unsuccessfully, and how Omar had strutted next to her side the remainder of the night. The way Omar loved to show her sister off like he would a new car often irritated Nicola. Maybe he would be indifferent to Quinn having drinks with a man who’d increase his wife’s appeal. “If you say so.”

  “I know so. Oh look, Mom is waving me over. You better get out before you’re sucked back in.”

  “I’m out.” Nicola and Quinn hugged and then Nicola left.

  On the way out, she thought about Quinn’s drinks meeting with Joseph. Quinn was married, beautiful, and having drinks with a good-looking guy who wasn’t her husband, while Nicola hadn’t even worked up the nerve to try and flirt with Damien today after drooling over his social media pages for months. Another thing for her list. Grow a backbone and get her own damn life before she started to hate Quinn’s.

  Chapter 5

  What inspired you to start your career?

  Nicola stared at the question on her computer screen. The questions had come from the producer with Your Morning Wake-Up Call not long after she’d agreed to the interview. They weren’t groundbreaking. Basic, tell me about yourself and what you do questions. She’d answered most of them easily enough. The inspiration question had her stumped, and she wasn’t sure why.

  She wanted a cool answer to the question. Some inspirational story about an experience which made her realize what she wanted to do with her life. If only her life had unfolded that way. She gave that speech over and over about how she’d taken a love for chemistry and a great sense of smell to ultimately land a career in the glamorous world of perfume making. Most people assumed she always wanted to work at her mom’s cosmetics company. Being a part of the glitz and glamor of making perfumes for celebrities and famous brands.

  Except that had been Quinn’s dream. Nicola’s dream had been much different. Nicola had dreamed one day her family would find her accomplishments outside of the world of Queen Couture worthy of their praise.

  This was all Damien’s fault. If he hadn’t pointed out that her speech was overly practiced. That she lacked a passion for what she did when she spoke. Well, then she wouldn’t be here staring at a simple question she’d answered a hundred times before.

  Minimizing the screen with the one unanswered question, Nicola logged into her cloud-based account and opened her list. Right there near the top was her former dream job. Work on project to help victims of stroke. Find treatments for recovery.

  A lofty goal, but it was what she’d wanted to do. She’d watched her grandmother fail to recover fully after suffering a stroke when Nicola was in college. She’d died two years earlier, having never fully regained the ability to speak clearly or be fully mobile. Watching the once-vibrant matriarch of her mother’s side of the family lose so much of her personality and freedom after the event, Nicola had planned to pursue a doctoral degree in biochemistry and focus her research with the hope of helping her grandmother.

  She’d had the chance after presenting a project on sensorimotor retraining. Her biochemistry professor had encouraged her to continue her studies and work with him on his ongoing research into the same topic. He’d seen potential in Nicola’s ideas and told her she was on the verge of something brilliant.

  At the same time Nicola was finishing undergrad, her mom’s company took off. Adele worked for L’Oréal as a cosmetic chemist when Nicola and Quinn were younger. Adele spent years creating formulas for makeup, skin care, and other personal care products. When she’d been passed over for a promotion, Adele left and started Queen Couture, using the money she’d saved and investments from the contacts in the industry she’d made over the years.

  Twenty years in the industry and a master’s degree in cosmetic science meant Adele knew how to create products, but she didn’t know how to run a business. Poor moves, and an expansion into fragrances when Nicola was in college, almost bankrupted the company. Unwilling to give up, Adele brought on someone she could trust to make management decisions, took business classes so she wouldn’t be completely in the dark, and focused on product development.

  Then one of Adele’s friends from her days at L’Oréal, supermodel Alexandria, agreed to give her mom a bone by allowing her to make a perfume with her name on it. Until then, both Nicola and Quinn worked at Queen Couture during the summer and between semesters. Nicola to help, and Quinn because she’d always fit seamlessly into their mother’s world of glitz and glamour. They’d both seen Alexandria’s scent brief and they’d both played around in the lab working on it, but neither expected one of their concoctions to be chosen. That was until Alexandria tried and loved the juice Nicola created. The scent became a hit, immediately taking the perfume side of the business to the forefront.

  The day Triumph became the number one selling scent of the season was the first time Adele looked at Nicola with pride. Nicola walked away from her graduate studies and caved to the pressure from Adele to take cosmetic science courses. Instead of becoming a brilliant medical scientist
, she’d received something else she’d always wanted instead. She was no longer the smart one. The independent one her parents didn’t need to worry about because she was too sensible to cause trouble. She became the brilliant one. The star of the family who’d helped save Queen Couture.

  Nicola sighed. No way was all of that going into the otherwise simple question. It was always my dream to work at my mother’s company. This allowed me to use my love of science in a beautiful and glamorous way.

  Her cell phone rang. Shonda’s number. Nicola answered, welcoming the distraction from the steps up the ladder to parental approval that led her to where she was today.

  “What’s up?”

  “I got an email from Vacation Destination and they have round trip tickets to Cancun available for a hundred dollars,” Shonda’s excited voice came through the phone. “Say yes, and I’ll buy the tickets right now.”

  Nicola grinned at her friend’s enthusiasm. Sandy beaches, fruity drinks with umbrellas in them, sun, and blue skies. She could practically feel the breeze in her hair. When was the last time she’d been on a vacation?

  She indulged herself for a moment. “When would we go?”

  “We’d have to go within the next month. I’m thinking we make it a long weekend. Fly down Thursday, come back Monday morning. Super simple and just what we both need.”