“Easy with Dahlia,” said Ati Meneng. “She was pure sunshine. Even though she was rich she was cool about it, I didn’t even know until we’d hung out awhile.”
“How’d you find out?”
“I mean I kind of suspected it because she didn’t have a job and she drove a Porsche Boxster, really cool little red one. When I found out for sure was when she took me to her house. Real nice and all done up. She said her parents bought it for her ’cause they hated her.”
“Interesting way to show hatred,” said Milo.
“I’m sure they didn’t really hate her, she just meant they needed space from each other.”
“She had problems with them.”
“She didn’t like to talk about it, just said they were all religious and stuff. They sent her to Catholic schools, she kept running away, taking trains to Germany and France, going to clubs, meeting guys. She never went to college, like her sister did, and that made them mad. She just liked to ski and swim and travel on trains and hang out. When she told them she wanted to see Hollywood, they were happy to see her go, bought her a house. To her that meant Stay away as long as you want.”
“How’d she feel about that?”
“She laughed about it. That was Dahlia. She used to say maturity was highly overrated.”
“How long were you guys friends?”
“Half a year? Maybe a little longer? We actually didn’t hang out that much because I had to work. Sometimes Dahlia would call, mostly she’d wait until I called and if she was free, we’d hang out. She had platinum cards, was real generous, but I didn’t take advantage. Being with her gave me a chance to dress up. Be my best, you know?” Her eyes welled.
“What else did she tell you about her family?”
“That’s it.”
“Did she say what her father did to make all that money?”
“Oh, yeah. He owned a bank. It was like in the family for generations.”
“How many siblings did she have?”
“Just her sister, Dahlia was the younger one. She said her sister was the smart, serious one. Studied to be an architect, or something.”
“The two of them get along?”
“She never said they didn’t. She didn’t talk much about her sister.”
“So her parents bought her a house and she took that as their wanting her to stay away.”
“I used to say maybe you should call them, try to reconnect. ’Cause I did that with my father. He’s real old-school, wanted me to marry an Indonesian guy, stay at home and raise kids. When I got those commercials he refused to watch. But now we get along.”
“Did Dahlia take your advice?”
“If she did, she never said.”
“How’d she meet Prince Teddy?”
“At first she didn’t know he was a prince.”
“She found out after they’d been dating.”
“Uh-huh. Guess she liked him for himself.”
“How they meet?”
“At the Le Beverly-it’s a hotel in Beverly Hills, small, from the outside you can’t tell, it looks like an apartment building. Dahlia had a pass to get into the private bar, it’s up at the third floor. I was supposed to go to a party but my date canceled and I was bummed and bored and I called Dahlia and she said, ‘Let’s go to B.H., we’ll have some fun.’ She’d been there before. I could tell ’cause the bartender knew her drink-Blue Lagoon, they mix it with a special orange liqueur that’s colored blue. Dahlia said she liked the taste but mostly used it like an accessory.”
“Fashion accessory?”
“She had these incredible blue eyes, liked to wear colors that brought them out, mostly red and yellow. But also a bit of blue, here and there. Like jewelry, you know? She said the Blue Lagoon worked like jewelry, helped bring people’s attention up to her eyes. She was like that. Artistic. Her house was full of her paintings. All blue, these wavy designs. Like the ocean, you know?”
“So,” said Milo, “you and Dahlia were in the private room of the Le Beverly.”
“I was drinking my Mojito and Dahlia was drinking her Blue Lagoon and the only other people were some Asian guys across the room, playing backgammon. Dahlia made a joke about their being Asian. ‘I take you to this great place to get away from work and it ends up looking just like work.’ I laughed and she laughed and then one of them came over and for a second I thought they heard us and were ticked off. But the guy was smiling, saying, ‘Women are beautiful when they’re happy. If you’d agree to join us, we’d be highly proud.’ Something like that, kind of lame. He had an accent but you could understand him. We figured he was the assistant because he was the smallest of them and not the most handsome and the worst dressed. The other two guys were younger, taller, real handsome, in Zegna suits. Later I found out they were the bodyguards and he had come over himself.”
“Prince Teddy.”
“He just called himself Ted. You’d never know he was anything important, he just had on a sweater and jeans. And he looked real young. Shorter than Dahlia, but she said, ‘Sure,’ and we got up and joined them. Without asking me, but that was okay, mostly I let Dahlia make the decisions. It was her got me in there in the first place.”
“So you joined Ted and his bodyguards.”
“We didn’t know they were bodyguards, we just thought they were three guys. They ordered some bar food and more drinks, put their backgammon away. No one was nasty or gross, it was nice and polite. The bodyguards, you’d never know they were bodyguards.”
“They didn’t act tough.”
“They acted like his friends. Just guys hanging out.”
“Rich guys.”
She blinked. “Yeah, I guess so, being in the private lounge. But that’s not what got Dahlia to join them, money didn’t impress her, she had her own. She told me afterward she thought he was cute and sweet and real smart. I guess he was smart, he could talk about all sorts of things.”
“Like what?”
“Nature, travel? I really wasn’t listening.”
“Dahlia reported to you afterward,” he said.
“The next morning,” said Ati Meneng, coloring. “Yeah, okay, she went home with him. But it wasn’t like she ditched me. When we were in the ladies’ room, she told me she’d decided to do it, but only if I was okay with it. He seemed like fun, she wanted some fun. She insisted on giving me cab money. I had an early audition, anyway.”
“Was that pretty typical for Dahlia? Going with guys she just met?”
Black eyes sparked. “She was not a slut.”
“Of course not,” said Milo. “I’m just asking if she made quick decisions.”
“No,” said Ati Meneng. “She’d dance with guys, kiss them on the dance floor, even… sometimes she’d go off to a private VIP room. But I never saw her leaving for a whole evening with a guy. Never.”