Skinny Dipping (The Au Pairs 2)

"Merda! What on earth? Mara, what are you doing!?"

"You!" Mara accused, looking up from her search. She forgot the earrings for a moment. There was something more important she wanted to confront Jacqui about. "You knew all along, didn't you?"

"Me? What? What are you talking about?" Jacqui said, confused.

"Ryan and Eliza. You were there in Palm Beach. You knew they'd hooked up. And you never told me?"

"Hang on. Hang on," Jacqui said, stepping slowly into the room as if Mara were a cornered and dangerous animal.

"You knew, didn't you?" Mara demanded, her eyes flashing with anger.

"About Ryan and Eliza? Yes, I did. Mara, I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you ... I just didn't think it was my business--"

Mara recoiled. "I would have told you if it was your boyfriend!"

Jacqui blinked. "Mara, he wasn't your boyfriend. You broke up with him, remember?"

Mara didn't have an answer to that. Instead, she made a throaty noise and resumed her search.

"But what is going on here?" Jacqui asked, taking another careful step into the room, holding up her hands like Mara might attack at any second. "Why is the place all torn up?"

"I am looking--for--my--earrings!" Mara said in an agonized voice.

"O . . . kay . . ." Jacqui said, still holding up her hands. "What earrings?"

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"The ones Ivan the Jeweler lent me. The ones I wore last night. Nicole Kidman wore them at the Oscars. They're worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And they need them back, like, tomorrow."

"The ones you were wearing last night?" Jacqui asked slowly.

"Yes." Mara nodded impatiently. Was Jacqui hard of hearing?

"They cost that much?"

"Yes."

"Shit," Jacqui said, beginning to sort through the pile on the bed and help Mara look for them.

"They're not lost. I had them on this morning. I took them off--and put them--there," Mara said, motioning to the dresser. "And now they're gone. Did you see them?"

"No. I mean ..." Jacqui stammered, rooting through a pile of underwear. How could Mara be so careless? "I don't know. . . . I wasn't looking. ... I just got here."

"Strange, you always seem to know where everything else is," Mara snipped, looking pointedly at the Pucci scarf Jacqui was wearing in her hair.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that it's incredibly strange, isn't it? They were here when I left--but they're not here when I got back. And you seem to feel fine helping yourself to the rest of my things, so--"

"Are you suggesting that I took them?" Jacqui asked, not quite sure if she'd understood Mara's English correctly.

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"I'm just saying they're not here. And you're the only one who has the key to this room aside from me."

Jacqui had never been so insulted in her life. She stared at Mara, who suddenly seemed like a stranger to her.

"Maybe you took them," Jacqui said coldly, wanting to say the meanest thing she could think of to Mara.