Chapter 4
They were all at breakfast the next morning when Austin Wylie called Eugenia on
her cell, and she left the table to speak to him. She walked out to the porch and sat
down in the swing.
“Good morning, I’m sorry to call you so early, but I wanted to catch you before you
got busy. As I said last night, I’d like to meet with you. Would you have any free time
today?” He was certainly eager, which was encouraging. For an instant, she thought
about not going on the boat, but decided to stick with the plan. Austin Wylie could wait
another day, if his interest was real.
“I’m sorry, we’re going out for a day sail, and I don’t know when we’ll get back.
Does tomorrow work for you?”
“Of course. What time is best for you?” he asked her, and they agreed to meet in the
morning at eleven. The house was big enough for her to have a meeting without being
disturbed by the others, and having him wait a day wouldn’t do any harm. “Enjoy your
sail. See you tomorrow,” he said, sounding cheerful. It really did appear that he was
seriously looking for an investment for his wife. But he wanted to discuss the business
end with Eugenia first. She wondered how big an investment he wanted to make and
what he wanted in exchange, how big a percentage of her business. She didn’t want to
give up majority ownership, and hoped that wasn’t what he was after.
When she got back to the breakfast table, the others had finished, and were chatting
over coffee. Geoff preferred breakfast in bed and Gloria had taken it to him.
“Are you coming with us?” Eloise asked her, when Gloria came back from
delivering Geoff’s breakfast to him.
“Geoff says I should go without him,” she said hesitantly.
“You should do what you want to do, not what he tells you to do. That’s a bad habit
to get into,” Eloise said, and Gloria gave her an evil look. Geoff was making things
hard enough without Eloise adding to it by criticizing him. Geoff could never tolerate
criticism.
“Says the woman who hasn’t had a relationship since college,” Gloria responded,
while Eloise rolled her eyes and picked up The New York Times.
“What’s the name of the guy hosting us today?” Stefano asked his mother, and she
told him, and Stef looked pensive.
“Oh my God!” Liz said and stared at them both. “That’s whose boat we’re going on?
I read an article about him in The Wall Street Journal a week ago.” Liz was the CFO of
a very successful startup that had just gone public, and she had equity in the company.
She didn’t know how to dress but she was smart about money, respected in business,
and well-informed. “He’s the biggest commercial real estate developer in New York.
He owns seventeen of the biggest, most prestigious commercial buildings in the city.”
She listed a few, and they had heard of them. “He owns them, but with all the big
corporations working remotely and not ready to go back yet, his buildings are standing
empty. He’s worth billions, and his whole net worth is going down the tubes. His
seventeen fancy buildings are ghost towns.”
“Daphne said he’d had a tough time in the pandemic,” Eugenia commented.
“We’d better enjoy his boat today. He won’t have it for much longer. He’s going to
start selling some of the buildings soon, at a significant loss, but he can’t hang on to
them any longer. Someone will buy them for next to nothing. He’s got a plane, a boat,
and houses all over the place. But those seventeen empty commercial buildings are
killing him.” Eugenia felt sorry for him as she listened to her daughter-in-law. She was
in the same situation he was, on a smaller scale, and he must have been even more
worried than she was. She needed a lot less money than he did to get her out of the hole.
“Actually this isn’t the right time to sell, but it will be a great time to buy when the
market hits rock bottom. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
“I won’t mention that to him today,” Eugenia said with a pained look.
They got their things together shortly after that, and Gloria decided to go with them.
Geoff had given her permission. He said he was going to lie by the pool all day and
didn’t want to deprive Gloria of a fun outing, which Gloria thought was generous of
him.
They were all ready when Patrick’s crew member arrived in a van. He was wearing
a crisp white uniform, and they piled in, feeling like kids going on a picnic.
He drove them to Gurney’s Star Island Resort and Marina in Montauk and stopped at
the end of the pier. There was no boat moored there, just a speedboat big enough for all
of them, with two crew members waiting to assist them. Patrick Hughes’s yacht was too
big to dock, and was at anchor just outside the port. The boat looked huge from where
they stood.
“I’m sorry,” the chief purser apologized to them. “They don’t have a berth deep
enough for us, so we anchor out. It’ll only take a minute to get there.” They glanced in
the direction he had indicated vaguely with a wave and if they had understood him
correctly, it looked like a cruise ship sitting just outside the port. It was a threehundred-and-fifty-foot motor sailer. The biggest boat the marina could accommodate
was two hundred and twenty feet.
“Oh my God, is that the boat?” Liz asked, shocked. She had never seen a yacht of
similar size before. Eugenia had been on a few in Umberto’s days of glory when he was
connecting people and earning commissions from them. But this was undoubtedly the
largest. “No wonder he’s going broke,” Liz said under her breath to her mother-in-law
as they left the dock and headed to the yacht on the horizon. The crew members on it
looked tiny in the distance, and grew to normal size as the speedboat approached. There
were six decks and an elaborate sail system. The chief purser had just told Brad that
there were sixty crew members on board, in answer to his question. It was one of the
largest sailboats in the world. It looked like a floating city to Eugenia, or an ocean liner.
But as they came up alongside it, she could see its beautiful sleek lines. They pulled up
behind, and entered an area below decks where all the toys were kept: Jet Skis, a oneman sailboat, even a small submarine, and every kind of water toy you could imagine. It
made her sad to think that Patrick Hughes might have to sell all of it, if what Liz said
was true. He must have loved the boat to have such a splendid one. And he had seemed
so unassuming when they spoke the night before, and his invitation had sounded so
genuine and simple. This was going to be the highlight of their vacation. They stepped
out of the motorboat with the crew helping, walked into an elevator, and rode to the
upper deck, where Patrick was waiting for them in white shorts and a T-shirt. He looked
very fit, with a full mane of salt-and-pepper hair and electric blue eyes, and he smiled
at Eugenia when he saw her.
“Welcome aboard,” he said to her, and then to all of them. “We’re going to pull up
anchor in a minute. You’re welcome to watch from the wheelhouse when we set the
sails, or you can just relax on deck with a mimosa or a margarita.” A stewardess was
taking their drink orders.
They had all left their shoes on the lower deck when they came aboard, and despite
the luxurious boat, the atmosphere Patrick created was easy and informal. They
followed him into the wheelhouse as they left the port and headed out to sea so they
could catch enough wind to sail.
Eugenia joined the others in the wheelhouse, which looked like the cockpit of an
airplane, with dials and meters and state-of-the-art digital equipment. He introduced
them all to the captain, who was from New Zealand. Most of the crew were British or
Australian. It was an incredible experience just being there and watching the
proceedings. Patrick came to stand next to Eugenia when they were well on their way.
There was a good breeze and the captain said it was a fine day for sailing. They went
back to the outer deck then and sat on the comfortable cushioned benches, enjoying the
sea air, while uniformed stewards and stewardesses served their drinks.
“Would you like a tour?” Patrick offered Eugenia, and she nodded. It was a unique
experience as he led her down to the next deck with two enormous living rooms and a
movie theater. There was a piano, which he said he played occasionally. The dining
rooms were on the next deck down. There was an indoor one and an outdoor one, an
enormous galley, and the crew dining room.
Just below that was Patrick’s master suite, which was informal and inviting, with
big leather chairs and couches. The entire boat was equipped with an amazing sound
system and contemporary art from Patrick’s collection. He had an office, a dressing
room, his own gym. Everything about the décor was personal and told you something
about him. Eugenia noticed several photographs of him with a young man who looked
strikingly like him.
“My son, Quinn,” he said proudly when he saw her looking at one of them. “He has
his own startup, engaged in food delivery in eleven cities. He’s a bright boy. He doesn’t
want advice from me, and he’s doing fine on his own.” It touched her to see how proud
he was of his son. He said Quinn was his only child when Eugenia asked if he had
others.
“I’m not as lucky as you, with five.” He smiled at her.
On the deck below were five spectacular guest suites, each with its own marble
bathroom. Below that were things like massage rooms for the guests, a hair salon, and
the movie theater. The designers had thought of everything, and so had Patrick, including
an area for a helicopter to land on the top deck. Being there was like a dream. They
walked back up the stairs and in every hallway and on every landing was the art he
loved, much of it by famous artists. He lived in a rarefied world, and Eugenia couldn’t
help wondering how much he would lose if he lost everything. Her heart went out to
him, knowing the pain he must be in, if he felt anything like she did about her business.
And he had so much more to lose. He didn’t look panicked or depressed, though. He
seemed relaxed as he took her around the boat, and everywhere she looked, she was
struck by how beautiful it was. They stopped at the deck where his stateroom was, and
stood at the rail, looking out over the water, as the yacht continued to slice through the
small waves, heading toward their destination.
“The pandemic has taught me a lot,” he said softly. “You learn a lot of lessons when
things are difficult. I was always looking ahead to the future, and never thinking about
today. Now I enjoy every minute that I have. And I’ve stopped worrying so much about
tomorrow. I love this boat, but if I lose it, I will have been lucky to have had it at all.
And one day, I’ll have another one, if it’s meant to be. I always had to have the biggest
and the best, but I could probably be happy with a sailboat I could sail myself. I don’t
want to waste today, worrying about tomorrow. The future takes care of itself somehow.
Better than you think it will. You’ve probably heard that I have seventeen big office
buildings standing empty in New York. I’m probably the poorest rich man in the world,
or the richest pauper. One way or another I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll have ten buildings
when it’s over, or two or five. Whatever happens, I know I’ll get through it.” There was
a wonderful sense of calm about him. He wasn’t frightened or frantic or panicked, as he
might have been. He had a quiet self-confidence that reassured her. She liked just being
there and talking to him.
“The pandemic hit me hard too,” she said just as softly. “I design evening gowns. I
was proud of the business I built for fourteen years. And then, from one day to the next,
no one was wearing evening gowns, and everything stopped. My ship has been sinking
for two years. I’m not sure if I’m going to hit bottom, or if I can pull it up again, or do
something completely different. That’s why I wanted to talk to Austin Wylie. If he can
give me enough money to hang on, maybe I’ll make it and I won’t lose my business.”
“The theory is good,” Patrick said, frowning. He looked deep into her eyes and liked
what he saw there. “Just be careful with him. I don’t trust him, and my instincts are
pretty good. Except about commercial office buildings. I guessed wrong on that one.”
He smiled at her, not hiding the truth from her. “I overstocked. Who knew that offices
would become obsolete? Maybe they’ll come back, or maybe they won’t, or they’ll
change. I’ve got nearly fifteen hundred floors of empty office space. I have to figure out
what to do with it. That’s a lot of vacant space.” She loved how calm he was, and how
peaceful, even in the midst of what was a crisis for him.
“Me too. I have to figure out what to do now. I don’t think evening gowns are going
to make a comeback for a while. I need to broaden my horizons and figure out what to
do in the meantime. Maybe evening gowns are obsolete too. Maybe forever.”
“You can design anything, Eugenia. I’ve heard of your brand. You’ve got the talent
and the taste, the experience and the training. You can apply it to anything you want.
They have buildings in Chicago that are combined office buildings and hotels, apartment
complexes and stores, all piled on top of each other, so people don’t have to go out in
bad weather. They don’t do that in New York. Maybe that’s what I need to start. I’m
thinking about it.” The idea sounded fascinating to Eugenia, and what he had said about
her business did too. He made it sound as though it wasn’t dead, it was just sleeping.
And she had to figure out how to wake it up.
“I’ve designed a line of easy daywear that I’m going to show at Fashion Week in
New York. That might be a new direction for me. We’ll see how it goes.” She still
didn’t know if it would be profitable or not.
“You’ll figure out what to do,” he said confidently. “And if you want any advice
from a guy with seventeen empty office buildings, give me a call. Maybe we can help
each other.” He liked that idea and so did she, although she didn’t see how he could
help, and he was in trouble too.
“I’m meeting Austin Wylie tomorrow,” she said.
“Two words. Be careful. Don’t be greedy and don’t panic. He’s not the last train out
of the station. That’s when we make mistakes. There’s always another train, or a boat,
or a truck, or a scooter. You won’t get left behind. Neither will I. We just aren’t that
kind of people. We’re winners, both of us. Don’t forget that. I have faith in you,” he
said, and she believed him, and he didn’t even know her. “I have good instincts. I’ll bet
you do too. You built a big business for yourself. Your talent didn’t go away in the
pandemic. Things are dormant right now. They won’t be forever. And when it’s time to
wake up, you’ll be there on the ground, ready and waiting to get moving again, with the
right idea at the right time. I’d stake my life on it. You just have to be brave enough to
try something new.” He thought of something else then. “Do your kids know you’re
struggling?” She shook her head with a rueful look. “I figured. You seem like a
courageous woman, Eugenia.”
“I don’t want to scare them.”
“What about how scared you are? Who’s there for you?”
“Me. I’ve found that that’s usually the right answer. I’ve never had anyone I could
rely on except myself.”
“That’s a tough place to be. Call me if you need me, if I can help, or even if you just
want to talk,” Patrick said gently, and she could see he meant it.
“Thank you.” Eugenia had tears in her eyes when she said it.
“My son does know, by the way, because there’s no way you can hide the seventeen
biggest empty office buildings in New York.” He smiled ruefully.
“And who do you rely on?” she asked him.
“Me. Just like you do. That’s a lonely place. Maybe we can help each other out. If
you want to. You’re doing fine on your own, but I’m happy to help if I can.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, and he took her hand and they walked up the stairs to
find the others. She wondered now if the answer to her prayers wasn’t Austin Wylie.
Maybe it was Patrick.
“Where’ve you been?” Stefano asked her when they came back on deck.
“I gave your mom my personal tour. The purser will give all of you a tour, if you’d
like.” They said they would, and ten minutes later, they took off to explore the boat and
left Patrick and Eugenia alone on deck. The yacht was slowly headed back toward
shore to a protected cove where they would have lunch. Patrick had planned the route
and the day for them. He wanted them to have fun, especially now that he knew Eugenia
better. She needed some fun and good times to balance the bad ones. He could guess
what a strain the last year and a half had been while she struggled with her business,
with no one to help or advise her. He could at least do that for her now, even if they
were only friends. He could sense that she was a brave woman and he wanted to help
her.
—
They reached the cove he had chosen for lunch, just as the others returned from their
tour. The chef had set out a sumptuous buffet on the dining deck, and it looked delicious
as Patrick led them to their seats. They sat down at a table immaculately set with linens,
crystal, and china with the boat’s name on it, My Dream. It said everything about how
he felt about the boat. And it was quite a dream for any man to have.
“I dream big,” he said to Eugenia in a whisper as he leaned over to talk to her.
“I noticed,” she whispered back, and he laughed. He was a big man with a big life
and a massive business, and his problems were commensurate. Her own problems
seemed like nothing compared to his, but they were big to her and had nearly drowned
her.
Patrick had spoken to all of them by the end of the day, and the crew took out the
water toys for everyone after lunch. The young men took off on the Jet Skis, including
Phillip, and Eugenia’s daughters and Liz floated around on the inflatable rafts and swam
with each other. Daphne was in a big pink inner tube and loved it. They all had a
fantastic time, and it was a day they wouldn’t soon forget. Patrick had enjoyed it too. He
liked Eugenia and her family even more than he had expected to. They were lovely
young people with good values and bright minds, and he could see how much they all
loved each other.
“You make me wish I’d had more children,” he said to her as they motored close to
the port in the late afternoon. They were all sorry to see the day end. “I wasn’t married
to Quinn’s mother for very long,” he said to Eugenia as they stood at the rail a little
distance from the others. “Five years, which felt like a lifetime then. I was ambitious
and all I cared about was building my business. My father was like that too. He took a
small fortune he’d inherited and turned it into a large one. Business was all he cared
about. And I was even better at it than he was, I took bigger risks. I grew up in Chicago,
went to Northwestern, then business school at Berkeley, and I never stopped after that. I
hardly knew my father. It was the only way I knew. Quinn’s mother got pregnant so I
married her, but I never opened my heart to her. I resented having married her. I was
twenty-five, in business school at Berkeley, when we married and Quinn was born.
He’s thirty-five now. I was thirty when we got divorced. At his age, I was divorced
with a ten-year-old I rarely saw. I was too ‘busy.’ I was pretty wild for a while, a long
while. I had a lot of fun, and I didn’t want to get tied down again. I hated our marriage, I
felt trapped. I was too immature to be married and she was the wrong person for me.
I’m not sure when I settled down. Maybe ten years ago when I turned fifty. Men are
immature for a lot longer than women. I really only got to know Quinn when he was
about twenty-five. We took some trips together, to Africa, India, and we did some
Atlantic crossings on the boat, to Europe. And suddenly we had time to talk, and we had
things to say to each other. I was a lousy father until then, but he gave me another
chance, and it paid off, for both of us. We’re close now, but he’s like I was at his age.
He doesn’t want to get tied down, he wants to nail down his success first. That’s a
dangerous game. You can stay at the party for too long, and then you wind up alone. He
can’t imagine it at his age, but that’s what happens. Business is a fickle mistress and it’s
not enough for the long haul. That’s what I figured out at sixty, and here I am, with all of
this and no one to share it with, and I may lose it all.” Patrick was matter-of-fact and
realistic. He wasn’t sorry for himself, but he was aware of what he had done, and the
mistakes he had made, and willing to admit it.
“I filled the void with my kids,” Eugenia admitted to him. “And then they grew up,
and I discovered the same thing you did. I’m alone. Kids are fickle too, and once they
have partners, there’s very little room for you in their lives, and you don’t belong there
anyway. You need your own life, but I never had time to make a life for myself. I was
always working. And what happens now, if the business goes down the drain?” she
asked, looking at him. There was no artifice about either of them. They were honest
with each other and themselves, they were brave people and the time was right for both
of them. They had been stripped of all the distractions and the accessories, and they had
bared their souls to each other.
“If you lose the business, Eugenia, you’ll start another one. That’s what people like
us do. I’m not going to retire, and neither are you. Would you go sailing with me again?”
he asked her.
“I’d love to.”
“Maybe alone next time. I loved getting to know your kids today. And I love talking
to you. How does Wednesday sound to you? Is that too soon? I have to go into the city
tomorrow for a meeting, and on Wednesday you could tell me how the meeting went
with Wylie.”
“That sounds great to me,” she said. She liked the idea of being alone with him too,
if sixty crew members didn’t count, but they were discreet, and disappeared after they
served him.
“I’ll have one of the boys pick you up at ten again. Maybe you’d like to stay for
dinner on Wednesday?” he said cautiously. He didn’t want to scare her off, but he didn’t
want to waste time either. He had a powerful feeling about her.
“I’d like that,” she said, and they left the boat a few minutes later and she thanked
him profusely for a fantastic day. They were all pleasantly tired after the sun and air,
and all the physical activity, and as they got into the boat to take them to the shore,
Eugenia looked up and saw Patrick watching her from an upper deck. He waved and she
waved back with a smile. She had something to look forward to now. Separate from her
business. And she had the meeting with Austin Wylie the next day, she was on her guard
after what Patrick had said about him.
—
They were all quiet and relaxed on the way back to the house. And just as their van
turned in to the driveway, a red sports car raced past them, coming from the house at full
speed. A woman was driving, wearing a big sun hat and dark glasses. She sped by,
nearly scraping the side of the van, turned onto the road, and took off. Geoff was
standing in the driveway when the van pulled in and they got out, and Eugenia thanked
the purser for driving them home.
“Who was that?” Eugenia asked Geoff, puzzled about the red car that had just passed
them.
“I have no idea,” he said innocently. “She drove in, took one look at me, turned
around and left. She either made a mistake on the address or was looking for the
owners. She never stopped to talk to me. I must not have been her type,” he said, and
laughed as he put an arm around Gloria’s shoulders and kissed her. “Did you have fun?”
he asked her, ignoring the others, and they walked back to their cottage so Gloria could
change for dinner. Eugenia watched them go, and then walked back to the main house,
thinking about the day on the boat, and Patrick. He seemed like a very special person,
and she was happy to have met him, thanks to Daphne. But she had something else on
her mind and it was gnawing at her.
Eugenia waited until Eloise went upstairs to shower and change, then walked out to
the kitchen where the two maids were helping the chef with dinner and setting the table.
She took one of them aside, the chattier of the two, and asked her a question out of
earshot of the others. She was curious more than suspicious, but she wanted to know.
“Was there a woman here today, visiting our guest?” The maid hesitated, avoiding
Eugenia’s gaze, and then looked at her, not sure what to say. Eugenia was paying her for
the week they were there and the worker seemed like a nice woman. She liked the
family and hoped they would come back again. “I won’t tell anyone what you tell me,
but I’d like to know,” Eugenia said seriously, and the woman nodded.
“He paid us each fifty dollars not to tell anyone. But yes, there was a woman here.
She had an accent, Russian or French or German or something. She was here all day,
she just left two minutes before you got home.” It was obviously the woman driving the
red sports car, in the hat and dark glasses, and with the comment about her accent,
Eugenia had a powerful feeling that it was Natasha Wylie, which created a whole new
dilemma for her of whether or not to tell Gloria about it. She deserved to know before
she married Geoff that he was cheating on her, if he was. Eugenia couldn’t believe that
they had spent the day together and hadn’t had sex. Geoff was a whole lot closer to
Natasha’s age than Austin Wylie, and better looking. But Austin was richer, which
counted for a lot for a girl off the streets of Moscow, looking for rich men in America.
Geoff would only have been a bit of fun for her, closer to her age than Wylie.
Eugenia thanked the woman who had told her, promised again that she wouldn’t give
her away, and walked slowly upstairs to her bedroom. She had no idea how or when
she would tell Gloria, or if Gloria would even believe her or would think Eugenia was
lying so she wouldn’t marry him. But whether Gloria believed it or not, she had to
know. And Eugenia had to tell her. The burdens of motherhood weighed heavily on her
shoulders. In a way, her daughter’s future was in her hands. It was an awesome
responsibility and the hardest job in the world.
