by L. D. Davis
“Why does that matter to you?” I looked at him.
“It doesn’t matter to me.”
“What’s going on with you? You act like a jealous teenage boy when he’s around.”
“I do not act like a teenage boy.”
“But you are jealous,” I said pointedly. “And I don’t know why. You have your own life going on with Jessyca and it was only one weekend, Kyle. It’s not like we had this elaborate love affair going on.”
I know I sounded irritated. In a way, I guess I was. I’m not sure why. When I looked at him, he looked a little hurt and I instantly felt bad. He recovered quickly though, with bitterness.
“I apologize. I didn’t realize it meant so little to you.”
“You’re wrong,” I said, looking out the window. “It wasn’t a ‘little’ thing, but…” I searched my mind for the words and came up with nothing. “It doesn’t matter what it meant for me.”
We arrived at the parking lot for the high-speed line. I directed him to where I was parked. The area was crowded with mostly people on their way home from work. In a few hours it would be busy with people going back into the city for a night out.
“Thanks for the ride.” I said, opening the door.
“Wait. We’re not done talking,” Kyle protested, his hand on my arm.
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m sorry. See you tomorrow night.” I got out, closed the door and quickly walked to my car before he could stop me.
Chapter Ten
My parents made a striking couple when they weren’t all dressed up for a gala, but the fancy clothes made them a remarkable and extraordinary looking couple.
My mom was in her sixties and didn’t look a day over forty-five. Her honey blonde hair color was maintained by a hairdresser, but she had no other artificial work. She had very few wrinkles and no sagging skin. Women her age envied her. Women my age envied her.
My dad was going bald, but was still a good looking man. He stayed in shape after retiring from the military. He was bulky, but not fat. He also had only a few wrinkles and no saggy skin. He looked twenty plus years younger than his seventy years. Women of all ages flirted with him.
For the gala, my mom wore a white gown by Dior and had her hair swept back in an elegant low chignon. I spent significantly less money on my dress, a long blue, backless gown that fluttered when I walked. I wore a simple diamond pendant with matching earrings. My money, however, was well spent was on my heavenly Manolo Blahnik shoes.
My mother wrinkled her nose when she saw me, and the whole way into the city she wouldn’t shut up about how I wouldn’t let her buy me a different gown and that I should have went to her hair dresser and why didn’t I wear pearls instead of the diamonds.
“Can you stop?” I slapped my hand on my lap and glared at her from the backseat. “I’m really tired of hearing you. Don’t you ever get tired of berating me?”
She turned in her seat to look at me, all shocked and surprised.
“I’m not berating you. I just—”
“Samantha,” my dad said firmly. “Leave her alone.”
“But—”
“It’s over.” He said it with such finality that she turned back around in her seat.
By the time we got to the gala, I was so wound up, I couldn’t think straight. As soon as I could get away from my mother, I did. I found the bar quickly and was already on my fourth drink when Kyle found me. I drank them pretty fast and on a mostly empty stomach. It took everything I had to keep my composure and not look as tipsy as I felt.
“You look amazing,” Kyle said, letting his eyes travel over my body.
“Thank you.” I smiled. “My mother doesn’t think so, but at least someone does. Where’s your date?”
“She’s running late. She’ll be here soon, by the time dinner is served.” As if it were natural, he put his hand on the small of my back and led me away from the bar. He then held out his elbow expectantly and I took it, looping my arm through his.
We walked through the reception area for the rest of the cocktail hour, greeting people we knew and introducing ourselves to those we didn’t. Kyle was a freakin’ social butterflying master. He remembered names without my help, and he spoke with a smooth authority that made men respect him and women smile flirtingly at him. As we navigated through the crowd for that hour, Kyle’s hand often ended up on my lower back.
“I love this dress,” he whispered to me, quickly trailing his fingers over my lower spine before extending his hand to an acquaintance.
I ignored the blaze of heat that shot through each vertebrae.
Jessyca arrived just as seating started for dinner. I hastily released Kyle’s arm and made my way inside with the rest of the crowd.
Galas sound like a lot of fun, but once someone gets on stage and starts talking, you can find yourself all dressed up and bored to tears. The food is always good and most of the time the entertainment is good, too. This year’s entertainment was a cover band covering a number of songs from Frank Sinatra to Green Day. There were a lot of younger people this year, so the dance floor stayed busy with bodies. I loved to dance at any event, so I took to the dance floor with or without a partner. One of my frequent partners happened to be an up and coming film star. He was cute, but when he offered to take me back to his hotel room, I politely declined and went back to my table. Been there and done that.
Kyle didn’t really need my help all night, so I was free to roam and socialize and dance and drink to my heart’s content. When he wasn’t with Jessyca, he lingered by my side. When he was with her, he watched me as much as he dared from afar.
During dinner, whenever Jess wasn’t paying attention, he tried to converse casually with me, but fell flat. At one point he started talking to me about olives. I looked at him like he was nuts, which made him stop mid-sentence. I didn’t understand his sudden teenage-boy awkwardness. Maybe it was because his girlfriend sat to one side of him, and the woman he had wanted to fuck in a restaurant bathroom sat on the other side of him. I supposed that was a reason to feel awkward, even for Kyle Sterling.
Kyle’s mother’s seat was on the other side of me. It was a little awkward at first, but Felicia Sterling was polite. Most of the time, she stayed glued to her husband’s side. He paraded her around like a trophy. If she strayed too far, he subtly beckoned her until she was within arm’s reach again. She reminded me of a dummy, with Walter Sterling pulling all of her strings and directing her.
I shook my head. I was so bored that I was imagining things.
I was getting tired of sitting at the table watching everyone else. Kyle and Jess were across the room talking to some people I knew, but didn’t care for. I wanted to stay as far away from my mother as possible, and she was surrounded by a large group of women, and admiring men, as usual. I made my way over to the bar and started taking some shots. After my fourth one, I looked up and found Jess squeezed in next to me, ordering a cosmopolitan.
“Well, you do look like you’re enjoying yourself,” she said with her fake smile.
I hated talking to Jess, for obvious reasons, but also because she always talked to me as if she was some kind of princess and I was a lowly servant even though we both came from wealthy families.
“Actually, I’m bored,” I said, not bothering to return the smile.
“I suppose this crowd is just a little too sophisticated for some,” she tapped her manicured nails on the bar.
“Gosh,” I said, putting a hand to my chest exaggeratingly. “Maybe you’re right. I may not be sophisticated enough for this crowd.” I threw back another shot and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, showing her I didn’t care how unsophisticated I was.
“Your dress is very nice,” she said, ignoring my obvious go-fuck-yourself gesture. “It is a little too…indelicate for my tastes, but it is nice.”
Jess was wearing a red Gucci dress that was flattering, but not fantastic.
“Maybe it is a little indelicate, but,” I paused t
o throw money on the bar for my drinks. “Kyle really likes it.”
I walked away, but not before seeing the startled expression on her face.
Take that, Bitch.
For the next hour, Jess threw me curious looks, probably wondering about what I said. I probably shouldn’t have said it, but it was an easy way to get back at her for being an ass.
I found myself back at the table, tapping my fingers to the music. When Jessyca and Kyle reappeared and Jess took her seat, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and turn my back on them. To my surprise, however, Kyle didn’t sit. Instead, he offered me his hand.
“Let’s dance,” he said.
I looked at Jess and she shrugged and forced a big smile.
“Jess doesn’t like to dance at these things,” Kyle said.
“I don’t like to get all sweaty and yucky, but you don’t seem to mind at all,” Jess said with so much sweetness I was getting a toothache.
“You’re right. I don’t mind getting sweaty and yucky.” I stood up and put my hand into Kyle’s.
As we walked to the dance floor I said to him “She has no idea how sweaty and yucky I’ve been with you before.”
He tried to hide his smile, but it came anyway, and some of my anger floated away.
We danced for two fast songs. I was surprised by how well Kyle could dance. He was such a prick sometimes, I didn’t think he could loosen up enough to dance to modern music.
When the band began to play a rendition of “Wonderwall” by Oasis, I started to walk off of the dance floor, but Kyle gripped my arm. Instead of causing even a minor scene, I reluctantly gave in. He held me as close as he dared in front of all of those people and under the watchful eyes of Jess. He had his hand on my bare back, which I knew he really liked. I really liked it, too.
I wasn’t prepared for the emotions that suddenly bubbled up from deep inside as we danced slower than those around us. My heart pounded so fast I was surprised he didn’t hear it. A large lump formed in my throat and I was finding it hard to breathe. It felt like any feelings I had for him during or after that long weekend that I had buried were coming to the surface. They sat in my chest like a bomb, threatening to explode out of me into the light for everyone to see.
Not very long ago I had hated him. Now trying to deny that I cared for him was useless. Was it love? Was it infatuation? Either way, I knew it wasn’t something that could flourish. I knew it had to be shut down, and stay shut down.
I was just beginning to get my head together, when Kyle softly sung a few of the lyrics of the song in my ear. My breath caught and then I stopped breathing for several seconds.
Were those the only words he knew? Or did they mean something? What were the many things that he would like to say to me, but didn’t know how?
When the song ended, I turned away and left the dance floor as quickly as possible. As fast as I could, I navigated out of the grand ballroom. I barely made it to a stall in the ladies’ room before vomiting up all of the contents of my stomach. As I flushed the toilet, I wished I could get rid of my feelings for Kyle as well.
I stayed on the cold floor for several minutes as women giggled about me drinking too much, and others came and went. I didn’t know if I could go back out there and see his face. What would I find in the way he looked at me?
I rinsed my mouth out thoroughly for a few minutes and bummed a couple of mints from an acquaintance. When I returned to the ballroom, I was shocked to discover that my parents had deserted me. They wrongly assumed that I had wanted to stay longer. I had made some mention of staying late earlier in the night, but I was angry that they had not checked with me before taking my car and leaving me to rely on other transportation.
“I told them I would take you home,” Kyle said, searching my face with a trace of anxiety in his eyes.
I looked away from him and grumbled “I’ll be at the bar.” That was where I stayed until Kyle and Jess were ready to go.
“I have a four a.m. flight to catch,” Jess reminded him on our way out. “I still have to pack.” She nodded in my direction. “And you have to take your assistant home.”
I stretched out across the backseat while Jess took the front. For the first few minutes, she berated various guests of the gala, people I had seen her hanging out with.
“Where are you going?” Jess asked Kyle after a few minutes.
“I’m taking you home. You have to pack for your flight, you’ve made that clear.”
“I thought you were taking her home first.”
“Does that even make sense? You want me to drive across the bridge, come back across, and then back again to go home myself?” Kyle was clearly frustrated with her. He had on his dick face.
“Well…”
“I’m exhausted, Jess. I’m taking you home first.”
“Okay,” she said grudgingly.
They spoke in low tones for the rest of the ride to the Main Line. If I wanted to pay attention, I could have eavesdropped on their entire conversation, but I tuned them out and stared out of the window. I felt weird being in the same vehicle with them, all things considered.
When we pulled into the driveway of the Venner estate, Jess turned in her seat and smiled that damn false smile.
“Have a nice night, Emmy. Oh,” her face scrunched up. “Your hair is messed up from all of that dancing.”
So is your face.
“Thanks for noticing.” I said dryly.
“Sorry,” she said with a secretive smile. “I am so used to keeping every hair in place and looking good at all times, especially for my man.”
She whispered the last part as if it were some secret that she was a high maintenance bitch.
As Kyle made his way around the car I looked at Jess with loosely veiled disgust. “I don’t think Kyle is that superficial. In fact, I think he appreciates those little imperfections. He’s seen me all kinds of messy and has never complained.”
She stared at me, started to smile but it faltered and then just faded. She wasn’t sure what to make of what I just said. She didn’t know whether to shrug it off as nonsense or to be worried, especially after the comment I had made earlier in the night about Kyle liking my dress.
Even after Kyle had opened her door, she stared back at me for another moment. She finally got out only because I got out first so I could take the front seat for the ride home, but Jess recovered quickly. She gave me a quick hug and told me to make sure Kyle picks her up from the airport next week. She didn’t view me as any kind of real competition, not that I was even competing, at least I didn’t think so. He was all hers, but it bothered me that she felt she was somehow above me.
“I will be out in a minute,” Kyle said and closed my door. They walked inside with her arm linked tightly through his.
I waited for Kyle for almost five minutes. I didn’t really mind, but I was getting pretty sleepy. I looked in the mirror at my hair. A few strands broke free of the French roll it was in, but nothing to get upset about. She was just trying to prove to me that she was better than me.
“Do you want to go get some coffee and pie at the diner?” Kyle asked as we drove away.
“I’m pretty tired and I have to take my parents to the airport in the morning.” I wasn’t lying, but the main reason I declined was because I was still trying to deal with the churning mass of emotions that struck me earlier.
“Em, it’s only pie and coffee,” he said with an exasperated sigh.
I was feeling a little hungry considering I had puked up my dinner a couple hours before, but my mouth felt icky and I was dying to brush my teeth and rinse with some strong mouthwash.
“My mom made a cake yesterday,” I said after some thought. Mom had made it especially for me. Sometimes she wasn’t so horrible. “It’s chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, but it has white chocolate between the three layers.”
He grinned, which made me smile.
Stupid mouth.
I thought about the worse that coul
d happen while eating cake with my parents in the house, and figured the worse that could happen is that one of us choked on a hunk of cake. I could handle that. It was just cake…
My mom was still up when we walked through the door. She was in flannel pajamas with Phineas and Ferb slippers. Thanks to my nieces and nephews, she was a big fan of the cartoon. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was sitting at the kitchen table painting her nails and reading Vogue. She looked like an over grown teenager.
“Your hair is looking a little bent out of shape,” she said immediately, and she had barely looked up.
I rolled my eyes, prepared to tell her where she could go when Kyle stepped in behind me. My mom’s attitude quickly changed and she smiled at him with her beauty queen mouth.
“Thank you so much for bringing Esmeralda home safely. I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.” She waved her hands, trying to dry the paint on her nails.
“I’m not a toddler, Mom. He wasn’t babysitting me.” I angrily struggled to get out of my coat until Kyle gently eased it off of me. “Thank you.”
“I’m going to bed now that you’re home. Don’t stay up too late.” She smiled that ridiculous smile at Kyle again and patted his arm as she left.
“I understand now why some children throw their parents away to rot in nursing homes,” I said, taking my shoes off of my sore feet.
“Yeah, but, she did bake you this cake,” he said, uncovering the cake with a flourish.
“I suppose I can try to be a little nicer. Sometimes.” I shrugged. “Only a little though.”
I excused myself and quickly brushed my teeth and rinsed. My mouth felt much better and my stomach rumbled just thinking about my mom’s cake.
It was delicious. My mom was the biggest pain in the ass, but she could cook and bake better than just about anyone I knew. It was one of the very few bright spots about her visits.
I told Kyle about my mom’s cooking and how she even prepared and froze several meals for me to enjoy in her impending absence.
“I will be here every night to help you eat it all,” he said, dabbing my nose with frosting.