“But I don’t give a fuck about that.”
“You will,” she said, it was almost like coaching a belligerent child. “This is baby steps. Everyone starts somewhere, you’re just starting later than most. Think of it like going to prison, you find a friend, someone to watch your back and introduce you to the right people. They’ll tell you who to avoid, what to do, how to act, what not to do… then before you realize it, you’ve found your comfort zone.”
“I find my comfort zone. And, what do you do?”
She shrugged and sat back to check her make up in a mirror that folded out from a panel. Taking a tissue from the box on the side, Tally dried her tears and mopped up the smudges in her makeup. “I’ll wake up and go to work on Monday,” she said. “It might be a first for me, but other women the world over are their boss’ dirty little secret. I’m not unique.”
“Hey,” he said, reaching over to take her hand, drawing the tissue away from her face. She turned to look at him. “You were never my dirty anything.”
She pushed out her lower lip in a mock petulant pout. “I liked being dirty with you.”
It was too soon for teasing; the light of interest in his eyes flared fast. But the car stopped and the door on his side opened. They were there.
She scooted over next to him. “Get out first, then take my hand and hook it inside your elbow.” He looked at her and she didn’t know if he was nervous or appreciative. “Just think of it as role play.”
Something they hadn’t done, but it might make him feel more comfortable. Tally had been nervous at her first society event and she was a woman, so she could at least trust that she’d be led by a man. Max didn’t have that safety net.
Here, for his first time, someone had to show him how to lead and Tally was honored to be the one, even if her heart was breaking.
ELEVEN
Max did exactly as she’d instructed and held her close after they got out of the car. “This is fucked up,” he mumbled from the corner of his mouth.
She pointed at the door. “Usually people would stay out here to greet each other and fawn,” Tally said. “And if there are photographers, the ones who are fame-hungry linger for as long as they can.”
“We’re not fame hungry?” he asked her. She smiled up at him and shook her head. “Ok, got it.”
“Tonight, you’re lucky to be basically anonymous and I’m completely insignificant. Once people start to learn your face and know who you are, they’ll start trying to talk to you more. You’ll have people intercepting you, they’ll compliment you, and don’t be surprised if they use your date to get to you. They’ll compliment her, engage her in conversation about how amazing she is, and depending on how shallow and ignorant she is, that can be frightfully effective.”
“You’re not shallow or ignorant.”
Tally had to hold her skirt up with her clutch hand to ascend the portico stairs. “Well no one’s going to try to talk to me because I’m poor, so that makes me invisible… I’ve actually met almost everyone who will be in the room tonight. You know who’ll remember my name? The staff; security guards and the drivers, that’s it. The rich partygoers will think they’re meeting me for the first time even though I’ve been around for years… Though they’ll recognize me fast enough if they want a space in the schedule.”
“You’ll never be invisible to me.”
It was sweet that he thought so, but she wasn’t so naïve. “Give it six months,” she muttered, then nodded ahead. “You have to open the door for me.”
“Can I smack your ass as you walk past?”
Tally had just broken up with him three minutes ago and already he was making her laugh. Instead of saying no, she twisted to face him as she went by, nodding in thanks and preventing him from getting near her ass.
Waiting for Max on the inside, Tally took the invite from her clutch and handed it over to him. “You have to give that to the attendant at the top of the stairs,” she said and took his arm again. “Everything here is old-fashioned. It’s a male-dominated world, I’m nothing but the breasts accompanying you for the evening.”
Moving through the lobby, Tally saw a couple of security guys from another family’s detail. They bowed and tipped their invisible caps when they noticed her, and she nodded in regal acknowledgement then grinned.
“Know those guys?” he asked as they crossed the wide space.
“The three in front gave me self-defense lessons after I was mugged.”
“You were mugged?”
She nodded. “Wasn’t a fun night for me. They’re good guys,” she said, then got back on point. “But, ok, so you’re the man. You have to take charge of everything, but you’re good at that.”
“You never complained,” he murmured, sending a chill down her spine.
It was difficult not to make everything he said intimate, but she’d have to get out of the habit. “I meant like getting drinks for the ladies and making sure your date is happy. You’re attentive anyway, I don’t have to teach you that.”
“You don’t have to teach me anything,” he grumbled. “These fuckers can take me or leave me, I don’t care.”
His mood was petulant, but she probably hadn’t helped it given their conversation in the car. She just had to remain calm and try to make him see past their relationship. “Yes, but your father does. If you do anything to embarrass him, he’ll be angry.”
“I’ll sleep fine.”
Tally smiled. “Yeah, but I won’t, because I’ll be on the street,” she said. “Remember the point of me being here is to keep you in line.”
“Good luck with that,” Max said and started up the stairs, but she slowed him when she had to lift the front of her dress again.
When they eventually got to the top of the stairs, they went to the podium and handed over the invitation.
“Tallulah!” the guy at the podium exclaimed. “You look good enough to eat.”
Max tensed, so she pulled him closer to her. He didn’t really move, but her increase in grip told him to calm down. There was nothing to be jealous about here.
“Hey, David, why are you out here?”
“Covering for Jamie, he’s out back having a smoke, fighting with Alicia.”
“Oh,” she said. “They haven’t fixed things yet?”
He shrugged. “Dunno, they’re fighting or fucking, I can’t keep track. You coming to the wedding?”
“Next month? Absolutely,” she said. “Sean and I got the day off… he’s promising to bring his Harley… I can’t wait.”
David laughed. “Don’t show up the bride, we don’t want any more hitches. It’s about bloody time they just did it, right?” David said, scanning Max. “Anyway, I best let you get in there. Your table’s in the usual place.”
“Thanks, honey.”
Turning to the grand double door, the doorman opened it for them and Tally offered him a polite smile as they went through.
“Honey?” Max asked. “You screw him?”
“David is gay,” she said. “So, no. And next time you see him, don’t repeat any of that. He spoke to me as a friend because he didn’t recognize you, so he assumed you were one of us. As soon as he knows who you are, he’ll be embarrassed, and he’ll treat you with nothing but deference.”
Max’s offence level was rising. “Maybe I don’t want deference,” he said. “And what the fuck is one of you? I’m not one of you?”
“No,” she said, nodding at the glitterati, the rich and beautiful people they were moving towards. “You’re one of them.”
The marble floor was shining, the chandeliers gleamed, and the room was filled with the country’s richest. “They don’t look like nice people.”
She couldn’t say that all of them were but smiled instead of saying that. “Just smile and try to look friendly.”
He stopped walking to glare at her. “I don’t smile for no reason and I don’t want any fucker to think I’m friendly.”
“Hmm,” she said and thought about i
t for a second. “You do pull off the brooding thing well, maybe just do your best to look bored and mean. The superrich can afford to be aloof to the point of rude. So, bored and mean. Go with that.”
“You got it, baby,” he said, and that made her laugh though he meant it.
“Your father always likes a table close to the action and on the dancefloor. He gets annoyed if people get too close to the table, but he likes a good view. Most of the hotels and venues hold the same events every year. You’ll get used to where he likes to be in each room.”
“And no one else gets a say?”
They wound through the tables, giving her a chance to think about it. “Not now, but I guess over time, you might. It depends how your relationship with him progresses.”
“I’ll get my own damn table. I like dark corners.”
And she liked to be in dark corners with him. “I know you do, but in time you’ll probably come around to your father’s way of thinking. If you can see who’s talking to who, who’s dating, it helps the business. And people have tells; sometimes you can pick up blackmail material just by watching how people respond to each other.”
“So, if I grab your ass now—”
“Don’t even think about it,” she said and smiled, widening her joy when the Stretton table came into view. “Ok, when we get there, you have to move around the table, shake every man’s hand and kiss every woman’s cheek. If Teddy doesn’t introduce you, introduce yourself. Whenever a woman stands, any woman, for anything, you have to stand too. You can sit down when she leaves. Stand up again when she comes back, before she sits. When she sits, you sit. And if you’re beside her, pull her chair out for her.”
“Yeah,” Max mumbled, sounding again like that stroppy child. “We should’ve just gone home.”
Just as she said, when they approached, everyone at the table stood up. “Ah, we thought you’d never arrive,” Teddy said, reaching for Max’s hand. “Everyone, this is Max, my son.”
She eyed the people at the table, encouraging Max to go around and shake all the male hands as he kissed all the female cheeks. His was the last vacant seat at the table, opposite his father and next to her. Tally wasn’t at all surprised to see Blair positioned on his other side.
When Max sat down, a server rushed up behind him to provide them both with champagne. Max sipped it and scowled. “What’s this shit?” he murmured at her.
“Cristal, I think,” Tally said, moving her glass to his position because she wasn’t allowed to drink it.
Sliding his hand along the back of her chair, he leaned closer to her while putting his back to Blair. “Why don’t you have to kiss everyone?”
“Because I’m insignificant,” she said. “It would be an insult for me to greet people as their equal when I’m subordinate to everyone at the table.” She pushed his thigh. “Sit straight in your chair and don’t slouch. And don’t turn your back to a lady, it’s rude.”
Leaning even closer, Max’s proximity was verging on being inappropriate. “I wanna give you a hickey so bad right now,” he mumbled.
God, he was awful, and her look of horror probably conveyed that to him. Though he was quite proud of himself as he turned back to the table and guzzled more of his champagne.
“Max, how was your trip?” Kimmy’s date, Brian, asked.
“What trip?” Max asked. “Where’d I go?”
“No, I meant your journey here,” Brian said, glancing at the others at the table. “Some of us were stuck in the construction tailbacks uptown. You know, where they’re resurfacing.”
“Oh, I live on the south side,” he said. “No resurfacing there, the city don’t give a fuck about our roads. There are more holes waiting to be filled in our streets than there are in whores at a fucking brothel.”
Ok, this was… not going so great if the looks of shock going around the table were any indication. But Max didn’t care, he was busy poking at the central plate of canapés, picking out pieces he wanted to eat… which seemed to be the pieces on top because he was ignoring the bases beneath.
“And, uh…” Heath said, glancing at Teddy. “How do you feel about joining us at the office next week, Max?”
Max stopped poking to scan the table. “I don’t give a flying fuck about your business and I ain’t interested in clocking in for a nine to five when I can make as much dough as I need knocking over liquor stores.” Something startled him because he jerked back. Max landed narrow eyes on Blair, then reached under the table to pick her hand off his leg to drop it onto the table. “No cock for you to ride in these pants, sweetheart. Plenty of rich fucks around here with dodgy tickers for your pussy to play on.”
“Ok,” Tally said and stood up. “Excuse us.”
Grabbing for Max’s arm, he didn’t even have the decency to look contrite when she pulled him up and dragged him over to the dancefloor. Lifting his arms into place, she wasn’t surprised to feel his hand slide around to her lower back, but as long as it stayed off her ass, it was progress.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she asked. “You’re not content to get me fired, clearly, you want me to die of sheer mortification.”
Again, like a bored child, he shuffled and looked around, but his heart wasn’t in it. “What?”
“Ok, maybe it was my fault. I didn’t spend time prepping you. You have to dial back the swearing, and yes, words like cock and pussy are classed as swear words in this room.” They got a few side glances. Tally had to temper her mood to lower her voice. “We don’t talk about whores or brothels. When in doubt, a simple yes or no will suffice. Now, don’t get me wrong, when you’re with just the men at the country club or smoking cigars out back, I’m sure there is plenty of demeaning talk about women. But at the table, at the start of the evening, when everyone is sober and there are women present, you have to think polite, think demure, think…”
“Boring.”
“Yes,” she said, a grin splitting her face. “Yes, don’t go for shock value. Just imagine your mom is sitting beside you.”
“Hmm,” he said and considered that. “My mom curses worse than me.”
“Then act the complete opposite.”
“Good advice.”
“Good,” she said, glad she’d found a way to get through to him and help him understand. “And with Blair, you have to be subtler. The dirty talk will only turn her on. Remember what you said about the classier the girl, the dirtier she likes it? Well, just think of Blair as the classiest woman on the planet.”
“So the dirtiest?”
“Yes,” she said, but her pride in herself was short-lived. “Wait… that makes you want her, doesn’t it?”
“Do you care? Didn’t you just try to dump me?”
Deflated, Tally didn’t need the reminder of their conversation in the car. That had to be the root of his sulk, but there was nothing she could do to change the facts of their predicament to make it better.
“Yes,” she murmured, trying to ignore the stinging that strained her shoulders. “Sorry, you’re free to sleep with anyone you want to.”
But Max didn’t play games with her. “Doesn’t matter, I already figured that about her, if she’ll screw a guy and then go after his son, she’s got no boundaries… I like a woman with boundaries.”
He was trying to reassure her or make her feel better. Her eyes drifted to his and she saw the light of interest, something that shouldn’t be there, that she should ignore, but that light drew her in. He hadn’t lost his power over her and she doubted that he ever would.
“You get this certain look in your eye when you’re thinking about sex,” she murmured.
“I’m surprised you’ve ever seen me without it.”
Seeing past the outfit and the grooming, she could fixate on the man and recognize her lover in those eyes. “I’m just letting you know, you have a tell, so you might want to work on that for future… women. If you want to be brooding and mysterious, you’ll have to disguise it.”
His eyes narrowed. “
Can I get something straight?” She nodded. “If we met on the street, or in a bar, just a guy and a girl, without this Stretton connection, you would be with me, wouldn’t you?”
What a question. At least she had her answer about his mood. Clearly, he was still thinking about what she’d said in the car. It probably hadn’t been fair to end their relationship and then bring him here, but in her defense, she hadn’t planned to lose control like she had.
His question put so much in perspective and she wouldn’t lie. “Yes.”
“But because I’m related to that schmuck over there and he wants to turn me into this corporate flunkey and load me up with dough, you don’t want to be with me, do you?”
Inhaling, she hated that it made her sound like such a bitch to put up arbitrary boundaries. “No.”
“Well, fuck,” he said and shook his head. “That takes the fucking biscuit. Every bitch who’s ever ridden my cock has wanted more or dumped me for some dude with more money or a better car or whatever shallow shit they care about. I find me a woman who doesn’t want to change a damn thing about me, and she dumps me ‘cause it turns out I’ve got a rich daddy.”
“Max—”
“No,” he said and stepped away from their dance. “I love your honesty, you don’t screw around. You give me the truth upfront… It’s one of the things that made me fall in love with you.” He loved her? He hadn’t said that in the car and now that they were surrounded by people, she didn’t even know how to respond. He ran the back of his finger along her jaw. “I’ll play nice, Boss. I’ll do whatever makes you happy. Whether we’re fucking or not, it doesn’t change the truth.”
“The… truth?”
He came to her, right up close, to murmur. “That we’re crazy for each other. Love, huh? Pretty damn cool.” He turned but didn’t get far before he came back. “Oh, and you’ll always be MG. I don’t give up. This…” He lifted his head to scan the room before looking at her again. “This I don’t give a fuck about. You make me the richest man in the world. Only you.”
TWELVE
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