Reese gasped. “What?” the reaction had flown out of her lips before she could stop herself.
Maria glowered at her right as she sliced the last lemon. She then disappeared around the corner with the bin of lemon slices in order to stow them away in the fridge. While she was gone, Reese took that time to refill the ice bin and clean the spouts on the soda machine. She mentally cursed herself for reacting so harshly to Maria's confession.
It was just that the prospect of online dating scared her. She just thought that any given person comes in contact with at least fifty other people a day. That alone should be enough of a pool to chose from. She found internet connections to be artificial, and tinder? Wasn't that like the hook-up app or something? Maria wasn't a “hook-up” type of person. She was like the Wedding Planner type; the one whose dream mate would literally come flying from the sky when she least expected it, but needed it the most.
“Look, Maria, I'm really sorry, please continue.” She said, as Maria reappeared around the corner.
She pursed her lips and vigorously shook her head. “Nope. I knew you would judge me.”
“I'm not judging you!” Reese cried. “I swear, there's nothing wrong with tinder. It just surprised me that you were on it, that's all. I have a lot of friends on it.”
Maria shot her a blank stare with her shoulders square and her head hanging slightly to the right. Her eyes were glossed over with a thick layer of pure disbelief.
“Please just tell me what happened.” Reese dropped the spout she was working on in the sink and approached her, putting her hands on each of her shoulders.
“So, you're sure you're not going to judge?” She asked.
Reese laughed once. “Yes, I swear! I just want to know where the Maria I know is and how I can get her back.”
Maria's lips stretched into a smile at this in spite of herself. “Okay. Brace yourself, because you're about to deal with a tidal wave of my embarrassment.”
Reese rolled her eyes, scoffing at this. “Please. That's impossible.”
“I got stood up by an undergrad that I met on tinder.”
Reese's eyes went wide, but she bit her tongue to prevent any involuntary reactions from coming out. “What is an undergrad on tinder doing standing you up?”
Maria laughed at this. “Oh God.” She murmured as she rested her head on Reese's shoulder. “I was just standing on that corner-”
“You were standing on a corner?” Reese interrupted, hoping the light-hearted joke would lift her mood.
“Oh my God. Stop.” Maria scolded. “This is not a joking matter.” She added, as she fought her smile.
“Right, of course.” Reese muttered. “So, you were just standing on that corner...”
Maria nodded. “Yes, I was just standing on that corner thinking of how much of a complete failure I was at this. I mean, if getting stood up by a college kid isn't rock bottom, I don't know what is.”
“Well, he's stupid for not realizing how big of a mistake he was making doing that to you.”
“Thanks.”
“But,” Reese added, “You're kinda dumb too for expecting anything better from him”
“Ugh, I know!” Maria replied, stepping away from her and putting her hands on her head. “I just wanted something to happen for me, you know? I mean, look at everything that Daniel's done for you! You're so lucky.”
Reese narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean? Everything that Daniel's done for me.”
Maria grimaced, an action that suggested she thought the answer was obvious. “Well, I mean you're obviously different.”
Reese furrowed her brow. “What? No, I'm not at all! Is this because of that necklace, because I honestly just forgot I had it on. I didn't mean anything by it.”
Maria chuckled. “First of all, one does not simply forget that they are carrying around pure gold on their neck, and second of all, no, it isn't the necklace. I can tell just by looking at you, you think you're better than the rest of us.”
Reese's jaw dropped. “Where is this even coming from?” She demanded.
Maria threw her arms up. “You just disappeared for a week.”
Reese groaned. She was not willing to have the same conversation with Maria that she had just had with Frank. “I was focusing on my research project! I just finished a new draft of the proposal and sent it out. It was an important week for me and it had nothing to do with Daniel.”
“Nothing to do with Daniel?” Maria sneered.
“Yes. My work is still my work.”
“You didn't take a week off because you were too busy with research to work, you took a week because you had the resources to stop working.”
“I still don't understand what you're getting at.”
“You don't have a rent to pay. You don't to worry about what will happen to you if you don't make enough in tips tonight to pay your phone bill tomorrow. And that's because of him. You take advantage of the fact that you're dating a billionaire by disappearing from your job and then you have audacity to get upset when we want to know where you've been and why? Reese, that's not you, that's him.”
Reese set her jaw, but in the pit of her stomach was a wave of malaise at the words flying out of Maria's mouth. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but Maria was right. She had completely forgotten about the fact that jobs are money and money is necessary for survival for normal people. What scared her even more than that revelation, was the fact that she hadn't even realized it until Maria pointed it out.
“Anyway,” Maria continued, placing her palms on each of Reese's cheeks. “I'm not trying to insult you, honey. I'm just happy for you.”
Reese wrapped her hands around Maria's wrists. “Maria-” She started.
“No, really I am. You made it and that's something to celebrate.” She sighed, her weak smile fading away. “It's just, I can see you changing. I can see you fading away and... I don't know...” She trailed off.
All Reese could think about was how broke Daniel was and how often she found herself mentally attempting to count down the months, weeks or days until the two of them had to start making some drastic life-style changes. In fact, ever since this whole thing blew up, Daniel had been more worried about the fact that he was unemployed than the prospect of losing the penthouse, or the car.
He kept talking about having a plan, but every day when Reese woke up to get ready to go into the lab, he would still be sleeping and when she returned home in the evening, he'd be on the couch in a bath robe or a track suit. Maria had no idea how wrong she was about the Cinderella story she had built up in her head, yet as much as it pained Reese to let Maria go on thinking that she was slowly being transformed into a princess of some sort, it pained her even more to betray Daniel by telling Maria the truth about what was going on between the two of them. “Thanks for being so happy for me. But I don't think you're right about him.” She mumbled as the two of them finished their side work and exited the kitchen.
They stood just over the threshold in the back hallway, seeing as the dining room was still fairly silent. Since it was a Monday night, it was only going to be the two of them in the boutique dining room, which should have frightened Reese, but didn't really, because of the fact that she always found things a lot more complicated when she had to interact with more servers.
As the two of them stood there in almost complete silence, Reese mulled over Maria's words. The more she thought about everything “Daniel had done for her,” the less lucky she felt and the more iron clad the guilt that gripped her heart became. They weren't the Cinderella story because Cinderella would never cheat on Prince Charming. She would never hold him in contempt in the most pivotal moments of his life.
Her discomfort ripped at her stomach at the image of Jack just a foot away from her, his eyes glazed over with the haze of desire, yet, at the same time, her lips hung slightly open in anticipation of his kiss. She had aggressively buried that memory of what they had done under half true assertions that Daniel was perfect
for her and what they had was worth fighting for. Yet, at the same time, she had hoped that burying what had happened might make it disappear all together.
This was all well and good, but the one problem was that Reese was epically failing at burying Jack under Daniel. When, every once in a while, his kiss would come to mind, her hand would fly to her lips, and she'd wish that she could experience it again even though she knew that it should never happened in the first place. There was no doubt that she loved Daniel, but, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't deny to herself that she longed for Jack.
Chapter 21
The very next Saturday, Reese sat at their breakfast table. She had placed an oversized mug, filled to the brim with coffee, in front of her, right next to a ten page paper on in-situ hybridization. She wrapped her hands around the mug and hovered her face over it, a smile tugging at her lips at the sensation of the hot, coffee-flavored steam, oozing up towards her and taking control of her entire face. She took a sip of the hot liquid, wincing as it burned the back of her throat and tumbled down her esophagus, landing in the pit of her stomach with its satisfying warmth.
With a sigh, she turned her attention on the paper staring right up at her, begging to be read. She was eventually going to have to give a presentation on this for the one lecture she was taking, so procrastinating really wasn't an option.
Somewhere between the abstract and the introduction, Reese's mind lifted itself from the confines of the words on the paper before her and began to wander. She found herself replaying that one day in the museum, but in this daydream, the exhibit was different. The walls in every room were bare. Reese and Jack scurried from room to room without any aims at all, and then eventually found themselves on the landing between the second and third floors...
Reese jumped as Daniel placed his cool hands on her bare shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Good morning, honey.” He murmured.
Before Reese could look up at him, he was already in the kitchen opening up the fridge. “Do you have a preference for breakfast?” He asked.
Reese shook her head in an attempt to erase the thoughts going through her mind. Jack was a mere memory at best, but Daniel, he was real and she needed to focus on him. “No.” She muttered. With a sigh, she added, “I'm just trying to read this paper.”
“Paper?” Daniel asked. He had given up on trying to think of something to make for the two of them and had begun the process of making his cup of coffee.
Reese smirked as she watched him work; putting just the right amount of cream into the cup, then filling it to the brim with coffee, then sprinkling just a tiny bit of sugar in it to top it all off. He always put so much work into his coffee, whereas she simply sloshed the black liquid into a mug and started drinking. “Uh, yeah, it's on in-situ hybridization.”
He finished making his coffee and made his way to the table across from her. “What is... that?” He asked.
Reese smirked at his half-attempt to pronounce in-situ hybridization, and at the fact that she was getting to explain an aspect of her work to him. “It's just a method used to sequence DNA or RNA.” She replied. “I have to read it for class.”
“Wait, you have a class? I thought you were a researcher.” He asked as he sat down and crossed his ankle over his knee.
Reese frowned. This was only the fourth time he was asking her about this. “Yes, hun. I'm in the Phd program, so I have to take at least one class.”
He nodded slowly, his facial features morphed into such an expression that suggested that he didn't really understand what she was saying, nor was he worried about trying to. “Well, that's interesting.”
“Is it?” Reese replied with a dry voice, as she returned her gaze to her paper. She stared at the words, but couldn't hope to process any of it. After a long pause, during which she listened to Daniel slurp his coffee, she asked, “So, what's your plan for the day?”
He shrugged. “Nothing yet. Why do you ask? Do I sense a Netflix proposal coming on?”
Reese couldn't help but to smile at this. Although the idea of staying cooped up in his penthouse all day with Hemlock Grove was fairly tempting, she already had something else in mind. “Uh, no. I was actually thinking we could hang out around central park.” She replied. The two of them hadn't been out of the apartment in some time and she was dying to go on an adventure with him.
But he uncrossed his legs and put his mug onto the table, raising his hand in immediate objection. “No, Reese. I can't.”
Reese's half-smile dropped as quickly as it had come. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I have work to do.”
Reese raised an eyebrow. A minute ago, when he was suggesting they watch netflix for the rest of the day, work didn't seem to be a problem. “What, exactly, do you have to do?”
“I've got a business proposal in the works. I'm going to get my old job back.”
Reese glowered at him. “At a bankrupt company.”
Daniel took a long sip of his coffee. Only when he had finished and set the mug back down did he respond. “Yes.”
“That doesn't make any sense.” Reese argued, putting her paper down. She had completely given up any hope she had in getting it read that morning.
“Look, I just don't want to go to Central Park today okay?” He snapped.
Reese flinched at his harsh voice. “Okay... Is it the park? I realize it's kind of cold outside. We could do something else? Do you want to go to MOMA?”
“I don't want to go anywhere.” Daniel replied without looking at her.
Before Reese could say anything in response, he had already left the table and was making his way back to the kitchen. “But you haven't left the penthouse in over a week.” Reese raised her voice, her heart fluttering in frustration. He was hiding something from her, she could see it just in the way he stared into the sink.
“Because, I have been working.” He replied in a hard voice.
Reese pushed herself away from the table and followed him to the kitchen. “No, you haven't.” She pressed.
He didn't deny it, but kept his gaze fixed into the sink, his hands gripping either side of it and the muscles in his arms tense from the strain. Reese peered into his eyes. She had slept next to him the entire night, yet, looking at him now, it was as if he hadn't so much as closed his eyes all night.
There were frightening purple circles under his eyes and his looked ever so slightly pasty and with a sickly hue hovering just above the surface; like an anti-glow. She wrapped her hands around his torso, resting her head on his back. She listened to his pulse with her cheek pressed against his spine. As the two of them stood there, she remembered what he was like when they first met; remembered how the two of them were together, and she longed for that easiness. “Talk to me, Daniel. Tell me what's going on in your head.”
“There's nothing going on in my head.” He pressed.
In Reese's arms, his body remained tense and rigid. She bit her lip to keep from tearing up at this. “No, Daniel, there's more going on in there that any one person can handle.” She replied.
He didn't answer, but just shook his head.
She tightened her grip around his waist, holding her right fist with her left hand. “Daniel, just tell me what's wrong. You need to let me help you.”
At this, he finally turned around and took her face in both of his hands. He planted a half-hearted kiss on her lips, then murmured. “I appreciate you trying, I really do. But this isn't anything that you could help me with at all.”
He ran his hands down her neck, then each of her arms, taking her hands in his. “But, if you would just tell me what was going on then-”
But he stopped her yet again. “There is nothing for me to tell you. You being here is enough. This isn't something you need to be a part of.”
As he said that, the sound of Jack's voice came to mind. Reese thought of what he said about telling his girlfriend everything and she found herself angry with Daniel yet again. “I don't understand why you can't trust me
enough to tell me-”
“It's not that I don't trust you, okay? It's just that I know you wouldn't understand and I don't want to bother with trying to make you.”
Reese ripped herself out of his hold and stepped away from him. Anger sprouted in her like a forest fire, boiling the blood in her veins in an instant and sending her heart racing. She couldn't believe they were having this conversation yet again. “How stupid do you think I am?” She demanded as she turned away from him. Her brow furrowed as she glared into the living room. Her pulse pounded in her ears and she struggled to keep her breathing under control. She had never met anyone that made her feel as inadequate as Daniel often did; anyone who questioned her intelligence as much as he did; who shut her out as much as he did.
Chapter 22
He rolled his neck and placed his palm against the marble counter top. “Stoppit, Reese, this has nothing to do with you.”
Reese nodded hysterically. “Right, this isn't about me. I understand.” She snapped. She contemplated sitting back down at the table, but couldn't control herself enough to even sit down. She paced back and forth alongside the table.
“No. It's not.”
“It's not about me. It's not about this relationship. It's about you, just like everything else.” She mumbled without looking at him.
“I don't know why you keep trying to insert yourself and this relationship into my work.”
“I'm not trying to 'insert myself' anywhere. I'm just trying to understand you and your job. You say it has nothing to do with your life, but that isn't true. We both know it. The only reason you keep saying it is because you think that will keep me away. But it won't Daniel Scott. I'm going to keep asking-”
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Reese kept going anyway, raising her voice above his.
“I'm going to keep pushing, because I care about you and that's the only way I know how to love!”
“I'm not comfortable with-” He started, but Reese but in.
City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance) Page 10