“Maybe I’ll call you,” he said. I gave him a sly smile, and shrugged.
“Call or not, whatever.”
He grinned, and I felt myself melt again. There was something dark and alluring about him, and I realized it was exactly what I needed. He was the adrenaline missing from my otherwise even-keel life. He turned and opened the bathroom door, and held it for me as I walked by. We went back out into the main room together, and I noticed the bar had cleared out considerably. It was a little eerie to enter the empty space, but I didn’t dwell on it too much.
“Get home safe,” he said.
I looked at him, but didn’t want to leave. “Yeah, good luck with your job.”
He nodded then turned and walked back toward the bathrooms. He pushed through an emergency exit door, and was gone.
I stood looking out over the mostly empty space for a second then walked toward the front door, pushed it open, and left. I had chills and goose bumps all over my body, and I realized I felt more alive than I had in a long time.
Chapter Five
Back in my apartment, pulse still racing with the memory of Rex’s hands on my hips, I looked at my body in a full-length mirror and wondered what he saw. I knew he lingered over my figure, my breasts, legs, and ass, and I was sure he liked my long blonde hair. But he kept calling me prissy and spoiled, and I couldn’t understand why. I wasn’t exactly wearing Prada or speaking with a British accent the whole night. He still somehow saw through me.
Even though my parents lost all their money, it was true that I had a rich upbringing. Private schools, big house, stable of horses, the whole cliché upper class rearing. I even had a nanny when I was younger. All of that changed, of course, when my father went to jail for embezzling from his company, and my mother fled to Florida in disgrace.
Since that day, when the feds came and arrested him, and took away our house and all our possessions, I vowed never to live like them. I went to public high school and earned an academic scholarship to Columbia. Everything I owned was worked for and paid for by me and nobody else. It was freeing to know that I didn’t owe anybody anything, that I was my own person. Still, I couldn’t shake the specter of my parents, and the way they raised me must have stuck more than I realized.
Around midnight, my phone rang. I checked the caller ID and it was Amy. I swiped right and answered.
“What’s up Amy?” I felt a little worried.
“Hey, Darcy, you okay?”
“I’m fine, kiddo, why are you calling so late?”
“I got your text. I wanted to make sure you got home safe.”
I laughed. The text had completely slipped my mind.
“Thanks, but I’m fine. Home safe and sound.”
“Well, how did it go?”
I wasn’t sure how much I could tell her. She was my best friend, but she also didn’t approve of the way I lived sometimes. She didn’t understand what it was like for the majority of people in this world. She got lucky and landed a perfect, rich future-husband, while the rest of us have to work hard for every scrap. Regardless, I was desperate to share about Rex, but I had to be careful how much I told her. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.
“It went pretty good. I met a guy.”
“Oh yeah? Another guy?” I could sense the sarcasm in Amy’s tone.
“This one’s different, Amy. His name is Rex and he’s not like the usual idiots I date.”
There was a short pause on her end. “Did you say his name is Rex?”
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s just an odd name, is all,” she said, though I could tell something was off.
“What’s up?”
“Remember how I first met Shane?” She spoke slowly and quietly.
Of course I remembered. It was the strangest story in the world. Back when Amy was just another anonymous girl, working for tips during the day and coding her app at night, I convinced Amy to sign up for a dating website called Matchstick. That’s how she first met Shane, though he had used a fake name at first. It wasn’t until his company bought her app that they realized they had been sexting with each other for the past few days.
“I might recall some fairy tale story about an online rando,” I said, jokingly.
“Well, the name he originally used was Rex Blue.”
“Huh. That’s pretty weird.” I didn’t know what it meant. Rex was a pretty uncommon name. As far as I knew, those two men were the only ones in the world who used it, though that couldn’t be true.
“I know. Probably a coincidence, but still weird,” Amy said, still whispering.
I laughed. “Are we dating the same guy?”
“I hope not, since he hasn’t left my sight all night.”