“I can see why he liked you.” I nod at the photo. “You were so pretty then. What was that?” I look at her hair and her hardened face. “Twelve or fifteen years ago?”
“Listen you little bitch, if you think you’re special just because Mattie brought you out for a night, you better think again. He won’t even remember your name next week, sweetheart.” She bares her teeth like she might lunge for my throat and try to rip it out.
“Marjorie! What is going on in here?” Matthew quickly closes the gap between us, striding over to my side and firmly placing himself between myself and his rabid ex. His shoulders look even broader now that he’s standing up straight with his chin squared. He narrows his eyes at her while she withers in front of my eyes like the wicked witch with some water poured on her.
“Nothing Mattie, I was just giving Kendra a few facts, that’s all.” She stiffens her lip but won’t look him in the eye.
“Sounded more like a history lesson,” I reply, leaning into Matthew’s warm, hard body for emphasis. I do a victory dance inside when he wraps his arm around me.
“I thought I made myself clear earlier, back off Marj. I won’t ask you again.” He hasn’t raised his voice, and yet it fills the room, making his message known to every nook and cranny in here.
Marjorie blinks repeatedly, but she pulls her shoulders back and composes herself in an instant. “I do understand, Mattie. I understand that we’re still playing this little game.”
“It isn’t a game!” His voice thunders off the walls and echoes down the hall. I shudder from the power of it, and half expect someone to come running in to see what’s going on. “It has been years, Marjorie, I don’t know how many times you expect me to go through this with you,” he says less angrily.
“If you don’t love me then why do you keep that picture of us then? Tell me that! You obviously still care.” She has a point there.
“I keep that picture as a reminder of the damage that money can do. How it can rot something that was once pure from the inside,” he speaks through his clenched teeth.
“Oh please don’t turn this into another one of your poor-little-rich-boy moments, Mattie. Next you’ll be spouting off about all your Daddy issues…”
Matthew releases me and grabs her by the wrist violently, twisting it in the air. “Enough!”
Marjorie’s eyes grow wide with surprise, but she quickly calms down. “Oh, is this foreplay, Mattie? You might as well let your dark meat know what you’re into now. Not that she’ll care. I bet she’ll do just about anything for some cash, won’t ya honey?”
Matthew jerks her arm higher, and she yelps. “You need to leave now, Marj.” He throws down her hand in disgust and wraps his arm around me, gently guiding me toward the door. “Don’t make me call security on you… again,” he warns her over his shoulder as we walk away. I peek back and watch Marjorie hunch over and start to cry.
My mind is so sucked in by the chaos I don’t even notice that we aren’t heading back out to the party until we’ve walked deep into the labyrinth of his house. I swear you must need a trail of breadcrumbs or something to find your way back out of here. We reach a large, dark door, and he opens it for me, allowing me to walk past him first into a masculine office full of wood carvings, leather furniture, and a huge mahogany desk.
“What would you like to drink, Kendra?” Matthew nods toward a well stocked bar near a floor to ceiling window. I’ve never been much of a drinker. I can count the amount of times I’ve gotten drunk on two fingers. “Ummm, what do you have?”
“How about I surprise you?” His aqua blue eyes seem to glow in the lowlight of the room. This has been a night full of surprises, what’s one more?
“Sure, sounds good.”
As he mixes a drink like a chemist mixing an antidote in a lab, he doesn’t seem the least bit phased by the whole scene that just went down. How often does this sort of thing happen in his life? His calm, cool demeanor is making me question my memories of the drama that just played out between him and Marjorie.
“Here, tell me what you think.” He brings me a glass with a drink that looks like orange tang. I take a small sip and am pleasantly surprised that it tastes like a fancy lemonade.
“It’s really good, thank you.” I take another sip and watch as he sits with his concoction on the pure, white leather sofa, patting the seat invitingly. When I join him, I’m confused for a second as he takes my glass from me and places it on a table with his. Confused until he wraps his strong arm around me. His kiss is so light on my lips that it almost feels like the fuzzy memory of a dream upon them. He sucks my bottom lip into his mouth slowly, tenderly tugging on it with his teeth, making me moan at the unexpected sensation.