The One, page 13
I ignored the looks and the whispers as we walked through the club to the upstairs VIP lounge that overlooked the dancefloor. I’m used to people staring at us by now, probably wondering how a nouveau riche slob like me pulled a high-society beauty like her. That’s what I prefer to think they’re thinking because it’s the only thing that makes sense in my book. Roz and her friends, for whatever reason, had taken up a spot close by as if she expected me to change my mind. If she only knew that tonight was just the beginning.
I’m a harsh enemy, one of the worst I’ve been told, but I’ve never had to turn my enmity against a family member before. It would’ve been hard to even ponder had she not gone after Steph the way she did. As for her friend, I won’t be seeing her ever again, so she was a nonentity in this equation, though I have half a mind to make her pay for anything she had in my place tonight. That might be hard to do since my staff never runs a tab when my sister or one of my other siblings is hosting friends. Then again….
“Excuse me a second, ladies.” I walked away and pulled my phone again. Skeet tends to be a stickler for every damn thing, and though I’d never asked before, there was no harm in checking now.
“Hey Skeet, you wouldn’t happen to know if the bar ran a tab for my sister and her friends, do you?”
“We didn’t give it to her; no one here is that stupid.”
“Does that mean that you did run one?”
“Of course, I always do for inventory purposes.”
“Who took care of them, do you know?”
“Yeah, it was Haley; why, do you need to see her?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” I hung up and went back to Steph, who was looking over the menu the server had brought over.
“Bring us a bottle of Dom, Cassidy,” I ordered the server before telling Steph I’ll be back. Back downstairs at the bar, I had a quick word with Haley, who was more than helpful, which reaffirmed my trust in my people. Only hire the best, and pay them well because they go above and beyond the call of duty. Not only did she know who had what and how many. She knew that Naomi had ordered the most expensive drinks on the menu and hadn’t been as nice as the others who usually came with Roz. Even better!
“Give her a check for her portion and take care of the rest of it as usual. If my sister or any of her friends come to the bar, tell them they’re cut off, and the same goes for the kitchen; let them know.” She left to do my bidding, and I went back to Steph, who was tasting the champagne Cassidy had brought over in my absence.
I didn’t look in my sister’s direction, didn’t budge when her friend screeched upon receiving the bill, and Jaxxon, who was hanging around instead of going back to the door where the best of his team was on post, stepped in the way when Roz tried coming towards me. “What’s going on? Why is your sister so upset?”
“I cut her off because she’s had too much to drink. I guess she’s pissed.”
“Aw, you’re such a nice big brother; that’s sweet.”
“Drink your champagne, baby.”
“Oh, here, have some.” She passed me the glass she had already poured just as Cassidy and one of the runners showed up with the appetizers.
“What did you order me?” I nuzzled her ear.
“Steak, of course. I know what you like.
“That’s my girl.”
Roz started spouting off, but I couldn’t hear what was being said over the music. I just saw Jaxxon having a very stern conversation with her before she and her friends walked off. My phone rang not even five minutes later, and the screen said, ‘mom.’ I didn’t have to guess why she was calling but now was not the time.
“Mom, are you hurt?”
“Of course not; what makes you say that?”
“Is dad okay?”
“Of course, I’m calling because Roz….”
“Now is not a good time, mom. I’m kinda busy. If there’s no emergency, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you, bye.” I hung up before she could say anything else.
Steph
Something’s going on. If Mace’s sister was drunk like he says, there’s no way he’d have left her to fend for herself, he’s too attentive for that, and I’m too tipsy to delve into his business tonight; I’ll get it out of him in the morning. Right now, I am feeling no pain. I’ve got the hottest guy in the building sitting next to me, pampering the hell out of me while half of the who’s who in the city looked on from the floor below.
I wasn’t even feeling like my usual self-conscious self about having all those eyes on me while I ate and drank to my heart’s content at Mace’s insistence. I guess he knows me as well as I know him because he fed me bits of his steak since I’d gone with the shrimp dish against my better judgment knowing good and well that I can’t resist steak.
“You should try the carrot cake with orange cream cheese icing; it’s amazing.”
“Ooh, that sounds good. Nat and I were salivating over the donut bread pudding with bourbon sauce.” He motioned Cassidy over and ordered both and another bottle of champagne after making sure that Nat had everything she needed as well.
If I wasn’t half gone to the wind with alcohol, I would’ve sworn that he was way more attentive than usual, and Mace is already very attentive, but I guess it’s the alcohol that’s making everything seem super over imposed.
Once the dessert came, I barely had time to get a taste of both before he was pulling me up from my seat and making our excuses to Nat, who was busy making eyes at Jaxxon and giggling like a schoolgirl and not like the well-respected and very feared attorney I know and love. “We’ll be back in a few.” He told her as he pulled me along behind him.
“I know where you’re going and what you’re going to do.” She laughed uproariously as I blushed and tried to hide my face in Mace’s back. Why are best friends so embarrassing? I guess she knows what she knows because no sooner had his office door closed behind us than I found myself pressed up against it with his hand beneath my dress.
The sound of my panties tearing was now a familiarity, so I didn’t mourn the fact that I’d paid way too much for the thing, and he hadn’t even seen it, just tore and destroyed. Who cares? I didn’t, not when he got down on his knees, and his head disappeared between my thighs. I forgot all about what could’ve possibly gotten into him tonight and just enjoyed being wanted this much.
MACE
Shit! How many times is this now that I’ve cum inside her without protection? I rolled off of her and dragged her to my side to keep her close as she sighed with contentment, her plush body feeling nice and warm, adding an extra layer to the afterglow of phenomenal sex.
Things have been going so well between us that I’d all but forgotten that first drunken conversation I’d overheard what seems like forever ago now. Not that it matters. Stephanie might talk a good game, but she doesn’t have it in her to use anyone for anything, no matter how much she may want a child.
In fact, the more I come to know her, the more I realize how much she needs me to protect her. She’d spent so much time being bogged down by other people’s bullshit that she’d somehow convinced herself that if she just ignored the hurt and pretended that it didn’t matter, life would go on as usual. I’m sick of it.
I don’t want, no, I won’t let my woman go through life that way, only living like half a damn person because of assholes of which I’d just found out my own sister was one. “Do you want to sleep here tonight, or do you want to go home?” She was already half asleep, probably from the champagne she’d drank.
“You choose.” She snuggled up beside me and went back to sleep while I stayed awake staring up at the ceiling. There were a million scenarios going through my head, but it all boils down to one thing, I choose Steph, and in doing so, as her man, it’s my responsibility to protect her from everyone, including those closest to me.
I can’t call myself her man and allow others to mistreat her, even if she doesn’t know about it herself. I’d hate myself to the core if I ever became that person. But more than that, she didn’t deserve to be treated that way, to be spoken of as if she were less than human because she wasn’t some ideal size that society threw out there for the misled flock to follow.
I’ve dealt with strangers giving her looks as if she didn’t deserve to be next to me, but I never expected, would’ve never dreamed that it would be this close to home. The thought of what my actions were going to cause is what was keeping me up all night until I finally drifted fitfully into sleep.
The rift is unavoidable; it cannot be helped. I won’t ask my family to choose, but I know that I won’t subject Stephanie to anyone’s ridicule, no matter who it is.
That was the conclusion I came to in the early morning hours before turning her on her back and sliding into her before she came fully awake. There was anger in my strokes. Not at her, but she got the brunt of it, not that she complained, she was with me stroke for stroke, thrust for thrust, and I couldn’t help but dick with her.
“I see you’re working hard for that baby.” I’m not sure why that set her off, but it did; she came without warning, just from those words alone. The funny thing is, they seemed to light a fire in me as well, the images they conjured, me planting my seed in Stephanie, Stephanie round with child, my child. “Shit!” I went off like a rocket inside her, and this time when I rolled away, I was out before my head hit the pillow.
The next morning, we left the club, and I took her back to her place because I knew I was going to have a lot to deal with today, things that I didn’t want her in the middle of just yet. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what had been said or about the fallout I was sure was coming. I didn’t want to hurt her or do anything that would remove that look of total bliss on her face as we drove through the empty streets holding hands.
“I’ll see you this evening but call me if anything happens before then.” Anything like her asshole ex or ex-mother-in-law showing up to cause trouble. She pouted and clung onto me; so cute.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I know, baby, I don’t want to leave you either, but I have some things to take care of, then I’ll come back to you, okay.” She nodded, and we shared one last kiss before I left.
All the way to my parents’ place, I reminded myself to remain calm. I’d turned my phone off sometime during the night, but when I turned it back on, I saw the many missed calls and messages, most of them from mom and a few from Roz, all of which I ignored.
I called mom back and asked her to invite my other siblings over to the house, not letting her say anything or ask anything before hanging up the phone again. That anger that I’d felt the night before was sneakily making its way back, but I knew that was not the way to go about this. I have to keep a cool head before I do more damage than I intended.
The decision had been easier to make than I’d have thought it would be. Coming from a close-knit family and being the one who’d made it, so to speak, financially at least, I’ve always looked out for everyone else. I never skimped on anything having to do with family, and some might say I’ve gone above and beyond for them in many ways.
But now, there was someone else I wanted to protect, someone else I wanted to put that time and energy into as well. I wouldn’t have stopped taking care of my family because of my new relationship, but today’s outcome will prove how that goes.
I wondered as I pulled into my parents’ driveway when I’d become this hard. It’s not like me to fly off the handle like this, to make drastic changes without too much thought. It was then that I realized what my woman had come to mean to me.
I’ve never really respected people who fell in love or claimed to at the drop of a hat. I’ve always looked sideways at anyone who proclaimed to have known their partner the first time they met. It’s always seemed too much like fairytale bullshit to me.
But I realized as I stepped out of the car and headed for the door of the house that I’d paid for that I was willing to cut ties with anyone who agreed with what Roz had done, and I felt no guilt over the decision because she’d come to mean that much to me, in the little time we’d known each other.
There was no fanfare, no fireworks, nothing to herald this great change. Just a slow, gentle feeling of warmth that filled me out of nowhere as the realization set in and took root. It was a hell of a time to be hit this hard by the love bug, but I’ll take it any way it comes.
I didn’t use my key like before but rang the doorbell and waited. Dad was a bit surprised when he opened the door and saw me standing there. “Morning, son, forgot your key?”
“Morning, dad. Are the others here?” I ignored the question about the key as he turned and led the way into the house.
“Yes, they just got here.” That’s because the homes I’d bought them and their families were within walking distance of mom and dad’s new place. I felt a moment’s guilt that my baby sister might not get the same treatment later on down the line, but it didn’t last long once I remembered why I was here.
Mom, as was expected, started in on me as soon as she saw me enter the room. “What’s this I hear about you mistreating your little sister? I didn’t raise my kids to act like that with each other.” I listened to her rant without interruption because this way, I would learn exactly what she’d been told.
Roz sat with a smirk on her face while my other siblings looked on, not showing any expression one way or the other. At least with them, I can expect a fair trial. Maybe it’s because the three of us had had it the hardest, had weathered the storm with mom and pop, or maybe it’s because they know me well.
“I can’t believe my own son would treat his sister so poorly for a stranger. And to embarrass her in front of her friends, no less. Who is this woman anyway? Aren’t you going to say anything? Why have you become mute? Is it because you know you were wrong?”
Mom will always go to bat for Roz, as she should. She’s her late-in-life baby, a surprise after raising us three, and the one who came when things were looking up, which meant she got to enjoy motherhood without all the hassle. This, I know and understand, and have backed her one hundred percent until now.
“I was waiting for you to get it all out.” Instead of saying anything further, I placed my phone with the recording from the night before down on the table and hit play. Roz’s eyes darted around the room like a cornered rat, and it was clear from the way mom stuttered that she’d been given a completely different story.
When mom opened her mouth to speak again, I didn’t give her a chance. Because my mind had already been made up before I arrived, and there was no way anything she said or did was going to change that.
“Roz, what the hell?” My sister Evelyn glared at her in disgust while my brother Tom just shook his head.
“I… I,” Roz looked at me as if I’d betrayed her. Her lips started to tremble, and her eyes filled with tears the way they used to when she was a child. They didn’t have the same effect this time around, though.
Dad’s head hung down in shame, but mom was still looking at me with pleading eyes. “The woman she’s describing is the woman I just might marry and spend the rest of my life with. So, tell me, how am I supposed to respond, do you think? Should I expose her to more of the same without her knowing? Should I bring her to dinner or come around for the holidays knowing that someone at the table thinks of her this way? Never!”
“Your sister was just playing around with her friend. Don’t take it so seriously.”
“I’ve never been more disappointed in you, mom.” I grabbed my phone and got to my feet. “But I expected you to respond this way. You should know, especially you, Roz, that I will no longer be supporting you. It’s still time enough for you to look around for financial aid to finish paying for college.”
“You can’t do that. You can’t destroy my life for that fat bitch.” She jumped to her feet, tears forgotten, and there was a sigh around the room from the others who were in shock, I think. There were raised voices, but I heard none of what was being said because I was doing everything in my power not to explode.
“I’d planned to end it at just taking away your hefty allowance and making you get a job to support yourself, but your lack of remorse last night and now again today cinched it for me. You are exactly what you sound like on that recording.”
“The person you pretend to be in front of me is a façade, and quite frankly, I don’t like you. Get this through your head; I am done with you. I won’t accept an apology for Steph or me ever unless, somewhere down the line, I see a distinct change in you, one that I can believe. Save it!” I held up my hand to stop her from speaking.
“You’re a detestable human being. I won’t regret the things I’ve done for you in the past, but I won’t ever support you again.”
“Just because of that? It’s because you never loved me. How could you choose a complete stranger over your own flesh and blood? Mom, dad, do something.”
“Be quiet, Roz. You brought this on yourself.” My dad spoke up for the first time.
Roz broke down and just fell on the floor with great heaving sobs. I guess the enormity of the situation was now hitting home, now that she realized neither mom nor dad was going to change my mind. “I’ll see the rest of you once she’s gone, and we’ll work something out for the future.”
“When are you bringing your young lady home to meet the family son?”
Pop asked the question that had been bothering me all night. I’d planned to introduce her to them sooner rather than later but now, “That all depends on the rest of you. Just know that I won’t be bringing her around Roz anytime soon.”
“Are you saying you’re leaving the family?” Mom asked in a panic.
“No, just Roz.” I left after that, not willing to subject myself to any more pleading. I felt like shit as I walked away, but it had to be done.
