| |
“Enjoying your food?” I asked.
“It’s actually decent. I’m a sucker for a good lasagna,” Amber said.
Her words reminded me of the night Violet cooked lasagna. When I’d come home and the house was filled with the sweet, beautiful notes of her slaving away in the kitchen.
Just for me.
“I’m partial to a perfect Alfredo,” I said.
“So, I take it that one’s not good?” Amber asked.
“What?”
She nodded to my plate, and I looked down. I was twirling the noodles, then stacking them in little towers around the edge of my plate. I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t eating at all, until she pointed it out.
“Guess I must not be hungry,” I said, chuckling.
“Well, want to cut out of here early and go to a club in Brooklyn? They have the best drinks around, and they’re open later than most places. Last call isn’t until four,” she said.
“I’m not really in a clubbing mood.”
“Too old for your time?”
I looked up and found her grinning at me, but I didn’t find the sentiment funny. Amber was exactly the opposite of me, and it was wearing on me. Fast. This was only our second fake date, but it felt like our twentieth. Amber was draining to me. She had filled out another application while munching on our appetizers, but now she was fully focused on what she wanted to do after this dinner.
Which was something I wasn’t interested in.
I’d decided on an upscale Italian restaurant not far from my place. Within walking distance, actually, which meant I sent my driver for Amber. Not the most romantic move on my part, but this was only for the public’s sake. So long as I walked in with her and left with her, it wasn’t a big deal.
And it helped me to draw a line in the sand with her, in case she tried to invite me back to her place again.
“Even the old guys need to let loose every once in a while,” Amber said, winking.
I shrugged. “Just not my thing. If you want, my driver can take you home after we eat dinner.”
“Already trying to get me to go home and we haven’t even ordered dessert yet! I believe it’s been a while since you’ve been on a date.”
“Well, I think I’ll be ready to turn in after this pasta,” I said.
“That you haven’t eaten?” she asked.
I plunged my fork into a small tower of the noodles and took a bite. I really wasn’t hungry. I hadn’t been, as of late. Those drinks during our first “date” made me want for alcohol again. A nice, tall glass of whiskey with just a hint of sugar and lemon. I took a few more bites before I pushed my plate away, then thanked the waiter when he removed it from the table.
“Any dessert for the lovely couple?” he asked.
“No,” I said, at the same time Amber said, “Yes.”
“If you’d like something, go ahead,” I said.
“No, no. That’s fine. If you aren’t going to eat dessert, then we can just get a drink back at your place or something,” she said.
The waiter passed me the check, and I settled the tab, but Amber’s words kept bouncing around in my mind. There it was. That offer to go back to one of our places again. Why was she throwing it into the pot?
James had been right. I needed to be careful.
I offered her my arm, and we walked out of the restaurant. But when my driver pulled up and I opened my door, she simply stared at me with a grin on her cheeks.
“You aren’t being a very good friend, you know. I just want to spend some time with you. That’s all, Raymond. Plus, if there’s privacy at your place, I’ve got three more applications I could start filling out,” she said.
Amber tapped her purse, and I sighed. Maybe if she took the time to get those damn applications done, we could stop this insistence on going back to each other’s places. So, I relented. I closed the door and waved my driver off, and together we walked back to my complex.
She stuck close to me, leaning her head on my shoulder, trying to work her hand into mine. Things any normal couple would do in public, but I didn’t like the way she was sighing over it.
Red flags went off in my head.
James’s warning fluttered across my mind, but I pushed it off to the side. I was in control of this. I had it. And plus, I wanted to give Amber the benefit of the doubt. If privacy was what she needed to fill out her applications more, a place where our circle of friends could see us wasn’t the type of place she needed to be doing it. We walked into my apartment complex and headed up to my place, and she didn’t bat an eye stepping off the elevator and walking into it.
I recalled Violet’s first reaction to being at my place. How awestruck she was and how everything, from her perspective, seemed so fresh and new.
“You any good?” Amber asked.
I followed the sound of her voice until I found her in a tucked-away room, her slender frame leaning against my billiard table.
“I dabble,” I said.
“Think you can beat me? I play my father all the time,” she said.
I grinned. “Challenge accepted.”
She racked the balls and selected her stick. I plucked one off the wall and watched as she broke the balls. Every shot she took, she leaned over a little too far, lifted her foot up to get a better angle. Somehow, she found a way to sprawl herself out over the edge of the damn table, accentuating the few assets she did have.
You’re being ridiculous. She’s playing pool in heels and a damn dress.
But something still felt off.
“Mind if I have a drink?” Amber asked.
I watched her walk over to the mini wet bar I had in the room without hearing my answer first.
“Go right on ahead,” I murmured.
The more she drank, the sloppier her shots became, and the more risqué her movements started being. She kept missing shots, and I kept sinking balls into the holes, and I ended up beating her handily.
“Fair and square,” I said, smiling.
But when I looked over at Amber, she was pouting.
“No fair. You cheated,” she said.
“And how did I do that?” I asked as I racked my stick.
“You said I could drink, and that’s an unfair advantage. Why don’t you have one with me?”
“No, thanks. I’m not in a drinking mood.”
“Wow, no drinking. No clubbing. Does Mr. Raymond Rose have any fun?” she asked.
I turned around and found that she was right behind me. Her eyes gazed up into mine, and her hands fell to my chest. I quirked an eyebrow as she slowly slid her arms around my neck, locking her body against me. I backed away, pressing my own back against the pool cues. But every step I took back, she matched coming toward me.
“Well, I suppose it’s only fair for the winner to claim his prize,” she said.
And quicker than I ever thought possible, her lips came crashing toward mine.
I ducked her kiss and slipped away from her grasp, clearing my throat and straightening my suit jacket. I heard her huff behind me before she caught herself against the wall, off balance from all the drinking she’d been doing. I whipped around and found genuine frustration on her face, and James’s warning kept bashing against my skull.
He had been right.
“I’m not interested in a relationship, Amber. I thought we discussed this,” I said.
“Raymond, I know you feel this attraction between us. Just think of how happy your family would be if we actually got together,” she said.
She turned around and locked her tipsy eyes with me, and they beamed with salacious need. I was flabbergasted, absolutely dumbfounded that I had allowed such a manipulative woman past my defenses.
I slowly clapped my hands before a scoff fell from my lips.
“Congratulations. I really have to give it to you, Amber. You had me fooled there for a second,” I said.
“What?” she asked.
“You know, I had a little talk with my best friend, James. And he warned me that you had an ulterior motive going. One that spanned beyond the agreement between us.”
“What?” she repeated flatly.
“It seems as if you share your father’s penchant for manipulation. You want more than a friendship with me, don’t you?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said haughtily.
“I’d like you to leave now. My driver will meet you downstairs to take you home.”
“Raymond, don’t do this. Don’t be foolish. We’ve got a good thing going.”
“We had a good thing going. Until you decided to exploit it for whatever your own needs were. I’m not going to ever be in a relationship with you.”
“It could just be sex. Everyone needs sex,” she said.
I shook my head. “It’s never just sex. And I’d never want something like that with you.”
She eyed me hotly before she slid her hands down her dress. She picked up her purse, and the art school applications spilled out onto my floor. She flushed a deep shade of red before she gathered them up, stuffing them back into her purse.
“You’ll come to your senses, Raymond. But don’t expect me to be around when you do,” she bit.
“Trust me, I’ve never thought clearer in my life. So, continue with that progression forward. I won’t be at your side for it.”
Like a gentleman, I showed her to the elevator. But I didn’t go down with her. I texted my driver, telling him to be out front immediately and to take Amber nowhere else but home.
You’re an idiot, Ray. You fell for that damsel in distress bullshit again.
After my driver confirmed she was in the car, I sighed. I slid my phone into my pocket and leaned against the wall, knowing damn good and well I could expect a phone call tonight or tomorrow from someone. My parents. Her parents. Someone regarding this fucking topic. But if that date proved anything, it was this.
I was tired of being without Violet.
“Time to stop faking things,” I murmured to myself.
It was time to stop trying to please my parents.
No matter the consequences that came from that decision.
