I felt a little guilty. She was right, or at least from what she knew she was right. I’d had more sex in the last three days than I’d had in three years.
I checked my timing. I needed to clean up the mess and start making the seafood alfredo topping for the fresh pasta I’d made, and the green salad. And I needed a shower.
I began wiping down the countertops.
“Oh, Shannon, here. Let me do that. You get yourself into the shower.”
“No, I have to make the sauce!”
“Okay, but let me do the clean up here. You take that side of the kitchen while I clean up this one.”
“You got it.”
I was ruminating about all her questions. I hadn’t even gotten to the part where I was going to accompany him to a real sultan’s palace in five days. That I was taking a whole ten days off work, and I had to promise I’d do all kinds of things to get that favor, too. I hadn’t told her I’d gotten drunk with his ex, either.
The tears were threatening to spill over my lower lids again as I added the butter and flour into one pan while sauteing the salmon and fresh scallops in another. I added some coriander and then some cheese until it melted into the butter mixture, then added the cream and stirred.
Judie put her arms around me. “What a problem to have, right?”
I chuckled, adding the fish mixture to the pan. I handed her the wooden spoon to stir since she’d cleaned up everything. I began rinsing vegetables for the green salad.
We worked in silence for about five minutes. Her mixture had begun to thicken, and I was done with the salad fixings, placing them in the refrigerator to chill.
I poured two huge glasses of red wine and handed her one. “We need to talk.”
“You want to go out to the beach?”
“Not today, Judie. Maybe you can help me figure out something.”
We sat in the living room, across from each other.
“Shoot,” she said.
“I’m going with him to an island in the Indian Ocean, some sultan’s pink palace. Supposed to be a really beautiful place. We’re flying by private jet, and then helicopter. This sultan has like five or six wives, maybe more, he doesn’t know. I’m to meet him in Boston in five days and we leave from there.” I gulped down the whole glass of wine and gasped. Judie watched me with eyes as big as saucers. “And, he doesn’t know who I am.”
There. I’d told her everything.
She had barely touched her wine, which wasn’t like her. Her gaze was focused on something on the floor because she was thinking about something. I diverted my focus to the side before she could make eye contact.
She took a sip and whispered, “I can’t fix this.”
I barely had my clothes on when Marco was at the front door, bringing me some of the roses from his room. He had something in a bright pink box tied with candy striped string. I could smell it was going to taste divine.
“Here, take these and I’ll get my things from the car.”
I added the roses to another vase, placing them at the table, and moved the spring bouquet onto the countertop. He entered with his leather bag, leaving it by the door instead of putting it in the bedroom. I began to get nervous.
He came to me and I melted into his arms, feeling safe and loved. I inhaled the heady scent I never wanted to be without and steeled my heart for whatever was to come next. His fingers laced through my hair.
“You want some wine?” I asked.
“Sure.”
He was watching me carefully as I poured from another bottle. I was a little tipsy. Maybe that’s what he was noticing.
He toasted my glass and remarked how good it was. I already knew that. I wanted to hear what was on his mind because his mood had changed.
“You want to eat?” I asked. “It’s all ready.”
“Smells wonderful. I’m starved.” But neither of us moved.
If I wasn’t careful I’d be bursting out in tears and nothing had really happened. I was just so sad all of a sudden. I had no basis for coming to that conclusion, but I felt like I’d blown the opportunity of a lifetime.
“Let’s sit down,” he said.
My knees stiffened. My stomach began to clench. It wouldn’t be cool if I threw up in front of him, but I was headed there. I left my wine glass on the counter and took a seat across from him, just where I was when I talked to Judie this afternoon. I liked looking at Marco better.
“I have to tell you something, Shannon.”
Oh here it comes.
“I think I’ve taken advantage of you, and I’m so sorry I did that.”
“I don’t feel that way.”
“But I do, and that’s important to me. I just burst into your life, upsetting everything. I asked a lot from you.”
“Nothing I wasn’t willing to do. I’m a grownup. I didn’t feel put upon. I’ve enjoyed being with you.”
“But, like you said, this world of mine. It isn’t your world, and I wasn’t being sensitive to that.”
“Okay. It’s a lot to get used to, don’t you think?”
“I totally agree. And that’s not my point.”
“Okay.” My heartbeat was still racing from the dark wolf in the forest.
“Remember when I talked about the woman I’d been in love with all those years ago? My first love?”
My veins turned to ice water. This was becoming a horror film. They found Emily, dug her up and she was now a vampire, and she’d bit him and taken him back. Something like that.
“Her name was Emily. She was a lot like you. And it’s got me thinking…”
He’s figured it out! OMG, he thinks
