I glance back at Matt.
He’s back on his feet, but he hasn’t bothered to button his shirt back up. “We’re kind of in the middle of something here.”
“So I see.” Sebastian smirks, looking pointedly at Matt’s open shirt. He looks back at me with a wink. “I just thought I’d drop in, share a bit of brotherly love. And now I see my services are needed. I need to take this gorgeous creature and tell her all of the embarrassing things you did when you were younger.”
I feel myself blush again as Sebastian describes me as a gorgeous creature. It’s silly really, he’s only being polite. A bit flirty sure, but nothing more.
Matt doesn’t seem to think the same thing. “Just stay away from Callie, Seb. I mean it.”
“She can speak for herself, you know. You don’t want me to stay away from you, do you Callie?” Seb asks.
I don’t even know how to answer that.
“Look now you’ve embarrassed her,” Seb replies to Matt. Then to me, “Please excuse my brother. His social skills are pretty bad. Don’t worry though, I’m available for weddings, christenings, Bar Mitzvahs. Anywhere you need someone charming really.”
“Do me a favor Seb and close the door on your way out,” Matt says.
“See what I mean? Appalling social skills.” Seb winks at me. He heads for the door laughing. He looks back over his shoulder. “Seriously Matt, we do need to talk, but it’s nothing that can’t wait until the morning. Have a good night you two. And Callie? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Not that that rules much out.”
With a final chuckle, the door closes and he’s gone.
“Sorry about that,” Matt says. “Seb’s a bit much.”
“He seems fun,” I say.
“That’s one word for it,” Matt agrees. He steps closer to me. “Now. Where were we?”
It would be easy to remind Matt exactly where we were, but Sebastian’s entrance has given me a chance to get my senses back, and to think logically about this. I sit down on the couch.
Matt seems to understand that we’re not going to jump right back in where we left off. He sits down beside me.
“I — I’m still a bit overwhelmed by all of this,” I say. “But I understand now. I’m still pissed that you didn’t tell me all of this sooner, but I get it. The thing is, I feel as though I don’t know you anymore. And as much as everything in me wants to pick up where we left off, I just — I can’t have sex with you tonight, Matt.”
“So I guess that leaves just one question. Are you willing to get to know me all over again and give us a chance?” he asks quietly.
That is the question isn’t it? But what choice do I have? It might not work with Matt and me. I might realize that this lifestyle, the money, everything that comes with it, is all too much for me. But I know I feel something for Matt. Something I’ve never felt for anyone. And if I walk away now without giving us a chance, I know I’ll always regret it. “Yes,” I say.
I see Matt’s shoulders sag with relief and he smiles at me.
It’s a shy smile that makes my heart soar. I think I’ve made the right decision. I hope I have.
Matt gets up and offers me his hand.
I take it, allowing him to pull me to my feet.
“Let’s take this into the bedroom,” he says.
“Matt I’m serious, I—”
He laughs and I stop talking when I realize he was joking.
“I’m just messing with you Callie. Come on. I want to show you something.”
I let him lead me across his apartment and back to the window. He moves along to the end of the room and reaches out for a subtle handle I hadn’t noticed. He pulls it and a panel of the glass moves to one side. I smile in delight as I step out onto a wide balcony. I move to stand with my elbows on the top of the glass barrier.
Matt stands beside me and points. “See that place there? The little restaurant?” he asks.
I look where he’s pointing. Down the road from the apartment block is a small restaurant with a canopy outside and a few tables. I nod.
“When I was sixteen, I got a girlfriend. I went to my dad and asked him how I could get a raise on my allowance so I could take her on dates and stuff. You know what he told me? He said if I wanted money, I would have to get a job. I spent every Saturday and Sunday afternoon and Tuesday and Wednesday evenings washing dishes in that place.”
“Really?” I ask. “It doesn’t look like one of your places.”
“It’s not… that was another one of my dad’s life lessons. He told me I had to find a job based on what I could do, not on what he could do for me.”
“He sounds very wise,” I say.
“Yeah. He taught me a lot about myself, about how the world works. About how anything worth having is ever easy to get, even if it looks that way from the outside. At the time, I thought he was awful. I couldn’t figure out how we could have all of this money, and I had to work for a couple of dollars an hour. But now, I’m glad he stood his ground and taught me the real value of earning rather than being given.”
I’m surprised once more to learn that maybe we’re not all that different. I learned those same lessons as a teenager. And maybe I learned them out of necessity, where Matt learned them simply because his father didn’t want him to grow up to be an entitled brat, but either way, we both knew what it was like to start at the bottom of the ladder. Maybe in some ways that was harder for Matt than me, because I knew I had
