She gazes at me for a moment in silence, then smiles. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but that’s actually very sweet.”
I feel myself bristle again, getting ready to smash something. “Is that a yes?”
Her sigh is exasperated. “Calm down, Hulk. It’s a no.” She mutters to herself, “A marriage proposal is hardly cause for ruining twenty grand worth of dental veneers.”
“He asked you to marry him?”
I know my tone was way too loud because an aggravated male voice says from one of the stalls, “Hey, pal, you mind keepin’ it down? I’m tryin’ to take a crap in peace over here.”
Maddie gapes at the closed stall door with that queasy look like she’s about to barf again, so I take her by the arm and lead her out of the john.
Once we’re in the hallway, I steer her to a quiet area behind a bunch of potted palms.
“Sorry about that.”
She says smartly, “Which part? Calling a meeting in a public restroom so our conversation can be eavesdropped on by a stranger emptying his bowels, or acting like a man proposing marriage to me makes about as much sense as that painting over the urinals?”
A flare of anger tightens my stomach. “Why do you always have to take things I say about you the negative way?”
“Why do you always have to have conversations near a row of toilets?”
“I don’t.”
“Neither do I.”
Standing a foot apart, we stare at each other, unblinking, breathing hard. She’s pissed off and so am I, but I can’t remember exactly what happened to get us this way, because there’s a voice inside my head screaming Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her! and it’s taking all my concentration to ignore it.
Eyes blazing, she says, “You know, before I met you, I hadn’t argued with anyone in fifteen years.”
“Doubtful. That tongue of yours is way too sharp to be outta practice.”
Her face flushes. Her eyes flash. Her mouth makes that angry, puckered shape, and holy fuck, I want to kiss this woman so bad I can taste it.
She says, “I’m going to walk away now.”
“Go ahead. No one’s stopping you.”
We keep staring at each other. Neither one of us blinks or moves.
“Am I fired?”
“No.”
More staring. I want to latch my mouth onto that pulse pounding in the side of her neck and suck on it, hard.
She says, “Okay, then.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Yeah.”
“Fine.”
“That’s what I just said.”
“I know.”
“Fantastic.”
“Yep.”
“Thought you were leaving, Pink.”
When she moistens her lips, I almost groan out loud.
There’s a moment, a long, breathless moment when I’m sure she’s gonna go up on her toes and kiss me. A crackle grows between us, a strong sense of pull. A gravitational, irresistible attraction, hot and elemental, like superheated magnets.
Like magic.
On instinct, I lean closer to her. My hands shake. My heart pounds so hard it hurts.
Then a concerned voice says, “Madison?” and the spell is broken.
We look over, and there he stands in all his baffled, over-groomed, robotic glory.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes, Bobby,” says Madison, blinking like she just woke up from a dream. “Um. Yes.” She slowly exhales. “We were just… I was just…”
“Talking to Mason.” His gaze sharpens. “Yes, I see. Hello, Mason. How are you?”
Bobby approaches us warily. Maddie jerks away from me like we’ve been caught plotting the overthrow of the government. I have to force myself to drop my hand to my side and not reach for her again.
“Swell. You?”
“Excellent, thank you.”
We size each other up while Maddie stands to the side, looking shell-shocked.
She wanted to kiss me. I know she did. I fucking know it.
What I don’t know is if that makes everything better, or so much worse.
Bobby asks pleasantly, “Are you here alone?”
“Having lunch with my agent.”
“Ah. That’s unfortunate. I would’ve invited you to join us.”
He smiles at me. We both know he’s lying.
Glancing at Maddie, he says, “Madison, why don’t you go back to the table? Your entrée has arrived. It’ll be getting cold.”
“Good idea. Bye, Mason.” She turns and flees.
Someone being chased by a tiger couldn’t run any faster.
When she’s gone, Bobby’s veneer of civility vanishes. With cold disdain, he says, “She’s too good to see what you are, but I see you loud and clear, friend.”
I actually appreciate this. At least when the gloves come off, we can talk man to man. I despise all that bullshit polite small talk required in normal social interactions.
“‘See you loud and clear’ doesn’t make any fucking sense, genius.”
His cheeks turn ruddy. “Pardon me, but I refuse to have a battle of the wits with an unarmed opponent.”
“Good one. How long you been waiting to use that in a conversation?”
“Just stay away from her,” he says more loudly.
“Tried that. It lasted exactly twenty-one hours.”
“Then try harder.”
I take a step toward him. My voice comes out deadly soft. “Or what?”
I see him fighting himself not to step back, and I almost feel sorry for him.
Almost.
Until he says, “You don’t deserve a woman like Madison.”
This fucking asshole.
“Agreed.”
He doesn’t know what to make of that. But it only takes him a second to dust himself off and get right back up on his high horse.
“Even if she had a momentary lapse of judgment and consorted with the likes of you, it would be temporary. She’d come to her senses and dump you back into the gutter where you belong. Your notoriety can’t hide the fact that you’re nothing but trash. You’re beneath her.”
The class card. I really love that one.
I heard a lot of it when I was growing up. It used to make me feel ashamed. Dirty, like I carried my poverty on my skin so everyone could see my ugly layer of grime.
Now it doesn’t make me feel ashamed so much as it makes me feel like breaking something.
Shaking with fury, I take another step toward him. This time he does take a step back. His eyes widen in fear.
I snarl, “The only reason you’re not lying in a pool of your own blood right now, you pretentious little prick, is because I know Maddie wouldn’t want me to hurt you. But let me tell you this: if you upset her again, if I find out if you’ve made her even a tiny bit miffed, I’ll make it my personal mission to fuck you up so bad you won’t ever be able to upset anyone about anything ever again.”
I walk away from him before I slam my fist into his nose and head out to find something else to slam it into.
19
Maddie
By the time Bobby returns to the table, my post-Mason nuclear glow has worn off, and I feel like lying down somewhere cool, quiet, and dark where I won’t be disturbed.