Текст книги "The Opportunist"
Автор книги: Tarryn Fisher
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He does this thing where he puts his tongue between his teeth. He looks at my mouth like he’s considering it. I almost keel over on the spot.
He moves his hands, resting one forearm on the tree above my head and wrapping the other around my waist.
We are face to face with our foreheads touching. My breath is coming fast, my chest heaving in anticipation. I am a cliché; butterflies, tingling and heat swirling through me in the strongest form of desire I have ever experienced.
I have two fistfuls of his shirt, and I clench tighter. "What are you waiting for?"
Game playing, red-head loving, malingering fool!
He narrows his eyes and I want to kiss the creases that appear at their corners. His voice is gruff and exposed when he speaks.
"If I kiss you, I'm not going to stop.”
I shut my eyes. It’s a threat, but a good one.
"I won't ask you to.” I whisper it against his lips.
The moment I feel his lips brush against mine I want to die. He nips at my bottom lip and pulls back. My hands leave his chest and wrap around his neck.
“You said no games.”
He smiles against my mouth. I am on my tiptoes, pressed against every warm inch of him. One soft kiss… two…another nip; his kisses are a lot like his personality. He’s lots of teasing; alternating between fast and slow, hard and soft. I am just getting accustomed to his rhythm when his tongue slides in my mouth. I make an embarrassing gasping noise. He smiles again, and it is so sexy I kiss him harder.
A few more feathery, light kisses and then he comes at me full force. Our mouths crush together like two angry thunder clouds. His hands move up my abdomen.
I begin to attack back because I am mad too. I kiss him for all the times I never got to kiss him, and for the times he’s been kissing Leah instead of me. I kiss him because I ruined everything and I could have had this every day. He breaks to kiss the sensitive spot at the nape of my neck.
“Olivia,” he says into my ear. I shudder at the tone of his voice. When his voice drops low like that, I know he means business. We are both breathing hard.
“Do you love me?”
I freeze. A chill runs up my spine.
He grabs my chin, and pivots it up.
I know if I don’t answer him, he will walk away. I want so much to be honest with him; to tell him how long I’ve loved him, and why I love him-but all I can manage is a weak, “Yes,” in a whisper.
“Say it,” Caleb says.
I grit my teeth.
He shakes me. “Say it.”
How does he know it’s there to say?
“I love you,” I shout at him. He looks like I’ve just slapped him. Now I’m fucking mad.
I reach for his waist and pop the button on his jeans. He wasn’t expecting that.
He is frozen. His body tense. I kiss him and try to melt away his resistance. It works and he comes at me like a flood. He breaks away from my lips to peel off his shirt and then he comes back so quickly I barely have time to breathe.
Tentatively, I reach my hands up to touch him. His muscles tense under my fingertips. He’s so beautiful; broad shoulders, narrow waist. I pull my hands away, unsure of myself. Caleb grabs my wrist bringing my hands back to his skin. He is expert and I am novice; it is very clear to both of us. He paces me, controlling the moment. Slipping my shirt over my head, he kisses my shoulders, unclasps my bra. I step out of my pants.
He pulls back.
Then, he looks at me. I am mortified, it is a savage and masculine moment and I let him have it because I never did before. I feel like I am on display for the world. I have never let anyone see me naked.
When he has taken his fill, he pulls me towards him.
“God, Olivia,” he says into my neck. I am burning red. I don’t know what his words mean. I pull back to look at his face. His eyes have shifted. They are not calm and laughing anymore. I can see urgency and lust. I am so afraid of this moment.
He scoops me off my feet in one graceful movement and I feel the cool grass prickle beneath my back. I can smell orange blossoms on the air. I curl around him, waiting.
He takes his time easing into me. Our eyes are locked; mine grow wider with every inch. I didn’t know it would feel like this. I want to moan. I want to dig my nails in his back and wrap my legs around him, but I am too proud to do any of these things. He watches my face in fascination. He’s looking for a reaction, but my reaction is all on the inside where he can’t see it…where I am hiding it.
He moves out, then in. He sucks on my lower lip. He laughs into my mouth. I pull my head back to look at him.
“You’re that kind of girl.”
I don’t know what he means. I’m not sure if I care—it feels so good.
He grabs my wrists, pins them above my head.
“Relax your legs.”
For the first time in my life I do what I’m told. All of a sudden it feels even better. I press my lips together and roll my head to the side to hide my face from him. He runs his teeth along my earlobe and goose bumps skitter across my body. “Look at me.” His voice is raspy. I look at him. He moves harder. My breath hitches. Harder… and I’m breathing like I’ve just run a marathon.
“You feel so good.”
That does me in. Something like a moan gets lost on his collarbone as I press my face against his chest. When I look up he has a Eureka look on his face. “That’s how I make you moan?”
After that he says really dirty things in my ear. He’s found my weakness. I make noises I will regret until the day I die.
I feel myself climbing, but I don’t want it to be the end. He is in complete and utter control of my mind and body. I don’t like the feeling of not being in control. When he bends his head to my shoulder, I take the opportunity to flip myself on top of him. He lets me steer our movements for a few minutes before taking control of my hips. Two can play at this game. I lean down to say something into his ear.
“Harder Caleb… and don’t pull out…” His eyes close and his fingers dig into my thighs. I feel a slight victory until he flips me onto my back.
“I wasn’t planning on it.” My orgasm punctuates his sentence.
I do not make a sound.
We don’t speak on the drive home. Caleb helps me clean the mess in my apartment. We fill ten giant trash bags with the leftovers of what used to be my life, scooping broken plates, and glasses into one and the shreds of my clothes into another.
We work in silence with the radio playing softly in the background. I keep pausing in the middle of what I am doing to think about what happened in the orange grove.
I taste salty tears on my lips when I lift my Thomas Barbey print from its cracked frame. It is just a print but still it is mine and I loved it. Before I can crumple it up, Caleb rescues it from my hands, and s it to the side.
“We can fix that one,” he says running a finger along my jaw.
When I find my grandmother’s antique porcelain figurine lying in shards on the floor, I lock myself in the bathroom to cry. Caleb sensing the importance of the hand painted shepardess leaves me be, and discreetly disposes of everything aside from her face, which miraculously stayed intact. I find it later, wrapped in tissue paper and tucked in a box of barely salvaged items he thinks I would want to keep. When everything that used to be mine sits in ten garbage bags by the front door, Caleb hugs me and leaves. I lean against the window overlooking the parking lot and watch him walk to his car. I feel a loneliness so violent my lungs feel like they are closing. I place both of my palms on my temples and squeeze. I can’t do this. I can’t lie anymore. He is too good. He doesn’t deserve the wickedness I deliver and he deserves to hear the truth from me, not Leah. I run for the door and rip it open. “Caleb wait!”
He is almost to his car when he stops and turns around.
I run to him, not caring that all I am wearing is an old football jersey and fling myself around him.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a horrible person,” I say pressing my face against his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” he grabs my chin lifting my face to look at him. “You’re a good person.”
“No, no I’m not,” I shake my head violently from side to side. “I’m desperately wicked.” He smiles at me rubbing my back like I am a child. Then he bends down and I felt his lips on my neck. He kisses me lightly, intimately.
“Why do you keep saying that about yourself,” he laughs softly. “I like you a lot, Desperately Wicked.” His feet start moving in tune to some silent song and I fall into step with him. I am conscious of the air on my bare legs, on the warmth of his hands on my back and laced through my fingers.
“That is all I care about Olivia.”
“You’ll change your mind,” I tell him. “When you…realize who I am.”
“I already know who you are.”
I shake my head the inevitable tears brimming beneath my lids.
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know everything I need to know. Be quiet.”
So I shut my mouth-shut it tight and bit back my confession….again. I can feel the truth pressing hard against time. But, right now he is humming Yellow and we are dancing under the sky, tangled together for the last time. Let Leah tell him. I will remain the coward.
Later that night I am in my robe, towel drying my hair when I hear a sharp rapping on my door.
I toss my towel aside, and fling the door wide, expecting to see Caleb.
“Hello Olivia.”
Leah.
She is smiling casually at me like we are old friends.
“What the hell?” I say this more to myself than her, but she looks amused anyway. I stand aside to let her in.
She fidgets with her hair, winding a strand of it around one of her milky, white fingers. She strolls in casually and surveys the room.
“You cleaned up.”
I raise my eyebrows, bored. If she was coming for a fight—I wasn’t interested.
“Well?” I say, “What do you want?”
“Oh, I’m here to make a deal with you,” she looks at me expectantly, narrowing her nut shaped eyes.
She stinks of expensive perfume and new clothes. I watch as she perches lightly on the arm of my sofa as if she’s too good to actually sit on it.
She looks like a china figurine in a thrift shop. I walk to where she is and face her.
“Say what you came to say and get out,” I demand.
She clears her throat, a delicate chirping noise, and folds her hands in her lap.
“I’m sure you are aware by now that certain incriminating things have come into my possession.”
“I am aware that you stole my pictures and letters, yes,” I manage.
“It was clever—what you pulled on Caleb,” she pulls a monogrammed cigarette box out of her purse and flips open the lid. “He told me you were manipulative when we first started dating. But wow!”
She taps a cigarette into her palm and runs her thumb along the wheel of her lighter. I remember Jim doing the same thing. I have lost my fascination with the process.
“You’re like a bad cold, Olivia that just won’t go away. But, you are going to go away and you‘re going to leave my fiancée and I alone.”
“He’s no more your fiancé than he is mine,” I snip. “In fact, as far as I know, there is an engagement ring sitting in his sock drawer that he never plans on putting on your finger.” I watch in satisfaction as the color drains from her face.
“If there hadn’t been an accident, if you hadn’t shown up, I would be wearing that ring right now. Do you know why? Because he chose me. He dumped you and moved on to me. You are just his little distraction. You mean nothing to the real Caleb.” She is panting, her eyes on fire like her stupid hair.
I feel gunpowder ignite in my veins. She didn’t know anything about Caleb. I was the one he fell in love with first. I was the one who hurt him most. I was tied to him by broken hearts and tears and regret, and by God, it was more of a bond than she was ever going to have with him.
“If you see me as so inconsequential, then why are you here?”
She thinks about it.
“I’m here to offer you an escape.” I watch her scarlet lips suspiciously, as they curl around the cigarette.
“I’m listening.”
“If Caleb finds out how you’ve taken advantage of him…well, I’m sure you know what will happen,” she taps her ash onto my scarred coffee table. “If you stop seeing him—if you disappear, I won’t tell.”
“You won’t tell?” I mock her kindergartener choice of words and roll my eyes. “He’s going to know what I did when his memory comes back. What difference will it make to me if you tell him now or he finds out later?”
“You get to walk away by choice. Keep some semblance of integrity. Think about it darling, you’re going to be humiliated when he discovers your little lie. There will be a confrontation, tears, and hurt that will take a long, long time to heal. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t give a damn about you—it’s Caleb that I want to protect.”
“Somehow, I find it hard to believe that your sole concern, in this matter, is Caleb,” I say blandly. She stands up dropping the butt of her Charleston onto my carpet and stubbing it out with her toe.
“You’re the selfish bitch Olivia. Let’s not confuse things here. I would never do what you have done. Never!” Her words sting me with their truth. Even this disease of a woman would never have deceived the person who she loved. I am so horrified by her words, that I take a threatening step towards her.
“When I met him, he was still dealing with the hurt you caused,” she points a finger at me.
“It took me a year to make him see that you weren’t worth it. A year,” she hisses. “You are nothing but white trash and I will not let you near him again! Do you understand me?”
I did. Maybe if I’d fought for him like she was doing, we’d still be together.
I sigh. If I refuse her offer, she would go right to him with her proof. Sure, I could bring up the wrecked apartment and the blackmail but even weighing her crime against mine left me in a bad place. I was diarrhea and she was merely a bad case of indigestion. And what about Caleb? He would surely cut Leah off if he knew her part but that would leave him hurt and alone. What type of monster would I be to let him hurt—again? Especially, just so I could spite Leah? If I disappeared, he would eventually forget about me. He had once before.
I concede.
“Fine. Get out.” I walk to my door and open it without looking at her. I want her gone, out of my home, and out of my life. There was no person I hated more, other than myself. She pauses on her way out and looks me in the eye—bitch to bitch.
“I always win.” She tosses an envelope at my feet and walks away. I slam the door and then kick it. I pace my apartment yelling every swear word I can think of.
It is time for me to forget. My heart feels like it is going to explode from the pain. I slide down the wall and pull my knees to my chest. I have to get out of here, out of this place that is saturated with Caleb. That’s it! I decide. I am leaving and I’m never coming back.
Chapter Thirteen
The Past
I was introduced to the viper Caleb called “mum” on the first day of September, just a couple of months past our one year anniversary. We pulled up to the two story colonial around four o’ clock. I immediately started ringing my hands. Caleb parked next to a large fountain that was spitting water rudely in my direction. I looked away feeling snubbed already.
“It’s just a statue, Duchess,” he said smiling at my expression. “She doesn’t bite. I’ve done several drunken dives into that fountain, I should know.”
I smiled weakly and took the long way around the car to avoid looking at it.
Caleb took me firmly by the elbow as we approached the door. I had the distinct feeling that he thought I was going to run. I wanted to.
As the door swung open, I was given a brief glimpse of what his mother thought of meeting me. She was caught off guard, perhaps we arrived a minute earlier than she expected. Her face was set in a hard scowl as she faced her husband, as if they had just exchanged bitter words. I saw him look at her in disapproval and I knew—a gut feeling that it had been about me. Seconds passed, the air argument was swept under the rug and they were both smiling at us, welcoming me into their home. I stood to the side like a forgotten accessory as Caleb embraced his mother, kissing her on the cheek. She was evaluating me even as she stroked his hair and marveled out loud about how handsome he was. I could taste her dislike in the way her eyes darted to my hair and back to my face as she waited politely for her beloved son to introduce us. At last, Caleb gave his stepfather a slap on the back, man to man affection, and turned toward me.
“This is Olivia,” I heard him say and I smiled timidly stepping out from behind his broad shoulders.
Mother Dearest eyed me like I was a rotting carcass and stepped forward to take my hand. I was annoyed by her immediate dislike of me. I wanted her approval. I wanted it like I wanted him.
“Caleb, you’ve found yourself the prettiest girl in Florida,” his stepfather said, winking at me. I relaxed.
“It’s very nice to finally meet you,” his mother nodded tightly.
I saw Caleb look from me to his mother and I inwardly cringed. He knew. I looked down at my cheap shoes in shame. I had bought them especially for this occasion. I wished I was better at hiding things from him. I wished I had bought a more expensive pair of kickers.
“Dinner is just about ready; shall we move to the dining room?” She motioned for us to follow her with a light flick of her wrist. The walk to the dining room was torturous. I felt like an outcast following at the back of the line. Mother and son trotted in front of me, their arms clasped intimately as she giggled at everything he said. Caleb’s stepfather had disappeared right after dinner was announced only to reappear once we were seated at the table. I wondered bitterly if they would even notice if I disappeared.
I sat rigidly in my chair as his stepfather asked me polite questions about my studies and his mother sized me up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Luca, as everyone called her, was five feet even, with long blonde hair and startling blue eyes. She looked more like Caleb’s older sister than his mother and I suspected that there was a team of plastic surgeons somewhere to thank for that. She was beautiful, well-bred and opinionated and I am sure her opinion would be that I was not good enough for her Caleb.
“What do your parents do, Olivia?” she asked me, taking a delicate bite of her lamb.
I had never eaten lamb and was trying to smear a blob of the brightly colored mint jelly onto a chunk of it.
“My parents are both dead,” I said. The next question was the one I always dreaded answering.
“Oh, I’m very sorry to hear that. May I inquire as to how they passed?” I looked at her pearls and her cream colored pantsuit and I wanted to say ‘no you may not’ in that same haughty tone she was using with me. Instead, I bit my tongue, for Caleb’s sake.
“My father committed suicide when I was thirteen and my mother died of pancreatic cancer during my senior year of high school. When they were alive, my mom taught fifth grade, and my dad just kind of hopped from one job to another.”
She looked unruffled but I saw a slight tensing of her hand as it clutched the stem of her wine glass. I was no good riff-raff. A stain on her high society living. She would be mortified if I became her daughter-in-law.
“How did you manage?” she looked genuine this time, sweet even, and I saw what Caleb saw—a good mother.
“You’ll be surprised what someone is able to handle given no other choice.” Caleb squeezed my hand under the table.
“That must have been very difficult for you,” she said.
“It was.” I bit my lip because now I wanted to cry. I responded to sweetness like a fucking fruit fly and now she’d managed to disarm me.
“Caleb, love,” she said in that same honeyed tone. “Did you make any decisions about London?”
London? I looked at his face. He was holding his breath, his eyes amber intensity.
“No. We’ve already discussed this.”
“Oh, well you best hurry up, an opportunity like that won’t be around forever. Besides, I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t go,” she pointedly shot a glance in my direction.
“London?” I said quietly. I saw her raise an eyebrow out of the corner of my eye. Gloating.
“It’s nothing, Olivia,” he smiled weakly, and I knew it absolutely was ‘something’.
“Caleb was offered a job in London,” Luca said, folding her hands beneath her chin, “by a very prestigious firm. And of course he still considers London his home because all of his friends are there and most of his extended family as well. We are very supportive of his making the move.”
My mind went blank. I felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water over my head.
“I don’t want to go,” he looked at me now—only me. I searched his face, trying to decide if he was being sincere. “Maybe if you had already graduated, you could go with me. It would be a possibility. But, as long as you are here, that’s where I am going to be.”
I froze. He had just thwarted his mother in front of me and made it known that I was his number one priority. If there was an altar of Caleb, I would have gladly worshiped there.
“Caleb, you can not be serious,” his mother’s face twitched as her good breeding fought against her outrage.
“You barely know her. I hardly think that you should make a decision based on some fling.”
“That’s enough,” he said it calmly, but it was easy to see that he was ruffled.
Caleb tossed his napkin into the plate in front of him and pushed back his chair. “Do you really think that if Olivia was just a fling I would have brought her here to meet you?”
“Well, she‘s certainly not the first girl you‘ve brought home. You were very serious about Jessica and—”
“Luca,” this warning came from his stepfather, who until now had been observing the whole exchange in silence. “This is none of your business.”
“My son is most certainly my business,” she spat, lifting her small frame from the table, “I refuse to watch him throw his life away for an opportunity hungry…”
“Let’s go, Olivia.” Caleb grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the table. I was holding a mouthful of half chewed potato in my cheek. I swallowed it abruptly and looked at Caleb in growing confusion. Was he really walking out in the middle of supper because of me? Should I do something?
“I have never spoken harshly to you before and I’m not going to start today,” he said to her calmly, though by the rigid set of his shoulders and the firm grip he had on my hand, I knew his calmness was a farce. Caleb’s anger boiled beneath the surface like hot lava and when it erupted, there was no getting away. “If you don’t accept Olivia, then you don’t accept me.” And then he walked me out of the room so quickly I barely had a chance to digest what had just happened.
“Caleb?” I said when we were in the driveway. He stopped walking and I almost toppled over as I was pulled to a skidding halt. Before I could say anything else, he spun me around like we were dancing and pulled me against his chest.
“I’m sorry, Duchess,” he said kissing me softly on the lips. Both of his hands were on my face and his eyes were locked with mine in such intensity I wanted to cry.
“What are you sorry for?” I whispered, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him again.
“For that,” he said beckoning to the house with a nod of his head. “I was expecting her to give you a hard time, but nothing like that. Her behavior was inexcusable. I’m so ashamed I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. She’s your mother and she wants the best for you. I would probably be suspicious of me, too.”
“You are my family now,” he said earnestly, “and if they can’t accept that then to hell with them.”
He hugged me tightly and led me to the car. I followed him mute and trembling. No one had ever done anything as tangible to let me know that they loved me. Caleb’s family meant the world to him and he had just chosen me over them. I clung to his hand in the car on the ride home and tried to make sense of things.
When we arrived back at the dorms he came around the car to open the door for me. We walked toward my building, neither of us saying a word when Caleb suddenly stopped.
“Will you dance with me?” he said holding out his hand. My first instinct was to look around to see who was watching us.
“No, don’t do that,” he said, “just for once, don’t care.”
I took an unsteady step toward him. Could I do that?
His hand was warm and it swallowed mine. He put the other one on my lower back and pulled me close to him. I could hear voices. There were people around and they were going to see us. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
“Be brave,” he said smiling at me. “Open your eyes.”
I did. His feet started moving and I automatically followed him. He was a smooth dancer.
“There’s no music,” I was trying to see who was watching us out of the corner of my eye.
He started humming. I closed my eyes again but this time out of pleasure. His voice was decadent.
He was humming Yellow.
“This is where we first met,” he said nuzzling my neck. “It’s where the trouble all started.”
He was teasing but to me his words held so true.
“Why did you do that?” I asked with my eyes still closed. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Because I love you. She’ll come to her senses, I know her.”
“You’re a good guy, Caleb Drake.”
“A man is only as good as what he loves most, right?” I flinched. Hopefully, that wasn’t true. I was about as rotten as a month old egg.
“Your mom is so beautiful,” I said into his shoulder.
He laughed and grabbed a handful of my hair, pulling my head back until I was looking him in the eyes.
“You are going to destroy me, you know that?’
I knew.
After he kissed me goodnight, I wandered back to my room and collapsed into Cammie’s beanbag chair.
It was all too good to be true. Nothing good ever lasted. Our time was running out. I could feel it. There was only so long before he discovered who I really was and wanted nothing to do with me. He was light and I was darkness.
“Olivia, what’s wrong?” Cammie asked, emerging from the bathroom in a cloud of steam.
“I’m going to lose him Cam,” I said hiding my face in my hands.
“No, no,” she said quickly coming to kneel besides me, “he loves you too much. Everyone can see that.”
“Oh—screw love,” I said, more to myself than her. “It doesn’t always survive the bad things.”
“What bad things, Oy, you’re being dramatic,” she pulled up another beanie and sat down in front of me. “What have you done?”
“Cammie,” I said looking at her in horror. “Really, really bad things. And the worst part is—I don’t know if I’ll ever stop.”
Cammie looked at me with sympathy. “You are not as bad as you think. Whatever you’ve done, Caleb will still love you. You have to let him love you Olivia and more importantly you have to love him back.”
Six months later, I moved out of the dorms and into my own apartment. I had one semester of school left and I was eager to see it over. Caleb and I had gingerly started talking about getting an apartment together when I graduated. He had spent the last six months working for his stepfather and I was seeing him less and less.
We decided to take a short trip together. Somewhere close where we could lie in the sun and do nothing but nothing. We settled on Daytona Beach and made plans for him to pick me up after he was done with work. I was packed and ready after my last class. My overnight bag was at my feet and my hands clasped nervously in my lap. I wanted this weekend to be perfect. I had made my first visit to Victoria’s Secret and picked out something I thought he would like. Tonight was the night. We had been together for a year and a half. Cammie had wailed in excitement when I told her.
“Finally, you stupid cow,” she said handing me a supersized box of condoms. “Do you know how everything works? Because I can walk you through the basics.”
“If I wanted advice from a slut, I’d call a nine hundred number,” I said, snatching the box from her. She’d laughed and doled it out anyway.
Caleb’s knock never came. I tried calling his cell, which went straight to voice mail. Caleb was never late; he arrived everywhere he went at least ten minutes early. I tried to curb the thoughts of him being in an accident; however, eventually my worry got the best of me. I called the hospital but they informed me that no one by my description had been admitted that night. I thought about calling his parents, but considering how my last meeting with them went, I couldn’t get myself to dial the number. I re-cradled the phone and bit my nails instead. There was only one other option. He was still at work and had lost track of time. That had been happening a lot lately anyway, his job was so demanding he sometimes forgot the time we were supposed to meet somewhere or that it was our year and a half anniversary and we were supposed to buy each other garden gnomes in celebration. I wasn’t mad. I was okay with it. I would just drop by the office to remind him. Yes. I grabbed the keys and sprinted down the stairs.
The office building that housed Fossy Financial was located in the sugar district of Ft. Lauderdale, two blocks past the Bonjour Bakery where Sylvester Stallone bought his croissants at seven bucks a pop.
The building that housed Fossy was also home to numerous other services that only the wealthy could afford, so naturally there was a guard. He peered at me through swollen eyes that suggested too much liquor the night before and issued a grunt.
“Buildings closed for the evening,” he shot at me in an irritated voice.
“So why, are the doors open?” I cheeked, eyeing the few people milling around in the lobby. They were all swathed in buttery colored silks and custom made tuxedos. The whole scene screamed ‘Behold the Wealthy’ in the most obnoxious of ways.
“There’s a party on the fifth floor—a private party,” he emphasized. “The doors are closed to all customers.”
The fifth floor was Caleb’s floor. I realized this with a sinking feeling in my stomach. He never mentioned a party to me. True, he had an especially busy week at work but how does one forget something like that?
“Well, I just happen to be attending the Fossy party,” I said using my best snooty voice.
