by Tina Folsom
But aside from that, Ari loved Lisa’s bubbly personality.
“Sorry, I forgot my key this morning,” Lisa greeted her. “It’s gonna be a busy day. I’m so glad you’re on time. We’ve got the Dry Creek shipment coming in today.”
Ari pulled her key out of her handbag and unlocked. “Morning, Lisa. What happened? You’re normally not forgetful.”
Lisa followed her into the shop, and Ari flipped the lights on.
“I was out last night and had my keys in my other handbag.”
Ari’s wine shop wasn’t big, but it stocked a nice selection of domestic and international wines, and she prided herself on good customer service. After purchasing the lease from the old couple who’d run the shop for over thirty years, she’d made a lot of changes to it.
Besides the wooden racks along the walls, there was a small tasting corner with a wet bar. The dark granite counter top had been her idea, because she wanted to avoid wine stains from showing up. They were unavoidable, but on the dark stone they barely showed. She also used the corner for occasional wine appreciation classes, an idea she had to thank Lisa for. The free classes brought new customers into the store who were otherwise too intimidated to ask about wines. By offering to teach them about wine, she’d gained many new loyal customers.
“Do we need bread and cheese?” Lisa asked.
“I used up the last of the bread yesterday. But check in the storage room to see if there’s any cheese left.”
While Lisa went in the back, where a room as large as the sales area was stocked full with cases of wine and other supplies, Ari booted up the computer and logged into the sales program: another upgrade she’d brought to the shop. The new computer program didn’t simply ring up purchases and process credit card receipts, it was also tied into her inventory system and kept track of what bottles she had left. It cut down tremendously on the time she had to spend on re-ordering.
“Lisa,” she called out toward the open storage room door.
“Yeah?”
“What time are you expecting the Dry Creek shipment?”
“Between eleven and one.” Lisa reappeared from the back. “And we’re out of cheese too. Do you want me to stock up now before it gets busy?”
Ari nodded. “Yes, and also get some crackers and—” The ring of the phone interrupted her. She reached for the receiver and brought it to her ear. “—and bottled water,” she continued her instruction to Lisa. “In Vino Veritas,” she answered the phone with a smile. “How may I help you?” The new name for the shop had been entirely her idea. And every time she answered the phone and announced the name, she felt her chest swell with pride. This was her baby, something she’d achieved all on her own.
“So, what happened?” Natalie chirped on the other end of the line without as much as a greeting. “Tell me everything.”
Ari rolled her eyes. “Hold on a sec.” She put the phone to the side and opened the till. “Lisa, you’ll need some money.” She fished two twenties out of the drawer and handed them to her.
As soon as Lisa closed the shop door behind her, Ari picked up the phone again. “Morning, Natalie.”
“Yes, yes, good morning. So, tell me what happened.” Clearly her friend wasn’t up for useless pleasantries this morning when there were juicy details to be had.
Ari couldn’t help but grin. “We went out. He took me to this little restaurant with—”
“Don’t give me this,” Natalie warned. “You know exactly what I want to know. Did you guys do it?”
She took in a deep breath and could have sworn she could still scent Dio’s aftershave around her. “It was very nice.”
“Very nice? Very nice? That’s all you’re giving me? I’m your best friend! Your only friend if I may add! Oh, girl, you’re so getting a tongue-lashing from me if you’re not coughing up the goods right now!”
“Okay, okay,” Ari capitulated. The reminder that Natalie was her only true friend always worked. “It was amazing. We went back to my place, and he just ... he was so ...”
“Amazing?” Natalie helped, a grin evident in her voice. “Details, Ari, details!”
She eyed the door, secretly hoping for the first customers to arrive so she would have a legitimate reason to cut the conversation short, but nobody entered the store. All she could do was stall. “He’s really ripped, you know.” That was a safe enough admission, and it didn’t give too much away. And wow, had he looked good naked. Dio had a seriously gorgeous body. Even now the mere thought of running her fingertips along his bare skin sent shudders through her core.
“You mean like a six-pack?”
Ari suppressed her chuckle, glad that her diversion tactic seemed to work. “Almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his young days. But way less pretentious.”
Natalie’s laugh echoed through the phone. “He’d better be less pretentious.” She paused for a moment. “And more faithful!”
Ari felt a sense of warmth flood her. The way Dio had looked at her last night, she just knew that he would be true to her. There’d been so much desire and affection in his gaze, she couldn’t possibly be wrong. “I’m sure he is.”
“Did he stay the whole night?” Natalie’s next question came as though fired from a gun. “Because if he stayed the night, that’s a good sign.”
“You know, I’m not sure. I fell asleep so quickly. But I’m pretty sure he stayed the night.” Had he? Or had he left once she’d been asleep?
“What do you mean, you’re pretty sure? Did he wake up with you or didn’t he?”
Ari swallowed away her rising doubts. “He was gone by the time I woke up, but then,” she added hastily, defensiveness creeping into her tone, “I overslept, and he probably had to get to work too, so you can’t blame him for leaving early.”
“Uh-huh.”
Annoyance spread in her belly. “What?”
“So, let me get this straight: you’re not sure he spent the night because he was gone by the time you woke up. Did you guys at least cuddle afterwards?”
Ari hesitated. She remembered saying a few words to him, but after that, things went blank. “Uh ... well ...”
“So, that’s a no then. That kind of answers my next question. He didn’t say the ‘L’ word, did he?”
Ari felt heat rise into her cheeks. She hated it when Natalie drilled down to the essentials so quickly and dug up stuff Ari felt uncomfortable about. “Guys don’t say that immediately. You know that as well as I do!”
“Okay, I grant you that.” Yet that admission didn’t shut her friend up. “Has he called you yet?”
“It’s nine thirty in the morning! Of course, he hasn’t called me yet. Don’t you think that would be a little desperate?” Actually, if Dio called now, she’d find it very sweet. More than that, she’d find it utterly endearing.
“Desperate, schmesperate,” Natalie said. “It would be the right thing to do. After all, you guys had sex last night. The least he could do is leave you a note on the pillow or call you first thing in the morning. Just saying.”
There had been no note, at least Ari hadn’t seen any. And she had searched for it. Just on the off chance that he had left her a little message. Maybe he’d been in too much of a hurry to get to work.
“I’m sure he’ll call later this afternoon.”
“He’d better.”
“Listen, I’ve gotta go. We’ve got a big shipment coming in, and I still have to make space in the storeroom.”
“Okay, but call me as soon as you hear from him.”
“Sure.” Ari put the phone down and smoothed back her hair. Fifteen minutes ago, she’d felt like walking on Cloud Nine, and now she had doubts. She felt like a sixteen-year-old school girl wondering if the high school quarterback would ask her out again. With an impatient gesture, she tried to rid herself of the stupid thought. Of course, Dio would call. They’d made love last night, and she’d seen the sincerity in his eyes. There was nothing to worry about.
Chapter Five
&n
bsp; Ariadne let out a deep breath when she inspected her answering machine. Dio hadn’t called all day, not at the store, not on her cell phone and not at home. A quick sweep of the apartment confirmed that she hadn’t overlooked any note from him either.
There was no word from him.
The doubts that had started bubbling up after her conversation with Natalie now nagged even more. Uneasiness skidded over her skin, making goose bumps appear despite the sweltering heat. She couldn’t just sit around and wait for him to contact her. It felt too pathetic. No, she had to do something. Maybe there was a perfectly good reason why he hadn’t called.
Determined not to let this get her down, Ari turned back to the entrance door of her apartment and left. She could simply go to the few bars that she knew were Dio’s favorite hangouts and see whether he was there. It would be innocent enough. Calling his cell would be too desperate. Besides, a couple of those bars were her customers, and she could pretend to stop by to inform them of the new delivery she’d received.
Excuse in hand, she stalked outside. At the first bar, there was no sign of Dio, and according to the bartender, he hadn’t been in all day. Maybe she should find it odd that many of the bartenders in the city knew him, but for a wine connoisseur like Dio to frequent the bars with the best wine was probably normal.
It was one of the things that had first made her notice him when he’d entered her shop: his knowledge about wine was extensive, yet he was entirely unpretentious about it. They’d talked about the various grapes and their pros and cons, and about the different winemaking methods. But she would be lying if she said that his knowledge about wine had attracted her to him. No, it had been his eyes, the way they sparkled blue like the morning sky. But there was more to him that just his eyes.
Dio had a presence, an aura that spoke of power and strength, of determination and decisiveness. He knew what he wanted, and whenever he looked at her, she knew he wanted her. It was the most powerful turn-on she’d ever felt.
Ariadne walked into the Vat Bar where the Happy Hour mob was crowding around the bar. The background music was low, making this place a little easier on the ears than the first bar she’d been to. As she scanned the room with its high tables and barstools and its booths, which lined the outside walls, her heart almost stopped when she saw Dio leaning against one of the tables, drinking from a glass and talking to two girls sitting on the bar stools.
At the table right behind them, she recognized two middle aged guys conversing over their wine as two of her regular customers. With slightly shaking knees, Ari walked toward Dio, her heart pounding in her chest like a locomotive thundering down a steep mountain. Maybe the two girls were old friends of his, or maybe he worked with them and they were just out for a friendly drink after work.
The fact that the girls laughed at something Dio said didn’t have to mean that he was flirting with them. Maybe he’d just told them a joke. It could all be very innocent. But the closer she stepped, the more her throat constricted with the knowledge that something wasn’t right.
Why hadn’t he called? Why would he instead be in a bar, drinking with two entirely too pretty girls who were probably ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter than she? She glanced at their fresh faces. Were they even old enough to drink?
When Ari was only a couple of feet away from the table, Dio turned his head and stared straight at her. His eyes went wide, and his jaw seemed to stiffen, the laughter instantly wiped off his face. He made no motion to embrace or kiss her.
Ari felt a cold chill creep up her spine as their gazes locked. A cold clamminess spread on her palms.
“Oh, hi. I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said no more warmly than if they were mere acquaintances.
Ari swallowed away the lump in her throat. “You didn’t call.”
His gaze skidded away. “I didn’t say I would.” Dio took a large sip from his glass.
“I ... uh ... Do you think we could talk in private?”
His eyebrows pulled together. “Hmm, listen, Ariadne … maybe …” His words faltered, nervousness disturbing his usual suave attitude. She’d never seen him so uneasy.
“If this is not a good time,” she started. “Maybe you want to come by my place later ...”
He cleared his throat. “I wasn’t planning on … I can’t. Really, I just can’t.” He pressed his lips together.
Ari stared at him, noticing how his face was suddenly a mask of ice, his eyes mimicking the cold blue of a frozen lake. She tore her gaze away and looked past him, catching the looks of her two customers who were clearly listening in on their conversation.
“But, last night ...” Her voice trailed off. How could she explain to him what she really wanted to say? That she believed that they had something special and that she wanted to be alone with him? This wasn’t the right place to discuss things like that, things so private and intimate.
“Last night was great. But, it’s not … It won’t go anywhere.” His brutal words felt like a slap in the face.
Disbelief careened through her. How could he be the same man as last night? The man facing her now was nothing like the tender lover who’d made her scream with pleasure and gazed at her like he loved her. Had she misread him so completely? How could she have been so wrong?
The room suddenly seemed to spin as if she’d stepped onto a carrousel. Her eyes flitted away from him toward the table behind him where her customers had risen from their chairs. She spun her head toward the door, her gaze briefly locking onto the bar and the person behind it. Gabrielle, the owner was watching her, but Ari barely recognized her, the tears forming in her eyes making her vision swim.
When Gabrielle moved out from behind the bar, Ari took a few tentative steps and would have fallen, had Gabrielle not reached for her in time.
“Let’s go to my office. I think you need to sit down.” She allowed herself to be pulled toward the door that said ‘Private’, intent on escaping Dio’s presence before she broke down completely.
***
Dio had never felt this low. But he hadn’t been prepared to face Ariadne. He’d felt like shit ever since he’d hightailed it out of her bed the night before. Again, he’d taken the easy way out and dismissed her because he was a coward who couldn’t admit that maybe, just maybe, there could be something between them. Because the thought that he was capable of emotions deeper than the superficial feelings he doled out to everybody scared him shitless. And why? Because he didn’t want to be at the mercy of his feelings. He’d seen his mother Semele pine for Zeus after he’d lost interest in her, and the heartache he’d felt rolling off her had pained him. He didn’t want to love a woman the way his mother had loved his father—an emotion that had not been reciprocated.
Mortals believed in the rumor that Semele had died after seeing Zeus in his godly form. It was far from the truth, but maybe it would have been better that way, rather than watching her waste away because of unrequited love.
His mother had been miserable for years, hoping against all hope that Zeus would come back. But his jerk of a father had already moved on many times.
What if Dio was just like him? What if he wasn’t capable of love? Just like his father wasn’t. Wouldn’t that mean that the woman who fell for him was doomed to a broken heart? And while Dio had never much cared whether he broke a heart or two, for some reason, he couldn’t stomach the thought of that heart belonging to Ariadne.
It was better if he finished things now, when they’d barely begun. Ari couldn’t possibly be in love with him yet, and would get over him in a heartbeat. And the infatuation he had with her? He was sure it was only temporary and nothing to worry about. A few glasses of wine and some flirting with some willing mortals would hasten its disappearance along.
Dio trained his gaze back onto the two girls he’d been talking to but couldn’t get his spirit back. He didn’t want to flirt with the two silly girls who had dirt for brains and were ogling him like he was their next meal ticket. Had they not und
erstood anything from his conversation with Ari? Had they still not realized what a cad he was? That he couldn’t be trusted?
“Excuse me,” he said and turned away.
His eyes scanned the bar, but Ariadne was gone. He should try to talk to her and explain his reasoning. She was a smart woman. She would understand why they couldn’t continue their relationship. If he could only make her understand that he was no good for her, then maybe she wouldn’t hate him. Why that mattered to him, he wasn’t sure. For Hades’ sake, he wasn’t sure about anything lately.
Only one thing was certain: he owed Adiadne an explanation, and she’d get one, tonight. And if she was still hurt after he’d made it clear to her that she was better off without an asshole like him, he’d wipe her memory.
Dio headed for the bathroom, wanting to dowse his head with cold water. Before he could push the door to the restroom open, two guys grabbed him from behind and shoved him out the back exit, into the parking lot.
“What the fuck!” Dio shook off their hold and swiveled on his heels.
He stared at the two thugs as they glared at him. They weren’t the usual kind of guys he got into bar fights with. For starters, they were older, not the young kids who couldn’t hold their liquor and subsequently started an argument. The two were well dressed and seemed fairly sober. He recognized them. They’d occupied the table next to him. And he was absolutely sure that he hadn’t insulted them in any way.
“I think we’ll teach you some manners, asshole,” one of the men announced.
“Get the fuck off me. I’ve not given you any reason to attack me.” With an impatient movement, Dio made an attempt to turn, but the second guy suddenly pounced on him.
“You jerk, you hurt Ari. That means you’ll have to deal with us. She’s a nice girl. Nobody hurts Ari and gets away with it.”
Ah, shit! How had Ariadne managed to send her friends after him so quickly? And why would she do that? He’d never expected her to be devious. A strange sense of disappointment sliced through him. Not that he didn’t deserve a good beating. And maybe it was just what he needed.
