by C. C. Morian
She ended up wearing a simple skirt, a few inches above the knee, with a soft V neck top and a lightweight black blazer. A little conservative and classic, so she dressed it up with some nice shoes with a medium heel. She didn’t know how everyone would be dressed, the reunion webpage said ‘casual’ but that could mean anything.
She found herself getting anxious as she got ready and had to force herself to calm down. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, or maybe even worse, be nervous in case Marcus was there. Although she didn’t really expect him tonight; this was more of a chance for her to get into the mood, separate herself as much as possible from her ties to home.
As she was finishing up her hair, she got a text from Julie, her plane was late. She might even miss the dinner and asked that Melissa send her a message if she wanted to get a late drink. The text ended with ‘Good luck, with everything.’
Melissa smiled, took one last look at herself in the mirror.
Showtime.
The pre-arrival event was more crowded than Melissa had expected. Half the class seemed to be there. She knew a lot of her classmates lived near the university, but she hadn’t thought so many would be coming to the Friday dinner.
Melissa signed in and picked up a preprinted name tag. It had her full name, with her maiden name in parentheses. Like a big neon sign exclaiming that she was married.
Melissa immediately found herself looking for Marcus. She couldn’t help it. This was the culmination of months of discussions, of emotion, of planning, of angst. Although she had certainly considered it, it hadn’t really sunk in what a letdown it would be if she didn’t even see Marcus.
“Melissa!” The voice was instantly recognizable, although she hadn’t heard it in years. Melissa turned to see Kathy, a woman who had lived in her off-campus apartment building senior year.
Although Kathy’s voice hadn’t changed, her body certainly had. She looked like she had gained about forty pounds, on a frame that wasn’t so large to begin with. Melissa kicked herself mentally for focusing on something so superficial, but it was hard not to notice. Kathy was being followed by an equally rotund guy who looked like he already had downed a few drinks.
They hugged, Kathy preening over how good Melissa looked, Melissa trying to keep a straight face as she replied in kind. Kathy’s husband seemed like a good enough guy, obviously enjoying himself. Melissa hadn’t kept up with Kathy, she had been more an acquaintance than a close friend. Kathy immediately noticed Melissa’s name tag and asked about her husband.
“He’s not here,” said Melissa. “He offered to come, although it’s not his kind of thing. But I knew he had a lot of work to do, so it’s just me. Do you remember my friend Julie? She’s coming stag too, we’ll keep each other company.”
Kathy’s husband was staring at Melissa’s chest. Maybe a bit of a girls’ night out?”
Kathy dug her elbow into his side. “Don’t be ridiculous! I’m sure she’s a happily married woman.” But then she looked at Melissa and whispered, “But he’s right, you better be careful. I remember you and Julie back in our school days. There’ll be guys on the prowl here, for sure.”
Melissa tried to smile, wondering if that’s really what went on at reunions. This was her first one, after all.
After some small talk Melissa went and got a drink, surveying the crowd from the bar. More singles than she had expected. Or at least stag. She didn’t stick out as much as she had expected.
She didn’t recognize as many people as she had thought she would. But after a bit more mingling, glancing surreptitiously at name tags, she realized why. A lot of them, even after just ten years, just looked so different. Some of it was maybe because of the context, seeing someone in a new setting. But a lot of it was because so many of them were a bit more dressed up than she usually had seen them on campus. And a lot of them had gained weight.
She noticed more than a few guys checking her out. Some of them were maybe wondering if they knew her. But to others, she probably did stick out a little. Like most women, Melissa was harsh on her own looks, but she wasn’t stupid. She was looking pretty good in this crowd. Richard had said that she was prettier than she had been when she was in college. Maybe he was right.
Melissa had no doubt that if she had wanted to just come here and hook up with some guy, she’d have no problem. This was easier than a bar.
But she didn’t want just any guy.
She ran into some more acquaintances and even a few friends she had spent quite a bit of time with at school, but hadn’t kept in touch with much other than social networking. As the night wore on she became more relaxed, she had given up thinking Marcus would show up tonight, and though disappointed at that, there were so many people to talk to that it helped take her mind off of it.
And Richard had been right, he would have hated this. So she had made the right decision. So far.
No sooner had that thought crossed her mind, she saw a blond haired guy weaving his way toward her table. He seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him. He was overweight in that soft, all over kind of way that made his tie come up short on his shirt, a few inches above his belt. He had a drink in his hand and sloshed it a few times as he bumped into people, not paying attention to where he was going, his blue eyes glued on Melissa.
Suddenly Melissa remember who he was. Doug, she couldn’t remember his last name. Sophomore year, she had a class with him, she had thought he was cute, those bright blue eyes and beautiful lashes. He had been cute. A little bit full of himself, thinking he could slay anyone with his looks, but he was at least partially right, so he mostly got a pass from the women.
With a sinking feeling Melissa remembered that she had fooled around with him a little, after a long evening of drinking at the local bar, kissing him after a few dances and then ending up at his room. The night had ended badly, or at least not well, they had pawed at each other, sloppy kissing, both of them a little drunk. Melissa had given him a handjob, and maybe a little more, she didn’t actually remember.
How could she possibly forget something like that?
But she had. It had been during her sophomore spree, before she had met Marcus, when she was simultaneously trying to have fun, explore, find a boyfriend, and just drink a lot. A dangerous combination, but one that seemed natural at the time. Now it just seemed stupid.
Melissa looked down, trying not to stare, hoping he wasn’t looking for her after all. The friends she had sat down with had gone to the bar, and the other couple at the table, friends of theirs, she didn’t really know. They were having their own conversation, but Melissa pretended she was listening, hoping Doug would ignore her.
No such luck. He planted himself in front of her, and Melissa almost felt compelled to look up.
“Well, well, well,” said Doug, the swagger still in his voice, with a hint of liquid courage. His assuredness seemed at odds with his unkempt appearance. “If it isn’t my old friend Melissa.”
Melissa forced a smile. “Hello.” She made a point of looking at his nametag. “Doug, oh yes, I remember.”
She thought that would diffuse things, take him down a bit, but it had the opposite effect.
“Going to play it that way, are you?” said Doug, a little too loudly. The couple at the table glanced up as Doug pulled out a chair, turned it to directly face Melissa, and straddled it. “You didn’t seem to have any problem remembering my name when we were getting it on.”
Melissa flushed. In all the thinking about the reunion, why hadn’t she considered the possibility of running into guys she had fooled around with? She had been so focused on Marcus it hadn’t occurred to her, which was stupid. She hoped that anyone else she ran into who she had a history with would be married, and wouldn’t say something dumb in front of their wives.
Melissa’s first reaction was to deny it, but she worried that might set Doug off more. She tried to keep her voice light as she said, “That was a long time ago, Doug. We all have different lives now.”
“He’s not here right now,” she said, hoping Doug would think Richard might be arriving soon. “Where’s your wife?”
Doug threw down half the rest of his drink. “Wives,” he corrected. “Two already. I’m free of both of them, although not the payments. They were after my money.” He wagged an eyebrow at her, a gesture that might have been funny at one time but now looked ridiculous. “Plus, of course, certain parts of my anatomy. Something you’d understand.”
Melissa’s forced smile froze. She had tried to be nice, but now she had to get out of this. The other couple, while not looking their way, were pretending not to be listening, although they certainly were. But they said nothing, and Melissa realized they weren’t going to rescue her.
“What kind of work are you in?” asked Melissa, trying to change the subject, desperately hoping her friends would come back. Now is when Julie would be a big help. She’d give it one more try, but if Doug didn’t back down she’d get up and leave. She wasn’t afraid of him, she’d tell him to shove it in a heartbeat, but she didn’t want to make a scene.
“I kind of dabble here and there,” said Doug.
Melissa couldn’t help herself, he was getting on her nerves. “I’m sorry. I know it’s hard these days, finding a good job.”
Doug’s eyes hardened. “Maybe that’s why your husband isn’t here. McDonald’s wouldn’t give him the day off.”
That was enough for Melissa. “Nothing wrong with working at McDonald’s,” she said. “It’s honest work. You might try it.” She stood up. “I think I see some friends I want to catch up with. Have fun, Doug.”
She stepped away, but he jumped up, moving faster than she expected, blocking her way. He leaned in close to her, she could smell the booze. “Your husband isn’t coming, is he? I bet you came here for some action. Don’t you remember how good I made you feel? Come on, let’s get out of here and bring back some old times.”
Melissa was disgusted, she was about to shove him away, not giving a damn now if she made a scene or not. But suddenly the brazen look in Doug’s eyes dimmed, and he backed off, giving her some space. Doug’s entire demeanor shifted, it was like watching a balloon deflate, he took on the look of a feral animal, his eyes darting over her shoulder.
“Um, sorry,” he mumbled, and then quickly slunk away, calling out, “Nice seeing you, Melissa!” without bothering to even look back.
Confused, Melissa turned around to see what had made Doug turn from a lecherous predator to a wimpy prey.
And there stood Marcus, silent and powerful, giving off an alpha male aura so strong that even Melissa stepped back from its force.
Chapter 13
Melissa had been planning this for months, she had hoped it would happen, she had fantasized about it. But the reality of it, of Marcus right in front of her, in the flesh, took her breath away. And all her thoughts of him having lost his magic, of the chance that her desire was something that was a lost dream, a history locked in time that could not possibly transcend the years—of either one of them being different, so that what they had before, what she felt for him before, would be a ridiculous wish.
He was different.
He was better.
His eyes still held that dark power, like a lion that saw everything as either prey or just as something to ignore. His face, chiseled, as if it had sharply defined muscles that mimicked his powerfully built body, barely contained by a deep lavender silk shirt. And his mouth; anyone but Melissa looking at it would think it had never smiled, that nothing could make him laugh. But Melissa knew the truth, she had learned to see just the subtle change in it, the smallest shift revealing his thoughts, that whatever was happening right now was humorous, or at least interesting.
Marcus towered over her, his aura reaching out to her even though he was still a few feet away. Melissa’s knees grew weak, it barely registered that she was gripping the chair so tightly her hand was turning white.
“Melissa,” he said simply.
She couldn’t take her eyes off his face, his mouth still holding that secret grin, his eyes boring into her.
She tried to speak, she couldn’t, feeling like an idiot, this was what she had come here for, and now she was frozen, it was all overwhelming her, everything that had drawn her to him in the first place, years ago.
“Marcus,” she finally managed, her voice not her own, nervous, anxious.
Melissa couldn’t hear anything else, she didn’t know if it was because she had become so focused or whether everyone around them had stopped to listen to this exchange.
Marcus seemed to be enjoying this, although to anyone else he was just standing there. Melissa didn’t know if he was amused by her reaction or by whatever he had witnessed with Doug.
He let her dangle like that, suffering a bit, and Melissa knew it, and she knew that he knew it, and when that was out of the way, he jerked his head slightly to where Doug had gone and asked, “Old friend of yours?”
Making it clear that he knew, that the question was just to give her a hard time.
She hadn’t seen Marcus in almost ten years, and they were going to talk about fucking Doug? This wasn’t part of her fantasy either.
“I thought maybe he was a friend of yours,” she said, as offhandedly as she could, trying to maintain some sliver of dignity, some façade of coolness over the heat that threatened to overwhelm her. “He left when he saw you.”
A slight shrug, something else no one might have noticed. A dismissal of Doug. “Never saw him before.” Marcus’s way of saying that Doug was unimportant, insignificant, that of course he had gone running when Marcus had shown up, because that was what prey did when the lion appeared.
Most men would now chastise Melissa, try to gain some artificial power over her by making a comment, something about why on earth would a woman like her have been with such a loser. And might have walked away, concluding that if Doug were the type of guy she had been with, they wouldn’t want anything to do with her.
Marcus, though, had already dismissed Doug, both his current presence and his history with Melissa. Melissa knew Marcus could be judgmental, but this was not the kind of thing he wasted his judgment on.
They stayed that way for what seemed like a long time, neither speaking. Melissa was trying to breathe, even she had underestimated what this would be like, and she felt so helpless, which normally would have pissed her off, since she saw herself as a strong woman. But now all that was gone, her eyes kept soaking him in, noticing little things now, a new line to his subtle facial hair, even wider shoulders, a miniscule pair of creases just outside his eyes.
She forced her eyes away from his face, trying to take in the entirety of him. She glanced at his hands, large as she remembered, powerful fingers. A new ring on the small finger of his left hand, inlaid with a diamond.
But no wedding ring.
Not a traditional one, anyway. Although Marcus was far from traditional. The diamond he wore could be a wedding ring. Or he could be married and not wear one.
Would Marcus be here if he was married?
Melissa pulled her eyes back to his face, and he seemed to be waiting for her, curious about her next move.
“Do you want to sit down?” she asked, knowing it sounded lame.
Marcus raised an eyebrow, but it was as if he was pretending to be surprised. “Is that why you came here? For me to sit down and catch up?”
She couldn’t answer, anything she said would be dim-witted to her or shocking to the other couple at the table, who she suspected were listening closely.
Melissa shook her head.
“Then let’s get the fuck out of here,” said Marcus, and he turned and headed for the exit.
Like a magnet, Melissa got up and followed, feeling exposed even though probably nobody was looking.
But not caring if every single one of the people in the room had stopped to
watch.
In the lobby, Marcus turned to her. “Are you staying here?” Not How are you? You look good. It’s been a long time. Or any of the other things that someone might say after not seeing you in years.
Melissa’s heart was still pounding. “I’m at the airport hotel.”
“My car is downstairs.” Without waiting for an answer, without asking her what she wanted, he put his hand on her back and guided her to the elevator.
His touch gave her goose bumps, just as it had the very first time he had touched her. So innocuous a touch, something any man might have done. But it wasn’t just a physical contact, it was electric; all their past history and potential passed through his hand and into her, like a live wire filled with current, with power.
If Melissa had been with almost any other man, even someone she knew, she would have pulled away, or at least slowed things down, taken the time to reconnect. But she was caught up in him now, letting herself be led.
Wanting to be led.
They didn’t speak on the elevator, there were other people, so she stared straight ahead, but still conscious of Marcus next to her. He dropped his hand from her back and though she felt a sudden loss, they were still linked, so quickly had she reconnected to him.
When the door opened to the garage Marcus turned to the left and she walked beside him, conscious of the fact that he was adjusting his long stride to match hers. He stopped beside a sleek black Audi sports car and opened the passenger door for her.
“Sorry, no back seat,” he said, with a totally straight face.
Melissa flashed back to the time they had sex in the car, the very thing she had been thinking about when Richard had found her yearbook picture.
Two could play that game. “That must crimp your style,” she said, as deadpan as she could muster. She didn’t get in the car.
Marcus shrugged. “There’s always the hood. Or I believe you prefer the stairwell?”
