by Ada Scott
Lorenzo took it all in stride. “That’ll do the trick.”
I pressed the button to speak to my driver over the intercom. “Drop Mr. Marchetti off at his car, then we’re heading back out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kendall
After a brief hurricane of panic from everybody back in the office, I spent the entire afternoon on a computer researching Jace Barlow, determined to make part two of my interview infinitely less embarrassing than part one. I’d known he was secretive, but I didn’t realize just how little of his life had made it on to the internet.
Mr. Kinsley sent me some lines of questioning the brain-trust back in the office thought would be important to go through, but not until after trying to replace me at the dinner with a more experienced reporter. Barlow’s people shot that idea down.
This was my big chance, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to show them what I could do. Everybody at The Weekly Enquirer, my family, everybody back home who thought I would live and die in Woodville, I’d show them all.
I couldn’t afford the kinds of things that most people who dined at Luc Monette’s wore, but I dressed up as well as I was able to. Even so, when I arrived early, the woman behind the counter looked down her nose at me until I said I was here to meet Jace Barlow.
After that, I was royalty as far as she was concerned. She even brought me a complimentary glass of wine while I waited.
It wasn’t easy to keep a level head. This was as exclusive a restaurant as existed anywhere in the city, the whole country even. Everywhere I looked, I saw faces I recognized from the news, from the magazines, even from the paper I worked for.
The instant he walked in the room, he caught my eye. He had so much presence it was like the universe revolved around him, the complete opposite to me.
It didn’t take him long to spot me either, as if I drew his eyes as much as he drew mine. He headed straight for me and I had this image of him picking me up and carrying me off into the sunset.
There I went again. What was it about him that made me forget who I was?
“Mr. Barlow.” I began to stand.
He held out his hand, halting me, before he sat down on the opposite side of the table. “Please. Just call me Jace for tonight.”
“Oh. OK. You can call me Kendall too.”
“A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
I glanced down at my glass of wine for a second, fighting off the shy blush that seemed to blossom anyway whenever he looked at me. Lines like that didn’t help my predicament.
Eventually, I managed to raise my eyes to his with a goofy smile on my face. “Thank you.”
“Have you ordered?” he asked.
“No, I was waiting for you.”
“Well, now you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?”
It was an innocent question, but the way he said it and the look on his face gave me the impression that he was implying something. I didn’t know if it was just my imagination running wild again, not out of the question when I was around him, or if I was getting hit on by a multi-millionaire.
“But enough about me. What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?”
The whole dinner was like that. A question from me, a dodge by him, followed by thinly-veiled innuendo. I got the impression that the veil was only put there as part of some game he was playing with himself. With me.
No, there wasn’t any doubt about it. Jace Barlow was flirting with me. Me!
“Me? No. Nobody…”
… ever noticed me.
“… I just don’t really have t-time for that,” I lied.
“I know the feeling.”
Jace leaned forward across the table as if he was going to tell me a secret, fixing me with those eyes of his with the game of cat and mouse playing out behind them. I couldn’t help but lean forward, drawn to him like he had me on a string, and I caught a hint of his cologne over the aroma of expensive food.
“There’s one thing people like us have time for. Don’t you think, Kendall?”
Leaning forward as I was, he took a slow and purposeful look down my top and I was caught off guard by a jolt of excitement between my legs. I’d never felt anything quite like that before without even laying a finger on myself, and I gasped quietly at the sensation as his gaze returned to my eyes, holding me there almost like I was spellbound.
No man had ever seen me naked. The very thought of it had always made me want to run and hide, but I found myself having to mentally argue with my own hands to stop them from unbuttoning my top right here at the table. After all this lonely time, I was soaking up this attention like a sponge, and I wanted more.
I also didn’t want to let this opportunity, this scoop, slip through my fingers. Struggling to regain control of myself, I thought back to my research this afternoon, the things I read between looking at pictures of him on a beach, with his top off and that chiseled body on display.
“I… um… Mr… Jace. I… uh… read that you went to the group home when you were six. Do you remember anything about your parents?”
For the first time since I’d laid eyes on him, Jace’s mask of confidence cracked for a moment. Through the seams, as he pulled away and leaned back in his seat, I caught a flash of anger and a slow river of sadness flowing underneath.
Then it was gone, and Jace Barlow, the living enigma, was back. He looked at me through slightly narrowed eyes as he ran his tongue over his teeth inside his mouth before taking a deep breath.
Before he could let out whatever it was he was going to say, a ringtone came from his pocket and the air puffed out of him wordlessly. He pulled his phone out without saying anything to me, looked at the caller displayed on the screen and then answered it.
“Get anything important?” He asked without greeting, then paused for a moment. “Oh, that motherf...”
He looked at me and from side to side at the other diners. “I’ve got to take this. I’ll be back in a few. Order some dessert if you want it.”
“Everything OK?” I asked.
“No. Business.”
He stood and began talking in hushed tones as he stalked between the rows of tables and past the woman at the front desk, who was dealing with a younger couple, and out the front door. Instead of perusing the dessert menu I pulled out my own phone and called my boss, feeling shaky from the rollercoaster of Jace toying with my emotions and his sharp withdrawal.
“Hello?” said Mr. Kinsley.
“Mr. Kinsley, it’s me, Kendall,” I said.
“How did it go? Is it over? Did you get everything?”
“I’m still at the restaurant, he’s just stepped out to take a phone call.”
“How is it going?” he repeated.
“It’s… um… Mr. Kinsley,” I looked around and then held my hand over my mouth and the phone, speaking in a harsh whisper. “He’s flirting with me! What do I do?”
A stunned silence was my only response for a while. “Flirt back?” he finally said, disbelief evident in his voice.
“That’s not, like, unprofessional or anything?” I asked.
The sound of his voice went distant for a second before I heard a few muffled curses. “No, Kendall. Use it if you’ve got it. All the greats have done it.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. Go ahead. You nail this interview and you’re set for life at The Weekly Enquirer, you know that, right?”
“Oh my gosh… OK. I won’t let you down, Mr. Kinsley!”
“Great, call me as soon as it’s over,” he said.
“OK. Bye.”
“Bye.” I put my phone away and looked for Jace, but it seemed that his call was more involved than mine.
OK. Flirt back. Easy, women have the upper hand on that front, right? Except… I had no idea what to do. My sisters had tried to explain the art to me, but it just never clicked.
The fact that it came so naturally to them, apparently to every woman but me, had always made me feel almost less than hu
man, like there was something special missing from me that made me worth less than everybody else. They could do more with a flick of their hair or a bitten bottom lip than I could ever do.
Yet, hadn’t Jace been looking at me all night, like I was just as appetizing as the masterfully crafted meals that had been placed in front of us? At his office too?
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach when I remembered him looking down my top as if he liked the view. I glanced furtively from side to side and then looked down myself.
My breasts were on the small side, not like his receptionist, not like all the girls he had his photograph taken with. But he did look.
Clearing my throat quietly as if that was a good distraction I brought my hand to the top of my shirt, near my neck. I could feel it shaking as my inhibitions fought tooth and nail with my need to do what it took to prove myself in the big wide world and my desire to have Jace’s eyes on me.
I undid the top button and pushed the sides of my shirt open a little. It was, possibly, the bravest thing I ever did.
Nobody eating around me seemed to notice the shameless hussy in their midst and I laid my hands flat on the table to keep them steady while I braced myself to pour on whatever charm I could muster.
The young couple who had been at the front desk walked between the tables, led by a waiter, talking loudly and all puffed up with self-importance. They both looked a little on the merry side and the woman stumbled on her high heels as she was passing our table.
Her thigh bumped the edge and my glass of wine toppled straight into my lap. I yelped at the sudden cold on my thighs and scrambled for a napkin.
The woman regained her balance and brought her hand to her mouth, looking like she was going to say sorry for a second. Then she looked me up and down, and seemed to decide that you don’t need to apologize to people below your station or something.
“Be careful!” I said.
Well, she didn’t like that. “What’s your problem?”
“What do you think? You just spilled my drink all over my skirt!”
She laughed. “Well, it’s not like it was a very nice skirt. It looks like it came out of some bargain bin.”
I could feel all eyes on me, but not in a good way like when Jace looked at me. All that attention drawn to my cheap clothes. I had got the skirt from a bargain bin.
“It was a nice skirt,” I murmured, already certain of defeat.
“Hey, don’t disrespect my fiancé,” said the man with her.
I looked up at him and then between the two of them. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, the shame of it all. All around me, people were watching, some of them looked uncomfortable, some of them merely interested. A few seemed to be enjoying the way the riff-raff was being put in her place.
I was going to flirt with the hottest guy I’d ever seen in real life. I was going to have fun, let myself pretend he really wanted me, and get the interview of the century all at the same time.
Instead, I thought I was probably about five seconds away from running out that front door sobbing.
Jace
I was going to fucking detonate. Three guys dead and Santino escaped? Since when did he turn into a fucking ninja?
Lorenzo called from the warehouse. Apparently he and Roydon arrived just in time for Santino to catch Roydon with a lucky headshot from long range as he was getting out of the car.
Lorenzo shot back, but Santino managed to get to a car and got away. Unbelievable. Now, instead of information and one more dead Picolli, I had to send a clean-up crew in to take care of the mess.
That was a damn shame about Roydon. He was a tough kid and I had the feeling he hated the Picollis almost as much as I did. Fuckin’ shot.
When I came inside out of the cool air, I was just in time to see Coralie leaving her front desk and rushing into the restaurant. I was close behind and my brow furrowed when I saw that it was our table that seemed to be the center of attention.
Some loudmouth asshole and his whore girlfriend were standing over Kendall, with a waiter nearby. They were all talking at once, pointing fingers. The guy was talking about respect and was getting more and more in Kendall’s face even as Coralie arrived and tried to pull him back.
“I didn’t pay five hundred dollars a seat to reserve a table just so I would have to look at the damn help eating in the same room. I didn’t know Luc Monette’s was giving out coupons now.”
Kendall looked terrified, like she was reliving some schoolyard bullying memory. Worst of all, there was this… acceptance on her face, in the near-sobbing quiver of her lip. It was almost as if life dished up this kind of shame to her all the time and nothing ever changed. Nobody ever helped.
A sexy girl like her should have had the world eating out of the palm of her hand. That light I saw in her eyes when she noticed me checking her out shouldn’t be extinguishable by the likes of these people.
I was surprised at how much that affected me. I wasn’t surprised at how murderously fucking pissed off I was.
“Who. The. FUCK. Do you think you’re talking to?”
What little conversation in the room that had survived this long promptly ceased as the whore yelped in surprise and the two of them both startled. The guy whirled around in surprise.
After sizing me up for a second, he came to the wrong conclusion, and pointed at Kendall. “This b-”
“You better rethink what you’re about to say, motherfucker. What happened, Kendall?” I asked without taking my eyes of this dude, all puffed up like he was going to take a swing. I fucking hoped he did.
“She spilled my wine on me,” Kendall said, quietly. Almost apologetically.
“So what are you doing getting in her face?” I asked. “Actually, don’t answer that, because I don’t give a fuck. Get down on your hands and knees, lick her shoes, and beg for forgiveness. Pray to the god of worthless cocksuckers she grants it.”
The asshole looked ready to tell me to fuck off, and I stepped right in close to him until our noses were almost touching. “Five hundred dollars is a big price tag to come here and end up eating your own teeth, bitch.”
I could feel this energy heating up inside of me, flooding my muscles with adrenaline like it did before every fight. On a hair trigger, I waited for the release. I was ready to explode at any sudden movement.
By the time I was done, his own mother would run for the hills at the sight of him. I was pissed beyond words at the news Lorenzo had just dropped on me, and this nobody was going to bear the brunt of it.
“Kick his ass, Mike,” said his piece of fluff.
But then, sometimes people surprise you. His eyebrows twitched a bit as he lost nerve and backed down, slowly lowering himself to his hands and knees in front of Kendall.
No self-respecting man ever literally licked somebody’s shoes, but that’s what Mike did. For a second my rage threatened to boil over, as if he had robbed me of a fight specifically to piss me off. I almost kicked him in the head right there, he was at the right height for it now.
“Please forgive me,” he mumbled to my date.
Kendall’s mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish as she tried to find the words. Honestly, how could the hottest woman in the room stand to have these pretentious cunts look down on her?
Tell him to stand up and fight like a man, I thought.
“It’s OK, it’s OK! Please stop!” she managed to blurt out.
Mike got up and murmured something at me that was probably an apology as the blonde arm candy belittled him.
“You should fuck off, if you know what’s good for you,” I said. “Take that noisy bitch with you.”
“C’mon, Liv,” said Mike, reaching for Liv’s arm and heading towards the front.
She stumbled after him, spouting words of disbelief, and I turned to watch them go. Not a single pair of eyes in the entire restaurant was on their own food, they were all on us, and it was deathly silent.
“Anybody else got a fuckin’ problem?
” I asked.
Instantly, not a single pair of eyes was on us, they were all trained determinedly on their own plates.
I was practically shaking with pent-up energy when I sat down again and waved Coralie away. Across the table, Kendall was wearing her heart on her sleeve.
There was fear there, a certain shock at the promises my body language and tone had just made to our dear friend Mike, but overwhelmingly she was looking at me with awe. She was looking at me like I was some kind of hero.
I was nothing of the sort, but I could see myself reflected in her eyes. In them I was practically wearing shining armor and riding a white horse while lightning shot out of my sword.
“Th-thank you,” she said, so quietly that I could barely even hear her in the near-silence of the stunned restaurant.
Her hair, naturally lush and dark, shone and flowed over her shoulders, some of it grouping together in curls and ringlets. She may not have much money, but she had movie-star hair, and my eyes followed it down until I saw she had undone the top button of her shirt.
There was no doubt in my mind it had been done for my benefit. Shy as she was, it seemed she’d made a decision while I was outside, decided to give me exactly what I wanted.
She couldn’t know how much I wanted, though. At this point, denied a fight, I needed to release this energy and I bet Kendall had the most perfect little pussy to take it all.
I’d been thinking about fucking her from the moment I laid eyes on her, hadn’t I? It was time to stop teasing myself with this prize. It was time to fuck this little teen within an inch of her life.
Kendall
He stood up for me. For the first time in my life, somebody thought I was worth standing up for. I was still shaking from the shock. Things had moved so quickly from being ridiculed, to the entire situation being reversed, my head was spinning.
When that man and woman were standing over me, mocking me, I was scared. However, that was nothing compared to the way Jace terrified them.
