Page 51 of One Wild Night

When the car pulled up outsideRosebud Primeon Dearborn Street, I knew I was right. Tony helped me out and placed his hand possessively on my lower back as he led me into the restaurant. The hostess greeted us, looking at Tony appreciatively and blatantly flirting with him right in front of me.You can have him, bitch, if you think you can handle him.

"How may I help you today?" she asked in a sugary sweet voice as she eye-fucked my boyfriend.

Tony was his typical ‘charming' self and made me want to roll my eyes. He smiled at her and leaned in to speak in her ear. "Reservation for Valenti. We have a private room tonight."

The waitress giggled like a schoolgirl and smiled. "Of course, Mr. Valenti. Right this way." She led us to a small room in the back of the restaurant. On any other occasion, I would have thought it was beautiful, but not tonight. Tonight, Tony was up to something, and it wasn't sitting well with me.

While I took in my surroundings of a single table set for two, brightened with a beautiful candle-light centerpiece, Tony pulled out his wallet to tip the hostess. I couldn't help but notice that he slipped her his card while he was at it. I also couldn't ignore it when he leaned in and whispered in her ear, causing her to giggle and glance nervously in my direction. No doubt he was lining himself up another whore to fuck on the side.

Rather than confronting him, I chose to ignore it, and instead, took my seat at the table to wait for him. Almost as soon as I sat down and he joined me, a waiter came to take our drink order.

"Yes, we'll have a bottle of the Casanova Di Neri Tenuta Nuova, Brunello Di Montalcino 2004," Tony said after glancing at the wine menu. It was one of the more expensive Italian wines available, which is probably why he chose it. He loved to flaunt his affluence to everyone around him. The waiter nodded his head and then turned on his heel to grab the wine.

While he was gone, Tony perused the menu, removing mine from in front of me when I went to open it. "I'll order for you, Trixie. There's no need for you to look at the menu tonight."

I had to bite my tongue to keep from lashing out at him. One of my biggest pet peeves was when a man didn't let his woman have any say in what she wanted.Iwas going to be eating the damn food; it should have been up tometo choose what I wanted.

Once our orders were placed and the waiter was gone again, Tony turned to me and took my hand from the table. "My beautiful Trixie, I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here tonight." I had to blink my eyes to keep them from rolling at his remark. He didn't ask me to go anywhere...he demanded that I join him. "We've been together for over two years now, and while we've had our problems, I feel like we are stronger because of them. I want to make this more permanent. I want to know you'll be at the house every night when I get home from work. I want to see you growing big with my child, and I want to know you'll never leave me. Will you marry me, baby? Will you give me all of those things?"

Was he fucking serious? I couldn't help the bark of laughter that came out of my mouth. He obviously didn't find my outburst at all humorous, and his glare turned deadly. Still, I squared my shoulders and looked him right in the eye to answer him.

"No, Tony, I willnotmarry you. Do you want to know why?" His eyes widened for a moment before narrowing to slits as he sat there silently. "I won't marry you because that was the most sorry-ass proposal I think I've heard in my entire life. Marriage is about love, and the give and take between you and the other person. Your proposal was completely one-sided. Not once did you tell me you loved me or that you couldn't live without me. Not once did you tell me what you would give me or make me feel. It was all about what I would be giving you. Well, I'm done being walked on. I'm done watching you flirt with anyone with a pair of tits and a pussy. I will not beusedanymore, dammit! If you want to be with me, then it needs to beonlyme. I will not marry you just to watch you have a revolving door of goomahs. I can't do that, Tony. I've looked the other way for too long, but I'm done turning a blind eye.

"I will continue to be your girlfriend, but that's it for now. I know you can't change overnight, and I don't expect you to. What I do expect is that when I agree to marry you, you remain faithful to me. I will give you six months to break it off with all your whores. Six months to start treating me with the respect you should have been showing me for the last two fucking years. If you're able to do it in that time, then ask me again and I'll say yes. If not, then don't fucking bother!"

I was so mad that I grabbed my wine glass and chugged it before standing up from the table. "Where thefuckdo you think you're going?" he hissed as I started walking to the door. "We haven't even received our food yet."

"I seem to have lost my appetite!" I snapped. "I'm going out to the car to have Adam take me home. You can stay here if you'd like, but I'm leaving."

With a big huff, he pulled out his wallet, pulled several hundred dollar bills out, and tossed them on the table. Then he turned and followed me out to the waiting car, silently brooding the whole way home.

To say that my timing for turning Tony down was bad would be the understatement of the goddamn century. When we arrived home from dinner, he stormed into the mansion and up to his father's study. I made my way to the en suite and started a nice, hot bubble bath to help relieve some of my stress. While I was in there, I started thinking about how soon I could get the hell out of Chicago. I had plenty of money saved up, and could go anywhere in the world I wanted to go. I just needed to figure out where that was and when I would be leaving.

Maybe an hour or so later, I was startled by a loud noise in the adjoining bedroom, followed by something breaking. Well...a lot of somethings breaking, really.

Cautiously, I stepped out of the tub and wrapped myself up in my robe, tying the belt tightly around my waist. I could hear Tony cussing and continuing his rampage, so I tried to slip out of the room as quietly as possible. If he noticed me, he didn't say a word.

I made my way down to the kitchen and searched through the fridge for something to eat. I had told Tony that I lost my appetite, and I had at the time, but now I was starving. I pulled out the makings for a sandwich and was just starting to put it together when I heard someone stomping down the stairs. That was followed by a loud crash, and then the sound of the front door slamming shut.

I stepped into the foyer and peeked out the window just in time to see Tony climbing into his Escalade with Adam. Once they were both in, Adam took off like a bat out of hell. I found it hard to believe that me turning Tony down affected him like that, but wasn't sure what else could have set him off. Deciding that I didn't really give a shit, I went back to making my sandwich.

A few minutes later, as I was eating at the dining room table, I heard voices coming from the other room.

"I wish he was more like you. He destroyed half my house with his little tantrum." Carlo was obviously talking to someone as he descended the stairs.

"You knew giving me the East District wasn't going to go over well, Carlo." Ryan sounded sympathetic.

What? Carlo had taken away the East District from Tony and given it to Ryan? No wonder he was so fucking pissed. First I turned him down, and then this. Wow! I almost felt bad for the guy...almost.

"Yes, but I hoped he would act a little more mature about the news." I could picture the frown on Carlo’s face as he talked. It was always the same when he was disappointed for some reason. "I'm heading out to meet Enzo and Vincent for drinks tonight. I trust you will keep an eye on things for me here?"

"Of course," Ryan replied. "I'll try to keep Tony from busting anything else if he comes back. The staff is already going to be livid in the morning when they find the mess he left for them."

I heard Carlo chuckle and then say thank you before the front door opened and closed. I knew it was wrong of me to listen to their conversation, but I was down here already, and wasn't about to leave my half eaten sandwich to go back up to the room that Tony obviously destroyed.

I was just finishing my sandwich when I heard footsteps behind me.

"Hello, Trixie. Late night snack?" Ryan questioned as he joined me at the table.

---