Page 106 of Infatuated as They Come
“Please just let me take you out somewhere, Holly. Just let me give you something that’s not… Not…”
“Not what?” she pressed. “You’re acting like you have something to prove to a certain somebody.”
Frustration was knotting in my chest, and the words flew out of my mouth before I could stop myself, the tone so much harsher than intended. “Why can’t I just do something nice for you?”
She pulled her hands away from me. “How is it nice if I don’t even want to go? And I know you wouldn’t like it there either.”
“So what? We just skip it then?” I asked, hating how sharp the tone in my voice had gotten and hating how much her dad’s words had fucked with me and hating that I felt like the gift I made her was suddenly not good enough in the slightest. But most of all, I hated that look in her eyes, that flash of heartache that I was responsible for. “We can’t skip it. We’re going. We’re doing it.”
“Fine.” She stood up, snatching her dresses from the bed. “I’m going to be late for my hair appointment.”
“Promise me you’ll be there,” I said. “That you’ll meet me there. That we’ll do this and we’ll have this night together.”
She exhaled sharply, eyes completely avoiding mine. “Yes, I’ll be there. Willyoube there?” There was a hint of bitterness in that question, just enough that it made me pause for a moment as I watched her leave, my mind imagining some long, never-ending, invisible bridge just suddenly growing between us.
I wondered just how the hell I was going to fix it.
* * *
I had gotten ready a lot earlier than necessary, but that was because I just wanted to put my suit on and get out of Holly’s home already. A few days inside a mansion sounded good on paper, but in reality, it just left me feeling out of place, like I was living someone else’s life that I didn’t even want.
I was craving something normal. No mansion, no five million rooms, no fountain in both the front and backyard. I needed some freedom, space, air. The old life I was so used to. Christ, I missed the trailer park a hell of a lot. Everyone there was normal.Mykind of normal.
So, I left the room in my cheap suit and even cheaper tie, not quite sure if I was supposed to tell Holly’s dad if I was leaving or not. What was the protocol when your girlfriend’s dad hated you and thought you weren’t good enough for her? But he answered the question when I got to the bottom of the stairs and saw him standing there.
“Are you leaving now?” he asked.
I gave him a nod. “Yeah.”
“Weren’t you supposed to be having dinner?” He checked his watch. “It’s a little early…”
“Yeah, well…” I wanted to be anywhere but in this damn house. “Better to be early than late.”
“My wife mentioned that you were going to the club for dinner. Centennial Hills Country Club, right? Did Holly choose the spot or was it you?”
“It was teamwork,” I said.
“You’re going to look even more out of place with her there than you do here.”
“I’m okay taking that risk.”
He raised an eyebrow up at me. “You can try and take her to all these nice places, but it’s not going to work. It won’t change who you are.”
My hands lifted up, absolutely not in the mood for an argument. “Look, now isn’t the time for whatever fight you wanna have.”
“What happened to driving around and seeing all the lights?” He laughed. “I guess that gets boring pretty quick.”
“We’re not gonna do this now.”
“It’s the only chance we’ve had to do this now that Holly’s gone. She’d get mad at me if she heard what I was about to say.”
“Fucking say whatever you need to say so I can just go already,” I snapped.
“Did you see how many presents were underthe tree?” He nodded to the left, over to the living room. To one of them, because they had fucking five hundred living rooms. “I counted how many Holly got you. Seventeen. And then I saw the one you got her… It’s still just the one box, right?”
“Yeah, it is.” I nodded. “So what?”
“I wonder if it’ll be better than that cheap necklace you got her for her birthday.”
