10. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Madison
I refused to go to my mother’s spinning class and meet the realtor she had picked for me, knowing that wouldn’t be her last attempt to introduce us. What I didn’t know was the extent of her obsession with my unmarried status and the lengths she would go in order to secure me a husband.
So when I agreed to go to dinner with her, just us two, as she herself stated when she invited me, I had no reason to doubt that anything would go wrong. It wasn’t until I arrived at the restaurant that I realized it was a setup.
There was a man sitting next to my mother. And you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out who he was.
By the grin on his face, I would say that he enjoyed the sight of me, and he really was attractive, like my mother said, but the idea of marrying him and giving him children made him as desirable to me as Lyme disease.
“Hi,” he stood up to shake my hand. “I’m George. I’m so glad to meet you, Madison. Sylvia had told me so much about you.”
Strike one. He was a liar.
My mother mainly talked about herself and whenever talking about any of her children, she always spun it around back to her.
“Hi, George,” I said, my voice flat, not at all interested in trying to impress him. The look my mother gave me was both triumphant and smug. And why wouldn’t she be pleased with herself? She arranged a date for me and George despite my efforts to prevent it.
The waiter approached us and gave us menus. While I pretended to read mine, my mother announced she won’t be ordering anything. I knew what that meant. She was about to leave me here with George. Alone.
Technically, I could leave once she did, but I wouldn’t do it. I continued to follow her lead, even though I had been an adult for a long time now. She refused to let the control slip through her fingers while I still couldn’t get rid of the desire to please her.
“Have I mentioned that George is a realtor, honey?” She asked when the waiter left our table.
“Mhm,” I nodded, still focused on the menu.
“He could help you find your dream home,” she said with a sigh.
“I’m here temporarily, Mom,” I reminded her. “And I like my living arrangements at The Gemstone.”
The Pink Diamond would be better than the room I currently had, but I slept in a comfortable bed. I used room service for free and ate delicious meals. Even though my contract forbade me from going to the restaurant, I liked it that way. I had snuck into the pool area of the Pink Diamond a few times now, and Parker had only caught me once. And I had been working less than I ever had back in New York with Dorothy.
“Well, life has a way of surprising us, right?” George said with a charming smile. His eyes flicked from my mother to me. “You never know what might come your way. You might love your new job here, or meet someone special and decide to stay and settle down.”
“That’s all I’m saying.” My mother added to the conversation. A second later, she released a theatrical gasp. “Oh, dear.”
“What, Mom? You left the stove on?” I tilted my head to the side. “No, wait. The last time you used it, I was still in high school. I think we’re safe.”
She kept her eyes on something, and when I heard a familiar low grumble behind me, I knew what that something was. My new boss.
“Hello, ladies.”
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Why? Why did he have to be here to witness my blind date? A blind date arranged by my mother ? Was there anything more pathetic than that?
Not that there was a sign stating that this was a blind date, but with my luck, whenever he was involved, I was sure he would somehow find out by the end of the evening.
I turned and found him standing right behind me. His eyes found mine, a strange look on his face. Then I noticed a woman he was with. She was a lot older than him. Probably around my mother’s age. She looked familiar. Had I met her before?
“Hello, Mr. Wilson,” I greeted him.
“That’s Madison’s boss,” I heard my mother explain to George.
“Oh. You’re the one I should thank for keeping this beauty in California then, ha?” George said, and I got the picture on why he was still single. The guy was a weirdo. We met like five minutes ago and he was already calling me beauty and claiming some sort of ownership over me.
Parker glanced at me and smirked. “Don’t thank me just yet. Give it some time.”
Prick.
“I didn’t catch your name,” he addressed George.
“George Thompson,” my date stood and shook Parker’s hand.
“Parker Wilson. And this is Jessica Montgomery.”
Montgomery? As Ryan Montgomery? That’s why she looked familiar. She was related to Ryan. His mother maybe?
Had I accidentally found out what Parker’s kink was? I assumed he had been sleeping with the receptionist, while it might just turn out that he was into older women.
Poor Melany. The devastation that would bring her. I grinned at the thought.
“Nice to meet you,” I said and offered my hand. She took it but said nothing. She just eyed me curiously.
“We should go to our table.” Parker placed his hand on Jessica’s upper back. “It was nice seeing you again, Mrs. Hartley. You look amazing, as always.”
“Thank you, Parker. Have a nice evening.”
The moment my boss and his date walked away, I turned to my mother. “Since when do you call him Parker?”
And why did he make it sound like they had seen each other after Clem’s wedding?
“Since he started to hang out with your brother.”
“What? Tyler and Parker hang out?”
“Yes.”
Fantastic. I couldn’t help but wonder what my brother had divulged to Parker about me. Not that I cared about Parker Wilson’s opinion. However, my brother was privy to a lot of personal and potentially embarrassing information, and I was already skilled at embarrassing myself in front of Parker with no outside help.
I glanced at the direction he and his date walked off to and saw them sitting at a table in the corner. Parker sat facing me. His gaze flicked over to mine almost immediately. I averted my eyes, focusing back on the menu in front of me.
“Well, I really have to go,” my mother said and stood up. “Have fun, you two.” On her way out, she leaned in to kiss me. “I‘ll call you tomorrow.”
I waited until I couldn’t hear her heels clicking on the floor and addressed George. “I assume you’re aware I didn’t know you would be here.”
He made the ultimate mistake of defending my mother. “Sylvia thought it would be a pleasant surprise.”
I scoffed. “More like an intrusion.”
“We meant no harm. Maybe you and I could still have dinner? Get to know each other?” His voice dripped with optimism.
I sighed, realizing that George was just caught in the middle of all of this. It wasn’t his fault my mother had meddled in my personal affairs and probably led him on. I also couldn’t be forward with him and inform him I wasn’t looking for a commitment, because he would probably tell my mother.
“Of course,” I agreed. “Let’s just have dinner.”
For the next hour, the man told me about every house he was currently selling in detail as if I was a potential buyer. I felt bored and trapped. Not just by this date, but by my mother’s expectations. Nothing new there, she had always been demanding. But I wanted the choice of whether I would dodge relationships forever to be mine. Not hers .
That was easier when I lived in New York, but now that I was back, I had to deal with her in a way I haven’t in ages. There had to be some permanent solution to my problem. I just haven’t thought of it yet.
My eyes traveled to Parker’s table. And not for the first time. Call it boredom. Call it curiosity. Would he be intimate with his best friend’s mother in public? I didn’t catch any touching. Instead, I caught him eyeing me the entire time.
He was probably annoyed that I observed them, but there was something in his gaze that made me uncomfortable. A blush crept up my cheeks and stayed there.
After one particularly intense glare from him, I excused myself and walked over to the bathroom. I needed to get rid of the burning sensation in my face.
While I splashed cold water on my heated face, I decided I was going to give George one more hour, inform him that there was no spark from my end, and leave. Ready to go back to my boring date, I swung the bathroom door open and bumped into a wall of hard muscle, dressed in what looked like the same navy blue suit Parker wore.
Like every other tall woman that wore heels, I often towered over men, but that wasn’t the case with Parker, unfortunately. My eyes were at the level of his Adam's apple. I stared at his neck and felt the blush return. Full force.
I was no wallflower though, so I tore my gaze away from his neck and glanced up. Taking a step back, I deliberately didn’t apologize for bulldozing into him and waited for him to speak first. I didn’t wait long.
“Enjoying your date?”
There was a mockery in his tone that I just couldn’t stand. “Yes. Are you enjoying yours? ”
A bitter chuckle escaped his lips. “I bet I’m enjoying mine more than you are enjoying yours.”
I wasn’t sure about that, giving the amount of staring we exchanged in the past hour.
“Wouldn’t you like that? I’m having a great time,” I lied.
“Seems like George Thompson is quite interesting, then.”
“He is. And he’s waiting. So is your date.” I rounded him and started walking back to my table.
“You don’t have to settle for boring dates, you know.”
I whirled around and continued lying. Somehow, admitting the truth felt humiliating. “He’s not boring.”
“Oh? And what’s so interesting about him?”
I heard footsteps behind me. A woman was going to the bathroom. I waited for her to enter and came closer to Parker.
“Did you follow me in here to ask me that?”
“I didn’t follow you here. I came to take a piss.”
“Do you always have to be so crass?”
“Do you always have to act like you have a stick up your ass?”
I pointed at him. “See? You can’t say anything without dropping the F bomb or talking about rotten penis and people’s behinds.”
“And yet you are here. In the hallway talking to me and not at your table with your interesting date.”
“Because you keep engaging me in a conversation.”
“You find me engaging? Wow! I think that’s the nicest thing you have ever said to me.”
“I think I’ll get back to George now.”
“By all means,” he smirked and turned away from me.
Joining my date again, I forced myself not to allow a single glance in Parker’s direction for the rest of the dinner. But when Jessica Montgomery passed right next to us alone with a cautious smile on her face and a single nod and murmured a goodbye, I couldn’t help it. My eyes flew to their table. Parker still sat there, looking at us and not even trying to hide it.
Did I ruin their evening by catching them here? I couldn’t imagine Ryan knowing and being okay with their relationship. They would probably leave separately and try to fool me that they had a friendly dinner.
Not long after George and I split the bill, I informed him there would be no second date in our future, and we exited the restaurant.
“Can I call you sometime? Maybe for a coffee?” He asked while I waited for my taxi. I had to rent or buy a car. It would have been so much more convenient if I had a car I could just hop in right now and not have George linger here with me.
“No, George. I’m sorry.”
“It’s just coffee.”.
“Yeah, well. It’s still a no from me.”
“Oh, come on. Can we skip the part where you play hard to get?” I felt my eyes widening in surprise at his sharp tone. Until that moment, he had seemed pretty docile. “Just give me your number.”
“I don’t think so.” I took a few steps to the side, trying to increase the space between us.
“Madison.” Parker called out for me from the restaurant’s entrance and that was the first time since I had met him that I was thankful for his presence. I didn’t feel threatened by George, but I sure as hell preferred not being alone with him and his advances.
So I eagerly turned and faced Parker. “Yes?”
“Do you need a ride back to The Gem?”
“You’re going back to The Gem?”
“Well, I live there, so yes.”
He lived there? How had I missed that ?
“I called a taxi already.”
“Cancel it,” he shrugged and waited for me, his gaze willing me to join him.
“Yeah. I guess I could cancel.” I walked toward Parker. “Bye, George,” I tossed back.
“Umm…You didn’t give me your number?”
“And she’s not going to,” Parker said, his voice firm. “Bye, George.” Then he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me through the parking lot.