Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
us
MARK
Thirty excruciating minutes after I left her in the restroom, Rey opens the door to the back of the Bentley and shuffles in.
She’s in grey joggers and a hoodie, her skin blotched with green paint still, but some attempt has been made to get it off.
Her hunched shoulders and the way she avoids my gaze tell me she’s upset.
And I get it.
I’ve been sitting here, seething, wondering how the fuck I can redeem myself. What an arse I was. I made my girlfriend feel like shit and disrespected her while she was working.
My girlfriend.
I meant it when I said that. There’s no conceivable other situation for us in my mind. We will figure this out. This secrecy. The fallout. There has to be a way through it.
“Take us home, Neil,” I say, and Rey shifts in the seat next to me. I put a hand on her chin and turn her to face me. She’s pressing her lips together, and tears form in the corner of her eyes as I look at her.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry, Rey.”
“You made me feel so silly,” she whispers, her voice shaky.
Hearing her like that makes my throat tighten, and none of the words I wanted to say come out. I put a hand on her cheek, but she pulls away.
“Seriously, Mark. I need to know that you understand what you did in there was not okay.”
I drag a hand down my face, willing my anger at myself to calm down so I can say something useful.
“I know. Let’s start at the top, shall we?” If I’m going to do this, I’ll do it thoroughly. She turns to me and cocks her head. “First, I interrupted your conversation with a client that could’ve been entirely innocent, but I made it uncomfortable by claiming you in front of him.”
“Yes,” she says, picking at a loose thread on her joggers.
“Second, I said you’re my girlfriend without even asking you.” Her eyes snap to mine. “We can get back to that,” I add.
“Third,” I continue. “I objectified you and belittled your job, focusing on people ogling you instead of appreciating the art you represent and the joy you spread.”
She opens her mouth, but closes it again. There’s a hint of a smirk on her lips now, though. I’m getting somewhere.
“Fourth, I dominated you in the restroom when you clearly wanted to talk. I stuck my tongue in your pussy and distracted you instead of listening to you.”
“Yes, that was terrible,” she says, but she’s actively holding back a smile now.
“Rey, I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll do better, I promise. I’m sorry I ruined your evening by lurking around like an angry, possessive arsehole.”
“My boyfriend, the possessive arsehole?” She grins now, and the relief in me is immense. I can finally breathe properly. “As far as apologies go, that was a decent one.”
“Thanks, I had some time to think it through. And Neil helped put my thoughts in order. He’s been married twenty years, so I should probably add ‘advisor’ to his position description now.”
“Jesus, Mark, did you tell him about the restroom?” Rey clasps a hand to her mouth.
“Not all the details,” I say.
“Sorry, I can still hear you, though,” Neil says from the front, and Rey hides in her hood.
“This is my favourite place outside home,” I say, showing Rey into the Diamond Lounge of The Orion the next day. We’ve been through the building. Examining every room in daylight, which is a different experience from a busy night. One I knew she’d enjoy.
I’ve mostly looked at Rey, but am also starting to appreciate the effort Aiden and his team have put in to make this place look truly spectacular. It’s another thing I’ve taken for granted until I met Rey.
“What is it you love about it?” She brushes her hand across the red velvet chair. The last time I sat here was when Aiden reminded us of the masquerade coming up. The one I didn’t want to go to. Imagine if I hadn’t. I’d only know Rey as the intern who broke my rules.
Maybe I would’ve fired her as I wanted to.
The thought of any other outcome than this makes my stomach ache as I watch Rey walk around, studying every piece of art on the walls, inspecting sculptures up close, and looking back at me, grinning in between.
“I must admit,” I say. “I’ve never stopped to admire the details here, but I just loved that it was private. Quiet. No phones. Often just me and my closest friends here. You should meet them, by the way.”
It’s time I told them all about this big change in my life. I’ve been absent lately.
“I’d love to,” Rey says from the other side of the turquoise Chesterfield sofa. “Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for you, I don’t have many people for you to meet.”
“What do you mean?” I move towards her, feeling the need to be closer if she’s going to tell me something personal.
“I pushed my uni friends away after I stopped painting, and it’s been kind of difficult starting over,” she says, talking to an old globe lamp in the corner. “I’ve got Nia, and kind of Kaia and that group, but…” She shrugs.
Of course, she can’t tell them.
“You have no one to talk to about us?”
She shakes her head, continuing her walk around the room, but slower now, allowing me to catch up to her.
“If you wanted to tell someone, what would you tell them?” I ask, brushing my nose behind her ear.
She turns to face me and puts a hand on my chest. “That I’ve met someone unlike any other, who’s intense and deep, intelligent, caring, and kind.
Very generous,” she lifts her eyebrows and smirks at me.
“And who accepts me for me. You’re the one I’m the most free with.
Do you know that feeling?” I’m about to answer, but she continues.
“There’s no energy spent trying to be anything else.
Do you know you make me feel that way?” She meets my gaze again, her eyes intense with the weight of the words.
“I don’t think you realise how much that means to me. ”
I take the hand she’s been brushing over my pecs and collarbone while talking, and kiss it.
“I know what you mean, and I’m glad you feel that way. Despite last night.”
“I think after your apology, and multiple other types of apologies you gave me,” she says, blushing, “I get that you’re trying. And I believe you.”
“My life is so different now that you’re in it. And I’m scared.”
As I say the words, it hits me how true it is. I’m scared I’m going to fail her, but I’m more scared of life without her now that I know what it’s like to have her. To laugh with her. Hold her warm hand in mine and twirl her into my arms.
“I’m scared of the change to my routines, my priorities, but I want to make it,” I say. “It might not sound like a big deal to you, but I’ve been going at my own pace, doing my own thing my entire life. I didn’t make space for Jody, but I sure as hell will for you, Rey. I’m all in.”
There’s the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed as well, and it’s what I see in her eyes when she looks at me now.
“How are we going to make it out into the light?” she asks, tracing the fingers of her free hand over my shoulder and into my neck.
“I’ll talk to the board. I’ll move up the meeting, and we’ll find a way to get ahead of it. We can control the narrative, as they say.”
She nods and tilts her face up as her hand finds its way into my hair. I wrap my arms around her and dip down to meet her. Those soft lips that are all mine to kiss. And once I speak to the board, we can do this without having to hide. There has to be a way.