Chapter 7 Marfil
That night I dressed up a little more than I normally would to go to the movies. It wasn’t Liam I was trying to impress, but someone else… Sebastian’s fleeting caress had meant absolutely nothing, I’m sure, but no one had ever made me feel so much with a simple touch.
I had never talked about it with Liam, because I was embarrassed to admit it, but I’d almost always had to pretend that I liked the way guys touched me.
That was also one of the reasons why I went through them so quickly.
I wanted to find someone who made me feel what I’d read about in books or seen in movies, that boundless passion that could lift me to the heavens and leave me trembling against the sheets.
Only two guys had ever come close to making me feel something like that, my best friend and my ex, whom I wished I could forget entirely.
But just looking at Sebastian made my body tremble, my heart race, and my hormones run wild. If I wasn’t careful, I could make a stupid mistake, and with him more than anyone, I wanted to be smart.
Tami had sent me a message asking what I was doing that night.
Tami was my polar opposite. While I loved going out partying, meeting guys, and dancing all night, Tami was more chill.
She hated anything to do with parties and loud music; her favorite pastimes were painting, chatting, especially over coffee, and, well…
not much else. I adored her. We told each other everything…
Well, almost everything. I was convinced there was something underneath her unshakable calm that she hid from me and the rest of the world.
Liam couldn’t stand her. I’d introduced them one night, so excited that my two best friends would finally meet.
But World War III had almost broken out.
Tami was uncomfortable the entire time we were with him, and when Liam lost his patience over the fact that she barely participated in the conversation and answered everything in monosyllables—something that irritated me, too, on that occasion—they started shouting insults at each other.
I hated that conflict between them because I adored them both.
But whenever one of them got wind that I could be making plans with the other, they started fighting to get my attention.
And there was no better example of that than today.
Tami had texted asking if I had plans, suggesting we go out for dinner somewhere nice.
I had already promised to go to the movies with Liam, but we hadn’t hung out in weeks, and I wanted to see her, too.
In the end, I decided to just do exactly what I wanted, which was to see them both that night.
So I invited Tami to the movies, leaving out the fact that Liam would be there.
When Sebastian saw me, all dressed up to go out, he simply said he’d get the car keys.
It wasn’t that I was surprised by that indifference, the only reaction I’d received from that man since I met him, but I had taken extra care with my hair and makeup, putting on my favorite black dress and strappy gold sandals just to impress him.
Maybe his fingertips brushing my lips had just been my imagination after all…
I got in the front passenger’s seat once again, against his objections. “I get carsick if I ride in the back,” I said, shrugging. I was an expert liar, a skill I’d learned early in childhood.
Sebastian asked me where we were going and I gave him the address. As we drove, I started asking him questions again, as if I were talking to a friend.
“Do you like movies?”
Silence.
“I love them. I go almost every Wednesday; one week I choose the movie, and the next week Liam chooses. He mostly likes movies about superheroes or cars that go a hundred and fifty miles an hour. I can’t stand them; I prefer rom-coms. I know, it’s a cliché that women like those dumb scenarios that would never happen in real life, but I love them.
Especially when the male lead is tall, strong, and handsome…
” I was letting my personality loose, blabbing away like I was talking to someone who actually cared, but nothing.
“What kind of movies do you like?” I asked.
“I like to drive in silence, Marfil,” he said calmly, making an impeccable right turn.
“Silence means there’s nothing to say.”
“Exactly,” he said, satisfied.
“And I always have something to say,” I said at practically the same time.
“Sometimes you can say more with silence than a conversation that goes on for hours.”
“Oh yeah? Then what are you saying, since you’re always so quiet?” I asked, enjoying the excuse to turn and admire the profile of his straight nose and his square jaw… I could’ve spent hours looking at him.
“You don’t want to know.”
“But I do.”
He stopped at a red light and graced me with a cold sweep of his brown eyes. “You don’t need to get to know me, Marfil. I’m not here to be your friend.”
I actually wanted something much more than friendship and much more pleasurable from him.
“Do you like my dress?” I asked, ignoring his last comment.
Sebastian cursed between his teeth and looked back at the road.
I smiled, amused by his reaction. I was driving him crazy, and I loved it.
Liam was waiting for us outside the AMC Theatre on 19th and Broadway. We both loved movies so much that we paid for a monthly subscription that allowed us to watch up to four movies a week for only thirty dollars a month. I was a movie fanatic. I would even go by myself, I didn’t care.
Sebastian and I had stopped to pick Tami up from campus, and the poor thing almost had a heart attack when she saw him, but I explained the situation on the way to the movie theater.
We got out of the car, and I linked arms with my friend. Liam’s eyes narrowed in annoyance as we approached, and Tami’s steps slowed as she spotted him.
“You didn’t tell me he was going to be here,” she complained quietly. My friend was not often combative, which was why I’d been so surprised by her fight with Liam; I had never seen her so mad. I couldn’t even remember what he’d said to her, just that he had been messing around.
Liam, on the other hand, thought that shy, quiet girls like Tami were boring.
That’s why he and I got along so well. It occurred to me that Sebastian would be thrilled to guard someone like Tami instead of me, and I couldn’t help but turn to look at him.
He walked several steps behind us, glancing around as if daring the universe to lay a hand on me.
Deep down, it was a great feeling to know I was being protected.
When we reached Liam, I let go of my friend and gave him a big hug. He picked me up off the ground, as he always did, and whispered very quietly in my ear, “You’re going to pay for this, babe.”
I laughed and turned to my two friends. “A truce, just for tonight. If you promise to behave, I’ll let you pick the movie.”
Liam sighed and Tami remained silent. I suppose the fact that I’d been kidnapped made them more willing to give in to me. I noticed that Liam was eyeing Sebastian, and I tugged on his arm so that he would focus on what was important.
“Are you seriously going to make me watch a movie about a man who turns into an ant?” I complained a few minutes later.
“Don’t try to sabotage it. It’s throwback night—when will we be able to watch Ant-Man in a theater again? Besides, we get to choose the movie,” said Liam, who, to my surprise, was being fairly cordial to Tami.
She, on the other hand, had hardly said a word.
I watched her as she walked away to buy popcorn.
Her golden-blond hair, almost white, brushed her waist with every step she took.
She was beautiful, adorable; I didn’t understand why she had decided to stay single.
I’d had to convince her not to become a nun, almost beating her over the head with a lamp to make her see reason when she’d shared the thought with me at boarding school.
In the end she decided on her own that it wasn’t the right path for her, but I spent several months worried.
“Your friend is strange.”
I elbowed him in the side. “That ‘strange’ girl is the only true friend I had until you came to darken my doorway.”
“It’s thanks to me that you’re not like her. You should be more grateful.”
He was right about that. Even though I’d always been fairly rebellious, moving to the Big Apple after spending practically my entire life as a recluse hadn’t been easy.
“Maybe you could teach her a thing or two,” I said, smiling.
Liam turned his back to my friend and looked at me, amused. “Helping you become the heartbreaker you are now is my greatest achievement, don’t expect me to do the same with just anyone.”
“But she might be an even bigger heartbreaker than me…”
Liam smiled in that seductive way of his that used to drive me crazy but now just made me laugh. “I don’t think there’s enough patience in the world for that, babe,” he said, touching my nose and turning back to look at my friend. “What would they say in that virgin factory of a boarding school?”
I glanced behind me, hoping that Sebastian hadn’t heard that last comment. He was staring at the entrance, as always, alert for any sign of danger.
I sighed.
The movie was as boring as I’d remembered it being. To make matters worse, I ended up sandwiched between my two friends, both of whom could not stop commenting on what was happening onscreen to the point that I couldn’t even follow along.
I stood up to go to the bathroom without a word, and I noticed that Sebastian was getting up to follow me.
This could be fun.
I waited until he was beside me to speak. “Are you liking the movie?”
“I’m focused on other things. Why are you leaving?”
I kept walking, gesturing toward the bathroom sign with a tilt of the head. I smiled to myself when he stopped at the door to the ladies’ room. “You’re not coming in?” I teased.
Sebastian leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “I’ll wait here.”