10 - ADAM
The damn woman wants to provoke me. And she’s succeeding brilliantly.
I sit down, playing along with her little drunk act, wanting to lick those lips, suck on that sinful tongue of hers that sets me on fire.
“You know, you’d better make it very clear everything I shouldn’t tell anyone,” she continues, leaning forward, looking at me, taunting me, her ample breasts resting on the desktop.
I’m more turned on than ever. “Because I might forget something and oops! So tell me, Mr. SB, every detail that I’ll write down so I don’t forget a single thing about what happened between us and that I shouldn’t tell anyone. ”
“Write this down,” my words come out measured, sharp, “everything. Absolutely everything.”
Lara’s expression changes. Drastically. It cuts me to the heart. I almost get up to fall apart in front of her, drop to my knees, beg forgiveness, try to explain that... She gets up first, slamming her hands flat on the desk. It must have hurt. Her face hardens.
“Everything?” she shouts fiercely. “Everything, you bastard? Everything?” Each word is a direct, deadly attack.
“No, no, no,” I say, worried someone will hear. I get up, moving toward her as best I can with the desk between us. “Lara, calm down, okay? Calm down, please,” I plead. “I’m here trying to work this out the best way I can.”
“Work this out...” she spits the word with scorn. “I believed you. I was blind. So blind, because I wanted to believe in what we felt.” Tears stream down, hitting me like bullets. “Only I felt it!” She crumples the notepad.
“I felt it too,” I murmur, my voice faltering as she cries.
“Lies! Lies! Lies!” she repeats over and over, pacing around the office, stepping on shards, crushing me along with them. She turns to me, sharp. “I told you what my family was like. I told you everything.”
“And you lied!” I end up shouting. “You lied too, because they’re nothing, absolutely nothing like what you told me.
” I move closer, trying not to shout, but like the sound of shards crunching under my feet, my voice is impossible to control.
“A little eccentric, sure, but nothing like that hideous picture you painted.” I look right at her, frozen. “Damn it, you lied too, Candy!”
“I didn’t lie, and I want you to go fuck yourself! And never call me that again, you...”
How did it happen? Simple. Suddenly, I was grabbing what I’d wanted most these past few days.
Squeezing her tight, devouring Candy’s sweet mouth.
Our bodies pressed together. Hungry. Longing.
A desperate kiss, at the edge of the abyss opening between us.
I was trying to hold on. The fall was inevitable.
The door is flung open.
David bursts in.
Olavo looks at me, shrugging and apologizing silently, then closes the door under our friend’s inquisitive gaze.
David lectures me, dragging me out of the office. I’m dizzy. I think I apologize to him. I know he’s afraid Paula will find out. He loves her too much. But he didn’t screw up as badly as I did. Did he?
“Did you sleep with Titi?” I mumble, confused.
“Shut your mouth, Adam!” I’ve never seen him so out of control.
Olavo and I have had our moments. David...
not really. “You know damn well the answer to that, now listen to me, for fuck’s sake.
” He grips the back of my neck, putting me on alert.
“You need to focus on what really matters here. Your engagement to Laura, the wedding, and closing the German merger successfully. You understand?” He only continues when I agree.
“Luckily we smoothed things over with the German representatives. At the wedding, Günther von Stahlberg will be there with his wife. NOTHING LIKE THIS CAN HAPPEN, understand? Or the idea of a matrimonial union between the little princess from the countryside and the CEO of the megalopolis”—I don’t live in the capital, I don’t know where they got that from.
Yes I do. I called myself that to secure the merger.
Stahlberg loved it, we toasted—“will go down the drain and screw everything up. We know damn well how the Germans were enchanted by the fairy tale behind the scenes. You understand, Adam? You understand?” He brushes back some blond strands falling over his face, squeezing my neck harder, and takes a deep breath.
“Nod your head so I know you understood, man.”
David only calms down when I nod.
Olavo appears in the doorway. That’s when I realize we’re in one of the house’s bedrooms.
“Everything okay in there?” he whispers. Concern written all over him.
David releases me and starts doing little jumps. Something he does to de-stress. I’ve seen him do this a lot in his office, before important meetings, or even before exam week back in college. I just never saw him need to de-stress when he got married. He was so certain of what he wanted.
“I hope so.” He looks at me. “Right?”
“Yes,” I murmur, ashamed.
“Good, now let’s get to the backyard. Lots of guests are still wondering about the missing groom.”
“Come on, I’m feeling sick, aren’t I? I really was”—I still am, but I won’t say that.
“Yeah, but your slutty future sister-in-law is screwing everything up and you’re helping,” David explodes.
I want to punch him right in the face. Olavo steps between us, holding our friend back.
“Hey, guys, calm down—I'm usually the one getting into pointless fights, okay? I'm not used to breaking you two up.”
David doesn't even seem to hear him. He glares at me, furious.
“You took on the damn leadership. You're the leader, Adam!” He jabs a finger at me, Olavo's hands pressed flat against his chest, holding him back physically—but not verbally. “Act like one! Grow up! Own your shit, don't drown in it.”