“Oh stop it,” she scoffs, and I smile. “That’s better,” she says. “You’re much less scary when you smile.”
“Me, scary?”
“You’re very intimidating, Mars. I mean, you always were in a way, so tall even as a boy, but now you’re all…” She bites her lip and gestures. “And wearing a tuxedo that I’m sure is tailor made because it fits really well.”
I smirk at the thought that she’s noticed. “It’s a Brioni,” I reply. When she doesn’t react, I add, “It’s a Roman fashion house.”
Her eyes widen behind the mask. “You had it sent from Rome?”
“No. I went to Rome to have it fitted.”
She gives a short laugh. “Wow. How the other half live. So… you’ve traveled a lot, then?”
“Yes. Dad sends me to negotiate sales of our technology in other countries. The UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, the US, South America. So… did you travel much around Australia when you were over there?”
Her smile fades again. “Melbourne and Brisbane, that was about it. It was super-hot, and my skin doesn’t like the sun.” She’s very pale. I try not to think about the amount of pale skin that used to be revealed when she wore a bikini.
“What went wrong with Cory?”
She leans on the table again, her chin in her hand. “He decided he’d rather spend the time with someone else than with me.” Her lips twist.
I stare at her. “He cheated on you?” When she nods, I inhale with disbelief and outrage. “I don’t believe it.”
“And I didn’t find out for six months, which is even more humiliating.” She drops her gaze to her glass, then has a sip. “Seems to be a recurring theme for me.”
“What do you mean? Tim cheated on you, too?” She was dating him when we first met, and she turned up at his apartment on campus one day and found him in bed with someone else.
“Him as well. There was also Richard, when I was twenty-six. Clearly, I’m not enough to keep guys interested.”
It’s a self-pitying statement, and she looks a little embarrassed after she’s said it.
I wait for a moment. She doesn’t need me to get angry on her behalf.
“Tell me their addresses,” I say. “I’ll get one of the guys in my security detail to take them all out.”
That makes her laugh. “Be serious.”
“Look at my face. I’m deadly serious. They won’t even see the guy. He was a sniper in the army. He can take out a man at two thousand meters.”
She’s giggling now, and I smile. I can’t bear the thought that she thinks she’s somehow not enough.
“So you haven’t yet advanced to reading digitally?” I tease, gesturing at the book on the table.
She picks it up and turns it over. “I prefer real books. There’s something nice about the feel of one in your hands.”
“I happen to agree.” I look at the cover. “A biography of Michelangelo? The Ninja turtle?”
She grins. “It’s very good, actually.”
“I like his unfinished sculptures. The figures look as if they’re trying to climb out of the marble.”
“That’s exactly what Michelangelo said he was doing.”
“‘I saw the angel in the marble, and carved until I set him free?’”
Her eyes meet mine. “Exactly.”
I hold her gaze for a moment. This girl has always fascinated me. After I asked her out and she turned me down, I had to watch her dating other men, and then when she settled on Cory, I assumed she was lost to me. I’ve tried to move on… but I’ve thought about her often. The one who got away.
