Now that Eric is gone, for now at least, I can bring my attention back to where it belongs. Onmi reina.
“Care for a drink?” I ask, trying to deflect the pissed off look she has on her face as she stands with her arms crossed.
Thrown off, she hesitates for a moment. “Sure, vodka tonic, if you have it, please.”
“Of course, I do. I remembered.” I grin. “Ms. Ricci, you may sit down.”
“I’m ok, thanks,” she says, keeping her arms crossed.
“Sienna, sit down,” I say in a commanding tone that instantly catches her as well as myself off guard. I don’t mean to be so venomous, but I have waited entirely too long for this exact moment to have anything ruin it. Including Sienna herself.
“Seriously?” Sienna says, angered by my abrupt command. I know she is not pleased with me right now, but this banter we have going on only makes the bulge in my pants grow, knocking at the seam of my pants, begging to be released.
“Eric willingly agreed to serve us,” I try to reassure her before making my way over to the bar cart to fix her a drink. Though the shit-eating grin I have plastered on my face isn’t convincing her.
She huffs a frustrated sigh before finally sitting down.
“Do you remember all your employees’ go-to drinks?” she asks.
“No, just the ones that frequent The Sandy Claws,” I say as the ice clanks against the empty glass I have for her before I reach for the bottle of vodka to add to it.
“I wouldn’t call going somewhere once frequenting,” she says. I look back at her and see her rolling her eyes. She looks more like she is fighting what she feels is brewing between us than being genuinely annoyed.
It’s ok, mi reina, in due time, you will be giving in to me. Completely.
“Don’t you want to, though?” I ask, pouring the vodka into her cup.
“Want to what?”
“Frequent The Sandy Claws. You seemed to take in the atmosphere, kind of like you are doing now,” I point out.
She sweeps the smooth, jet-black hair that frames her face back behind her shoulder, as she begins to blush.
Fuck, she is immaculate.
“I’ve always been drawn to darker things, and this place—”
I cut her off. “Has a darkness about it?”
I hand her the glass and sit across from her at the table. She brings the glass to her lips before she answers, “Yes, there is something that feels beautiful and sad within these walls.”
“Well, I’m glad you like my decor style. I like to think that here and at The Sandy Claws, I can be myself, not the version of me I must put on for appearances.”
“Isn’t that exhausting?” she asks with a level of sincerity that catches me off guard.
“Yes, it is,” I say, simply. I don’t even know where I want to go with this yet. The truth is, I have been keeping up appearances and leading a double life for as long as I can remember. Lies have consumed my life so much that at the end of the day, when I stare at myself in the mirror, I only see the demons I have unleashed and no longer the man who once had the stamina to defeat them.
“That was my whole life when my parents were alive. I miss them dearly, but I don’t miss the act they had me put on. Who were they kidding, my father was as crooked as they come,” she confesses.
Oh, I know, but he was nowhere near as bad as my father painted him out to be,I want to say, but I don’t.
I must play this right. I want to come clean, but I can’t just yet. I must see if she is even willing to listen to my plea for redemption before I lay everything out on the table.
“That sounds awful,” I say, distracted with thinking of how exactly I want this evening to unfold.
Eric returns with our appetizers and quickly places each of the cocktail glasses on our plates, purposefully making no eye contact with us.
He leaves the study in a hurry as we begin to eat in silence, staring at each other in between bites.
