AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
Liam
After meeting with the wedding planner, I’d hoped Silver and I could settle in for a night of dancing and champagne, while we waited for an opportunity to help us win the Magnum account back. This wedding belonged to the daughter of one of the Magnum founders, Tobias Donovan. A straight shooter who loved crunching numbers. And also loved crushing his opponents. But I’d won him over once. I could do it again. I just needed to hear how things were going between Magnum and Telaros because if their treatment of men and their sales executives was any hint, Magnum could not be happy with them. That is why I was here. To overhear the juicy bits that you don’t hear in business meetings or luncheons. And to dance and drink champagne with Silver, who had disappeared from my side, I noticed.
The wedding was in the ballroom of one of the more luxurious Magnum hotels, which had a royalty theme. How fitting for three of the richest families in the country. I scanned the crowd, looking for Silver. It shouldn’t be hard to find her in that stunning blue dress. I only hoped she didn’t run into the bride because they did not like to be outshined. No doubt the Magnum bride was more than a little spoiled, too.
I spotted Silver talking to a rather tall, well-build guy. Wait. That was Tobias Donovan’s son. I’d heard about him. A real player, very suave with the women. And he was talking tomySilver. I took a step forward, but someone’s arm held me back.
“Where are you going, handsome?” a deep voice asked.
Uh oh.
I was petrified to turn around. Whoever was talking to me sounded like they’d smoked five packs of cigarettes a day and had somehow lived to the ripe age of ninety-eight years old. And... was she flirting with me?
I turned around to discover I wasn’t too far from the truth. She’d probably been a real looker... a hundred years ago. She reminded me of my great- grandmother, who I adored. But you know, I just wasn’t into older women.
“How’d you like to join me on the dance floor? We can do a little cha-cha, mambo-mambo,” she said, shimmying her thin frame.
Oh my God, she was flirting. I nearly spit out my champagne.
“I told my niece to make sure they played some salsa songs too. That’s my favorite,” she said. “They should. As long as my brother, Tobias didn’t choose the band. He’s so boring.”
Oh no. She was Tobias’s sister? There was no way for me to escape now.
“I’m Maribel,” she said, putting out her thin hand. The other held a long cigarette.
She wore a long black gown with a full skirt. She had a Mallen streak of white in the front that fell over her forehead. The rest of her hair was a heavily dyed jet black. She reminded me of Cruella De Ville. But friendlier. At least, that is how I interpreted the three winks she’d given me when I’d turned around. Or maybe she just had an eye twitch. At this point, I think I would have preferred the real Cruella De Ville. Fewer complications than having to deal with Tobias’s eccentric sister.
“Come on, big boy, let’s dance.”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the crowd with more force than I thought her thin frame would have possessed. I looked back to see the playboy making moves on Silver. Double whammy. I felt like crying.
When we reached the dance floor, her command in the family was apparent. She instructed to band to play a song in Spanish. I had no idea what was coming next. They played a few notes and... oh crap. Was that a tango? I didn’t know how to tango.
“Um, Maribel? I don’t know how to do this dance. I can barely do the bus stop and...”
She whipped me around the dance floor as it cleared. Was that a rose in her teeth?
She pulled the rose out of her mouth for a second. “I’ll teach you, baby,” she said.
Teach me? It took years to learn the tango. I looked around to see no one else on the dance floor. No one else. I had promised the wedding planner that I would not draw attention to myself. Now I was going to tango with the aunt of the bride, an ancient woman dressed in black with a red rose in her mouth, who had no business trying to teach me the tango. Especially in front of the all the wedding guests. At her niece’s wedding, no less. I was doomed. Our pitch for Magnum was going to fail before we even got started.
I stared at the woman as she began to writhe to the music. Oh. Dear. God. I was going to have to run for it. There was no other option.
“Liam, there you are!” I heard some angelic voice come out of the crowd. I looked over to see my sweet savior, Silver, pushing her way through the crowds that had gathered to see my doom unfold. Thank all the deities in every religion. Surely, I could get out of it now.
“Hi?” I said, unsurehowwe were going to get out of this one.
Silver sauntered over to me and slid her arm around my waist. “You can’t do the tango, darling. Remember what happened last time with your back?”
I looked up at her and never in my life had I been happier to see anyone. And never had I thought Silver had looked more beautiful. I could almost envision a halo around her head. I let out a laugh that almost sounded hysterical. She dug her nails into my waist. Oh well, the devil was still in there, after all.
I looked around at the crowd and shrugged. “Bad back,” I said, hunching over and pointing to my back as if that would get me off the hook. I looked over at Maribel, who was slinking closer to me like a panther. A panther doing the tango. It dawned on me that she probably was hard of hearing and hadn’t heard a word of what Silver had said.
“Let’s go,” I whispered to Silver. “I can’t allow this to happen. I can’t even begin to imagine the consequences.”
Quite suddenly, the band ended the song. The lead singer announced the arrival of the bride and groom. Maribel stopped mid slink and stepped back to allow her niece and the groom to take the dancefloor.
