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Chapter 9 - Maddie: Meet the Andersons
I stared down at the ring on my left finger. It had arrived this morning, and I had been staring at it like it was about to bite me.
The ring was what everyone would expect someone like me to have. It was loud, sparkly, and expensive. I had to get insurance for the damn thing.
It was a tear-drop princess cut ring that had a whopping 9 carats on it. The band was made of pure platinum and cost more than most houses in this small town.
I was meeting Marcus’ parents today, and I was nervous. I hadn’t seen him since the little fight we had over the Ashleigh girl.
I had tried to get some intel on who she was from Lily but all she said wasAshleigh was Sarah’s little sister. That name again. The girl in the grocery store had mentioned it. I knew that Marcus had been in love with her, but Lily didn’t elaborate beyond that.
It was like Sarah was a taboo topic. I wondered what happened to cause them to end things? Had it been his fault? Had it been her fault? I didn’t know why I was so interested in his past dating life. It wasn’t like we were actually dating.
I didn’t have a right to know, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to know. There was no way that I was going to ask the source because I knew what he was going to do. He would have just shut me down immediately. So I needed to settle for the little information Lily had given me. Which was basically nothing.
I wanted to push for more info, but I couldn’t do that without letting the plan slip. The fewer people who knew the truth, the better. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Lily, but she could never hide anything from Ethan which was a problem for me.
Ethan couldn’t hide anything from Grayson, whose mother also happened to be one of the biggest gossip this town had ever seen. Another reason was I didn’t like that woman.
A knock sounded from my door, and my heart lurched. I had no idea what I was walking into. The last time I had seen Marcus’ mother, I was about seven or eight. I remembered her being kind and warm—everything my mother wasn’t.
I grabbed my bag and walked to the door. When I opened it, I spotted Marcus standing there with his hands in his pockets. He wore a long-sleeved button-down, and his hair was slicked back a little. His blue-grey eyes were piercing into mine and, for a second, I stood mesmerized by their beauty.
“Hi,” he said lowly.
“Hey,” I breathed, “you look…clean.”
He scrunched his nose up at my compliment, if one could even call it that. To be honest, I was nervous, and words just vomited out of my mouth when I was nervous.
I’ll need to keep that under control tonight,I thought to myself.
“Thank you?” He looked me up and down for a moment. “You look clean, too.”
I had opted to keep things simple. I didn’t want to go all-out crazy because I knew that the Andersons were simple people. They weren’t about the flashy lifestyle, especially Lara Anderson, Marcus’ mom.
I wore skinny jeans and a long-sleeved bodysuit. I had tired my hair up into a messy bun that still looked elegant. Keeping my makeup to a minimum, I had made sure that I looked like a sweet girl next door.
I was far from that, but Lara and Bill Anderson didn’t need to know that.
“Ready?”
I nodded and stepped out of my house. After Marcus lead me to his car and made sure that I was in. He rounded the car and settled into the driver’s seat.
He gave me a strange look, but he didn’t say anything.
Before he started the engine, my hand shot out and placed it on his lap.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “About the other day with Ashleigh. I had no right to say those things, and I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”
He just stared at me and then his eyes moved from my face and followed my arm until they stopped at the hand that was on his lap. I quickly retracted my hand, suddenly feeling embarrassed. I couldn’t help the blush that overtook my face.
“Well, I will be damned. The ice queen does blush, and here I thought that your blood was ice like your heart.”
My mood immediately soured. “You are an asshole. Do you know that?”
“Some say it’s an endearing quality of mine.” He smiled at me which only annoyed me more. This guy was insufferable, and I didn’t like that he got under my skin so easily. But I guess those were the gifts of Marcus Anderson.
I was silent for the rest of the ride. I just watched the houses pass us by. Marcus was also too stuck in his own thoughts to talk.
