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“Taylor!” She saw me finally, and with the most ungraceful leap I had ever seen, came towards me, barrelling into my chest to envelop me in a bear hug. “You made it. Isn't this place neat, isn't it…” Her words were even more slurred than they had been an hour ago when she had called. Burping into the back of her hand, she giggled. “Come on, let's dance. You know everyone here, don’t you?” She motioned towards the table, and I smiled a hello at them all. Yeah, I knew them, but we weren't friends. They were Annie’s work colleagues and friends, not mine. Still, it was nice to be invited.
Looping my arm through hers, I let her lead me forward, but I barely heard her garbled words over the pounding music and loud chatter. Everyone was having such a good time already, but I just felt uneasy. Like I didn’t belong.
“I'm going to get a drink, ok?” Untangling myself from her arms, I didn’t wait for the reply. A drink was what I needed. They were all in the party mood already, and I hadn't had a single drop. That’s why I was feeling so out of place, that and, of course, what I had just found out.
Weaving my way through the tables and the groups of people that were already enjoying a few Friday night drinks after work, I finally managed to squeeze myself into a space at the crowded bar. Right between a woman who had just spilt something bright red down her white dress and a man in jeans and shirt. There was nothing particularly threatening about him. A normal man out with his friends. I gave him the smallest of smiles as an apology for getting in his space, and he ignored me totally. Somehow that made me feel better. If he had eyed me up, my overactive imagination would have kicked into overdrive again. I wanted nothing more than to relax and forget everything I had found out that day.
“If you damp it down with soda water, it shouldn’t stain.” I told the girl. She looked at me like I was crazy and I remembered too late where I was. You didn’t talk to strangers here in the city. It wasn't done and even after being here for years, it was still alien to me. I was a friendly person, talking to people came naturally. Sighing as she gave me another dirty look, I gave my order to the barman hovering in front of me.
“She's part of the party at table two.” The man at my side said, still not looking at me. “Put it on that tab.”
I opened my mouth to thank him, and the words died on my lips. With a closer look, I realised there wasn’t anything ordinary about him at all. He was gorgeous, like drop–dead gorgeous. His blue eyes looked like they were cut from sapphires.
“Um, thank you but–”
“No problem at all.” He thrust a well–manicured hand in my direction, complete with a watch that, at a guess, cost more than my apartment. “I’m Gio. I own Kudos.”
TAYLOR
Kudos was everything they had plugged it to be and more. And as the after–work crew left for home and the serious partiers began to file in, the atmosphere changed. It became less intimate and more…well just more. Annie, of course, was well on her way to being black out drunk, but at least she had stopped dancing on the table. The dancing was still happening, but it was more interspersed with stumbling on her heels now.
I had danced as well, but three drinks in and I was beginning to feel woozy. Not that I was a big drinker anyway, but I could usually handle more than three white wine spritzers. I was putting it down to the stress of the day and everything I had found out. It was the only possible explanation. That plus the fact I’d barely eaten anything all day. Nothing new there, but today had been particularly stressful. So, I had sat down and let the others enjoy themselves pretty early on. Not that I wasn’t enjoying myself, because I was. It was just in a different way to Annie and her friends.
“Are you ok?” The voice was quiet but somehow, I heard it over the pounding music. Startled, I whirled in my seat to find the man I had been speaking to earlier hovering in the chair next to me. His face was still as handsome, but it was a little blurry now. Mutely, I nodded.
“Are you sure?” Without waiting to be asked, he pulled out one of the chairs. The sharp scraping sound made me flinch. God, my head was hurting. Maybe that was why I felt so woozy. Maybe I had a migraine coming on. I hadn't had one for years, but I used to suffer pretty badly. “Because you don’t look so good.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he studied my face. “I didn’t mean it like that. You’re a pretty girl.”
Was he coming on to me? My eyes flashed up towards his face. It sounded like he was, but his face was impassive. Holding up his hands, Gio, the owner of Kudos, leaned back. “I'm not trying to chat you up, Taylor. I'm a happily married man.”
“Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief. Of course, I would have been flattered if he was, but I wasn’t known for my discerning taste in men. Especially tall, dark, handsome men. Just look where that had got me last time. “Well, that’s good. I don’t have wonderful taste in men, and a girl can never be too careful.”
The edges of his mouth twitched upward in a smile that seemed almost mocking. “You are right, a pretty girl like you should be more careful.”
His words were innocent enough, but I did a double take, squinting my eyes so I could glare at him. Maybe it was the way the strobe lights cut across his face, but he almost looked like he was grinning at me. It made me feel uneasy. I edged my seat away, suddenly uncomfortable.
“But not from me. Like I said, I'm happily married and have a child on the way.” His blue eyes narrowed on Annie and her friends, dancing wildly and paying us no attention at all. “No, it's not me you should be worried about.” Slowly, he turned his head back to face me. “Do you know what I'm saying, Taylor?”
I didn’t, but it felt like a threat. Even when he was smiling at me, it felt like one. It was preposterous, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.
“What did you say your surname was?”
There it was again, the mocking, condensing smile. The one that said much more about me than it did about him. Was this what paranoia felt like? Would I forever be seeing mafia and mob connections in every smartly dressed dark–haired man I came across?
“I didn’t. Is my name important to you for some reason, Taylor?”
How many times had he said my name now? Two, three? It was hard to keep up with my mind whirling the way it was, and the strange thing was that I didn’t remember giving it to him. Maybe I had before the drinks scrambled any reasonable thought.
I shook my head. “No, of course not. It's just you know mine is Taylor–”
“Taylor Lawson.”
I froze. I may have forgotten I'd given him my name, but I knew full well that I hadn't given him my full name. “How…?”
“We have a friend in common,” Gio said with a smile that belied the terrifying implications his words had. “I mean, I've known him longer, but I think you may know him better?”
