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"The club we visited yesterday. Alexander has been going there regularly for years. My first instinct was to pass this information on to the local press, so there would be a nice article about the man left at the altar by his fiancée. But... that is not my decision to take."
This time she sat up instead of just continuing to turn her head in my direction. "You knew he was going there and you took me anyway?"
"Because I also knew he wasn't going to be there. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it. I just wasn't going to let him keep telling you what to do and where to be comfortable."
Audrey exhaled loudly. "As much as I'd like to be upset about it… I was having too much fun for that. And for him to go there and then in the next breath accuse me of being spoiled and sick... well, that's something that doesn't really surprise me about him."
Of all the reactions I had imagined, this was the one I had not expected. Audrey was calm. She did not let her emotions get the best of her, or even feel personally attacked.
"Maybe he knew it wouldn't work. So he overdramatized what he found and gambled that it would work."
"But that doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole."
"Do you really want me to hold that against him? And destroy part of his career just because he hides his true nature so well?"
"He threatened to do just that."
Audrey curled her lips into a smile. "The difference is, I'm not like him. You know what I mean? Even though I sometimes think about how nice it would be to get back at him for his behavior, I would never do it. With each passing day, I gain more distance. I still care, but eventually I will reach that point..."
"Last night helped you, didn't it?"
"That was the intention behind it, right? Kaia was an inspiration to me. She does what she wants. She doesn't apologize for having two men at her side. Just like they don't get into a discussion about being married to each other and still having a wife. Which is not to say that I need a second husband or a wife. I had fun, but I don't think it makes me question my sexuality."
"So you want to take her as a model for yourself?"
Audrey made a hand gesture that probably meant that she would, at least in part. "I don't plan on sitting down at the table with my parents and telling them I've turned my sex life around a hundred and eighty degrees."
"Are you going to apologize?"
She raised an eyebrow. "For what? Alexander did me a favor. He didn't have to treat me that way, but if we put that aside.."
"Why don't you join me then?" It was an easy idea and at the same time an option I didn't want to deny her.
Shaking her head, she refused. "It's too early for that. The more distance I have, the easier it will be for me to have the upper hand when the time comes to talk."
It was interesting how she behaved when she had not been near her parents' home for some time. In all the years we had known each other, the influence had always been clear. She had bowed to what her parents had asked of her, had rearranged her personality to make them happy. And now she was the woman I had always seen in our private conversations.
I felt something like pride. "Then I guess I have no choice but to tell you to behave while I'm gone."
Amused, she looked at me. "Lei, by now you should know what telling me what to do leads to."
The exact opposite. Maybe that's why I couldn't keep my mouth shut and found myself testing this theory repeatedly. Last night she had subdued a part of herself, but that was far from what I really wanted to see from her one day.
We had been moving in circles for so long that now it felt like a damned electric shock whenever we touched. Getting closer to each other. Testing certain boundaries, all of which gradually evaporated because they had lost their raison d'être.
"You could have dinner with me tonight."
"Is that a request? A question?"
"An observation. Unless you'd rather have dinner with my father. But I can guarantee he'll keep his hand under the table to himself. I probably won't."
The kitsune mask was an illusion. What would have suited her much better would have been a devil mask. Little horns growing out of her head that gave her words and charm the appropriate direction.
Normally, this would have elicited a pretty clear response from me, but her views on the matter were still intact. Not only did I respect that, no, I made sure to follow it to the letter. If anything was going to change, it had to come from her. Until then, I practiced restraint and made mental notes of every time she aroused that desire in me and I could not give in.
Finally, I settled for grabbing her chin and pulling her against me until our noses almost touched. She immediately gasped, which in turn made me smile. It was after a short moment, during which I had deliberately made her wait, that I gave her a kiss.
Audrey
