Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (21 page)

“
Men,” she said
instead.

“
Yeah,” Samantha
said smiling at her in shared commiseration. “Can’t live
with them, can’t kill them.”

Adriana laughed obligingly and then walked away.
She had a lot to think about.

*****

“
We would like to thank
everyone for coming tonight,” Jan Van der Roodt said in his
vote of thanks and then announced how many millions had been raised
for the victims of the Blood Diamond trade to raucous applause. He
then wished everyone a lovely evening and announced that they were
free to leave at their leisure.

Daniel came up to Meaghan and Dean as they sat
talking at their tables, heads close together.

“
Hey girlfriend, you
haven’t danced with me tonight,” he said holding out his
hand. Meaghan looked at Dean for permission to leave him and then
smiled and reached out to take Daniel’s proffered hand.

“
So this has been fun,”
she ventured.

“
It hasn’t been too
bad”, he shrugged.

“
Hey, Bain brought you to
a function where his friends, colleagues, peers and family are in
attendance. It’s a good day.”

“
He hasn’t danced
with me once,” Daniel said sadly.

“
I think that’s
more about him than you. Just being here with you is a statement, you
know? He probably didn’t want to bombard people’s faces
with your over the top gayness,” she consoled.

“
There are other
homosexuals in this room,” Daniel pointed out.

“
Maybe. But one thing I
learned pretty fast in this life is that you can never compare your
situation to other people’s situations. That way lies madness,”
she advised Daniel.

“
I know that. And
normally I don’t even think about it – but normally Bain
doesn’t treat me like just another friend he happened to bring
to the event and not his boyfriend,” Daniel’s piercing
gray eyes were shiny with unshed tears.

“
You’ll get there
Danny; I promise you – you will,” Meaghan said making a
mental note to give Bain a piece of her mind.

“
I know,” he said
but not like he meant it. He looked down at her with a  pained
smile. “I’m so glad we have you to talk to.”

Meaghan smiled back at him. “We’ve
both had crazy evenings; it hasn’t been easy to maneuver with
all the crazy that’s been going on. I think we should probably
not do too much thinking right now.”

“
You’re probably
right,” Daniel said but he still sounded miserable. “When
he goes home, he’ll probably want some.”

Meaghan stared at him, “You say that like
you have no choice but to give it to him.”

Daniel shrugged.

Meaghan glared at him, “Look Danny, Bain is
my friend and I know you’re not saying he would force you-“

“
Of course he wouldn’t
force me. It's just he would expect –“

“
God Danny don’t
tell me you feel like if he wants then you have to. I mean…you’re
a guy; you weren’t even socialized that way.”

Daniel laughed softly and looked down. “I
guess…sometimes…I feel like Bain is this…amazing
architect, great all around guy, sensitive, generous; and what am I
except good looking? If I don’t sleep with him then what good
am I to him?”

“
Jeez Danny low self
esteem much?” Meaghan exclaimed in genuine distress. “Please
don’t tell me Bain told you that.”

“
He didn’t. he
wouldn’t,” Daniel grimaced. “I guess these are old
hang ups. My own shit. I need to take care of it myself.”

“
You really do Danny
because you’re one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever
met and if you were straight or I was a gay man, I’d totally
fight Bain for you so don’t you go saying that all you’re
good for is looking good,” Meaghan chided.

“
Don’t let Dean
hear you say that,” Daniel smirked.

“
I don’t care if he
does; it's true. You are great and you need to believe that.”

“
Thanks girlfriend,”
Daniel said with a shy smile.

“
No. Thank you Danny for
being exactly the guy Bain needs in his life. Never doubt your
importance to him…or to me,” she pressed.

Daniel just looked down, the smile playing on his
lips like he wasn’t really aware it was there. Meaghan leaned
forward so she could look into his eyes.

“
You believe me right?”
she asked.

He looked up to meet her honey brown eyes with his
piercing gray ones, “Yes.”

They got home at 4am, what with the various
goodbyes that took the form of conversations that just couldn’t
wait. Bain and Meaghan made a date to hold a post mortem on Monday
since Sunday was definitely blocked off for sleeping in and recovery.
Meaghan made a point of telling Bain to treat Daniel like a lady and
he responded with guilty agreement and a meaning-loaded glance that
let her know that Daniel would feature prominently in their post
party breakdown. Smith made a point of kissing her on both cheeks in
the French manner and expressing his happiness that she’d come
for the do within hearing of his parents and Poppy’s mother. He
even went so far as to introduce her to  Jonathon Winchester,
his father. His mother drifted off strategically before he could
introduce her as well. Bella smiled from the sidelines in her
fiancé’s arms and gave her a side shrug as if to say,
“What else could you expect?”

If someone were to ask Meaghan directly she would
say that she would expect a little civility. I mean it was like these
people were so used to getting their own way in everything that the
slightest glitch in their plans led to epic sulking. I mean hadn’t
they ever heard of ‘man proposes, God disposes'?

There were some cameramen outside the museum,
waiting on guests to depart so they could take photos. Perhaps they
were paparazzi, who knew? There were some celebrities among them
after all, it would make sense that the paps would want to take pics.
Meaghan wondered if she should shrink into the background while the
cameras were snapping but Dean wound his arm around her and pulled
her close, so Meaghan figured that he didn’t mind. He even
paused on the step with her so that the cameramen could take as many
pictures of them as they wanted. Meaghan tried not to worry if she
was displaying her good side or not or whether her dress was draped
right or what people would say about her when they saw the picture
but it was hard not to.

“
Who’s the
girl?”

“
Are you going
steady?”

“
What happened between
you and Samantha Crawford?”

“
Is it serious?”

The questions followed them as the cameras flashed
and photographers ran after them. Dean mostly just ignored them and
ushered Meaghan forward. Microphones were thrust in her face as
people asked her questions. She knew intellectually that Dean was a
handsome young billionaire and so inevitably people were interested
in his love life but this was the first time she’d come face to
face with public interest; right in her face and she maybe wasn’t
enjoying it as much as people might think she might. She just hoped
she didn’t trip and fall or hit her head on one of the
ubiquitous microphones. Suddenly, they turned a corner and there was
no-one surrounding them except other guests waiting for their cars.
There must be some invisible velvet rope whose threshold they’d
just crossed.

“
Let’s go home,”
Dean whispered in her ear and she nodded her agreement. He took her
hand and led her through the throngs to where the valet was waiting
with their car keys.

*****

Adriana watched them go with a considerable amount
of chagrin. Dean had barely exchanged two personal words with her
this evening and she was…displeased.  She needed to do
something to ramp up his interest levels but she currently had no
idea what. Jan came to stand next to her.

“
I think you should give
up the dream of becoming Mrs. Dean Wesson, Ad,” he said.

“
Why would I do that?”
she asked him.

“
Maybe because he’s
clearly completely besotted with that black girl,” Jan said.

“
For now,” Adriana
said.

Jan turned to smile at her, “Oh Adriana,
clearly you’ve never seen a man in love.”

Adriana frowned at him, “That’s shows
how much you know. It’s a rebound relationship.”

Jan laughed, “Shows how
much
you
know.
He left his girlfriend of
fifteen years
for this one. You don’t do that unless you got bit bad.”

Adriana stared at him in stupefaction and then
back at the duo as they got in Dean’s vehicle. Her face fell so
comically that Jan couldn’t help doubling over with laughter.
“If you hurry though, I’m sure you can snag some other
billionaire. I saw quite a few people checking you out tonight,”
he teased.

Adriana flipped him off and then went off in
search of her own car. Time for plan B.

*****

Meaghan flopped on the couch and put her feet up
on the coffee table, waiting for Dean to stop pottering about
checking security settings, light switches, anything he could find to
stall this talk. Meaghan let him delay the inevitable as much as he
could, amusing herself by imagining the next thing he’d find to
do. At last resort he could always whip up a pot of coffee.

“
Coffee?” he asked
her right on cue.

She laughed to herself before nodding her head and
he went to the kitchen to watch over the coffeemaker as the coffee
came to boil. Clearly it couldn’t do it without his
supervision. Meaghan adjusted herself to be the most comfortable on
the soft leather couch and put on CNN. Perhaps she could create some
perspective by watching really bad news – like that
disappearing Malaysian plane or the war in Ukraine. Heavy stuff which
really mattered as opposed to a few lies and omissions by her darling
boyfriend.

Dean walked in with the coffee and placed her cup
carefully in front of her. It was brimming with cream and he’d
clearly taken his time to do it just right for her. She decided to
award him ten points for that. Since lying was like minus a thousand
points it really wasn’t much but it was something. Dean picked
up the remote and changed the channel to a music channel instead. A
black girl with flaming red hair was running through a field as she
sang in a fiery contralto;

Want you to MAKE ME FEEL!

Like I’m the only girl in
the WOORLLD!

Like I’m the only one that
you’ll ever LOOOVE!

Like I’m the only one who
holds your HEARRRT!

Only Girl in the World

Meaghan could totally relate. What girl didn’t
want to feel like that? She turned her attention back to Dean, and
drew a breath. Time to get to business.

“
So,” she said and
picked up her coffee to taste. It was perfectly made and she added
another five points for attention to detail.

“
So,” Dean
repeated.

“
Why did you lie to me
about the recreation center?” she asked at once.

“
I didn’t lie,”
he protested at once. “I just didn’t tell you.”

“
Why?” Meaghan
asked.

Dean looked off into the distance. “I always
feel like that’s the wrong question. Isn’t that what they
say in therapy? The why question is the wrong one?”

“
Are you going to stall
all night? Because if so I’d much rather just go to sleep and
break up with you in the morning.”

Dean smiled. “If you weren’t my
girlfriend; if you were just maybe someone I knew who happened to
work at this foundation whose project I was funding, would you expect
that I would tell you about this?” he asked.

“
Of course not. But I’m
not just Jane Public here. I
am
your girlfriend,” she said, sounding a little more intense than
maybe she intended.

 “
Yes you are, but
you’re also an employee and if you knew that your boyfriend was
funding this project would it have made you maybe, self-conscious at
work? Maybe feel like every compliment is because of what I was
doing? Maybe that I was trying to buy you a better job?”

Meaghan thought about it trying to imagine herself
in that situation. “I don’t think I’m that
insecure,” she said at last.

“
Okay maybe not but it
wouldn’t have raised questions in your mind?” Dean
persisted.

Meaghan sat back eyes narrowed, she was silent for
a long while, thinking.

“
Correct me if I’m
wrong, but it sounds to me like you woke up and decided for me how
you thought I’d react to something and on that basis or not,
you decide for me, whether or not I should know something that
concerns me directly?” she said.

Dean went over her words, trying to find a
loophole but closed his eyes finally. “Yes,” he said.

“
I see,” Meaghan
said.

“
Meaghan listen-“
Dean began to say.

“
No, you listen Dean
Wesson; I do not know who you think you are but you do not
ever
decide what is good for me or what I should think or do or
anything
!”
she said.

“
Okay. I’m sorry,”
Dean said.

“
No!” Meaghan
snarled. “You don’t get to say sorry and expect
forgiveness.”