Twisted Proposal (12 page)

Exiting the store, I waited for Petra and Lexus on a bench out front.

“Addison, is it?” asked a male voice to my left. I turned to see the guy who had been staring at me in the store. He smiled, removing his shades. His pale green eyes clashed with his sun-kissed skin.

“Who wants to know?” I averted my gaze, feeling the heat rush to my face again.
What was wrong with me?

“I do.”

“I’m sure.”  There was no point in looking at him; it would just inflate his already enlarged ego.

He abruptly stood and sauntered off.

              “What are you doing out here?” Lexus asked. The guy was halfway down the hall talking on his cell phone.
Bizarre.

              “I have a headache,” I lied.
What did he want?
He was the only interesting thing I had run across today.

She had two large bags with her, which she dropped to the floor. She sat down next to me. “So where did you want to shop?”

              “I don’t.”

“Let me guess. You’ve never been to a mall?”

              “No, I’ve been to a mall.”
Granted it’d been a few years, but still.

              “Okay, so where did you and your mom go shopping?” She scratched the side of her nose.

              “My mom would just bring clothes home, probably from a thrift store. I never really asked.” I shrugged. Clothes weren’t important to me.

              “My God. No wonder Daddy was freaking out,” she said.

              Petra joined us seconds later and scooped up Lexus’s bags, frowning at me. A man dressed in the same uniform as the valet attendant approached.

“Silver Lexus, license plate, PREP831.” Petra thrust the bags at him.

              “Of course, Madame,” the guy responded, keeping a neutral face.

How rude!
I would have dumped the sacks on the polished floor and told her to take them to her car herself.
I mean, who did these people think they were? Royalty?
If Elizabeth would have been here, she would have no doubt put Petra in her place, causing big scene. I never thought I’d miss her.

“Okay, then. Off you go,” She waved her hand, dismissing him as though he was a bother. Then she turned to us. “Where to next, ladies?”

              “Allow me to shop for you, and I promise you’ll look amazing.” Lexus pulled me along after her.
How could I say no?
 

She dragged me to three more clothing stores and even a jewelry store. Lexus turned out to be worse than her mom. She wouldn’t let me buy the clothes I wanted; instead it I was treated like her dress-up doll. I tried on the clothes she picked and if she liked them, they went home with me.  It was nauseating how they were so frivolous with money.

Chapter Twelve

              “What will you have?” Petra asked, after another grueling hour of shopping. We had stopped at a ritzy French bistro, and she had just advised the waiter in horrible French that we would all like a few minutes.

              Everything in the restaurant was either black or mauve; hanging Boston ferns and paintings of France adorned the walls. It wasn’t a place I would have chosen, because they had the audacity to charge for a plastic cup of water.

The guy in black sat at a table near ours, pretending to stare at a menu.
What was he doing here? Was he following us?
The waiter returned and filled our goblets with water and then began to take our orders.             

“Mademoiselle, for you?” the waiter asked, facing me.

              “
Une salade caesar et du limonade
,” I said in fluent French, making Petra’s mouth fall open. Thank goodness for taking three years of French in high school. I knew it would pay off someday.

              “So you speak French. Any other languages?” Petra pressed when the waiter left.

              “Spanish, some Italian, some Chinese, and some German.” I took a sip of water.
What could I say? Home was ethnically diverse.

              “Your father never mentioned that.” Petra sipped her chardonnay.

              “There’s a lot Stuart doesn’t know about me.” 

              “Of course, there is. I mean, you just arrived last week.” Petra finished her drink and ordered another one. I hoped she wasn't driving us home.

“Mom, it's Jackson Van Buren again,” Lexus said, and we all looked in the direction of her pointing finger.

“That’s nice,” Petra said, sipping her drink.

“I think he’s following us,” I added.

“Why would he be following you? You're nothing. Lexus, on the other hand, he might be interested in,” Petra replied. She caught the waiter's eye and tapped her wine glass for a refill.

“Excuse me?” If we weren’t in such a nice place, she would be wearing her wine. 

“Mom, that’s not true,” Lexus interrupted.

I faced Jackson, my gaze questioning.
What did he want?
He didn’t look away until his phone rang. When I turned back to our table, Lexus criticized me for gawking, but I didn’t care if he was some kind of local celebrity. I wanted him to know he was getting on my nerves. Besides, there was something about the way he zeroed in on me that I didn’t like.

Her lecturing was cut short by the waiter placing our food on the table.

              “Are you going to eat the whole thing?” Petra asked several minutes later.

              “Is there something wrong with that?”
What else was I supposed to do?

              “Do you know how many calories are in Caesar dressing?” Lexus sneered.

              I was tired of their voices. They were so annoying. “I don’t care.”

“Neither did Roxie Moore, but look what happened to her,” Petra said. I gave her a confused look. “My God, you don’t even know who Roxie Moore is?” I glanced at Lexus for help, and she just shrugged. 

“My, my, your mother did keep you in a box.” Petra shook her head in disapproval.

“No, actually, she didn’t. I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced more in my short life than the two of you combined,” I shoved my plate forward and left, darting past the tables of startled diners.
Screw them all.

I was sick and tired of her talking trash about my family. She didn’t even know them. I sat down on a bench outside and low and behold, Jackson Van Buren joined me.

He lit a cigarette but didn’t speak. So I decided to cut to the chase. “Just so you know, I’m not in the mood to know why you’re following me. Just give me one of those, and we’ll call it even.”

Chuckling, he handed me one and even lit it for me. Neither one of us talked for a few minutes. The cigarette had a sweet vanilla flavor mixed with mint.
Interesting.

“You come here often?” he asked.

I took him in, frowning. He was younger than I expected, nineteen or twenty. “Can’t say that I do,” I replied, bored.

“Oh, that’s a shame because you would look amazing in Armani.” His fingers grazed my bare arm. I almost laughed
and stubbed out my cigarette.
Whatever that was.

“Is there something you want, Jackson?”  I leaned closer to him. He seemed surprised that I knew his name. “I mean I’m sure you stalk and flirt with complete strangers all the time, but just so you can save some of your precious time, I’m not interested.” I straightened up.

“And why not?”

“Your whole get--up does nothing for me,” I said, standing, as Petra and Lexus approached.

He narrowed his gaze. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”

“You’re wasting your time, lover boy!” I baited as he walked off.

“Addison, what in heaven’s name are you doing?”  Petra pulled my arm as he strode away. “I can’t believe you would embarrass me like that, and in front of him, of all people.”

I jerked loose. “Look Petra, in case you haven’t noticed I’m not a child. And that guy---”

“That guy happens to be the son of your father’s boss! Now I hope to heck Stuart doesn’t hear about this, young lady! If you ever do anything like this again--" She stopped to answer her ringing phone
.

Lexus shook her head at me and turned to keep up with her mother, who was speed walking to the parking lot.

Thankfully, Lexus drove home while Petra complained on the phone about me to someone.  When she hung up, she twisted around in her seat. “Addison, we will discuss your behavior later tonight.”

I didn’t respond, even though I felt like cussing her out. After we were parked, I flew up to my room, slamming the door behind me.
How dare she treat me like I was some over-privileged brat!

That was the last straw! I was so out of here. Rushing to my closet, I started hurling my stuff into it.

“Where are you going?” Zach asked. I froze.

The bag slipped from my hands as I spun around. “Nowhere.”

“So, you’re just going to bail?”

“No, not exactly.”
What did he care for? He didn’t even like me.

“I know my sis and mom act crazy, but if you give them a chance, they are really great, just misguided.” His brown-green eyes were so honest. I sighed. I had been here all of a week, and as much as I hated to admit it, he was right.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I'm just not used to shopping and stuff.” I shut my closet door. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Just wanted to make sure you were okay. You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. He was a kid; he didn’t need to know my problems. “I’m just a little tired; I’m going to take a nap.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll leave you to it.” After he left, I collapsed on my bed. There were too many changes, so many expectations I didn’t understand. I wished I could go to sleep and wake up somewhere else, like home.
Maybe I could sneak out tonight.

***

Eve walked through the door and dropped her fake designer bag on the wooden table near the door. “We need to talk.”

I hid my college application under my history book and waited for her to start, expecting another story about how she’d been fired.

Instead of speaking, she stomped into the kitchen and started complaining about there never being any food that she liked. Get a better job, I thought, and stayed on the couch. She began pacing in front of me minutes later. “I have something really important to tell you.”

“What? I don’t have all day.” I had to get to sleep and get up early for work in the morning.

“I’m dying.”

Speechless, I met her direct gaze. She was kidding, right?

***

“Addison, wake up,” someone said. I opened my eyes to see Zach standing over me.

“Yeah.” I rolled away from him and sat up, trying to shake the pieces of my disturbing dream. The past never seemed to let me go.

“You need to get ready for dinner.”

              “Why?” I muttered, standing.

              “Because Dad’s boss is coming over, and he wants us to dress up.”

              “Joy.”             

“You weren’t lying about shopping wearing you out?” he teased.

              “I’m not one to spend hours trying on clothes.” Walking, to my closet, I noticed that it was now filled with clothes and shoes. There were still bare spots, but I’m sure if Petra had any say, they would be full in no time.
God forbid I don’t have clothes for every hour of the day!

              “Lexus and Mom could shop all day.” He leaned against the door frame, watching me.

              “I’d believe that.” I sifted through the new clothes, not remembering most of them.
Had I even looked at this stuff?

              “What? Can’t find anything to wear?”

              “More like what
should
I wear?”
Wait, what was I saying?

              “In that case, let me assist you.” He stepped around me and pulled out a light pink dress I didn’t even know I had.

              “Yah think?” I held the dress up. Looking at it, I wondered how the thin fabric would fit me. I didn’t remember trying this one on.
Where did it come from?
I checked for the tag, but there was none.
That’s weird.

“Trust me.”

“If you say so.” I went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. I hung up the dress and sat down on the toilet staring at the dress as if it was going to magically sprout legs and go to dinner without me.
Was I really going to do this? I hated dressing up.

“Everything okay?” Zach asked, knocking on the door five minutes later.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”
Here goes nothing.
I stripped and pulled the strapless garb on over my head. Then I removed the straps from my bra and adjusted the dress where I needed it.

When I spun around, the skirt filled with air and flared out.
Fun.
I paused when I caught my reflection. I moved closer to the mirror. I released my hair from the band and let it cascade over my shoulders. Then I applied light foundation around my eyes to hide my fading bruises, and put on mascara, finishing with a light pink lip gloss I found in Lexus’s stuff. I resembled my mother, minus her eyes. I slid on a pair of white flats that were waiting for me near the bed. I'd have bet Zach pulled these out as well.

After checking his room, which was empty, I headed downstairs and found him thumbing through a magazine in the hall.  He was wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a light pink button-up shirt that seemed to match my dress. 

“You look nice,” I said, causing him to jump.

              “Thanks,” he muttered and looked and his eyes widened.

What was he looking at?
“Please tell me you didn’t plan this or anything?” I gestured at our matching clothes.

“Uh no,” he said, brushing past me. “I’ll meet you outside,” he called over his shoulder.
Weird.
I went to bathroom at the end of the hall, still nervous about how I looked, but when I studied myself in the mirror, I didn't see anything, not even a mascara smudge.
I'm not ready for this,
I thought.
Not at all.

I shut the wooden door and leaned against it. A wave of anxiety rocked my body. The makeup made my eyes too big and lips too red. Not to mention I was wearing a
dress
.
I was a total freak!
I hated dresses. Elizabeth would flip if she saw me now. She had always tried to get me to dress up, and I fought her every step of the way.
Why couldn’t I have glammed up one time for her? Why did I resist her so much?

I sucked in a deep breath.
I could do this.

Angry male voices in the living room stopped me from heading outside, and I tip-toed to the archway of the formal living room to listen.

“You think you’re pretty clever dropping this on me, don’t you? You of all people should know that I do not like surprises,” a man said. I snuck a peek at the scene. Stuart was staring at a taller man with dark hair, whose back was to me.

“I didn’t even know about her until a week ago, and I was going to tell you,” Stuart said with a hint of irritation to his voice. There was a pause.
Were they talking about me?

“You know this might not be a bad idea. Now, Jackson has a choice,” the man said.
A choice between what? Who?
“In the future, I would like you to notify me first, if anything changes,” he continued, and Stuart nodded.

I turned to leave.

“Addison, what are you doing?” Stuart asked. I halted.
Shoot!
I swiveled around and stopped short of entering the room. The man standing next to Stuart put him to shame. His casual clothes fit him perfectly, down to the silver watch he wore on his left wrist. He shifted uncomfortably as our eyes met, and I realized he had Jackson’s eyes, but more direct and focused. I felt like he knew everything about me, things I didn’t even know about myself. My gaze dropped to the floor.