Unstuck (39 page)

“Yay,” she clapped and grabbed her purse. “I gotta go but I’ll see you guys later,” she ran to my side and hugged.

“Thank you so much,” she whispered to me and I just nodded. Just like that we saw her leave.

“I’m gonna kill him,” said Patrick looking at me.

“No, you won’t,” I said while finishing my salad. It was delicious. I heard him sigh but didn’t turn to look at him. I was waiting for him to be in a better mood.

“What was that
I’ll eat in the kitchen shit
?” He asked and I turned to look at him and shrugged but he stared.

“After what happened this morning I thought we could be less obvious,” I continued to eat my salad.

“Eating fucking lunch with me it’s not obvious,” bad mood. Very bad mood.

“Well I thought it was,” I said grabbing mine and his plate and took them to the kitchen. I heard him leave and then the door to his office. I knew it was his office because it was closed hard enough to make every single window in the house shake.

“What happened?” asked Miranda while I sat in the breakfast bar to have a coffee.

“Regina is dating a guy 10 years her senior,” I said and Miranda looked shocked.

“I know,” I shook my head “he is in a horrible mood,”

Forty five minutes later I took a cup of coffee to Patrick to his office.

“Here,” I said placing it in front of him. He still looked like crap and I didn’t want to rock the boat so I just decided to leave.

“Lucinda,” he said as I turned around “my tux,” he said and I nodded.

Wow, he was in a terrible mood but I knew that it was more that he was worried of what kind of guy was the man his sister was crushing on (maybe more). I trusted in Regina’s instincts but Patrick knew her better so I had no way of knowing if she had the potential of choosing a douche bag or a gentleman. The gala had an early start time so that meant we had to hurry up to get ready. Well mostly me, I had to hurry up.

I arranged the tuxedo how Patrick liked and walked back to the pool house just to find him in the swimming pool. I shivered because, even though the pool was partially covered and heated, it was freezing! He must have been in need of some time to think. He only did laps when he needed to think about something. I sat on a chair and saw him go from one extreme to the other. I guess he sensed I was watching because he stopped and looked at me.

“You need to relax,” I said leaning on my hands and watching as he got out of the pool and dried himself.

“I know but just the thought of some idiot’s hands all over my sister,” he shook his head “an idiot who is 10 years older than her,” I got up and went over to him.

“I know,” I smiled at him “you should give this guy a chance before making any judgment,” he looked at me and leaned in for a kiss but I took a step back.

“What the hell, Lucinda?” he asked confused.

“Someone could see us, Patrick,” I said looking around.

“You need to relax,” he said mocking me. He grabbed me by the waist.

“Patrick,” I warned him.

“Pepper,” he warned me back.

“I need to get ready for the gala. I know that it takes you 5 minutes to be ready but for some of us it’s a more complicated process,” I said trying to get out of his arms.

“Can I watch?” he asked and I saw a twinkle in his eye. He looked like a horny dog.

“No way. We’ll end up having sex,” I said and he laughed.

“Ok, later tonight,” he said as I walked towards the house’s door.

“We’ll see,” I said and he frowned.

Twenty One

The only good thing about themed galas was that I hadn’t run out of dresses to wear for regular galas so I still had a few choices for that night’s gala. I went with a halter type top in gold and the skirt was ample and flowy in black. I did my hair in a half up do and heavy make up with red lips. I put on some golden pumps and I was ready.

I went into the house only to find Patrick having a drink. He was actually drinking over his sister’s boyfriend.

“So Regina sent you into an alcohol craving?”  I walked towards him.

“Not really,” he said placing his glass on the coffee table on the living room “Come over here,” he said and I walked over and sat next to him on the couch “no,” he shook his head “here,” he said pulling me over his lap.

“Patrick,” I said and he tightened his grip on my waist.

“Don’t Patrick me,” he said really serious.

“Someone can see us,” I said resting my forehead on his.

“I don’t care, Lucinda.” He said closing his eyes. I sighed and let my fears disappear for a moment “Why are you drinking?” I asked. It was weird to catch Patrick having a drink in the middle of the day just because.

“I’m stressed,” he shrugged still with his eyes closed.

“Don’t be,” I tried to look over his watch “It’s getting late,” I said and he finally let go of my waist and decided that we needed to leave. The ride to the gala was uneventful we talked and I tried to distract him from the fact that he was about to meet Regina’s boyfriend.

I was thankful that the gala was small (small in the sense that there was no red carpet and crazy paparazzi) so we went in immediately with no stops. It was elegant all in black and white and I was happy that my dress matched the colors. Once we were inside I wanted to linger near the door and wait for Regina to come and get us but Patrick with all the self esteem and self confidence always walked into any event, place or meeting with  his chin up and looking at everyone like he owned the place. Of course, sometimes he
did
own the place. So there we were wandering around the gala; I was holding on to his arm in hopes that I would be able to stop him if he wanted to punch someone. Everyone recognized him and some came to introduce themselves. Most of the people in there were nice so I thought that maybe Regina’s guy was going to be a nice guy after all.

“Patrick,” we heard Regina’s voice and I felt Patrick tensed as we turned around. I had a fake smile plastered on my face as oppose to the very genuine frown that Patrick had. “Lucy,” she said and hugged me “beautiful dress,” she said looking at it.

“Thank you,” I said still with my fake smile on. Regina hugged Patrick but Patrick barely hugged back mainly because I was holding on to his arm but also because he was waiting for the introduction.

“This is Samuel Henderson,” she said grabbing his arm “Sam this is my brother and his….” She lingered on the introduction and I am sure that my smile fell for a second “assistant,” smile back on “Lucinda Stuart,” she finished.

Sam was a good looking guy; he didn’t look 28 but didn’t pass for an 18 year old kid. He was the opposite of Regina he was as tall as Patrick while she was more on the petite side (just like me, thank you) He was blond with icy blue eyes. I bet their babies would be beautiful although that was a thought I had to keep to myself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Stuart,” he said shaking my hand.

“You can call me Lucy,” I said with my fake smile.

“A pleasure to meet you Lucy,” he smiled.

“And it’s great to meet you Mr. Maynard,” he turned to extend his hand to Patrick who was carefully assessing the guy. I gave a tiny nudge to Patrick and he shook Sam’s hand. At least he wasn’t completely rude.

“Thank you for the invitation, Samuel,” said Patrick. He didn’t ask him to call him Patrick. I guessed he wanted the superiority shown.

“Regina, come, I need to tell talk to you about the chandeliers in the party,” I said after the silence turned awkward. Regina nodded and we left towards the bar where Regina ordered some champagne.

“They need to talk without us women there,” I said. She offered me champagne and shook my head.

“Thank you, Lucy,” she said turning to look at them “Maybe Patrick will realize that Sam is a great guy.”

“They seem to be talking in a civil manner,” I said looking at them. Patrick asked something and Sam talked for an extended period of time and then Patrick would ask something else. At least he was letting him talk.

After a while Patrick and Sam walked towards us and we immediately engaged in a stupid conversation about cake pops.

“Yeah, so, the purple wasn’t good enough for me,” said Regina while I nodded furiously like it was the most important thing in the world.

“Ladies,” said Patrick as he stood behind me and grabbed my waist. I tried, discretely, to take his hand away but he tightened the grip.

“The food is about to be served,” said Sam not even trying to hold Regina’s hand. He was being respectful and I was sure that Patrick would appreciate that.

“Let me put my hand around would you?” he whispered in my ear as we walked to our table.

“We are in public,” I said with my fake smile back on.

“So? I’m tired of hiding, Lucinda,” he finally said what I knew he had been waiting to say.

“Could we not talk about this tonight?” I pleaded and his expression softened.

“Fine. Let’s try to have fun tonight,” he said and I smiled at him. A real smile this time.

We did have fun; we were in the same table as Sam and Regina with some of Sam’s friends and it was a bit awkward because they all seemed to know each other but in the end we got to know a bit more about Sam and we had a nice time.

“You have to admit they look happy,” I said to Patrick while we watched Sam and Regina dancing. Apparently they both knew how to dance. Good for Regina she found someone to dance with, her brothers all hated to dance.

“I don’t know,” said Patrick and I just shrugged. He was grumpy and I didn’t want to make him angrier by stating the obvious: They guy genuinely cared about Regina. “Do you want to go?” he asked and I nodded. Things had gone great but that didn’t mean I was going to stay at a gala.

“You know what I think you need?” I said as we both got in the car.

“What?” he said still in a mood.

“Sorbet,” I nodded and I could feel Patrick’s mood changing.

“Sorbet sounds good,” he smiled “Mike, let’s go get some sorbet,” and there we went. I let Patrick pick the flavors and they were weird: Peanut Horchata and  Michelada. I accepted because he needed the comfort of sorbet but I was afraid that we wouldn’t be eating much sorbet that night. The mere thought of the flavors made me gag.

“Take them to my room,” he said as he saw me walk towards the kitchen with the sorbets I looked at him confused “don’t give me that look, Pepper, please,” I walked over to him and put my hand on his face.

“What’s wrong, Patrick,” I said looking into his green eyes. He seemed worried and hurt.

“You,” what?

“What?” he confused me.

“I want to be able to tell the world that you are mine, Lucinda,” he said. I knew that all color was drained from my face. I knew he wanted to have something more but I was scared of the day he was going to finally come out and say it. That very moment I realized that I had always been scared of that moment.

“We can’t Patrick,” I said shaking my head and taking a few steps back.

“Why not?” he seemed affected by all this.

“You are my boss, a relationship might ruin everything,” I said looking everywhere but him. “I can’t. We can’t. It’s impossible to have all that we have right now and have a relationship,” I wanted to cry.

“It’s not impossible,” he said. His voice softer and warmer.

“It’s, Patrick,” my voice verging on the possibility of sounding hysterical “if this never works, which is very likely because I can’t seem to hold on to any relationship, then everything I have in my life, everything that it’s worth in my life would disappear, I can’t afford that,” I said covering my face with my hands and yes, there were tears. I felt Patrick surrounding me with his arms and I couldn’t help but keep on crying.

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” he said and I shook my head “but we can keep on like this until we realize if this works out. How about that?” I looked up and he was smiling down at me.

“You would do that for me?” I knew I looked like crap but I didn’t care anymore. He smiled and kissed my forehead.

“Yes, I will wait for you,” I smiled back and then he kissed me. “On one condition though,” he said and my smiled disappeared “Sleep over tonight,” he said. I thought about it. What would sleeping over for one day would do to me? No one would see me because it would be a Sunday. He was already doing something for me and that meant a lot.

“Ok,” I said and he kissed me. He grabbed the sorbets that I had left in the table in the foyer and we went up to his room. We had sex, obviously. Mind blowing, passionate, emotional; please don’t screw up this kind of sex. I was glad I didn’t cry at the end because that would’ve been pretty pathetic but it had been different because Patrick had finally said what I knew he had been hiding for a while and it was ok but I couldn’t risk my entire life just because we had fun. If we had a relationship it had to be something semi-permanent and that scared me to death. I was not the kind of woman that did semi-permanent relationships. I was the kind of woman that worked, a lot and got to have a couple of friends. I was the kind of woman that didn’t let her feelings in the middle of her life. I was the kind of woman that hid her feelings. And that was exactly what I was doing and, as in everything I did in my life, I was going to be great at it.