“You…what?” I suddenly felt like an idiot, not knowing how to respond to Neil’s advances. I was tongue-tied, and my brain seemed to have slowed down considerably. Under Neil’s gaze, it was hard to concentrate.
“Did you try the scotch I sent you?” he asked, quickly changing gears. “I hope I’m not being too straightforward, but I’d really like you to reconsider. A drink is just that...a drink.”
“I, huh...” I stammered, averting his gaze and pushing my back against the wall. With one hand in my pocket, I did my best to remain as calm as possible. “I mean…it’s not that I don’t appreciate you asking me out, but I don’t date Patrons. It just makes things easier for everyone.”
“Forget about the Patron thing,” he continued, almost as if the club was nothing but a detail to him. True to himself, he didn’t seem to care for all the bureaucracy around a Patron-Consort relationship.
“I can’t do that,” I insisted, now looking at the digital panel mounted over the elevator doors. The numbers kept on climbing up as we made our way up the building but, at the same time, the elevator felt as if it was slowing down. Either the universe was conspiring to push me and Neil together, or my mind had already started playing tricks on me.
“I get it. You’re not a Consort, and maybe you don’t want to have your name on a contract and be someone’s playtoy. I’m not asking for that. If I wanted a regular Consort, I would just sign up for one of the events. But I’m asking you out, Alex,” Neil continued, still turned to me. His smile was driving me mad, and I had to use my willpower to stop my eyes from going straight to his lips. “What are you so afraid of?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to reply, but that was when the elevator screeched to a halt. There was a loud noise coming from outside it, and the lights went out for a fraction of a second. A moment later and the emergency lights came on.
Just perfect.
I knew that, sooner or later, this elevator would give me a headache.
“This is what I’m afraid of,” I frowned, folding my arms over my chest. “Getting stuck in an elevator while I should be working.”
“People say I’m a workaholic,” Neil laughed, “but I think you might be gunning for that title.”
“No, I’m just…”
“Driven?”
“Driven,” I echoed, my heart beating faster and faster. There was no escaping him now. The universe was definitely conspiring against me, no doubt about it. “I like to do things right.”
“So do I.” He drew a short breath, not saying a word while he looked into my eyes, and only then he continued. “Then why don’t we do things right, Alex? If you really don’t want me to take you out, that’s fine. I’ll back off. But I don’t think that’s the case.”
“I…” I trailed off, my throat growing dry.
“If you don’t want this,” he continued, lowering his voice as he took one step toward me, closing the distance between the two of us, “just tell me right now, and I’ll back off.”
“I shouldn’t date Patrons,” I said, making an effort to push the words out of my mouth. It wasn’t exactly working: why the hell had I said I shouldn’t date Patrons, when what I needed to say was that I don’t date Patrons and I don’t break my own rules? “Especially those that follow me.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” he asked, his eyes never leaving mine. I tried to think of something to say, but my heart was beating so damn loudly that I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts.
Slowly, his smile widening as he did it, Neil took one hand to my face. I felt his fingers brushing against my skin, and my heart almost burst out of my chest. I should’ve pushed him away, but I didn’t even move. I simply felt my eyelids drooping, my lips parting, and then…
We kissed.
He parted my lips with the tip of his tongue, and I did the only thing I could do: I surrendered. His hand left my face only to rest on my hips, and I felt a maddening heat spread all over my body. I was more than ready to return his kiss, to let ‘shouldn’t’ turn into ‘must’, and—
With a screech, the elevator chose that moment to start making its climb up the building once more. Neil and I jumped back instinctively, and just a couple of seconds later the doors slid back to reveal the club’s floor.
“We can’t do this,” I breathed out, a knot in my throat. My heart was racing at a thousand miles per hour, and my brain seemed close to turning into mush. I couldn’t think straight, but I knew I had to put a stop to the madness.
“One date, Alex, and that’s it.”
“No, Neil,” I whispered, forcing the words out from between my lips. “One date is one date too many. That’s not me.”
With that, I marched out of the elevator.
7
Neil
“I’m hungry,” Idina said, throwing her head against the headrest while she blew raspberries. Her sister nodded her agreement, but she didn’t even raise her head—she was far too busy playing with the radio, phone in her hand as she jumped from song to song. Some were from Mike’s new album, the others were from some pop singer I didn’t quite recognize.
“We’re almost there,” I said with a smile, exchanging a glance with Idina through the rearview mirror. “You can leave that one on,” I then told Iris, one of Mike’s best solos blasting through the speakers. The man could be my ex-husband, sure, but there was no doubting he was a god whenever he walked on stage.
“Granny just texted me a picture,” Iris frowned, jabbing at her phone screen with her thumb.
“A picture?” I asked, raising both my eyebrows. My mother could be one of the wisest people I’d ever come across, but she had always looked at smartphones with a healthy dose of skepticism. No wonder—the word ‘emoji’ was enough to leave her scratching her head.
“Yeah, of her face.” Holding her phone in front of my face, Iris let out a bright laugh. She then showed the picture to Idina. “She really sucks at this, Dad.”
“You can give her a crash course on smartphones this summer,” I told the girls as I drummed my fingertips against the steering wheel: the guitar had given way to an elaborate drum solo, and I simply couldn’t help myself.
“God, we’re still ages away from the summer,” Idina said. “Let us go now, Dad.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I smiled. “Remember our deal. You girls get good grades, do your homework on time, and we’ll all spend a full month at the Isle of Skye.”
“It’s not like you’d ground us if the only thing we got were straight Fs,” Iris laughed, finally lifting her eyes off her phone.
“Don’t try me,” I dared her, even though I couldn’t help but return her smile. She was right. Our annual trip to the Isle of Skye had become a tradition of sorts, and I needed it just as much the girls. Besides, their grandmother would just pay for their tickets and smuggle them out of the country if I decided to ground the girls. There was no defying the Macdonough elders, that much was for sure. The same applied for any Macdonough, really: we were obstinate and relentless, and we didn’t stop at anything in order to get what we wanted.