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“Thanks, Mr. Merritt…I mean Matt. Natalie took me to Urban Outfitters after school. We had so much fun shopping. She even bought you a present.”
Matt’s brows shot up. “Oh really? What?”
Tanya winked. “You’ll have to find out for yourself.”
My husband’s eyes met mine, and for the first time in ages, I felt a spark of excitement. Wearing the sexy lace lingerie I’d purchased today, I squeezed my legs together under the table to quell the tingly sensation. God, it felt good! Made me think of all the good times, and the first time we met.
As if Tanya had been reading my mind, she asked, “How did the two of you meet?”
My breath hitched in my throat. I took a long sip of my wine, and so did Matt. His eyes glinted with a hint of desire and he twitched a wry smile. I think he was reminiscing about our very first encounter.
“Come on!” coaxed Tanya. “Tell. I really want to know. I bet it was really romantic.”
Paige and Will exchanged eye rolls. “Do we seriously have to hear this story again?” asked Paige.
We’d told it countless times. At holiday gatherings. Dinner parties. Family picnics. Anabel, the romantic, could never get enough of it. Paige, the cynic, had grown sick of it. Will quite frankly didn’t care one way or the other.
“It was love at first sight,” my husband began, setting down his wineglass and ignoring Paige’s protest.
“Really?” asked Tanya, all starry-eyed.
“Yes,” I replied. Lust was more like it.
“Where did you meet?”
Matt answered. “Here, in Los Angeles. At a…um…toy expo.”
Thank God he didn’t say it was an erotica fest. Filled with sex toy exhibitors.
“Is LA where you’re both from?”
“No,” said Matt. “I’m from San Francisco…Nob Hill.”
Snob Hill, I mused as he continued.
“My parents still live there. And Nat’s from Palm Springs.”
Well, that’s what I’d told him. And the kids. It was close enough.
“How did the two of you meet?”
“Nat was assisting the company that I was thinking of investing in at the trade show. Demonstrating the breakthrough product they’d developed. I was in VC at that time.”
“Venture capitalism,” said our exchange student, proudly.
Matt looked impressed. “You’re a smart girl, Tanya. I’m sure neither Will nor Paige would have known that.”
Sitting side by side, Paige and Will exchanged a look as if they were silently communicating with one another. To my frustration, they did this often. Oblivious to them, Tanya carried on.
“I saw that on your LinkedIn profile and looked it up.”
I found it a tad uncomfortable that Tanya had researched us, but I suppose any bright exchange student would want to know about the couple she was going to spend a year abroad with. I bet she’d googled me too. At most, she’d learn about my philanthropic activities and see the myriad photos of me and Matt at the many five-hundred-dollar-a-plate benefits I’d hosted. Thankfully, she’d never be able to find anything about me prior to our marriage. I’d successfully buried my past under layers of lies. Had Matt known about it, I’d never be where I am. Who knows how my life would have turned out? Happily ever after is not promised to those who come through the school of hard knocks, especially someone like me.
“I was a trade show model,” I interjected, getting back to the story. Sometimes, I used to do “adult” stuff, the bucks too great to pass up, though I’d hated every minute. The money had allowed me to transform myself. Straighten my teeth. Lighten my hair. Buy some decent clothes. Get a place of my own far away from where I grew up.
Matt had no clue.
Tanya’s eyes widened. “Wow! You were a model? Because when I went online, I didn’t see you in any runway shows or fashion magazines.”
