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“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” he says with a teasing voice.
I frown, but step aside, and he enters with an infuriating spring in his step.
Dan also has a paper bag, which he takes to my breakfast bar and starts unloading. There are cream cheese bagels and two coffees. Once I snatch the one with my name out of the drink holder and take a swig, I decide not to murder him here and now. It’s a double shot latte with heavy cream and a touch of hazelnut. It’s almost worth being woken up for.
After a second drink, I manage to use my words. “Why the fuck are you here, Dan?”
“I just wanted to be the first one to show you this!” he crows. I hadn’t noticed, but there is a magazine rolled into a tube and crammed into his back pocket. As I sit on a stool and spread a copious amount of cream cheese on my bagel, Dan slaps it down on the table in front of me. The cover is some of the usual nonsense about A-list celebrities, but when I look up questioningly, Dan motions for me to open the magazine. I flip through the pages, Dan watching me like a kid on Christmas. There is nothing of interest until….
In the middle of the magazine there is a feature titled ‘Masquerade Madness?’, and the grainy pictures featured are clearly from Dan’s party. The biggest and clearest picture makes my heart drop; it’s a shot of Roxanne and I dancing, not an ounce of air between us, her looking up into my face and me gazing down at her in adoration. Our masks hide our identities somewhat, but her blond, swept back hair makes her almost instantly recognizable. I skim the article, heart hammering in anxiety, but after a few paragraphs speculating about whether the couple pictured was indeed Roxie and I, it moves on to other, smaller drama. Dan watches me read, not even touching his food as he takes in the moment fully.
“Why do you look so thrilled?” I ask, annoyed.
“Because my party made the news! Thanks in no small part to you and Roxanne, I’m sure, but it credits the masquerade to me and everything.”
“Glad that I could help you out, because this has the potential to be disastrous for me.” I tear the bagel apart with my fingers, feeling frustrated and a touch violent at this outcome. I couldn’t have one night, not even one small dance with my ex-girlfriend without the whole world noticing, it seems. At least our bedroom tryst had gone unnoticed, for now.
“Why? They don’t even positively identify you.”
“It’s pretty clear it’s us, Dan,” I gripe. “And the last thing I want is for my family to know Roxanne and I reconnected in any way, shape, or form. I’m already on the outs with my dad over everything with Patricia; if I’m seen dating her again, it’s all going to blow up in my face spectacularly.”
“Andries, you’re a grown man. You’ve been making decisions that your family doesn’t agree with for years now. Why hide Roxanne? And for that matter, why continue to lie about your major?” He seems baffled, and frustrated just like I am. “Do you actually want to date her or are you just stuck on her because she’s your first love?”
“I’m going to be honest with you, Dan.” I sit my food down, dragging a hand through my hair. “I want to be with her more than anything. I’m tired of pretending like I don’t. But she still runs that agency, and that makes things more complicated, especially to my family, who wants to maintain a squeaky clean image above all else. Even if I wanted to shirk all of my family ties and live a life that is completely true to what I want, I can never shed that connection fully. I’m a Van Den Bosch for better or for worse, and I have to consider that when I make my decisions. Dating a former prostitute and a current brothel keeper, simply won’t fly with my family. Ever. It disgusts them.”
“You have to stop letting your family and their approval dictate your life,” Dan’s tone is serious; a rare thing for him. “They live in the past, man. Step into the future and do what makes you happy. Be with Roxanne if that’s what you want.”
“It’s not only them. I don’t think I could live with her running that business. If we got back together, she’d have to consider selling it. I can’t live, and maybe even raise children, with someone who is in the sex trade. That’s a boundary I won’t cross.”
“Being so biased like that is going to make your life harder in the long run. If you would take a step back and just consider her a successful entrepreneur, it wouldn’t be nearly as hard on you.”
I shake my head. “I can’t help the way I feel, Dan. And my partner for the rest of my life can’t sell sex for a living. It just goes against my core sense of self.”
I can tell he’s annoyed with me, but we’re both interrupted as I get a text. It’s from Roxanne, and it’s too long to be read in the alerts bar, so I unlock the phone to read the entire thing.
Andries, my PA just showed me the magazine. I’m so sorry. If I had known there would be paparazzi, I’d have covered my face completely. I know your family is going through some hardships in the media and I never wanted to add to them. I never intended to make a public scene. Please believe me.
I frown as I read it, feeling guilty that she’d ever think I would blame her for something like this. After the way we broke up, and some of the harsh things I said to her, it’s no surprise she feels the need to walk on eggshells around me. I can only hope that it won’t be that way forever.
You have nothing to be sorry about, I reply.I pulled you onto the dance floor, not the other way around. I took the risk and I take the blame, okay? Don’t beat yourself up. Someone must have sold that picture to the magazine anonymously because it isn’t credited. There is nothing we could have done to stop that.
“She’s upset about the magazine,” I muse to Dan out loud. “That makes two of us, I guess.”
Dan rolls his eyes. “You can’t let me enjoy anything exciting that happens to me, can you?”
My phone goes off again, this time with a call. I hold up the phone so Dan can see the screen, emblazoned with a picture of my sister. “This is exactly why. If your exciting moments get me chewed out by members of my family then no, I’m not going to let you enjoy them.”
He grumbles to himself and eats his bagel while I answer reluctantly. I can almost hear how quickly Elise is breathing the moment the call connects, and it makes me want to both laugh and cry at the same time. She is really feeling some strong feelings, and I’m likely going to bear the brunt of them.
“How could you!?” she screeches. “Is this why you were ghosting Tatiana all night? You gave her one measly dance, with your hands on her shoulders like a freaking high schooler would do, but you had time to dry hump your ex in the middle of the dance floor!? You swore you were done with her!”
“Good morning, Elise,” I deadpan. “Nice to hear from you too, dear sister.”
“I’m in no mood! Tatiana just called me in tears, and I had to walk down to the convenience store and buy a magazine before even getting breakfast! Just answer my damn question!”
“It was just a dance. Nothing more, nothing less,” I lie through my teeth, trying to banish the memories of Roxanne with her legs wrapped around my bare waist.
Her temper cools, but only by a degree or two. “You shouldn’t be interacting with her at all. Anything between the two of you is going to have the tabloids all abuzz, just like they are now. You need to pretend like she doesn’t exist.”
