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“IS THAT THE WAY YOU treat all your maids?” Kelly asked as we watched Maria speeding down my driveway in someone else’s Ferrari.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you always treat your employees as if they are family? My mom always warned me about that kind of thing and how easily it can go wrong!”

“I think you are making too much of this. I did ask all of my staff to enjoy the evening with us and if that includes a ride in someone’s Ferrari, then so be it.”

I was going to say something nasty like how Kelly’s mother was now dirt poor and that her advice wasn’t always on the up and up, but then decided against it. I needed to keep my resentment for Kelly’s parents in check if I wanted to have any chance of scoring with her later that evening.

“Well, that girl is certainly taking advantage of you tonight and I don’t really see her serving the guests at all,” Kelly said.

I wondered what Kelly would say if she knew that Sally had entertained one of my guests earlier in the evening.

Having grown up poor, I knew how much of a drag it could be to just live day in and day out without a bit of fun, so I didn’t mind that my employees were enjoying themselves, even if they were going slightly overboard.

But this was not the kind of evening to hold back and I wanted everyone to enjoy themselves.

The only thing which troubled me slightly was that Kelly did not seem to be enjoying the evening as much as I’d hoped she would. The whole thing had been set up to make an impression on her and to show her, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had truly arrived in life.

I was hoping Kelly would be so blown away by my wealth and the splendor of the evening’s entertainment that she would be totally swept off her feet and into my arms.

Her attitude was not exactly one of star-struck admiration. Kelly did not approve of some of my choices and I feared that she would soon announce she was leaving.

“I would really like to take a ride in your car,” Kelly said out of nowhere and shook me out of my reverie.

“Which one?” I asked with a smile. “My Ferrari, Porsche or Mustang?”

“I really want to take a ride in the Ferrari,” Kelly said with a look of steely determination on her face.

If there was one thing no one ever needed to do was beg me to take them for a ride in my Ferrari. I just loved showing off the power of my red, racing machine.

I held the car door open for Kelly and she didn’t hesitate to jump in.

I got in the driver side and turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life and the next moment I took my foot off the clutch and we lurched forward with screeching tires.

“Show me what this baby can do!” Kelly said.

I forgot all of the doubts I had about her. She was still a lot of fun to be with and she definitely did look the part. Every Ferrari needed a beautiful blonde in the passenger seat or a gorgeous dark-haired beauty. That last thought struck me between the eyes, as I realized that I’d never asked Maria or any of the other staff if they wanted to take a spin in the Ferrari with me.

Perhaps that was the reason why Maria was so keen on taking a ride in someone else’s muscle car. Perhaps she was even trying to send me a very subtle message or some kind of silent reprimand.

We drove for a while and just as I was about to really speed up a bit, another Ferrari flashed past us and I realized that it was Maria and the red haired woman who had picked her up.

“I think we better get back. Just so no one tears the place down in my absence,” I said and made a U-turn.

Kelly looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression and I wondered if she knew that I wanted to get back to the party because of Maria.

I was now feeling really guilty that it took one of my guests to offer Maria a spin in a Ferrari, when mine had been there all the time and I’d never offered to take Maria for a ride.

If there was one thing I never wanted to be, it was an arrogant rich prick with no compassion for the people around him.

We made our way back to my place and after I parked in front of the fishpond we got out and rejoined the party in the reception foyer.

Maria and the redhead were chatting away excitedly with Rockwell and I could see that Maria had a brand-new energy and glow about her.

It was as if she had been reenergized and there was something incredibly attractive about the way she animatedly gestured with her hands as she spoke.

“You’ve never shown me the upstairs rooms,” Kelly said.

That was the kind of thing I’d been hoping she would say and now, for some reason, I didn’t really feel like going upstairs with Kelly. I didn’t want to leave all of the excitement and fun that was going on in the foyer.

The pianist was really flailing away at the piano and some people were dancing wildly and screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Well, are you going to show me or not?” Kelly asked, tugging at my arm.

Maria’s new redhead friend took off her shoes, walked over to the piano and climbed right on top of it.

She started moving her body in such a way that hypnotized both Kelly and I and we forgot what we’d been talking about.

“Good Lord, that woman definitely knows how to move her body!” I said out loud before I could stop myself.

I thought that Kelly was going to say something nasty, but she didn’t. Instead, she looked at the redhead with a hint of admiration.

“She certainly has the moves, I’ll give her that,” Kelly said and started moving to the beat of the music.

The pianist was playing a smoky blues number and the atmosphere in the room was electric as everyone watched the redhead doing her thing right on top of the piano.

She moved her body rhythmically to the beat of the music while everyone watched. I noticed Rockwell staring at the whole thing with a dropped jaw and hoped he was not going to have a heart attack before the end of the evening. It would not be great for my reputation if a powerful local politician were to die from excitement at one of my parties and the way things were going now that seemed like a distinct possibility.

The pianist started playing a little faster and everyone watched in stunned admiration as the redhead picked up her dance tempo. She didn’t look fazed by the fact that she had to dance faster and faster on such a small surface.

She looked as if she had been born to dance on top of a piano.

The song eventually ended and the redhead clasped her hands above her head and took a little bow.

Everyone shouted as if the world was ending and the cheers went on for at least a minute as some of the male guests helped the redhead off the piano.

Even Kelly clapped her hands and cheered wildly.

It was good to see that she had enough self-confidence to admire another woman’s dancing abilities and the little battle which had been raging inside me about my feelings for Kelly picked up again. There were times when she seemed so much like her parents that I almost resented her, while at other times, she was my high school sweetheart again and I found her almost irresistible.

I thought about the first time I kissed Kelly at the back of a bicycle shed. We were both in the third grade and we’d been playing soccer with the other kids. The ball went behind the bicycle shed and I ran to go and retrieve it.

I couldn’t find it and a minute or so later, Kelly joined me to help me look for it.

The ball was lodged in a tree behind the shed and it was too high for me to reach it on my own. Kelly suggested I hold my hands together so she could step on them.

I did and she stepped onto my hands and easily reached the ball and retrieved it.

When I lowered her, she looked straight at me and there was an awkward moment of silence. I had never kissed a girl but I realized I needed to do something.

Kelly was looking at me and the longer the moment lasted the more uncomfortable I felt.

“Well, are you going to kiss me or just stare at me like a weenie all day?” Kelly asked.

Even though I had no idea what a ‘weenie’ was, I certainly didn’t want Kelly thinking of me as one so I bent forward and kissed her right on her lips.

“Not too bad. We can work on our kissing some more a bit later,” she said.

A great sense of relief washed over me as I realized I hadn’t done too badly. We did practice our kissing, a lot, after that and even though we got a lot better at it, I never forgot that first kiss behind the bicycle shed.

It became the foundation of the relationship between Kelly and me and I always remembered it as the day when she approved of me as a boyfriend.

Even as a young boy this gave me a lot of confidence and with Kelly by my side, I felt as if I could achieve absolutely anything.

Later on, when I became a high school football star, I kept drawing strength from Kelly’s presence at my side and her antics next to the field as she led the cheerleading squad at football matches.

She became my strength. My rock. The foundation of my very existence. That’s why it was so devastating for me when she broke up with me after my injury and I guess I never truly forgave her for leaving me in my hour of need.

As I was standing there with Kelly, applauding the redhead’s incredible dance performance on the piano, all of these thoughts flashed through my mind and I suddenly felt slightly confused.

Now that I was living the high life and Kelly was with me again, I should have been ecstatically happy. But even though it felt good to have her at my side I realized that I no longer needed her approval and that she was no longer the foundation of my existence.

I still found her incredibly attractive and we still shared an unforgettable past, but if we were going to have any future we would have to build it from scratch. We’d have to start over. And I was beginning to wonder if that was even possible.

“Would you mind if I entertained your guests with a little dancing performance?” Kelly asked, out of the blue.

I was too surprised to say anything. The thought of showing her the upstairs bedrooms had now gone completely out the window and I watched as Kelly walked over to the pianist and whispered something in his ear.

The pianist nodded and started playing a very lively tune. All of the guests clapped their hands with the rhythm of the song as Kelly moved her body as only she could.

She’d taken off her shoes and the dance she was doing was something of a combination of gymnastic moves and wild rock ‘n roll.

The redhead had enchanted the guests with her performance, but Kelly totally blew them away! She did some wild moves with her hips and even threw in some somersaults and cartwheels. It was like watching someone flying through the air and dancing all at once and I’d never seen anything more spectacular in my entire life.

I realized that the redhead’s performance had truly inspired Kelly to show off her skills. She ended her performance with a forward somersault and everyone cheered even louder than before. I couldn’t help but clap, excitedly and I shouted my approval at the top of my lungs as did everyone else.

Kelly had totally stolen the show and I noticed her flashing a little smile in the direction of the redhead as she came walking back to me. I guess that was Kelly’s way of saying that she could outperform anyone in attendance and after the spectacular performance we’d all witnessed not many people would have argued with her.