FIN

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THE EVENING WAS CERTAINLY getting more and more interesting as it progressed. I could see that Kelly was slightly upset about the fact that I wanted to go and dance with Maria, but it was all her own fault.

I had, after all, invited her to come with us, perhaps not in so many words as my invitation had been a general one, but there was absolutely nothing stopping her from joining us in the marquee tent.

I didn’t feel particularly happy about her last remark and was struck again by how much she was like her parents, snobby and uppity.

Fortunately, the remark didn’t seem to faze Maria.

I had been totally blown away by Maria’s dance performance and it seemed the more I found out about her the more intrigued I became.

I’d been living in the same house with Maria all of this time without really knowing anything about her and the things she could do.

“I’m sorry I never took you for a ride in my Ferrari,” I said.

I had been feeling bad about it ever since I saw how much Maria had enjoyed the ride with the redhead.

“There will be many more opportunities for us to take a ride in your car,” Maria said.

“Yes, there will be,” I said.

We entered the marquee tent.

The scene in front of us could best be described as some kind of controlled pandemonium. People were rocking to the beat of the music and everything was so loud that there was no way of having a normal conversation. This was probably a good thing, as the previous conversation I’d had with Maria in the kitchen had not ended very well and there was no real way of returning to it without messing things up.

I started shaking my body to the beat of the music and soon Maria started dancing.

There was something about the way she moved which involuntarily made me compare her to Kelly.

Both Maria and Kelly had the same natural ability to move their bodies to a beat. But where Kelly was an exhibitionist and a little bit of a show off, Maria had a way of making any dance move look classy.

This was quite ironic, as Kelly was the one suggesting that she was the classy one while Maria was just a maid. I couldn’t help but admire Maria’s dignity and wondered how Kelly would have turned out as a person if she had grown up differently.

We danced for at least a half an hour and I felt like I could go on dancing with Maria for the entire evening.

But the band decided to take a short break.

“Why don’t we go back inside?” I suggested and Maria nodded in agreement.

The scene that met us as we entered the reception foyer was absolutely incredible. Someone had dimmed the lights and the pianist was playing a very slow and seductive song.

The redhead was standing in the middle of the room with nothing on except her underwear.

She was clearly doing some kind of striptease and everyone was shouting and whistling as she moved her body to the music. It seemed she had not had enough attention after dancing on top of the piano and now she was truly pulling out all of the stops!

I looked around to see where Kelly was but she was nowhere to be found. But then, I spotted her at the top of the stairs with Rockwell.

Had they just emerged from one of the bedrooms?

Kelly and Rockwell came down the stairs and walked right up to me and Maria and I could tell that Rockwell was more than just slightly pissed.

He looked at me with bloodshot eyes and the expression on his face suggested that he didn’t really know what was going on around him.

“I asked Rockwell to show me around the upstairs part of your house, seeing as you’ve been too busy to do it yourself,” Kelly said and flashed me a smug smile.

I realized that she was playing one of her silly games with me, trying to make me jealous. I also realized that I would probably never find out exactly what she and Rockwell had been doing upstairs.

I had a feeling she had pretended to seduce Rockwell and just when things were about to get serious, she backed out, leaving Rockwell frustrated and yes, a bit mad.

I should’ve known better, but Kelly’s little stunt was actually making me feel slightly upset. It took me back to my high school days and Rockwell represented all of the people who looked down on me after my knee injury. It was as if I was reliving the horrible nightmare again of Kelly being taken away from me.

I was so upset that I nearly said something stupid.

“Is there anything I can get you, Sir?” Maria asked and I was too upset to notice that she was addressing me as ‘Sir’ again.

But her question had the desired effect on me as it jerked me right back to reality.

“No thank you, I don’t want anything,” I said and turned around abruptly and walked outside.

A thousand voices were screaming inside my head and I felt like I just needed to get away from everything.

“Fin! Please wait!” Maria shouted from somewhere behind me.

I turned around and faced her.

“Don’t run away from your past,” she said, as if she could see right into my mind.

“What on earth are you talking about? I just came outside to get a breath of fresh air,” I said, trying to avoid the conversation.

“I don’t know who that blonde woman is but I know that she’s not good for you! She will hurt you.”

I had absolutely no idea how Maria had been able to discern that Kelly had upset me with her actions, but she was hitting the nail right on the head and I knew it.

For a moment, I considered the possibility of opening up my heart and telling Maria all about my past with Kelly.

“Why don’t you come back inside?” Kelly shouted from the front door. “I’d like to talk to you!”

I thought about what Maria had just said and realized that I needed some time to really clear my head.

“I just want to take a walk down to the front gate. The alarm went off and I just want to make sure everything is in order,” I lied and started walking down the driveway.

The night air was cool and refreshing and I slowly regained my composure as I walked towards the front gate.

Kelly was shouting something but I couldn’t make out her words and it actually felt good to just ignore her for once. She knew her way around a crowd of rich and powerful people and would be okay by herself and after her little stunt with Rockwell I certainly felt like I needed to take a break from her.