Go Slow
(Lawson)
I pull into Kelso’s driveway in my Maserati. I’ve come to make sure Skye isn’t here, and to protect her if she is. Because I plan to spend the day with Skye, I’m wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Not that I’m playing into her little good Lawson, prick Lawson thing, but because I want to be comfortable.
My heart sinks when Skye’s car is nowhere in sight. At least it means she’s no longer here. But she was here, and it fucking pains me to think why she came and left.
Skye wouldn’t just come to get her car. She would’ve come to paint.
I knew I should’ve come here first thing and waited, in case she showed up. Unfortunately I had a phone meeting with an investor in Europe that couldn’t be postponed.
What happened here this morning? I turn off the engine and stride through the front door.
Her painting stuff is still here.
“Kelso!” I shout, moving deeper into the house. I turn a corner into the kitchen and come face to face with the slimy bastard.
“What’s the matter, looking for your slut?”
“You better not have talked to her like that.”
“Only after she wouldn’t renegotiate the terms of our contract.”
“You’re pathetic.” My jaw is clenched and the tendons in my neck straining. It’s all I can do not to plow that smug look off his face. But I’m not about to give him anything that might help out his case. Instead, I’ll fucking rape him in the courts. He wants to settle now? Fat fucking chance. I’m going to throw everything at him, cost him his fortune in legal fees until he’s left dazed and wondering what happened to all his money.
Before he can respond, I’m heading back out of the house. I don’t need to hear any more from the asshole, Julie can deal with him from now on.
My tires squeal as I tear out of Kelso’s. The drive to Skye’s house takes a fraction the time it normally does. Her car is here, and I sigh with relief.
My knock is so loud, it echoes down the street. I wait for a stupid amount of time before putting my hand on the door knob, wondering if I could break it down. But at that moment, the door opens.
Skye’s eyes are puffy and red. At the sight of her, I lift my hand to her face and run my thumb over her cheek.
“What do you want?” Skye steps back, away from my touch.
“I want to make sure you’re okay.” I step through the door. “Did Kelso do anything to you this morning?”
“How do you know I was there?”
“I went there to get your car for you.” She doesn’t need to know I went there to keep her away from Kelso.
“Well, I got it myself. I’m a big girl.”
“As long as Kelso didn’t do anything to you.”
“No, he just talked some shit and I left.”
I try to urge her down the hallway, or at least away from the entrance, but she doesn’t budge.
“Sunshine, are you okay?” I reach out and take her hands in mine.
“You and Kelso are real rivals, aren’t you?” She takes her hands away and folds them across her chest.
“I hate the bastard.”
“You’d do anything to hurt him, huh?”
“Hell yes.”
“Including screwing the chick who’s working for him in his own bed.”
“What? No. That was all your fault, seeing you and that painting, I couldn’t contain myself.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Come on, you can’t seriously think that.”
“This is what I think, I think I’m a pathetic little pawn caught in the middle of a pissing match between two billionaires.”
I slam the side of my fist against the open door, causing a loud bang. Skye flinches.
“For fuck’s sake, Skye, that’s insane.”
“Oh, oh, I see. I have the guts to say what’s so obviously happening, and that makes me insane.”
“I never said you were insane, I said the idea was. There’s a big difference.”
“Whatever. How else do you explain whatever’s going on between you and Kelso? The two of you treat me like a toy you’re fighting over in the sandbox.”
“Where are you getting this? Did Kelso fill you with these ideas?”
This is fucking bullshit. I’ll be damned if I let that asshole fuck over my relationship. Part of me wants to drive right back over there and do what I should’ve done this morning: beat his face in.
“I think I’m smart enough to see it on my own, thank you.”
“That’s absurd. Think about it, I didn’t even know you worked there when I met you.”
“I know that! But once you found out, you turned it into another opportunity to get at him.”
“You know what I think? I think that asshole is fucking me over right now. He’s filled you full of ideas, because he knows it’ll fuck over my relationship with the only woman I’ve ever cared about.”
Skye’s chin is quivering. She squeezes her eyes shut and opens them again, blinking like crazy to wash away her tears.
“I can’t do it.”
“Do what?” My throat is so tight I struggle to get the words out.
“This. Us. We’re too different. I’m not from your world. I don’t belong in it any more than you belong in mine.”
“For fuck’s sake, Skye, enough with the different-worlds bullshit.” I’m struggling to contain myself now. I always control myself. Always. Part of me knows I should get out of here now, go and calm down and then come back. But Skye’s so upset, I can’t bear the thought of leaving her like this.
“It’s not bullshit! You have no idea how important that job at Kelso’s was to me. And now I’ve lost it, all because you didn’t take it seriously.”
“Hey, I didn’t make you take your clothes off yesterday. If I remember right, you didn’t object to the idea for one second. And you sure as hell weren’t complaining by the end.”
Her cheeks turn the color of her puffy eyes. For a moment a coy smile almost graces her face, but not quite.
Skye swallows, and says, “It was a momentary lapse in judgement.”
“I don’t think it was a lapse at all. I think it was the best way I’ve ever spent a morning.”
“It cost me my first commission and my dream.”
I smirk. “You were painting a pussy, is that really your dream?”
“It was only one painting of ten! Plus he was funding a gallery showing. Now I’ve lost the commission and the show, because of you.”
“I would love to fund a show for you. Not because you’re sleeping with me, but because you’re talented.”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s best if I don’t wrap myself up in your life anymore than I already have.”
“Listen to me. The reality is, I’m going to crush Kelso in the courts. When I get through with him, he won’t have money left over to pay for gallery shows.”
“That sounds an awful lot like a pissing contest to me.”
I close my eyes. My heart is racing and my throat feels like I’m being strangled. I’m not even sure what’s going on.
“My issues with Kelso are nothing to do with you. Why can’t you see that?”
“Stop.”
“No, I will not stop. Why can’t you see how much you mean to me?”
“I’m just another poor person you think you can order around and use.”
“You know what I think it is? I think you don’t want to see it. Fuck, twenty-four hours ago your toes were curled from my touch, and now all of a sudden you want me to leave?”
“Go. Leave. Now.” She pushes me toward the door. She’s using all her strength and I don’t want to physically resist her.
“What’s wrong with you, Skye? Why do you keep making up shit in your head?”
I cross the threshold and she slams the door shut, and the bolt snaps a second later. My entire body is numb.
“Let me back in, let me talk to you,” I say, pounding on the door.
There’s nothing, only silence.
Defeated, I drag my feet to my car and sit in it. In my daze, I can’t even turn the engine on. The only place I want to go is back inside with Skye.
I send a text.
Talk to me.
Leave me alone, I have to get on with my life.
I need you in my life.
I don’t belong in your life.
The door doesn’t open again, even after twenty minutes. Reluctantly, I switch my car on. In the slowest speed any Maserati has ever gone, I back out of the driveway.