Melinda
Antonio wasn’t speaking to me by the time we left the club. I was irritated, but also kind of pleased. Making him angry with me hadn’t been my goal, exactly, but it didn’t hurt.
“So,” I said, skipping alongside Antonio as we walked back to his car. “Did you have fun? Drink a lot of soda? Get wild with yourself when you were sitting down?”
Antonio glanced at me, his dark eyes flicking over my body. “You know perfectly well I’m working,” Antonio replied through gritted teeth. “Come on, Melinda. I’m taking you home.”
“No,” I said, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and stamping my foot on the ground. “I don’t want to go home yet.”
Antonio rolled his eyes.
“And besides,” I added sweetly. “The more time you spend with me, the more my father pays you. Isn’t that right?”
Antonio sighed. “That’s beside the point,” he replied. “It’s after four in the morning. Nothing’s going to be open, Melinda. You can go out again tomorrow.”
“Thanks for the permission,” I said sarcastically. “But I don’t want to go to a club. Or a bar. I really want a cheeseburger, actually.”
Antonio burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me?”
I stuck my lower lip out and shook my head, making my eyes wide. Antonio stared for a minute, then rolled his eyes and turned away.
“Come on,” Antonio said. “A girl like you doesn’t eat cheeseburgers.” He gestured towards my curves. “You eat like, salads with goat cheese and beets or something.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “I hate goat cheese,” I said, sticking out my tongue. “It’s super gross.”
Antonio shook his head. “You’re ridiculous,” he said flatly.
We’d finally arrived at his car, and Antonio pulled out the keys, activating the remote start. The headlights flared to life and the inside of the car filled with sensual blue neon light.
“Come on,” Antonio said. “I’m tired. I’m taking you home.”
I stamped my foot on the ground. “There’s nothing to eat there,” I complained. “Can’t we go through a drive-thru or something? Or find a diner?”
“I don’t know of any diners,” Antonio said, narrowing his eyes. He climbed inside the car and gestured for me to follow.
I didn’t want to get in without winning the argument, but I was getting cold from standing outside. I’d really worked up a sweat at Hurricanes, and I was so hungry my stomach hurt.
Antonio honked the horn. Rolling my eyes, I yanked open the passenger door and slid inside.
“I know a diner,” I said brightly. “It’s called the The Fox Den. We should go there, Antonio. Please?” I turned in the seat and pouted.
Antonio rolled his eyes. “You sure you don’t want to invite that guy from the club?”
“Who?”
“The guy you were grinding on,” Antonio said through gritted teeth as he pulled the car away from the curb. “Don’t you remember? Or is your memory really that short?”
I giggled. “He was kind of a loser,” I said. “Way too desperate, honestly.”
Antonio cocked one eyebrow and smirked. “Yeah, he’s the desperate one,” he said tartly. “That much is obvious.”
I frowned. That little dig stung, but I was sure I deserved it. After all, I’d just spent the last five hours making Antonio watch as I basically gave poor Samuel a striptease.
Antonio pulled onto the highway and I directed him to the The Fox Den, all the while hoping it was still there. I hadn’t been in years – in high school, sometimes Cassandra and I would cut class together and go there for lunch. It was cheap, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that it was always crowded, and it made us feel anonymous and cool to be buying our own food in public.
Sometimes I really missed the days of such innocent thrills. That was before I’d really started to rebel. Dad didn’t care too much about me skipping school, as long as I kept my grades passable. I didn’t want to embarrass him, but I also knew it wasn’t a good look for me to be a brainy girl. Now, I felt kind of ashamed of myself – I wished I’d tried harder in school.
“Hey,” I said suddenly. “Do you think I could go to college?”
Antonio frowned. “College? Why? What made you think of that?”
I flopped against the seat, tugging at the seat belt so it wouldn’t cut into my neck. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I just…I don’t know. Sometimes I kind of wish I’d made more of an effort, you know?”
Antonio looked at me. “I don’t really understand,” he said. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because,” I said flatly. “It wasn’t expected of me.”
Antonio stayed silent as he guided the car into a parking space. The Fox Den was just as I remembered it. Maybe a little grimier, I thought as Antonio and I walked into the entrance and waited for a booth. But I’m sure the food is still good.
The middle-aged hostess was wearing too much blue eyeshadow, and her Debral lipstick was distributed more on her yellowing teeth than on her sagging lips. I made a face at Antonio behind her back, and he ignored me, making it perfectly clear that he didn’t approve of my juvenile sense of humor.
When we were seated at a cracked vinyl booth, I picked up a menu and brushed crumbs off the table. The menu was coated in plastic and a little sticky from the person before me, but I didn’t care. I flipped eagerly through the pages.
“Oh my god, I’m so hungry,” I said. I was salivating as I glanced down at the menu. “Do you like biscuits and gravy? What about eggs? Toast? Do you want breakfast or lunch?”
Antonio snickered. “I’m not hungry,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that’s right, you filled up on soda,” I said. “Come on, order something. I always feel so weird eating alone!”
“You’re such a girl,” Antonio said. He laughed shortly, then reached for a menu. “And you sure we’re not gonna get food poisoning from this place?”
“Well, probably not,” I said. “Just…stay away from the egg salad.”
Antonio made a face. “Maybe I won’t eat,” he said.
“Come on,” I whined. “Relax around me.” I smiled. “After all, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”
The woman with the lipstick on her teeth came to take our order. After much deliberation, I got a cheeseburger platter with a double bacon, pickles, and extra cheese. Antonio ordered a breakfast plate with sausage, eggs, and toast. The waitress barely took her eyes away from his handsome face and by the time she left, I burst out laughing.
“What?”
“She was checking you out,” I whispered, reaching across the table and poking Antonio in the arm. His muscles were as hard as granite beneath the thin material of his shirt, and I blushed when I realized how strong he must be.
“I didn’t notice,” Antonio said dryly.
The diner wasn’t as crowded as it used to be in the days when I’d skipped class with Cassandra, but being here made me nostalgic.
“So about college,” Antonio said, leaning forward and putting his hands on the table. In the yellow light of the diner, my skin looked almost jaundiced. But Antonio was still gorgeous – a deep shade of olive. His hands were big and strong, with black hair on his knuckles. Suddenly, I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like if he touched me.
“Yeah?” I leaned back against the sticky vinyl booth. “I don’t know. It was a dumb idea. I doubt Dad would let me go, anyway. I mean, you’d have to come with me, too.”
Antonio snickered. “Adult education,” he said sarcastically. “I like the sound of that.”
I sighed. “I just…I wish I’d done more,” I said. “I mean, now I don’t really feel like there’s anything I’m good at.”
Antonio didn’t say anything. He shifted on the bench, sipping from his plastic cup of water.
“Don’t you ever miss being younger?”
Antonio shook his head. “No,” he said. “I like being an adult. I like having the freedom to make my own choices.”
“That’s just it, though,” I said, smacking my hand down on the table. “I don’t have freedom at all. I have to do whatever my dad wants me to do, and if I don’t, he treats me like a little kid.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m twenty-one, and I can’t even go to a club without having a bodyguard around!”
“It must be frustrating,” Antonio said smoothly.
The waitress arrived with our food, but even though my double cheeseburger looked delicious, I didn’t feel that hungry anymore.
“Can’t you at least agree with me?” I asked quietly once we were alone again. “Don’t you think it would be really hard to be in my position?”
Antonio nodded. “Oh, definitely,” he said. “But there isn’t anything I can do. You know that, Melinda. I work for your father. I’m not going to speak ill of him.”
I bit my lip. “I didn’t ask to be born into this family,” I said slowly. “And it’s not like I have any brothers or sisters to stick up for me, or cover when I fuck up. I just wish I had a normal life, that’s all.”
“You have a perfectly normal life,” Antonio said, his voice annoyingly calm. He used the side of his fork to cut into his eggs and took a neat bite. “We were just at a club. Wouldn’t you call that normal?”
“Yeah, if you were my date,” I said hotly. “But you’re not. You’re my bodyguard. Most girls don’t have bodyguards.”
Antonio shrugged. “It’s what your father wants,” he said.
I was starting to get mad – no, not just mad, but really steaming with rage. My skin felt hot and clammy and my throat was tight as I balled my hands into fists in my lap. “How can you say that?” I demanded. “How can you be so calm about this?”
Antonio shrugged. “Because it’s not my business,” he said. “And you know that. You’re just looking for a reason to feel justified,” Antonio added. “And I’m not going to give you that, Melinda. Sorry.”
I glared at him. “I hate you,” I muttered. “You’re just as bad as my father. Hell, you’re as bad as Alexander! You think the world revolves around you, and you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”
Antonio set his fork down to the side of his plate and narrowed his eyes. “That’s a leap,” he said. “You’re really going to equate me with someone like Alexander, just because I’m not agreeing with you?”
“Yes,” I snapped. “I am. Because it’s obvious you don’t care – you just care about money! You don’t give a damn if anything happens to me. Hell, the only reason you even stopped here is because talking about food made you hungry.”
Antonio stared at me coldly. His dark eyes flashed with intense emotion, and I shivered even though it was warm in the diner.
“Fine,” Antonio said. “You’re right. It must be hard, to be a Cantonneli and not to have a lot of choice in your life.” He didn’t tear his eyes away from mine as he spoke, and suddenly I felt the other patrons of the diner melt away in a blur of color.
I glared at him until pricks of tears began to sting my eyes. “It’s hard,” I finally said. “It’s really, really hard.”