Mack

“Denise, I don’t have all night. I told you that I wanted to get going, so come on or I am leaving you here.”

“I will just be another minute.”

“That’s what you said last time. Get your ass out here or I’m leaving without you.”

She huffed and I saw her head pop out of the bathroom. “I’m not finished yet.”

“You look good enough. Who are you trying to impress?”

“No one. I just want to look good for you.”

“You do. Let’s go.”

She made a few frumping sounds and I had a feeling that she was going to be pouting on the way over. I was rethinking taking her to begin with. Maybe I should have just gone solo. I hadn’t because I wanted to come with a certain look about me. That meant that I had to have a hot woman on my arm and Denise was free. She was one of many, but she was also one of the hotter ones that did like to flaunt it. The flaunting I didn’t mind because it would just make me look better.

Back in school I was a troublemaker and some would most likely say I was still one. I didn’t care, mind you, but it would be good to show up and let every asshole in there know that I had made it. High school hadn’t been my favorite time, but there were parts of it that I remembered fondly. There were a few people that I remembered even fonder and I was looking forward to finding out how they were. There was one in particular I wanted to see and I hoped she made it there.

“I’m leaving, screw this shit. You can only put so much damn paint on before become a damn Picasso.”

Denise got out of the bathroom and gave me a dirty look. I was going to have to do something to make her feel a little better in the car. I didn’t want her going in with that scowl on her face. That sort of expression didn’t exude what I wanted it to.

“You going to pout all night?”

“Maybe.”

We got in the car and I told the driver where we were going. He took the address and put it into his GPS before taking off towards the destination. We had a little bit of a trip and since she was being this way, I knew I was going to have to take care of her to get her in a better mood.

“Come here Denise.”

Her eyes went to mind and there wasn’t just the look of anger that she’d had before. There was something else in her eyes now and I could have sworn that it was desire. It was like a light switch and I smiled back at her. I would have that beautiful smile back on her face soon enough. I always did.

***

The driver pulled up at the front of my old high school and I had a moment of nostalgia that came over me. It had been a while since I’d been back here and I now saw it in a different light. It had been the center of my universe so long ago, but things had changed and so had my world. My world had gotten a lot bigger and now I wondered how I had been contained for so long here.

“So this is where you went to school, huh?”

I didn’t answer her question because it didn’t need an answer. Denise was good for many things, but conversation was not really one of them. I didn’t want to have to mingle with her all night. She was really just for getting in the door. I was going to have my eyes open for someone in particular and if Danny did happen to make it here, I was going to be talking to her and catching up. I wanted her to be hot and single, at least single enough for a little fun for old time’s sake.

We made it through the door and I smiled back at Denise. She was already getting plenty of looks and I was glad that I’d brought her. She was making me look good and I didn’t have to do anything at all.

“Name?”

It was Betty Johnson sitting down at the table with one of her little groupies from school. She didn’t even look up at me, but I didn’t mind. She hadn’t aged well and she had always been too good to talk to guys like me. She liked her men older and rich. Now that I was both, I wouldn’t have given her the time of day. I tried not to take the snub personally, but I wasn’t used to people not knowing who I was. I’d made a name for myself in certain circles.

“Mack Stevens.”

She looked up then from the deep timber of my voice and I saw the appreciative look that I got now. She wasn’t like most women though. Betty wasn’t worried about my hard arms and wide chest. No, she was checking out my watch and shoes. She wasn’t worried about physical attributes, but the contributions that I could make to her bottom line. She was a gold-digger in the very sense of the word and I could have seen her coming a mile away. I knew her type all too well.

“Wow, you look a lot different Mack. You clean up nice.”

Betty was referring to how I was in school. I certainly wouldn’t have been caught dead in a suit like this, but times changed and so had I.

“Well it’s been a long time. You haven’t changed a bit.”

She took it as a compliment and I didn’t say otherwise. It wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination. I was already wondering why I came here. I’d had that invitation for some time, but I knew if I came I was going to be here for only one thing. I wanted to see an old flame, maybe rekindle some of the charred pieces if it was still hot. I was going to see Danny. That’s it.

I took the name tag that was given out. Ten years had changed a lot of people that I saw and recognized when I scanned the room. But everyone was recognizable. I knew that when I saw Danny, I would know that it was her. It didn’t matter how much she had changed, I would know her. I could still see her smiling face perfectly in my mind and the thought made me scan the room again.

“Who are you looking for?”

I forgot about Denise for a few moments and then she was next to me, wrapping her arms around mine. She was holding on too tight and I had to shake her a little bit. “Why don’t you go get us a couple of drinks while I find somewhere to put our coats?”

Offering to take hers off, Denise forgot what had given her the feeling to ask in the first place and she was heading for the bar, while I was walking towards the back where I hoped there would be a coat room of some kind. I was regretting bringing Denise here already. She wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of when and if I had to. If things went how I wanted them to go, I was going to have to ditch her, which may or may not be a good thing.

I was carrying our two coats and instead of looking for a place to leave them, I was still searching for that golden blonde hair that I had never seen the same shade of again. Everything about Danny was one of a kind and I was deflating quickly when I didn’t see her right away. She was the real reason I was here. Rubbing a few people’s noses in my success was just a bonus.

I spied Denise from across the room and she wasn’t paying attention to me. She was talking to someone that was vaguely familiar but I couldn’t put a name to the face. I should have been bothered that she was flirting with someone else, but because of my own secret intentions, it would be kind of silly to be the same.

Finding the coat closet, I put ours up and then turned back towards the main room. It was then that I saw a flash of gold that I knew well and my heart skipped a beat while my cock got hard. She’d always had that spell over me and after all of this time, it was still the same.