After winning our argument, Dustin finally convinced me to go to the party with him. You’d think he would’ve had enough of parties and big crowds, but maybe it was his way of keeping his mind off of what was really going on. I sat in the corner at the party, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone around me. I knew I looked a little out of place, sitting with my arms crossed as I sat on a leather couch.

They arrived by the dozen, each sporting expensive looking masks decorated in gold and silver which covered half of their faces. Everyone wore a new dress or suit which would be discarded after the night passed. I looked out of the window to see the moon providing a natural disco ball and lighting the gardens of the house which held the main event. Greetings were offered out along the gravel path in front of the house, dainty fairy lights added a great amount of color to the parade of footsteps pouring in the door.

A sweet melody was drifting through the busy atmosphere. I watched Dustin weave his way through the crowds of champagne bearing waiters and drunk partiers with their masks shimmering in the light. As I watched Dustin walk over to a woman in a tight, white dress, I caught another woman staring at me from the busy dance floor. Even though her mask was covering half of her face, I could tell she was tracking my every move.

As soon as my eyes moved back toward where Dustin was standing, the woman that had been staring at me took a seat on the couch by my side. She took her mask off and put it in her lap, adjusting a few strands of loose hairs.

“You’re not from around here huh?” The woman said in a thick Brazilian accent. I looked at her flawless olive toned skin and dark brown eyes, in comparison to my pale skin. I guess it was pretty obvious.

“I’m in town from New York. Is it that easy to tell I’m not from here?”

“You look a little out of place. Why aren’t you wearing a mask?” the woman asked, taking a sip of her drink.

“I’m not planning on being here too long,” I looked back over toward Dustin. He was putting his hand around the waist of the woman in the white dress, pulling her in close. I felt the heat of jealousy flow through me. I darted my eyes away as if I had just seen something I wasn’t supposed to.

“Is that your man? You need to go check him, does he usually talk to other girls while you are at parties with him?” the woman asked curiously. I wondered if she was usually so nosey. I wasn’t in the mood to explain myself.

“No, that isn’t my boyfriend. He is a client of mine, I am here working on a case. I am a lawyer. It is strictly business between us,” I told the woman, lying to her face.

“He’s pretty sexy. It’d be hard to keep it strictly business with a man that looks like him. How do you resist?” the lady whispered.

I looked over toward Dustin, the woman in the white dress grabbed his hand and pulled him into another room. I felt my heart start to raise as I wondered if they were leaving to have sex. I couldn’t help but assume Dustin had bad intentions.

“It’s not as hard as you would think,” I said sarcastically. “Please, excuse me.”

I immediately stood up and headed for the door. I needed some fresh air. I couldn’t believe that Dustin would take me to a party and then have sex with someone while I was there. He could at least have some respect for me and the time we had spent together. I knew we were not officially together or moving toward a serious relationship, but I did have feelings for Dustin, I did care about him a lot. I thought he’d care about me enough to not pursue a woman right in front of my face. I thought he had more class than that.

I sat outside on a bench, looking at the sky and thinking about my time in Brazil. Shortly after I sat down on the bench, a tall man walked toward me from the shadows. As he approached, he pulled his hand from his pocket and handed another colored card to me. As I looked at the red card, I realized it had another “J” emblem on it. Before I looked up, the man was already walking away. How weird that he would’ve given me a card and not say anything to me.

I probably sat there for about forty-five minutes before Dustin came outside looking for me.

“There you are, I was wondering where you went. Are you ready?” Dustin asked politely as if nothing was wrong at all.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We headed toward the valet together. We got into Dustin’s car and started to head back to his home. For the first few minutes, I didn’t say one word. I kept my arms crossed as I stared out the window, watching the other cars pass by on the road.

“Well I don’t know about you, but I had a great time. I always love going to parties there. For some reason, everyone I have ever met there is really nice,” Dustin smiled.

“Yeah, I bet they are,” I said dryly.

“What do you mean? Are you alright? You’re acting strangely.”

“I’m fine, it doesn’t matter,” I said. I didn’t see any point in bringing up the topic to Dustin, I was going to be gone in a few days anyway.

“No, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“I really don’t feel like getting into it, I’m tired. Let’s just go home.”

“No seriously, what is wrong? Are you upset? Why don’t you want to talk about it?” Dustin was confused. He tried to put his hand on my upper thigh, but I quickly moved it away, turning away from him.

“I just can’t believe you fucked that girl while I was in the other room. Really, it was just so disrespectful,” I shook my head but kept my eyes fixed on the window.

“What? What girl? I didn’t fuck anyone.”

“You don’t have to lie about it! I saw the woman in the tight white dress pulling you into the other room. She was all over you, she couldn’t wait to get a piece of you! Obviously, you couldn’t wait to get a piece of her or else you would’ve waited until I wasn’t under the same roof!”

“Wow, okay. I didn’t have sex with that girl. I have had sex with her before, but we didn’t tonight. She took me into the other room to meet her husband, she got married recently, but I wasn’t able to attend the wedding because I was out of town. Her husband is in the transportation industry, and I could really use his services in the future. So, while you thought I was fucking that girl, I was actually talking about international shipping. Not half as amusing but surely will benefit me in the future,” Dustin said calmly.

I felt really stupid and embarrassed. I felt like I had just behaved like a high school girl that assumed her boyfriend was cheating on her. I don’t know why I felt entitled to Dustin’s attention and time, but it quickly made me realize that our situation wasn’t casual for me. I really was getting invested in him. I wish I hadn’t said anything at all but was glad that I did to know that he hadn’t been with that woman tonight.

“Damn I’m really sorry, I got the wrong impression. I feel really bad for accusing you of being disrespectful toward me. I jumped to conclusions.”

“That’s alright. No need to apologize, it was a simple misunderstanding. I suppose, in a way, it is nice to know you care. A lot of other women don’t seem to care about what I do as long as I keep making money. But once again, you’ve proven to be different from all of the other women,” Dustin said gently. He reached over to grab my hand. I turned my hand over and interlaced his fingers in mine. It was the first time he was outwardly affectionate toward me.

I didn’t even want to take the chance to think twice about it. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked out the window, feeling the softness of his skin on mine. I always felt really safe when I was around him. Even though he could be a criminal, even though there was a strange man still following us, even though there were probably a million details I didn’t know about Dustin, that moment was perfect. We listened to Frank Sinatra as he drove me back to his house. We stayed hand in hand until we got to the end of his driveway.

When we went inside, Dustin invited me into is room. For the first time, I accepted his offer without any hesitations or second thoughts. He had a way of finding the softness in me. He was always hard to resist. To my surprise, we didn’t even have sex that night. We stayed up for a few hours, laying side by side as we talked and made jokes. We fell asleep in each other’s arms, I could hear his heart beat as I stayed pressed against his chest. I was in a state of bliss I had no idea that I could achieve. As I drifted off to sleep, I knew I was falling in love with Dustin. I realized later that I had forgotten to show him the card the man gave me.