Enigma (6 page)

Once I was in my room, I shut the door, glancing at the clock that hung on the wall next to the entrance of the bathroom. It was way later than I had thought it was. Ian was going to be here in half an hour. I was glad my hair and makeup were already taken care of. I took out my fantastic new dress, shoes, and jewelry.

I went to the bathroom closet and chose a light-scented, sweet-smelling lotion and lathered myself in it, making sure I covered every square inch of dry skin, then topped it off with the matching perfume. I hurriedly ran back into the bedroom and slipped into my new outfit.

Glancing at the clock, I saw that Ian would be here any minute. With a quick glance in the mirror, I slipped the heels onto my feet, fastened the necklace, and put the earrings on. I was even more impressed now that I was seeing the entire ensemble than I had been when I tried the dress on back at the store. I was still admiring the way my reflection looked when the doorbell rang, causing me to get butterflies in my stomach.

Assuming Lena would answer the door since this was, after all, a blind date she had set up, I was not in any hurry to get downstairs to the front door. I was coming down the stairs when the doorbell rang a second time, almost causing me to nearly trip and fall down the stairs as I tried to get to the bottom as quickly as possible. As soon as my feet hit the tile, I ran toward the corridor as fast as I could move in four-inch heels, grabbing the corner of the wall and nearly sliding past the entryway.

Stopping just in front of the door, I took a second to catch my breath and smooth my hair down before opening the door just in time for a hand to rise up near my face, ready to knock on the door. The person it was attached to was standing off to the side, looking toward the driveway.

Ian Bentley wore his sandy blonde hair short enough that it barely covered the tops of his ears and just long enough in the front that it would fall slightly over his eyebrows if he didn’t push it to the side. His face was slender with a defined jawbone that was more elongated than square, and he had a pretty smile. He was slightly tanned with beautiful, hazel eyes that showed his confidence. Ian looked like he was fairly toned, but his muscles were not clearly defined as Avan’s were. Wearing slacks, a button-up shirt, a sport jacket, and expensive shoes, which looked like they might be Italian leather, I had to admit he dressed well. As he focused his attention on me, he almost seemed surprised to see me there, as if he too had expected Lena to answer the door. I know I probably had a rather odd look on my face as well as I compared everything about him to Avan in my mind.

“Wow!” Ian said as he looked me up and down, causing me to blush and feel a little uncomfortable.

“Hi,” I replied, sounding a lot more confident than I felt.

“So you must be my hot date?” He was still looking into the doorway, as if he were trying to see something behind me.

“Yeah, I’m Mattie.” The way he seemed distracted made me feel a little weird. I turned around to see what he could be looking for, but I didn’t see anything.

“Right, so I guess we should get going.” He must have noticed I was catching on to him obviously looking for something I was unaware of.

“I guess so. Let me grab my purse and jacket. It’ll only take a sec.” I already had them lying on the table by the door, so it only took me no time at all to get them.

Ian was still outside, looking lost, when I came back.

“Ready to go?”

Maybe once we got in the car and started talking this wouldn’t feel so awkward.

“Let’s do it,” he said as he winked and smiled. Disturbingly, he wasn’t looking at me when he did it. Looking behind me once again, I still didn’t see anyone there. I hadn’t seen or heard from Lena since we got back to the house, so I didn’t figure she was even home.

“Did you just wink at someone?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“No, I had something in my eye. I was just trying to get it out, sorry,” he responded as he turned toward the driveway, walking right past me as he opened the door and slid behind the steering wheel of his yellow Camaro.

I was really beginning to be unimpressed with Ian Bentley as he got into the car without even coming around to open my door for me. Lena had really talked Ian up, leaving me with the impression that he was going to be a well-mannered, classy gentleman. I was really starting to wonder what I’d gotten myself into when I agreed to go on this stupid date. I slid into my seat, put my seatbelt on, and laid my purse in my lap. Ian turned the ignition, and the engine roared to life. As soon as we were on the street in motion, he reached for the stereo, turning on his CD player loud enough to wake the dead.

Ian was tapping his hands on the steering wheel right along to the erratic beat of the drums. I felt like the song would never come to an end, but when it did, the next one was every bit as eardrum splitting as the last. The music itself only seemed to have one effect other than annoying me, and that was the faster the drums played, the faster and more careless Ian drove.

I felt my knuckles turn white as I dug my manicured nails into the leather shoulder strap of my purse in my lap. Ian was weaving through traffic without using his signal, cutting people off, and speeding as if he had just stolen the car and wanted to get away from the lot before the cops could catch up to him. I closed my eyes and prayed that my life would be spared as he cut over three lanes of traffic to make an exit off the highway at the last possible second. The lights from houses, businesses, and streetlamps that lined the street were passing so quickly they all ran together, making continuous streaks of light.

The car slowed down as we headed down a busy, crowded street in the arts district, but with the music still at an ear-piercing decibel, I didn’t even attempt to make conversation. Before long, Ian turned the stereo off and pulled under the awning of a very fancy-looking restaurant. With all the noise suddenly gone, I could hear a high-pitched ringing in both ears.

My head was still pounding to the beat of whatever pathetic excuse for a song was playing last. I searched through my purse for the bottle of aspirin I always kept with me, hoping it would be enough to counteract the headache that pulsed in my head. This was one of those times that I was really glad I had it.

Before I realized it, a guy about my age in a black tuxedo opened my car door, escorted me out of the car, and told me to have a wonderful evening. Ian handed the valet driver his keys and warned him not to scratch the paint or he would make sure it came out of his paycheck. How charming! Lena had really picked out a gentleman all right. Without warning, he put his arm around my waist, making me jump and pull away from him until we were no longer touching while we moved toward the entrance. We reached the desk where the maître de—a tall, older man wearing glasses with a thin mustache and slicked down hair—asked what name our reservation was under. As Ian announced his last name, his demeanor seemed to change, as if he just remembered who he was and how he was supposed to act. The gentleman confirmed the reservation and led us to a candle lit table for two in a private room that was dimly lit by a chandelier. The maître de pulled an intricately carved wooden chair with an ivory cushion back from the table and gestured for me to have a seat. It made me a little sad that the first sign of a gentleman I encountered tonight had come from a member of the restaurant staff rather than my date. At this point I didn’t want to look at Ian much less be on a date with him. As far as I was concerned, Ian Bentley was a jerk.

I could tell the restaurant was going to be expensive just by glancing at the menu. The first thing I noticed was that there were no prices. If you’ve never been to a restaurant where they don’t include pricing in the menu you can assume everything listed is at least forty dollars a plate and it only goes up from there. The unsettling thing about that is there is no way to tell which ones are more than the starting rate unless you ask. The thing about asking is that at these kinds of restaurants, if you have to ask for prices, you probably cannot afford to eat there.

Another thing you had to know about these kinds of restaurants was that they had professional chefs.

When the waiter came to take our drink order, it caught me off guard when Ian ordered a bottle of champagne without even being carded. I didn’t know what to think since I’d never even had a drink before. He did not even have the common courtesy to ask me what I wanted to drink before ordering champagne. Had he planned on choosing what I would have to eat too? Well to send him a message, I ordered a glass of tea and noticed him giving me a look of disapproval, which I ignored.

“I take it you don’t like champagne?” Ian’s voice had an edge to it, like it was taking all he had to try to sound calm, but it wasn’t working.

“And I take it you don’t care about contributing to the delinquency of a minor? I’m only sixteen. You do know that I’m only sixteen, right?” I couldn’t help but ask him. Did he not know that just by ordering a bottle of champagne he was breaking at least a handful of laws?

“Yes, I do know how old you are. Lena was very clear about that, and no I don’t really care what the law tells me I can and can’t do.” His voice still had a certain tone that let me know he was slightly annoyed with me.

“Aren’t you only eighteen?”

“Is that what Lena told you?”

“Yes.”

“Then I guess I must be eighteen.”

“If you’re only eighteen, then how did you order champagne without being carded? So you lied about your age? What else are you lying about, Ian?”

“I haven’t lied about anything. It’s called money, Mattie. My parents have lots of it. They come here quite often. We are recognized by the people in this area. I just moved back home, but my family name has a lot of influence. It happens when you have a bit of power.” He sounded firm and intense, as if he were explaining how society works to someone who had been raised in a cave their entire life by a pack of wolves.

He looked at me so seriously he made me feel like a child being reprimanded. His words stung me a little because I knew he had just hit the nail on the head. It brought back the days when my dad was still alive. Because of who he was professionally, we had been treated differently too. Lena and her dad were treated that way now, and because Damien had taken me in and I lived with them, I sometimes had a few perks and benefits as well. I knew that money talked, and if I had been raised without my mother being the saint she was, I’m sure I would have turned out just like Ian and Lena.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound that way.” I knew I had stepped out of line coming across as accusatory and hateful the minute I had asked the previous questions. I’m sure he wondered who I thought I was believing I had the right to be so judgmental of him when Lena Montgomery was my best friend.

“Actually, Mattie, I think it’s you who deserves an apology. I’ve really been acting like a jerk, and it isn’t remotely your fault. Honestly, I hadn’t been so keen on being set up on a blind date. I’ve been on them before, and they’ve always ended in disaster, so I wasn’t very excited when Lena insisted on another one. She told me she would be there to introduce us, and when you answered the door and she never came out, I got frustrated and took it all out on you. I know I’m in the wrong.” His voice had softened with his response to where he almost sounded like a different person.

“I actually know exactly what you mean. I mean, I’ve never been on a blind date, but I wasn’t thrilled about the idea either. Lena kind of didn’t give me a choice. She actually made nail, hair, and cosmetic appointments for me and forced me to go to them in attempts to get me all dolled up in which I refused. Then, this afternoon she got in a really bad mood and I haven’t seen her since. She told me that she would introduce us too. I guess maybe I got the wrong idea of you,” I stated as Ian smiled in response.

“How about we start over, Mattie? Do you think you could possibly find it in you somewhere to give me a second chance to prove to you that I’m not an arrogant, hot tempered, narcissistic idiot?”

“I might be able to do that,” I said, pretending to think about it.

“I have to tell you, I was pretty scared when I was on my way to pick you up.”

“You were scared? Of what?” I wondered out loud in amusement.

“Yeah, Lena has set me up with some real winners.” He continued sarcastically, “I swear one looked like a donkey, but when she laughed it was clear that I was wrong. Her mother had obviously had an affair with a hyena!”

“Wow! See, if I were you, I wouldn’t have ever let her set me up again!”

“But it paid off because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be at a nice restaurant getting to apologize to a beautiful girl who is doing a great job at pretending she could possibly end up liking me.”

“Okay, you caught me. I’ll admit it, I didn’t like you earlier, but you’re growing on me a little.” I could tell I was blushing as I said it, but it was the truth. I was coming to the conclusion that maybe Ian might be turning out to be not so bad of a guy after all.

“Well, Mattie, what would it take for me to get you to have some champagne with me?” He was almost charming in the way he looked at me.

“I’m not a big drinker, to be honest with you.” Hopefully he would buy into my response.

“Maybe that’s because you’ve never tried it,” he suggested, giving me a half smile that made the fluttering feeling in my stomach start up again.

“You’re right, I haven’t ever tried it,” I admitted, suddenly feeling really young and inexperienced.

“Well, you shouldn’t knock it til you try it. A glass of champagne is not going to incapacitate you.” He sounded so convincing.

“I probably shouldn’t. What if we get stopped on the way home, or what if we happen to have an accident? I really don’t want us both to go to jail because I have champagne on my breath,” I countered.

Surely throwing the cops into it would get him to back off.

“That will never happen. Trust me, Mattie, I will never let anything happen to you. It’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know.” I could tell I was beginning to be less stubborn with my answers, as I was grasping for straws, trying to come up with any excuse I could think of.