“I owe you so much, I had to do something!” I shouted back.
Ralphie threw his hands high into the air. “You are nuts,” he yelled. “This is what friends do! There is no ‘owe’. Someday, my precious Momma’s going to die or I’m going to get a hangnail and you’ll be there for me. That’s how you give back. You don’t give out lavish Christmas bonuses, expensive birthday gifts and buildings, for fuck’s sake!”
Oh my God!
“I thought you liked my birthday presents!” I yelled back.
“I do but only if they’re given from the heart, not to buy my friendship,” he shot back.
It felt like he slapped me right across the face.
I flinched and took a step back. That step forced me into something solid and, breathing heavily, my heart beating in my throat, the hot knot burning in my chest, I turned and looked up to see Hector.
Oh my.
The muscle was jumping in his cheek, his face was stony but his eyes were on Ralphie.
“You done?” he clipped at Ralphie.
“No,” Ralphie snapped.
“You are for now,” Hector replied and without hesitation he leaned in, took my hand then dragged me through our stunned audience, through the rest of the crowd, down my back hall to my office. He threw open the door, flipped on the switch and pulled me in with a controlled violence that sent me flying several steps into my office. He slammed the door behind us.
I stopped in the middle of the room, turned and looked at him.
That knot in my chest expanded, searing painfully wider through my chest and lungs and just this close to my heart.
Hector stood in front of the door, eyes beyond scorching. I didn’t know what beyond scorching was but whatever it was, his eyes were doing it.
“Were you gonna tell me?” he asked, voice low and vibrating but his words were enunciated perfectly clearly.
“No,” I answered and his eyes flashed dangerously. “Yes,” I went on quickly and there was another flash. “I couldn’t make up my mind,” I finished lamely.
“Why?” he snapped.
“Why?” I asked.
“Sadie –” His tone held a warning.
I realized I was trembling, deep body shakes and my hands went to my cheeks, rubbing and pressing at the same time, shoving my skin toward my ears.
Then I decided that it was time.
It was time a week ago but I’d given in, I’d been weak, I’d wanted to live the dream.
Now, it was definitely time.
“I know what you’re doing,” I told him.
Without hesitation, he shot back, “Yeah? What am I doin’?”
I dropped my hands and straightened my shoulders. “I know how you felt that night in my father’s study when I walked away from you. You were angry. You weren’t even angry, you were livid. A woman doesn’t do that to a man, not a man like you, not without some kind of…” I stopped then started again, “I know you were angry and now you’re paying me back.”
I stopped talking.
I did this because the voltage of the electric current whipping around intensified so sharply, if I’d looked, I would have sure as certain seen white hot sparks crackling around the room.
“A man like me,” he said slowly.
I swallowed.
He continued.
“A man like me who’d use your body and abuse your heart to exact fuckin’ retribution just because you walked away leavin’ my cock hard?”
Well, since what he said sounded kind of stupid, I realized belatedly I might have been wrong about that.
“You think that’s the kind of man I am?” he pushed.
“Hector –”
It was then he lost control of his anger and the room went wired.
“Answer me, god damn it! You think I’m that kind of man?” he barked, I jumped and stepped back.
He advanced.
That knot in my chest spread to my belly and my heart, burning through me so I couldn’t breathe.
“Don’t touch me,” I whispered.
“I wouldn’t touch you, Sadie. Not that way.” He stopped just short of me and looked down at my face. “I’d like to knock some fuckin’ sense into you but that’s not the kind of man I am.”
At his words, my stomach clenched. Painfully.
“Maybe I was wrong,” I said quietly.
His head cocked to the side and his eyes flashed again. “Maybe?”
I reached back with both hands and grabbed my hair at my ponytail, my hands fisting in it.
“I’m confused!” I cried, “I don’t have a lot of experience –”
He interrupted me, “Mamita, I’m warnin’ you, that excuse is wearin’ thin real fuckin’ fast.”
My breath was coming in quick bursts; I dropped my hands and said, “You don’t understand.”
“Explain it to me.”
“You still wouldn’t understand.”
“Explain it to me!” he roared.
I shook my head, or more like, jerked it from side-to-side.
I couldn’t take anymore.
Not one more second.
I couldn’t breathe, my stomach hurt, my head was pounding and that thing in my chest was threatening to explode.