Mister Moneybags(48)

“I like him. He seems genuine,” Mom said.

Dex was bending over to load something into the dishwasher, and my eyes were glued to the way his jeans hugged his firm ass. “I like him, too.”

I was mid-sip, still ogling the view when Mom sighed. “Does he have a nice father for your dear old mom?”

I choked, coughing some of my wine through my nose. It burned like hell.

Mom laughed when I finally stopped sputtering and caught my breath. “What? I’m old. Not dead.”

On the ride back to my apartment, I let Dex get to second base. We laughed as he discreetly felt me up in the back of the Town Car. He even managed to drop his head and take the taste he wanted while somehow shielding me from the driver and passing vehicles. Who knew how many uses a sports jacket could have?

When we pulled up to my apartment, I noticed there was a considerable bulge in his pants. “Do you want to…come inside?”

“That depends on what you’re inviting me to come inside of. Are you asking me up and I’m not allowed to touch you, or are you asking me to come inside.”

My body wanted the latter more than I could explain. I squeezed my thighs together to quell the desire burning between my own legs. Yet…I just wasn’t ready to go there with Dex. It wasn’t that I was holding back because I didn’t trust him anymore—my heart seemed to have moved past the distrust that he’d initially made me feel. Instead…I was realizing that having sex with Dex was going to mean something…possibly something monumental in my life. And maybe I was just a little scared. I turned to him. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone.”

Dex looked into my eyes. “That’s good. Because the feeling is mutual. Although I’m sensing that wasn’t the end of your statement. That there’s a but coming…”

I smiled. “I wish there wasn’t. It’s just…” I had no idea how to put what I was feeling inside into words. I was confused by my own emotions, so it made explaining things pretty difficult.

I’d looked down, trying to gather my thoughts into coherent sentences, and Dex put two fingers under my chin and lifted until our eyes met. “I’ll wait as long as it takes. It doesn’t matter why you aren’t ready. I’ll be here when you are.”

“Thank you.”

We made out for a while after Dex walked me to the door, but he made no attempt to come in. When we finally said goodbye, I leaned my head against the closed door and listened to his footsteps as they walked away until I couldn’t hear them anymore. I hadn’t thought about it in years, but a flash of my dad the night he moved out came back to me in that moment. I was sitting in my room crying while he was making trips back and forth carrying boxes to his car. I didn’t want to see him, but I also couldn’t bring myself to stop listening for him either. I remembered listening to his feet clank against the tile of the hall floor with every trip he made. The last time he went out to his car, I didn’t realize it would be his last trip. I’d listened to his footsteps as he walked to the door, the sound becoming more and more distant. Then I waited for the sound to come back again. It never did. He never walked into our house again. He was gone.





Bianca was out of town the next three days on a trip to the West Coast for an interview. Though I’d felt like our relationship had truly started to push past the crap I’d pulled, something was still not sitting right with me. I’d racked my brain trying to figure out why Bianca’s mother looked so familiar, but I couldn’t seem to place where we’d met. And she certainly didn’t seem to recognize me either, albeit years had passed and I wasn’t a teenage boy anymore.

Throughout the day, I was swamped at the office. Even though I was able to immerse myself in my work, an unsettled feeling lurked in the background. By the end of the day it had grown and caused me to lose my concentration. Unable to focus, I picked up the phone and decided to call my father. On the second ring, my secretary walked in and placed a stack of papers she’d just finished photocopying on my desk. I hung up the phone, thinking better of calling him to fish around for details and instead spoke to Josephine. “Before you leave for the day, can you make some last minute travel arrangements? I need to fly first thing in the morning. I’ll also be needing a rental car once I land.”

“Of course. Where do you need to be?”

“West Palm Beach. I’m heading down to see my father.”





Palm Beach International Airport was the total opposite of JFK, that was for sure. Everything seemed to move at a slower pace. It was a weird thing to feel almost relaxed at an airport. The vibe was definitely different down here.

Since I wasn’t staying more than one night, I had no checked luggage. I dialed my father as soon as I exited the sliding glass doors. The heat and humidity outside nearly melted my face instantly.

“Dad, where are you right now? I flew down, just landed at PBI.”

“Am I dying and don’t know about it?” he joked.

“What do you mean?”

“Why else would you be visiting me? It’s been how long since I’ve gotten you down here?”

“Well, I have to talk to you about something important, and I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, come see you personally. It’s been a while.”