A Summer to Remember(43)
“The story got out and the young woman charged us all with rape but…we were saved because one of our fraternity brother’s filmed the whole incident and she kept urging guys on though she was really drunk. I’m not proud about the way I acted that night and there isn’t anything I can say to excuse my behavior. I was a junior in college so I knew exactly what I was doing. At the time, I was a f*cking idiot and didn’t realize what my actions might do to that poor young woman.”
I took in deep breaths. “We have all done certain activities in college we aren’t proud of, Paul. I never thought you were perfect and I know there was stuff that went down at Harvard you’re hardly going to brag about with me.”
He grabbed both my hands and squeezed tightly. “I didn’t realize how much I could affect someone else’s life until I witnessed what Kevin did to you and then I thought about what I did. She was someone’s daughter and sister too. I just hate that we think just because we are privileged it gives us carte blanche to mess up another person’s life. I am so sorry for what I did to her and I feel even worse for what Kevin did to you.”
“It wasn’t your fault what Kevin did to me.” I finished my wine and realized I didn’t need anything else to drink. “Let’s go home. I just want you to strip me and make love to me. Pay the tab so we can get the hell out of here.”
I stood and managed to make it to the ladies room where I used the bathroom before I washed my hands and checked my makeup. I looked stunning and I knew it had taken Paul a lot of guts to tell me what happened but I also forgave him. I didn’t know many guys who had been through college who hadn’t done something just as awful, if not worse, especially if a fraternity or a sorority was involved?
That’s why I couldn’t really feel too bad about what happened to me. I was hardly a statistic. If college life was a bit rough on me then how many women out there had it been a complete and utter nightmare? I couldn’t continue to be embarrassed about our whole group of society friends knowing what happened because it made Kevin look worse than it did me.
Every dog had his day and he would get what was coming to him.
I applied another layer of gloss before I checked my perfect skin again. The door to the women’s restroom burst open and Ashley walked in with her cousin, Imogen, in tow. They both laughed like drunken hyenas about something they were discussing until they saw me. It was almost as if they were animated dolls someone had removed the batteries from because they both just glared coldly in my direction with looks of disgust and general distaste on their face.
“Uh oh, look what the cat dragged in,” Imogen said to Ashley in that annoying, upper-crust English accent she possessed. “We were hoping to avoid both you and Paul…”
“What are you doing? Stalking us?” I wondered out loud with irritation. “I certainly didn’t expect to run into you two. Manhattan is a big place and has plenty of upscale restaurants.”
“Looks like we share the same tastes in food as we do men,” Ashley responded in a cool voice before she walked over to me. “And to think, he’d almost forgotten all about you and his adolescent crush he possessed for you. It’s really my fault he’s with you now. I just had to open my mouth and tell him about what Kevin did to you at Vassar and he just did a one eighty. All the sudden, he had to be your white knight—”
“Shut up!” I exclaimed in anger.
She ignored me and continued, “I can’t believe I told him anything. I mean, I had been telling anyone who would listen how big of a whore you were for ages. It was fun to ruin your reputation. Who knew everyone had such a wonderful opinion of you? A witch hunt kind of started against Kevin. I mean, women would date him just to try to get shit on him because they all thought that he deserved to be punished for what he did to you.”
I could a feel a sudden loss as all reasoning left me and thus the need to control my temper. I had to get a grip and no way could I allow this woman to manipulate me or worse yet, make me act a like a complete and utter fool in public. It wasn’t just my reputation on the line but that of Maison des Artistries, my employees, Paul and Jude. Not to mention my poor mother and father. They still were ignorant and unaware about what had happened at Vassar and I wanted to keep it that way.
Slowly, as if in a trance, I walked toward Ashley and Imogen, completely ready for a face off, albeit a civilized one. I looked Ashley in the eyes first before I glared at her cousin who could immediately tell something was amiss and her confidence slowly drained from her body as her shoulders slumped in defeat.