Post by Alanah O'Connell on Sept 18, 2019 23:58:10 GMT -5
Somewhere in downtown Manhattan
August 31, 9 p.m.
The lineup outside the gallery was nearly wrapped around the block as the car pulled up to the curb and Jack Russow and Alanah O’Connell emerged from it. Much like they had the previous time, they made their way to the front entrance, gave their names to the doorman, and were immediately ushered inside, where they were greeted with a wall-to-wall crowd inside the large space. The couple squeezed their way through until they found a relatively open space next to the bar near the back of the gallery, where they saw Bella Madison, Malachi, Miles Kasey, and Christian McCracken standing together. As Jack and Alanah joined the group, Christian let out a little screech and immediately grabbed Alanah in a hug.
“Starting to think you and Jack weren’t going to make it,” Bella said with a little smirk. “Figured you might get a little...preoccupied.”
“You’re one to talk,” Alanah fired back, giving her and Malachi a pointed look, and the two women giggled with each other while Mal rolled his eyes and downed the rest of the drink in his hand.
“Anyone seen the woman of the hour?” Jack said.
“Over there, hobnobbing with all the upper-society folk,” Christian waved his hand towards the centre of the gallery, where Mattie Cormier was in the middle of a group of extremely well-dressed people. Her smile looked strained, but she made polite small talk with them until her eyes fell on her friends at the bar. The smile got a little brighter as she excused herself from the crowd and hurried over to them. Alanah rushed to meet her, wrapping her up in a tight hug.
“Holy crap! There’s way more people here than last time!” she marveled as she released Mattie.
“I know! So many people RSVP’d that my agent had to find a bigger venue!” Mattie exclaimed, clapping her hands together with a huge smile across her face. “He even told me that over half of my works have already got bidding wars going for them! By the end of this night, my bank account could be in the six figures!”
“Well, you deserve all this success,” Alanah told her. “You’ve been working your ass off for all of it.”
“Soon, you’re going to be some big shot artist jetting all over the globe and too cool to hang out with a bunch of wrestlers,” Miles winked at her.
“Speak for yourself, shirtless wonder,” Christian declared. “I’m gonna be her official social media manager!”
Mattie laughed. “I will never be that much of a snob that I won’t want to hang out with all of you. You’ve all been behind me 100% since this all started. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of your support and encouragement.” She looked around, and her face fell a little. “Mack didn’t come with you guys?”
Everyone shook their heads, and Alanah squeezed Mattie’s hand. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
Mattie nodded, the smile returning to her face. They all stood and chatted for a little bit longer, drinking more than their fair share of champagne. Suddenly, Mattie’s face took on a look of shock as she looked out over the crowd, and she nearly dropped her champagne flute. “I’ll be right back, guys. Just remembered something I had to tell my agent,” she said, putting her glass down and making her way to the back of the gallery.
She pushed through the heavy glass doors and stepped out onto the terrace at the back of the gallery, taking in deep breaths of the night air. She made her way to the edge of the terrace, where a wrought-iron fence separated the concrete area from a small pond sunk into the grass. As she leaned against the railing, she let a few tears fall from the corner of her eye. She heard footsteps approaching from behind her, and she quickly wiped at her face with the back of her hand. “Lanah, I promise I’m OK. Just needed to-”
When she turned around, the rest of her sentence died on her lips. Mack McKane was standing just outside the door, hands in his pockets and giving her a small smile. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said, smiling back at him. “I was afraid you weren’t going to make it.”
“Course I was. Just got...held up with something,” he said, moving closer to her.
She looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her dress. “Look, I know that I said we would talk about...everything, and I swear I want to-”
Mack held up his hands, cutting her off. “Nah, I ain’t out here about that. Saw you take off from inside like you’d seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost, per se,” she said, letting out a long sigh. “Just...people I thought I’d never see again. People I never wanted to see again.” She turned back to the railing and leaned against it. “It’s...complicated.”
Mack came over to stand beside her. “If anyone knows complicated, it’s me. I’m all ears if you need it.”
She looked at him with a little smile before it fell away as she looked out across the shimmering water of the pond. “It’s just a lot of stupid family drama. You’d be bored to tears by it.”
“You might be surprised,” he said quietly. “Try me.”
She let out a shaky breath, trying to calm herself. “Well, for starters, I’m kind of the family outcast, in a way. My dad had an affair a few years after my older sister was born, and I was the result. My birth mom died when I was still a baby, and I didn’t have any other family to take me in, so my dad stepped up. Of course, that didn’t exactly make my stepmother happy, as you could very well imagine. Not to mention my...well, half-sister. Both of them have pretty much hated me from the start. Of course they deny it, but I know. They resent my existence because of the obvious reason, but also because my father never treated me any different. He was the only one that actually loved me.” She sniffled a little, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill forth. “Of course, the fact that I’m mixed race was just another strike against me. When I started school, my sister Avery made sure that no one wanted to be my friend. She constantly spread rumours and gossip about me, all the way up to high school. And yet, despite all that, I was still expected to be the perfect little daughter and represent the family well.” She sighed, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “New York...this was supposed to be my fresh start. My way of escaping it all.” She let out a bitter laugh. “But it seems no matter what I do, they want to drag me back down with them. They won’t be happy until they’ve broken me, it seems.”
There was a moment of quiet between them, before Mack spoke. “Fuck ‘em. They ain’t worth your tears. You’ve got something good going on here, and they’re just looking for an excuse to try and break you down again. But now, you got a whole gang of people who support you. Sometimes, you need to go out into the world and make your own family.”
Mattie blinked at him, before smiling a bit. “That was beautiful.”
He cleared his throat a bit. “Well, since that’s sorted and we’re here anyways...maybe we should have that talk like we was gonna,” he said.
Mattie winced slightly. “I was afraid you were gonna say that,” she said teasingly, before her face fell. “I don’t even know how to begin to apologize to you for what I did…”
------------
Flashback to the previous Friday night…
Mack, Mattie and Miles Kasey were all at a dive bar somewhere in Brooklyn, up in the balcony watching as a three-piece punk band played on stage. Miles finished off the last of his beer. “I’m going for another round,” he slurred, stumbling away from the railing and over to the bar.
Mattie giggled, covering her mouth with her hand as she hiccuped. “He’s sooo drunk,” she said.
Mack laughed a little. “You’re not really that far off yourself there, love.”
She feigned a look of shock, putting a hand to her chest. “I’ll have you know I can hold my liquor quite well, thank you very much!”
She stumbled a little in her heels, which caused her to fall directly into Mack’s chest. He caught her before she hit the floor, holding her by her shoulders. “Yes, it certainly looks that way,” he said with amusement.
She just blinked up at him, and before he could react, she reached up and kissed him flush on the mouth. He froze for an instant, before pulling back like he had been burned. “Mattie...”
“I want you,” she said, trying to reach up and kiss him again.
He quickly sat her down in a nearby chair before backing away. “Look…” he started. “I, uh ...I gotta go.”
He turned on his heel and quickly made his way through the crowd, until he was out of sight. Mattie just sat there with a dazed expression on her face, until Miles returned from the bar and slammed three bottles on the table, jolting her out of her stupor.
“Where’d ol’ Mackie boy get to?” he said.
“Dunno. Probably had to use the washroom,” Mattie mumbled, picking up one of the bottles and taking a big swig....
------------------
“...I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, staring down at her feet in shame. “I just threw myself at you like some college whore at a frat party!”
“Hey now, you were drunk,” Mack tried to ease her guilt. “We all do stupid things when we’re sloshed.”
She shook her head vehemently. “That’s no excuse. I thought I had ruined my chances with you when you took off...which I don’t blame you for.”
He stared at her curiously. “What do you mean, ‘ruined your chances’?”
Mattie blinked at him in disbelief. “And here I was thinking I was being fairly obvious this whole time.” She sighed. “Mack...I like you. I admit, at first it was more of an artist’s curiosity that drew me to you, but the more I got to know you, the more I liked you. You’re so different than anyone I’ve ever met. I know I kinda came on a bit strong at first...but when I realized you were uncomfortable, I backed off a bit, hoping that maybe with time...” She sighed, running a hand through her curls. “I don’t know what I was hoping for, exactly.”
Mack was quiet for a minute, staring out into the darkness before he pushed off the railing and paced the concrete, muttering quietly to himself under his breath.
She watched him for a moment, a frown pulling at the edges of her mouth. “Why is it so hard for you to believe that I like you?”
He turned to look back at her, gesturing to her. “Well, just look at you,” Mack said. "Girls like you...don't belong with monsters like me."
“What do you mean ‘girls like me’?” she asked.
“Educated, well-mannered, more money than you’d ever know what to do with in your whole bleedin’ lifetime…” he listed. “Just cause you ain’t about that life doesn’t change the fact that it was the one you was born into. You deserve someone who can give you more than I ever could.”
She frowned again. “But that’s not what I want! I’m tired of having everyone else tell me what they think is best for me! I thought you, of all people, would be different…” She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “Mack, I’m not asking for a ring on my finger. Hell, I’m not even asking for anything official. All I want is to spend some time with you, see where this could go between us. Just...give me a chance. Please.”
He stared at her for a moment, completely at a loss for words. He let out a long sigh, running a hand down his face. “I get the feeling that you ain’t gonna let the matter drop,” he said.
She grinned at him, uncrossing her arms and reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Before she could lower her hand, Mack impulsively reached out and took it in his own hand, running his thumb across her knuckles. They stared at each other for a moment, slightly leaning forwards, until...
“There you are, Matilda,” an icy Southern-accented female voice cut through the night air. Mattie stiffened and clenched her eyes shut, her teeth gritting together before she let out a breath and turned around to face the voice. Mack turned with her to see a statuesque blonde standing near the doorway, arms folded across her chest and a condescending sneer across her lips. Beside her was another woman, looking like a younger version of the older woman, mimicking the pose and facial expression to a tee.
Mattie forced a tight smile on her face as she took a few steps towards them. “Hello Mother, Avery,” she said. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
The older woman - Joelle Cormier, Mattie’s stepmother - smoothed out the skirt of her dress as she took a few steps towards them. “Well, your father had some business to take care of here in the city, and it’s been an age since we took a trip. Imagine my surprise, however, when a friend of mine happened to mention that she was going to a very exclusive gallery showing, showcasing none other than my own stepdaughter, who conveniently failed to mention this to her own family.” She glanced over to Mack, a barely concealed look of disgust crossing her features. “And yet, you seem to have invited some...interesting characters. I can’t tell you how offended I am, Matilda.”
Mattie’s shoulders hunched as she bit her bottom lip, lowering her gaze to the concrete. “I didn’t know that you were all going to be in New York,” she stammered. “And besides, you never really took an interest in my art…”
“We sent you to school for it, didn’t we?” Joelle snapped. “Your father paid good money to get you into that art program and made sure that you had everything you could have needed, and you don’t even have the common decency to inform us that you’ve had not one, but two gallery showings? Not to mention that you’ve lowered yourself to associating with…” She waved a dismissive hand in Mack’s direction. “Whatever that is. You’re just lucky that Everett’s not here to see this display. He’s put up with a lot from you, but this might just be the last straw if you’re not careful.”
Mattie’s head fell further, and when Mack glanced over to her, he saw tears coursing down her cheeks through the curtains of hair framing her face. “Right then,” he said, fixing the two women with a cold stare. “Name’s Mack, since you decided to skip the introductions and all. And before you even ask, yeah, I was on the guest list. VIP and everything.” He smirked at them. “Not bad for a…whatever, am I right? Now, Mattie’s told me quite a bit about you, and I gotta say I ain’t impressed. Treating her worse than the dirt under your feet, yet still expectin’ her to do the family proud? And then, coming here on what’s supposed to be her big night and makin’ her feel like complete shit? Where I come from, no matter who you are, that’s just plain rude, innit? And me...well, I don’t tolerate rudeness all that well…”
He took a few menacing steps towards Joelle and Avery, who quickly backed themselves up with a look of terror towards the young Brit. But a hand on his arm made him stop, and he glanced to the side to see Mattie’s tear-stained face looking at him, shaking her head no. He looked back to the two women, a vicious snarl on his face. “But, as I said, it’s Mattie’s big night, and she’s already had it ruined by the likes of you two. So, consider this your lucky day. Now, if you don’t mind scurrying along ‘fore I skin ya both like a couple forest squirrels…” Mack trailed off, reaching back and taking Mattie’s hand firmly in his and stalking off to the side of the building. She barely had time to register the look of shocked horror on Joelle and Avery’s faces as they made their way up the stairs that led to the rooftop of the gallery. Once they were there, they walked over to the edge of the roof, leaning against it and staring up at the night sky. A few stars were visible, even through the glare of the city lights down below them. After a moment, Mack spoke up. “So, who’s Everett then?”
“No one! No one at all!” Mattie answered quickly.
Mack folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow at her.
She sighed. “Just...the son of a business partner of Dad’s. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and he’s got the stupid archaic idea that he and I are like, betrothed because our fathers are in business together. I keep trying to push him off onto Avery, but he’s not having any of it. He’s your typical old money rich snob - thinks he’s better than everyone just because he has money.” Mattie balled her hands into fists. “He’s also a super misogynistic pig - I heard him say that once he and I get married, he’ll ‘tame me’. Make me into his proper little housewife. Nearly punched him out right then and there. But of course, it was at some business function, so I couldn’t.”
“Another wanker to add to my list, then,” Mack said, a low growl in his voice.
“Mack, I’m serious - they’re not worth it. They’ll get bored and go back to New Orleans soon, and then hopefully they’ll leave me alone for good.” She shivered slightly from the chill in the air, rubbing her upper arms. “We’d better get back inside. I’m sure everyone’s wondering where I went.”
“They can bloody well wait. They need you more than you need them. You’re the star tonight, remember?”
Mattie smiled at him. “I meant our friends, actually…”
Mack rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, that’s a bit of a different story then. Shall we?”
He held out his hand to her, and she took it as they started back towards the stairs. But before they descended, Mattie stopped. When Mack turned to look at her, she leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “For everything tonight.”
He cleared his throat and nodded at her, and they continued on their way back inside the gallery.
August 31, 9 p.m.
The lineup outside the gallery was nearly wrapped around the block as the car pulled up to the curb and Jack Russow and Alanah O’Connell emerged from it. Much like they had the previous time, they made their way to the front entrance, gave their names to the doorman, and were immediately ushered inside, where they were greeted with a wall-to-wall crowd inside the large space. The couple squeezed their way through until they found a relatively open space next to the bar near the back of the gallery, where they saw Bella Madison, Malachi, Miles Kasey, and Christian McCracken standing together. As Jack and Alanah joined the group, Christian let out a little screech and immediately grabbed Alanah in a hug.
“Starting to think you and Jack weren’t going to make it,” Bella said with a little smirk. “Figured you might get a little...preoccupied.”
“You’re one to talk,” Alanah fired back, giving her and Malachi a pointed look, and the two women giggled with each other while Mal rolled his eyes and downed the rest of the drink in his hand.
“Anyone seen the woman of the hour?” Jack said.
“Over there, hobnobbing with all the upper-society folk,” Christian waved his hand towards the centre of the gallery, where Mattie Cormier was in the middle of a group of extremely well-dressed people. Her smile looked strained, but she made polite small talk with them until her eyes fell on her friends at the bar. The smile got a little brighter as she excused herself from the crowd and hurried over to them. Alanah rushed to meet her, wrapping her up in a tight hug.
“Holy crap! There’s way more people here than last time!” she marveled as she released Mattie.
“I know! So many people RSVP’d that my agent had to find a bigger venue!” Mattie exclaimed, clapping her hands together with a huge smile across her face. “He even told me that over half of my works have already got bidding wars going for them! By the end of this night, my bank account could be in the six figures!”
“Well, you deserve all this success,” Alanah told her. “You’ve been working your ass off for all of it.”
“Soon, you’re going to be some big shot artist jetting all over the globe and too cool to hang out with a bunch of wrestlers,” Miles winked at her.
“Speak for yourself, shirtless wonder,” Christian declared. “I’m gonna be her official social media manager!”
Mattie laughed. “I will never be that much of a snob that I won’t want to hang out with all of you. You’ve all been behind me 100% since this all started. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of your support and encouragement.” She looked around, and her face fell a little. “Mack didn’t come with you guys?”
Everyone shook their heads, and Alanah squeezed Mattie’s hand. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
Mattie nodded, the smile returning to her face. They all stood and chatted for a little bit longer, drinking more than their fair share of champagne. Suddenly, Mattie’s face took on a look of shock as she looked out over the crowd, and she nearly dropped her champagne flute. “I’ll be right back, guys. Just remembered something I had to tell my agent,” she said, putting her glass down and making her way to the back of the gallery.
She pushed through the heavy glass doors and stepped out onto the terrace at the back of the gallery, taking in deep breaths of the night air. She made her way to the edge of the terrace, where a wrought-iron fence separated the concrete area from a small pond sunk into the grass. As she leaned against the railing, she let a few tears fall from the corner of her eye. She heard footsteps approaching from behind her, and she quickly wiped at her face with the back of her hand. “Lanah, I promise I’m OK. Just needed to-”
When she turned around, the rest of her sentence died on her lips. Mack McKane was standing just outside the door, hands in his pockets and giving her a small smile. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said, smiling back at him. “I was afraid you weren’t going to make it.”
“Course I was. Just got...held up with something,” he said, moving closer to her.
She looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her dress. “Look, I know that I said we would talk about...everything, and I swear I want to-”
Mack held up his hands, cutting her off. “Nah, I ain’t out here about that. Saw you take off from inside like you’d seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost, per se,” she said, letting out a long sigh. “Just...people I thought I’d never see again. People I never wanted to see again.” She turned back to the railing and leaned against it. “It’s...complicated.”
Mack came over to stand beside her. “If anyone knows complicated, it’s me. I’m all ears if you need it.”
She looked at him with a little smile before it fell away as she looked out across the shimmering water of the pond. “It’s just a lot of stupid family drama. You’d be bored to tears by it.”
“You might be surprised,” he said quietly. “Try me.”
She let out a shaky breath, trying to calm herself. “Well, for starters, I’m kind of the family outcast, in a way. My dad had an affair a few years after my older sister was born, and I was the result. My birth mom died when I was still a baby, and I didn’t have any other family to take me in, so my dad stepped up. Of course, that didn’t exactly make my stepmother happy, as you could very well imagine. Not to mention my...well, half-sister. Both of them have pretty much hated me from the start. Of course they deny it, but I know. They resent my existence because of the obvious reason, but also because my father never treated me any different. He was the only one that actually loved me.” She sniffled a little, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill forth. “Of course, the fact that I’m mixed race was just another strike against me. When I started school, my sister Avery made sure that no one wanted to be my friend. She constantly spread rumours and gossip about me, all the way up to high school. And yet, despite all that, I was still expected to be the perfect little daughter and represent the family well.” She sighed, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “New York...this was supposed to be my fresh start. My way of escaping it all.” She let out a bitter laugh. “But it seems no matter what I do, they want to drag me back down with them. They won’t be happy until they’ve broken me, it seems.”
There was a moment of quiet between them, before Mack spoke. “Fuck ‘em. They ain’t worth your tears. You’ve got something good going on here, and they’re just looking for an excuse to try and break you down again. But now, you got a whole gang of people who support you. Sometimes, you need to go out into the world and make your own family.”
Mattie blinked at him, before smiling a bit. “That was beautiful.”
He cleared his throat a bit. “Well, since that’s sorted and we’re here anyways...maybe we should have that talk like we was gonna,” he said.
Mattie winced slightly. “I was afraid you were gonna say that,” she said teasingly, before her face fell. “I don’t even know how to begin to apologize to you for what I did…”
------------
Flashback to the previous Friday night…
Mack, Mattie and Miles Kasey were all at a dive bar somewhere in Brooklyn, up in the balcony watching as a three-piece punk band played on stage. Miles finished off the last of his beer. “I’m going for another round,” he slurred, stumbling away from the railing and over to the bar.
Mattie giggled, covering her mouth with her hand as she hiccuped. “He’s sooo drunk,” she said.
Mack laughed a little. “You’re not really that far off yourself there, love.”
She feigned a look of shock, putting a hand to her chest. “I’ll have you know I can hold my liquor quite well, thank you very much!”
She stumbled a little in her heels, which caused her to fall directly into Mack’s chest. He caught her before she hit the floor, holding her by her shoulders. “Yes, it certainly looks that way,” he said with amusement.
She just blinked up at him, and before he could react, she reached up and kissed him flush on the mouth. He froze for an instant, before pulling back like he had been burned. “Mattie...”
“I want you,” she said, trying to reach up and kiss him again.
He quickly sat her down in a nearby chair before backing away. “Look…” he started. “I, uh ...I gotta go.”
He turned on his heel and quickly made his way through the crowd, until he was out of sight. Mattie just sat there with a dazed expression on her face, until Miles returned from the bar and slammed three bottles on the table, jolting her out of her stupor.
“Where’d ol’ Mackie boy get to?” he said.
“Dunno. Probably had to use the washroom,” Mattie mumbled, picking up one of the bottles and taking a big swig....
------------------
“...I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, staring down at her feet in shame. “I just threw myself at you like some college whore at a frat party!”
“Hey now, you were drunk,” Mack tried to ease her guilt. “We all do stupid things when we’re sloshed.”
She shook her head vehemently. “That’s no excuse. I thought I had ruined my chances with you when you took off...which I don’t blame you for.”
He stared at her curiously. “What do you mean, ‘ruined your chances’?”
Mattie blinked at him in disbelief. “And here I was thinking I was being fairly obvious this whole time.” She sighed. “Mack...I like you. I admit, at first it was more of an artist’s curiosity that drew me to you, but the more I got to know you, the more I liked you. You’re so different than anyone I’ve ever met. I know I kinda came on a bit strong at first...but when I realized you were uncomfortable, I backed off a bit, hoping that maybe with time...” She sighed, running a hand through her curls. “I don’t know what I was hoping for, exactly.”
Mack was quiet for a minute, staring out into the darkness before he pushed off the railing and paced the concrete, muttering quietly to himself under his breath.
She watched him for a moment, a frown pulling at the edges of her mouth. “Why is it so hard for you to believe that I like you?”
He turned to look back at her, gesturing to her. “Well, just look at you,” Mack said. "Girls like you...don't belong with monsters like me."
“What do you mean ‘girls like me’?” she asked.
“Educated, well-mannered, more money than you’d ever know what to do with in your whole bleedin’ lifetime…” he listed. “Just cause you ain’t about that life doesn’t change the fact that it was the one you was born into. You deserve someone who can give you more than I ever could.”
She frowned again. “But that’s not what I want! I’m tired of having everyone else tell me what they think is best for me! I thought you, of all people, would be different…” She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “Mack, I’m not asking for a ring on my finger. Hell, I’m not even asking for anything official. All I want is to spend some time with you, see where this could go between us. Just...give me a chance. Please.”
He stared at her for a moment, completely at a loss for words. He let out a long sigh, running a hand down his face. “I get the feeling that you ain’t gonna let the matter drop,” he said.
She grinned at him, uncrossing her arms and reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Before she could lower her hand, Mack impulsively reached out and took it in his own hand, running his thumb across her knuckles. They stared at each other for a moment, slightly leaning forwards, until...
“There you are, Matilda,” an icy Southern-accented female voice cut through the night air. Mattie stiffened and clenched her eyes shut, her teeth gritting together before she let out a breath and turned around to face the voice. Mack turned with her to see a statuesque blonde standing near the doorway, arms folded across her chest and a condescending sneer across her lips. Beside her was another woman, looking like a younger version of the older woman, mimicking the pose and facial expression to a tee.
Mattie forced a tight smile on her face as she took a few steps towards them. “Hello Mother, Avery,” she said. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
The older woman - Joelle Cormier, Mattie’s stepmother - smoothed out the skirt of her dress as she took a few steps towards them. “Well, your father had some business to take care of here in the city, and it’s been an age since we took a trip. Imagine my surprise, however, when a friend of mine happened to mention that she was going to a very exclusive gallery showing, showcasing none other than my own stepdaughter, who conveniently failed to mention this to her own family.” She glanced over to Mack, a barely concealed look of disgust crossing her features. “And yet, you seem to have invited some...interesting characters. I can’t tell you how offended I am, Matilda.”
Mattie’s shoulders hunched as she bit her bottom lip, lowering her gaze to the concrete. “I didn’t know that you were all going to be in New York,” she stammered. “And besides, you never really took an interest in my art…”
“We sent you to school for it, didn’t we?” Joelle snapped. “Your father paid good money to get you into that art program and made sure that you had everything you could have needed, and you don’t even have the common decency to inform us that you’ve had not one, but two gallery showings? Not to mention that you’ve lowered yourself to associating with…” She waved a dismissive hand in Mack’s direction. “Whatever that is. You’re just lucky that Everett’s not here to see this display. He’s put up with a lot from you, but this might just be the last straw if you’re not careful.”
Mattie’s head fell further, and when Mack glanced over to her, he saw tears coursing down her cheeks through the curtains of hair framing her face. “Right then,” he said, fixing the two women with a cold stare. “Name’s Mack, since you decided to skip the introductions and all. And before you even ask, yeah, I was on the guest list. VIP and everything.” He smirked at them. “Not bad for a…whatever, am I right? Now, Mattie’s told me quite a bit about you, and I gotta say I ain’t impressed. Treating her worse than the dirt under your feet, yet still expectin’ her to do the family proud? And then, coming here on what’s supposed to be her big night and makin’ her feel like complete shit? Where I come from, no matter who you are, that’s just plain rude, innit? And me...well, I don’t tolerate rudeness all that well…”
He took a few menacing steps towards Joelle and Avery, who quickly backed themselves up with a look of terror towards the young Brit. But a hand on his arm made him stop, and he glanced to the side to see Mattie’s tear-stained face looking at him, shaking her head no. He looked back to the two women, a vicious snarl on his face. “But, as I said, it’s Mattie’s big night, and she’s already had it ruined by the likes of you two. So, consider this your lucky day. Now, if you don’t mind scurrying along ‘fore I skin ya both like a couple forest squirrels…” Mack trailed off, reaching back and taking Mattie’s hand firmly in his and stalking off to the side of the building. She barely had time to register the look of shocked horror on Joelle and Avery’s faces as they made their way up the stairs that led to the rooftop of the gallery. Once they were there, they walked over to the edge of the roof, leaning against it and staring up at the night sky. A few stars were visible, even through the glare of the city lights down below them. After a moment, Mack spoke up. “So, who’s Everett then?”
“No one! No one at all!” Mattie answered quickly.
Mack folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow at her.
She sighed. “Just...the son of a business partner of Dad’s. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and he’s got the stupid archaic idea that he and I are like, betrothed because our fathers are in business together. I keep trying to push him off onto Avery, but he’s not having any of it. He’s your typical old money rich snob - thinks he’s better than everyone just because he has money.” Mattie balled her hands into fists. “He’s also a super misogynistic pig - I heard him say that once he and I get married, he’ll ‘tame me’. Make me into his proper little housewife. Nearly punched him out right then and there. But of course, it was at some business function, so I couldn’t.”
“Another wanker to add to my list, then,” Mack said, a low growl in his voice.
“Mack, I’m serious - they’re not worth it. They’ll get bored and go back to New Orleans soon, and then hopefully they’ll leave me alone for good.” She shivered slightly from the chill in the air, rubbing her upper arms. “We’d better get back inside. I’m sure everyone’s wondering where I went.”
“They can bloody well wait. They need you more than you need them. You’re the star tonight, remember?”
Mattie smiled at him. “I meant our friends, actually…”
Mack rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, that’s a bit of a different story then. Shall we?”
He held out his hand to her, and she took it as they started back towards the stairs. But before they descended, Mattie stopped. When Mack turned to look at her, she leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “For everything tonight.”
He cleared his throat and nodded at her, and they continued on their way back inside the gallery.