The Perfect Mistress (14 page)

That was one of the things that she noticed about most of the men she dated. They all came to her for something they were missing at home. She usually felt them out, determined what they were missing, and then made it her business to give that to them. So far she had been pretty good at it: giving one married man after another everything they couldn't get at home, whether it was kinky sex, conversation, or what most of them wanted—their ego stroked. Lauren had made a living at being the perfect mistress. Just like her daddy had taught her.

Lauren arrived at the restaurant ten minutes past seven. She liked to arrive just a tad late to make the anticipation build. She looked around and noticed that Thomas hadn't arrived.

“Would you like to go ahead and be seated?” the maître d' asked.

“Yes. I can have a glass of wine before my date arrives,” she replied.

Fifteen minutes later, Lauren was on the brink of irritation when her phone rang.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hey, Lauren.” It was Thomas.

“Hi. Are you on your way? I'm at the restaurant.”

He paused. “I am so sorry, babe. Major drama at the house. The wife is tripping about me going out. Trying to see why she can't come, and the fact that I was adamant about her not coming only made her want to come that much more.”

“I told you about that,” Lauren sighed. “You have to play it cool.”

That was one of the biggest problems she had with the men she dated. It's like they didn't know the rules of the game. They would send her inappropriate texts and pictures and then want her to send them the same thing in return. That's the one thing that she didn't do because she learned the hard way that men don't like to delete the pictures. And after she had one furious wife call her going off, Lauren let go of the sexting, instead having the men hold on and wait for the real thing. She tried to stay as low-key as possible. The only reason Lauren was even on social media was that she needed it for her business, Avante Designs, and that page was all about her business, not her.

“It's okay, Thomas,” Lauren said, making sure to keep her tone cool. The one thing she never did was get upset. It's one of the main reasons they kept coming back. “You need to stay there because the more you push to leave, the harder it's going to be.”

He sighed. “Why did I know you would be the voice of reason?”

“Because that's what I do, boo.” She released a small laugh. “Look, you handle home. Calm your wife down, put her at ease, and then I'll be waiting for you. You can come see me tomorrow, or the next day, or just wait for our regular time next month.” She didn't bother telling him that tomorrow she had another date, and on the next day she would be resting.

“You are unbelievable,” he said.

“Thank you. I probably wouldn't be good company anyway. One of my clients wrote me a bad check and now I'm not going to be able to pay my rent.” She let just the right amount of quavering into her voice.

“What?” he replied. “I told you to stop taking checks from folks.”

“I know, baby. You were so right. I should've listened. But I'll figure something out.”

He blew a frustrated breath, but then quickly said, “Well, you know I got you.”

“Thomas, I don't . . .”

“You're not going to fight me on this. That's what I'm here for—to take care of my woman.”

She smirked at that. His woman was his wife, but whatever he needed to tell himself . . .

“How much is it?”

“Five thousand.”

“What?”

“I owe for last month, too. But if you just cover one month, I'll be eternally grateful.”

“I'll transfer six thousand dollars to your account tonight, all right?”

“Thomas, I don't know what I would do without you.”

She permitted herself a small smile. Her rent was only $2,500, so she'd pay next month, too, and have a little extra to shop with.

“Well, hopefully, you never have to find out. I gotta go.”

“All right, babe. See you soon. I have some tricks I want to show you.”

She could hear the huskiness in his voice as he replied, “Damn. Okay. Talk to you later.”

Lauren hung up the phone and prepared to enjoy her romantic Italian meal—all alone. It was one of the drawbacks to the life she lived—but since she would soon be six thousand
dollars richer and didn't even have to sit through dinner to get it, Lauren guessed she couldn't complain.

Lauren thought back to her father's women. She wondered how much money he spent on them over the years. He didn't have crazy money like Thomas, but the way those women went crazy, he had to be sliding them a little something.

“Are you ready to order?”

The sound of the waiter's voice snapped Lauren out of her thoughts.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “Yes. I'll take the lobster linguini.”

The waiter motioned toward the seat across from her. “Will your guest still be joining you?”

Lauren smiled. “No, it looks like I'll be dining alone.”

Suddenly a strong, commanding voice said, “Now, that's a shame a beautiful woman like you would be dining alone.”

Lauren turned and prepared herself for the brush-off that she usually gave men with these lame lines, but when she saw who it was, her eyes lit up.

“Matthew King!” she said, jumping from her seat. “Oh my God, it's been forever!” She threw her arms around his neck. His touch was still invigorating. His cologne still gave her goose bumps.

“Look at you,” he said, pulling back and examining her.

She swirled to give him a full body view. Her white Valentino sheer blouse hugged in all the right places. It dipped in the front, showing just enough cleavage to be sexy, but not too much to be trashy. Her sleek black trousers accented her Pilates-toned behind.

“Dang, just as fine as always,” Matthew said, nodding his approval.

“You, too. Wow, it's been what? Fifteen years?”

“Yeah, something like that.” He reached in and hugged her tightly.

The waiter stood like he was trying to figure out what to do. “Should I take the other place setting?”

“As a matter of fact, I just wrapped up drinks with a colleague and I am quite hungry. Do you mind if I join you?” Matthew asked.

And just as quickly as her excitement came, it was gone as she remembered why they went their separate ways.

“Umm, hello,” Matthew said when she didn't answer. “Can I join you?”

“Ah, yeah,” she said, forcing a smile. “I mean, sure I guess.”

Matthew seemed confused by her reaction. She had been excited to see him, but dinner meant talking, talking led to feelings, feelings led to lies, and before Lauren knew it, she would be caught up with him again.

Lauren returned to her seat, trying to process the conflicting feelings racing through her body.

Matthew was an ex-boyfriend she'd first met her sophomore year at Carolina State University and was the first real love of her life. But he had been focused completely on school, and then going on to pursue his PhD. He'd left college when Lauren was a sophomore, and had moved across the country to UCLA to get his master's and doctorate. They tried to make it work, but he was always so preoccupied with school, and then there were the excuses.

“I didn't get your message.”

“I've been working late.”

“I fell asleep over at a friend's.”

All the same excuses her father used to give. Once those started, Lauren knew it was time for her to bail.

“I'll get you a menu,” the waiter said, not wanting to be privy to their reunion.

“No need. I'm going to have the lobster and scalloped potatoes.” Matthew slid into the seat across from Lauren.

He flashed a smile, but Lauren couldn't make herself return it. It was obvious she still cared about him, based on her initial reaction of seeing him after all this time. But she hadn't forgotten about how much he'd hurt her, moving on without a second thought. She'd done everything she could to erase him from her mind. And she never again let herself get in a position where she loved someone more than they loved her. So far she'd done a good job.

“So, what's going on?” Matthew asked. “How have you been?”

Lauren made herself relax. “Just doing what I do.” She filled him in on her jewelry business and some surface things going on in her life. Talking to him did relax her, and just as the waiter brought their meals, she skillfully deflected attention away from herself. “So, tell me about yourself.” As long as the conversation stayed cheerful and harmless, Lauren figured she would be okay. “What's been going on? How's life? I didn't know you were back in Raleigh.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I've been back about a year. I'm the vice president at Carolina State University. Keeping my fingers crossed because I'm up for the main job—president.”

“What?” she said. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.” He smiled proudly.

Lauren felt a bit strange over the fact that he'd been here
but hadn't bothered to reach out to her. If the situation were reversed, there's no way she would have been in town this long and not made contact. But then, that was indicative of what went wrong in their relationship. She loved him more than he'd loved her, and that was a definite no-no. “Wow on the fact that you've been here for a year and the fact that your career is soaring like that.”

She didn't know if her face gave her away or what, but he quickly put in, “I tried to find you on Facebook . . .” He shrugged. “But I know we didn't end well, and since I had a hard time finding you, I left it alone.”

Didn't end well? That was the understatement of the century. She'd cussed him out when she'd called and a female voice answered his phone. He tried to tell her it was just a friend, but as far as Lauren was concerned, friends don't let friends answer their phones. Matthew had already been pulling away, giving her all of those Vernon-type excuses, and that was just the final nail.

“It's cool,” she said, even though it wasn't. She hated that he was just able to walk away, and she'd cursed herself for opening up her heart to him to be hurt.

He chuckled. “Figured it was. Everything was always ‘cool' with you.”

Lauren didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but she wasn't going to give Matthew the satisfaction of letting him know if anything he said bothered her.

“Well, congrats on the job,” Lauren said with a genuine smile.

“I don't have it—yet. The current president is retiring and they're expected to name a successor in the next six months.”

Lauren had no doubt he'd get the job. His ambition was one of their issues back in school. He had tunnel vision and was so focused on his education that she often felt like extra baggage. “I'm glad to see you doing so well, although it's not surprising. I knew you were going to make it big,” Lauren said.

“Thank you. You know I've always wanted to work in higher education, and you know our alma mater has risen to be the number-two HBCU in the country, so this truly would be a dream come true.”

That impressed her as well. She could only imagine the pride of coming back to head the school he'd graduated from. “So, how do the wife and kids feel about your success?”

“I'll let you know when I get them,” he replied.

She hated that that made her insides smile. No family? Maybe . . .
No,
she told herself. She refused to go down that road again.

Luckily, Matthew launched into a full-scale update on his life, then began asking her more questions.

Before Lauren knew it, the waiters were giving her the evil eye because she and Matthew were the last ones in the restaurant.

“Oh my goodness. I didn't realize we've been here all this time,” Lauren said.

“That's because we just fell back in a natural groove.” He seemed pleased that a few hours had flown by without them noticing it. “You remember how time used to just pass by and we didn't even realize it?”

Oh, boy, did she remember. It was one of his biggest gripes about their relationship. He had started limiting their time together because he claimed he wasn't productive when they
were seeing each other. She'd even tried to get them to study together, but they would always end up distracted. After he got a C in a class, he quickly put an end to that.

“We need to do this again.” Matthew nodded matter-of-factly. “Real soon. I've enjoyed this, Lauren. And if I'm being honest, I'd love to do this again.”

Lauren smiled but made no promises. No thanks; it had taken years to get over this man.

He stood awkwardly before finally saying, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Your number? How are we supposed to do this again if I don't have a way to get in contact with you?”

He had an expression across his face like he'd expected her to jump at the opportunity.

“Umm . . .” she said, weighing whether she wanted to travel back down the path of the past.

“It's only for hanging out, Lauren,” he said when he noticed her reluctance. But then a wide smile crossed his face. “Don't worry. I'll wait until date number three before I start talking marriage.”

That made her relax some. Matthew might be ready to settle down, but she wasn't. Nor would she ever be the marrying kind, and she didn't see what Matthew could ever say to change that.

“What's your number?” she said, pulling out her cell phone. “I'll call and you can lock me in.”

His smile was his stamp of approval.