Unstuck (43 page)

“Somewhere in here,” I said blushing and trying to smooth the skirt on the dress over my tights but it was too short. It seemed as if I was just wearing the bodice.

“I love it,” he said going closer and I felt the limo stop.

“You haven’t seen it yet,” I said smiling. He had his forehead against mine.

“I don’t need to see it all to know you look amazing,” he smiled and then kissed me.

“See you out there,” he grinned and knocked on the window so the valet on the outside would open the door. I stepped out through the other door and gave a couple of breaths before walking right behind Patrick. There were indeed a lot of questions about us. Patrick said no comment while I stayed 10 steps behind him looking everywhere but in his direction.

Once we were inside I waited for him to say hello to a couple of people while I looked around the place. The final result was amazing the chandeliers ended up being exactly like Regina wanted; I saw people walking around with all kinds of purple drinks. Stacy was the master of themed drinks.

“Champagne?”A server asked me and I nodded I grabbed a glass of champagne and smiled when I noticed the black berries floating on it. Everything was perfect. I glanced around looking for Patrick because I wanted to find Regina (she didn’t believe in a big entrance; she said it was tacky) and then go tackle a dessert table. I’d been dying to do that since the moment I knew what was going to be in it.

“You look fucking amazing, “I heard Patrick’s voice in my ear as I turned around. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to put my arms around his neck but I also knew that there were a thousand people with cameras that were ready to snap a winning picture.

“Is the cursing necessary?” I asked with a grin. We had to raise our voices because the music was loud.

“Definitely,” he nodded “there are no words to describe how good you look,” he said smiling down at me. We needed to stop smiling and looking at each other the way we were. It was obvious.

“We have to find your sister,” I said.

“Where could she be?” he asked as we walked side to side through the club. The music blaring and people drinking. Where were the damn desserts? I was amazed by the party decorations; there were LED light balloons instead of regular balloons, all in purple and black and the flowers! Oh God, the Flowers! There was all kind of flowers: roses, carnations, tulips but they were all in purple and black. They were placed strategically over the high tables, in the bars and all over the railings and stairs in the club. You could smell them over the alcohol that seemed to be flowing. It was all a purple feast.

“VIP room,” I said glancing up stairs.

“Why would she have a VIP room if she invited all these people? I would think she wants to spend time with them,” he said as we walked up the stairs.

“Apparently, you have to have a VIP room. If you don’t you fail as a birthday girl,” I shrugged and Patrick snorted.

“Lucy!” I heard my name before I saw Regina the minute I stepped into the room.

“Regina,” I smiled and hugged her “Everything is perfect,” I said.

“It’s, isn’t it?” she said looking around and then stepping back to get a better look of the dress “Is my brother going crazy?” she asked and I had no idea what was I supposed to say. Did she know it was official that we had a thing?

“I certainly am. Thank you,” said Patrick and kissed Regina on the cheek. Regina’s eyes widened and turned to look at me.

“You…,” she said pointing at the both of us.

“We,” said Patrick smiling. Regina clapped twice (she was that excited) and hugged me.

“It was about time,” she said in my ear. I didn’t say anything.

“We are not making it official to the world so, please, let’s keep it between us,” said Patrick and Regina nodded.

“Of course,” she said smiling “why don’t you guys get a table. Have fun,” she said and we went looking for a table. We sat there for a while and then I spotted a dessert table on the far end of the room; I went directly to it. The table was covered in an eggplant purple cloth and decorated with black ribbons. The desserts were displayed beautiful. Everything in black plates or clear containers with black ribbons tied around them, this containers had an R engraved in what I was pretty sure were Swarovski details.  There was a bit of everything: Purple cake pops, Purple cupcakes, Purple cakes, Purple cookies, purple gummy bears, purple lollipops, and purple caramel apples. I was definitely staying away from those; they had a tendency to stay in my stomach for a long time and reacting to certain beautiful 35 year old man. I opened a white box that was tied with a black ribbon only to find chocolate covered strawberries! The chocolate was lilac and it was beautiful. I sighed and grabbed two cake pops, a box of strawberries and a bag of gummy bears.

When I got back to the table Patrick was gone but Brian was in there. I immediately felt a pang of guilt in my chest. Everyone knew about us, did he? What was he going to think? I tried to smile but instead I threw a gummy bear in my mouth.

“Want some?”  I asked showing him the bag of gummies, he shook his head.

“I heard something,” he said.

“Really?” I said leaning forward really excited while I nibbled on a cake pop. That was the same line he used before telling me all the juicy gossip from the office. He nodded. “Tell me,” I said raising my eyebrows.

“I heard that the boss and his assistant are an official couple,” he said with a grin and I immediately felt how I blushed.

“It’s a thing. We have a thing,” I said sitting back and looking down.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry. A thing,” he said still grinning.

“I’m sorry Brian,” I shook my head “are you ok with this?” I asked and finally looked at him.

“I’m more than ok,” he said letting out a small laugh “I’ve known about you two for a long time now,” he smiled.

“You knew we were…,” I let the words hang.

“Sleeping together?”I nodded “yes I knew,” he said smiling “How?” I asked confused.

“Lucy the night that we broke up.”

“When you dumped me,” I interrupted him and he laughed “After we broke up I went to see Patrick to his office. I talked to him, I told him I knew that you two were meant to be together,” What? “I told him that he had to go for it because if he didn’t I would kill him myself,” he shrugged “but... how did you… I mean,” I was confused as hell.

“I had my doubts the day you had lunch with your parents and Patrick said he was going out and you were so worried about him going out without you. I thought that was odd,” I remembered that day. It was the sorbet bar day. I felt like crap thinking I had cheated on Brian. “And I definitely knew when you lied to me about coming back to New York because you wanted to be with him,” he gave me a tiny smile. I nodded.

“I cheated on you,” I said looking down. That might create a problem “Me and Patrick kissed that night after I saw my parents,” still ashamed.

“I know,” he was smiling? Really?

“You do?” I was shocked.

“Lucy, I’ve talked to Patrick about all this. Believe me, we are cool,” he said smiling “You are?” I really had to say something else beside questions.

“I talk to Patrick every night. He gives me the day’s details,” wow… that’s awkward.

“You are the one he talks to every night,” I said more to myself than Brian.

“The one and only,” he grins.

“Are the gummy bears any good?” asked Patrick sitting next to me and popping one into his mouth. I nodded and looked at Brian with a smile just to let him know that I was thankful for the conversation. He had lifted a weight off my shoulders.

The night went on perfectly. Nick and Stacy showed up a bit after my talk with Brian; they seemed so happy and in love I was really excited for Nick because I’d never seen him in love before. Patrick was kind enough to allow me some time alone with them so I could talk to them about our thing and they were really excited. Apparently, Nick won a bet with Stacy about who was going to suggest making it an official thing. Stacy said Patrick and Nick said me. Nick won. They were really physical with each other and it made me kind of want that too but I knew that I wasn’t ready for that just yet. Not in front of so many strangers. Nick and Stacy left after a couple of hours; I could tell they were really in need of sex. Although, I was sure they had been all day at it.

Twenty three

The party was exceptionally classy, with amazing drinks and music. I kept on chasing a purple cart that had all kind of shots and I was addicted to all of them especially because each shot glass was rimmed with sugar! Colored sugar! There were shot glasses with pink sugar, yellow sugar, purple sugar, baby blue sugar, mint green sugar. It was a dream; I think I kept drinking shots only to lick the sugar out of the glasses. Patrick kept on trying the drinks that were served: The Purple Rain, that was a mix of blue curaçao, cranberrie juice, vodka and lime juice, The Grapetini, The Purple Flip Flop, that had Malibu and pomegranate juice and of course the champagne with berries on it. There was too much alcohol and I decided after a while to stick to the non-alcoholic lavender lemonade that Regina had thought about for people that didn’t like alcoholic drinks.

Around 1 am Brian called it at night and disappeared. I was actually surprised that we stayed further than midnight but I guess we were comfortable in the VIP where only Regina and a couple of her closest friends were.

“What are you looking at?” asked Patrick. I was looking down at the dance floor. The VIP room was a big room surrounded by glass that overlooked the dance floor. The thing that stood out the most about the room was the huge black chandelier in the middle of it. You could see it from any point on the club.  Directly in front of the room was a large kind of balcony that had lounge type of couches.

“People are really drunk,” I said looking everywhere. The kids these days were a bit wild. I knew I was thinking as an old lady but really that twerking thing… I was sure that one girl or two would end up pregnant by just “dancing,”

“Yeah, they are,” I turned around and looked at Patrick.

“Your are drunk,” I said with a grin and put my lemonade on a table near me over a cocktail napkin with a Regina gold foil stamp.

“I have a good buzz, not drunk,” he said going closer but I took a step back. It had been going on all night. He took a step forward and I took a step back, he tried to grab my hand, I pulled it slowly. I knew there were a couple of press photographs around and everyone had a phone so a picture of us could easily be taken. “Stop running away,” he said with a funny smile. He indeed had had a couple of extra drinks. It was weird since he never really drank too much.

“I’m not,” I shook my head still smiling.

“I’m going to do something, Lucinda,” he said not stepping forward this time. I just looked at him “I’m going to do something that will make you step out of your comfort zone,” this time he stepped forward and I took a step back “it will freak you out,” another step forward and I took another step back “but I don’t care because I want to do it,” he took the last step forward and I couldn’t take another step back because I was already with my back against the glass. “I really, really want to do it,” he grinned and grabbed me by the waist. I swear I saw a flash went off from the corner of my eye. I tried to turn and look for the source of the light but he put both of his hands on each side of my face and smiled. I got lost in his eyes and his smile reassured me that everything was going to be all right and then, then he kissed me. It was a slow but very passionate kiss, a kiss that was designed to let the world know that I was his and to let me know that I had to get used to this because he was determined to make our thing public. I tried hard to think about the kiss, about how it looked on the outside because in the exact moment that our lips touched I saw a lot of flashes going off but the truth was that I stop caring after a couple of seconds, or minutes, or hours; I got lost in his kiss and his touch and that’s when I realized that maybe, just maybe I was in deeper shit that I thought. Patrick’s touch made me forget about the world.

“It’s official,” he said as he put his forehead against mine with his hands still at the sides of my face. I just nodded. I was too busy thinking about what I was feeling.

“There were a lot of pictures,” he said and I nodded. “Good,” he said again. “Let’s go home,” I opened my eyes and looked at him smiling.

“Let’s go home,” I wasn’t going to think about my feelings. I would put them away for a little while; they could wait a little longer to be acknowledged, they had been in the back of my mind and in the bottom of my heart for years, a couple of hours, days or months wouldn’t hurt them at all.

We said our goodbyes to Regina, who was extremely happy for both of us and couldn’t stop hugging us, and then we left. During the ride home we were quiet, we didn’t say a word. The moment we got in the limo Patrick reached for my waist and sat me on his lap, I put my arms around his neck and we stayed like that all the way home. It didn’t feel weird or awkward, just comfortable and I thought that Patrick wanted to let the alcohol leave his system before he said anything.

“What are you smiling about?” I asked him once we were in the house. He was leaning against the wall in the foyer while I walked to the living room. I had all the intention of sleeping in my bed that night with or without Patrick.

“I believe you said something about having sex in our sexy clothes,” he said walking towards me.