The Bad Boy (Black Mountain)

The tears she’d tried so hard to hold in spilled free, but she didn’t care. It felt good to cry, like all that pain was being released.

The only sound that could be heard after she said all of that was the grandfather clock in the foyer chiming the hour.

“Mary, honey—”

Mary shook her head, stopping her mother. “I didn’t say all of that expecting a response. I just needed it out in the open. I was tired of having all of that bottled up, but it’s out in the open now, and just know that I will not be made to feel less than what I am. Not anymore. Not ever again.”

Mary exhaled, looked at her mother, father, and finally settling on Margo, who, for the first time in her life, looked genuinely ashamed, like she finally understood what she’d done to Mary, and how she’d made her feel.

“I have to go,” she addressed the room but still stared at Margo. “But I’ll be at the salon tomorrow.” She didn’t wait for anyone else to reply, and just as she got to the front door, she heard a rush of conversation and her father’s deep voice.

“You did that to my daughter, you little bastard?” Her father said with unrestrained anger.

“Oh my God,” her mother hissed. “How could you do that to her? Shameful and disrespectful, and you had the nerve to accept my invite knowing how you hurt her.”

Mary wrapped her hand around the door handle just as she heard her mother grit out, “I want you out of my house and to stay away from my daughter. You hear me?”

“And here you had all of us fooled, Lance.” Margo held this strange note in her voice.

And when Mary heard her mother start to cry, something tight and painful speared through her chest. She looked over her shoulder to where everyone was, but she couldn’t see them. And she wouldn’t go back there. She’d said her piece and did need to be alone. She didn’t want to talk about this with them anymore, didn’t want to rehash all the details her mother would want.

She just… didn’t.

She opened the door, a crack of lightning arching through the sky followed by a boom of thunder. And when the sky opened up and the rain came down harder, she exhaled. Of course this was the perfect ending to the fucked up night.

She was heading to her car just as she heard the front door open and slam shut. She knew who it was, refused to stop or turn around, but knew she wouldn’t be able to stop this altercation, when she felt Lance now standing right behind her.

Mary curled her fingers around her cell. Alex had sent her a text that he was almost there, but she’d told him just to meet at the hotel. He hadn’t asked why, thank God. There was time later to tell him all the drama.

She turned around and faced Lance. They were both soaked at this point, but what difference did it make now? Her pathetic outward appearance matched how she felt inside after that debacle.

Lance narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenched, his nostrils flaring.

“You made me look like a damn fool in there.”

She tightened her hold on her keys, refusing to be intimidated. “If telling the truth about you makes you look like that, maybe you should take a good hard look in the mirror, Lance.”

Her gave her a saccharine smile and said in a voice eerily calm, “You’ll regret doing that, Mary.” With that he stalked off to his Porsche, climbed in, and sped off, tires squealing on the wet pavement.

And that was that, a route she’d never thought she’d take, but feeling so free she actually started laughing.

Mary tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and let the rain douse her, washing away the past, present, and giving her a clean slate for the future.

24

Alex stood under the awning at the small hotel in the posh suburb and watched as Mary’s BMW pulled to a stop in front of the hotel, a hotel employee opening the driver’s side door right away. She smiled at the young valet with the red vest, and he felt a surge of jealousy rush through his veins.

She handed off her keys and despite the fact she was soaking wet, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. God, I’m a lucky as fuck bastard to have her as mine.

He assumed there’d been drama at her parents and that’s why she’d told him to meet here, and that was fine with him. A little alone time with his girl sounded like the perfect way to end an otherwise shitty day.

She walked over and stopped when she was right in front of him, and before he could ask her what was going on, Mary threw her arms around his neck, rose on her toes, and kissed him with a desperation he always felt for her.