Old Flame: Dante’s Story by Sam Mariano

30

Colette

All the foodhas been put out for the mourners, but as the first few come up to fill their plates, I realize there’s something missing.

“I’ll be right back, I’m going to run and grab some napkins,” I tell Maria.

She nods her head at me but doesn’t speak. She’s not normally this surly, but I know she has some kind of unpleasant history with Vince’s dad, and I think his presence here is making her crabby.

Without another word, I go to head out of the drawing room, but I stop dead in the archway at the sight before me in the hall. Dante has just opened the bathroom door to come out, but he backs up against the door like he’s holding it for someone. Dante doesn’t even hold doors, but why the fuck would someone be in the bathroom with him? Then my stomach bottoms out as I see a pretty blonde girl look up at him as she walks out of the bathroom.

Mia.

For a couple seconds, I can’t process everything I’m feeling, but then it hits me all at once. Rage turns my blood to fire, jealousy ignites and melts all my bones. My legs feel shaky so I step back into the drawing room and plaster myself against the wall for support.

Dante never lied to be about other women before, not once. I already caught him in the lie about her coming over while I was asleep that one day when he said it was Vince, and despite his claims that he definitely never slept with her, my instincts told me there was something there. I believed him because of his spotless track record, and why the hell would he go to all this trouble to bring me back if some other girl made a big enough impression on him that he’s willing to lie to me to… to what? Divert my suspicion? To protect her? He swore he hadn’t slept with anyone I would have to continue seeing once I came back, but what if that was a lie, too?

Why was he locked inside a bathroom with her? I try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was inside using the restroom and she forgot to lock the door. Dante had to use the restroom so he opened the door on her by accident, but… that scenario is implausible, because once he realized she was inside, why would he have gone inside with her? These are residential bathrooms, not public restrooms with stalls for multiple people. And Dante opened the door from the inside, so he was most definitely inside that bathroom with her.

Something has to be going on between them. Or something went on between them while I was away, and now Dante is trying to mitigate the damage. Maybe he’s lying to me about that because he knows I would hold that grudge forever, I would always hate her if she slept with Dante, even if it was when I was engaged to another man. It doesn’t matter if it’s fair; Dante could have never endured Declan’s presence, and I would never be able trust that whatever was between him and this girl had completely fizzled, could never endure her presence at family events knowing Dante’s hands had once traveled her naked body, knowing she might have curled up beside him in my spot on our bed. Dante keeps telling me she’s not going to be around much longer, but no one else seems to agree with him. Maybe it’s wishful thinking. Maybe he’s hoping she goes away soon because as long as he can keep a lid on their involvement until she’s gone, I will never know it happened.

At the end of the day, I don’t know if it matters if he’s lying to try to protect me from pain and jealousy I don’t need to feel. I don’t want him lying to me for any reason, period.

Just as that thought blows through my mind, the scent of coconut wafts my way and Mia comes breezing into the drawing room.

Without much thought, my hand shoots out and I grab her by the arm.

She gasps in surprise and whirls around to see who is accosting her, but her alarm softens when she sees it’s only me. “Oh, hi, Colette.”

I’m so tightly wound, the mere sound of her voice shatters my self-control. My hand on her bicep tightens and I head toward a quieter corner of the room. “Come with me. We’re going to have a little talk.”

Since I don’t really know her, I don’t know whether she’ll whip her arm out of my grasp and tell me to fuck off, call for Mateo since apparently she holds some sway with him, or perhaps follow me, watch me with amusement dancing in her eyes as she relives all the times she’s fucked my man.

My own thoughts make me so angry, it takes me a minute to process that she has let me haul her across the room to a quiet spot, and now she’s waiting—confused, but patient—to see what I want with her.

Now that we’re here, I don’t even know what to say. I’ve never been in this situation before. I did have a high school boyfriend cheat on me, but I didn’t say shit to the girl he cheated with, I just reamed the bastard I was dating. This is different, though. Dante didn’t cheat on me, he just maybe sparked up a relationship with someone else when I abandoned him and left him all by himself.

I fucking suck.

I’m so confused, so angry, but I still want to bash this girl’s head against the ground if he ever touched her. I’m so overwhelmed with emotion, I could almost cry.

I shake it off and channel the rage, trying to keep it in check enough to get a confession out of her. I don’t know what I’ll do once I get one, but—

“How have you been doing?” she inquires, regarding me like this is a social interaction and not a confrontation.

“I’ve been great,” I snap. “Back in Dante’s bed where I belong.”

Her eyebrows rise and fall in momentary surprise, but once she recovers, she offers a smile. “Oh. Well, good. I’m glad to hear that.”

Sure she fucking is. I narrow my eyes at her and she frowns.

“Is something the matter?” she asks me.

“I like your shoes,” I say, but my tone is still aggressive. I can’t seem to help it.

Mia glances down at her shoes, then over to mine. “Thanks. I like yours, too.”

“Yeah?” I ask, pouncing. “They look familiar?”

Now she cocks her head, looking back at the shoes, then slowly to my face. “No? Those aren’t the ones you wore to family dinner.”

“Did you and Dante fuck while I was gone?”

Her jaw drops, her cheeks pinken, and her eyes widen in shock. “What? No! Of course not.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

Sighing with exasperation, Mia brings a hand to her forehead and shakes her head. “Jesus Christ, you two were made for each other.”

“What does that mean?” I ask sharply.

Before she can answer, Mateo’s voice suddenly cuts through my rage fog as he approaches me from behind.

“What’s going on over here?”

Mia answers tiredly, “I don’t know, your whole family seems to be on a collective mission to get me in trouble with Vince today.”

Mateo catches my gaze, holds it for a couple seconds, then lets his gaze drift to Mia. I felt sternness in his gaze when he looked at me, a silent warning to let him cut in and handle this, but when he looks back at Mia, it’s gone. “Only I’m allowed to do that,” he jokes.

Mia shoots him a look.

“Go on, head back to Vince before he gets pissy,” he tells her.

I attempt to stop her departure. “But I need to—”

Mateo lightly grabs my upper arm and shakes his head. “No, you don’t.” He nods at her again, “Go on, Mia.”

I grit my teeth and glare at him, but I don’t say another word to Mia as she cautiously regards me, then walks away.

Once she’s gone, rather than talk to me, Mateo nods toward the exit to the hallway. “Outside. Let’s go have a chat.”

Despite the knowledge that he can’t actually hurt me—Dante would never allow it—a faint wave of concern moves through me at the curtness of his tone. I let him haul me out into the hallway since there’s no point in putting up a fight and making a scene. I’m tempted to, since I’m not supposed to be alone with Mateo, but given I think he’s about to reprimand me, I’m not even remotely concerned he has romantic intentions.

Once we’re alone in the hallway, Mateo releases my arm and moves to stand in front of me. “Now, what was that all about?”

“There’s something going on between her and Dante,” I state.

“There isn’t,” Mateo replies without even a trace of doubt.

“Then there was. Maybe while I was away, but there’s… there’s still something.”

“Nothing happened between them while you were away, and nothing is happening now. Mia never even formally met Dante until he brought you to dinner. He doesn’t socialize with us much anymore.”

“You’re wrong. I can feel it. And there’s this little stuff, these little instincts. Like, I don’t know, I had this thought when I opened my walk-in closet at Dante’s house and saw the clothes and shoes he bought for me. You know Dante, he doesn’t know shit about women’s fashion, but there were these stylish outfits in the closet and I just had this feeling that he had some girlfriend to waste time with while I was gone, and he must have made her pick out some things for me so I would have some stuff to wear when I first got there.” Jabbing an accusing finger back toward the drawing room, I tell him, “And they’re her style.”

Smiling faintly, Mateo tucks his hands into his pockets. “Colette, Mia makes $8 an hour. Her style is whatever happens to be on sale at Target.”

Frowning at the mental image of the expensive outfits I’ve seen her in, I open my mouth to object, but he speaks again before I can.

“Anything Mia has that’s high-quality, I bought for her. The reason the clothes in your closet were the same style as Mia’s is because my personal shopper is the one who picked them out for you. As you said, Dante can’t shop for shit. I already had someone trained to shop for Mia and Meg. I remembered you wearing the same style of outfits before you left, so I told her to pick out a few things for you and then Dante bought them.”

My temper falls a few notches. “You…?”

“Me,” he verifies.

Well, okay, that explains that. “There’s other stuff, too,” I tell him, shaking my head. “It’s not just that, it was… Like, she made a point to come over when I was sleeping one day to visit Dante when she had to drop things off for me.”

“You’re attributing false motives to Mia’s actions based on your own insecurities. It’s not true,” Mateo states. “Mia did bring your medication over because Vince asked her to, but she was simply doing her boyfriend a favor. She’d never even been to Dante’s house before that; she had to call me to ask for directions.”

That knocks more wind out of my sails. “She did?”

He nods his head. “This great love affair is all in your head. You’re inventing reasons to believe it and you have to stop. Mia hasn’t done anything to you, and you would like her if you got to know her. That will never happen if you keep casting her in this role she doesn’t deserve. Mia has nothing to do with Dante. Any interaction they have had hasn’t been because she was initiating it.”

Because I’m so deep inside my cocoon of crazy, all I process is the last part. “You’re saying he’s initiating?”

Mateo pauses briefly, like he needs to figure out which path to take through the maze of my irrationality. “No, I’m saying there is no interaction between them—not enough to remark on, anyway.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I tell him, “You’re wrong. Right before you intervened, the whole reason I pulled her aside was because I saw them walk out of the bathroom together. Why are two people who have nothing to do with each other locked inside a bathroom together?”

Mateo is a tall man and he always uses that height to his advantage, but as he receives this new information, he puffs up and seems to grow even larger. He doesn’t have an immediate response for that one, so rather than answer me, he takes me by the arm again and proceeds to lead me down the hall away from the drawing room.

“I’m not sure about that one, but I’ll find out. The point is, I’m not guessing or assuming or giving the benefit of the doubt here. I am telling you, without question, there is nothing between Mia and Dante; there never has been, and obviously there never will be. He hasn’t gone to all this trouble to get you back so he can pursue someone else. Think it over, Colette. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Coming back hasn’t been easy,” I tell him. “Maybe… I don’t know. Maybe Dante’s tired of fighting for me. Maybe he can’t get over the fact that I almost married someone else and some part of him wants to get back at me. Maybe whatever new thing he feels for her is easier than fixing things with me. You said he only really met her after I came back, so maybe his attraction to her is new.”

“He is not attracted to her,” Mateo states, but so firmly, I don’t think it’s for me as much as for him. He wants to believe that as much as I do, maybe more.

“I think he is,” I tell him, miserably.

Mateo’s gaze is sharp, sharper than I’ve seen it in a long time. “What’s going on with you two? You seemed cozy at the gravesite. I thought everything was moving along nicely.”

“It… it is, but it’s far from perfect. I have these blocks that I can’t seem to get past, and sometimes I can tell Dante is tired of trying to push past them. Sometimes I make him so mad, he doesn’t even come home because he doesn’t want to be around me.”

Stopping short, Mateo whips around to shoot me a dirty look. “Well, why the fuck are you doing that?”

“Because he’s a terrible person! And he won’t let me ignore it like he did before. He took me to Luca’s house, Mateo. Do you know what that was like?”

Mateo stops walking, so I slow to a stop behind him. He runs a hand through his hair and appears to be grabbing for patience he can’t find. “Why the fuck would he do that?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m saying, what if he’s testing me like that to try to push me away? He may not even realize it’s what he’s doing, but… why else show me something so ugly? I can’t forget it now. I can’t go to sleep at night and not know… he’s out there every day doing horrifying things, things more horrifying than I ever imagined. And I feel awful loving someone who is out there doing that kind of thing to people—and he’s not just capable of it, he’s remorseless about it.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he mutters under his breath. He’s only exasperated for a second or two, then he collects himself and looks back at me. “All right. Look, I’m going to tell you something to help you, but this is for your ears only. You can’t tell Dante. I will tell him when the time is right, but it has to come from me. You can’t squeal on me if I tell you first.”

“I won’t,” I promise.

“Luca won’t be working for us much longer. That whole operation, everything you saw there, that’s going away. We’re getting out of that business entirely. We won’t be doing anything that dirty anymore; we’re in the process of shutting it all down right now.”

I don’t even realize we have stopped walking just outside Mateo’s study until the door drifts open and Dante leans against the door frame, holding a glass of amber-colored alcohol and staring intently at his brother.

“Is that so?” Dante asks, cocking his head. “Well, that’s news to me.”

Mateo cuts a look at Dante. Without looking back in my direction, he orders, “Go back to the drawing room, Colette. My brother and I need to have a little talk.”

“Damn right we do,” Dante agrees. “But I don’t think it’s your place to order around my woman.”

“I don’t think you want to talk to me about that right now,” Mateo informs him, his dark eyes flashing with annoyance.

Holding up my hand to intervene, I inform them, “I’m going back to the drawing room. Should I send Adrian to play mediator?”

“No,” Mateo says, still holding Dante’s gaze. “I’ve got it under control.”

I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but after a moment’s hesitation, I turn around and leave them to it.