Chapter 2 The First Decline

Dante

“Dante! Over here!”

I turned in the direction where I heard my name and saw my best friend waving loudly and energetically for me to come over.

I made my way past the sweaty, dancing people in the club to where he was and took the empty seat next to him.

“Took you a while to get here. What took you so long?” he asked as he poured us a drink. He handed me a glass first. I waited for him to start sipping his before I responded to his question.

“Yeah, I was busy throwing Natalie’s things out.”

Louis choked on his drink exactly as I expected, while I hid my smirk by sipping mine.

“Why, man? I thought you told me you had plans to ask her to marry you tomorrow?” Louis asked after catching his breath.

“Change of plans. Can’t marry someone who knows she’s pregnant for another man and is trying to pin it on me because I’m rich.”

Louis opened his mouth wide in shock and I was almost tempted to throw the cover of a plastic can at him. I was sure I would get a clean shot.

“That bitch! I would have never suspected that from Natalie. She’s so saint like and naive. Damn! You’re good though, yeah?”

I shrugged.

I honestly didn’t care as much as I should. The relationship had been a matter of convenience. And Natalie had been a good match to me. She graduated from a good school, had good grades, worked with a good firm… and she was empathetic.

I gave her everything she wanted and took care of her. But now that she had inconvenienced me greatly, it was over between us.

The only thing I felt about her actions was annoyance. Because I had to find out before proposing to her, and I had been looking forward to the engagement. Mainly so I could finally ward off my mother, who had made it her mission to hook me up with every daughter her friends had until I was married.

As if reading my thoughts, Louis asked, “What are you going to do about your mum now? Thank goodness you haven’t introduced them.”

“Yeah, thank goodness indeed,” I murmured as I let my eyes wander to the people having a good time in the club.

“And it’s not like you can find another good match here who wouldn’t do worse than Natalie. It’s a club, after all,” he said again, probably noticing how I was scanning the crowd.

Just then, my eyes settled on someone sitting alone at the counter. I did a double take when I caught sight of her Oreo hair. It looked familiar. I squinted, trying to remember where I had seen hair like that today, and then it clicked. She was the girl from the traffic earlier, who had saved us all.

I sipped the rest of my drink as I watched her, waiting to see if she was meeting someone. But it didn’t look like it. She wasn’t looking around, and whenever someone walked up to her, they turned right back around.

“Excuse me,” I told Louis without looking at him as I made my way to where she sat.

“Hey, excuse me…” The words hadn’t even fully left my mouth before she waved me off.

“No pictures today.”

I squinted my brows, confused by what she meant.

“Actually, I’m not here to take a picture—”

“Then I’m not interested in warming your bed,” she cut in again. I should have gotten irritated by her tone, but I found myself rather amused.

I slipped my hands into my pockets and continued, “You’re the lady who broke the traffic rules, aren’t you?”

She stiffened visibly. “You can’t issue me a ticket at the club, officer. I’m sure that’s a cri—” she was saying as she turned to me, but she stopped when her eyes landed on me.

I stifled a grin. I was used to getting reactions like this all the time. But for the first time, I didn’t mind exploiting it. Before I could rein in my charm, she spoke.

“You don’t look like an officer. So how did you know I broke traffic rules?”

I felt myself frown. So when she paused, it wasn’t because of my handsome self, but because I wasn’t dressed like the cop she assumed me to be?

That’s a first.

“My car was next to yours at the time,” I finally responded. “You saved us.”

“From the traffic?” she asked. “So what, you came to personally thank me?”

“No,” I started slowly. “I came because I’d like you to do something for me—”

She cut me off by laughing out loud. I frowned, wondering what was funny. When she finally stopped, she turned to me and asked:

“So you came hoping to get between my legs just because you saw me in traffic? Nice try, but I’m not interested. Run along now.” She looked away from me dismissively.

My frown deepened. I hadn’t come with the intention of sleeping with her, but even so… why wasn’t she intrigued by the possibility? Every woman I had met always wanted to sleep with me. So why didn’t the idea appeal to her?

Unless she was married.

My eyes went to her hand, where a ring sat on her middle finger. That meant she was engaged. I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. So I hadn’t lost my charm after all.

Yet I couldn’t help the disappointment I felt.

“I apologize for taking your time. I didn’t know you were engaged.”

She turned to look at me sharply. She looked like she was about to ask me how I had known that, till her eyes followed my gaze to the ring she was wearing.

She immediately pulled it off—roughly—and threw it across the counter, where it hit a bottle of wine.

My eyes widened.

The bartender looked over sharply, and I instantly felt the need to step in and deal with the issue. But before I could speak, she said:

“I’m sorry, Robert. Please put that on my tab.”

“Actually… let me take care of it,” I offered, already taking out my card.

“Why the fuck are you still here? I said I’m not interested. Fuck off. I can handle my own bills.”

Before I could fully register her words, she grabbed her bag and walked off.

My eyes followed her as she walked out of the club without looking back.

It was the first time in a long time someone didn't try to impress me, seduce me, or cling to me.

It was also the biggest humialtion I’d ever experienced in my life…

and yet…

I looked down at my pants.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”