Mara:Oooh, I love that trope. Gimme a second to get a drink and my laptop.
I shake my head,opening my own laptop as I sit cross-legged on my queen-sized bed, propped up by the mountain of pillows I like to keep on it. Mara knows all about my past with Elio—we met early on in college, when the wounds were still very fresh. Over the years, she’s respected my desire to bury all of that and let it be in the past, but as soon as I told her that Elio had come home and that we were going out for a business dinner, she was quick to read more into it than I ever wanted her to.
She doesn’t know what my family does exactly, although she’s smart enough to have picked up on the fact that it’s not all above board. I’ve kept the mafia specifics a secret for her own safety over the years, so she just thinks we’re a very rich family with some shady business dealings. Which is every rich family, basically.
She’s definitely the only person I trust to help talk me through the whirlpool of thoughts in my head right now.
Ten minutes later, Mara's face appears on my laptop screen, a glass of red wine in her hand and her dark hair pulled back in a messy bun. Even over video chat, she manages to look effortlessly put-together in that way that made all the boys in college fall in love with her. I took a while to grow into my looks, but Mara has always been a dark-haired, vintage-Goth supermodel.
"Okay, spill," she says without preamble. "And start from the beginning. I want allll the details."
I bite my lip, taking a bracing sip of my wine. "Remember Elio?"
"The childhood sweetheart who broke your teenage heart and disappeared to Chicago? The one you've been pining over for the last decade? That Elio?"
"I haven't been pining?—"
"Annie." Mara's expression is patient but firm. "We've been friends for ten years. I know every boy in college that showed the slightest interest in you was immediately compared to that dark-haired Italian heartthrob.”
“Yeah, and none of them went anywhere because I’m followed around 24/7/365 by a ton of security.”
That was another thing I had to explain away to Mara in college, without giving away that my family is Irish mafia. I said my father was overprotective, which wasn’t a lie. Padraigh was willing to let me go to college so I could work for the family after, but that didn’t mean that he was happy that my education was going to mean taking me away from the watchful eye of the family. College was a touch too much independence, as far as he was concerned, but it was unavoidable if he was going to get what he wanted.
“So yes,” Mara continues. “I’d say you’ve been pining. Now tell me what happened."
I take a large gulp of wine and launch into the whole story—Elio's return, the last week of running into him at meetings, and just… around, tonight's dinner and the tension between us, and then Desmond’s appearance, jealousy, and the impromptu end to the night as a result.”
Mara listens without interrupting, her expression growing more concerned as the story unfolds. When I finish, she's quietfor a long moment, swirling the wine in her glass. I let out a breath, looking at her through the computer screen.
“I feel like there’s still something there between us,” I say quietly. “Like he didn’t forget what happened. He didn’t like hearing that I went out on a date with someone else, I saw it. And all that happened was that I upset both of them. Elio clearly pulled away after—which is probably for the best—and Desmond seemed pissed that I brought another man to the speakeasy, which, in hindsight, was probably a shitty thing to do. And on top of that…” I chew on my lower lip. “I kind of liked them both being jealous over me, Mar. Isn’t that awful?”
Mara laughs. “Well, first of all, I think that’s totally normal. Especially considering how… dry your love life has been, well, since you were eighteen.” She smirks at me, and I glare at her.
“You don’t have all the complications I do,” I shoot back. “Dating is easy—breezy for you. No nosy family, no rules, no inheritance, nothing riding on your choice of men except what you want.”
“I get it,” Mara says patiently. “Really, I do. But let’s unpack this. First of all, he’s clearly into you. The fact that he got all jealous that you were dating someone else is plenty of proof. And the fact that he let you take him out for a drink after dinner is another hint. If it was really just all business, he’d have closed up shop and gone home after dinner.”
“Wedidhave business to talk about,” I protest. “There’s so much going on with the… merger.” I wince slightly. I always hate feeling like I’m keeping secrets from my friend, but there’s no good that could ever come from filling her in on the more illegal parts of my family. It could make her a target for someone who wanted to hurt us, or if any member of our family ever got caught, she could be questioned in regards to our business dealings. As it stands, if anyone ever asks her about us being Irish mafia, she can be genuinely shocked.
“Sure.” Mara takes another sip of her wine. “He obviously wanted to spend more time with you. Which makes sense, given your pasts. But Annie—there’s no way this is going to be simple if you pursue it.”
“I can’t pursue it. That’s the thing.” I blow out a sharp breath. “There’s a lot of stuff that I can’t really go into—” Fortunately, Mara won’t ask too much about that. Her line of work involves things like NDAs, so she knows when not to pry. “But there’s no way this can ever be a thing. Even if he wanted it, which I really don’t think is the case, Ronan would never allow it. It would affect everything Elio has worked for. If anyone had found out about us when we were teenagers, there would have been hell to pay. Ronan would be furious to find out that Elio ever touched me back then. That alone would make him want to get him far away from me now, and he wouldn’t be any happier about Elio and I as adults.”
Mara sighs. “Then you should probably try to spend as little time around him as possible. Annie, I love you, and I want you to be happy. But I can already tell that all this is going to do is hurt you. You don’t deserve that. You need to find someone who can make youhappy, not add even more drama to your life.”
"I know that. But?—"
"And then there's the other guy. Desmond. Who sounds like a walking red flag, by the way." Mara’s expression turns stern. “I don’t like the sound of him at all.”
I set down my wine glass, surprised by the vehemence in her voice. "What do you mean?"
"Annie, everything you've told me about him screams possessive and controlling. The way he just came up to your table tonight, the way he talked to Elio, the way he acted like he had some kind of claim on you after one date—that's not normal behavior."
For some reason, I feel an odd urge to defend Desmond. "He was just surprised to see me there. Jealous because I haven’t set up another date when I said I would. And itwaskind of shitty for me to bring Elio to the speakeasy. He didn’t know that I wasn’t there on a date with Elio. And like I said… it was kind of hot. You even agreed that there was nothing wrong with liking it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, sure. That doesn’t mean that you should actually pursue something with this guy after that kind of behavior. Alittlejealous is texting you later to ask about it. What he did was more like marking his territory, and it's not cute." Mara's expression softens slightly. "Look, I get that you want to explore your options. You've been single for a long time, and you deserve to find someone who makes you happy. But please be careful with this guy. Something about him doesn't sit right with me."
I reach for my wine, remembering my own discomfort during parts of my date with Desmond. The way he didn't open doors, the possessive touches, the comments about control, and my brother's protection. Was I overthinking, or was it my feminine instincts warning me about a guy who is, as Mara put it, a red flag?
