“When we broke up, it felt temporary. It felt like a break. She was too young, and I knew that when I first started going after her. She’s four years younger than I am.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
“Oh. I’m twenty-five, so that’sfiveyears.”
“At the time I dated her, four years was a large gulf. We stayed friends. We traveled together afterward with groups of friends. There were house parties where we were invited for a weekend or a week, and she and I would stay up talking to all hours of the night about what we wanted to do in life and how we felt the world should be. We were aligned on everything. It felt like we were stillus.”
Dree’s naughty grin was hysterical. “Were you two having ex-sex at these house parties?”
Maxence rolled his eyes and then studied the ground. “When we were dating, she was too young for that. The only times I slept with her were after we’d broken up, when we traveled together in those groups and were working on charity projects together, during the last few years. For her, I think, it was an affectionate friends-with-benefits situation. I’m not sure who her first was, but I know it wasn’t me.”
Dree’s grin looked forced, but it looked like she meant it to looked forced. “Oh,ouch.”
“It wasn’t any of my business, and I didn’t make it any of my business.”
Dree raised one of her pale eyebrows at him. “For a guy who was raised the old-fashioned way, you’re pretty evolved.”
Maxence raised both his hands. “I try not to be an asshole.”
“An excellent life philosophy.”
“So, about a year and a half ago, Flicka was suddenly dating my older brother.”
Dree’s eyes inflated. “Again,ouch.”
“I’m not even sure how it happened. She puts on this charity benefit every year in London. The one year that I didn’t go, other people told me that she looked upset and was refusing to dance the opening waltz. She has an older brother who usually escorts her to things like that, but he was evidently not available that year. So, they said she looked upset, and my brother Pierre rushed in for the rescue.”
Dree rolled her eyes. “Of course, he was right there.”
“Yep, Pierre was right there, waiting to swoop in. I’m the one with the Galahad complex—”
“Like when you rescue buxom blondes who accidentally incite a riot at the Buddha Bar?”
“Precisely. It’s a hobby. Some people collect stamps, and some people watch birds. I collect women who need help, and I am alwaysright there,ready to get my ass in trouble whenever there’s a damsel in distress who needs rescuing.”
Dree stepped forward, still smirking, and slipped her arms around his waist. “I’m kind of glad you have this little Galahad problem of yours.”
He settled his arms around her because as much as Maxence liked a woman on her knees with his dick in her mouth, this hug meant everything to him in that moment. Dree’s voluptuous body was a cushion of comfort. “I think I may have made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
“Rescuing me? I know that I’m no prize like this Flicka chica, but I would hope that you wouldn’t think—”
“No, I don’t regret rescuing you, my silly little goose.”
“The mafia guy’s wife?”
“Not her, either. Simone just needed a little support and a ride to the airport. I’m glad she found me. Between Simone and you, I feel like a halfway-decent human being. Not entirely decent human being, but maybe half of one.”
Dree pulled back in his arms and looked him in the eyes. “Jesus, Augustine. What happened?”
Maxence gathered her back into his arms because he couldn’t bear to see the look in her eyes when he admitted this. “I think I left Flicka somewhere I shouldn’t have. I think I should have thrown her over my shoulder if necessary and taken her out of there, but she told me not to. She told me directly and in no uncertain terms to leave her there.”
Dree disentangled herself from his arms and led him over to one of the low benches where people sat to sketch the Egyptian artifacts. “What the hell happened?”
“I’m not entirely sure. I know that Flicka left my brother a few months after she married him. She obtained a divorce in Nevada in the US, but there is a great deal of controversy as to whether the divorce is valid in Monagasquay.”
Max couldn’t believe he was still sayingMonagasquay.
