“All right, Daisy.”
He opened the door for me, swept the room with his eyes, andclosed the door after I went in.
I stood staring at the door, breathing heavy, and not justfrom the dance.
My eyes felt weirdly too dry.
And I was wondering how I was going to do what I needed todo next.
That was, get to Marcus’s place.
And then let him off the hook.
In other words…
I was going to break up with him.
In my ice-blue Juicy Couture tracksuit with its decalon the back of the hoodie that had peach and blue hibiscus flowers around agold, interlaced “JC,” the same flowers on the front hip of the pants, I slidout of the cold Denver air into the warmth of the limo beside Marcus.
I did this grinning up at Brady.
“Thanks, darlin’.”
He grinned back.“Not a problem, Daisy.”
He closed the door and I tried to look at Marcus, but I hadto do it quickly lookingthroughMarcus.
What I saw was that he was still in his suit, like he wasalways still in his suit when he came to see me dance, except on the weekends.This telling me he didn’t waste time going home to change.
He came right to me.
I wished I could believe the reasons behind what that seemedto mean were real.
“Hey,” I greeted him quickly, then looked to the front, intothesunglassedeyes I saw in the rearview mirror.“Hey, Ronald.”
“Yo,” he grunted.
That was usually the most I got out of Ronald and that wasall I got out of him then as he started us moving along the back of Smithie’s.
I kept my eyes there, thanking the Lord my Porsche was inthe parking spot closest to the elevators in Marcus’s garage (a spot Marcusinsisted I parked in the minute he gave me the remote to his garage).Thatwould make it (slightly) easier to get away once I did what I had to do.
This was my thought until the side of Marcus’s forefingerand his thumb took gentle hold of my chin and he turned my head to face him.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“Hey,” I repeated my earlier greeting.
“Everything okay?”
I gave him the lie I gave Smithie.He’d learn it was a liein about fifteen minutes, but whatever.
I’d get this done.
And I was Daisy.
So no matter how much it tore me apart, I’d then move on.
Which meant Marcus would be able to move on to a woman thatsuited him.
