“He took my money,” Franco said, delighted, it would seem, to be throwing his cash at the young man again.
“Did you write a sweet nothing on it?” Arden asked.
“Yes.”
“And tomorrow, you’re going to ask him to dinner?”
“And I’ll give him a gift. A gold necklace. Or a bracelet? Something with a diamond?”
“Don’t go overboard,” Arden warned. “You don’t want to look desperate.”
“But I am,” Franco said. “Aye dios mio, did you see the way he moved?”
Arden clapped him on the back, then pulled his phone out of his pocket. A worried look darkened his features, and he put his phone away.
“I need to return a call,” he said to me.
“I’ll go with you.”
“I’ll be fine alone,” he said but I followed him anyway.
Outside the club, Arden told me to stay put and walked a few more paces away before he dialed. I couldn’t hear his side of the conversation, partly due to being half-deaf from the club’s sound system, but it looked like an argument. Arden paced and gestured and had the general look of being upset. I suspected it was Matteo on the line. When he finally returned, Arden looked depleted of energy.
“You want to go home?” I asked. Implied was that we’d talk about what had him so rattled.
“No, I came here to dance.”
On our way back inside, we passed by Liam, arguing with someone at the bar. The man was grinning, which told me it likely wasn’t going to turn violent. The man we’d seen earlier on the dance floor had disappeared, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched and that Arden was still disturbed by their encounter. The uneasy feeling remained with me until much later that night.
“I need to introduce you to Matteo,” Arden said once we were alone together in my apartment.
I nodded. I had a few words for the man myself.
“You’ll need to be respectful,” he cautioned as if reading my mind.
“Okay,” I said woodenly.
“Maybe I don’t need to say this,” Arden ventured, “but I only have one rule between us.”
“What’s that?”
“You may not jeopardize my livelihood.”
I supposed I should be relieved to hear him talk about it so coldly, but I was not.
“Arden, if someone is hurting you—”
“No one is hurting me. This is a decision I make every day. I told you before you could walk away at any time, and I’d understand.”
My anger flared at his indifference. “Could you walk away so easily?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then why would you think that I could?”
Arden swallowed and his face went slack. He hated confrontation. “I need you to be patient, Michael, and trust me to know what’s best.”
My anger was soothed only a little. But whatever he did with his clients, he wasn’t sneaking around or deceiving me. He’d made me aware of the situation every step of the way. And, he’d warned me.
