Page 50 of Finding a Melody

I glanced around the massive room remembering why. It wasn’t hard really. This place was filled with rich white people. Diversity wasn’t really something big in the Tri-Towns. I had forgotten it at the time. Didn’t really notice, not until Seth said something, and then felt like absolute shit after.

But Cadence fit in rather well and handled herself like she had experience, maybe more than me. I wondered about that as we talked with others, shook hands, congratulated them on any recent happenings. She was all fake smiles, false enjoyment, and pretend excitement for the others.

Frankly, I hated it.

Conflict hit me hard as I watched her say something to one of the wives that had the woman laughing. This really wasn’t Cadence. This wasn’t the girl I was used to seeing. She was good, was handling herself, an expert as she truly acted as my knight in shining armor.

And it only got worse once we sat down for dinner and the asshole sat his butt down next to her. Her whole body tensed and stayed like that as dinner progressed.

I also had to deal with sitting next to Sarah. She was nineteen, in community college, dreaming of traveling the world. She also knew the name of all the Michelin star restaurants around the world, knowing exactly what she wanted to eat at each place. Not information I wanted to know nor cared to know about.

Frankly, I only heard every tenth word that came out of Sarah’s mouth as I kept focusing on that Laurens man’s low voice talking to Cadence. He was a creep, the biggest of them all, for circling around a seventeen-year-old high school girl. All the warning bells in my head were ringing as I kept watching him. He sat too close to Cadence, liked to touch her arm, and all too often leaned in close and talked in her ear. And each time, she’d inch closer to me.

My protective instincts were on the rise, and I kept trying to find a way to get the both of us out of this situation. She was my knight in shining armor, but I needed to man up and keep the creeps away from her too.

I needed to protect her.

Chapter Sixteen

Halfway through the dinner, I finally reached my limit. I was seconds away from doing something inappropriate in hopes of getting Laurens to back off. How would he react if I toppled his chair over with him sitting in it? Or if I publicly drew attention to him, calling him out on his bullshit? What did I need to do to get him to back off without making myself look like a fool?

Taking my drink and dumping it on his head wasn’t going to work. Neither was smashing his face in the plate of chicken and mash potatoes in front of him.

My limit was quickly reached. There were only so many times I could rub elbows with him before I began trying to jab him with mine. And he needed to stop leaning over to say something in my ear as if he were telling me some dirty little secret he wanted to keep between us. Saying, “The food is good,” while whispering in someone’s ear would still look like flirting in the surrounding people’s eyes.

Bryan felt the same. While keeping an eye on me and Laurens, the young debutant next to him was driving him up a wall. It didn’t take a genius to know someone was trying to set him up with the girl beside him.

While doing my best to avoid Laurens, I kept an ear on what she talked about. The basics of the conversation were her favorite places in the world that she wanted to see, like all the shops in Paris, some spa land in Japan, restaurants in Hong Kong. And she wanted Bryan to go with her to all these places.

I hid my eyerolls pretty well, or at least I thought I did until Laurens laughed and flashed me an amused smile.

I wanted to snarl at him. No. He couldn’t be amused by me. He and his creepiness didn’t have that right. And besides, I was seventeen. Laurens had to be in his thirties. That added an extra layer of grossness even if he never blatantly did anything to me.

As the girl talked, Bryan stiffened more and more, trying to keep himself reined in. Something I easily learned about Bryan was that he had a temper, and that was being put to the test tonight as he did his best not to explode. His glasses did nothing to hide the anger and frustration in his blazing dark brown eyes. The disdain was right behind his frustrations by a few notches. He had no interest in the girl or her hopes and dreams. If she brought up one more place she wanted to visit with Bryan, to ensure he paid her way, he was going to explode on her.

Bryan needed to get away, and frankly, so did I.

“Honey,” I said, leaning into him and flashing him a sweet smile while completely ignoring the girl like she didn’t exist. “Can we go get some air?”

“Yes.” Bryan practically hopped onto his feet and held out his hand. I pushed my chair back out and got up, holding on to him. I smiled at everyone at the table, ignoring the way the girl glared at me and how Laurens was fighting to keep his laughter in.

“If you’ll excuse us. We’re just going to take a little walk.” I gave Bryan a subtle nudge and he escorted me away from our table, aiming for the massive double doors that led to a garden in the back of the building.

Bryan’s grip was tight as we went down the steps. He turned us to the right to head onto a little path that wound its way through a massive area on par with a botanical garden. It was clear he was very familiar with this place already as he quickened his pace like he was on the verge of running.

We walked further away, and I enjoyed the cool air, taking deep breaths to let it cleanse the stress away. A bench was tucked away in a little hedge alcove, so we sat down. As soon as our butts were on the bench, Bryan released a sigh and closed his eyes, leaning against me.

“I hate this,” he said in a low voice.

“I know.”

“It’s just so fucking stupid. They throw these fancy parties and make sure to invite only those with a certain amount of money in their bank account. Then everyone spends all night kissing ass. The younger crowd is all about hooking up with the right person to ensure their future will be padded and concrete. Connections. We live in a world where connections matter more than anything else.”

I shifted and looked up at him. His eyes were closed, his face strained. He really hated these parties. Reaching up, I slowly slipped off his glasses. He blinked open his eyes and squinted slightly as he looked down at my face with his dark confused eyes.

“You need to relax,” I said, settling the glasses on my face. I blinked a few times from the dizziness before I pushed the glasses up to rest on top of my head.

“Can’t,” Bryan mumbled.