The dining room of the golf course was traditional. Cream colored walls and metal chandeliers. But the room was spiced up with Martina’s choice of gold tablecloths and chair covers.
The song slowed, and Amie made a break from his grip before the song had even ended.
At the same moment the room quieted, Milton yelled, “Do not walk away from me, Woods.”
Several heads on the dance floor turned and stared at him. Amie growled and walked away without looking back.
Milton glanced at Rob and Martina in apology but both of them waved at him, gesturing for him to follow the blond in the black dress, his angel from the moment he’d laid eyes on her.
Fuck it! He didn’t care who knew. He had things to say and she was going to listen.
Milton rushed over to the DJ and grabbed his microphone. “Amie Woods.” She froze. He caught her before she made it to the outdoor patio. “Amie Woods. I have something I need to say to you.”
She turned around and hugged her body. Embarrassed? Probably. Nervous? Most likely. Wanting to rip his head off? Without a doubt.
“I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. If you won’t listen to me in private, then you have no choice but to listen to me in public.”
She walked a little bit further into the dining room. Milton saw Aleks and Carrie joining Martina and Rob on the dance floor. He was ruining the wedding, but this was the most important thing he would ever do and he didn’t care about the consequences. Although they didn’t look mad. All four of them were bright eyed and smiling.
Milton caught Aleks’s stare and the guy waved at him, his way of telling him to get the show on the road.
Milton scrambled for words. “I shouldn’t have left. That night at your apartment.” The heads of everyone in the room bobbed like they were at a tennis match, back and forth between them. “You pushed me away on purpose. I know that now.”
She fisted her hands and took an angry step forward, but before she could yell he beat her to the punch. “I’m talking.” His voice was stern, commanding. Her eyes widened, then her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You want marriage. You want it all. Isn’t that what you told me?”
She took a few steps closer, her feet inching her back into the room whether she realized it or not.
“I thought I could live my life without those things. I hadn’t met a single woman that made me regret my decision to stay single. Until I met you.” He decided to give her all the information. “Until I saw you in the store window wearing lingerie.”
She gasped. So did his two friends on the dance floor.
“Black bustier with pink on it and panties that have frills on the back.” He remembered. That image of her was burned into his brain forever.
His mind drifted to the image of her in that window. Probably not the best time to take his eye off the ball, but it gave her the chance to walk over. She stood on the wood floor, close enough to be heard, but far enough away that she couldn’t jump in his arms.
“You don’t want this, Milton. You only think you want this because you think I want it.”
Milton shook his head in confusion. He had no idea what Amie had just said, but he knew the gist…she was shutting him down again.
“People can change.”
“Not everyone. Not all the time.”
Amie took a few steps away. He was afraid she was going to bolt down the stairs, but she didn’t. “I’m short-term, a fling. Even if you did want to settle–which you don’t–you don’t settle down with the girl who strips for fun.”
“I like the girl who strips for fun,” he said into the microphone. Amie looked around the room. Maybe he shouldn’t have told the entire room she stripped. Now they probably thought she was a stripper. Fuck it! He was going to continue. “I fell in love with the girl who strips for fun.”
Amie shook her head, probably trying to stop the tears from falling. He saw them well up at the mention of love.
“We knew what this was from the very beginning. A fling to get you out of your shell, at least for a little while.”
“I can’t be any more out of my shell than I am at this very moment. You did this.”
“You don’t want to be with me.”
“I’m bound to you, remember?”
“That wasn’t real,” she cried, her hands covering her face. She was trying to hide the tears that were now falling.