Chapter 5
Matteo
Lacey was not what I expected going into this meetup. She had an attitude, but what woman didn’t. When I picked her up, she looked like an innocent girl which meant she could play the part around my mother. That was the biggest thing for me. My mother had to believe this, or it would end badly. As the night went on, I could see the attitude, and that made me uncomfortable. I didn’t need a girl that was going to speak her mind. That could potentially cause problems, but I didn’t have any time to request someone else. She would have to work. I shook my head when I thought of how wrong things could go. As the night progressed, she got silent. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was having second thoughts like I was or that she was bored.
I knew I was being a dick to her, but this was business, and I was her client, not her lover destined to make her happy. She had better get that into her pretty head. And even if it were a date, the guy who would bring the moon down for a woman simply didn't exist anymore. After Kelsey killed that side of me, I knew I could never be the sweet guy I was before. I would never go down that road again. Women couldn’t be trusted. They were all gold diggers or used me for my connections. True love was never going to find me. At first, I thought maybe I had found that with Kelsey, but then it blew up in my face. I wouldn’t give any woman the opportunity to do that to me. I’d been closed off for so long that I didn’t know if I could ever get the sweet side of me back. It was gone, locked away in a part of me that wouldn’t ever be found again.
One thing about the night that really infuriated me was she felt the need to touch me and attempt to kiss me. I could understand while we were in the Bahamas, but we were at a restaurant having dinner. There was no need to do that just yet. I did follow her reasoning behind it, to see if we could even do it believably. It just wasn’t going to happen. The thought of her touching me was repulsive. Lacey was an attractive girl, but I didn’t want to get intimate with her. We were going to be enclosed in a hotel room together for a week. There was no need to complicate things.
It had been five years since the situation with Kelsey, and I would like to keep it that way. The last thing I needed was to involve myself with someone again. It only ever ended badly. I’d had enough heartbreak for a lifetime. I would continue the route I was on and just indulge in some activities occasionally with a woman who had no idea who I was. It was the only way it would work without complicating things.
Kelsey was someone I was once very fond of. We were together for almost a year before I found out her real intentions behind being with me. She had wanted to gain connections to a vital person within the community, and she used me to get close to him. Once she got what she wanted, she left me. The sad thing was that I was going to propose to her the next day. Naturally, I felt like a total fool to think I had believed her charade the entire time we had been together.
Ever since then, my guard was always up. I didn’t date because I didn’t have time for heartbreak anymore. My work was far too critical to be locked in my bedroom for weeks, crying like a baby. Kelsey was enough of that. From then on, I focused on myself and the business only. Women were trouble. I refused to let anyone close to me. They would just use me like every outsider had ever done.
Bringing Lacey along to the Bahamas would be the only way to get my family off my back. I couldn’t tell my sister the real reason why I didn’t have a girlfriend all those years, but was it even any of her business? Yes, she was my sister, but sometimes it was best to keep secrets. I didn’t need any of my family to feel pity for me. I would be content by myself. No girl was going to give me happiness. If Lacey could play this part well, then I wouldn’t have to worry about my family breathing down my neck for at least a couple of months. I would be able to breathe.
But what if something went wrong? My mind started going on a rampage about the what-ifs. What if they didn’t believe us? What if they saw right through our lie? I couldn’t imagine what would happen if my family found out that Lacey was hired to play the part. Honestly, Shawn would probably laugh at me, but the rest of them would kill me. Figuratively. Of course, I had my doubts about going through with it, but I kept talking myself into it. Regardless of how Lacey was, it was going to have to work because I was out of options.
All this could have been avoided if I just wouldn’t have opened my mouth. I could have just continued not to date anyone and told them to mind their own fucking business, but that didn’t work with my family. As I have said before, my mother was a meddler. If I didn’t have a date, she would spend the time in the Bahamas trying to fix me up with someone. I did not want that. The first time my mother set me up with someone was right after college. I only agreed because my mom begged me to go. She vowed she would be perfect for me. Well, she was wrong on so many things. The woman was dumb as dirt. If I had to choose between someone who was drop-dead gorgeous or someone who I could have an intellectual conversation with, it would be conversation.
I swished my bourbon around in my glass and contemplated how the week might play out.