Page 23 of Maddest Temptation

“Oh, there she is.” Marie interrupted me and quickly excused herself plunging into the crowd.

When I turned toward my brother, he had his hands up in the air.

“This is not on me,” he said quickly.

“Better not be,” I snapped.

“She’s just a girl, Cassio, what’s got your panties in a twist?” Vitelli chuckled. “Plus, it’s a change from fucking the same chick all the time.”

“Boys, this is my friend, Frankie,” Marie said, and I slowly began to turn. When I did, my entire body froze, air got stuck in my lungs, and I gawked like a fool at the woman who stood before me, or better…

At Francesca fucking Manci.

FRANCESCA

“He’s nice, Frankie,” Marie said as she pulled me from the hallway into her home. “You owe me for being late.”

I rolled my eyes and said nothing as I took in the environment around me. It was filled with people…I recognized. I pulled back and came to a stop. “Where did you say you met your guy again?”

“At a coffee shop down the street,” Marie said tugging at my hand.

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Okay.”

So why did I recognize these people? Well, not all of them, but some were people from my past. Men and women who had frequented the same church as me, had gone to the same weddings, events, and galas.

This was the last place I wanted to be right now. I couldn’t be near them; I could already begin to feel their judging gazes on me. Maybe it was in my head, but I could see some of them leaning in to exchange the newest piece of gossip. Our world was a small one, like money, gossip was what made our blood pump. It spread quicker than wildfire and took longer to put out.

Coming here wasn’t a good idea. Especially because today hadn’t been the best of days. Mother had a relapse, her chemo wasn’t working, and she had been in one of her moods. Reginald ate one of my socks and had a stomachache, and to top it all off, Donato had called me again, insisting that I return home.

Marie had planned her party and had been texting me all day. She had been buzzing around me like a bee, as though she knew I wanted to cancel. Things would have been better if I had something to numb my anxiety and settle my nerves.

Tonight, I was nothing but a ticking time bomb waiting to detonate, and I feared the disaster that would follow.

“Will you stop fretting,” Marie mumbled as we headed toward the two men she wanted me to meet. This brought me back to the problem at hand. “As I said, he was a perfect gentleman, and you're going to like him. Not to mention he’s terribly hot.”

“You know I’m not interested,” I said, reaching for the servant who was roaming around with shots on her tray. Marie watched me swallow the transparent liquid with narrowed eyes. “I’m detoxing, Marie. No men.”

What difference would it make when I was already promised to another? What was the point in putting in all the effort, when in the end, I was going to have another man’s ring on my finger? So no, I wasn’t interested.

“This is not about what we talked about, is it?” I asked, knowing fully well it was. Marie wasn’t going to give up. She loved a lost cause too much.

She smiled dismissively, but I knew the truth. She stopped and turned to face me, grabbed my shoulders, and stared me deep in the eyes. “I don’t often say this, and it’s probably unadvisable, but have some fun, Frankie. You’re a twenty-three-year-old gorgeous bombshell. He’s going to fall for you instantly.”

I sighed loudly, my shoulders sagging. “I’m not going to escape this, am I?”

“No, you won’t.” She smiled and we resumed walking toward the back of her living room where the men were.

“How long have you known him?”

“For a few minutes, tops.”

I looked at the ceiling and laughed in desperation. Marie was on a roll today. When we cleared most of the crowd and reached the men, a strange sensation settled over me, like a premonition. Or rather a déjà vu. They had their backs to us, both men were tall and broad-shouldered. One had light brown hair that curled around his ears and neck, while the other had a messy mop of dark curls. Even looking at his back, I could tell that the tallest of them didn’t look as comfortable as the one beside him. There was a slight tension in his shoulders and the way he tapped his fingers repetitively against his leg.

At least I wasn’t the only one who was anxious.

“Boys, this is my friend, Frankie,” Marie said, and on cue, they both turned to face me.

My legs stopped, my feet turned to lead, and they kept me from being able to breach the distance between myself and the two men. It was at that moment that I knew I shouldn’t have come.

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