Page 64 of Masked in Deception
Before long, we have a fruit and cheese platter in front of us and our second round of drinks.
“It’s completely unethical!” Mark cries, popping another samosa in his mouth. “First, he totally is in a position of power. He’s her music teacher!”
“Not officially,” I say, already seeing where this is going.
Marco continues, “Well, I was going to mention the age gap, but that’s low-key hot as fuck. You can’t deny that it’s creepy that he’s watched her for so long, though, and he knows everything about her while she knows nothing about him.”
Jack is still, observing our arguments with intense interest. Or he’s thinking about whatever excitement he has planned at his club later. Maybe his own sordid threesome.Why does that make me feel…something?
Shaking it off, I admit I’m well on the side of full-on Stockholm syndrome. “I think it’s cute. Endearing. I mean, yes, he knows everything about her, and she knows nothing about him, but he loves her! And she doesn’tneedto know much about him, just take the music lessons and get dicked down!”
Marco finishes off his third drink and stands as Mark closes out their tab. “I’m just saying, cara. At the end of the day, Christine didn’t deserve to be in the shadows like that! With someone who wasn’t willing to reveal themselves. I think it wasfine for an affair for a while, but in the end…” He gives me a secret smile. “Team. Raoul!” He punctuates Raoul by howling like a wolf, and before he can continue his antics, Mark collects him and shuffles him out with promises to do this again. I’m left giggling as they wobble down the street. They look so happy and in love, and I feel a tiny, deep longing and worry that I’ve missed my chance for that.
Jack interrupts me from gathering my things to leave by placing another drink in front of me, only my third, and my ultimate weakness. A plate of fried mac and cheese balls.
“Oh my God, I haven’t had one of these in years! The French don’t know what they’re missing!”
He laughs, deep and low, and has a sparkle in his deep blue eyes when he looks up. “Do you remember when you practically berated a server at the restaurant-which-shall-not-be-named when they were out of these on my half birthday one year?”
I blush before failing to stop a belly laugh. “Oh myGod,I had completely forgotten about that! I must have been all of what, ten years old?”
Jack gives me a wistful smile that I ignore. “You wereseven,I’ll have you know. I think every table in the restaurant was impressed with your vocabulary and how eloquent you were in telling the manager that you were going to sue them for false advertising, seeing as the mac and cheese balls were on the sign right outside the front door of the restaurant!”
Groaning, I finish off the bite. “I just don’t understand why Mom always took us there. It’s such a weird restaurant. I know you and Ledger always requested it because she let you order one of every slice of cheesecake, but you always made yourselves sick and had a massive sugar hangover the next day.”
He chuckles. “I think she always hoped we would have some sense, and it would be a sign we were maturing when we stopped asking to gorge ourselves on cheesecake for our half birthdays.”
“And when did this maturing finally happen?”
“I’ll let you know when it does.” He winks. “Last year, I managed eleven slices before I threw up. Ledger’s only ever gotten to ten.”
“The two of you are a literal problem, I swear,” I sigh, full of fried cheese with zero regrets. Sipping the soda I switched to a while ago, I’m about to check my phone for the time when Jack interrupts me softly.
“Do you really think the Phantom is a romantic figure, not just a creep taking advantage of a young woman’s passion?” he asks, swirling the same scotch he’s been nursing in his glass.
I’m not sure I have a full answer for him. It’s complicated.What isn’t?
“Well, his mask isn’t necessarily only to fool her. He feels shame over his disfigurement, and he worries she won’t be accepting of him if she knows who he really is. I think that it’s pretty hard not to feel sympathy for that. His obsession would be creepy in real life, maybe, but between you and me…in books, that shit is hot.”
Jack stares at me intensely, but I meet his gaze and continue. This isn’t the first philosophical discussion he and I have ever had, although hopefully this one won’t result in me kneeing him in the balls. I can’t help but snort a laugh.
“What?” He cocks his head to the side.
“Remember when Mom had us play ‘debate team,’ and you had to defend the patriarchy, and I kneed you in the balls and yelled fuck the patriarchy?”
Jack runs a hand down his face. “God, that hurt. You were eleven! You shouldn’t have been yelling fuck about anything.”
I exhale, cheeks hurting from laughing more today than I have in a while, before changing the subject back to my favorite play.
“I guess. It always bothered me when people loved Raoul, just because he had loved her when they were children. It hadbeen years! People change! And he just assumed they would be together, without giving her a whole lot of say in the matter, necessarily.”
Sitting back in my chair, I come to the same conclusion I always have when trying to decide between the Phantom and Raoul.
“Christine might’ve actually wanted to be a dirty girl with a masked man in a dungeon! Nothing wrong with that. Masks, forced proximity, age gap—lots of super-hot kinks in there. Maybe shedidwant to be with her childhood love, and Raoul wasn’t being pushy or misogynistic. He just wanted her to have everything she needed.”
Jack is totally still now, and I appreciate him paying so much attention to my diatribe.
“I think, if it were me, I would simply choose…both!” Slurping the rest of my soda, I move to stand and stretch, getting blood flow back after being stationary for longer than I thought. “I’ve been team masked man plus childhood sweetheart equals hot threesome since Mom told me Christine could choose them both if she wanted. There’s no reason not to have it all, Jack!”
