Page 18 of Wicked Little Game
He sounds somber, and it breaks my heart. To see him in this tiny store, to know that I probably hurt him by not staying in contact. He deserves better.
I start to feel tears well up in my eyes and try to distract myself because this isn’t the right moment to get all sappy. So I turn to look at James, which immediately causes me to smile.
He looks like the human version of a tank, holding my shopping bags in his hands while he stares off into space. No one dares to walk past him, not surprisingly, because even without his ski mask, he doesn’t look like someone you would want to start a fight with. With a chuckle, I catch myself thinking that he would make a wonderful husband.
“Who’s the gentleman that’s waiting for you? New boyfriend? What happened to Brian?” Richards asks with a huge smile on his face as he comes back from the storage room.
“Let’s not talk about Brian,” I answer with a sigh. Hearing his name is enough to cause me a headache. “And God, no,” I add quickly. “He‘s just my bodyguard.”
“I see,” Richard says with a smile as he pats my hand. As if he knows something I don’t. Carefully, I pick up the delicate bracelets that lie between us on the wooden counter.
His work is immaculate, as always. I’ve seen pieces from jewelers that weren’t seventy-three and their best work was worse than something Richard would produce with a coughon a really shitty day. The engraving on the bracelets is fine and accurate, done with the precision of someone who knows his craft in and out.
“They are perfect.”
The bracelets are almost too pretty, given the fact that I only ordered them to tormentJames.
“You mind telling me who they are for?” Richard asks, his tone that of a much younger man. As if he has a hard time to keep himself from chuckling.
“It’s a surprise.”
“For your boyfriend? I mean, for your bodyguard,” he corrects himself. “I’m not getting younger, you know, sweetheart.”
I hand him the bracelets again so that he can pack them up for me.
“Yes, for my bodyguard,” I emphasize, fetching one of my credit cards out of my purse in the meantime. I hope Richard doesn’t notice the slight flush on my cheeks, but who am I kidding? Well, I just hope he doesn’t point it out.
Thankfully, he doesn’t and just shakes his head with a laugh as I pay for the bracelets.
“I hope you visit me again soon, Ruby, I really miss having you around.”
It’s not like I don’t miss having his company. It is kind of weird to admit that my inner circle consists of two ducks and a 73-year-old man, but he’s really one of very few, if not the only person, who sincerely cares for me. I hug him, long, because I know I won’t see him again as soon as I’d like to.
At least not until I can leave the house on my own accord again, because I doubt James would like to accompany me to the mall every week. It makes my hatred for my father and his rules, which are nothing more than a thinly veiled punishment, grow even more, and I’m impressed by how he managesto piss me off when he isn’t even around. Probably not even in the same country.
“I’ll try,” I lie with a sad smile as I walk out of the store.
“Darling, you forgot something,” Richard yells after me while I’m already halfway out of the door. He’s holding a small stack of hundred-dollar bills, and I just shrug my shoulders as I hold the door open.
“Must have been someone else.”
He shakes his head in disbelief as I say my goodbyes again and walk out the door.
“Please tell me we're almost done,” James says as I come out of Richard’s store.
“Mhm, just one more stop.”
I look the other way to keep him from seeing the grin on my face as I walk towards the nearest lingerie store.
8
SAMUEL
Going to the mall with Ruby was, not surprisingly, a mistake. After last night, I didn’t have the mental capacity for her whining, and I thought our little deal was a good idea. I can’t stand the mess back at the house any longer, but I also don’t want to clean up after her.
Maybe I also thought that she would behave when we’re outside with other people around. And so far she really behaved, but when she started walking towards that lingerie store, I knew that something was up.
Judging by the grin on her face, she’s enjoying this trip. Sometimes, she reminds me of a boa constrictor with the way she wraps herself around me. She’s suffocating me with her unbearable personality and I’m the stupid prey that runs into her waiting mouth. Over and over, like a masochistic rabbit.
