Amanda
"So how was it?" I took a big bite out of my confetti pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles covering them. Even though I had pride I would have been a fool to resist free food. It was not like Marco would miss the money to begin with.
"I don't know," he shrugged before he took a sip out of his espresso cup. The cup was so small I wondered what in the world he had been sipping away at. I doubted there was anything left in the cup to begin with. I had to muster all my will and strength to not just look over and see for myself.
He had taken off his suit jacket and thrown it over the back of the chair next to him. He had his legs crossed one over the other and it took everything in me not to look at his tatted arms that looked like they could tear me in half. The material of his shirt was stretched due to his strong chest and at any moment it looked like if he moved too fast it would tear.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"She had the agility of a plank you know," he sighed, "and I was too drunk to even remember how she was in bed. "
I nearly choked but quickly cleared my throat, "I'm asking about the party you abandoned me for, not your extracurricular affairs."
"My sex life?" he raised his eyebrows then let out a half. "Edward was right."
"Right about what?" I gasped.
"Nothing. Don't stress," he grinned before he took another sip of his espresso. When he put it down I was quick to reach out for it and was surprised to find there was still a lot of it inside.
"What do you do? Dip your tongue in it then call it a day," I crinkled my nose before I placed the cup back down.
"Such things are consumed with sophistication and restraint not like a vacuum cleaner," his eyes twinkled with what I felt was truly condescending which just riled me up even more as I chewed on my almost finished pancakes slower.
"As if you know anything about sophistication and restraint," I glared, "Is your purpose here to look down on me or are you actually interested in my company?"
"Both," he shrugged.
The growl that came from me surprised everyone around as they looked at me with large eyes before meeting my glare and quickly looking away. "I understand there was a time in your life that you saw me in diapers and the whole shitting on myself thing as a baby but that gives you no right to think you can walk all over me.
Edward practically begged me to work with you. I will leave. I'll figure out my own way to make my already multimillion company into a multibillion company. It's whether you treat me as an equal rather than your best friend's little sister or I'll just hop right back onto my plane to London."
In my mind I imagined us as two great rivals. A tiger and a chihuahua. Yes, I was tiny but if Marco thought he could throw his ridiculously large paw at me without getting bitten he had another thing coming for him.
We stared each other down for what felt like forever. Two hunters circling each other and he knew he was not going to win in this round. Yes, he was an Agassi but I was a Coleman. He should have tread with caution.
"Maybe we should start on a clean slate then," he sighed before taking his cup, taking a large sip of nothing as he tilted his head and downed it with one shot. "I'll be professional as long as you promise to be."
"Don't even speak to me like I haven't been from the very first round," I glared, "I think if we're going to speak of professionalism. you should have never cancelled my hotel reservation and dumped me in your penthouse. I have no intention of sharing a space with you."
"I wasn't planning on coming home any time soon. It's all yours."
The anger in me burned brighter than the flames of hell, "So you planned to just dump me in your three story home! Alone!"
"I thought it was what you would have wanted. Edward has a similar property-"
"I am not Edward for you to assume," I hissed, "Edward buys Bugattis for the fun of it. He and I are not the same. I preferred my hotel a lot more and the fact you were going to ditch me there makes things even worse Marco."
"I thought you didn't want me around."
"How would you know when the last time you saw me I was 18?" I glared, "Don't make your own assumptions. You don't know me anymore."
I could tell he wanted to argue but instead resorted to pressing his lips together then holding his hands up in surrender, "Very well. I understand."
"I was lucky enough to get my reservation back, no thanks to you so you're more than welcome to go back home." The silence that stretched between us afterwards was heavy and consuming as I ate in silence and he ordered another espresso for himself.
He looked like he needed it by how tired his eyes looked. I would have willed myself to care but he was in that position due to his own recklessness.
Even though I tried to ignore it as best as I could. There was an awkwardness to us that I would have killed to get rid off. I used to see Marco only when he came home with Edward and those encounters were such a handful from the time I could actually remember him.
It was not like we did not get along, we did but there was always a huge elephant in the room when he was around. I knew I was the reason behind that but I hoped after so many years it would have died down.