it was not was Aaron’s kind of place.
“You want to go in there?” I asked him.
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” he asked.
I smiled, “I’m just shocked that it was your idea,” I said.
He took both of my hands in his and he said, “I’m learning to compromise. I want to do things that make you happy too.”
Damn! I could feel the stupid tears filling up my eyes again. Forcing a quick smile I said, “Thank you, that’s so sweet. Let’s go.”
The club was huge and loud and posh and packed with fun-loving, good-looking people. There were some at the bar and some at the tables and others bumping and grinding on the dance floor. I looked at Aaron’s face and I could see that this was likely his first time in a place like this. I was amused by it, and touched that he would do something like this just for me at the same time. He took my hand and led me through the crowd and I counted six different women who looked at him like they’d enjoy having him for their next meal. I wanted to stick out my tongue and say, “Ha Ha, he’s all mine.” Immature, I know. He found a high top table for us and as I climbed up on the stool and looked around I wondered if he had planned this. This was no run of the mill SoHo club. This was one of the newer ones and they specifically catered to the “upper class” party crowd. I guess it didn’t matter if he’d researched it; it was a sweet gesture either way.
The pulsating music filled my ears as Aaron went to the bar to get us a drink and I bobbed my leg up and down and rocked my head to the beat. I was again surprised when he came back, sat down the drinks and led me out to the dance floor. He pulled me into his arms just as that song ended and a slow song filled the room. The floor was so crowded that we could hardly do much more than sway, but with my body pressed tightly into his, I didn’t need to move. He had his hand resting on my lower back and as we danced, he slid it down to the curve of my hip and let it rest there. Making the evening even more surprising and extra sexy, he put his lips to my ear and sang as we danced. It was obvious that he didn’t know the song and he was making up the words as he went along but that made it all the better. He was having fun. Aaron Winters had learned to have fun and I like to think I at least helped him get there. Maybe after it came out that I was embezzling money from his company that would be something he could remember me by. Damn! I wasn’t going to think about that tonight. A second slow song came on as the first one ended and he didn’t miss a beat. The only thing that changed position was the hand that had been resting on my back. He slid it down slowly and let it land on my right cheek and every so often as we swayed to the music, he would give it a squeeze.
He used his other hand to brush the skin on my arm gently up and down. He let it land on the back of my neck underneath my hair and he had his mouth close to my ear as he whispered, “You feel so good.”
“Mm,” I said, “You feel me so good.” I had my hands on his arms and I squeezed his hard biceps as I said it. He let out a soft moan in my ear and then suddenly I felt his tongue there and my whole body did a little spasm thing. He had the uncanny ability to make me forget that the world outside of the walls we were in even existed. I think if I could spend every moment in his arms like this I would forget that Igor existed at all.
We danced and drank until the early hours of the morning. It was the single most “fun” night we’d ever had. We have a lot of “nice” ones and “entertaining” ones… but straight up “fun” was hard for Aaron, so the fact that he’d had so much of it made it that much greater for me. I can honestly say now too that I saw Aaron Winters in a state I’m sure not many others had witnessed… with a good buzz going on from the tequila shots he was doing with his beers and shaking his butt to modern pop music. He was so drunk in fact that he had to call and wake Jeffrey to pick us up. He passed out on the way home so after Jeffrey got him up to his apartment and I tucked him in nice and cozy I had Jeffrey take me home. As much as I loved going to sleep and waking up in his arms, I was scared to death to be there lately when the phone Igor gave me might ring at any time.
Aaron and I continued to see each other a few days a week and I continued to put on a happy front. It wasn’t hard when I was with Aaron; he had the ability to make me forget that anything or anyone else existed. The hard part was fighting the guilt when he looked at me with reverence and respect in his eyes, or those quiet times when my mind would wander back to my troubles and he would catch me staring off into space and ask what was wrong. I would try to smile and deny that there was anything out of the ordinary going on. I know that he didn’t believe me, but I told myself that soon it would all be over and things would be so normal he would forget about my couple weeks of moodiness.
By the end of the second week of my “embezzlement” I had managed to amass seventy-five thousand dollars. I went by the bank on Friday and withdrew the last of it from the account I had created for it. I left just enough in to keep the account open. An account that was opened and then closed in just a couple of weeks would really send up red flags. I sat in the dark in my apartment that night trying not to listen to the guilty whispers of the seven hundred and fifty, one hundred dollar bills in the bag underneath my bed. I never fell asleep that night. I sat wide awake alternately telling myself I was only doing what I had to do and cursing myself for what I was doing. I finally fell asleep around five a.m. When I woke up I knew it was time… it was time to call Igor and get this over with once and for all.
I called him on Saturday morning and he answered on the first ring.
“Hello baby! I was expecting your call.”
“I have the money,” I told him.
“I knew you could do this. You make me so happy.”
“I’m not concerned about making you happy,” I told him. “Tell me where to meet you and I will be there. All I’m interested in is making this and you, go away. Bring the marriage certificate, Igor, the original.”
He laughed and said, “My sexy girl has grown up into a feisty young woman, I’m so proud.”
“Shut up! You don’t get to be proud. You don’t even know me and I am not “yours” in any way. Stop making your lewd sexual comments too. You make me nauseous. Tell me where to meet you or I will hang up and go to the police.” That was the other option I had considered. I knew that reporters would be standing by for that kind of information though and again, it would reflect poorly on Aaron who was completely innocent of any wrong-doing here. In other words, it was an empty threat.