The Art of Starting Over

Bonus (CUT) #3 - The Man at the Party

ALLY

I can’t help but laugh as I listen to Sandra and Karen describe in perfect synchronisation and great detail their eventful encounter with an elderly lady who refused to leave the store even though it was already thirty minutes past closing time.

“And then, when Sandra’s resting bitch face couldn’t get any more pronounced, she just turned around and switched off the lights and the poor woman was so confused!” Karen cries, wiping the tears from her eyes. 

“You didn’t!” I sigh in astonishment.

I always thought the girl was less inhibited than the rest of us but she never fails to impress me on that account. No wonder Sosa doesn’t like her, she must be impossible to control.

“She did!” Karen answers in reply, the smile sliding off her face as she turns to Sandra and sees her staring fixedly at a spot somewhere above my left shoulder.

Sandra’s hand shoots out and clutches her shift mate’s elbow in warning as she says to me with a lowered voice, “Don’t look now, but I think The Boss is checking you out!”

I reflexively turn around and my eyes land momentarily on a very striking man with jet-black hair and piercing eyes just before the pair of them hiss at me and turn me back to face them. It’s all I can do to stop myself from bursting with laughter at the sight of their alarmed expressions.

“What?”

“I said don’t look!” Sandra tuts angrily.

“How am I supposed to see who he is and if he’s checking me out?”

Both their jaws drop comically to the floor and I feel my eyes roll into the back of my skull on their own accord. And then their expressions become very serious as their eyes again focus somewhere behind me and they start backing away from me slowly.

I turn around expecting to see a deadly monster making its way towards me but all I see is the same striking man they were claiming to be The Boss.

“Good evening. I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Jeremy James Cordina,” he says in a very smooth tone, a hint of a smile playing around his lips.

Something about him makes me hesitate for a moment. Probably his eyes. He has very particular eyes. They are cold, like ice, and yet warm at the same time with a vibrant glimmer. 

I smile instinctively as I take his hand to shake it. “Alison Lewis. Apparently, I work for you,” I start, but stop as he lifts my hand to his lips and places a soft kiss on my fingers.

This sort of behaviour usually creeps the hell out of me but for some reason, this time it doesn’t and I find myself unable to hold back a sneer.

“Is chivalry a thing in Malta or is it just you?” I say jokingly. 

A low laugh escapes his throat and it knocks all the mockery out of me. I barely register his words as he slowly replies, “It is very rare. Are you impressed?”

I want to say yes. I mean no! I mean...
Well, it doesn’t matter because I can’t get a word out anyway as he flashes me with a heart-breaking smile and I feel my mouth smile back. 

He lets go of my hand and I watch him lift his glass of what looks like whiskey to his lips. He eyes me as he mulls the fluid around his tongue and swallows it slowly.

This man is different than any other person I’ve ever met. I can tell he is confident to the point of being arrogant, just like Jake, yet somehow he warrants it. He seems to have the stuff to back it up. And something about the sparkle in his eyes tells me he is adventurous to the point of being crazy, and yet not to the extent of being idiotic. Because there is a sense of maturity about him. Not like Samuel, who Sosa insists is a perfect match for me. Of course, this man must be older than him.