The Marriage of Nathan West

The Reunion

"Aren't you even going to say hello? It has been two years after all."

Nathan narrowed his eyes but remained silent. He had no desire to be friendly with her after all this time. She was the one person he had hoped to avoid the entire evening after all. She placed herself firmly in his path and smiled at him again.

"Come on, we can be civil to each other can't we? We haven't seen each other in two years, James. The least you can do is say hello to me."

"Hello Chelsea," he said after a long moment.

"See that wasn't so hard."

"Excuse me, I have to get back to my date."

"Your date." Her smile disappeared and she shifted to the bar where she waved the bartender over. "That little blonde all the grandmothers are fussing over? What's her name again? Mary or Minnie? Am I close?"

"Maxie."

She snapped her fingers. "Oh that's right. Maxie." She turned away and ordered a glass of wine. After a pause, she glanced over her shoulder at him. "She's royalty of some kind too, isn't she? What was it I read? Oh yes, Aztec. You found yourself a princess after all. Lucky guy."

"Knock it off, Chelsea."

"Fine. But tell me, what brought you back to the city from the wilderness? Don't tell me you're tired of it already."

"Don't worry, I'm not. We're heading back tomorrow. I have to go."

"That's it? That's all I get? Not even a 'Nice to see you,' just I have to go? You owe me more than that." She stepped closer to him, laying a hand on his chest. "A lot more," she added.

"I don't owe you anything," he returned through gritted teeth.

Nathan was aware of eyes on them, watching them, waiting for something scandalous to happen between the two of them. He wouldn't give any of them the satisfaction of having that gossip. Particularly since he was here with Maxie who didn't know any of his history with Chelsea. He would remedy that as soon as she came back though. His gaze flicked over to the hallway leading to the bathroom but there was no sign of her.

"Waiting for her to come back, I see. What's the matter? Afraid she'll see you talking to me? Oh!" Chelsea's face lit with understanding. "You haven't told her about me." She cut her eyes to where Nathan was looking just as Maxie emerged from the hall. "Let's give her something to think about," she added digging into his lapels, pulling him closer. She turned his face to her with her free hand and pressed her lips against his in a cold kiss.

Maxie heard the voices before she even turned the corner into the bathroom. There were two of them and it was obvious that they were talking about her. She stopped dead in her tracks and leaned against the wall listening intently.

"Have you met his girlfriend yet?"

"Are you kidding? He's only introduced her to the senior citizens."

"Why? Is she some sort of defective?"

"Not that I can tell. She's pretty enough and she knows her designers. She's wearing this season's Cartullo."

"So she has money?"

"I doubt that. I heard she was at Crimson for a while. Maybe she just has a contact in the design house."

"She doesn't sound terrible. I wonder why he isn't introducing her to anyone but the old people."

"Well for starters, the seniors out there are probably the only ones here who haven't heard about how his life has gone to hell in the last two years. You did hear how wrong he was about his sister, right? Followed his brother-in-law trying to pin attempted murder on him only to find out it was his mother all along. And then, if that wasn't bad enough, his mother isn't really his mother. He's not even a Reeves. He probably feels like a fraud."