Her Younger Millionaire

Chapter 2

“What. An asshole,” Tina murmured to her date. His name was Rick, she thought and he and she and everyone at the party had witnessed how Aiden had treated his drunk friend. She had recognized him from the shop earlier. It looked like being an asshole was a theme for him. She’d been very surprised when Rick had told her he was the host.

Thanks to him, she’d had to go dig out one of her mother’s vintage Dior dresses…okay steal one of her mother’s Dior dresses in order to have something to wear for this date. It was turning out to be a bust on all fronts because it turned out that when Rick was among his work people he turned into some sort of windbag. Also he was apparently in business with the asshole even though he couldn’t find one positive thing to say about him. That said something about his judgment…didn’t it?

She’d avoided running into the Aiden guy; it wasn’t hard. He was being grumpy in the corner like the spoiled brat he probably was.

“Excuse me while I go to the lady’s room,” she said to Rick as she sidled off for a break. She was really tired of how bored she was. She was hanging out on the balcony, watching the city when she realized she wasn’t alone. Someone was lodged in the blinds that separated the balcony from the rest of the hall.

“Come out, come out, whoever you are,” she sing songed and then immediately regretted it. These weren’t her people. She could not do such things like that. A highly polished wing tip came into sight below the curtain and she held her breath waiting to see who would emerge. It was slowly followed by a black trousered leg that seemed to go on and on for a while. Eventually, the whole figure emerged and Tina’s whole body slumped. It was asshole in all his Armani glory.

“Oh it’s you,” she said.

He frowned, “Have we met?”

“No we haven’t. And let’s keep it that way,” she said trying to move past him.

“It’s you!” he said in a very different tone than she’d used. “I offered to buy you a whole rack of clothes and you turned me down.”

“Imagine that.”

“Are you following me?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

“Sure I am. That’s why I’m so glad to see you,” Tina said trying to push past him again.

“What are you doing here then?” he challenged. Tina had answered him before she could even think about it.

“My date brought me.”

“Your date?” he sounded really surprised that she actually had such a thing.

“Yeah,” she replied all ready to be defensive.

He pushed the blind aside. “Which one is he?” he asked hand pointing at the crowd. She frowned at him in puzzlement.

“What the fu*k does it matter which one he is?”

“It matters cause I say so,” he replied. Rude as always.

“Well fu*k that. I’m outta here.”

This time she didn’t let him detain her any longer. She brushed roughly past him and went to find Rick. In the oh, fifteen minutes that she’d been gone, he’d managed to get himself high as a kite. He barely recognized her.

“Can we go?” she asked hooking her arm in his.

“What? You’re going to let that man drive you home?” a voice asked from behind her. She rolled her eyes and turned around.

“How is anything I do even remotely your business?”

“It’s just…he’s drunk.”

“So what? How do you know we don’t have a driver?”

Aiden snorted, “What? Rick let anyone drive his mid life crisis Ferrari? Clearly you haven’t known him long.”

Tina honestly wanted to stick her tongue out at him. But she was a mature woman with dignity so she just turned her back on him.

“Can we go…please?” she asked the almost comatose Rick.

“No, you can’t go with him. I’ll take you home.”

“No, you won’t.”

He just grabbed her hand and dragged her off. Clearly his asshole levels were higher than was usually seen in humans of her acquaintance. She could not believe this was happening to her. She turned around to see if Rick was coming to her rescue but he was reaching for another drink. Clearly he was done with her. She was done with him too; she just didn’t want to be stuck with Asshole 2.0 instead. He stopped in front of the cloakroom holding out his hand.

“Ticket,” he said.

She glared, fished it from her bag and handed it to the coat check girl herself. She smiled ruefully at Tina and then turned to get her coat…which she handed to Aiden. The world was against her; Tina acknowledged that the evidence was overwhelming at last.

Aiden wrapped her coat around her and then led her out where a car was already waiting. She thought he might have a driver but no, he tucked her into the passenger seat and took the wheel.

“Where to?” he asked.

“You just want to know where I live for your own nefarious reasons,” she growled.

“Like what? Sending you clothes?”

“Exactly,” Tina exclaimed before realizing how silly that sounded. Aiden snorted but didn’t call her on it.

“I still need an address,” he said looking at her like she was being a tiresome teenager even though she was clearly older than him. She was still reflecting on the fact that she was letting some young upstart push her around and imagining what Jennifer would say if she knew, when she was startled by a hand reaching out and grabbing her bag. Before she could say a word, Aiden had her iPhone out and was scrolling through it for something. She wanted to say something; she did. But her mouth was stuck open and her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth. There were no words.

He clicked on something and put the phone to his ear.

“Hey,” he said as Tina stared at him. “Where does the owner of this phone live?”

There was a pause.

“Never mind who I am, just answer the question.”

More silence.

Aiden handed her the phone.

“She wants to speak to you,” he said. Tina took her own phone and put it to her ear.

“Who is this?” she asked.

“Have you been kidnapped? Should I call the police?” her mother asked.

“Mom!” she screamed, all the time glaring at Aiden who was looking impatiently at her as if she’d interrupted his phone call.

“Tell me what’s happening Titi,” Natasha Richardson said.

“Mom, I’m in a car with a psycho guy who insisted on driving me home and I’m not gonna tell him my address.”

“Why?”

“Why? What you mean why? Cause he’s a rude psycho.”

“He seemed nice,” she said much to Tina’s disbelief.

“You have got to be kidding me Mom. Is this about the whole ‘it’s about time you found a man’ thing because trust me-“

Aiden grabbed the phone, “Could you tell me her address?”

Tina tried to grab the phone back but he held it out of reach as he murmured, “Uh huh….”

Then he handed her the phone and started the car. Tina knew her mother sold her out.

*****

Tina was sitting ramrod straight all the way home. Aiden didn’t try to engage her in conversation for which she was grateful. What kind of ratchet ass person was he anyway? This was straight out kidnapping, is what this was. She ought to snitch his sorry butt to the police. He was lucky that where she came from snitching was frowned upon, otherwise his ass would have been grass. Tina thought about how much his behind was coming up in her thoughts and wasn’t liking it one bit. She was a good Christian girl and he was a psycho.

“We’re here,” he said stopping suddenly in front of her apartment building, surprising Tina considerably. She’d not been paying attention to her surroundings. He could have took her anywhere and she wouldn’t have been any the wiser. Tina wondered if she was losing her mind.

“Er, thanks,” she said reaching for the door. Aiden reached out a hand to stop her and then alighted from the vehicle and came around to open her door for her.