One Summer with the Sinner (Monteverde Series 5)

27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

VANE JASON

              Harvey went with me to the mall to help me handpick which cheeses and cured meats to get for the charcuterie et frommage board that I am planning to curate for tonight's dinner. We've finished with the selection and are now just waiting for the staff to put everything together beautifully.

I kept pacing back of forth that Harvey started to get dizzy, so he pulled me on the couch to set with him. Damn it. I act like a nervous seventeen-year-old who is meeting his first girlfriend's strict parents for the first time.

              The funny thing is that this isn't even the first time I'm meeting a girl's parents, but I act like it is. I've had a couple of girlfriends in the past, some slightly serious, some are for fun. I've had quite a colorful dating history and looking back, that's not something to be proud of. I've dated for sex, I've dated to alleviate boredom, I've dated for dares.  I've dated for so many reasons other than love. And now that I'm trying to do it right, destiny sems to want to make it difficult for me as some sort of punishment for all the hearts I've broken and the girls I made cry.

              "I still can't wrap my mind around everything you've told me," Harvey said. He reclined on the couch and crossed his legs as he talked. "I mean, it's not like Maverick and I didn't have any idea that Asheng came from an esteemed family, you know? She acts with so much finesse and class that it'd be hard to miss. But a Monteverde? She's practically untouchable..." He shot me a teasing look. "Apparently not by you, though. I'd guess you've touched her quite a lot now."

              I elbowed him and he grimaced as he rubbed the side of his chest where it hit. "That hurt!"

              "Don't talk about her like that, Harv. She's different from any other woman I've ever dated. I know it sounds cheesy saying that, especially coming from me, who used to think love is not for everyone and that destiny has it favorites."

              "You're its favorite!" he exclaimed. "A Monteverde? Jeez, brother! You'd have more luck winning the lottery than the hand of a Monteverde woman, but what do I know? Here we are! Less than two hours away from your not-so-typical family dinner. How does it feel, huh? How does it feel to see Aaron Monteverde, our icon growing up, up close?"

              I swallowed uneasily. It wasn't an easy scene to re-live. "It felt absolutely horrifying."

              The laugh Harvey produced was so loud that some of the staff turned to look at us. He held his hand up apologetically and mouthed the word sorry before he lowered his voice. "Why so? Does he look every bit the man he is on television? Or even scarier?"

              "That and ten times scarier."

              "Even scarier than your Ma?" he bantered, knowing full well that my mother has a reputation in London as well, but here in the Philippines, she's just Elizabeth – the widower of Javier Blanco Clohessy. She hated being referred to like that, so she worked her hardest in the UK to build a different brand for herself, a different persona. Thinking about it, I kind of sometimes miss how she was when her and Dad were in good terms, before he had cancer and died. I like to think that my father had been my mother's best friend. That's how they stayed civil and in touch even after he came out.

              Maybe I need to spend a little time with her, too. I've been too focused on my career in Spain, and too focused on evading her because she is notorious for her sharp tongue, that I may have failed to acknowledge that I left her alone to grieve, with the burden of carrying the business all on her own.