Wife and Girlfriend

Chapter 26

Otanyi

When we pulled up in front of my sister's building, I knew that the 'goodbye' portion of the evening would end up being a little awkward. Our discussions in the car had taken us through a broad range of topics, including my relationship with my boss. But I still thought that I had it in the bag since we'd spent such a lovely time together overall, and at least he'd gotten to get some things off his chest.

"So, I'll see you at yours tomorrow? Do you want me to bring anything?"

It looked at first like he was going to answer, but it also appeared as if what he was going to say would pain him.

"Otanyi, listen..."

"Or maybe you just want to raincheck tomorrow then. I know things ended up getting a little messy where my boss was concerned, but..."

He interrupted me by placing a lone finger against my lips. The gesture wasn't completely unwelcome because I was getting ready to go into a longer explanation until I could even understand what I was doing kissing two men. And that would've been too dangerous. So, I accepted the silencing with gratitude.

It actually saved me.

"No, nothing like that. Listen, I haven't been all the way up front with you about things. I guess I've just been so caught up in what I wanted to happen with us that I ignored the signs of something even bigger going on in the background," he started.

"I don't understand," I said.

"I know. Well, there's been a sort of a feeding frenzy that started back when you and I were first photographed at the press conference several weeks ago. Now, it wasn't that big of a deal on this side of the world because your press is slightly more well-behaved for some unknown reason. And I'd managed to keep on top of things from my end. But, what I did tonight, taking you away from the fundraiser and driving off like that, well..." he stopped, and when it looked like he wasn't going to say anything else, I prodded him further.

"Don't stop now. What's going on, Tiger?"

"I know social media isn't really your thing and all, but there's a bit of a machine behind who I am, in public, I mean."

"Yeah, okay. Does it mean that you walk on water and can heal the sick or something?" trying to find any humor in this conversation that had taken on the most serious tone.

"Not quite. But you do pay a bit of a price being with me," he ended his statement by placing one of his large hands around the back of his neck and began rubbing it.

And there it was. As if 'being with him' meant something entirely different than anything that I'd been thinking of. And honestly, I hadn't been thinking much about what a relationship with Tiger would look like. Sure, I wanted to spend more time with him and get to know him, but I wasn't thinking about anything beyond where I'd thought we'd gotten to in the last couple of weeks. And certainly nothing to the extent of the serious face that he was putting on now.

"Tiger, if this is moving too fast for you, I'm fine to slow it down a bit," I offered, and I spoke slowly and with intent so that he couldn't hear the 'hope' laced within my voice.

Now, he took his turn placing his hand on mine and the other just at the base of my neck where my dress dipped towards my cleavage.

"The opposite, actually. I don't want to slow down at all," he said, leaning in again and placing his forehead against mine. "But if we do this, some things might change for you," he said.

He had my attention now as I leaned away from him and tried to focus on the words that would come next out of his mouth.

"I know you got a little taste of things a few weeks ago, but being connected to me, for you or really anyone in my circle, means more attention," he tried explaining, but so far, things weren't getting any clearer.