Draft version - Russian Roulette - Family secrets

Ch. 17: I chase gold, and I fucking found a diamond!

"What the hell was that?"

Alyssa came rushing into the ladies' room all flustered glaring at Mackenzie who stood with her eyes closed knuckles-white-clenching the sink, holding on for dear life. Her heart was beating too fast and her blood was racing through her. Her whole body was on edge sick with want, and there was only one cure.

Gareth.

"What?" she mumbled still in shock.
"On the dance floor."
"Fuck if I know."
"No seriously. Mac. Did Gareth just dance with you like the God of sexy moves and then kiss you like he wanted to devour you in front of the whole club?"

Alyssa had noticed how Gareth and Mackenzie had been circling each other, but the moment she had seen Gareth get up and remove his jacket and tie before walking out onto the dancefloor, she had been sure that something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

"It's not a big deal, he probably does that all the time."
"Hell no. I've known Gareth for over 10 years. He never behaves like that. And he's not drunk. I've seen him drunk a few times."
"Then I have no answer for you. I thought it was his routine, see something that makes his dick twitch and then try to seduce it?"

Mackenzie said the words with a bitter undertone. She was certain that Gareth was not celibate like her. He could get anyone. He had been a massive man whore back when they began their friendship.

Oddly, saying the words felt wrong, she herself doubted that she was yet another conquest. He had not given her any reasons about why he wanted her, except it did not feel like he was after another notch in his bedpost.

There was something she was missing.

Some information Gareth had not disclosed to her.

"When I met him 11 years ago, he was fresh out of University. The smartest kid I had ever met, he rose within the company at record speed. A few years later he got headhunted to another company getting his first three-letter-title. He left that job some years later and joined Global AIG as their CFO."

Alyssa leaned against one of the stalls.

"He was a party boy back then. Worked hard and played even harder. But then he changed. He did party like crazy, no women I might add, a bit of random flirting, not at all the way he had done earlier."
"When did that change happen?"
"Don't know exactly. About 5-6 years ago? Or something like that," Alyssa trailed off.

Mackenzie was intrigued. Maybe Alyssa had the information she lacked. "You know why he changed?"
"I have no idea, he quit his job at Global and went off the grid for a little year. Then he came back having bought two companies, and he headhunted me. The companies he turned around completely and since he's bought more. Granston's being the latest and he asked me to help fix Granston's."

Mackenzie was speechless.

If what Alyssa had said was true, Gareth had changed his behavior around the same time he had met her. Only, he had boasted repeatedly about the women he had nailed, making her jealous and cry from rage and inadequacy most of the time they had been friends.

And while he had showed her some interest and opened his world to her, it had not been enough for him to stop telling her about every sordid sexual encounter he had had.

Looking back, it was like he had purposely told her everything to keep her at arm's length.

None of it made sense.

"I don't know, Al. Maybe he just saw me as a piece of ass he wanted for a night, and he knew that he had to pull all the stops to get me because I'm not some brainless bimbo?"
Alyssa laughed. "You keep telling yourself that."
"What?"