Untamed Sweethearts

Chapter 3

Mateo holds his head, but he has to let go to get the aspirin, and the bottle is misbehaving!

“f**k! There are a lot of us out here who don’t have children and don’t need these damn childproof bottles!” He grabs hold of his pounding head and the cap followed by some of the tablets falls to the floor. In his haste, he hits his head on the side of the counter, and a flow of swearwords comes out of his mouth.

“Why?” He almost whispers when he puts an ice pack on the now bump and pops an aspirin into his mouth.

“Because you are a damned fool!” He answers himself. He has to get moving, and a shower releases most of his aches. He remembers dancing at one stage…

“Dance like nobody’s watching.” The words of Maggie’s friend rang in his ear, and his eyes popped open! Did he speak to Maggie? He grabs hold of his pounding head. Trying to remember all of last night's antics is just making his headache worse! Grabbing his keys, he locks his apartment behind him and makes his way to his office. It’s going to be a long day, and he wonders how Maggie is doing? How on earth does she survive a life like this every night?

***

Maggie rolls over to find she’s not alone in bed.

“GET UP!” She kicks the half-sleeping man clean out of her bed, and he hits the floor with a thud. She can’t believe she didn’t make sure he left!

“You have to go. I’m going to be late.” He stretches, and she tilts her head to glare at him. Who the hell does he think he is? She never allows them to stay over!

“Don’t you give guests coffee?”

“Sorry, I don’t drink coffee. Now get out!” She hands the naked man his clothes and bundles him out of her place, making sure that her mom isn’t outside.

“Can I have your number? Or you can take mine. I would like to take you…”

“No need. It was fun. Bye.” She cut off his line of thought. She’s heard it so many times already, but she’s not interested.

Her latest infatuation was targeting the bad boys who thought all women were there for their pleasure, and they would dump them as soon as they got what they wanted. She decided she already had a reputation, so what would be the difference if she enjoyed her reputation? As soon as her guest starts his car, she knows that her mom must have heard that!

“That’s why I brought you home.” She grins as her insides turn and tighten around her sweet spot, then she looks at her watch and realizes that she’s going to be late! A man in a uniform didn’t do anything for her, but a man with a car that sounded like that…

She makes it to the office just in time to get Mr. Robinson’s coffee ready, and breathes a sigh of relief when he doesn’t ask her too many questions.

Maggie is thankful when he walks out of his office and asks her what she’s still doing here. The day had flown by, and she didn’t realize the time. Cheryl left numerous messages wanting to know if they were going out tonight. From the sound of it, she caught her green-eyed guy and is madly in love and hoping that they can go to the club tonight.

***

Mateo barely made it through the day, and he was seriously considering catching up on some sleep. In fact, it was all he had been thinking about all day!

“Liar.” He sighs as he pulls his car into the dark parking lot of his apartment building. All he could think about was Maggie and if he spoke to her or not. William was no help! He could remember even less than Mateo did, but he nonetheless wanted to go out again tonight. He met some girl at the club and had planned a surprise for her for their valentine’s bash.

“Valentines!” Mateo’s eyes popped open. He can’t go! Not tonight, of all nights! Maggie’s friend might have been expecting him to give her something! Should he get Maggie something?

“i***t!” He swears at himself when he looks at his watch and realizes the shops are closed, and he will have no other choice but to get them flowers from the corner flower stall. If she’s still open! His mind races and when William arrives, he isn’t nearly ready to go out.

“I’m not going.” He announces when William walks through the door all dressed up.

“You have to! Come on, dude. I already got flowers and I let her know that we would be there. Now, actually.” He pointed at his watch.

“Then what are you waiting for? I will meet you there.”

“No, you won’t. I will just text her that I’m running late. If I leave you here, you are not going to show up, and I will be standing there gaping like a guppy.” Mateo realizes he is not going to get out of this one and pulls his shirt over his shoulders. The shower he just took helped a lot, and his headache was slowly starting to subside. His heart skips a beat when he thinks about seeing Maggie again tonight. The thought of their first Valentine's comes to mind.

~Flashback~

Mateo watches as the young girl receives the carnation, and a huge smile forms on her face. Maggie was sitting on the lawn with her friends, and her Valentine’s gift had just been delivered during the break. He wanted to make it special for her. In fact, knowing her, she was probably planning something for him. Their romance had bloomed so fast, it literally swept him off his feet, and he was utterly in love with this girl.

Her eyes make contact with his while he is watching her from a couple of meters away, leaning with his arms on the banister. He can’t stop the broad smile that forms on his face when she blows a kiss his way.

~End of Flashback~

“Carnations! I need to get carnations.” He exclaims as they get out, only to find the florist closed.

“Dude! You should have thought about it earlier today!” Seeing William’s distress, Mateo considered that he should rather not do anything romantic. If her friend is expecting him, it might give her the wrong impression, and he isn’t going there to hurt anyone’s feelings.

***

“He’s here!” Cheryl squeals and almost looks like a teenager. A quick feeling of regret fills Maggie’s heart, but she squashes it immediately. She’s happy that her friend seems to have found someone for Valentine's Day, but she doesn’t want a relationship ever again. Her husband didn’t care about her at all, and her ex-boyfriend cared to the point of being obsessive! After they broke up, she decided to live her "variety of life" motto and, so far, it’s been amazing. She shouldn’t have agreed to be his girlfriend in the first place.

“Just don’t talk love and marriage yet.” She rolls her eyes, seeing that Cheryl can’t wait to run over there and jump the poor guy. Something draws Maggie’s attention when she finally sees the man for the first time. Something about him seemed terribly familiar, but she couldn’t place it. He walks over, and his friend is carrying a ridiculously large bouquet of flowers that goes right into the arms of one of the other women at the table.

She, as would be expected, squeals at the top of her lungs and Maggie rolls her eyes. Cheryl’s voice goes up an octave when the green-eyed man gives her a quick peck on her cheek. Maggie grabs her straw and sucks on the sweet purple liquid in her glass before turning her attention from the happy couple to her friends at the table. She must have had one of her famous one-night stands with him, and she was sure as hell not going to tell Cheryl that, but if he was one of the players, she might have to warn her friend.

The evening takes its usual turn, except for the fact that every time Margaret looks in Cheryl’s direction, the green-eyed man is looking at her!

***

Mateo turns his attention to the woman who hangs off his shoulder. If anything happened between him and Maggie the night before, she either doesn’t remember, or she doesn’t care about her friend knowing. Either way, he couldn’t stop himself from looking at her.

“So, how was your day?” The girl called Cheryl that is hanging on his arm flutters her eyelashes, and he fights the urge to roll his eyes. Usually, that kind of question would send him running because they only ask it when they plan on waiting for an answer… for the rest of their lives, but tonight he wants to hang around.

“Good, and yours?”

“It was okay. I mean, I didn’t get any surprise flowers or anything, but then, you don’t even have my number.” She giggles like a sixteen-year-old girl, and he fights the urge to shove her to one side. Margaret joins them after leaving a guy hanging on the dance floor and grabs her friend’s arm, announcing that she’s in need of alcohol.

“I will get the drinks. What would you like?” Mateo offers to try to find a way out of his “date’s” grip. They thank him, and he grabs William to go to the bar with him.

“She seems pretty interested in you.” William grinned at him, and for the first time in a long time, Mateo felt like smacking his buddy.

“Getting to a girl through her friends, doesn’t work, you know?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve seen you looking at Cheryl’s friend. You will never get into her panties if you are with Cheryl.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, besides, shouldn’t you be concentrating on wooing your date instead of what’s going on with mine.” Mateo took a long sip from his glass to try and avoid where this conversation was going, but he should have known better. It’s been William's main goal all through their friendship to get Mateo hitched, so they could start their “grown-up” lives.

“Oh, so she is your date, huh? Dude! It’s obvious. You always go for the woman who won’t ask anything of you. If you keep Cheryl around, Margaret is not going to be interested. Cheryl wants a relationship which we both know you don’t, but just like we have a bro code, the girls have their own code. They won’t date each other’s exes! Don’t tell me you didn’t think about it?”

“I think you haven’t had enough to drink, and now you are talking bullshit.” Mateo waves the barman closer and orders a round of shooters for all of them, handing William an extra one to shut his big mouth.

***

“Cheryl, honey, I’m sorry to burst your valentine’s bubble, but I think your guy might be a player.” Yes, she’s breaking her friend’s heart, but she would hate to see her get hurt!

“Seriously?” Margaret knows that Cheryl will take what she says to heart, even if it hurts.

“Yeah, I mean, he didn’t bring you flowers on Independence Day.” Cheryl bursts out laughing. It’s been their private joke for the past couple of years to call the big V-day, Independence Day, as a way of showing the world, and themselves, they don’t need a relationship to feel complete.

“Yeah, I noticed his attention span lasts about three seconds.” She sighs and Margaret feels relief rush over her before her attention turns to Cheryl again.

“Tell me you aren’t planning a one-nighter! You know you can’t do that. The moment your panties go flying, your heart joins in!” But Cheryl’s eyes give away her intention, and Margaret bursts out laughing. It seems she underestimated her dear friend.

“Well, you know, some men’s way to their heart is through…” Their conversation is interrupted when green-eyes come back with their drinks. Margaret decides to give them some privacy and moves to the other side of the table to talk to some of their friends, but she feels his eyes studying her again. What is this guy’s problem?