Untamed Sweethearts

Chapter 2

Margaret sits in her office pondering who the mysterious person that basically saved her from herself could be when Mr. Robinson walks in.

“Wasting my money again, Margaret?” She almost jumps out of her skin with fright at his sudden appearance, and her face turns bright red. She might complain about him a lot, but if she has to be honest with herself, he’s not that bad. She could have done worse! Trying to change the subject before he starts to snoop into her personal life, she jumps up and hands him his folder for the morning.

“You have a meeting in fifteen minutes with the chairman of the city council.” She lifts her eyebrows, knowing that this news will not be good, and he is probably going to groan and try to get out of the meeting to get to the golf course as soon as possible.

“You have already postponed twice.” She waves her index finger at him and bites her tongue when he mumbles on his way into his office.

“I didn’t hear that.” She laughs when she hears him say that she’s worse than his wife.

The rest of the day flies by as her boss has meeting after meeting and by the time, she packs up to leave for the afternoon, she can’t help but feel sorry for Mr. Robinson. You can see his age catching up with him at this time of the afternoon, especially after a busy day like today, but she doesn’t have time to faff over him. Cheryl has called four times already to find out what she’s going to wear tonight, where they are going to meet up before they go out, and what time they should meet.

Her best friend Cheryl isn’t the prettiest girl of the bunch, but she was the first to make friends with Margaret, and they’ve grown pretty close since that first night.

~Flashback~

Margaret’s heart races as she steps into the dark nightclub. The music is so loud that she can’t hear herself think, which is exactly what she needs. It’s the first time in nearly nine years that she’s gone anywhere this lively, never mind going alone, but after everything she heard about internet dating, she would still rather meet people face-to-face. It took a full hour to convince herself to leave her apartment.

“If you don’t go now, you never will!”

It’s still early, and she takes a seat at the bar where the girl frowns at her, before taking her order.

“Haven’t seen you here before,” the girl commented, making Margaret blush bright red. She gulps down the first couple of sips of the beer as fast as she can, in the hopes that it will numb the nervousness inside her.

If things don’t pick up fast, she might just turn and run, and then it will be the last time the girl ever sees her.

“Yeah, recently separated, and I don’t even know if I belong here.” She turns away from the bar and looks at the almost empty club. The girl taps her hand and Margaret finds a glass shot filled to the brim in front of her. She quickly calculates how much money she has in her head and slowly shoves it away.

“I didn’t order this.” She shouts, trying to get the girl's attention over the loud music, but when the girl brings a second glass and fills it, holding it up for Margaret to clink, she just grins at her.

“Your first drink is on me, and you belong here if you are separated and about to be divorced. In about two hours, this place will be packed with talent. I’m Cheryl, by the way.”

“Hi Cheryl, I’m Margaret. Maggie for short.”

“Well then,” The girl pours another shot and hands it to Margaret. “Nice to meet you, Short Maggie.” She winks at Margaret before moving on to new patrons who also entered the club early. Margaret decided that instead of hanging around and waiting for the club to fill up, she would go back home and grab something to eat. She was too nervous to eat before she came here, and with the alcohol now flowing through her veins, she realized that she needed food urgently.

On her way home, she notices a takeaway drive-through and pulls in, ordering the cheapest burger on the menu. She parks her car and digs into the tiny burger, realizing that it was not worth the money she spent.

“Don’t go home, Margaret!” She reprimands herself when her thoughts drift to her new… very empty apartment, but she can’t stop herself from driving back home. Once there, she paces the floor, trying to convince herself that she can’t stay at home tonight. Her stomach is rolling about her abdomen as if it’s being fed treats to roll over! Her place is depressing, and living on her own is not as exciting as she first thought it would be. She dreamt all her life of one day living on her own, but she married before moving out of her parent’s house.

“If you don’t go out tonight, you are never going to do it!” She grabs her keys and walks out of the apartment, realizing that she left her bag inside.

“But it’s so safe inside…” She mumbles, then turns on her heel, grabs her bag, and locks the door behind her.

“Tonight, or you might just as well have stayed in that boring marriage you were trapped in.” She blushes bright red when her mom comes around the corner. After leaving her beautiful home, she had no other choice but to move to her parent’s house, but she was lucky enough to be able to move into the little apartment they built at the back of their enormous property. Their guest house they liked to call it, and she intended on only being a guest until she could afford a place of her own.

“Oh, going out?” Her mother’s surprised voice brings her out from trying to convince herself that she has to go out tonight.

“Did the outfit give it away?” She waves her hands through the air in frustration. She already feels self-conscious about her tight jeans and the shirt that feels as if the buttons are about to pop open. Her mom frowns a little before nodding.

“Have fun,” She waves as she passes by Margaret, clearly on her way to do something Margaret’s dad isn’t supposed to know about.

Margaret’s hand shakes as she tries to unlock her car door, and she slides in behind the steering wheel.

“Tonight, or never.” She reminded herself before pulling her car out of the long driveway.

This time, when she walks into the club, it’s filled to the brim with people, and she has a hard time finding her way to the bar, but she is surprised when someone taps her on the shoulder.

“I’m glad to see you come back.” Cheryl gave her a bright smile, making Margaret wonder what she was doing on this side of the bar. Cheryl grabs her hand, shouts an order at a young guy who is rushing around behind the bar, then taps on the shoulder of a guy that looks as if he should be in the Guinness Book of Records for his size. He grins at them and moves aside, so they can sit down.

The young bartender walks over, throwing a dishcloth over his shoulder, before he hands them their drinks and winks at Cheryl. She holds up her glass, and they toast to having a great night. Cheryl seems to know everyone, and she introduces Margaret to so many people that it feels as if her head is spinning. Or it could just be the amount of alcohol they consume, but Margaret’s saving grace is that Cheryl loves to dance.

~End of Flashback~

From that moment, Margaret lost all fear of going out. At first, she avoided men completely and made it clear that she wasn’t in the mood for any kind of contact, whether it was physical or social.

Margaret laughs, thinking back to those days. These days, SHE is the life of the party! She pulls up in front of the gate at her parent’s home to see Cheryl already waiting and biting her nails as usual. Margaret opens her car window and shouts at Cheryl to stop, before pulling her car into the driveway. On nights like these, they take Cheryl’s car because they are going to make up for the one night the club is closed and Cheryl can park her car at the back of the building in secured parking.

***

Mateo paces the floor of his office trying to finish the conference call that has been dragging on for three hours. He hadn’t been able to relax since the first moment he saw Margaret, and although he had been going back and forth about going back to the club, he finally decided that he needed to see her again. Even if she doesn’t know he exists!

He finally convinces the board that they need to pick up the meeting at another time, and rushes out of the quiet offices. All his staff had gone home already and, as usual, he was left behind alone. He calls William on his way out, and his friend is surprised that Mateo wants to go out… Again, but, he agrees to meet him at the club.

The moment they step through the doors, his eyes search for the one reason he is here, but as soon as he sees her laughing with the group of girls, he loses his nerve to walk up to her and talk to her. William drags him to the bar, and they get their first drink. Maybe once he has some liquid courage, he will be able to talk to her…

“Something interesting over there?” William's loud voice interrupted his train of thought, and he shook his head, but his friend didn’t seem to believe him.

“My friend,” He pats Mateo’s shoulder. “Don’t even think about going there. That group of girls is way too wild for you and they will break that delicate heart of yours.” He laughed, hitting the one nerve Mateo had left.

“Oh, you think I won’t be able to handle a wild woman?” Mateo’s mischievous smile made William laugh even louder.

“Maybe when we were younger, but these women of today… I don’t think you will survive.” Mateo laughs, but the humour of the situation doesn’t show in his eyes. If only William knew who Mateo was looking at. In all his life, there was only one girl or, in this case, one woman he ever really truly loved, and she was the centre of attention in the middle of that table. She was the reason he had been coming to the club the past week, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk over there and tell her who he was.

“Confident Mateo, scared of a girl.” He thought to himself. He is going to waste another evening, just staring at her and drinking way more than he should, but unable to bring himself to walk over there and talk to her, he turns his attention back to the barman and orders another round of drinks.

***

“Look! He’s here again!” Cheryl squeals over the loud music, and Margaret nearly shoves the straw through her palate and up her nose.

“Who?” She looks around the bar, but without Cheryl pointing to whom she’s talking about, Margaret feels confused. Her friend didn’t mention anyone specific that she likes recently. As usual, and as if they are still at school, the men occupy the seats around the bar, and the women sit around the tables praying for someone to ask them to dance.

“Over there, the one with the black hair and dreamy green eyes.” Cheryl almost swoons.

“Green eyes always get your panties wet!” Margaret bursts out laughing and Cheryl glares at her.

“I’m going to catch that guy, and then you are going to be left here alone, chasing tail.” The expression made Margaret laugh even louder, and she was thankful when one of the locals pop up behind her to ask her to dance. The last thing she wants to discuss with her friend is her choice of s*x life, because it will start an entire discussion on the principle of enjoying variety!