“Oh yes ,” she lied, splaying her fingers above her bosom with a sigh, amazed at how easily the words poured out of her cinnamon painted lips, “I’m thoroughly addicted to torrid love affairs, you know, because I always fall in love with men that are soon to be wed, and just before the wedding he tells her that it’s over because he loves me and we can run off and live happily ever after.” Antoinette closed her fingers around her thin silver chain, twirling the locket with her thumb. She fluttered her eyelashes and smiled, even if she wasn’t sure if she liked the purr of her voice. It appeared to roll well off her tongue, even if she was being facetious, but sounded strangely fitting coming out of her mouth. Chase watched as she forced herself to focus her attention back on her companion instead of the imaginary future, unconsciously curling her lips into a sneer.

“Yea, well, that’s bullshit. That’s not how it happens here, even if this place acts like Middle England. You soon as well get over it, cause the world doesn’t give a damn.” Antoinette Marie Duke smiled cynically; raising the dark plain shot glass poised in her fingertips in a silent salute before swallowing the amber contents in a quick gulp. He watched as she flinched, the liquid scorching its way down her throat, and he knew it was settling the little flutter of nerves. If she was anything like him, she had butterflies banging against the walls of her stomach that arose the moment he had lit up the door way to her favorite hole-in-the-wall hide out. That felt better coming from her: contemptuous and mocking were a much better fit. As usual, she hid within her mocking approach rather than appear vulnerable. She would refuse to show any sign of weak to Chase Brighton now that she had groveled once before. He watched as she looked around the dimly lit bar for something, anything to look at instead of him. But he knew that not even the twisting swirls of the mahogany bar counter could hold her attention against his nearness. He felt it too, there was no way she couldn’t feel the attraction they had always shared, regardless of what she wanted.

“You know, not much will ever be accomplished if you always keep that attitude about it.” Calmly, surely, Chase took a sip of the foamy gold mixture in front of him. He tried not to make a face as the lukewarm beverage – if you could call it that as it was hardly refreshing – slithered around his mouth and down his throat like the tongue of an over-zealous hooker. It wasn’t his usual drink, but the stale beer would suffice until he could get out of this dive bar and back to the 35th story office he had left to meet with her. Toni cocked her head to the side and stared at him through cracked eyes, her arms crossing over her growing bosoms. He wondered how much longer she would be able to wear the same tops. Slowly her tongue slipped out to rub over her dry lips as she weighed her word choice carefully, her upper lip nearly curling back into the sneer Chase could feel forming. He had to tamp down the reaction to just kiss it off her lips.

“What attitude? You can’t believe that just hoping my issue will disappear will make it pull some kind of David Copperfield shit and poof it’s gone just like that. Just snap your tan manicured fingers and it’s not a problem anymore.” She ran her tongue across her teeth and pulled her lips apart with a loud smack. “Your money won’t buy your way out of this one Chase, it doesn’t matter who you pay off. They still know. They always know.”

“Don’t condescend me, Toni. You were the one that decided to barge into my office and demand that we talk. I didn’t make you fall in love with me, nor did I lead you to believe we would have any kind of future.” As much as he wanted to, he knew she wouldn’t want to fit neatly into his little world, and getting rid of Madeline had proved harder than he had expected.“You know I have to marry a debutante. I’m going to be a politician, that’s how this works. You know that.” The lie stung, but he kept his face passive. Senator-to-Be Chase Anthony Brighton set his beer mug on the lacquered wooden table and motioned for the waitress. She nodded in response and turned to ring up his tab.

Uncrossing one arm to toy with the lemon in her water glass with the tip of her straw, Toni watched the girl from the corner of her eye and told Chase told himself that she wasn’t jealous of the girl’s attention to him. After all, his honey blonde hair seemed to attracted more bar flies than he knew what to do with. The poor girl had been staring at him since he made his way through the door. She probably couldn’t help herself, and he wasn’t sure why. Toni probably saw her as just one more notch on the end of his bedpost before the day was over. Chase watched the waitress glare at Toni as if she wanted to hurt her for even looking at him, and Toni glare back as if she couldn’t believe the stupid chit had the audacity to think she wanted anything to do with him.

Chase smiled at Antoinette’s attention to the waitress. Her gold-green eyes darkened for a minute before her ire was turned back toward him. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe that Antoinette was a debutante, or at least that her mother had attempted to make her one, but she believed in marriage for love and he saw political gain. She was an activist, not a quiet society woman. She had proved that by boycotting her own family’s main factory and raising enough money until they revamped their entire factory into a cleaner, greener, and he had to admit, ultimately more efficient affair. Not to mention her own green company in Miami that sponsored more charities than Chase had known existed.

“Toni, be reasonable here.” Chase took the full brunt of her attention, glaring him in the face.

“Don’t you, Toni me. . .” Antoinette sputtered. “You’re right; you didn’t make me fall in love with you. I don’t love you. This is NOT about me. I don’t want you to call off anything to elope with me you arrogant bastard. I don’t even care who you marry or what your job is. The fact is, you know I’m about to have your child.” Chase opened his mouth to correct her assumptions. But, he could watch the ire rising in her body. He wouldn’t dare suggest it wasn’t his child. “No, shut UP! You know it’s yours. I had testing for CF done, remember? Drawn blood from you, me, and sticking needles into my tummy too? They had to make sure my child was okay. You could commit suicide tomorrow for all I care about your sorry ass. I just want a trust fund set up for this baby because I can’t live on my salary alone and care for an infant, she’ll need a part time nanny. So, either you pay up. . .”
Chase frowned at her over the top sarcasm. He remembered the testing all too well, and was just glad they had all been negative. “I won’t just give you money.” He handed the waitress a ten dollar bill in the same motion that he cut Antoinette off, startling the poor girl for a moment, but she retreated quickly when she realized she wasn’t his target. He could see Toni watching her scurry away, longing and wondered if she wished she could do the same so easily. “How do I know you won’t have an abortion and keep the money for yourself?” The devil’s advocate in Chase sprang to life before he could stop it. After all that testing, he didn’t have that to fear.

Flames leapt to life in her eyes as she swung her head to face his accusations head on. “AN ABORTION?! Who the hell do you think you’re dealing with? Do you not realize just how far along I am? Do you not see the freaking baby belly I’m beginning to sport here? Or did you always look at me as fat?” Toni narrowed her eyes at Chase and glared with every ounce of anger she could muster. When she spoke again, she had pulled control of her voice and the barest cold whisper flowed out of her clinched teeth. “I was about to say, in the baby’s name. I don’t want your money for myself, because if it was just me by myself, I would have walked out of your life completely a long time ago, so get over yourself, jerk. There was a reason I hadn’t called for three weeks since you found out. I wouldn’t have called at all if I hadn’t needed you to take that stupid blood test.” Toni looked away again, and he could see her wishing she wouldn’t have called him this time. Chase could see the thoughts and regrets twirling around her pretty head. About now, she would be sure she could have figured out some way to continue her work and take care of the baby as well, but her mother would have convinced her that Chase should pay for her special nanny. Chase had spoken with her step-father, and knew Mrs. Ralston was pressing hard on Toni. He also knew Toni had a soft spot for her benevolent nanny, who was aging, but she had been Toni’s most favored guardian and tutor and she would be perfect for raising the next generation of the their family.

“I’m sorry.” Chase mumbled, not so sure why he had said that. He reasoned that it could have been a legitimate accusation, but in truth he just wanted to see her reaction to the thought, although he should have been happy with an option where he didn’t pay for a child. He wasn’t sure why he had apologized either, but he suspected it was a moot point. She had reacted how some part of him hoped and actually expected she would, but he didn’t know why he cared. He had already decided that she would never marry him. “I know that we both know women like that. I just got carried away. Please forgive me.”

“Oh bite me. That’s the politician talking again. You don’t need to soothe things over with me about that.” She moved her hand through the air as if to soothe out the tension in it. It didn’t seem to be helping in the least, so she returned her hand to her lap, twirling an errant curl between her fingers when it slipped over her shoulder. Somehow they would have to get along for the sake of the child. Thomas had informed Chase that her mother insisted that she mend fences with the young senator-to-be now that her step-father had decided to support his campaign, and Chase couldn’t think of a reason they couldn’t be amiable . Now was as good a time as any to start.

“Look, I’ll set up the account, just give me a couple of days to get everything in order and get rid of my name.” Chase flinched at the look of hatred that passed through Antoinette’s eyes. Not perceptively of course, she couldn’t know that he was affected by her in any way, just as she blinked to hide her own response, but couldn’t cover it as quickly as he knew she wished to. “Toni, you of all people know that if the press got a hold of this, they’d have a field day. We know all about ‘they,’ and ‘they’ know all about us. Remember? I don’t care if they know it’s my child, I just don’t want them looking into what money is going where.” Chase also didn’t want her knowing how much would be put at her disposal until it was too late for her to return it. It would also allow her to keep her independence in the eyes of her own enemies. He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his locked fingers, throwing her earlier words back at her.

“Fine, do what you must. I plan to disappear until after the baby’s born anyway.” Chase frowned. Leaving hadn’t been part of the original plans, but he supposed her mother had been driving her so crazy lately with her ideas about ‘Antoinette and Chase together’ that Toni decided that she would have to escape in one way or another. Since her youngest sister, Bridget would be too busy to be around, vacation would seem like the best option. “I think an island vacation is just the thing I need to escape reporters for a while.” Antoinette sighed and sipped the glass of water that had lain virtually untouched next to her upside down shot glass. “Have you had any problems with the press now that Daddy’s going to sponsor your run? I know you didn’t want it to give the wrong idea, but I think he’s right in saying it will show that there isn’t any hard feelings between our families.”

“You do that. As a matter of fact, stop by the office tomorrow and I’ll give you the keys to the villa on Kythria It’s quiet and I can reach you, or you me, should anything happen. Your father has been most gracious in this campaign and I would hate to leave you renting some place.” Chase smiled as his memory supplied snippets of the week they had spent on the beaches near the villa. If he had to go back and pinpoint a date, he guessed the baby had been conceived sometime during those lazy summer weeks, but exactly when would be harder to trace. It didn’t matter. She was going to have a baby. His baby. That alone should have scared him out of his wits, but remarkably, he thought Toni would be beautiful with a full rounded baby tummy. She wasn’t one of those blond stick figures, but her rounded curves easily supported her growing bump and the glowing skin that accompanied it. He closed his eyes and pictured her as she had been that week. It had only been barely five full months since then, but his fingers still itched for the warmth of her skin. It was easy for Chase’s imagination to supply an overflowing stomach underneath her cotton summer dress. He pushed the smile away with a tight grimace. Those times were over and while pleasurable, he had no reason to think of revisiting them. He had returned to get married as his station demanded and Antoinette had made it clear that she would not be that woman.

“The villa? Are we talking about the same villa that this whole mess started at? Chase, I can’t go there.” She didn’t mention anything about not wanting to stir up old feelings and memories. “I’m just going to head to the summer home on Tahiti. My sister should be in Europe until May, so my parents will spend the winter in Los Angeles. Kaitlin’s show is supposed to be in January, so she and Bridgette will spend the months until then tweaking the line and organizing the shows in Paris before the tour.” Toni sipped her water again, but he could see her glance again at the shot glass, clearly well aware of her need to stop social drinking, if not for her health, then for the baby’s. Her cigarette pack lay on the end of the table and he could see her mentally curse. Her smoking would have to stop for the baby’s sake as well, but her cigarettes were a bit harder to put down than the tequila or bourbon bottle, Chase knew that from experience. From the number in the pack, he could tell that she had cut back dramatically to only a few a week, but hadn’t been able to go cold turkey. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend any great amount of time in the villa.”




Word count: 2,735 words
Total Word Count: 12,917 words (419 words less than day 8 goal)
Words Left: 37,083
Days Left: 22 days