Shame on Me

CHAPTER 3

Walking through the door of Blake’s Seafood Restaurant, I scan my reflection in the mirror next to the hostess station. I know it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing since I plan on hiding in a corner and spying on Matt, but it’s impossible for me to go out in public without looking good. Every once in a while I’m recognized by a fan, which is actually a plus in this line of work, because the guy I’m trying to catch cheating would never suspect that I’m an investigator.

I kept it casual tonight with a royal blue cotton strapless dress that falls right above my knees with a matching pair of blue open-toed Gucci heels. Signaling to the hostess on the phone that I was just going to head to the bar, I make my way into the main part of the restaurant and to the corner of the bar closest to me. With my back to the wall and a drink menu up in front of my face, I peer over the top, scoping out the restaurant. I immediately spy Matt on the other side of the room in his own dark corner.

Mmm-hmmm, just what I thought. Hiding in a corner—all the better to make out with your mistress. Ordering a glass of white wine, I crouch low on my stool and keep an eye on Mr. Cheater McCheatpants.

After an hour, two more glasses of wine, and seven shredded cocktail napkins, my ass is starting to fall asleep on the bar stool and I actually catch myself yawning. This is pathetic. What kind of a cheater is this guy? All he’s done in the last sixty minutes is look at the screen on his cell phone and glance toward the door over and over again. Maybe his home-wrecker girlfriend stood him up. Serves the guy right.

Sliding off of the bar stool, I work out the kinks in my legs from sitting so long, staying close to the shadows in the corner. Turning back around quickly to make sure I don’t miss anything from Matt’s table, I slam right into a solid chest and my hands immediately press against it to steady myself. The smell of Burberry Touch cologne tingles my nose and butterflies flap rapidly in my stomach as I lift my head.

“Hey, you’re the woman from last night. Paige, right?”

Oh, shit. I’ve been made. Kennedy is going to kill me.

I stare into Matt’s eyes as he smiles down at me, his hands still holding tightly to my arms. It could be the wine talking right now, but Jesus, he’s really good-looking up close. He’s removed his glasses and his sparkling blue eyes are staring right down at my face, taking in everything he sees.

“What are the odds that we’d run into each other again?” Matt asks, the dimple in his left cheek forming when he cocks one side of his mouth up in a grin.

Oh, pretty good, considering I’m following you.

“It’s definitely a nice coincidence,” I tell him with a sultry smile. I don’t care if he smells like heaven and I have a weakness for dimples, I’m still here to do a job. Since I can no longer lurk in a dark corner and spy on him, maybe I can ply him with alcohol and get him to talk. It didn’t work last night, but he doesn’t seem as preoccupied as he did then. “Are you here alone?”

Matt nods his head and lets out a sigh. “I am. Is it pathetic that I’m sitting in the corner of a bar by myself on a Friday night?”

He laughs easily at himself and runs a hand through his hair, making the spikes messy, and for some reason I want to reach up and smooth them back down.

“Well, it looks like we’re both pretty pathetic tonight, since I was doing the same thing,” I tell him as I gesture over to my pile of shredded napkins on the bar next to my empty wineglasses.

“Several glasses of wine AND mutilated napkins. You must be having a bad week,” he laughs.

“One of my best friends fell madly in love and I have to go to a party later on tonight to toast to their happiness. Let’s just say it’s a good thing the bartender didn’t put any knives in front of me tonight.”

Matt chuckles and shakes his head. “Those napkins never stood a chance. At least now I know to keep sharp objects far out of your reach.”

A laugh bubbles up out of me before I can catch it. “I’m happy for them. Really, I am. I only think about stabbing my ex in the heart four times a day now instead of seven.”

“See? That’s progress right there. Pretty soon you’ll only be thinking about lighting all of his things on fire,” Matt replies with a chuckle.

“Oh, that ship has already sailed. You always burn their shit first, then you daydream about chopping off body parts.”

“I feel like this conversation escalated very quickly,” Matt says with another laugh and a raise of one eyebrow.

I have no idea why I even told him about Kennedy or Andy; it just spilled out of me. I’ve never spoken to subjects about anything other than how good they look and how much money they make. In this line of work, it’s always about them. Do whatever you can to make them feel special and important and they’ll be eating out of your hands in no time. It’s never taken me more than a few minutes to get a guy to show his true colors. A couple of seconds alone with Matt and I’m laughing and forgetting why I’m here.

Taking a deep breath, I slide my hands off of his chest and take a few steps back. I need to get into character.

“Would you like to have a drink with me?” I ask, gesturing to the bar stool next to mine.

Matt looks back at the door for a moment. My hackles immediately go up when I realize he’s probably trying to decide if he should keep waiting for his “date” or take a chance on scoring with a new girl. He’s probably calculating the odds in his head and part of me hopes he’ll turn me down. What kind of a man cheats on his wife and cheats on his mistress? That’s just gross. When he turns back to face me with a smile and a shrug, I want to kick my own ass for being attracted to this douchebag.

“Sure, I’ll take you up on that drink. I think I owe you one anyway. I was kind of a dick last night,” he explains as he pulls out my stool for me and waits for me to sit down before taking his own seat.

“It’s fine. We all have bad nights,” I tell him with a reassuring smile as I lean my elbows on the bar so I’m closer to him.

“You can say that again. Although right now, I think I’m having more of a bad life instead of a bad week.”

Geez, this guy is really that depressed that his mistress stood him up? His poor wife. Why the hell didn’t I think of bringing a recorder with me? It would be a lot easier to just tape all this shit he’s spewing than try to get him to make out with me. Shit! The camera is in my purse. Now that I’m not going to be able to catch him with his mistress, I’m back to Plan A and need to get him to kiss me.

“Would you excuse me for a minute? I need to go to the ladies’ room.”

I give him a wink, grab my purse from the bar, and quickly head toward the hostess station, glancing back over my shoulder to make sure he’s not watching me.

Pulling the camera and a hundred-dollar bill out of my purse, I set the items down right in front of the hostess.

“I need you to do me a huge favor. I’ll give you another hundred dollars if you can get a few good pictures of me making out with that guy I’m sitting next to at the bar,” I tell her quickly, pointing to Matt, who still has his back to us and is chatting with the bartender.

“Awww, how sweet! Why don’t I just come over there now and take a picture? You don’t have to pay me,” the young girl replies happily.

“No, no, no. He can’t know the picture is being taken. I’m a private investigator.”

She looks at me in awe for a few minutes as I check over my shoulder again to make sure Matt is preoccupied.

“Wow. Are you, like, undercover? Do you work for the government? Am I being taped right now?” she whispers.

Rolling my eyes, I back away from the hostess stand.

“Yeah, sure. It’s top-secret government work. I could tell you about it, but then I’d have to kill you,” I reply with seriousness.

Don’t judge me. I’ll do whatever it takes right now.

“You can count on me.” She salutes me and clutches the camera close to her chest.

With a sigh, I turn around and rush back to Matt’s side.

“I ordered you another glass of white wine; I hope that’s okay,” he tells me with a smile as I take my seat next to him.

“Perfect, thank you.” I reach up and place my hand on his bicep, giving it a gentle squeeze, and act like it’s perfectly natural for me to be touching him—all part of the job. If you’re touchy-feely with a subject, it will make them more inclined to be touchy-feely with you.

Rubbing my palm up and down his arm, I swallow thickly. Holy hell, he’s got some muscles hidden under that button-down. I have to forcibly remove my hand from his arm, otherwise I might start looking for more muscle. Needing something to do with my hand other than molest him, I pick up my glass of wine and take a healthy swallow.

“So, what do you do for a living, Paige McCarty?”

The wine immediately goes down the wrong pipe and I begin coughing and sputtering. Matt reaches up and gently pats me on the back as I set my wineglass down. When I’m finally able to catch my breath, I turn to look into his eyes to see if he’s serious. I still find it hard to believe he has no idea who I am. There isn’t a man alive under the age of fifty who doesn’t know who I am. Maybe this is part of his shtick; his way of trying to charm me. Fine, Mr. Russo. We’ll play it your way.

“Actually, I’m a model,” I reply with a smile.

He blinks in surprise and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was genuine. “Wow, no kidding? Have you done a lot of work or are you just starting out?”

It’s my turn to stare at him in shock. This guy is really good. I almost believe him. I’m going to need to stay at the top of my game with him.

“Oh, just a few jobs here and there. Nothing you would have seen.”

Why the hell am I lying to him? What difference does it make if he knows how famous I am?

“Good for you. I hope someday I can see you in something, but the only magazines I read are ones about graphic design,” he says with a shrug.

“I wish my ex only read graphic design magazines. He subscribed to more magazines than any woman I’ve ever met so he could pimp me out to every magazine editor he could find.”

Shut up, Paige. He doesn’t need to know your life story!

“All my ex cared about was my money, so it looks like we both made huge mistakes in our lives,” Matt confides.

Wait, ex? Is he talking about Melanie or another ex? According to what Melanie told Kennedy, they’re still married.

“So you’re divorced?”

Matt sighs deeply and takes a sip of his Jack and Coke. “Separated. Honestly, we probably should have never even gotten married. We met in college and all of my friends tried to warn me about her. She didn’t show her true colors to me until we were married, though.”

And now the investigator in me wants to know everything about her. Purely for business purposes, of course. It has nothing to do with the fact that he’s easy on the eyes.

“What kind of true colors are we talking here? Crazy possessive female or was she really a man?” I ask, trying to get him to smile again.

It does the trick. He barks out a laugh. “No, definitely not a man. I’m pretty sure she only married me because she saw the dollar signs. She’s going to try and take my father’s company and there’s no way I can let that happen.”

I take a sip of my wine so I’m not tempted to reach out and comfort him. “Wow, that’s not good. I’m so sorry.”

Matt shrugs. “And to add more to my pathetic life story, I’m positive she’s been cheating on me. All I need is proof so I can end this bullshit charade of hers and make sure the company stays in the family.”

My mouth drops open at all he’s admitted to me. He could be lying. This could be how he gets chicks—by laying it on thick and playing the “woe is me” card, but something tells me that’s not the case. His voice immediately takes on a tone of sadness when he talks about his father’s company, and my senses are screaming at me that he’s telling the truth.

“You think your wife is cheating on you?” I whisper.

This is too weird. Even for me.

“I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I barely know you and I feel like a jackass for unloading all of this on you right now. You’re a really easy person to talk to.”

He feels like a jackass? I feel like a jackass. I should just tell him right now that his wife hired me to find out if he is cheating, but I can’t. I can’t do anything until I know for sure.

“We haven’t been happy for a really long time. Fuck. We were probably never really happy. A friend of mine told me she was going to be here and I guess I was just hoping to finally have a solid reason for not wanting to be married to her,” he admits.

Jesus, the two of us could be a match made in heaven under different circumstances. Finding out Andy had a gambling problem had been just the catalyst I needed to kick his ass to the curb.

“What are you going to do if you find out it’s true and she’s really cheating on you?” I ask.

“If I have proof that she’s been unfaithful, I can threaten to out her to her family as a cheater. She’ll leave the company alone so they never know her perfect character is tarnished.”

Goddammit all to hell! I believe him. I believe him and now I want to help him. This is not good.

“I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do.”

Tell him the truth! Tell him his wife hired you and you feel awful and want to help him instead.

Before I can open my mouth and make a huge mistake, I watch as Matt’s eyes widen as he stares across the bar.

“Oh, shit. She’s here,” Matt says under his breath, ducking his head to hide behind me.

Turning my head, I see his wife, Melanie, coming through the doorway on the arm of a very large, very badass-looking man who’s got to be twice her age.

“She’s heading this way. Matt, she’s totally going to see you. Shit! Hide under the bar!”

Matt tries turning sideways to quickly dive under the bar, but his elbow slams into my glass, knocking it over and spilling wine down the front of my dress.

I let out a squeal as the cold liquid seeps through my dress and Matt quickly grabs a pile of napkins and starts blotting at my boobs. My breath gets caught in my throat as he presses his hands against my breasts and glances over his shoulder distractedly to see where Melanie is. He turns back and notices the shocked expression on my face and his eyes drop to his hand that is now just resting casually on my boob, practically cupping it.

I tear my eyes away from his hand and how good it feels against my chest and see that Melanie and her beefcake are a few feet away at this point and heading right toward us. If she looks away from her date, she’s going to look right at Matt. There’s not even any time for him to get up and run to the bathroom. He’ll barrel right into her. Suddenly, the tables have turned and I’m on Matt’s side. I want him to catch her in the act. I want him to be vindicated so he can move on with his life.

“Do something!”

Before all of the words finish leaving my mouth, I feel Matt’s arms wrap around my waist and I’m hauled out of my stool and pulled between his legs. His mouth is on mine immediately and I don’t even think about what I’m doing. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer.