The Game Of Lust

Big Speech

“Indeed my friend, I strongly believe that our society is hankering on the imbalance of inconsistency, which is why we must fear and use that fear to push ourselves to bankruptcy,” another said and they all laughed, I joined in the laugh but wasn't sure what they joke was,“What do you think Miss?” one of them asked as he turned to me with an encouraging expression on his face. I paused thinking of something intellectual to say, though I had the slightest idea of what they were talking about

“Um … well I … I think that the society would really appreciate our new freezer … it's affordable so no need to worry about bankruptcy,” I muttered stupidly and shuffled away from the baffled stares on their faces.

I'd spent the entire week practicing my speech, hoping there would be no tongue intrusions or stutters, I would speak slowly and calmly, perhaps my tongue intrusion were caused by my unexplainable need to fit all the words in my head into one sentence which often made me sound like an pigeon.

“You look spicy Regina,” Andy remarked.

“In green? ” I questioned his compliment, in my eyes I looked like a protein shake or something worse from all the stares the dress attracted. “ Everyone's staring at you cause you look amazing! ”

Andy was wearing a black suit which he only pulled out on occasions like this. “Thank you Andy, ” I smiled

“Wow! Who is this and what have you done to Regina? ” Paula exclaimed in gasping breaths, “You look it's your birthday or something … is it your birthday? ”

“No! ” I laughed

“That dress looks gorgeous on you.”

“But not as good as you look, ”

She wore a violet coloured pant suit and curled her hair. “Are you ready?”

She was referring to my speech,

“I don't know, I'm just hoping something will come up and I won't have to give a dumb speech” I sighed “What's worse is that for some reason everyone's looking forward to me fumbling as I always do. ”

“If you didn't look so pretty I'd slap the words right out of you, ” paula threatened “You look and sound like a million bucks, and you're gonna kill that speech, do you hear me? ”

“Loud and clear. ”

I climbed up the stage before everyone and walked to the microphone. They were all staring, waiting for me to utter any thing at all but I froze, standing still like a wall for almost a minute before speaking,

“ Good evening everyone and welcome to the launch of Visny's brand new closet refrigerator.” I said and they all clapped, “The best of our century as I was told during an interesting conversation with Mr “ I tried to recall the man of the man I stood with earlier then realized that I didn't even know him at all

“ Mr … um …A very intelligent man if I must say ” I pointed to him standing amongst the crowd “I'd like to give a special shout out to everyone involved in the design and making of this outstanding refrigerator ” The clapped again, to my surprise and rather unfortunately I found Matt standing in the crowd, my throat immediately grew sore and dry, and all the words I had memorized started to fly out of my head quicker than it took me to put them in, I was standing with my mouth open again. “No, no, no” I cried out in my head.

I cleared my throat and continued, “Disny … I mean … Visny has proven itself to be more than reliable over the years … earlier on, the Visny flat-screen TV was launched and it was remarkable … b-before that … was the Visny microwave. this refrigerator not only has the ordinary capacity to store your food ... Um ... it also has multiple functions all in the press of a button.”

At the end of my speech I could see the look on Cole's face, it was colorless, I could hardly read it.

I stood beside the table covered in champagne glasses, I was disappointed at my inability to speak without problems, why did Matt show up? And who the hell invited him?. I wondered. And just like he'd heard me, he walked up to me, I had never seen him in a formal outfit before, he looked different Which his hair geld backwards. “Regina? ” he said “I thought your speech was interesting.”

“Thank you,” I said coldly and looked away. “What are you doing here?”

“I came with a colleague of mine he's somewhere at moment,”

“You look lovely Regina ,” he smiled.

Before I could utter any words, Paula approached us. “Oh my, Regina please introduce to this friend of yours, ”

“Paula this is Matt, he's a friend of mine” I uttered, Paula's smile turned into confusion and I realized that I was just repeating her words.

“Sorry, it's all the alcohol. This is Matt he is a …” I tried to remember what it was that he did for a living, as it was his nature to change jobs on a montly.

“He's a musician?”

“I'm actually a web designer ,” he corrected

“Well, I'll introduce myself since Regina's wasted all ready, ” Paula said, “I'm Paula Haze, I'm Regina's coworker, I'm also in the public department of Wadfort, ” she leaned forward and Shook his head.

Apparently Paula only knew Matt by words and not physically. Luckily for him he was way out of character from what I'd told her.

“What are your thoughts on our new product?” she asked him, but he did not have the chance to answer as Paula was called away by someone who terribly needed her attention.

“As I was saying, you look lovely.” he turned to me and picked up from where he left off.

“What do you want Matt? ”

“I know we've had a pretty rough run together but just wanted to see you today and also give this to you in person, ” he stretched his hand out of the inner pocket of his jacket and handed me a card. It was his wedding invitation card.

“I know you're not gonna attend but I just wanted to say that I wish things ended differently between us Regina, cause I still love you very much.”

As he said those words, I went sober rather quickly, I was fed up with him. Matt had put me in some kind of wheel that no matter how far it took me, It would always spin me back to him. The battling the same problem over and over again.

“Please, leave. ”

“Wait just hear me out, ”

“ You know what, forget about it, I'll just excuse myself then, ” I adjusted the hem of my dress and stormed away from his presence, “Why did he choose today of all days? ”. I wondered, it felt like he'd broken my heart yet again for the third time.

As I marched away blindly, the forming tears blurred my vision and I walked right into Cole, the wine glass he held lightly between his fingertips dropped from his hand.

“You've been doing this a lot lately,” coled said, staring at the broken glass on the floor. I was bumping into him more times than I could count.

“I'm so sorry, ” I quickly wiped my eyes. People moved away to avoid the broken glass and a person rushed in with a broom and a bucket. He packed up the glass and poured it into the bucket before shuffling away.

“Nice speech,” he said, leaning closer.

“Thank you,” I smiled, still annoyed with myself.

“You surprised me.”

“I'm sorry.”

“ No not that. I'm still talking about your speech Dalton,”

I realized that he called me Dalton whenever he tried to sound formal with me especially at work and called me Regina when we were alone and no one was watching us.

“Thank you, I take my job very seriously,” I replied and chuckled.

“Can I take you out today? ” he said in a much lower tone, he had that grin on his face, the one that urged me to smile without any effort. I could feel my face turning red.

“I'll have to ask my boss first,” I teased.

“I don't think he would mind.”

“Alright then, you can take me out, ” I leaned closer and whispered.

“By the way, you look stunning, ” he remarked and strode away collecting another glass of champagne.

After greeting more guest and many awkward handshakes later, I rushed to the restroom and retouched my makeup, I took a good look at myself and realized that I looked just as they said, it took Cole saying it for me to see it myself. I appreciated his compliment more than any other.

The launch finally came to an end at late hours of the night. I drank more than I needed to and prayed that I wouldn't be taken home in an appalling state. But nothing would ruin my day any further, the day I'd long awaited.

Cole took me to fancy restaurant called “La belle femme - The Beautiful woman.” I'd always wanted to go there but couldn't go alone and Vivian didn't see why we needed to go to a fancy restaurant when we both couldn't afford it, I could afford it but my money didn't count as money, since it came from my dad.

The restaurant was magnificent, the ambiance, the food, there was a tank filled with beautiful fishes and colourful lights.

“What would you like?” Cole asked, looking at the menu. I wanted to say “Thank you so much saving me” but instead I said “I'll have whatever you're having”

He ordered the beeftenderloin and salad. “How do you know Matt Westler?” Cole asked looking over his plate. Startled by his question, I paused with my fork in hand.

“Um … we … we use to date … a while back.” I muttered.

“Really, you use to date him”

“Yea,” I replied in a wistful tone,“what about you?, how do you him?”

“sadly I don't know him, I've never even met him before until tonight,”

“But you know his name?”

“I asked around when I saw you both talking.”

“Why? were you worried about me?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.I took my eyes down to my plate, he incessantly avoided personal questions with every chance he got. I didn't know who he was or anything about him besides the little clues he gave me. Suddenly I remembered Mr Wade and the pictures I saw in his apartment. I decided i would try as much to ask as many questions as I could, regardless of how awkwardly he would answer them.

“What exactly did you like about Matt Westler? ” he laughed. I gathered all the confidence to answer his question, though I wasn't sure my answer would be good enough but part of me wanted to try something out of curiosity.