29. Invisible – Taylor Swift
The first time Vivian met him, she didn't actually meet him. Nobody introduced them, and it wasn't what you'd call an auspicious beginning.
In actual fact, the first she knew of him was when she heard the crack of a hand across a cheek. She looked up to see Mai in the latter stages of slapping a guy so hard she nearly turned his head so he had to walk backwards to see forwards. He stood his ground though, which was impressive enough that Vivian invaded her duelling partner's personal space and came over to investigate – and possibly defend if the need arose. She wasn't cold-hearted, after all, and if her girl needed her, then Vivian was all claws and teeth.
Not in this instance, though.
"Hey there, cutie," she said, leaning on Mai's shoulder. It was how she greeted all guys, whether she knew them or not – 'cutie', 'darling', 'sweetheart'. Life was nicer when you didn't burn your bridges before you'd had a chance to scope out the talent. "Something wrong, Mai?"
When he turned his face back towards them, however, Vivian's usual forthrightness deserted her and she was left staring. Blue eyes, an unruly tangle of brown hair, biceps like watermelons and clearly defined abs through his shirt – he was a little on the short side, making up his missing inches in sheer hair volume, but she could live with that if she exchanged high heels for that chiselled jaw and those knuckleduster cheekbones. An edge of ruggedness clung to him, as if the shirt and jeans combo he had on wasn't what he was comfortable wearing.
"I told you once before that I didn't want to see you," Mai said, a note in her voice that Vivian had never heard before.
Vivian was used to Mai alternating between unspoken regret and aggressive determination, as though she couldn't decide whether she craved forgiveness for past sins, or to beat up the ones demanding she repent. Mai had been a tangle of conflicts and internal struggles since she and Vivian hooked up to lay waste to the Asian Doubles circuit, and Vivian had never pried further than Mai was comfortable revealing on her own. After all, there were a couple of skeletons in Vivian's own closet she'd rather didn't come off the hangars, so who was she to judge if Mai wasn't keen on doing the girly sharing thing.
But this guy … Vivian sensed there was a story there, and a doozy if she was any judge of the look in his eyes and the tense line of her partner's shoulders. Mai practically effervesced with fury and – Vivian checked. Yup, there was that guilt again.
"I saw you in the newspaper," the guy said, revealing a curious accent Vivian couldn't place. To her ears it sounded hella sexy though – meow! "It's been a year, Mai."
"So?"
"I needed to see you."
"So cut my picture from that newspaper. Leave me alone. I'm not … I'm not ready to …" Mai inhaled her words and choked on them like liquid that'd gone down the wrong tube. She turned away, breaking from Vivian's casual touch like she hadn't even noticed she was there.
"Wow," Vivian said, watching her leave. "She hasn't reacted that badly to anything for a while. Are you her ex or something, sweetheart?"
"Or something," he murmured, also watching Mai go but making no move to follow her. He sighed, turning his attention to Vivian and offering a smile that made the back of her neck prickle. "I read about you, too. You're Vivian Wong."
"Guilty as charged. And you are?" Aside from insanely hot and probably taken, psychotic, or besotted with someone else so badly you won't even look twice in my direction, because that's just the way my luck runs with men.
"Just Valon."
"Well, 'Just Valon', since you came all the way out here from wherever, you can treat me to dinner and tell me aaaaall about it."
He blinked at her, startled. "That was subtle."
"Subtlety is for weaklings and time-wasters, cutie." Her own smile was just as dazzling as his, though it showed a little more of her canines. "And I'm neither."