“In life, you need to tread carefully, there’s no reset nor delete button.”
~~~
After the revelation that Matthew was hiding his past, I got a gut feeling that something was wrong, vowing to find out either by inquiring or snooping cause at that point, I was desperate. Desperate to know who I was dealing with.
As I finished my last order, my gaze landed on Matthew’s car parked by the entrance of the restaurant. I sighed, I wasn’t as excited to see him. The constant question playing in my mind was, what was he hiding?
“Matthew asked me to let you know that he’s outside,” a co-worker informed me as I made my way to the changing room.
“I’ll be right there, thanks.” I pushed the door open and strolled to my locker, pulling out my belongings and getting out of my work clothes.
“That’s my girl.” Matthew winked as I approached him, I let out a laugh. “Who’s girl? I don’t remember you asking nor me saying yes. I’m not the type of girl who would rack my brain in future, wondering when the relationship became official and how it came to.”
“Oh wow, that’s exactly why I like you.” He smirked, unlocking the passenger seat for me.
“I’m flattered.” I hoped in and shut the door. He waited till my seatbelt was on before asking, “Do you mind going on another date with me?”
“Not at all, where are we going?”
“Maybe you could choose this time,” he suggested, starting the engine and driving off.
“McDonald’s it is then,” I replied.
This time, we talked about random things as we maneuvered around traffic. I was learning things about him day by day. From my observation, he was a nice guy, but that didn’t stop me from being careful as my father constantly said, ‘You never know.’
“I will have a double cheeseburger and two sausages with a bottle of soda, passion to be precise.” I looked up from the menu and waited for Matthew to make his order. Once our food was served, we kept on conversing and getting to know our distinct personalities.
“What were you up to years before we met?” I abruptly asked. It took me ages before I could get that question out of my lips and that seemed like the perfect moment.
“I was working in some other town in Ohio,” he said without hesitation. He probably wasn’t lying after all. Did that mean it could explain the missing years in his file? I wasn’t so sure.
“Oh, that’s cool. Which job was that?” I took a bite of my burger but my gaze was focused on him, daring him to stall.
“I was manufacturing paints. That’s how I decided to venture into the painting business.” His answers were so straight and plausible that I had a hard time distrusting him, but that did not excuse the mystery in his file. I still wasn’t convinced and pondered on whether to ask him or not.
I didn’t know how he would react but I asked regardless, “By now, you must know that my dad is a detective, right?” I stopped to get his reply.
He nodded, dropping his fork to give me his attention. “Yeah, that much I figured.”
“Great. So, he did a background check on you and something wasn’t adding up. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about,” I whispered. He blinked repeatedly, gaping at me through narrowed eyes. I could tell he never foresaw such a question neither did he think Dad would go that far.
He leaned back in his seat and shook his head in disbelief before beginning to laugh. The mood between us was suddenly taut. To hide my embarrassment, I glanced around the almost full eatery. Everyone was all up in their business, eating and chatting up noisily.
“I should say this is an invasion of privacy but you have a right to know. I should have told you. Though this isn’t how I wanted you to find out about my past,” he grumbled.
Drawing my attention back to him, I placed my head on my hands and said, “Tell me about it, I won’t judge.”
“My Dad messed with the wrong people by taking money that didn’t belong to him and for him to pay them back, they abducted me. He did have the money but was too greedy to give it up. He ended up paying some goons to break me out from the capture and they succeeded.” He paused to let it sink in and I couldn’t stop myself from gawking at him.
“What happened next?” I had unknowingly pulled my seat towards him and was peering closely at him.
“He gave my mom a large sum of money and two bodyguards then sent us far away, with different identities. We moved to Austin and stayed under the radar till his death. We really suffered. Being on the run, penny less and no one to turn to was a nightmare,” he murmured. An expression I hadn’t seen since I met him crossing his features. I could tell it was a painful memory.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. I didn’t know what else to say or how to bring him solace.
He nodded and flashed me a smile. “It’s okay, we accepted the change and things turned out pretty well.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, how did he die and how old were you?”
“I was just 8 when and what followed was horrifying. It was all over the news. Though I didn’t understand much of what was going on till I got older. It still pains me that we had to suffer so much because of my father’s mistakes. His actions changed my life and my personality. I’m no longer the naive innocent boy.” He continuously jabbed on the table and it shook with his rage.
The people around us stole glances at Matthew and he returned their stare with a glare, forcing them to glance away and ignore what they’d just seen. For a moment, I felt spooked by him, as if he was going to hurt me. I pushed my seat back and stayed on alert, for what? I didn’t know. But I felt the need to safeguard myself. After a few minutes of heavy breathing, he finally calmed down and curbed his emotions.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you off. What you saw is not the kind of person I am. What happened vastly affected my life and I still feel angry at my father. To date, my mom keeps begging for me to let it go and I’m trying. I know I will get over it.” He tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace.