Then someone laughed, low and knowing.
"True enough."
"The Winfields have been on the way down for a few years now. She really does need to hold on to Clifford."
"No wonder she's so wound up about it."
The color drained slowly from my face.
After everything fell apart for the Winfields, Clifford was the one who came forward and said he wanted to marry me.
He'd said: "Tamara, from now on I'll protect you. No one will dare look down on you again."
But now.
His friends were tearing open my most humiliating wound, right in front of him.
And Clifford just sat there, watching in silence.
It hit me all at once.
It wasn't that they looked down on me.
It was that Clifford let them.
Peggy seemed to realize she'd said too much, and clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Tammy, I'm sorry."
"That's not what I meant."
"I only said it because I feel awful for you."
Tears spilled down her face, her voice catching.
Clifford finally reached out and drew her behind him.
"Enough."
The way he looked at me had gone cold, like a stranger.
"Tamara. Apologize."
I almost thought I'd misheard.
"What did you say?"
He said it slowly, one word at a time.
"Apologize to Peggy."
"She's already bent over backward to spare your feelings."
A small laugh slipped out of me.
"Fine."
Clifford's expression eased a little.
He probably thought I was finally backing down.
But the next second, I lifted my head and looked at Peggy.
"Peggy."
"Tonight, you keep an eye on him for me."
Her face froze.
I turned back to Clifford.
"As for the apology."
"Let's talk about it after I get the marriage license tomorrow."
Clifford's brow dropped.
"Tamara, what's that supposed to mean?"
I gave the key card in my hand a little wave.
"Isn't the rule that you honor the bet you lose?"
"I should go find my room too."
With that, I turned and walked out.
Behind me, Clifford shot to his feet.
"Tamara!"
"If you really go to Rick James tonight, then don't bother registering the marriage tomorrow."
My steps hitched.
Something pricked lightly at my chest.
But it faded fast, and all that was left was numbness.
I looked back and smiled at him.
"Perfect."
"I wasn't that eager to register it either."
As I walked out of the private room, the laughter behind me picked right back up.
Someone lowered their voice on purpose, but it carried clear as anything into my ears.
"Clifford, your girl really needs to work on that temper."
"Getting the license tomorrow and still throwing breakups around to scare people."
"Relax, she won't let go of me. The state the Winfields are in now, who doesn't know that?"
A burst of laughter.
Clifford didn't come after me.
I stood at the end of the hallway, gripping the key card with Rick James's name on it, and suddenly thought back to a long time ago.
Back then, Clifford wasn't like this.
The year everything first went wrong for the Winfields, I went to a dinner with him for the first time.
Someone deliberately seated me at the very foot of the table.
Partway through, a man said with a smile:
"With the Winfields in the state they're in, and Miss Winfield can still show her face at something like this. Strong nerves."
The whole table laughed.
I clutched the hem of my dress, my face burning.
The next second, Clifford set his glass down hard on the table.
"Wherever Tamara sits is the head of the table."
And then he got up from the seat of honor and came to sit right beside me.
That night, he draped his own coat over my shoulders.
Blocking out all those sizing-up stares.
Back then I really was moved by the sheer, overwhelming love Clifford showed me.
I believed he would love me and protect me, always.
Later, I was the one who brought Peggy into this circle with my own hands.
