Adam's Eve

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“Oh God, it's just a few minutes to midnight!”

Adam Garcia swore under his breath, glaring at the woman who had gushed those words out. What the heck was it about midnight and why was every woman raving about it at this business party?

Shaking his head, he gulped down the remaining bits of champagne in his glass, wondering for the umpteenth time why he'd allowed himself to be dragged to this godforsaken New Year's Eve masquerade party.

Friendship obviously, he snorted as he brought his glass down and placed it on the tray of a waiter passing by. The shit friends could make you do.

Like coming to a party where you only knew 0.5% of the people chattering about when you could be balls deep buried in the rapturous heat of a woman.

To think there were well over a hundred people at the party.

Adjusting his batman mask, Adam glanced at his best friend, wishing he could just bail the hell out of there. But he couldn't. Lucas needed him. His parents were dickheads who didn't give a shit about their son's happiness as long he kissed their ass at every command.

The only time they ever softened their attacks on their son was when Adam was around, and Lucas had begged him to come along. He'd come, because he had been there before, done that, knew how it felt to be deprived of the love of parents that every child needed.

Shooting, away his thoughts before they could spoil his mood, he inched closer to the trio in time to hear Lucas's mother saying something.

“For Pete's sake, you love climbing mountains and risking your life more than you care about this business, something which will be passed on to you when your father retires.”

Her eyes slid in Adam's direction through her intricate, elaborate, ostentatious mask, and her voice softened considerably. “You are our only son for crying out loud.”

Adam decided that it was time to set in before the helplessness in his friend's eyes drove him up a wall. “Actually, Katia, that's the main reason why he went on this Christmas adventure. To have a fresh mind to give his all to his training into becoming the best businessman ever.”

Lucas's head snapped sharply in his direction, but the horror in his eyes all too soon gave way to resignation.

The defeated look didn't surprise Adam. He knew his friend enough to realize that despite how much he hated his parents for controlling his life the way they pleased, there was no way he would ever say no to them.

“What? Oh my God!” The scratchy voice of Katia grated on his nerves. “You've made me so happy son.”

“I knew you would snap right to your senses.” Lucas's father stepped forward, showing all his teeth in a smile and patting his son on the shoulder.

Were these two serious? Couldn't they see the baleful look in their son's eyes, or were they so shallowly invested in their son's emotions to know which of his smiles were genuine and which were not?

Disgusted, he turned to his friend, needing to fall away from these people. “Yo man, I'll be hanging around. See you later.”

Before the pleading twist of his friend's lips could stop him, he turned and walked away, past the alignment of extravagantly designed tables and lampposts in the large garden where the party was taking place, past the businessmen who smiled warmly at one another but were each only calculating how much wealth they could zap out of the other.

Greedy asses, all of them.

“Oh God, it's soon gonna be midnight. I better start scanning through.” A female voice squealed, and he turned to find a middle-aged woman swiveling her flat hips to the soft piano music playing.