Page 74 of Silent Betrayal
“No, of course I wouldn’t hit you, Tiffany,” he says softly, almost like he’s trying to flirt with her. His hand slowly reaches towards her, making me frown. But instead of touching her he gently takes her soft drink cup from her hands. “I’m just giving you what you deserve,” he says quietly. I watch as she swallows, clearly turned on by his presence as she leans towards him.
Before she can figure out what’s happening, he pulls the lid off her cup and dumps her drink over her head. My eyes go wide in surprise as the orange liquid pours down her body. Jasper lets out a laugh and I cover my own mouth to hide my giggle.
Tiffany and her friends' mouths drop open as she looks at Max with shock and anger. “What the fuck, Max?!”
He tosses the empty cup at her chest before pulling me so I’m sandwiched between him and Jasper and they each have an arm around me.
“You ever say a word about our girl again, and what I just did will seem like nothing in comparison.”
“If you really want to know what Mina has, and you don’t, it’s everything. Literally everything about her is the opposite of you. She’s kind, sweet, funny, compassionate, brilliant, beautiful, sexy and the most amazing woman we’ve ever met. Maybe instead of bringing other people down, you should take a good hard look in the mirror to figure out why you hate yourself so much first,” Jasper says, keeping me firmly planted to his side.
Tiffany literally growls, stomps her foot then turns and storms off, her friends rushing to keep up with her.
The second they are out of view, Max drops to his knees in front of me, grabbing my hands. “Sweetheart, are you okay?” His eyes dance all around my face like he’s checking for injuries.
Before I can answer, Jasper takes a knee as well, and cups my cheek with his hand. “I’m so proud of you for handling that panic attack so well. You’ve come so far in such a short time.”
I stare at him like he’s insane. He wasproudof me? “I—You—I couldn’t speak, I tried, but nothing came out. I felt so worthless. You shouldn’t be proud of me for that,” I tell him, my emotions starting to climb again.
“No, Angel. You arenotworthless. Don’t say that about yourself. Don’t forget what you’ve been through. You were alone in the basement for over a decade. And look at you now!” He swings his arm out to indicate the arcade around us.
“Sweetheart, you’ve been amazing being in such a loud place with us tonight. Little things like this are gonna happen, and they might feel like setbacks, but they’re not,” Max tells me, his thumb rubbing the back of my hand soothingly.
“No, this is a good thing. You stumbled for a moment, but you brought yourself back. I think this is a huge win,” Jasper says with a lopsided smile.
“Really?” I ask, my eyes dancing between them.
“Of course, Angel.”
“Thank you. For saying that and for helping me through it,” I say before stepping forward and wrapping my arms around Jasper's neck and hugging him tight. “I love you,” I whisper, unable to holdit back. It’d been too long since I’d said it, and I need him to know how much I appreciate him.
“I love you too Angel,” he whispers before kissing the side of my head. After a few more moments I pull back and turn to Max.
“Thank you, too. For what you just said but also for standing up for me with Tiffany.” I lean towards him and he wraps his arms around me.
“It was my pleasure, Sweetheart. Besides, I always wanted to throw a drink on her, it was pretty satisfying.”
I giggle into his neck before I whisper, “I love you, Max. Thanks for always making me smile.”
“Love you too, Sweetheart.”
I hug him for a few more moments, basking in the feeling of being in his arms again. It’s been too long since I’ve been this close with these two, even if it’s only been a few days.
The way they both helped me through the situation with Tiffany shows me everything I need to know about them. That they will always take care of me and have my back.
I believe they were telling me the truth when they said they would have wanted me even if I wasn’t potentially involved in the case. Despite the fact that our relationship started in unusual circumstances, it didn’t mean our love for each other wasn’t real.
And if the constant abuse and isolation of my past has taught me anything, it’s that I need to grab hold of anything that makes me happy and hold it tight. Because that’s what life should be about, isn’t it? Finding happiness and sharing it with those you love.
Chapter thirty-two
Ihad to hand it to Max, taking her to the arcade had been a fantastic idea. I had worried it would be too loud or crowded for her, but luckily, it wasn’t very busy. She had an absolute blast running from game to game with us. Her favorites seemed to be skee-ball, motorcycle racing, and the alien shooter game.
I was so impressed with how fast she was able to come back from the brink of that panic attack. When I told her I was proud of it, I truly meant it. Not only did she recover from that quickly, but we gave her the option to leave and she chose to stay. The incident didn’t seem to tamper her enjoyment of the rest of the night either.
We wracked up several hundred tickets from playing skee-ball, and when we went to trade them in for a prize, she thought it was hilarious that all it got us was a little fuzzy alien keychain. Seeing the smile on her face and the laughter in her voice had been my prize. I would have never thought to bring her a place like this, which is why I was glad Max and I had done this as a team. He brought the fun, and I brought the calm.
Which is how we ended up at this movie theater for the second part of our date. The three of us chose the film together and ended up picking a romantic comedy. The other choices had been a horror film,a documentary, a sequel to an action movie Mina hadn’t seen yet, or a cartoon kids’ movie. It was an easy choice.
