The rage hadn’t yet evaporated from my veins. It just needed a place to go. So, I stood abruptly and barreled toward the pigheaded asshole, standing beside a darkened booth, and shoved his shoulder with such force that he nearly fell over.
The flash of fury in his eyes told me not many people dared to stand up against him, and I thought,It’s about time someone did.
“Who the fuck are you, man?” he sneered at me, righting himself and bumping his chest against mine.
“Doesn’t matter. She asked you to leave. That means you leave. Now, get the hell out of here.”
He grinned, his eyes twinkling with something feral. This guy wasn’t right. He was drunk and high on substances I could only imagine.
“Yeah? And what the fuck are you gonna do to me if I don’t?”
He was challenging me, trying to get a rise, and I didn’t know what came over me as I gave in, leaned closer, and whispered in his ear, “I could end your life with one of my hands before you had the chance to take your next breath,” but it felt good to watch fear overshadow his crazed eyes.
“Bullshit,” he muttered, raising his chin and standing his ground.
I lifted my left hand, stood taller, and said, “Well, let’s find out then, shall we?”
For a moment, I thought he might call my bluff again. I thought he might just be crazy enough to test me. But then his nostrils flared, his lips pursed, and he turned to storm out of the bar.
An audible exhale came from the table I stood beside, and I looked to see her. The woman from the repair shop. She glanced up at me, and as if on cue, her cheeks took on the color of pink roses.
“Thank you,” she muttered, brushing away a strand of her reddish-blonde hair. “He’s such an asshole. But honestly, I should’ve known better than to come here, so that’s on me.”
I noticed the bottle of beer on the table in front of her. “You should be allowed to have a drink without some douchebag harassing you.”
She rolled her eyes toward mine. “Not in this town.”
I didn’t know why I nodded with understanding. I guessed maybe I’d heard something she wasn’t saying.That she was stuck, trapped—for one reason or another—and didn’t yet have an escape route.
I offered a curt smile. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your—"
“Was that your girlfriend you were talking to?”
I froze on the spot, staring into her eyes like a deer caught in the headlights. I wasn’t sure her cheeks could turn any redder, but there they went, looking now like ripe apples hanging from a tree, ready for picking.
“I, uh … I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. You were just … talking really loudly, and—"
“No, it’s okay,” I finally said, then shrugged. “She wasn’t my girlfriend. Not really anyway. I … I wanted her to be, but—"
“You screwed it up?” she offered, tipping her head with soft, apologetic eyes.
I smiled sheepishly. “Pretty much.”
She hummed a quiet, thoughtful sound, looking off toward the open mouth of her beer bottle. “But you didn’t beg her to stay,” she said, almost as if to herself. “You didn’t beg her to change her mind.”
I tucked my hands into my pants pockets and considered what she had said with a furrowed brow. “Why would I beg her to do something she clearly didn’t want to do?”
“Because you like her,” she replied like it was obvious.
So, I shook my head. “But she deserves to be happy more than she deserves me.”
The woman turned abruptly to look at me, her glossy lips falling open for a moment. Her eyes widened withrevelation and surprise. The look made me uncomfortable, but not in the way my father did. I didn’t want to run away. I didn’t want to fight. No, I wanted to sit with her and ask her just what that look was for. Get inside her head, find out what she was thinking.
“Oh, no,” she murmured slowly as she turned away, shaking her head as she reached for her bottle of beer.
The side of my mouth lifted in a reluctant smile. “What?”
“You say that like you’re an asshole, but”—she turned her eyes back on me as she brought the beer to her mouth—"that’s not something an asshole would say.”
