“That’s it mother fucker!” Z yelled out and I jumped out of the way just in time as Z threw a punch at Mark landing right on his jaw, knocking him back towards where I had jumped to.
Dex jumped up behind Z and tried to hold his arms back before he could throw another punch, but Z thrust his head back hard hitting Dex in the forehead and caused him to stumble backward. Clark caught him so that Flynn could throw a punch at him as the other guy Mark was with tried to throw a punch at Clark.
Melanie pulled me farther into the corner as I glanced around the restaurant to see if anyone could help out in this situation. Mandy dropped her coffee pot, shattering it to the ground just as two police officers came in casually, as if they were hoping to eat a nice breakfast, when they noticed the huge brawl happening at the upper level of the restaurant.
I turned back to see Mark take a swing at Z and missed as Z ducked his punch. One of the police officers grabbed hold of Mark quickly and the other police officer grabbed Z. They must have already called for backup because two additional police officers came in and started to break up the rest of the fight. Mark and Z were pulled out to the sidewalk.
It all happened so fast. The police officers took everyone’s statements, including mine and Melanie’s.
Three hours later, I was at the police station with Melanie bailing out Z, Flynn and Clark.
We walked outside and started to walk back. The rest of our group walked faster as if to allow us to have our alone time. I glanced over at Z. His jaw was extremely tight. His nostrils were flaring, or so it seemed. He didn’t have a scrape on him except his hair looking ruffled.
“Are you okay?” I slowly asked Z.
“Yep, just fine. It’s all OKAY,” he stressed the ‘okay’ as if throwing back what I had said to him last night about Sheila.
“So… what should we do today?” I asked nervously trying to change the subject. He didn’t look like he wanted to discuss the fight and I really didn’t want to until he calmed down a little.
“Maybe we should call Mark’s personal trainer and see if he could work you out. HARD.” He spat at me in a tight voice. Oh. Guess he wasn’t really okay. I stopped so I could face him. He passed by me and started pacing in a small area. He looked like he wanted to punch something again; I’m sure Mark was his first thought.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked softly. I didn’t want to fight. I just wanted to be back to where we were before Sheila and now this whole thing with Mark.
He stopped in front of me. “Did you kiss him?” He spat out through gritted teeth, with anger in his eyes.
What? “NO! Why would I?” I asked, shocked that he even thought that.
“To get back at me or some weird fucked up thing you’ve got going on in your head!” He shouted.
“No, I wouldn’t do that!” I protested, trying to remain calm with a concerned look on my face. I just want everything back to before. “I’m not like that.” I insisted trying to make him understand.
He shook his head, his voice was still tight. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m just…you didn’t tell me you saw him on the trail today, much less ran with him. Did you guys plan on meeting tomorrow for a run?”
I shook my head, “No, it was more like a ‘see you around’ type thing.”
“You’re not going to run with him anymore.” He commanded, his voice still tight and I could see the veins in his neck throbbing.
“I…well, I hadn’t planned on running with him today. We just happen to be on the trails at the same time. I mean, that is how we met.”
“You should start coming to the gym with me then instead of running.” He sneered and I was trying to figure out how to get back to where we were before all this.
I blinked a couple times and swallowed. I didn’t want to argue with him, but I preferred to run. “I…I’m still going to run. I…there is nothing going on with Mark and me. I swear to you. Nor will there ever be. I chose you and am with you. You need to trust me, please.” I implored and was trying to make sure he understood.
He nodded his head and looked away trying to calm himself down, it seemed. He started walking towards the townhouse with long strides, so I had to run to catch up so I could walk beside him.
“Bike.” He muttered through gritted teeth and I could only assume he was answering my earlier question. At least it was an answer and he didn’t want to be by himself; although, he didn’t say anything about me going with him, now that I thought about it.
“Alright, we could pack a lunch and go to that park we went to a couple of weeks ago, the one with the waterfall.” I said in a hopeful manner. I swore I saw him nod his head, but I wasn’t sure since it was so slight.
We arrived back at the townhouse and he still didn’t say anything. The gang was looking at us like they were waiting for a huge blow up. I nervously made our sandwiches and quickly packed a few other things for a small lunch. Everyone was eerily quiet as they watched me pack our lunch. I glanced up at Melanie and her eyes were begging me to tell her something. All I could do was give her a small shrug not knowing what was really going on in Z’s head.
As soon as I was done packing our lunch, Z grabbed the bag from my hands and strolled toward the door. I followed, still unsure if I was welcome to join him. I glanced back and everyone was eyeing us but still just as quiet. I shrugged back at Melanie who gave me a sympathetic half-smile.
He secured our lunch in the pouch on his bike, hopped on, then looked at me. “Are you getting on?” He asked, his voice still tight.
I swallowed, “Do you want me to go with you?”
He looked away, again his jaw was tight and he seemed to be grinding it. “Only if you want to.” He said in a very gruff voice. I wanted to laugh because he sounded like the big bad wolf. I didn’t think he would appreciate my little joke.
Instead, I nodded and hopped onto the back. I placed my arms around him and put my head to his back, like I always do. He took a deep breath and shook his head before starting the bike. I thought for sure he was going to say something before we took off, but he didn’t.
When we arrived at the park he got off the bike and then held out his hand toward me. I took his hand, getting off the bike and looked up into his eyes. He bent down and kissed me hard with what seemed to be desperation. I started to wonder if he was going to break up with me because it was such an anxious, frantic kiss. He pulled back and looked down at me as if he wanted to say something to me, but he seemed to change his mind at the last minute.
“I’ll never cheat on you Z. I’m not that type of person.” I said as sincere as I could to make him understand. He nodded and looked away as if he still didn’t believe me.
He took out our lunch from the pouch and grabbed my hand. We walked hand in hand not saying a word and continued until we sat down under a gorgeous oak tree and ate our lunch. He started to tell me about how he came up with the idea for Allure and how he opened it. Our conversation went on from there, but we didn’t discuss what happened with Sheila or with Mark.
The rest of the afternoon took place as if nothing happened. Actually, we had a very romantic afternoon. It was just like I had hoped to have earlier in the day after the Sheila incident. Life seemed like it was going to return to normal.
Chapter 23
Z
Several weeks passed after the Sheila/Mark incidents. Izzy and I never discussed either of the incidents again. I didn’t tell Izzy what my lawyer said nor did I tell her that Mark decided not to press charges. Since I threw the first punch, Mark wanted to press charges against me initially. My attorney seemed to think that his change of mind had something to do with his sponsors. Whatever. I was prepared to go to trial if I needed to. The press would probably just bring in more business for Allure anyway. Not to mention, I’m sure once the Judge heard what the fuck that asshole said and implied, I was sure he’d be lenient with me anyway.
Things seemed to return back to the way it was before all the chaos. I loved being with Izzy and
we always had a great time together. I still hadn’t told her I loved her. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for but I think it had everything to do with my jealousy. After being cheated on so many times, I was leery of putting myself out there, especially since I’ve never said that to anyone. Although with Izzy, I was getting pretty close. She made it so easy to fall in love with her.
I have to admit, I wasn’t able to control my jealousy as much as Izzy was able to contain hers. Particularly one Saturday night at Allure when my old buddy from high school came walking in. I was chatting with Flynn and a couple of girls at the bar when Steve Maxwell anxiously came up to me shaking my hand and was just as happy to see Flynn. He hadn’t been to Allure in a while and it was great to see him again. We used to play football together and used to get into some trouble at parties together.
We started talking about old times, but I kept noticing how he was glancing back behind the bar. I wasn’t sure if he was looking at Sandy or Izzy but when he spotted one of them, his eyes lit up and he had this huge dopey grin on his face. Fuck, that better not be for Izzy.
Izzy came up to us to refill our drinks and saw Steve. Her eyes lit up and she came around the opening of the bar and gave him a huge hug. What the fuck? Anger started swelling in me, not to mention the jealousy coursing through my veins. If I hadn’t known Steve for all these years, I’d have beaten the fucking piss out of him. I tried to remain calm because I wanted to figure out how these two knew each other. I was beginning to wonder if she was fucking him behind my back all this time, although I tried to remember that we’re together just about all the time except when I went to box and she goes on her runs. Izzy went back behind the bar, got our drinks and then was called away by a customer.
He looked back over to me and smiled. “So, actually, I came here tonight because I heard that Isabella…,” he chuckled and shook his head, “I mean Izzy is single again.”
I tried not to grind my teeth as I asked, “What the fuck did you just say?”
I watched him pale a bit, probably from my reaction and he asked, “Well,…she’s not dating Mark anymore, is she?”
I looked over at Flynn unsure what to think. How did Steve even know about Izzy, why did he hug her and why did he just call her Isabella? “What…How do you know Izzy?” I asked as I tried to keep my anger out of my voice hoping to get an answer.
“I…well, we sort of used to work together, and I ran into her at the banquet when she was with Mark. I heard about some fight he had and was going to press charges, but we convinced him it would be bad for business. When I spoke with Mark he said he wasn’t seeing Izzy anymore. I… well, I kind of feel like we had some sort of connection when we spoke with each other at the banquet. I was hoping to ask her out.” He told me a bit sheepishly. He looked at both Flynn and me as we exchanged glances.
“That fight Mark had was with me and it was because he kept trying to get with Izzy. How fucking long have you known her?” Like I said, I was trying to keep calm, but it wasn’t really working out for me.
Steve held up both his hands looking shocked. “Whoa, Z, buddy, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Like I said, I haven’t seen her since the banquet awhile back.” He swallowed nervously, looking at Flynn trying to convince him, too.
I wasn’t sure what to think or if he was telling me the truth. What I do know is how he was just making eyes at her and hoping he could get with her and I was wondering if he had already been with her before. “Why’d you say you worked with her? Where did you work with her? At the bar in college?” I was trying to remember what college he attended, but that still didn’t match up with our ages. Since he’s my age and Izzy is several years younger than I am, things weren’t adding up.
“I…well, she never really worked at the company it was more like…” he swallowed hard and looked like he was trying to make something up; I could tell the way he was looking around with his eyes. Then it seemed like he caught Izzy’s eyes and she was giving him a questioning look.
“Where the fuck do you know her from?” I asked again more sternly. Izzy came running to us, leaned over the bar putting her hand on my arm asking what we were talking about.
“Z just asked where we worked together.” Steve nervously said. Well asshole, that really doesn’t make it any less suspicious, does it?
Izzy’s eyes widened and she looked like she was going to start lying to me. I stood up quickly deciding I needed to break these two apart. If they were going to lie, they were going to do it without knowing what the other one was going to say. Trick I learned from getting arrested so many fucking times for stealing cars. Gotta learn something from my past, right? I grabbed Izzy’s arm and led her back to my office, closed and locked the door.
I crossed my arms and leaned against my desk. “How do you know Steve and how long have you been fucking him?” She looked around in amazement and I was trying to figure out if she was thinking up a lie.
“Fucking him?” She spat back at me. “Why on earth would you ask me that?” She questioned me. No sweetheart, you have no right to ask me any fucking questions.
“You heard me. Answer the question.” I stared her down and tried not to grind my teeth again. It wasn’t working out so great, the grinding not the staring thing. That was working great because she started answering my question.
“Z, I haven’t been with anyone but you since we started dating.” She replied with a confused look on her face. God I’m being such a dick and can’t stop. I just feel like she’s lying to me somehow. She has to be. All the girls I’ve dated have cheated on me, why wouldn’t Izzy?
“So you fucked him right before we were dating?” I knew she’d start digging a hole on her own and it’s just a matter of time before she slips up.
“What? No! I met Steve at that banquet I went to with Mark. That’s the first time I met him.”
Lie. “Really….so how come he says you worked together?” Come on Izzy, let’s see you work your way out of this one now. She was looking around as if totally thrown off by that question and I knew I had caught her in the lie.
She started shaking her head and looked really flustered. “I…he was at my ex’s company. He saw me at company functions, that’s the only way he knows me. I hadn’t met him officially until the banquet. He only knew me from company functions I attended with my ex.” She repeated the same theory. Hmm, that actually seemed pretty plausible.
“How come he says that he worked with you?”
She rolled her eyes and took a step towards me. “Because Mark asked how he knew me as Isabella, so we said that I was under contract with my ex at his company.”
“So you lied to Mark about him too?”
“No, no...that’s not what I meant. He works at my ex’s company and so he already knew my name as Isabella. Mark had no idea about my past and I didn’t want to tell him about that at the banquet, so Steve just played along with the whole ‘we worked together’ thing. You already know about my ex and my past. I’m not lying to you Z. You’ve got to start trusting me at some point.” She had lowered her voice by then and sat down in the chair. She looked so sad that I wanted to start believing her.
“So why is my old high school friend out there trying to tell me he has some sort of connection with you and wants to date you.” She looked shocked by what I just said so I started thinking maybe she didn’t know his feelings or intentions for her. Maybe.
“He told you he was going to ask me out? Didn’t you tell him we’re together?” She looked confused at first and then seemed a bit angry on the last question.
“No, I wanted to see how he knew you first.”
“Why didn’t you tell him we were dating? Are you just trying to see if I would lie to you? Are you testing me now? What the fuck Z? I thought we were finally past all this type of crap.” She was actually raising her voice and she never raised her voice. She’s always been able to keep calm. She stood up and started towards the door. “I don’t need this type of shit from you. I thought we coul
d actually trust each other now. You’re out there flirting with all these girls all the time and I watch you constantly, but the second someone comes in who knows me, you tell me I’m the one cheating.” She had tears welled up in her eyes as she said all that and now they were starting to stream down her face. “Fuck you Z. Fuck you and all your stupid theories. I’m not cheating on you. I told you I never would.” She reached for the door handle. I rushed over and put my hand up against the door so she couldn’t leave.
“I’m sorry, maybe I misjudged. Steve came in here all goofy eyed and wanted to ask you out and I became…jealous, I guess.”
“You guess?” She spat at me, her eyes were blazing with fury. God her eyes are gorgeous when she’s pissed. Wow. I’ve never seen her this way. Maybe it’s because she’s never gotten angry with me before. Shit that’s hot. “You’re sitting here judging me and I’ve done nothing wrong!”
I had no idea what she said to me, something about judging and being wrong, I think. I couldn’t stop staring at her gorgeous eyes. I grabbed her and started kissing her with everything I had and I was glad that she kissed me back just as hard. I slammed her up against the door, continuing to show her the passion I had for her and dying to prove to her that all my reservations about her were now gone.
Well, I would like to say that my jealousy and any reservations were gone forever, but they weren’t. After I ‘sealed’ my apology to her in my office, we went back out and I told Steve all about us dating and everything else. I felt bad for the guy because I could tell he really liked Izzy.
Of course that wasn’t the only time I was jealous over another guy. It was about a week later when another guy came walking in, actually, two of them really. It was a Friday night and Izzy was on her break in the back. Normally, I’m with her in my office, but I had a VIP come in and I needed to tend to them.
The two guys talked to Mark and he smiled and then nodded his head over towards Mel. Mel lit up and started hugging both of them. I watched Flynn’s face go through the emotions of anger and jealousy until she introduced them, then he seemed to calm down.
Promises, Promises Page 24
