I reached up to grab an old vase from a high cupboard. Clark came storming into the kitchen. “He’s taking you to our place. He can’t do that.”
I glanced at him while I struggled on my tiptoes to reach the vase. Clark gave me an exasperated look and reached up to pull down the item I needed.
“Really? Where? ” I asked smiling. My stomach started to rumble.
“He’s taking you to that Italian place on First Street. He can’t take you there. That’s our place,” he blurted out angrily. Confusion marred my expression, not understanding what the problem was.
“Why can’t he take me there and what makes it our place?”
“Well, wh…I took you there already. I mean…”
“You never took Tina there?” I interrupted him, almost anxious to know the answer.
He shook his head while I stared at him in disbelief wondering what this actually meant for us. Was there even an “us”?
“You ready to head out, Aubrey?” Blake called out. I swallowed, still staring deep into Clark’s eyes, my heart beating fast not knowing what this meant for us.
“I have to go, Clark. You have Tina now,” I whispered to him right before I started to walk out of the kitchen. His hand grasped my arm, pulling me back into the kitchen. “Be right there,” I called out to Blake, hoping to buy just a little bit of time. The desire to see what Clark had to say brought on a new wave of hope in me.
“I…” He stopped and then looked up at the ceiling. Then his eyes fell back to mine. “Don’t. Don’t go out with him, Aub,” he pleaded, his eyes followed suit as we stared at each other for a moment longer.
“You can’t have both of us, Clark.”
His lips pressed together as his eyes darted around as if searching for an answer.
“Hey, is everything okay in here?” Tina’s voice responded to his silent question as his eyes rested on mine. I gave a small shrug and waited. That moment felt eternal.
He blew it.
His eyes never left mine. His voice was determined as he told Tina, “I was thinking we should double date. I think you’d like that restaurant actually.” I narrowed my eyes at him as he looked away; unsure why on earth he would think joining us was a good idea.
Both Tina and I replied at the same time, “No!” I continued, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Clark, they need to be alone with each other. We’ll go somewhere else and have dinner.” She reached over and squeezed his arm. His eyes fell back to mine. I shook my head as I broke our stare, knowing I had to be the one to do it.
Turning on my heel, I called out over my shoulder, “Listen to your girlfriend, Clark. She’s right about this one.”
When Blake and I reached the lobby, he helped me shrug my coat on.
“It’s Clark, isn’t it? The guy you were crying about earlier today?”
I swallowed, barely able to meet his eyes. His hand caressed my shoulder with a small squeeze as he gave a small nudge toward the door.
“I thought so. Let’s go have an enjoyable dinner and a nice conversation between two friends. Okay?”
I nodded, but this time I gave him a faint smile, thankful that he understood why my heart was breaking.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Clark
FUCK. I stared at the door, seething. My blood boiled and every fiber of my body wanted to run after Aub.
“Is something wrong, Clark?” Tina’s voice brought me back to the real problem. Her. Aub’s little summation that she’s my scapegoat from a relationship with Tina may have been right not too long ago, but all that has changed. Aub and I have grown so much closer since then.
“I know you like to look after Aubrey like a sister, but she can handle herself, you know.” Like a sister? My feelings for Aub were nowhere close to being “sisterly.”
Tina’s hand rested on my arm, giving me a small squeeze to try to bring my attention back to her. “Hey. She’ll be all right, you know?” She grabbed her coat from the couch and grabbed mine too. I shrugged on my leather jacket, not knowing what to say. I need to break up with her, but where would she go? She wanted to be with me for so long. Had I led her on? No. I had insisted so many times that we could never be.
“Let’s head over to that new pizza joint that just opened. I’m craving pizza and beer for some reason,” she told me. She giggled and tugged on my arm. Reluctantly, I followed.
The bitter cold was actually refreshing. I inhaled deeply and tried to figure out a way to break up with Tina and get Aub back. Odd how I never wanted a girlfriend and now I’m debating between two.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, Tina had no choice but to do the same since her arm was linked with mine.
“What made you break up with Hank?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.
“What?”
“What made you finally decide to tell him now after all the times you’ve just promised me you would.”
“I…” her eyes darted around searching for an answer. She was going to lie to me and I knew it because the time frame didn’t add up to me.
“You didn’t really break up with him, did you? He’s just away again. That’s why you’re back again. You didn’t tell him, did you?”
“I…I was going to before he left, but…” I turned and started to pace the sidewalk as a different type of anger washed over me. “You lied to me,” I seethed.
“Well, not really. I mean. Sort of. I was…” She kept spewing more lies while I stared at her. I turned and started walking back to my apartment.
“Where are you going?” She asked while she tried to keep her pace with me. I didn’t bother answering, but instead increased my speed. Using the staircase, hoping to burn off some of the anger I felt, I ran back up to my apartment. Tina was crying and rambling excuses behind me, but I barely heard her above the hatred I felt for her.
Shoving my door open, I didn’t bother closing it, knowing the bitch was right behind me. You could probably hear her wailing throughout the building. “Please listen!” Her screeching stabbed into my thoughts. I didn’t say a word as I grabbed all her fucking clothes strewn around my room and threw them into the suitcase she brought. Her crying and pleading continued, yet I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. I was afraid of how bad I’d lose my control.
I slammed her suitcase shut and knew she wouldn’t take it from me, so I continued right to the door. I opened it wide and threw the thing into the hallway, watching as it bounced off Vanessa and Matt’s door. Holding the door wide, I barely looked at her. There was no need to tell her where her ass should be, but she stood in front of me and continued to plead.
“You’ve gotta believe me, Clark. I love you. I love you so much,” she babbled through tears.
“You loved me enough to lie to me, right?”
“I wasn’t lying to you. I was just waiting for you to realize you really do love me and say it. Then…”
“Just like all the other times you’ve lied to me. You don’t love me. You love the idea of being with me, for some stupid reason…”
Just then, Matt opened his door across the hall. He looked between the both of us and then down at the suitcase and closed his door again. I took that opportunity to actually look at Tina for the first time since this discovery. Her lips were mashed together, quivering as tears fell from her eyes. At one point in time, I would have felt like shit and just tried to calm her down. Now? Nothing. I was furious. She may have ruined things with Aub. Whatever it was that I had with her.
“It’s over Tina. Don’t bother coming back after Hank leaves again. I’m done with this.” I closed the door while she shouted how much she hates me and how no one will ever love me like she does.
God, I hope not.
I stood there for a moment staring at the door and hoped Tina left. Fuck it. Who cares at this point, right? I needed to go tell Aub the news so we can get back to what we were doing before the bitch interrupted us.
Stepping into the hallway
so soon probably wasn’t the best decision. She was still out there, on the phone, crying her eyes out and as soon as she saw me she ended her call and ran to me. I guess she thought I came back for her. She jumped in front of me and tried to hug me as I tried to continue walking. I gripped her waist and pulled her off me, setting her to the side.
“You love me! I know you love me! Just admit it!” Her words echoed down the hallway while she screamed at me.
I stopped and stared at her for a moment. Wow. I had spent so much time with her and never saw this side of her. “I don’t love you, Tina. I’m sorry.”
Panic flashed in her eyes. I started to walk again when she screeched out, “Aubrey? You love Aubrey? There’s no way she could ever give you what I can! Never!”
I tried to ignore everything she yelled. I knew she was hurting and I didn’t want to add to it. I continued to head toward the stairwell instead of waiting for the elevator.
She followed me.
Tina ran down the stairs after me screaming the whole time. I landed on the final platform and pushed the door open as she screamed, “She’ll leave you! No woman will be able to stand you for very long! That’s the exact reason your mom left you!”
I stopped at the door trying to keep my anger in check as I clenched my jaw. Breathing heavy, I really tried not to say anything, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I’m pretty sure Hank will leave you the moment he finds out that you’re fucking me every time he leaves town. And I’ve heard he likes to discard used trash.”
“You son of a bitch!” She started trying to hit me and I jumped out into the hallway, avoiding her attempts. Being alone in a stairwell with a crazy lady flailing her arms around wasn’t where I wanted to be. I wasn’t sure what she’d be capable of lying about.
I ran out of the building and down the couple of blocks to the restaurant, hoping the crazy woman wasn’t going to follow me.
I pushed the door open and immediately spotted the two of them at a table in the corner, cozy and laughing together. Blake’s arm was around the back of Aub’s chair and he was leaning in to hear her as he smiled.
They didn’t see me come in and I stood there for a moment just watching them. She was actually having fun. But she just had fun with me the other day. Before Tina came in and ruined it. Fuck.
STANDING RIGHT at their table now, Blake’s eyes met mine. He smirked and then stood up. He slapped his hand on my back and laughed. “Took you long enough, asshole.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means it took you way too long to get your ass down here.” Again he clapped my back. “Thanks for dinner,” he chuckled and walked toward the door. I sat down next to Aub, anxious to get this part over with so we could go back to where we were before Tina came back.
“What are you doing here?” She glanced at the door again. “Did you forget your girlfriend?”
“I didn’t forget anything. She’s sitting right next to me.” I turned and signaled to the waitress and ordered a beer.
When I turned back to Aub, she wasn’t looking at me. “Did you hear what I said, Aub?”
She took a sip from her wine glass. “I heard you.”
“And?”
“And what?” she asked, as if I hadn’t just laid my heart on the line.
“Does that make you happy? Isn’t that what you want?” I should be telling her that it made me happy and that it was what I wanted, but it was easier to make this about her.
“The question is, are you happy?”
“Why do you keep flipping this around on me? I broke up with Tina so we could be together. Why aren’t you happy about that?”
“Because I’m not sure if that’s really what you want.”
This woman was infuriating. “What kind of screwed up logic is that? Why wouldn’t that be what I want?”
She turned and looked at me. Really looked at me. “Because I’m not sure that’s what you really want. Is it? Did you tell her you have feelings for me? Or did she tell you she hadn’t really left Hank?”
I couldn’t believe she guessed the truth. My expression must have shown my surprise. “That’s it, isn’t it?” She continued, “I knew it. She went back to him! You didn’t even have to make a decision because she made it for you.”
“No! That’s not true. I mean, it sort of is. She didn’t really break up with him, but I figured it out. She didn’t tell me. I threw her out.”
“For me?”
It was one of those women questions that seemed like a double-edged sword. Answering the wrong way could really screw a man over. I hesitated too long.
She huffed and stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. Well, home for now. I’ll be moving out soon.”
“What?” I grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto my lap. She squirmed for a moment as I pulled her tight to me. “You’re not moving out and you’re not leaving this restaurant.”
The waitress picked that moment to bring me my beer. It gave Aub a moment to cross her arms and turn slightly away from me.
I rested my hand on her thigh and squeezed. “I can honestly say that I threw Tina out for me. I wanted to break up with her as soon as she walked in, but I wasn’t going to kick her out since she didn’t have anywhere to go. I couldn’t do that to someone. Then, she said something that led me to believe she hadn’t left Hank. She lied to me. It spurred the inevitable and I told her to leave.” I pulled her hair off her shoulder and kissed her neck. I felt her melt into me.
I could see a smile trying to come through. “Are you really going to call me your girlfriend so soon?”
Chuckling, I looked up to the ceiling. “Ah shit. I showed my cards way too early, didn’t I? I could call you my fuck-mate instead, if you’d prefer.”
She rolled her eyes and gave me a light punch to my chest. “You’re such an asshole.”
“Good. Glad that’s settled for anyone who asks.” I pulled her close and kissed her hard. For some reason, there was something deep inside me that didn’t want to let go of Aub. I wasn’t going to fight that feeling right now.
It felt way too good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aubrey
THE WEEKS FLEW by and I was in nothing more than pure bliss. That feeling that your feet will never touch the ground because you’re so happy. Things between Clark and I were fantastic. Going to work was the only time we were apart. We spent some nights at Allure, but nothing like before. We met our friends there, hung out for a little while and then rushed home together. Well, sometimes we didn’t make it home.
Everyone noticed that we were now together, especially the women at Allure. Of course, they weren’t happy for us. Actually, some were downright nasty to me, but super sweet to him. One night in particular, Clark’s own words came back to haunt him.
It’s funny to me how many times girls make sure to say hurtful things in a bathroom knowing the person they’re talking about is in the stall. It’s happened many times to my friends, but never really to me. Until this one evening…
While I was in a stall doing what needs to be done in there, Trina and Malorie could be overheard talking about Clark and his “ways” of pleasing them. I really wasn’t bothered by it; it was actually funny to me that they’ve only had him in the back room and it seemed to me, they were the ones doing the pleasing.
“He’s so large! I can’t wait to wrap my mouth around him again,” Trina said.
“How? He’s always stuck beside that slut roommate of his. Hell, she’s probably fucked all the guys at this bar already.” I couldn’t really argue with that entirely, but I don’t think I’d say all of them.
Malorie lowered her voice, but it was still loud enough for me to hear. “I heard she has to leave soon for her job. She’ll be gone for at least a month or two. There’s no way Clark can go that long without fucking someone else.”
That one stung because it was actually a worry of mine too. With his history, I was having a h
ard time believing that Clark could be faithful. We were living together and although he called me his girlfriend, or jokingly “fuck-mate,” we never really declared any type of monogamy to each other. It was something that I took to be a given even though we’d never discussed it.
After I regained some composure, I confidently opened the door and walked to the sink. While I washed my hands and began to primp my hair, I felt their eyes on me. I couldn’t tell if they were waiting for me to leave so they could talk about me more or if they were analyzing me. I decided to go with analyzing me and realized that they were probably just jealous. I applied more lip gloss before heading toward the exit. As I pulled the door handle, I smiled and remarked, “You’re right. He really is large.”
Heading back to where we were gathered at the bar, I stopped in my tracks. My stomach dropped and I clenched my fists as I watched Felicia hang all over Clark. While he didn’t have his hands around her, he wasn’t doing anything to dissuade her either. I stood before him as Felicia’s hand continued to play with his hair. Clark was talking to a friend of his, so his back was to her, but my jealousy was making me crazy. My heart raced and I tried my best to keep my feelings in check. After all, he didn’t kiss her. Yet.
“Hey babe. I was just telling Tony about the other night.” He turned fully to look at me and eyed me warily. Could he see the steam rolling out of my ears with every second that wench had her fingers in his hair?
My hand shook slightly from the anger rising in me. “Thanks,” I managed to choke out, while having visions of taking his drink, throwing it in Felicia’s face and then slamming her head on the counter ran through my mind. A bit violent, I know, but the jealousy spike was really coursing through my veins. It took me everything I had not to carry out the odd fantasy.
Instead, I reached over and guzzled his drink so quickly that Clark’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened with surprise. The glass clanked slightly as I returned it to the bar. The beer wasn’t the calming Jack that I used to prefer, nor did it give me any sort of calm that I required at that moment.
Alluring Promises Box Set (Books 1-3) Page 119
