2 #2
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going.”
“Hmmm… Why does that not surprise me?”
I swallow hard and close my eyes, willing this all to be a figment of my imagination. Bring Mark back. I’ll deal with Mark all day long. Not this. This is the absolute icing on the cake, and let me tell you, the icing sucks. This icing will ruin the entire freaking cake.
“Eric.”
“Ava,” he answers back in greeting, but it sounds exasperated.
Thankfully, the wine didn’t break.
I look up and see a set of eyes I used to think I’d wake up every morning to. Eyes I thought saw me the same way. Now I see nothing but a cold, bottomless pit of lies, broken promises, and betrayal.
“Well, that looks like a predictable night,” Eric states, not even bothering to help me put things back in my basket.
“It’s a period, Eric. They all suck. Anything else you’d like to add to that?”
“Well, you’ve been dealing with them for over a decade. You’d think you’d be used to them by now.”
I scoff and bite my tongue, remembering he didn’t have any sisters.
“I see you’re still the gentleman I remember,” I sneer at him with a sardonic smile. “I was hoping something changed in that department after all these years. Guess not.”
“Snarky little bitch has claws. Good for you.”
“Ahem. Ava, baby, I grabbed the pizza. You have any idea what movies or shows we’re binging tonight?”
I freeze, stuck in place because what the actual fuck am I hearing right now? Could this get any worse? Don’t even think that into existence!
“Oh, hi. I’m Mark, Ava’s boyfriend, and you are? Here, babe, let me hold that basket.” I look over at Mark with my mouth agape like a fish, and he eyes me back to play along. He then turns his attention back to Eric like he’s actually interested in what Eric’s answer is.
“I’m Eric. Ava’s former fiancé. You’ve probably heard about me.”
“Nope. I haven’t, but I’m assuming from the way you were just speaking to her that I don’t even care to.
” Mark takes a slight step forward. “Don’t speak to her that way ever again.
Better yet, leave her be.” Mark looks back to me as if Eric’s presence is inconsequential.
“Come on, sweetheart, let’s go get comfy. ”
Eric’s face is on fire, and all I can do is just stare at the man I never expected to ride in on a white horse.
Mark puts his hand on the small of my back and begins to lead me to the check out.
He grabs a couple of chocolate bars and tosses them into the basket, acting as if nothing just happened.
Eric takes a few steps forward, inserting himself back where he isn’t wanted, but he feels the need to get his last dagger in.
Mark tenses beside me slightly with awareness, sensing the coming bullshit.
“She as fucking boring in bed for you as she was for me?”
Mark and I stop dead in our tracks at the checkout lane’s entrance, and I know the mortification written all over my face must be a sight to behold because Mark looks down at me, his jaw clenching in anger.
“Forgive me for what I’m about to do.”
“Mark…don’t–” I start, but he’s already turning back to Eric.
“Excuse me?” Mark strolls up to Eric, looking intimidating as fuck yet keeping the cool of a saint. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that look. Eric doesn’t know quite what to do as his eyes dart back and forth. Coward.
“Is she as boring in bed for you as she was for me?”
“You see, I heard you, but I was hoping you weren’t stupid enough to repeat it.
Fuck, aren’t you the gentleman? Well, let me enlighten you a little.
I should really thank you, because you dropped the ball on one hell of a little spitfire.
Maybe if you’d let her spread her wings a little instead of having to always be in control, you would’ve gotten a taste of what I will never let go of and what you will never taste again. ”
My jaw is quite possibly on the floor. Mark turns back to me and winks before grabbing my hand and taking us through the checkout.
When I start to fish out my wallet, he mumbles an Uh Uh and pays for all our things.
He grabs the bags and asks for my keys. I hand them to him, and he reaches for my hand again.
His big palm holds mine so carefully, as if he’s afraid I’ll shatter.
“Come on,” he whispers.
“But–” I begin.
“No buts. He's watching. Don’t make me kiss you to prove a point, because I’m in the mood to prove a point to that asshole.”
“Nope. I’m good.”
“That’s what I thought.”
We walk in silence to my SUV, and he opens my door for me. After dropping our bags in the back, he pulls out his phone, dialing as he climbs in the driver’s seat.
“Hey, Colin, can you pick me up at Ava’s in thirty?”
I hear a mumbled question on the other end of the call. Colin was probably not expecting that one. That would make two of us.
“Long story short, I was proving a point to her ex.”
Another mumbled answer.
“Thanks, man. See you in a bit.” Mark ends the call and sets his phone in the cupholder.
“What the fuck did you ever see in that asshole, and how the hell did you almost marry him?”