Chapter 21 #2
Taking a deep breath to push those feelings to the back of my brain, I turn back to Paul.
“I was always too good for you. And I have found someone else. Whether he ends up being someone I’m with for one more day, ten years, or the rest of my life, I don’t know.
What I do know is that he has made me feel more loved, and more respected, in the short time we’ve been together, than you did in the five years we were together. ”
There’s a flicker in Paul’s eye that makes my hair stand on end, but his eyes move behind me for a moment, and he seems to think better of whatever he was going to say. That doesn’t completely stop him from opening his mouth. “You talk too fucking much. I haven’t missed that.”
Letting go of Liam’s hand, I grab Paul’s bag and take a step forward to hold it out to him. Before he has a chance to take it from me, I drop it to the ground at our feet. “Good thing I didn’t say any of it for you. I said it for me.”
There’s another round of snickers behind me, and I hear a couple “hell yeah” cheers as well.
The flash I saw in Paul returns as he hinges upwards from picking up his bag. It’s dark and malicious, but I stand my ground in front of him, refusing to so much as flinch.
“You’ll never be anything more than a nice body with a semi tight pussy,” he spits at me. Literally spits. I see it flying from his mouth as the words leave it.
“Oh, grow a bigger fucking dick!”
Thoughts don’t exist when my arm comes up, pulls back, and then snaps forward straight into his nose.
The force reverberates in the weirdest way, sending pins and needles shooting through my hand and up my arm, but it doesn’t hurt like I would have expected.
The sensation is just unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
Paul, on the other hand, definitely feels the pain from my punch. His hands are immediately at his nose, and he’s bent forward before I can gasp over what I’ve just done.
A chorus of “holy shit!” and “oh my god!” and “that’s my girl!” ring out around me, while Paul cusses a storm in my direction. When his eyes come up to meet mine, they’re watering, and I can see a little blood coming from behind his hand, but it’s his nose. Of course there’s some blood.
“If you ever see me again after this, pretend you don’t know me.
If you ever see any of my friends after this, pretend you don’t know them.
Because you don’t.” I kneel down in front of him still bent over, smiling with the same viciousness that he showed me.
“And if you do see one of us, and you do try to talk to us, I promise you’ll regret it.
You’re not worth much to anyone, but I know how much you think you’re worth. ”
“So here’s my promise to you, Paul.” I pull a tissue out of my carry on, handing it to him which he takes begrudgingly.
Not that one tissue will do much, but that’s not the point of it.
“I promise that I will find a woman that you’ll want to seduce.
I promise that she’ll allow it to happen.
And I promise she’ll gather all kinds of evidence against you that she’ll take to your wife, who will then take you to the cleaners. ”
My elbow rests on my knee, and I put a finger in the air, letting it bounce around a little to ensure he knows that the best part is coming.
“But I won’t do it when you expect it. Oh, no.
I’ll wait. I’ll let you get comfortable.
I’ll wait until you’ve stopped looking over your shoulder for me. That’s when it’ll happen.”
My malevolent smile widens as he wipes a bloody hand on his shorts, having nowhere else to do it, eyes dark with hatred.
“And we both know it’ll be easy because you’ll never be able to keep it in your pants.
It’s not who you are.” Rising to my feet, I give him a friendly pat on the upper arm.
“Now I’m done thinking about you once and for all.
But you? You’ll think of me every single time you cheat on your wife, because you’ll wonder if this is the one that has it out for you. ”
He turns his head sideways and spits, then snarls in my direction. “You’re a bitch.”
I suck in a deep breath, feeling proud of the title. “No, Paul. I just grew a fucking backbone.”
With my head held high and my back ramrod straight, I grab hold of my luggage and carry on, move around Paul, whose friends are just reaching us now, and head down the sidewalk.
I’m vibrating from head to toe. There’s a feeling of pure elation rushing through me, making my heart race out of control.
I’ve never stood up for myself like that. Not to anyone, least of all a man.
I don’t bother to check and see if anyone is following me.
I know they are. If it weren’t the sound of roller wheels on pavement, it would be the chatter happening directly behind me.
Or the eyes burning into the side of my face as Liam catches up to me.
He waits until we’ve followed the walkway through a couple of aisles of vehicles before his arms are suddenly around me and my feet are leaving the ground as he spins me around and lets out a whoop of praise.
Gripping his arms, I can’t help but let out some of the joy I’m feeling by way of laughter and giggles.
That felt so good. Better than I could have imagined it would feel.
It was years of shit that’s always bubbled beneath the surface, spewing out in the form of standing up for myself. Who knew it would feel so good?
When he sets me back to my feet, he spins me around to face him, an ear to ear grin greeting me. Instead of saying a word, he grabs my cheeks and plants a hard, sloppy kiss on my lips that has me bursting with more laughter.
“Liam!” I clamor against his mouth, pressing against his chest for him to stop the slobber fest. Seriously, he rivals a dog at the moment, taking it up a notch as he plants his lips all over my face.
I can’t help the giggles, and while I’m pushing against him, I’m not giving any real effort to make him end his onslaught. “Stop!”
“Can’t help it,” he mutters a word between each kiss he drops. “I am so fucking proud of you.”
I hear Quinn’s voice come from somewhere over Liam’s shoulder. “That was badass.”
“I wonder if you broke his nose,” Luke comments.
“Your hand okay?” Hailey asks. Always the practical one.
I haven’t given my hand much thought since the weird feeling that exploded through it disappeared.
There’s way too much adrenaline running through me to feel much of anything besides the buoyancy I’ve got going on.
While violence doesn’t solve anything, and I’ve never been a proponent of it, I can’t deny that I feel like I’m on cloud nine. Everything is airy and light.
Even as Liam eases back so he can take my hand to check it over, I can’t stop grinning.
Much like him. There’s concern in his eyes as he scrutinizes it, but the smile remains.
It sends another wave of energy surging through me.
His pride for me is tangible, sweeping me to make me feel like I’m on top of the world.
I’ve never felt like this before. Not when I graduated nursing school, not while dating my high school sweetheart, not when I met Paul.
No big moment in my life has ever compared to this.
I feel like I could run a marathon while saving the world, and still have energy to conquer every dream, aspiration, and goal I’ve ever thought since I was a little girl.