Face to Face
DAPHNE
When it comes to Cole, I have a hell of a lot of regrets. I don’t really know why I picked him at first, even back then.
Or why I went back.
But I’m finished with him, for good this time.
Cole didn’t want a partner, he wanted a mother, and I’m done cleaning up his messes, staying up late wondering where he could possibly be, or if he was even alive.
Whatever he has to say to me isn’t going to change my mind.
I know now I deserve better than whatever mockery of a life the asshole could offer.
“You doin’ okay, Daphne?” Denny asks from behind the bar.
“Yeah,” I reply. “I just want this over with.”
We reached out to Audrey, but she wasn’t going to be able to make it on time, and Denny was sweet enough to come in on incredibly short notice as a replacement.
I did promise him a pretty big bonus for his time, so that might have helped.
“You need anything, you just yell.”
“Thanks, Denny.”
He offers me a warm smile, leaning up against the bar right as my phone chimes.
COLE
I’m outside.
I can feel my heart leap up from my chest, but I manage to pull myself together. This has been my whole life with Cole: twisted up insides and anxiety-riddled nerves. The thought of seeing him again makes me sick.
Why did I ever think that things would change?
That he would change?
ME
The door’s unlocked.
With a hammering heart, I quickly open the voice memo app on my phone and hit record before slipping it back into my bag, taking a sip of my drink as casually as I can manage.
Cole steps inside the bar, the door accompanying his entrance with an ominous creak. He looks like he hasn’t slept, nervously running a hand through his dark, disheveled hair, and for the briefest moment I almost feel sorry for him… until I remember this is how he garners sympathy.
“Hey, baby.”
The sound of his voice makes my skin crawl.
“Don’t call me that.”
He lumbers toward me, pulling out a chair and easing himself into it.
I’m not giving him a fucking inch, because knowing Cole, he’ll take hundreds of miles.
All I want is to get him out of my life for good.
“Thanks for meeting with me.”
I can smell the liquor on him; that, and the fact that he’s tried to cover it with copious amounts of mouth wash. The old Daphne would tell him she’s concerned about his drinking, but the new me is… well, numb.
Maybe that’s not very compassionate of me, but I’m tired of enabling him.
“You wanted a chance to say your piece? Well here I am.”
“I want you back.”
“Well that’s not what I want.”
His eyes flash with anger.
“Is it him?”
“Among other things.”
“Look, you and me, we have a history, baby—”
“Stop calling me that,” I snarl.
“It is him, though, isn’t it?” Cole snaps. “It’s always been him getting in the way of shit.”
I fiddle with my medallion, trying to keep myself calm.
When I wrap my fingers around it, I see a future.
When I look back up at Cole, I see a past I should have let go of when I was 17.
“Is that why you trashed the bar?” I ask. “Because he got in your way and you decided to throw a temper tantrum?”
It’s a cheap shot, and I know it, but I’m not interested in being the bigger person today. In fact, I’d like to reach over and smack him in the face for putting me and my family through hell.
“I just wanted to work things out, and then—”
“That is not true! You’ve been stalking me, harassing me, trashing my bar… Did you really think any of that was going to win me over?!”
“No, Daph, I tried to call you! Right at the start I tried to text you, and explain myself! I wanted to show you that I can change, but you wouldn’t let me!”
“Right, so that’s why you reached out to HotGoss with that article? Cole, all you wanted to do was bring me down because I refused to take your lying, cheating ass back, and when you saw me with Frankie, you exploded. You couldn’t handle it. You’ve never been able to handle rejection—”
“I can’t handle you with him!” Cole slams his hands down onto the table so hard even Denny flinches. “Even when we were in high school he was so fucking familiar with you. It wasn’t right.”
There it is.
“So you saw him as a threat.”
Cole chuckles, and it’s almost surreal to see all of that high school arrogance bubble right back up to the surface. Back then, he was Mr. Untouchable, and he knew it.
“Hughes was a fucking nerd who licked library books to get his dick hard. You think I was threatened by that? I was captain of the football team, I could have anyone I wanted!”
His jaw ticks as he leans forward, and I swear I can hear his teeth grind.
“People adored me!”
“Wow, how the mighty have fallen, huh?”
“What do you want from me, Daphne? Fuck, how am I even the bad guy here? You abandoned your soulmate!”
“Soulmate?!” I bellow. “You think we were soulmates? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! You need help. Professional help, Cole, and I can’t give that to you.”
“I just need you!”
“Cole–”
“How many times has the universe ripped us apart just to put us back together?”
He flashes me those big puppy dog eyes, a look I know all too well. When I was 16, it worked every time. At 36? It makes me wonder if I’m fast enough to hit him with my fucking chair.
“The only time I think of you is when your number lights up my phone, and I get the sudden urge to puke. My daughter hates you, her father hates you, and I hate you more than the both of them combined.”
Color floods his cheeks and I see red blotches creep along his jawline.
I think I got him.
“I went back to you because it was familiar, and because I thought there was the slimmest chance you might have changed, but I should have known all along what a fucking disappointment you’d turn out to be.”
“You goddamn fucking whore,” he growls. “Do you know why I really trashed this bar?”
“You tell me, you worthless piece of shit—”
“Because you’re a fucking hypocrite! You spent your entire childhood resenting this place, and then some old man dies and all of a sudden you give a shit?
You’re fake. You’ve always been fake. Everyone sees the fillers, the little nips and tucks, and the eighty pounds of makeup you wear…
And Daph, let’s be honest with ourselves for once: if you didn’t have all that, you’d be nothing. Absolutely— Fucking— Nothing.”
I blink back my tears, praying he doesn’t see them. He’s always tried to wield my insecurities like a knife during arguments. He’ll take any advantage he can get, not even caring how much it hurts me. Or maybe that was always the point.
“You’re the one who has nothing, Cole, and you did it to yourself. You put me through hell over and over again for years, and you still expect me to take you back? You’re the same insecure, pathetic piece of shit you always were.”
He stares daggers at me, his hand clenching into a tight fist as my heart starts to hammer even harder.
“Do it, I fucking dare you.”
I watch as the gears in his head turn, as he runs through the possibility of getting away with hitting a woman, on her own property, with a witness present. Turns out even he’s not that arrogant.
“You’re a selfish bitch, you know that?” He sneers.
I open my mouth to retort, but he slips out of his seat before I can, grabbing my soda and knocking back half of it before pouring the rest right into my lap.
And right into my open purse.
I immediately leap to my feet, ice-cubes scattering to the floor as I dump my bag out onto my chair.
“No…” I mutter in a rising panic. “No, no, no!”
“Oops,” Cole chuckles. “That’s gonna be expensive to replace.”
“You piece of shit!” I roar, snatching up the glass and raising it over my head.
Cole goes to duck, but just before I can bring my arm down, a little voice stops me in my tracks.
“Mom?”
Violet’s gazing at me from the back entrance, her brows knitted together with worry.
I can’t believe I almost let it get that far.
Cole’s the one who freaks out, who punches walls, and throws fits. I’m better than that.
I set the glass down, turning back to him with a hardened expression.
“Get out.”
He lets out an indignant snort.
“Hey, no hard feelings. I’ll let you know when my article’s dropping.”
My anger flares up again, but I manage to choke it down, even if it burns like the worst whiskey I’ve ever tasted.
The slam of the door shakes my bones, and suddenly all that adrenaline I was feeling practically evaporates.
My legs tremble, sweat clinging to the back of my neck as I feel my chest getting tighter.
And tighter.
And then Violet rushes toward me, wrapping me in a big hug.
“It’s okay, mom. He’s gone.”
I squeeze her tight, breathing in the comforting scent of her strawberry shampoo.
“Thank you, baby. I’m so sorry you had to see that.”
Our little moment is cut short by the thundering sound of footsteps on stairs before Frankie and Hux come rushing into the bar.
“Where is he?” Huxley asks, his head snapping back and forth. “He gone? You good?”
“He just left,” Violet chirps. “Mom really pissed him off.”
“I’ll make sure he’s off the property,” Denny says. “I was a couple seconds off from whooping his ass. Be happy to chase that son of a bitch down in my truck if I have to.”
“Thanks, Denny,” Huxley sighs.
Frankie’s already at my side, running his hands through my hair.
“So what happened?” He asks. “It sounded really heated at the end, so we rushed down.”
A lump forms in my throat and I hand him my bag that’s still dripping with Diet Coke.
“My phone was in there. The recording, it’s…”
All of that for nothing.
I fucking failed.
“I tried—”
Frankie soothes me, rocking me from side to side.
“It’s okay, I promise. We’ll figure it out.”
We won’t. Cole’s going to release that article, and then another one, and another one, and I’ll have to spend years dragging myself out of the pit he’s gonna throw me into.
“Daph? Your phone?” Huxley chuckles.
I lift my head to see him shaking it out, little drops of liquid landing on the floor.
“What?”
“There’s some soda in the speakers but…” He gives it a few more good shakes, grunting softly before holding it up for us to see. “Looks fine to me.”
I snatch it from his hand, quickly swiping through to my gallery and play the recording back.
Crystal clear audio.
The massive rock in my gut begins to shrink.
We can file the criminal report. Even if they don’t move forward with the case, we’ve got the perfect ammunition if he tries to drag me through the dirt.
I can finally move on with my life.
“We got him. I can’t believe it.”
Frankie brushes a strand of hair away from my face.
“You got him. That was some serious undercover shit.”
“Does this mean Cole’s going to jail?” Violet asks.
“Almost definitely not,” I laugh. “But I think it’ll be enough to get him to move on to other things.”
“Hey, V? How about we help your mom clean up? I think we can get some rags and have this little mess dealt with in no time.”
Huxley wraps an arm around Violet, leading her to the back of the bar and leaving Frankie and I alone.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asks.
“Yeah,” I laugh, gesturing to my ruined purse. “And this is nothing some retail therapy can’t fix.”
He grins, his eyes dark and dangerous.
“What’s that look?”
“Oh, nothing… I was just figuring out how I’m gonna help you forget about today.”
“Yeah? What did you have in mind?”
He clears his throat.
“Have you ever looked into… Pegging?”
My eyes nearly bug out of my head.
“You— you like that?”
“Oh, Firecracker. I’ll be a very good boy for you.”
Just the thought of him on his knees makes me ache. I’ve been on the submissive end of this for so long, my whole body starts to tingle at the prospect.
“Maybe… we can ask Hux to babysit tonight.”