Chapter 25
Zane
“Stanley?” Sadie gasps, looking from me to him in confusion. “What? But, Stanley’s your last name...”
I step in front of my girl protectively, blocking him from her with my body. I’m up in his face in seconds.
What the fuck is he doing here?
“You think you can walk into my bar, in my town and put your hands on my girl? Not this time, dickface.”
I don’t even hesitate, or give him time to answer or react — I draw my arm back and swing.
The guy had it coming, I should’ve done this years ago, but the slimy fuck was run out of town before I got my chance.
The crack his nose makes when it connects with my fist is unpleasant to say the least, but fills me with instant gratification.
“FUCK!” he yells, his hands flying up to his face, blood trickles out in an instant. “That hurt!”
Sadie shrieks, her hands pressing into her cheeks as she watches on in complete and utter shock.
“You had it coming, asswipe!”
“She’s my ex-girlfriend!” Stanley garbles, holding out an extended arm to try to protect himself from my right arm swinging again. It isn’t beyond me, so maybe he’s not so dumb after all.
It takes me a second to understand what the fuck he’s muttering on about.
I glance back at Sadie, who’s still holding her hands to her face and looking from me to fuckface, back to me again.
Her mouth opens to say something, then closes again.
“What?” I grit at Stanley, I don’t even care if I’m bellowing or not, or who the hell is watching.
I know for a fact the sheriff ain’t gonna arrest me for assaulting my ex-best friend in a bar full of people.
“Sadie, tell him!” Stanley pleads, pointing at her, and if he tries to get any closer to her again, I’ll break his fingers one by one. I don’t care.
“Don’t point at her!” I growl. “In fact, don’t even look at her!”
“Wait, it’s true.” I hear Sadie’s voice above the noise in the bar, and over my own racing thoughts what he’s even doing here. “Duncan Stanley,” she says. “He is my ex.”
My head whips back to him again, none of us guys ever called him Duncan… he always went by his last name, a football tradition that just carried on after high school. “What in the ever living fu–” The temperature in here feels nuclear, and I’ve never felt so close to blowing a gasket before.
This lying, cheating piece of shit is Sadie’s ex from New York?
“Sade, please tell me this isn’t true, baby,” I say between gritted teeth.
And I know it is true, because she just told me, so I may just thump him again because I can.
How in the hell… he’s also the asshole who Hilary cheated on me with…
my hand balls into a fist again by my side.
It’s only the way Sadie presses her beautiful lips together, and takes a deep breath, that distracts me for a moment.
I don’t want to upset her, I just want to comprehend what’s going on, and throw this asshole out of here.
“Baby?!” Stanley, Duncan, whatever the fuck he wants to call himself, says. “Wait, are you two–?” He points between us with the hand not covered in blood from his nose.
“Shut the fuck up,” I grit. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Sadie lets out another deep breath and steps next to me, placing her soft, delicate hand on my arm. “That’s the lying, cheating scumbag who had all the dating app profiles,” she confirms. “Duncan. Funny, he didn’t go by Stanley in New York.”
“Just scumbag,” I mutter, turning my attention back to him. “The same one who cheated with my ex, Hilary.“
I clarify that part just so she’s up to speed. The look of horrified recognition on her face tells me she is. He must’ve run off to New York after he got chased out of town and somehow ended up with my sweet, adorable Sadie.
I turn back to him. “As if you doing what you did to me wasn’t bad enough, you then go on to cheat on Sadie, repeatedly I might add, then continue to barrage her with messages and emails?
And because she doesn’t want anything to do with your lying ass, somehow you think showing up here unannounced to win her back is a good idea? ”
“I–I–” He pauses, taking a step further away. Maybe my still clenched fist might have something to do with that. “I just wanted to tell her I was sorry, and that I didn’t mean it. I love her!”
That’s when I see red again and draw my arm back, hopefully I’ll knock him out this time. But before I can, someone’s hand on my shoulder stops me. Instinctively, I turn my head and see George. My non-lying and cheating best friend. He’s more of a man than Stanley will ever be.
“Everything okay?” George asks, giving me a chin lift and nodding over to Sadie’s bleeding ex in front of us. He doesn’t even bother regarding Stanley with anything but a look of disgust. He drove him out of town once before, I’m sure he’ll happily do it again.
“Everything is just fine,” I say. “The asshole here was just leaving.”
Stanley looks up at George, still in uniform, and they both share a moment without words, luckily for him, he shuts his trap before it can get him in any more trouble.
“Any more out of you and I’ll have you thrown in jail for disturbing the peace, harassment and whatever else I can think of.
Then I’ll have you kicked out of this town quicker than your feet can touch the ground, exactly like the last time, only harder,” George tells him, giving me a squeeze on the shoulder.
Sadie is still standing here in shock on the other side of me. Being faced with her ex like this has got to be confronting. How fucking dare he.
“Me!” he screeches, thrusting his pointer finger at me again. “Zane is the one who punched me, in fact, I think my nose is broken!”
“You better turn that fucking finger around,” I mutter. “Before I rearrange your entire face for good this time.”
It’s then Sadie steps forward. “You better do what they say and get out of here,” she murmurs, with a hand on her hip and a fire to her tone that I’ve never heard her use before.
She’s pissed. “The time for talking is over. You’re a cheat and a liar.
I should never have trusted you! Now, leave me alone once and for all. ”
“I just wanted to apologize, Kelto and I… that was a huge mistake.”
“Kelto?” Sadie gasps, her hand slapping over her mouth.
Holy fucking shit.
I know all about her lying ex-roommate who stole from her, but obviously this is the first time she’s hearing Kelto was fucking him.
What in the actual hell? I take another step toward him, but Sadie moves quicker than I do, grabbing her glass from where she placed it and throwing the entire contents of her pink drink in his face.
A hard slap closely follows, I stare at her in wonder as Stanley stares at her in complete and utter shock while her drink rolls off him.
“My roommate, wow, when you go behind people’s backs you really go all out. ”
“I thought she told you…”
“Enough!” I shout, noticing that Bailey and Jo-Beth are storming toward us, with Rich and Teresa close behind. Everyone has the same stunned look on their faces. This bastard needs to be shown the door.
“You need to leave!” Sadie says as he tries to shake the drink off his face. I’m aware the whole bar is watching us now, the music coming to a screeching halt. I shrug out of George’s grasp, telling him I’ve got this. Grabbing Stanley by the collar, I drag him to the side exit in just a few steps.
“You heard the lady,” I say as I swing the door open and the cold night air rushes in. “The time for talking is over. If we ever see your face in here again, so help me God.”
“But I have family here!” he wails.
“Family you don’t give two shits about,” I seethe, “You came here to confront Sadie, but she doesn’t want you. She’s with me now. So go crawl back into that hole you climbed out of.” I shove him out into the night with a hefty push. “Don’t make me come out there and finish you off.”
“I’m sorry!” He holds his hands up. “I never meant to—Hilary meant nothing to me!”
My eyes bug wide. Is this guy for real? Hearing her name is just the amount of ammunition I need to give him one more shove backwards, hard enough so he stumbles into the trash cans and falls on his ass into a shin high pile of snow.
He’s not even worth hitting again. Him laying there in a freezing snow, bleeding, is the only last parting vision I need of him.
“Fuck you,” I retort, “She’s just as bad as you are, I’m glad to be free of you both.
” He lays in staring up at me, and I slam the door in his face.
I lean back on the inside of the door and take a breath. When I open my eyes, Sadie is standing there with a look of shock and a little apprehension on her face.
“Baby,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not your fault.”
“I punched him.” I shrug. “My anger got the better of me.”
“I’d say he had it coming.”
“In more ways than one.” I pause. “He won’t be bothering you again.”
“Thank God for that.” She bites her lip and looks up at me. “You really defended my honor back there.”
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“I can’t believe my ex is also your ex-best friend…
what he did to you. I’m so sorry, Z. This explains why he was so cagey whenever I talked about Bailey.
He figured it out and said nothing. Am I the reason h-he left?
” Those old feelings stir up of not being good enough.
Never being good enough, and I hate myself for it.
I’m well and truly over Duncan freaking Stanley, but the betrayal still hurts.
I place my forefinger over her lips and shake my head. “Don’t ever say that it was you. He’s not worth it, you’ve nothin’ to be sorry for,” I say. “No matter how uncanny this coincidence might be. All that matters is now he’s out of your life for good.”
She reaches up on her tippy toes to kiss me, and I tilt my head to reach her. The warmth of her lips makes everything better, and all thoughts of scumbag Duncan Stanley melt like the snow thawing.
“That slap you gave him while wearing your pink drink was pretty impressive, little lady,” I mumble between kisses.
“Is it bad that I enjoyed that?” she murmurs.
“Nope. Not even.”
“He deserved that punch, Z.”
“I don’t feel bad,” I clarify.
“You shouldn’t.”
I lean back in and kiss her with enough vigor to wanna get out of here right now and show her how a real man treats a lady. And that’s what I intend to do. “I’m taking you home, Manhattan.”
“Thought you’d never ask.“