Page 68 of Old-Fashioned

“Tell me again,” I whispered into her neck as I moved in and out of her.

She knew what I was asking.

She knew the words I wanted.

And my woman, she didn’t hesitate to tell me.

Softly, she whispered, “I love you, Abel.”

“I love you too, Birdie. With my whole fucking heart.” And then I proceeded not to thrust into her without abandonment.

No, I made sweet, sweet love to her.

And let me tell you something, seeing the soft looks she gifted me, the way her eyes went half-lidded, the sounds she made, it made me feel like a fucking king.

***

It was three days later when the bubble we had been living in was popped.

And neither one of us would know this, but life was planning on taking a one-two punch at us. However, it was going to be more like a left, hook, and a jab.

But life… well… life didn’t take into account my love for Birdie, and her love for me.

I had just wiped a few glasses and put them back on the shelves when I turned around at the front door opening.

Jesus. Christ.

“Can I help you?” I asked the woman that was in dire need of food, a shower, and a detox.

And when she fluttered her eyelashes, I almost puked up in my mouth, “Well, hi there, handsome. Where have you been all my life.”

Was she serious?

Before I could ask her that, and I really meant to ask her that, I felt a shift in the air and knew it was my Birdie, coming back from the kitchen.

I knew it before she gasped, “Mom? What the hell are you doing here?”

What both of them missed was the beast I kept locked in a cage begin to snarl. And I had only one thought, to get Birdie behind the bar and at my side.

So, that was why, I said, “For my peace of mind, Baby girl, need you behind the bar and at my side.”

Birdie didn’t hesitate to do as I requested, and once she was at my side, I felt the beast slowly loosening his snarl.

When the woman didn’t say anything, Birdie asked again, “I’ll ask again, because apparently all the drugs you’ve been using have wiped away your brain cells. What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. Here?”

The woman had the nerve to growl, put her hand on her hip, and glare at Birdie, “Now is that anyway to speak to me in front of this fine young man? Run along now, he and I were about to get to the fun part?”

Birdie scoffed, “In your dreams.”

The woman further had the nerve to say, “You better mind those manners I instilled in you.”

At her words, Birdie growled, slammed her hands down onto the top of the bar, and snapped, “Manners you instilled in me? Are you fucking joking? You didn’t raise me. You were too worried about shooting shit up in your veins to even realize I wasn’t there most of the time.”

Just then, Birdie’s phone rang, normally she wouldn’t take a call while she was at work, but I watched as she pulled it out of her back pocket, checked it, and then handed it to me while saying, “Deal with this for me please, while I deal with this trash.”

I was already shaking my head, trying to keep the beast inside its cage when what he wanted to was to tear the woman to shreds for the way she had treated his Birdie.

No one. Fucking no one treated her like she was nothing more than a forgotten memory.

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