Page 20 of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

“I tried to come here to chat with this woman, but she’s being so difficult. She refused to let me into T’s room. She refused to speak to me privately, and she’s been a horrible, condescending asshole the entire time.” Amy whined to the men in her life as if I had poked holes in her very delicate feelings. Both Whiskey and Fox snapped their attention back to me then, glaring all the while. I just stood there and rolled my eyes at her dramatics.

“No, that is not how shit just went down, and I would know because I’ve been standing in the hall watching since this one,” he pointed at Amy, “knocked on that door.” He then went on to explain exactly what had taken place, and both men were suddenly dropping their gazes to their woman.

“Why does it matter so much that you talk to her in his room? Why not somewhere else?”

“Because, it does!” She stomped her foot. Legitimately stomped it like a toddler while her arms were crossed over her chest in a defensive gesture.

“Why Ames?”

“Because I need to see what’s going on. He’s been so distant since he came back, and now she’s in there. Is he being unfaithful?”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed at that. All of them turned to look at me then. Rabbit was the only one who was trying to contain his own humor at the situation. “Seriously? Is he cheating? You have two men standing right there in front of you that belong to you and you want to know if a third is cheating? That’s rich!” I continued laughing, and they all went back to ignoring me while the two men focused their energy back on Amy.

“Amy, he wasn’t all here before he left for the Expo, you know that. I’m not sure what’s going on with T right now, but I don’t think he was on the same page as the rest of us, sweetheart.” Fox tells her, trying to be kind about it.

“He was, I know he was. We talked all the time.” She had serious crocodile tears welling up in her eyes at this point. Fox moved forward and tucked her into his chest.

“Come on, Amy, Liza isn’t the person you need to be having these chats with. We need to all sit T down and get things straight from him.”

“Why is she here?” I heard her ask as they moved her away from the door, and further down the hall.

“That’s club business,” Whiskey told her.

“Bullshit. If it were just club business she wouldn’t be sleeping in his room. Tell me the truth. Did he go find a woman to bring back? What did I do to make him so angry?”

“Amy…” One of them sighed out. “Let’s talk about this at home, sweetheart.”

“Why isn’t he staying there with us? You guys never told me before…” Her whining was getting on my last nerve, and I was really glad when they got her inside a room toward the other end of the hall and shut the door.

I rolled my eyes once more and glanced at Rabbit who was staring at me with something akin to awe in his eyes. “I just want you to know that the kind of loyalty you just showed for Tango by not letting anyone in his space when he wasn’t around? Well, it won’t go unnoticed around here. That’s for sure. If anyone, including any of those three, bother you again and Tango isn’t around, I want you to call or text me right away, okay?”

“Sure,” I told him as I pulled my phone out and we exchange numbers. “Thanks for having my back with the truth. I have a feeling I would have been facing a lynch mob without your input.”

“No need for thanks, but I do believe you’re right. I’m going over to Ruby’s but I’ll stop in Liquid Lines and let Tango know what went down today, that way he hears it from an impartial third party.”

“Thanks, again,” I told him and then watched as he walked away and took the steps down to the first floor. I turned and marched my butt right back in the room I had been protecting like a fierce momma bear hiding her cub from danger. I have no clue why that woman wanted in this room so badly. I’m guessing it had to do with being nosey since I was in the room, but I hated assuming things so I would wait and talk it over with Tango when he got in.

~ Tango ~

Once Rabbit told me what happened with Liza and Amy at the clubhouse I figured I had better make it a short day. I finished up my last appointment at 2pm and headed back to the clubhouse. Technically, I should have stayed open for walk-ins, but it was my business. I could run it however I felt. When I got back to the clubhouse the commons were already filling with people thanks to the fact that we had visitors from the Cedar Falls Chapter of Aces High in the house. I knew they’d be here a few days, because some of the older members came to meet or get to know Charlie all over again. Her dad had been a member named Brazen, but he took her away from the club at her dying mother’s behest when she was young. She found her way back to the club recently looking for a job and protection when her husband tried to have her killed.

Charlie ended up falling for our Vice President, Rage, and she ended up sticking around long enough to become his Old Lady. She’s a sweet girl who takes shit form no one, kind of like someone else who recently fell into our lives. I was betting Charlie and Liza would get along really well, and hoping to introduce them once the novelty with the Cedar Falls guys wore off.

In the meantime, I had a woman to go find, because I guessed I had some explaining to do. It didn’t take long to find Liza. She was in our room working on something in Photoshop on her laptop. She didn’t have internet access here, because our security setup, and her not being granted access yet, but I had explained to her that if she gave me instructions I could transfer the images from a USB drive to e-mail for her clients from a secure space off site. “Hey, Liza,” I called out to her. She smiled up at me beautifully.

“Hey yourself. I’m almost done with this set of images. I’m going to add the images to the USB drive along with instructions on where to send them and with what message. I really appreciate you working with me to make sure my work doesn’t suffer for having to be in hiding. Some of it I can put off, but I had a few deadlines that can’t be missed, because people are counting on me.”

“I understand that, babe. It’s no problem.” I set my messenger bag down on the chair in the corner and then glanced back over at her again. “Can you pause for a few minutes so we can talk about what happened today?”

“Sure. Give me just a second to save everything as is, and…” her tongue was poked out at the corner of her mouth where it was held in place by teeth that bit gently down on it. I couldn’t help smiling at the picture she made when she was ‘focused’ on something. “Okay, and done.” She closed her laptop, set it aside, and then gave me all of her attention. I moved to sit beside her on the bed where she’d been working.

“So, Rabbit came by and told me what happened. Including the part where Amy tried to be dramatic and claim you hurt her feelings.” He shook his head. “Honestly, that’s not like her at all, so I’m not really sure where that was coming from.”

“It was coming from jealousy and nosiness,” Liza stated with a shrug.

“What?” I questioned.

“She made certain to tell me that the two of you were in an intimate relationship, and that she could come into your room whenever she wanted, but the emphasis was on your intimate relationship.” I don’t know why it bothered me so much that Amy told Liza that. Mostly, because I didn’t see myself as being in any relationship with Amy beyond friendship, and now I was going to have to explain the intricacies of what had gone down between us to Liza. Again, I don’t know why. I just felt compelled to set her straight so she didn’t think I was taken.

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