Page 24 of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Chapter 10

Liza

(Present Day)

Ihad been here a little over two weeks now, and I was finally starting to feel comfortable with everyone. A few of the men who had come up from Cedar Falls were still here visiting Charlie, who I had since made friends with. She was a lovely woman who had been dragged through some shit thanks to a man in her life, so we had that in common to start our burgeoning friendship. Since the guys from the Cedar Falls Chapter had stuck around to hang out with Charlie for a while longer I was still sharing a room with Tango. While I wished like hell most days that it meant that we’d attempted kissing again, or more, nothing had happened. There had been a couple of nights where we’d managed to share the bed together – fully clothed – and the most that happened was us waking up tangled together before he had to rush off to work or for club business.

Tango and I were getting closer though, despite the lack of intimacy we talked non-stop when we were together. We had even started working side-by-side on occasion when he was frustrated with a commissioned piece he had taken on. He asked for my input on how to put a feminine spin on the original artwork, and that was all she wrote. Our collaborative efforts ended up being an amazing three-quarter sleeve he put on a woman who had traveled here to get the tattoo done by him. Apparently, she’d seen his work at the expo, but since he left early her appointment with him had been cancelled. It lifted my spirits immensely to work with him on the tattoo, because I hadn’t been able to do that type of work since my brother’s troubles started up again. I had been stuck in graphics design hell for websites and managed to make a few book covers too, but I had missed the tattoo work. Granted, I still had never actually inked a person’s skin, but helping draw out the initial piece of work with Tango had been an amazing collaboration.

He and I were sitting in the kitchen with Rabbit when Amy walked in. Tango had his back to the door, but Rabbit and I were both in a position to be able to see her saunter up behind Tango, and lean in seductively. Not that any of that helped her since he couldn’t see the sultry looks she was trying to pull off. Rabbit hit my knee with his under the table when I didn’t successfully stifle a giggle.

Amy eyed me quickly, then leaned in around Tango’s shoulder and tried to plant a kiss on his lips when he turned his head to see who it was in his space. He flinched back so quickly that her lips barely ended up grazing his jaw, leaving a line of her red lipstick trailing in their wake. “What the fuck?” he asked as she backed up enough to have her lips close to his ear. Despite being in whisper range she spoke loud enough for us to hear her. “It’s me baby. Sorry to startle you, I just came to share our good news, love.”

“Baby? Love? What in the hell are you doing, Amy?”

“Why don’t you come to bed, baby, and I’ll remind you just what we usually do?” I snickered and she glared up at me. “I don’t know what you’re laughing about. I’m his Old Lady, and you’re just a job.”

I continued to smile at her, because I knew the truth of their relationship. I also knew there was a major miscommunication somewhere between all the parties involved and that Tango hadn’t really had a chance to address it because someone in that group was always busy over the past week and a half and he wanted them all together for that talk so there would be no further misinterpretations of the situation. I understood his reasoning, but it seemed the wait was about to bite him in the ass.

Tango slid his chair back, bumping into Amy as he did so. He turned his body as he removed himself from the chair in order to face her. “What in the absolute fuck is going on with you right now?” Whiskey and Fox had just entered the kitchen too and stopped in their tracks at Tango’s outburst.

“Like I was saying, I have news to share, baby. I wanted to be the one to tell you, personally. I’m 10 weeks pregnant! We’re going to have a baby!” She seemed so happy, even if she was delusional about who her baby daddy was. Each man around us had a different reaction from Rabbit glancing between everyone involved and me to the other guys groaning in response and finally to Tango who looked beyond livid at the scene this woman was causing.

“You may be pregnant, but it sure as fuck isn’t my baby,” he yelled at her.

“Dude, what is your problem?” Whiskey bellowed back at Tango.

“Watch how you speak to her,” Fox added as he moved closer in a protective gesture.

“There’s a chance,” Amy pouted, hurt evident in her voice. “It could be,” she stared only to be cut off quickly by Tango.

“There is zero fucking chance unless you can suddenly get knocked up by guzzling cum.” Tango seethed out. I flinched at the anger behind his words, even though I understood his frustration with the entire situation. “I’ve never fucked you. I never even put my dick anywhere near anything on you, except your mouth. Hell, my dick hasn’t been in pussy in years so it’s fucking impossible for me to be anyone’s daddy unless that kid is like six years old at this point, because I know for certain Camilla never had my kid.

“But we’ve…” Amy started again.

“No, we fuckin’ haven’t.”

“You’ve been with us,” Whiskey starts to add, a puzzled look crossing his features now too.

“Yup, and all she’s ever done with my dick is suck it to take the edge off. Hell, she only did it then, because you guys kept trapping me in these uncomfortable situations that you just wouldn’t fuckin’ let go of. Jesus! You see where it’s gotten us? This isn’t fuckin’ healthy! You’ve had me stressed out for months, she’s delusional about shit, and you guys are still just as fuckin’ clueless, because you won’t hear the things I’ve been saying to you. This shit you have going on?” I glanced, wide-eyed with anger between the three of them. “This is not my shit. I didn’t choose this. I am not a part of this other than during those few times you dragged me into the middle.”

Fox stared, flabbergasted a moment before he was able to speak. “You two have been together alone. Whiskey and I have left you to it, because we thought it was just being with us that made you uncomfortable.”

“The only time I have ever been alone with Amy was when she needed someone to talk to. I listened, and gave advice. She got enough dick between the two of you. She didn’t need me giving her more, and quite frankly I was cool as fuck with that. I never wanted her that way.” Tango realized the impact of his words when she whimpered and turned his attention back to Amy. “You’re a great girl, but this whole scenario was never my thing beyond a good time once or twice and suddenly you’re wearing a property patch that apparently includes my name – without my consent – I might add. No one fucking asked me my fucking opinion. Hell, until Liza pointed it out, I thought the “T” in that patch was just a fucked up plus sign, because there was no way you guys included me in that without talking to me first, right?”

Whiskey was the first to respond, and it wasn’t much of a response, more an exclamation. “Holy fuck! How the hell did this all get so messed up?” Fox just stood there scrubbing his hands down his face and shaking his head back and forth in apparent disbelief. Rabbit leaned over and whispered in my ear, “you need a beer? I think I need a beer for this shit storm.” I managed to nod my head as he stood to go grab a couple beers out of the refrigerator behind us.

Fox turned toward Amy. “You told us you two were together when we left you alone.” There was an accusation in his tone, but it was a cautious one. Clearly, he didn’t want to upset her any more than she appeared to be, but he was also starting to see that maybe this woman was not quite glued all together at the seams as they thought she had been.

“Look,” Tango finally managed to eek out as Rabbit handed me a bottle, and Amy purposely avoided answering Fox’s accusation with an audience present. “Congrats to whichever of you is the dad. I’m excited for you if you’re all happy about this, but I’m not a part of it. If any of you had ever fuckin cared to notice, I never have been. I’m with you guys all the time, or I was, because we’ve been close for so fuckin long. Living, breathing, and working as a unit does that to people. You guys brought Amy into that dynamic, and assumed a fuck of a lot where I was concerned. Hell, I thought my actions – or inactions – made it pretty clear where I stood. I was definitely wrong in assuming that, obviously.”

Tango looked like he was ready to just collapse under the weight of his strained friendships so I stood up and moved over to him, placing my hand on his back. “Are you okay?” I asked the words quietly so as not to disturb everyone else while they were mulling over his words. He just shook his head as he watched his friends, men he considered brothers, process the depth of what he was saying. Not a damn one of them had cared enough about him to see that something wasn’t right in their dynamic. Not a single one bothered to see how he felt, to ask questions, or to even know how exactly he was being included or excluded in their little group activities. They were oblivious to him while thinking he was a part of their shared experience. It was sad.

Amy narrowed her eyes on me, but I stood firm with Tango anyway. Then she gave him her hurt, puppy-dog eyes. “I thought you loved me. You’ve said…” She started only to be cut off.

“I’ve said, ‘love ya,’ to you just as I say it to my boys.” He tossed up a hand to indicate he meant all the brothers in the club, not just the two Amy was linked with. “It’s the same way I’d say it to my sister, my mom, good friends even. I’ve never told you that I love you or that I am in love with you. There has never been a single romantic conversation between us. I’ve never had intimate moments that could have been misconstrued beyond a friend who has, on occasion, had my dick in her mouth. I allowed myself to be trapped into those situations by guilt, and I regret that immensely right about now, because somehow in doing so every single one of you forgot I was a person with my own feelings, thoughts, and fucking life. Hell, I have never even kissed you on the mouth. Ever. Does that seem like something a man in love would avoid doing?”

Amy broke down then, crying her little heart out as if it had been broken. Never mind the awful position she had been putting Tango in all this time based solely on her own misconceptions.

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