Page 32 of See Her

“Hey, man, you can dial it back,” he says before jutting his chin at Mayzie. “Easiest lay you’ll ever have.”

Fuck.

So much happens in the next two seconds. Mayzie turns her whole body in his direction and shouts, “You’re such an asshole!” while Annie spits, “Fuck off, you’re pathetic!” all while I jump off my stool and step in front of Mayzie, tucking her behind me.

“You and I have got a problem now,” I say to the dipshit. The guy is taller than Mayzie, but I’ve got a few inches on him. “I think you need to apologize to my lady.”

The abrupt reaction of the three of us was enough to make him step back a little, but he once again tries to redeem himself as he holds his hands out like he’s shrugging. “Just telling the truth, man.”

I take two steps towards him, and he’s such a pussy he recoils towards his friends. One of them places a hand on his shoulder, trying to corral him into the crowd of people headed to the door. He shakes the hand off and tries to act like a tough guy, holding his ground. Too late, I’ve already seen how weak he is. I lower my voice to an ominous and threatening tone.

“Well, let me do the same for you, you piece of shit.I work here, and you will not be showing your face in here again.You made a mistake talking to a woman like that, but you made an even bigger one by talking like that aboutmine.”

Eric’s resolve is weakening with every word I say; I can see it all over his face. He is completely relenting when brute strength in the form of Tyler shows up beside me.

“We got a problem here, Jack?”

“Oh, no. I was just explaining toErichere that we don’t allow a certain element in this place. You know, the kind that think they need to degrade women to make them feel like they’ve got something going for them?”

“Ah,” Tyler says, reacting like I just told him what time it is.He turns to Eric. “Think you got the message, Country Club? If not, we’re more than happy to spell it out with physical extraction.”

Eric is done. He’s not even trying to act like he’s got a set of balls anymore, and when his clone of a buddy pulls on his shoulder again, he follows like a partially deflated balloon, right out the door.

Tyler goes back to the bar and I turn back to Mayzie. She has one arm wrapped around herself, propping up her other elbow while she runs a hand through her hair, while Annie rubs her arm.Her eyes are blazing, and I can tell she’s a combo of embarrassed and pissed off.

“I’ll go hang with Tyler a minute,” Annie says as I approach.

“You okay?” I ask Mayzie when I make my way in front of her.

“Yeah… just...” She waves her hand in the direction of the door. “That was so embarrassing.”

“You don’t need to feel that way. He was embarrassing himself and it was pathetic.”

She takes a deep breath, letting it out before she speaks again. “Look, when I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of confidence, and I, uh…” she’s flustered, and I can tell she’s freaking out about what I might be thinking of her right now. I have to immediately squash that.

“Hey,” I say, sitting back down on the stool and pulling her towards me so she’s between my knees. “I don’t care.” I clasp my hands together at the small of her back.

“I just want to…” She holds her hands out like she wants to explain. She doesn’t have to; I don’t care about her past. I have my own, for fuck’s sake.All I care about is who she is now,the person that’s with me, that I’m just beginning something amazing with, so I gently cut her off.

“Do you care about my past? Mistakes I’ve made? Do you feel like you need to hear about any of it?”

“No…” she says, uncertain where this is going but following me anyway.

“Or do you care about who I amnow, with you?” And then she fucking smiles, and I feel light bursting throughout my whole body. I smile back at her and continue to talk. “Because I only care about the Mayzie thatIknow, and what we have, and I hope you feel that way too.”

She drops her head back, smiling before looking back to me. “Yeah,” she says, nodding. “That’s how I feel.”

Thank God. She doesn’t realize it, but I’m just as grateful as she isabout this agreement that each other’s pasts don’t matter here. All that matters is our today and our tomorrows.

“Good.” I lean in and say the word softly against her lips before giving her a small peck. “Let’s get out of here, then. I’m taking you home.”

16

MAYZIE

Jack leads me out the door to the back lot where we parked earlier. Immediately outside the door, we’re assaulted by a heavy downpour of cool rain. We’d heard of the possibility, but the volume of water coming down on us so suddenly is a shock, and I bark out a surprised laugh.

We dash to the truck, getting absolutely soaked in the few short strides, and by the time I’m in the passenger seat, both my hair and clothes are sticking to me.

---