Page 99 of The Last Dance

He takes a step towards me, as if he’s gonna hit me again, Ben pulling him back. ‘Come on, Noah. This isn’t how you want to do this.’

‘You don’t deserve her,’ he says, finally starting to calm down.

‘You have no idea how many times I’ve told myself exactly that,’ I say, being completely honest with him.

Noah stares me down, finally tearing himself away from Ben’s hands and heading towards the front door.

‘Noah!’ I yell, making my way towards him. He stops but doesn’t turn towards me. ‘Please don’t hurt her. It’s not her fault. She didn’t even know I was coming back. She hasn’t done anything wrong.’ He shakes his head before he slams the door open, disappearing down the sidewalk.

‘You need some ice?’ the bartender asks when I walk back over to where we were before Noah walked in.

‘Yeah.’ I reach up, touching my eyebrow, squinting at the pain.

‘Oh…’ Ben looks at it. ‘It’s not too bad. But dayumn.’ He laughs. ‘Can you believe that? I didn’t think he had it in him.’

‘Whose side are you on?’ I take the ice, holding it on my eye.

‘Oh, come on, you know I’ve always got your back, but youhavebeen trying to steal his girlfriend. He was bound to be pissed when he finally figured it out.’

‘I don’t want him to hurt her.’ My phone buzzes in my pocket.

Be there in ten.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Ambri. If she’s texting me, she’s OK.

‘I gotta go.’

‘You better watch your back!’ Ben yells through a laugh and me giving him the finger on my way out the door.

I get to the office in record time.

‘Mr Decker. What happened?’ Mel rushes to me, inspecting my eye.

‘I’m fine, Mel. Is she here?’

She nods. ‘In your office. Do you need me to bring you anything?’

I shake my head. ‘If a guy named Noah comes in here, can you not let him in?’ I ask, in case he isn’t finished. The last thing I want to do is fight with him in front of Ambri.

‘Absolutely.’

I make my way down the hall, pulling my phone out of my pocket and using the reverse camera to see exactly how bad my eye looks. Not too terrible, but noticeable. I don’t know how I’ll explain this to her.

‘Hey.’ I walk in, startling her from looking through the photos on the wall.

‘Oh, my God, Henry! What happened?’ She makes her way across the room towards me.

‘It’s nothing. Just got in the middle of something.’ Noah had every right to hit me. I don’t think he’d ever hurt Ambri and I’m not sure if he figured it out on his own or if she told him. Either way, she doesn’t need to know what happened.

‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ She reaches up, running her thumb across my eyebrow and over the knot.

‘I’ll be OK.’ I touch her hand still on my face, my heart racing through my chest. ‘Come on, sit.’ I wave her over to my desk chair, pulling one of the chairs in front of my desk around beside her. ‘OK.’ I sit next to her, her scent settling into every part of my head that is finally clear of cobwebs; she now fills all of them. Every corner. And I don’t even mind.

‘I hope you’re right. I hope this is easy.’

‘It is. Plus, you’re smart. You’ll do great. The admin entry page is already up on the screen and here’s your log in.’ I point to a sticky note attached to the bottom of my monitor. I had to rewrite her username and password at least five times this morning. I couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to not keep messing it up.

I watch her type in her info, the main menu of the backside of her site appearing on the screen in front of us.

---