Page 52 of Mine To Honor (Southern Wedding)

“Yup,” I answer her, ignoring her as I wave to Cici. I ignore the way my heart is beating in my chest. How clammy my hands are, and especially how murderous I feel at this moment. I’ve never in my whole life felt this feeling. I take a second to look over at Eva. “See you later,” I say as fast as I can, the need to get away from her before I say something I’m going to regret is huge. She waves at Cici and walks out with me. I’ve never been so angry that my whole body tremored with anger. I’ve never been so out of my comfort zone that all I wanted to do was to just roar out my madness. I’ve never been so out of my comfort zone that I felt like my skin was crawling.

“Bye,” she says from the other side of my car and I think I grunt, I’m not sure. The only thing I do know is that I leave the parking lot while she is still standing there, making me feel even more like a dick. I get to work and I don’t know if everyone around me knows I’m pissed, but not one person asks me anything all day. Also, I’m not going to admit it, but I spend the whole day looking down at my phone every ten minutes, waiting for her to call. The minutes turn into hours, and then at the end of the day, I’m stuck going out to a dinner I don’t even want to go to.

I pull up to the restaurant, and I’m tempted to text and ask her how Cici’s day was at daycare, but I don’t. Nope, that would be the normal thing to do. Nothing between Eva and I is normal, especially not after that fucking kiss. Especially not after I made her come for me. I toss my keys to the valet guy before walking into the restaurant. The lounge music hits me right away as I look at the hostess who is smiling at me, wearing her hair perfect with her tits on full display, partially covered with a rhinestone bra. Her tits are so fake she can float if she falls overboard. “Welcome.”

“Hi,” I greet, looking around, “I’m here for Daniel.”

“Of course.” She looks me up and down before she smiles her seductive smile at me. “If you would follow me.” She turns, and once she’s in front of me, she sways her hips side to side, the black minidress barely covering her ass. We walk past tables until she walks up two steps to where a party room sits. It’s four feet from the floor closed in by glass so we can watch what is going on outside. “If you need anything,” she practically pants, “I’m Audrey.”

“Yup.” I walk past her and into the room where the guys are waiting.

“There he is,” Daniel says, getting up from the couch on the side, “the other groomsman.” He claps his hands, coming over to me. He holds out his hand to me, shaking it and pulling me into him. “Fuck, it’s been so long,” he states and I nod at him. We met about five years ago when we were working on a project together. He’s a lawyer for one of the companies we audited. “Glad you could make it.”

“Fuck that,” Todd says from beside him, “he’s the one who told us about this place.” Everyone laughs and I look around. The room has couches all along the walls with a square table in the middle of the room, with food all over it. I know that before long there will be about twenty to thirty men who are showing up for this shit.

“Hey, I’ve never been here. I said I knew someone who came here.” I hold my hand up in defense while a server walks in from the corner of the room. She’s dressed pretty much like the woman in front, except her skirt is even shorter and her bra just holds up her tits, they are fully out.

She comes up to us, handing Daniel his drink before smiling my way. “I’m Dahlia,” she introduces, “I’ll be your server. Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’ll have a scotch and soda,” I tell her before turning back to Daniel. “So how’s the groom-to-be? You ready?” I put my hands in my pockets as people start to walk in and come over to us. It takes me a full ten minutes before it dawns on me that I fucking hate this. It takes me thirty more minutes before my drink comes, and I head over to one of the tables to grab a plate with some food. I look around, thinking back, when was the last time I went out to a bar? Was it only a month ago? Has it only been a month, yet feels like a lifetime ago? Did I always fucking hate it? Did it suck as much as it does today? Did I know it sucked or did I just pretend I was fine? Did I know how unhappy I was before, now that every single day I rushed to get home? Did I know my life was a shallow place whereas now a little girl holds a piece of my heart in her tiny hand and I know I would spend all my life protecting her. Fuck, what a difference a month makes.

I spend the night basically shooting the shit with the guys, not even caring there are lap dances going on around us. I ignore all the women who come to my table, trying to get me to partake in the shenanigans the other men are doing. Well, not all the men, literally the married men are all sitting on the sidelines watching. I can’t even believe this is me now. Whereas before I would be the one making fun of the person I am now. I bring the glass to my lips and take a sip, my wedding band on display. The later it gets, the louder the music gets and the smokier the room gets. I decide I fucking hate this life and never, ever want to do this again. Getting up, I look and see that it’s after one in the morning. “Time for me to head out,” I announce to the guys. “I’ll catch Daniel after.” I look over at Daniel, who looks like he wants the floor to open up to swallow and spit him out. He’s trying to look away and bear another lap dance they paid for him to have.

I walk out of the smoky dark cloud into the crisp night, handing the valet guy my stub. Pulling out my phone, I see she hasn’t texted me. Nothing. It’s been radio silence all fucking day, and I hate it.

My mood doesn’t get better as I make my way home. In fact, I get more annoyed when I pull in and park beside her. The minute I walk in, it’s almost as if my body does a sigh of relief. I kick off my shoes and make my way up the stairs, trying not to make any noise. I think about going and checking on Cici, but instead I walk into the bedroom.

I’m slipping off my jacket when I hear the rustle of the covers. I stop midmovement, and when I hear her speak, the tightness in my stomach is there for a whole different reason. “I didn’t think you would come home.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Eva

I hear the front door open and, no word of a lie, I stop breathing. My heart speeds up at the same time my stomach rises to my throat. I get up on my elbow, looking at the darkened doorway. Looking over to the bedside table, I see Cici is sleeping on her back, with her arms stretched out with not a care in the world. I tap my phone and see that it’s after 1:00 a.m., my stomach clenches again when I hear him kick off his shoes.

I quickly lie back down on my side of the bed, my eyes closed, even though it’s dark and he won’t see if I’m up or not. I’m so pissed that I’ve been waiting up for him, even though I tried to tell myself I wasn’t waiting up for him. I just couldn’t sleep. I’ve been in bed since 10:00 p.m., tossing and turning. Looking over at his side of the bed that was empty, I wondered what he was doing at that moment. That obviously didn’t help me because all I could picture was him with ten women all bouncing up and down on him as he motorboated them. Which made me even more pissed. The whole day I was on a rampage from when he left me in the parking lot of the daycare. I knew it was going to be a day. It didn’t help I was pissed at him and expected him to reach out and apologize for whatever the hell happened in the parking lot before we dropped off Cici, but nothing. As the hours ticked by, so did my mood. Everyone was afraid to ask me anything, so no one did. When I picked up Cici, my mood lessened but then I fucking missed him and our routine, which was so dumb of me considering that it’s all temporary. I position my head down to watch him walk into the bedroom.

In the darkness I watch him walk over to the corner, and I finally sit up at the same time as I see him shrug off his jacket. So many questions are going on in my head. Did he come here after you know what? Did he at least shower? Is he going to see her again? All of these questions, yet the only thing that comes out of my mouth is, “I didn’t think you would come home.”

His movement stops as he takes off his jacket. His head whips my way, even in the darkness I can see his glare. “Yeah, why is that?” He continues to take his jacket off, tossing it on the chair in the corner. The chair that not too long ago had only my clothes on it, but now it’s a mix of both of our things.

His tone should make me just ignore his ass and go back to bed or pretend I don’t care. But I’m out here in the middle of the ocean, in the dark, and I can hear the rumbling of the wave coming toward me, ready to pull me under. “I just figured you would be at a strip club.” I don’t say anything after that but neither does he. Does he really need me to spell it out for him? Now I’m even more pissed. “And I don’t know, hook up with someone?”

The room that was filled with tension from us both now feels like it’s frigid. It feels like ice has entered the room. I don’t have to have the lights on to see his glare has turned into more of a death stare. His hands go to the hem of his shirt as he pulls it out from his pants, not even going to the closet to get undressed or even the bathroom. Instead, he stands there fuming as he unbuttons his shirt, or at this point I feel like he rips it open like the Hulk. He takes off his white dress shirt and tosses it on the chair before his hand goes to his belt. I suddenly feel like I should turn on the light to make sure he doesn’t, I don’t know, hurt himself.

“Was Caine going to come over?” he growls between clenched teeth.

“What?” I ask, almost breathlessly as I hear his zipper. My chest heaves as his pants fall to the floor, and he stands there in his boxers and socks. Tossing his pants on top of his shirt, followed by his socks, he walks over to his side of the bed.

“Caine,” he repeats his name, grabbing his side of the covers and practically yanking them. “The guy who wants to bang you.” Why would he think Caine wants to bang me?

My eyes blink as I watch him get into the bed next to me, with just his boxers. While my brain says it’s only normal for me to also just be in my panties. “He doesn’t want to bang me.” I roll my eyes as he lies down on his back, putting his hands on his stomach.

He laughs but his laugh is anything but friendly, instead it sounds more like the Joker fromBatman. “Oh, trust me, he wants to bang you.” He looks over at me sitting here and now all I can do is lie back down, mimicking his position. “I mean, it’s not his fault.” He looks over at me. “How was he supposed to know you’re married when you don’t wear your ring?”

All I can do is gasp in shock. “I wear my ring.” I hold up my hand to show him that I am wearing said ring.

“Yeah,” he huffs, “like, sure, around your neck.”

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