“Oh, for Christ’s sake, what the fuck? Do you follow her everywhere?” Marshall sneered.
“He’s picking me up,” I said.
“Right.That’swhy you’ve been belligerent. Because of him. Why would you even need the money from the sale with a sugar daddy around?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snapped at the same time Griffin said, “Watch your mouth.” He was much better at this than me. He was calm and composed. His voice held power despite the fact that he wasn’t yelling. In comparison, I sounded like a wreck.
“What’s going on?” Griffin asked again, eyes focused on my face.
“He wants a bigger share of the profits on the house because he put more on the down payment. Claims that if he’d invested that somewhere else, he would have gotten more return.”
Marshall looked at Griffin. “You’re a businessman. You know I’m right. That’s how capital works.”
In an instant, Griffin transformed. His face was red, his eyes dark and intense. “Let’s get one thing straight. You are the lowest of the lowest scum.”
“What the fuck?”
“No, I wasn’t asking. And you don’t have to agree with me. It’s a universal truth, no matter if you see it or not. If you had any sort of self-respect, you wouldn’t even ask for any of the profit. No real man would do that. Then again, no real man would ever treat Phoebe the way you did.”
“She doesn’t deserve that fucking profit. The bitch didn’t even?—”
The next thing I knew, Griffin grunted, there was a loud whomp, and Marshall stumbled backward into the wall behind him.
“What the actual fuck, dude?” he exclaimed.
“Phoebe is not alone, you understand?”
Marshall stared at me. “You’re actually going to let this moron treat me like this? He punched me.”
“You deserved it.”
He snorted. “Whatever. Forget I ever said anything.”
“That’s right,” I said. It was a stupid idea to meet him. I should have just told him to go fuck himself over the email.
Marshall shook his head, looking between Griffin and me. “You know what? This type of guy is exactly what you deserve.”
Griffin stared him down until he turned around, walking back in the direction of the bar.
Only when Marshall was out of our eyesight did Griffin turn to me. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, inspecting his hand.
“Yes. It doesn’t even hurt.”
“Are you sure? We can put some ice on it.”
He cupped my face with his other hand. “Really, I’m fine. I just… hmm…” He looked down and then back up. “I’ve never lost control of myself like that.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Don’t blame yourself. Marshall just knows how to piss people off.”
“He actually had the guts to ask you to meet him?”
“Well, uh, no,” I said, stammering for some reason. “He emailed me. I told him I wanted to meet so I could tell him to his face what an asshole he was. I’m really sorry that I asked you to pick me up here. I figured it could give me something nice to look forward to after meeting him, but I didn’t want to put you in this position.”
“I don’t mind. Whenever you need me by your side, just tell me. Okay?”
My mouth parted slightly. “Really?”
