“Is this someone you’ve been seeing all along, Adrienne?” He accuses.
Typical of the cheater to blame the other person of cheating. I saw this old trick growing up my entire life. It was my father’s signature move when he cheated on my mother.
“Uh, uh, uh.” I wave my finger. “There’s no need to speak to her like that.”
“Yo, dude!” he raises his voice even louder now. “This isn’t any of your damn business.”
Ah, finally the little man has grown some balls.
Several heads nearby turn to listen to us, which makes Adrienne uncomfortable.
“Lower your voice, Troy,” she whispers.
“I don’t understand what you’re doing with this man,” he says, in what is now a high-pitched voice that grates like nails on a chalkboard.
Yeah, his balls might be shrinking now.
“I’m not sure you are in any position to ask questions about what I’m doing or who I’m doing it with,” Adrienne interjects. “A few hours ago I was coming home from work to make my fiancée a pot of chili and now I don’t have a fiancée, so what I do or not do tonight is none of your concern.”
“Adrienne, this is not you. This scummy guy you’re with is not you.”
He grabs her hand, and immediately it makes me want to break his.
“Don’t turn into some desperate woman who drinks at bars with strange men because I fucked up.”
“I’m not turning into anyone except for the person who I was before I met you… happy.”
I’m admiring this beautiful woman more and more as this exchange unfolds. She might have been knocked down tonight, but she’ll be damned if she’s going to crumble.
She tosses back the rest of her margarita defiantly, slips on her denim jacket and says to me firmly, “Let’s go.”
When she stands, I follow her beautiful ass like the damn pied piper, but then her ex immediately grabs her upper arm to stop her from walking away from the table.
“Where the hell are you going? I’m still talking.”
My patience with this dickhead is fleeting.
“Put your hands on her again and there’s going to be a problem,” I challenge.
I’ve had enough of this. There are plenty of ways to grovel without him putting his hands all over her.
“I’ve definitely seen you before,” he says suspiciously. “Who are you? What do you want with Adrienne? ”
“Whatever she wants.”
Troy scrutinizes me from head to toe as I silently tower over his minute frame. If he thinks I’m at a disadvantage because of my physical injury, he couldn’t be more wrong. You only need one hand to land a punch or choke an asshole.
“Adrienne, if you walk out of this bar with this man, then it’s over between us.”
“It was over three hours ago,” she deadpans.
“I’m serious.”
“Me too.”
There’s a satisfied grin on my face when I place my free hand at the base of Adrienne’s spine and guide her away from the table and her ex. I’m sure that all kinds of thoughts are running through his head as we leave him standing at the table with his mouth agape. It’s all for show but once I noticed Adrienne’s lip quivering, I didn’t want her to fall apart in front of him, not when she was doing so well.
I stop at the bar to settle my tab.
