I exhale.
“The woman he was harassing? She seemed grateful. Glad we had her back. As for my…”
What would I call Mindy exactly. My date? The woman who changed my whole damn life in one night.
“Your woman?” he prompts.
I nod. “That’s what is less clear.”
They both look at me.
“She your girl?” Button-Down asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
That earns a laugh from Red Eyes.
“You fought for her. Sounds like she might be.”
I shake my head. “It was our first date.”
They both pause.
“Man,” Red Eyes says. “You move fast.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Then again, it kind of was.
We had sex in my office.
I think I’m halfway in love with her. I was ready to tell her just that. Or, at the very least to beg her to let me see her again.
And then I threw a punch.
“I didn’t lose control,” I say quietly, more to myself than them. “Not until he went for her again.”
“There’s losing control recklessly.” Red Eyes says. “Then, there’s deciding enough’s enough.”
Button-Down nods emphatically. “You can’t let that slide.”
“I know,” I say.
But that doesn’t stop the doubt.
I’ve built my life around being steady. Around not escalating. Around reading a room before it explodes.
And tonight?
I let it explode.
I replay it in my head.
The shove.
The swing.
The crack of knuckles.
