“You do not touch her,” I told him.
“I won’t. I won’t!”
“That sounds like a promise made out of fear. Swear to me that you will not touch her again, and if you do, I am allowed to break your wrist and subject you to a life where you will run at the sight of a tattoo pen or any pen in general because not only will I break your wrist, I willbreak you.Swear it.”
“I swear, no touch, no touching your angel, at all.”
I let him go.
Zahra let out a breath, shooting a frown my way as she said, “You… God—” She stopped, her voice tight as she turned to Julio with an apologetic look. “Julio, I am so sorry.”
“No, no apologies.” The man couldn’t meet my gaze. “I… I didn’t know you now have a… spouse.”
Zahra sighed. “Yeah, uh… can you bring out the design catalog?”
“Of course.” The man rushed away, looking back at me. “I am sorry again, mister.”
And then he disappeared through the door he had come out of.
Zahra turned sharply to me. “That was—”
“We are leaving.”
“No, we are not.” She fought me. “This place was a second home for me; I worked here for a few weeks, and—”
“I do not care, Zahra. Weareleaving and going somewhere else.”
“No.” A glare, accompanied by irritation, flared in her eyes as she crossed her arms against her chest, her guard rising. “There’s nothing wrong with this place, and you have nofuckingright to tell me what I can and cannotfuckingdo.”
“You were just going to let him touch you? Right in front of me?”
“It’s norm—”
“Even if you weren’t in front of me, you would have let him touch you?”
She sighed. “It’s how we are, we—we’re friends; I mean, he’s seen all there is to see about my fucking titties, and I was here frequently during that time—”
“Did you hear what I just asked?”
“I did. And I’m telling you, it wouldn’t have offended me if he had touched me.”
I blinked at her, utterly dumbfounded, my anger eating away at my resolve. The fact that she even saw the need to argue with me on this.
“I am standing right here, and you are also standing right here, telling me you would have not been offended if another man had touched you that way, right in front of me, right in front of the person you are supposedly dating, the person you are supposedly in a committed relationship with.”
Her mouth opened, closed, opened again. “I mean… when you put it like that—”
“I know you don’t like me on a large scale, and we have our many disagreements, but a little regard and a little respect would be highly appreciated.”
“Says the guy who was texting—” She clenched her jaw, stopped, breathed. “Fine. You are right. It’s just, I’m used to that kind of familiarity with Julio, and I didn’t think it would offend you because it never used to… offend me, and sometimes I don’t think about the, you know… committed relationship thing. It will take some getting used to, but I realize how this could have looked.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry, it won’t happen again. No more letting men grope my boobies because now I have a big bad psycho boyfriend who owns my boobies… Does the commitment include that? You owning my boobies?”
“Stop saying…boo—that,” I ground out, knowing she was trying to make light of the situation, but I was still angry, still disturbed by what I’d just witnessed and what she had tried to defend.
“Right.” She shot me a sly smile. “Sticking to titties… or my big roundish chest balls? Fleshy oranges? Chest growths? Uh… fluffy bosom, filled-up circles? Tropical chest coconuts? Heavenly—”
“Stop, just—stop.” I rubbed my eyes. “Where are the car keys?”
Her smile faltered. “What for?”
