“See, this is why I had to push you away yesterday. You’re not listening to me. You obviously do this kind of thing all the time, but I don’t. Would we be good together? Hell yes, but I don’t want to just be another girl you would use for a night, or even a couple nights.”
Braxton could tell this was a battle he wasn’t going to win. Her demeanor turning defensive and she was likely about five seconds from walking away from him. He had never been in this situation before, always picking up girls so easily, and he didn’t really want them. Now he finally found a girl he actually wanted, and she was turning him down. How fucking ironic. Instead of continuing to push and have a repeat of what happened the prior day, he decided to let it go. For now. “Okay. You win, but I’m still not letting you go that easy. I’m sticking around in case you end up changing your mind.”
“Sticking around?”
“Yes. Here. Tonight. Unless hanging out with me is something you don’t do either.”
“You can hang out. I don’t care. It’s your bar anyways,” she shrugged. “But I’m not changing my mind.”
“That’s fine. I’ll take my chances.”
Sara, Mandy and Trevor snuck out to the patio in an attempt to overhear what Annie and the man from the other night were discussing, but their not so modest eavesdropping had him looking up at them before they picked up on a single word. Dropping the act, they walked over.
“Hey!” Sara spurted a little too loud, her inebriation showing. “What are you up to out here?”
Annie stood quick and Brax followed suit. “Nothing, just talking,” she looked at Brax and then back to her friends. “Guys this is Brax, from the other night. He saw us here and decided to introduce himself.” She thought there might be a chance they wouldn’t recognize him. He was dressed different from when they saw him last, now sporting a casual look of blue jeans and a white t-shirt, but the reminder was unnecessary.
Sara and Mandy both said hello, while Trevor went with the standard male head nod. All three of them looked nervous and she knew exactly how they felt. There was something about Brax’s presence that made your heart beat faster and your palms sweat. It was daunting, unnerving and alluring all at the same time.
They stood out on the patio small chatting while Brax smoked the second cigarette. Luckily her real name never came up in the conversation, but if it did, she planned to explain Annie was just short for Bethany. Her friends knew she always told guys at bars her fake name and they seemed to purposely avoid it during the conversation, just in case she told him her real name.
“So Brax, what are you doing here tonight?” Sara asked. “Bring any hot friends with you?”
He laughed. “Not tonight. Just here on business.”
“Oh yeah, what kind?”
“Brax owns the bar,” Annie chimed in.
“Say what? Can you get us free drinks?”
“Sara!” she scolded. “Don’t be rude.”
“No, it’s fine. Let me know when you finish those,” he indicated to the full, plastic beer cups they were holding. “We’ll go get more.”
“Sweet!”
A minute of silence followed. No one knew where to go from there.
“Oh shit, I love this song,” Mandy exclaimed as one of the newest Jay-Z tracks began to play. Annie wasn’t sure if she actually loved the song or if she just wanted to find a way to remove herself from the lack of conversation they were enduring. “Come on! Let’s go dance!”
Trevor and Sara followed Mandy in. Annie headed in as well, but stopped as she felt a hand on her wrist and turned back to Brax.
He shook his head.
“You don’t want to go dance?”
“No. I’d rather stay out here and talk to you.”
“Come on,” she insisted. “Show me some more of your moves.”
The left side of his lip quirked up in a half-smile as if he were thinking about it, but when she tried to pull him forward he wouldn’t budge. Taking hold of her hand, he made no effort to leave the patio and instead brought it up to his lips and leisurely kissed the back.
His mouth on her was mesmerizing. Usually an innocent gesture, but what he did felt sensual. It made her wonder what it would feel like for his lips to be on other parts of her body. Thoughts she definitely shouldn’t be having. “What are you doing Brax?” She withdrew her hand and unlaced their fingers. “I meant what I said. This isn’t going to happen.”
“Okay, okay,” he breathed out deep and pulled her into a hug. “I just can’t stop thinking about you like that.” The whisper of his breath tickled her neck.
“I’m going to need you to try.”
“Fine. I can do that. Just friends from here on out. Promise.”
“I don’t think you know how to just be friends.”
She was right. Braxton didn’t have any close friends, especially not female friends. He had acquaintances, guys he worked with and girls he fucked. That was all. He didn’t even know where this just friends bullshit was coming from. The words poured out of his mouth like a faucet he couldn’t turn off, and yet for some strange reason he meant it. He wanted to know this girl. He wanted to be friends with her. Well that’s not accurate, but friendship might be the best thing for the direction he really wanted to go. “Don’t fight me on this Bethany,” he took hold of her face with both hands. “I can be a great friend. Trust me. Come on. I have an idea.”
Braxton held her hand and led her inside to the bar where he ordered three tequila shots and a pitcher of beer.
“Is your idea to get me drunk?” she had to yell over the music.
“No, not necessarily.” He pushed a shot glass toward her. “But if that happens in the process I’m not making any promises I won’t take advantage.” He downed the two other shots before turning back to look at her. She stood there, arms crossed, upset and cute as hell. “Kidding,” he stated, putting both hands up in surrender, but she still didn’t relax. “Okay, let’s set some ground rules for our new friendship. I promise I won’t sleep with you or do anything you don’t want me to do to you. Even if you’re wasted and I have to carry you back to your room, I’ll be a perfect gentleman. Is that better?”
Shaking her head yes she gradually uncrossed her arms.
“But the same rules go for you too. I’m off limits. Don’t try and take advantage of me later either.”
“Oh I’ll try not to.”
“Good. Now get over here and take this shot woman.”
While she gulped down the shot Braxton leaned over the counter and grabbed a deck of cards. He also pointed out Bethany’s friends to the bartender and told him their drinks would be on the house for the rest of the night.
Walking her out to the back patio they sat at one of the high top tables in an area scarce of people. He took the cards out of the case, shuffled and then dealt them into two even piles, one for her and one for him. “It’s just like War. Have you played?”
“Not since I was a kid, but I think I remember.”
“Okay good, well keeping with the juvenile spirit, we’re going to add in a little bit of Truth or Dare. Whoever wins one of the normal turns gets to ask the loser anything they want and it has to be answered truthfully. No lies B. You’re telling me the truth from here on out. And if it’s a war turn then the winner gets to dare the loser to do something and there’s no saying no. Are you in?”
“Are we keeping with the same ground rules as earlier? No daring me to sleep with you or give you a lap dance or anything like that? Just friendly dares.”
He nodded.
“Then I’m in. Bring it on!”
Brax flipped over his deck’s top card first to reveal the eight of hearts. Annie followed shortly after. Ten of clubs.
“Okay, um, let me think. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Leaning back, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Wow, you’re going easy on me. Yes, I have a brother, or well had a brother. He died when I was seven.”
“Oh my god Brax, I’m s
o sorry.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes shitty things happen. I try not to think about it.”
“Well if that was me going easy on you, it makes me wonder what you’ll say when I’m not going easy on you.”
“Guess you’ll find out,” he told her while flipping over another card.
B (3 of clubs) < A (Q of spades)
“How did you end up owning this bar?”
“Well that’s a long story.” He paused to take a sip of his beer. “To keep things short, I went to Business School at Columbia while working at a bar and figured out I have a talent for turning small businesses into high-profiting companies. This is actually one of the first places I flipped. It used to be a complete dump and I bought it for next to nothing, as well as the laundry mat next door, and then turned it in to this.” He motioned around himself. “But it’s nothing in comparison to what I do now. It’s like looking at a report you did in elementary school and comparing it to one you did in college. It’s just something cute I did once.”
“Well what do you do now?”
“Nope. You already asked your question,” he smiled and took another sip of his beer.
B (K of diamonds) > A (J of diamonds)
“What have you done in the past you would consider completely fucked up?”
“What kind of question is that?” she resisted.
“You put on such an innocent persona. I just want to know exactly what I’m dealing with. Maybe you’re not as innocent as you pretend to be.”
Thinking to herself for a moment she answered. “When I was in high school I purposely brought a big purse to the mall and stole over five hundred dollars’ worth of clothes. That’s really the worst thing I can think of.”
“Is it?” He didn’t believe her. Braxton had a knack for reading people. He could almost always tell when someone was lying and she had been from the start. There was something she was hiding and he needed to know what it was. Maybe that’s why he was so infatuated. There was just something off about her, he could feel it in his gut. She was like him, seemingly normal on the outside, but entirely fucked up on the inside, and he was going to get it out of her.
“Close your eyes.”
She hesitated for a minute, but then did as he said.
“Pretend like we didn’t just meet yesterday. You know me well.” He paused to walk around the table and reached for her shoulders, massaging deep. “I want you to relax.” But she didn’t relax, she opened her eyes and turned to look at him. Gripping her shoulders, he turned her back around. “I said to fucking relax. Now close your eyes and do what I told you.” His soft touch betrayed his threatening tone.
She closed her eyes again and he continued to massage, his thumbs pushing away her pent up tension. “I’m going to tell you something. Something very few people know about me, but I don’t want it to freak you out. We’re friends now, we should be able to tell each other anything.” This was the only thing he could think of to get her to open up, but he couldn’t believe he was going to tell her. It went against everything he knew, yet the impulse was strong, he wanted her to know. “I am not a good person. I have done things and thought things most people can’t even imagine.”
“Mmmm, like what,” she murmured with her head down, still enjoying the strong feel of his hands as they rubbed up her tight neck muscles and toward her scalp.
“Do you really want to know? I’ll tell you anything you want. No lies with you. But if we’re going to do this, I expect the same from you. I don’t want to know what’s on the surface or some bullshit about you stealing something when you were a kid. I don’t give a fuck about that. I want to know what you don’t ever want to tell anyone. What you’re least proud of, or what you assume people will think is something you shouldn’t be proud of. You don’t have to be fake with me, because whatever you’re not telling me right now, just know I’ve done worse. I won’t ever judge anything you tell me. You can be who you really are with me and that’s who I need you to be.”
Brax continued massaging, waiting for her to respond. His method to get answers out of her sounding a lot like what they taught in school; try to make your patient feel comfortable. Though they never taught the massage technique, that was really doing the trick. “You tell me first. What have you done?”
“If I tell you, you won’t ever say a word to another soul.” It wasn’t a request, but a statement of truth. He stopped massaging. It was his turn to have a shaky voice. He never told anyone on the outside about this. He was taking a big leap of faith she would keep his secret and issuing her a death sentence if she didn’t. What the fuck was he doing? But it was too late now. “I’ve done everything illegal you can think of, probably several times over. Anything you are imagining right now, the answer is more than likely yes.”
“How illegal are we talking? Drugs? Theft?” She procrastinated asking what she really wanted to know. “Murder?”
He wasn’t forthcoming with his answer, but the lack of admission was more than enough. “Please don’t be afraid of me. I’m not proud of what I’ve done and I would never hurt you.”
And the crazy thing was, she wasn’t afraid of him. Not one bit. His words meant nothing to her. Everyone’s done things they were ashamed of, even she was guilty of that. Admitting his faults without being forced made her like him even more.
Without opening her eyes, she reached back for his hand before lacing their fingers together. A forgiving and comforting gesture to let him know he didn’t appall her. It was in that moment he knew he was going to keep her. No matter what.
Taking his arm, she wrapped it around her waist, knowing it was childish, but needing him to hold her while she told her story. It was something she had hid for years, never told another person, but his admission gave her the courage to finally get it off her chest. “I sent my high school boyfriend to prison for something he never did.” She swallowed audibly and then went into more detail. “He was nineteen and I was sixteen. We were together for eight months before I finally let him make love to me. My parents were out of town and it was perfect. He lit candles and was sweet and tender and I fell asleep in his arms like a fairy tale. I was so in love with him. I assumed we would end up getting married one day.
“When I woke up around midnight he already left. He was on the college football team and always had early morning practices so he never wanted to stay the night, not like my parents would have let him, but they weren’t home that night so I kind of assumed he would. I just wanted to cuddle with him, so I threw on some clothes and drove over to his apartment. I didn’t have a key, but I knew were his spare was hidden and I let myself in.
“The apartment was dark and I turned on a hallway light to see where I was going. I had to use the bathroom so I went in there first and that’s when I noticed a pair of women’s underwear hanging out of the hamper. I remember my heart beating so fast. There had to have been an explanation, but I couldn’t think of one. I started looking around the apartment quietly, trying to find evidence to clear him of what I just saw. Maybe his sister was there staying the night, but there was no one on the couch. I was already sick to my stomach when I saw an extra set of keys on the counter I didn’t recognize. There was a photo in a plastic frame linked to the chain. The picture was of a young blonde and my boyfriend together with red letters at the bottom dating it as six months prior.
“I knew what was happening, but I still had to see for myself. I walked back toward his bedroom and quietly opened the door. The light streamed in enough for me to see them in bed together. They were just sleeping. She had a white tank top on, so it’s not like they just had sex; it was worse. They were in a relationship where they slept together at night and held each other and probably loved each other, except he just slept with me. He was pretending to love me too.
“I think in that moment I went a little insane. I left the apartment without saying anything. Locked the door and put the key back. I cried in the car the whole way home thinking of all the ways I cou
ld hurt him like he hurt me. As a joke, a month prior a friend of mine had given me a big dildo, which I had never touched, but she always told me to use it before I ever tried to have sex so it wouldn’t hurt as bad and I would be able to enjoy it. I ran inside and pulled it out of the box from under my bed, took off my clothes and used it as rough as possible,” she stopped telling the story and cringed, it was embarrassing to admit that part to him, but she pushed on, she couldn’t stop there.
“I remember it burned really bad, but it was nothing in comparison to how I hurt on the inside. After probably fifteen minutes, I got up, washed it off and hid it back in the box. Then I dialed 911 and told the operator everything that happened. He came over, we were kissing and this time he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He pulled down my panties and forced himself on me. During the call my tears were still real and flowing and the operator believed me. She sent over two officers who took me to the emergency room to be examined and called my parents. We didn’t use a condom, so due to the internal bruising and the semen residue, the doctor confirmed it was rape.
“Dillon, that was his name, was arrested an hour later. He was let out on bail until the trial and despite the restraining order, he still tried to get to me and find out why. He banged on my front door, yelling out my name and asked why I was doing this. He screamed out I was a fucking liar and that’s when my dad went out there with a shotgun and told him if he ever saw him again he would blow his brains out.
“I started to feel bad. I knew what I did was wrong, but it was too late by then. What would I do? Tell everyone I did it to myself? There was no way I would ever do that so I let the trial move forward. My lawyer said since I was underage I didn’t need to testify or show my face in court. He said the doctor’s testimony would take care of everything and it did. Dillon was sentenced to seven years in prison. He never contacted me again.”
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