“Freckles,” Sebastian warned.
Maggie laughed. “Serves you right. Maybe next time you won’t get wasted and stay out all night.”
She laughed as she walked away into the kitchen. Sebastian turned to me with a look of panic. “Do you have any remover?”
“Me? Why the fuck would I have any?”
“This is all your fault. None of us would have gotten so drunk if you could just learn to communicate with your woman.”
I laughed sharply at his reasoning. When I got up and headed into the kitchen, all the girls turned to look at me.
“Yes?” Sarah asked.
“Do any of you have nail polish remover?”
“Sorry. We didn’t think to bring any,” she said innocently. “Maybe it’s about time you call Lillian and apologize to her.”
I glared at her and then walked out to the living room. “Which one of you fuckers is giving me a ride to the store?”
An hour later, all of us except for Sebastian were sitting around wiping nail polish off our nails with the smelliest shit ever. Why women did this to themselves I would never know. It took me a half hour to find the shit in the store because I didn’t want to ask anyone where it was. Then I grabbed ten bottles because I had no clue how much it would take to get it all off. Sebastian had to leave before we got back, so he ended up going to his meeting with the nail polish still on.
“When you ladies are done doing your nails, we need to get this place cleaned up. If Sean’s going to win Lillian back, he can’t be living in a shit hole,” Cece said.
Logan flipped her the bird and went back to rubbing his nails. Cece narrowed her eyes.
“I saw that, Logan.”
Something weird passed between them and I could swear the temperature in the room increased ten degrees. Cece turned and walked away, while Logan rubbed his hands together.
“Oh yeah. Tonight’s going to be good.”
“You two are fucked up, you know that?” Ryan asked.
By the afternoon, the house looked like normal again and the women all dragged their spouses home. They had all left their kids with family and had to get back. I sat down on my newly cleaned couch and stared at the empty house.
I had been absolutely miserable without Lillian the past two weeks. I’d known I fucked up, but I was too much of a chicken shit to do anything about it. That was about to change. I needed to get my shit together.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Lillian
“YOU’RE SURE THIS is going to work? It’s been two days since you were over there and I haven’t heard a word from him,” I asked Harper. We were out for lunch because Agnes, Jack’s mother, took the kids for a few hours. Since I was off of school, I was now free to go to lunch with friends in the middle of the day.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this all taken care of.”
“Got what taken care of? I still don’t know why you insisted I dress up like this.”
Harper had asked me to wear a sexy but casual dress. Since I didn’t do sexy, I wore a summer dress that was a sunny yellow with a boat neck. I wore my mother’s pearls because they went with the dress and drop earrings. My hair was pulled back in a chignon.
“Okay, don’t freak out, but I asked a friend of mine to meet us here. He’s going to be your lunch date.”
“My lunch date? I thought you and I were having lunch?”
“Well, I convinced Jack to bring Sean here for lunch today also. When Sean sees you with another man, he’s going to totally flip.”
“But I don’t want that. We’re in public.”
“Don’t worry. We’re in public and Sean is a Detective. There’s no way he’ll make a big scene. We just want him to realize that if he doesn’t man up, he’ll lose you.”
“Harper, I don’t want to sound mean, but Jack was right. You’re trouble and any plan you have is most likely going to blow up in my face.”
She looked a little taken aback. “Well, I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say that. You’ll see. When Sean walks in here, the green eyed monster is going to come out.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Ooh! That’s Jake now.”
She waved her hand and I turned around to see a man that I could only describe as the hottest man I’d ever seen walking toward me. He had the looks of a GQ model, but the body of a demigod. I had to restrain myself from fanning my face and embarrassing myself. The man had inky black hair that was just long enough to run my fingers through. His unshaven face showed an angular jaw and a sharp nose that made him look like he had been sculpted by Michelangelo himself.
He had on a black suit with a grey shirt with the top two buttons undone and no tie. As he walked toward me, his swagger screamed that he was definitely a heartbreaker. When he reached the table, his smile about made me fall out of the chair and melt in a puddle on the floor.
“Harper, it’s good to see you.”
Harper stood and gave Jake a friendly hug. “It’s good to see you too, Jake. This is my friend Lillian that I was telling you about.”
“You were right. She’s absolutely gorgeous.”
Jake leaned in and brushed his lips over my outstretched hand. Tingles ran down my spine and I almost giggled in excitement.
“So, Sean should be walking in with Jack in the next half hour, so I’ll leave you two to get to know one another.” Harper turned to me with a smile. “Lillian, are you ready to put on a show for Sean?”
I was in a trance, staring at the beautiful specimen before me. “Ready for who?”
“Sean.” Harper said insistently. “You know? The man you’re trying to win back?”
“Oh, right. I’m sorry. I must have had a momentary..you know..” I cleared my throat as I tried to get out words. Yes words. They seemed to be escaping me at the moment. “Anyway. What exactly am I supposed to do?”
“Flirt with Jake. Show him that you’re ready to move on. It’ll drive Sean wild,” Harper said excitedly.
“You want me to flirt. With this man. Harper, you do see him, right? I can barely talk around him, let alone flirt with him.”
Jake shot a sexy grin my way. There was no point hiding it. I had already made a fool of myself. “That’s perfect. It’ll drive him crazy that someone else has you tongue tied. I know if my woman was acting like that with another man, I would throw her over my shoulder and haul her out of the restaurant.”
“This is such a bad idea.”
“Okay, well I’m going to leave you two kids to get acquainted. I’ll be at a table over there. Have fun!” She gave a flirty wave and headed for a table across the restaurant, leaving me alone with a man that made me almost as excited as Sean. If I had met him before Sean, it’s very possible I would have wanted to date this man.
“Um..I’m not sure this is a good idea,” I said nervously.
“Look, if this guy needs a wakeup call, this is definitely the way to do it. There’s nothing that drives a man crazy like his woman with another man.” He gave a charming smile and I found myself slightly more interested in continuing this rouse, if only to keep staring at his beautiful face.
“How do you know Harper?” I asked.
“I own the restaurant she used to work at.”
“Oh. I just met her, so I didn’t know she did anything other than write.”
“And what is it you do?”
“I’m an English teacher at the high school.”
“That sounds..like my worst nightmare.”
I laughed at his honesty. “Well, it’s not for everyone.”
We continued to chat while I nervously played with my water glass. The waiter had brought over two glasses of wine that Harper had sent over. I was glad for something to ease my nerves.
I saw Sean approach the restaurant and my pulse skyrocketed just from his presence. His jaw was covered in at least two days scruff. He had on a simple t-shirt that stretched his muscled arms and a pair of blue jeans. He looked much better since the last time I’
d seen him and I momentarily wondered if maybe it was because I was no longer around.
I quickly averted my gaze and started playing nervously with the stem of my wine glass. Jake reached across the table and swiped his thumb over my hand as he squeezed it.
“Hey, relax. Just follow my lead. It’s showtime.”
I thought he would pull back, but instead he leaned across the table and held my hand tighter.
“You really are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
I blushed from his compliment and tried to reign in the smile that was breaking free, but there was no stopping it. Sean had been the only man to look at me the way Jake was.
“What the fuck is this?” Sean’s booming voice cut through the air. Startled, I looked up to see Sean stalking toward me with murder in his eyes. Jack was following closely behind trying to hold back laughter. Did I mention this was not a good idea?
“Sean, I..I didn’t know you’d be here.” I tried to sound convincing, but it sounded rehearsed even to my ears. I rolled my eyes at my poor acting, but Sean didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were focused on my fingers entwined with Jake’s.
“Lillian, do you know this guy?”
“Umm..” I looked at Jake and tried to decipher what I was supposed to say. They told me to play along, but honestly, they should have given me a script. I had no clue how to play this. “This is Sean. He’s my..” I glanced at Sean’s angry face. “My ex-boyfriend. Or..maybe my almost boyfriend that slept with another woman, so we never really had a chance for it to become more?”
I hadn’t meant to say that last part, but I got the feeling it was the right thing to say because Sean’s fists started clenching tighter and tighter.
“Sounds like a jackass to me. Good thing I met you. Now you don’t have to waste your time with douchebags who can’t see what’s right in front of their face.”
I wanted to roll my eyes again. That was the worst line I’d ever heard. Talk about being obvious.
“Lillian, I think we need to talk.” Sean held his hand out toward me and I tried to pull my hand from Jake’s, but he held tight and shook his head minutely.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sean. We had time to talk, but you didn’t want to.”
“Lillian, I’m not going to ask you again. Get your ass up. We need to talk.”
“Hey, asshole. I don’t know what century you live in, but that’s no way to talk to a lady,” a woman at the next table said as she stood and glared at Sean.
“Stay out of this,” Sean sneered.
“I don’t think I will. You need to learn some manners. No wonder she left you.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. This was escalating and would turn out so bad if I didn’t put a stop to it. I started to stand and that’s when I noticed Jake was too. He took a step in Sean’s direction and got in his face.
“Look, friend. The lady doesn’t want to talk to you, so walk away.”
I looked at Jack for help, but he was no longer there. I glanced around and saw that he was now over with Harper and they appeared to be in some kind of argument. I looked back at Sean just as he gripped Jake by the collar of the shirt and pulled him right up to him.
“You ever try to get between me and my woman again, you won’t like the consequences.”
“Remove your hands from me. Now.” Jake was seething and I stood there wringing my hands, thinking this was getting way out of control. I had no idea what Harper thought would happen, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t it.
“Sean, I think you need to leave. You’re causing a scene,” I said, a little scared of what was going to happen.
“I’m not going without you,” he growled as he stared down Jake.
“Too bad. Lillian, this has gone on long enough. I’m not letting you leave with this asshole. You really aren’t a man if you need to order your woman around,” he smirked at Sean.
Before I knew what was happening, Sean reared back and punched Jake across the jaw. Jake stumbled back a step, but then righted himself and ran forward, ramming himself into Sean’s stomach. I cringed, knowing that had to have really hurt Sean. The two of them went flying across the table of the woman that had stood up for me. The little, old woman at the table started beating both men with her handbag.
Sean flipped Jake off him and rolled off the table holding his side. Jake got up quickly and threw a punch at Sean, who just barely avoided the hit. I had to do something. I was sure Sean would have a major setback if he kept this up. Jake was going after him and landed a few punches that I was sure Sean would have been able to avoid if he were one hundred percent. I glanced over to see Harper and Jack still fighting.
Not knowing what else to do, I picked up the bottle of ketchup on the table, popped the top and started squirting it at the men. They continued to fight, despite now being covered in the condiment. When I ran out of ketchup, I picked up the mustard, but this time I aimed for their faces.
“What the fuck?” Sean said as he swiped at his face. Jake took the opportunity to get one last punch in.
“What is wrong with you two? You’re not acting like grown men, but children fighting over a toy!”
At that point, the manager made her way over with a stern expression. “This is a restaurant, not a gymnasium. Now, you need to leave before I call the police!”
Sean walked over to her and handed her his card. “Please send me the bill. I’ll pay for the damages.”
She pursed her lips, but took the card and nodded. He turned back to me and stared at me a moment, his eyes cold and unfeeling. Then he turned and stalked out of the restaurant, leaving me wondering what exactly Harper thought would happen. Sean had looked at me like I had betrayed him. Jake looked back at me and shrugged, then waved to Harper and headed for the door.
“I definitely did not expect that to happen,” Harper said as she walked up behind me and took in the wreckage. Jack now stood behind her and looked pissed.
“I told you it was a bad idea. Obviously you don’t understand from our time together how possessive men can be.”
I rubbed my forehead and walked over to the table, grabbing my purse. “I’m going home. I want Sean back and I want him to apologize, but this was too much. I’m not the kind of person that plays with someone’s emotions.”
I stepped over the broken glass and headed for the door. I’d had enough for one day.
✯✯✯✯✯
I was mentally exhausted after my afternoon. I wanted to kill Harper for putting me in that situation this afternoon, but I was even more upset with myself for going along with it. I was not that person. I was honest with people and I didn’t play games. Part of me had wanted to go to Sean after I left the restaurant, but I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. I needed to apologize for my part in what happened at the restaurant, but I still needed Sean to come to me on his own and tell me that he wanted me back.
It was only five o’clock at night, but I was feeling tired and just wanted to be in my nightgown with a glass of wine. I had just poured myself a glass when I heard a knock on my door. I quickly grabbed a robe and headed for the front door.
I was shocked to see Sean standing there. He was leaning against the doorframe and looked a little worse for wear. I crossed my arms over my chest and did my best to look angry, even though I wanted to pull him into my house and give him a hug. I had missed Sean so much over the past two weeks and that was really hitting me hard right now.
“Can I come in?”
I thought about making a snarky comment, but good manners took over and I stepped back, allowing him to enter. He walked further into the living room and I motioned for him to sit down. I took a chance and sat next to him.
“It’s a little early for bedtime, isn’t it?”
“Today took it out of me. I just wanted to be comfortable.”
“I’m sorry about earlier. I never should have reacted like that. After kicking you out and not calling for two weeks, I didn’t really have any righ
t to say whether or not you should be out with another guy.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Lillian, you were sitting at a table with a man who was holding your hand.”
“I was supposed to be having lunch with Harper, but she blindsided me with a date to make you jealous.”
“Huh.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw and shook his head. “I guess I should have seen that coming when Jack dragged me out of the house and insisted we go to that restaurant.”
“I should have stopped it the moment Harper suggested it.”
“Why didn’t you?” He asked curiously.
“I guess I wanted to know if it would work. I wanted to know if I was worth fighting for.”
“How could you think your aren’t?”
I shrugged. “We were pretty new when everything fell apart. Then, you kicked me out and didn’t speak to me for two weeks.”
“Still..”
“Sean, I don’t have a lot of experience with men. I know that I leave a lot to be desired-”
Sean’s hand flew to the back of my neck and he pulled me in closer. “Don’t you ever talk that way about yourself. You are perfect. I like that you don’t have a lot of experience with men. It gives me the chance to make you mine. I know that I’ve screwed up a lot, and I don’t deserve yet another chance, but I really hope you’ll give it to me because the man that wins your heart is going to be the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth.”
“Sean..” My heart stuttered in my chest at his words. I never thought any man would make me feel like Sean had. It had been a rough road so far, but I thought if we could just get past all this, things could be really good.
“Please, the next time you need space, just talk to me. I don’t understand a thing about men and I don’t read body language that well. You’re going to have to spell stuff out for me.”
“I can do that. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you. I was stuck in my head, pissed that I couldn’t do anything. The more you wanted to help, the more pissed I became that I couldn’t help myself. I never should have taken it out on you. Believe me, the guys tore me a new asshole over the way I treated you. Can we start over?”
Sean Page 18