by Mj Fields
I look back at him. “This isn’t—”
“I can remind you of what it’s like to be a man when you forget. And I’ll do so at no extra charge.” He tips his hat. “Your mother would want that for you.”
Before I can say a damn thing, he walks around the car and gets in.
I decide he’s right, and then I decide to go have a little chat with Elijah.
As I’m walking in, he’s walking out. His man bag has the same yellow folder sticking out of it that I saw her give him.
I step back, pulling my eyes from the folder to glare at him.
“You attempt to attack me again, I will have you arrested.”
“You hurt her, and I will destroy you.”
He looks at me curiously.
“I’m not stupid. I know about the baby.”
“The baby?”
“You’re gonna be a father, Donahue.”
He tosses his head back and laughs. “Are you so stupid that you’d think I’d ever chance getting a girl like her pregnant?”
It’s not her. She’s not pregnant.
“Spencer Talcott has more class in her pinky than that Staten Island—”
“You look in Stella’s direction again, and I’ll drag your ass to the police station and kill you with my bare hands, then happily go to jail knowing you’ll never even be able to look at her again.”
“I was done with her anyway.” He snickers and starts to step around me, but I grab his shirt and drag him the rest of the distance to the car where I shove him against it.
“It would be wise for you to take your hands off me.”
“It would be wise for you to shut the fuck up!” I release him, and he steps forward, shoving the file deeper into his man bag.
I shove him. “Tell me why. Why the fuck would you hurt her? To get back at me? What the fuck did I ever do but be your fucking friend?” I shove him again. “My mother died, Elijah, and you, ya sick bastard, like a little gnat in my ear, spewed venom about her. Lies. You made me angry at her. Then my father? All the shit he did for you and—”
“Oh please.” He rolls his eyes.
“How many times did he buy property from you? Properties that his investment in your father funded? Then he had to sell them to bail you out, Elijah. You’d have nothing if it wasn’t for him!”
“And he’d have nothing if it wasn’t for me! He was ready to go to jail for something he didn’t do just so he didn’t have to function. He is weak! He may have guided me as a child, but I saved him, too, and you, you idiot! I despised that you could be a kid, Aaron fucking Hearst. I was never a kid! You didn’t give a damn about anything. You’d never seen or felt struggle. All you cared about was that girl. So, yes, I took her. I took her virginity, too, and then there was nothing else I wanted.”
I hit his face before I even have time to think about the consequences. “That’s from Stella.”
I hit him again, this time knowing full-well what consequences may come, and not giving a fuck either.
Two arms wrap around me and drag me back.
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” Elijah wipes the blood from his nose and lip.
“Perfect. I’ll have mine there as well. He was keeping this fucking business for you!”
I see Roger walk around the car and open the door for the shitbag. When he closes it behind him, he gives me a look of disapproval.
Dammit.
The next day, I wait until I know she’s out of work to text her.
Me: You still busy tonight?
Stella: Yep.
Me: Well, I can’t do Sunday, so I hope you can maneuver your schedule.
Stella: I’ll get back to you.
Me: If you don’t, you’ll have NYPD at your door again.
I hit the back arrow to erase what I was about to send. That would probably put me on the blocked list again.
I toss the phone on the bed and flop back.
Tois crawls out from under his stress blanket and rubs against me.
“You like me today?” I rub my hand down his back. “You’ve been hiding a lot, you know. Bring you all the way from England here, and you become antisocial until she shows up? I should be offended.”
He rolls over on his back, and I rub his belly.
“I get it. She’s kind of something special. Which is exactly why I named you after her. Then had to change it when I saw you had balls. Sorry about snipping those, too, but you were kind of an asshole until I did.”
He lets out a little growl then kicks my hand away with his back paws.
“Doesn’t hurt, ya little shit. You’re declawed. But I respect that you’re moody as fuck and feed your big, fuzzy ass anyway.”
Artois, or Tois as I called him around her. I didn’t want her to know just how bad I had it for her. Stella Artois was the beer her parents got fucked up on the night she was conceived. When Gino was sick, he admitted that to her while I was there.
He and I got close. I hung around whenever I could, without making it obvious that I was there because I wanted to comfort her the way she always did me. Even when Mom died, she tried. But fuck if I didn’t want her thinking I was okay with cheating. I wasn’t. Didn’t matter that Elijah was a needy, little fuck and she didn’t spend shit for time around me when he got so bad. I still got a smile and her eyes when I really needed them.
When she went back to high school, I went to college in the city. The summer before she left for college, she was banging him and I was done. I even asked her best friend out a million fucking times just so I could be around her to make sure he was treating her right, because I warned him that, if he didn’t, I’d take her.
When she left for college, I studied abroad every chance I got. And yeah, I made sure to check on her when I was in London, but I did it from a distance because, until he fucked her, I never thought an asshole like him had a chance, and I knew an asshole like me didn’t deserve her. But even with my self-imposed restraining order, my invisible “denied” stamp on her, it just made me want her even more.
Then my old man and I spent time together, mended fences, and he told me to go after what I loved. She was the only thing I truly loved.
Stella.
Tois flops down against me.
“And you, too, fuzzy fella.”
I never thought she would come back here. I thought I had a chance to sweep her off her feet. I was wrong. Now she’s going back, which is laughable since I just bought this place.
“Still gonna make it happen, though, Tois. Why, you ask.” I rub under his chin. “It’s simple. It’s Stella.”
Simple. Simply, simply Stella. The thought makes me laugh, and then it all makes perfect sense.
What does a single man do on a Friday night in a city full of perfectly pampered rebound ass?
He pets his pussy and colors until he falls asleep.
“I’m a man with a plan, Artois.” I bend down and give him a good rub while I grab the black fabric and hang it over the window.
“I’ll take this side.” Rachel grabs the other end of the roll, and then we walk in opposite directions.
“Rayna, take this while I get the ladder?”
“Of course.” She blushes when she gets closer to me, but I simply shake it off.
After hanging the fabric over the windows, I look around.
“So, what are we going to do now, boss?”
“Not sure if I’ll do anything yet, aside from hanging the hardware I bought. You girls wanna help?”
“Of course.”
“Perfect.”
Three hours later, the last of the gallery art rails are hung, and I step off the ladder.
“So, it’s going to be an art gallery?”
“I’m still not sure.” I shrug. “You girls wanna drink?”
Rayna grins. “Of course we do.”
“In the fridge in the back?” Rachel asks.
“I can grab—”
“I got it. You want anything, boss?”
“
Grab me a Stella Artois please.”
My phone vibrates, and I pull it out of my jeans pocket. I laugh when I see it’s her. Not because it’s funny ha, ha, just ironic.
Stella: Busy?
Me: Little bit. What’s up?
Stella: I’d like to talk.
Me: When?
Stella: Now.
I begin typing back when I hear someone rapping on the covered glass storefront door.
“Want me to get that?” Rayna asks.
“Yeah, but don’t let anyone in.”
I send her back a message.
Me: Where would you like to meet? Can you give me thirty minutes?
“Sorry, you can’t come in.” I hear Rayna. “Private party.”
Rachel hands me the beer, and I twist off the cap before shoving it in my pocket.
“I know the owner.” I look up from my phone as I wait for a reply, because it’s her, here, right now.
“Well, like I said …” Rayna begins.
“Tell him it’s Stella,” she snaps.
Rayna makes a rarr sound then shuts the door on her face.
“Lock that up. I’ll be back in a few,” I tell her as I hurry toward the alleyway entry.
When I walk around, I see her storming past, oblivious that I’m there as she sputters to herself while poking at her phone. Mine vibrates as she shoves hers in her pocket and starts walking faster.
Stella: Never mind.
“I’m right here, Stella.”
Her speed increases, so I run after her like the fucking lunatic I’ve become.
“Hey, Stella!” And now I’m Marlon fucking Brando from that damn movie Mom loved.
I grab her hips and can’t help letting my fingertips sink into her flesh a little bit.
“It was a dumb idea. Just go back to your private party.”
“First of all, it’s not a party.” I turn her to face me. “Second of all …”
I stop. I stop because I see it.
Jealous, that little green beast. And you know what? I like it. It looks beautiful on her.
“Second of all, what?” She steps away from me.
“You look good.”
“Yeah, well, I’m no teenage blonde who looks like she’s never eaten a carb like your private party girl, but yes, I do look good.” She pokes me in the chest then looks shocked that she did it.
I fight like hell not to be a smug bastard, but going from a lunatic chasing her down the street, yelling old movie lines, to knowing damn well the girl I will always love is jealous, well … I’m a smug bastard.
“Artois!” I hear one of the blondes yell, and now my smug ass feels like an asshole just as my middle school self did while I watched her try to get herself off in the shower. “Artois!”
She starts to look around me, but I shift, hoping like hell whichever one it is catches the damn cat and takes it back inside before she sees it.
“Hey,” she growls, pushing me out of the way. “Your cat.” She pushes me again. “Go get Tois.”
“Artois!”
“He’s fine, Rachel.”
“Rayna,” she says on a laugh, correcting me.
“Sisters.” I shrug.
“Hmm, oddly familiar.” Stella turns to walk away, but I grab her hand, stopping her. “I knew better.”
“Excuse me?” I yell.
She pushes my hand away. “I said, I knew better. You’re Aaron Esposito, Aaron Esposito, Aaron Esposito. Male whore extraordinaire. You haven’t changed one bit.”
“You may want to think about who you’re spewing that shit to right now, Stella Mc—”
She throws her hands in the air. “Right, because I let my boyfriend stick the tip of his dick in me because I was drunk and emotionally wrecked before I broke up with him because I love someone else. I get that.”
“What did you just say?”
“I let him stick—”
“I don’t fucking want to hear about Elijah’s dick! I want the next part.”
“I was drunk?”
I shake my head, letting her know that’s not the part either.
“Emotionally wrecked?” Her voice is softer now, and she looks away.
“Goddammit, Stella. I’ve told you how I feel. I’m honest with you about every fucking thing that—”
“Oh, really?” She points to my left. “So, what’s your cat’s name?”
“Never mind!”
“Hey, boss?”
I look back at Rachel or Rayna, or whoever she is. “Just give me a minute.”
She hands Artois to me while Stella says, “No, really, take him,” and turns her back on me.
I grab her around the waist and pick her up.
“I’ll kick you,” she hisses as I carry her toward the side door.
“It won’t be the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
Thankfully, the door opens, so I don’t have to pick which one of my favorite … pussies to drop. “Thank you, Rayna.”
“Rachel,” she corrects.
“Let me go,” Stella hisses.
“You came here to talk to me, so—”
“It was a bad idea.” She groans when I pin her against the wall and hit the button for the elevator to open.
“Fine, you tell me why you’re really here.”
When the elevator door slides open, I lift her up and move the three of us inside of it. Then, when the door closes, I put her down, no longer afraid she’ll run off.
I hear her breathing. It’s deeper, quicker, and then it stops.
I turn around to look at her. She looks from my ass to my eyes. Then she swallows hard and licks her lips before looking away.
When the door opens, I grab her hand and pull her out of the elevator, walking into my place. I set Artois down, who doesn’t give a shit about the stress and tension in the room. All he cares about is the food dish.
I look back, and she looks down.
“His name is Artois. Tois for short.”
She starts chewing on her bottom lip.
“You came here to talk. Let’s talk.”
“You have girls.” She points downward.
“I have help. They’re Roger’s daughters.”
“Who the hell’s Roger?”
“Your exes driver.”
“First, he’s your ex, too.”
I look at her like the lunatic she is.
“He was your friend!”
“Fine, our ex.”
“Next, I’m not a damn toy!”
“I never said you were!”
“You hired his driver’s daughters to what? Have sex with them next? First, his sisters, then me, and now you’re gonna bang his help’s daughters?”
“Goddammit, Stella, I want you. You fucking crushed me, and I still want you! Maybe you should tell me what it is you really want to tell me.”
24
Stella
“I want you to know I would give anything to go back and change what happened.”
“Which part, fucking him or me?”
“Of course him! I would, but I can’t. I can’t, and I won’t have you look at me and think of him, no more than I can allow myself to look at you and think of him.”
I can’t look at him when I say the next part, so I turn my back.
“I love you, Aaron, but I can’t let myself be in love with you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Someday, maybe, we can get back to being friends, but if we don’t stop playing this game, we’ll never even be that. You’re too important to me to have it any other way.”
“I won’t be your friend.”
“Then it’s a really good thing we’ll be an ocean apart, because I can’t bear to be in your presence knowing that, in one stupid drunken moment, I felt sorry for him and thought maybe I should stop letting him call the shots, maybe I should push him to open up to me, maybe I could help him see the boy …” I stop.
“Say it.”
I shake my head.
�
��Then I will.” He walks closer and grabs my biceps.
My thoughts immediately go to a week ago when Elijah did the same thing, how he flipped, and how I never saw it coming.
I close my eyes and whisper, “Please don’t hurt me.”
He immediately releases me, and I hear his feet move quickly as he steps back.
“Good thing you don’t want to be with me because I’m gonna rip his fucking face off. And they’re gonna lock me up.”
As the elevator dings, I look past Aaron to see the two blondes and a police officer. It’s Mario.
“Um, boss?”
Aaron doesn’t look back, just stares at me.
“The nice officer is here to see you.”
“You don’t suppose they heard that, do you?” He forces a smile.
I shake my head, and then he rolls his eyes and sighs.
“Make sure Artois gets fed?”
“Why? Where are you going?”
“Kicked our exes ass the other night. Probably jail.” He turns around. “Mario, how are you?”
“Sorry about this, Esposito, but I’m gonna have to take yous down to the station. You know why?”
He shrugs. “Guessing some punk who treats women like shit didn’t like me telling him it’s a bad idea.”
Mario chuckles. “You tell him with your fist?”
“I don’t remember. I’ll have to ask my lawyer,” Aaron jokes. “Can you give me a few minutes, Officer?” He tosses his thumb over his shoulder in my direction.
“Yeah, we’ll be downstairs.”
“Rachel, Rayna, you think you can grab a cab or give your dad a buzz to come pick you up?” He pulls his wallet out of his back pocket and walks over to hand them some cash.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Thanks for your help today.”
“Want us to come back and help clean the other floors?”
“I’ll be in touch.”
When he turns back to me, I nod toward Artois. “I’ll feed your cat.”
“Thanks. I won’t be gone long. I can guarantee he’s doing this shit two days later so I can’t see you before you leave.”
“Two days?”
He shrugs and smirks.
“Wait. He knows I’m leaving? Did I tell him?”
“Who the hell knows what he knows? He’s fucking crazy.”