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“Your behavior is what’s got me most concerned. But I also happen to know the bartender you fired the night you met Chloe. He’s not only been arrested, he got jumped by two guys when he got out on bond and beaten badly. Very badly. And then his apartment caught fire while he was in the hospital, ruining just the items in his unit, and destroying a valuable trading card collection.”
“What makes you think those things have anything to do with me? Other than having him arrested. That was business. If I don’t make an example of theft, I’ll be a target. It’s based on firing a thief that you think I’d hurt her?”
“His card collection is kept in a locked fireproof box under his bed. It was mysteriously left open on the bed. His lawyer also quit on him with no explanation.”
“Why do you care about a bartender that was stealing from not only his employer, but also the patrons? Fleecing customers like yourself and your coworkers out of your hard-earned money either by fucking with the change or by charging people for top shelf liquor and serving something else? Watering down drinks.”
“Okay, Alex aside, let’s talk about Chloe. You’ve blackmailed her into having an affair with you. You’ve stalked her, infiltrated her privacy. You’ve threatened her. I don’t even know all of what you’ve done because she’s been clammed up about it.”
“I’ve done what I need to do to win her so that I can give her the happiness she deserves. I’m gonna marry her Monday, put my ring on her finger, and make all her dreams come true.”
I’m just sitting still, holding my coffee, watching these two.
I take a sip.
“Marry her on Monday?”
“That’s right. I wasn’t sure at first what I wanted other than to rock her world and get her to use the hall pass on me. But the more I learn, the more I see, and definitely the more time I spend with her, I know I want it all.”
“She doesn’t want to marry you. You’ve been blackmailing her. Stalking her. Infiltrating her privacy.”
“She’ll get over it.” He shrugs, flipping slices of bacon.
“And when you’re over your infatuation with her? She’s blissfully happy and madly in love and you’re over it, what happens then?”
“Until a few days ago I would’ve said we’d part amicably. Now, though? Now that I’m planning on putting her in that white dress and giving her my last name? I think that makes it pretty clear I have no intention of ever being done with her. I wouldn’t go from wanting to make her happy and undoing all the bad in her life to making her marry me if I wasn’t absolutely sure doing it would mean to me what I know it means to her.”
“And what’s that?”
“Forever. Wearing the dress just once for her. Saying those vows and meaning every word of them for me. For better or for worse with hopefully both of us, but definitely me working hard to make sure there’s more better. If she’d worn that gown for Hallman, maybe she’d have sworn marriage off after that went to shit. But let’s face it, it’s been shit for a long time. Longer than he’s been in that wheelchair, too, particularly in the bedroom department.”
Sizzling gets louder. Bacon scents fill the air as he works at the stove.
She looks at me.
I again rotate my finger around my ear.
Instead of giving me a look of agreement, she has a strange look on her face.
He points the spatula at me and tsks. “Not very nice, Chloe. You wanna earn yourself a spanking, keep it up.” He wiggles his eyebrows, making his meaning clear and I watch Alannah grab her own throat, like she’s affected.
“You were saying?” Derek prompts.
“Huh? Oh. I mean, there’s not a lot known about you,” Alannah continues. “But there are some concerning rumors.” She poignantly takes a sip of her coffee.
“I’m sure there are. Feel free to share.”
“That you’re very vindictive. That you can be violent. That most of your own family is afraid of you.”
He says nothing, just keeps working on the bacon.
“Do you not see how alarming it is that you’ve become obsessed with her and turned her life upside down in a very short time?”
“Sometimes you have to dismantle things in order to be able to fix them,” he says darkly.
Her eyes fill with more alarm. “What about fixing yourself?”
“I’m pretty content with who I am.” He shrugs. “When you say you’ve heard I’m vindictive, doesn’t that indicate that I’m retaliating? Shouldn’t one retaliate if someone wrongs them?”
