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“What? Why do I need to do that?” I asked, seemingly terrified about the whole notion. Thousands will read about this in the paper and it will be official. “Relax, Addie. It’s normal, well at least for us rich folk. I need to do this and you will fulfill your duty perfectly. Unless you want to back out now and pay for everything yourself?” he taunted.
I bitterly agreed to everything and left.
My father had avoided me. He turned in early every night and pretended to be sleeping when I got home. I had been working at the bar every night of the week. I made sure that I took off the ring Daimon had given me. I wasn’t prepared to tell everyone and thankfully Daimon hadn’t shown up. He even postponed our announcement by a week. He said he’d give me another week and then my world would be his.
“So how’s your dad?” asked Darren.
“Avoiding me. The man is angry at me, but he won’t admit it. I sold his diner and now he’s left with nothing to do,” I said as I put down my tray.
“Just give him time. He’ll come around,” Darren said as he put his hand on my shoulder to try to reassure me.
“Darren, do me a favor and don’t touch my Addie without my permission?” Daimon’s voice was so loud and clear that I hardly heard the music that was playing.
“Relax Daimon, remember we all went to the same high school. I'm Addie’s friend,” Darren said but didn’t move his hand off me.
“You might be her friend, but she’s mine. I don’t like to share,” Daimon hissed as he moved closer behind me.
“You never did when it came to her,” Darren bit out. I stood there between them, lost at what was happening.
“Holy shit!” was all I heard from Jace who was standing behind the bar.
“Why would I?” Daimon said nearly losing his cool.
“Addie is allowed to have friends, Daimon. It’s not like I'm going to take her away, not if she doesn’t want me to,” Darren took his eyes off Daimon and looked at me smiling.
“She’s going to be my wife. So I highly doubt my girl would leave me for you.”
“Daimon,” I hissed. Darren laughed, but there was no humor there, only a quiet anger seemed to reverberate from him.
“You’ve always wanted Addie to yourself, never giving anyone else the chance to have her. But you’re going to fuck up, Daimon, and when you do Addie will finally be free of your bullshit. That’s when I'm going to go after her. I'm going to show her what a real man can do,” Darren said still looking right at me. “How could you, Addie? I mean, really how could you? After everything he put you through in high school,” Darren said disappointed in me.
“What did I do to her in high school?” Daimon nearly shouted.
“See? He doesn’t even know. Then again why would he? If it wasn’t about him why would he care for you, Addie?” Darren took his hand off my shoulder and reached for my face, but Daimon pulled me back.
“Get back to work, Addie. I’ll make sure your hubby-to-be gets his drink.” Darren nudged his head toward the front of the bar. I could feel the sense of disappointment Darren felt. I never once thought of Darren in that way, but it still wasn’t fair to him. I sought him out almost all the time when I needed a friend. I was selfish when it came to our friendship. I looked to see Daimon’s face had contorted with anger.
“Now, Addie!” Darren nearly barked. I walked away from both of them and walked over to where Elissa was waiting.
“What was that? And did I hear correctly? Are you marrying Daimon?” she demanded.
“Yes,” I said faintly.
“Damn, girl. Why?” Elissa looked at me with a stupefied look on her face. “I mean I get that you two got that sizzle, but I always thought it was Darren who was going to be your main man.”
“What? Why?”
“Come off it, girl. You’ve always known how much he cared for you. It was always Addie this and Addie that. You always came first with him.” Elissa was seriously enlightening me. I hardly ever saw that. What I saw was an old friend from high school who helped me when I needed him.
“You’ve got it wrong. Darren cares for me as a friend, nothing more.” I shook my head in disbelief.
“Whatever, girl. As long as you’re happy, I'm happy,” Elissa said as we headed to our tables. “You realize you’ll have to take me with you when you’re shopping for your dress?”
“Of course I will!” I shouted over the crowd.
The night was excruciatingly long. Not because of the patrons, but because of the unfathomable amount of male testosterone coming off both Daimon and Darren. Daimon made sure he was there the whole night, watching me like a hawk while Darren brooded in the corner attempting to fill out his inventory forms. It was completely ridiculous watching them both. They were friends from high school and I couldn’t believe they were acting this way because of me. It had to be because of some male ‘I got a bigger dick than you’ bullshit.
