Page 119 of The Bluffing Game

“I need to talk to you,” he says loudly, grabbing her roughly by the elbow.

“What are you doing here?” she shrieks in shock.

“Why are you here?” I grab Parker’s arm and pull him away from Sage. “You need to get the fuck out of here.”

“I need to talk to her. She doesn’t understand that she and I were meant to be.” He sounds frantic, and I wonder if he has some mental illness.

He reaches for her again, and she evades him.

“I don’t understand what went wrong, Sage. Everything was amazing. You were going to be so perfect on my arm. I already told my parents about you.”

“Leave me alone, Parker. I’m not interested. I don’t want you. Can’t you understand that? No is no.”

“You are not going to say no to me. I have had fucking enough of you women treating me like shit,” he shouts, picks up a glass, and throws it to the ground.

I know I’m about to do something that I’m going to regret, but as I step forward to hit him, I see Jimmy the Fish come running past me. He grabs him by the collar and slams him into the wall hard—so hard that I almost think he’s knocked the guy out. He drops Parker to the ground, and he stumbles and falls.

“What was that?” he says, looking up at Jimmy the Fish in fright, but then he goes for another swing, and I know he’s not going to stop.

“Leave the girl alone.”

“Leave us alone, old fart. She’s my⁠—”

“She’s what?” Jimmy picks him up again and holds him against the wall. “You think you’re going to mess with Sage in front of me? You think you’re going to come into this nice establishment and mess with this pretty young girl and threaten her? Demand she be with you when she has told you time and time again that she is not fucking interested?”

Parker’s face turns white, and he kicks Jimmy in the leg.

“Do you hear me, Parker? My name is Jimmy, otherwise known as Jimmy the Fish. And you want to know why they call me Jimmy the Fish? Because I put a whole lot of bodies in the ocean, and that’s where they remain, floating with the fucking fish. Now, I’m a respectable man. I work at this nice place. I’m a bartender. I don’t want to have to put you out in the fucking Pacific Ocean, but if I ever see you in here again, if I ever hear your name so much as whispered in my presence, if you fucking mess with Sage again, I will kill you one second at a time. I will do it slowly. I will make it hurt. I will make you beg me to let you die.”

Parker struggles against him. “I didn’t mean it. I just …” He looks over at Sage. “What the fuck? If I had known you were a crazy-ass bitch, I would never have gone on a date with you.”

“Look, you need to leave me alone. You need to stop.”

“I’m going.” Parker kicks Jimmy again. “Let me down.”

Jimmy lets him down, and Parker swings at him, misses, and stumbles back.

“This is not over, whore.” He looks over at Sage with rage in his eyes. “We’re not over until I say we’re over.” He spits on the ground and saunters to the front of the restaurant. He stops at the door, turns back, and screams, “No one says no to Parker the Stallion.”

Sage, Jimmy, and I stare at each other as Parker leaves the restaurant. I want to go after him, but I can tell from the tension still in the air that now is not the right time.

“You didn’t have to do that, Jimmy. You really didn’t. I am grateful, but I can look after myself.” Sage’s words are dull; she looks like she is still in shock.

“A father protects his daughter,” he says softly, his face twisted in a grimace as he finally tells her the truth.

Sage blinks in confusion and then stares at me. I look over at Jimmy, and he shrugs.

“I guess she had to know at some point, huh?”

“You knew?” she says softly.

Sage’s face turns white.

“I was waiting for the right time to⁠—”

“Again?” she shouts at me. “Fuck you, Dalton. Fuck you.” She then turns back to Jimmy. “I don’t understand what is going on here.”

She’s dismissed me. I know she has, and I know I can’t say anything. This is bigger than our moment. This means so much more. That doesn’t make me feel better about where we stand, but I know I can’t demand she have a conversation with me.