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9
Theo
A Promise Is A Promise
Iknow I’m being crazy. I know I’m risking arrest. I know I’m showing my cards in a way that is absolutely insane.
Men and women whojustmeet don’t behave this way.
But I didn’tjustmeet her this week. I met her twenty-two fucking years ago, and I can’t let her go to that man’s house to fuck. I cannot stand by and let this happen, like we’ve got her on some kind of time share. She’s not on the same page as me, but she promised more than twenty years ago that she was mine. She might not have said it in those words, she might not have said it inanywords, but promises were made anyway. She held onto my sweater. She forgot my face, but she never forgot me.
I jump into my car just minutes after she leaves in hers, and follow her all the way to the outside of town. There’s enough traffic that it doesn’t stand out that I’m following her, but not so much that it’s difficult to keep track of her movements. I follow her all the way to the freeway, then she skip-hops across two towns and pulls onto a street a little more upmarket than hers.
She stops in the parking lot of another apartment block, but this one looks newer, cleaner, and like the elevators work, and in the case of an emergency, the fire sprinklers are functional. She jumps out as though she has to sprint to where she’s going, like she’s desperate for him, or perhaps she’s desperate to escape the memory of me in her hall.
I pull into the lot behind her car, and once she’s out of sight, I climb out and follow her in.
I’m crossing all boundaries. I’m breaking laws and pissing her off while I’m at it. I’m pissing me off, too. But I will not stand outside and let her fuck another man because I annoyed her with ground turkey and bean theft.
She set this up only after I spoke to her. She made the call out of spite, and planned a fuck-date while she was looking into my eyes. That means it’s my fault this has begun, and makes it my responsibility to stop.
I step into the building lobby and watch the elevator lights take her to the third floor. Instead of waiting for it to come down again, I sprint to the stairs and power up them in hopes of catching her before she goes in. Fuck knows who she’s going to visit, but we both know I won’t like him.
I explode out of the stairwell on the third floor and rush into the empty hall. She’s not here, she’s already inside.
“Fuck.” There are only five doors, so I stop in front of the first and listen for a moment. It’s past eight at night, and the evening news loudly pulses through the door, so I move along. Door number two is similar; TV. And door three is the same again. Everyone has settled in for the night, winding down with a little television in the last scraps of their weekend before Monday begins all over again.
Then I stop in front of door number four and hear a man’s deep voice.
Incensed, enraged, I listen as he speaks, and beneath that, the sound of soft music. He’s set the place up for seduction; he’s already got her coming to him, and now he’s adding music to seal the deal.
I take only a moment to consider this a bad move, but then I hear her. I hear her voice, her soft laugh, and then a heavy thud as something is dropped to the floor.
A shoe. Her shoes are coming off.
“Nope.”
I take the picks from my pocket and push number four open to reveal a room cast in shadow but for one lamp, covered in a type of shawl to create mood lighting. This place is twice the size of Libby’s place, maybe a little more, and though it’s more contemporary, a little more upscale, it doesn’t reek of wealth in the way I might worry about dirty money.
I walk into the small foyer, then into the main living area to find Libby in a man’s arms. Her top is off, her shoes are on. Her hair cascades over her lily-white skin so the ends tickle the band of a lacy black bra.
It takes the guy a second, just a single second of being distracted by the beauty he holds, the mouth he seduces with his own, the body he kneads beneath his hands, for his eyes to snap up and meet mine.
Her back is to me, which means I see her ass encased in her jeansandhis hands, which means all it takes is for him to open his eyes to catch sight of me steamrolling across his living room.
His eyes widen, his jaw ticks with anger as he finally registers what the fuck is going on. He breaks the kiss with my Libby, then grabs her and tries to stuff her behind his back. But he’s too slow, and she still hasn’t seen me.
I grab her around the waist and tear her from his arms, but if I thought for a moment she might come willingly, I’m absolutely wrong. She doesn’t panic or askwhohas grabbed her. She knows it’s me. She knew I would be just minutes behind her. So without wasting time on screaming, she moves straight to attack. Her elbow swings up and slams into my jaw, knocking me back for half a second, but she’s in my arms, so I bring her with me while her friend watches on in shock.
Libby’s heeled foot slams down onto mine, forcing a roar from my chest for the foot I’m almost certain has been skewered by the heel. She takes advantage of my distraction and slams her elbow back a second time to dislodge my iron grip on her silky belly. She screams, not with fear, but a battle cry.
She’s angry, but I just found her half-naked in another man’s arms, which means I’m ready to fight. I’m ready to work off my excess energy. It feels like an hour has passed, but in reality, it’s only been seconds.
Libby’s elbow snaps my jaw around one last time as I busy myself with trying to carry her to the door. She slips out of my hold somewhere near the kitchen counter, and before I can sweep her back up again, her hand slams down on her purse on the counter. She tears it open, and in the next breath, I find myself staring into the barrel of a handgun.
“Theo Griffin, you’re under arrest for stalking, attempted abduction, and aggravated assault.” Her breath comes fast, so her tits lift and fall beneath her bra with heavy exhales. “You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. I know the good folks at Griffin Industries can afford one, but I hope you take the one I’ll offer. He’ll make sure you get an all-expenses paid vacation far, far away from me. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
She looks to the other guy as though in prompt, but I’m stuck on the gun. In my face. In my fucking face!
