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It’s quiet, the lighting soft red, the ceilings low. A family sits in a corner booth, and two men sit alone at the bar. Cillian, the bully and ringleader, is on the other end of the bar. My blood boils as I walk around the bar, purposefully avoiding him for now.
I approach Ellie, Kelly, and Ellie’s colleague. Ellie smiles tightly at me, looking like anything other than a goddamn pig in her waitress’ uniform. The tight black skirt shows off her figure, and that’s crazy that I’m thinking of that now.
“Take Petey,” I say, handing her the dog.
“Oh, Kelly,” Ben moans beside me, rushing to his daughter. “What have you done?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she says, then starts crying.
“Sorry?” Cillian says, laughing, as I turn around. “Sorry for what?”
He’s a big man, young, with gleaming white teeth and bright hair. He’s either on steroids or works out like a madman, with how buff he looks. He meets my eye and grins. “Why is she apologizing for having a good time?”
“She’s trying to get clean.”
“She’s trying to get clean, so she walked into an establishment well-known for dealing drugs annnnnnnd bought some?”
His shit-eating grin gets bigger on the elongated annnnd. “She’s an addict. It’s hard. There are setbacks. That doesn’t absolve you for selling them to her.”
“Hey, man.” He raises his hands. “I never said I sold anything. So let’s take it easy with that sort of talk.”
I take a step forward, looking him in the eye, slightly down, really. Just a couple of inches, but he’s probably not used to it. He tries to keep the douchebag grin fixed on his face, but his eyes widen slightly, hinting at something not so tough.
“We all make mistakes in high school,” I say. “What about you, Cillian? What about that stuff you did to Ellie—the undeserved, downright sadistic campaign of bullying and the herd-mentality hate war you started? Do you regret that? Do you wish you could take it back?”
He tries to laugh, but I’m staring at him now, really staring at him, like I used to stare at the men who took the dogs to the pits. It’s how I stared at the gambler who recognized me and the dealer in the crack den. He knows there’s fire in me. He knows I was cold, once, too cold, before Ellie began to melt me.
“Take it easy, man,” he says.
“Do you regret it?” I snap.
“It was a joke. Just a joke.”
“There’s nothing funny about it, though. Unless you want to explain the joke to me.”
“Well, she’s…”
I take another step forward. We’re almost touching. The man behind the bar tenses up. “She’s what?”
He lowers his head, then shakes it. “Come on, bro.”
“I’m not your bro, you frat fuck. You need to leave.”
“I haven’t finished my—”
“You need to leave.”
He tries to laugh again, but he can’t hide it. The little prick is scared. “I’ve got somewhere to be anyway.”
“If I ever see you with my friend’s daughter again…”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got options, bro. Options.”
He turns and starts walking away. I feel the restaurant let out a collective sigh. This drunk asshole was just about to leave, no harm done, but I can’t stop thinking about what he did: dragging my woman into that closet, blindfolding her, the outfit.
“Wait,” I growl.
He turns slowly and stares at me. “What now, old man?”
“You need to apologize to Ellie.”
But he wins, somehow. It’s the way he laughs, the casual gesture of his hand. It’s the sarcasm in his voice. “Sure, yeah, I’m so sorry.”
He leaves the restaurant, and I focus on not going after him. What can I do, realistically? Run out there and assault him? Maybe he’d win. Maybe I would, but nothing good would come out of it. Not in public, anyway, unless the little worm hit me first.
I return to Ellie and the others. Ellie smiles tightly at me, her hands folded across her middle.
“I’m hungry, Dad,” Kelly murmurs, her face buried in Ben’s chest.
“How were you going to get home?” I ask Ellie.
“The bus.”
“Want a ride?” I say, knowing it’s wrong and also tired of thinking that. Knowing it’s wrong. I’ve known it this entire time. She should say no if she believes what her aunt said. “I can take you home. You and Kelly can eat, Ben, and then when I swing back, I can take us home.”
Ellie smiles. “Sounds like a plan.”
I sit in the car next to her. It’s just us. When we left them. Petey was on Ben’s lap. Kelly was slowly tucking a napkin into the top of her shirt. Now, it’s just me and Ellie. She has her arms across her middle, pushing her breasts up, drawing attention to them, but that’s not fair. She’s just sitting there, and that’s where my attention goes because she’s perfect. She looks so beautiful with her hair across her cheek, the corner of her ear poking out.
