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Arrogant Asshole: Do you ever think about me when you use your vibrator?
I smile at my phone like an idiot.
Me: Maybe.
Why would I write that? What is wrong with me? I have no business flirting with him. I already told myself I wasn’t going to sleep with him again, yet here I am, hot and bothered in public. It’s harder to resist him because I already had sex with him. Sheesh, I need to get a grip. As soon as I try to unsend the message, it’s too late. He’s already read the message.
Arrogant Asshole: Where are you?
Me: I’m with Ember and Alyssa. Why?
He reads my message but doesn’t respond.
“What do you like to do for fun?” Conner asks.
I forgot I was having a conversation with Conner.
“Nothing, really. Read and watch TV.”
Thirty minutes slip by, we chat some more about life in general, and Ember and Alyssa are engaged in deep conversations with the other two guys. I feel like a fish out of water. I ask the waitress to bring me another glass of Coke.
“You want go somewhere quiet? I have a hotel room across the street.”
“No,” I reply.
“Come on.” He grabs me by the arm, and I snatch it away.
“I’m about to head out,” I tell the girls, and they respond that they will see me tomorrow morning.
“I won’t keep you up all night.”
He grabs my arm again.
“Let her go.” I hear the smoky deep voice and glance up. Atlas hovers over me. A gray fitted shirt hugs his biceps and matching gray shorts hang from his hips. Sweat blankets his forehead as he breathes rapidly. The sight of him makes my mouth water, urging me to devour him.
Conner stares at Atlas in disgust. “Who are you?”
Anger seeps through Atlas’s eyes. “Your worst nightmare if you don’t get your hands off her.”
Conner throws his hands in the air. “Fine. She’s probably a horrible lay anyway, you can have the ugly bitch.”
Tears burn in the backs of my eyes. It’s one thing to think it, but it’s another to voice it aloud. I don’t know why his words sting. He’s a stranger. I knew the only reason he came after me was because he feels like I’m an easy lay. It has happened to me before.
A smile spreads across Atlas’s face as he balls up his fist and it connects with Conner’s face. Conner wails in pain, holding his jaw. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Ember and Alyssa and the other two guys stare at Atlas as if he has lost his mind, and Ember wraps her arms around my shoulders, whispering, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m a little shaky.”
Atlas yanks him by the collar and thrusts him toward the exit. “Leave before you lose all of your goddamn teeth.”
I tug Atlas by the arm before the cops show up, and I lead him outside. Neither one of us say anything for a while. We walk and even though the atmosphere is loud and flashy, the tension between us is tight and suffocating. I don’t know how to thank him or what to say. No one has ever stood up for me the way he just did.
Guilt eats at me like a disease. “You didn’t have to protect me. I’m used to it.”
“Used to what?” He rubs his bruised knuckles, so I search through my purse. Grabbing the Neosporin, I unscrew the top and smear the white cream onto his knuckles.
“The stares. Men only want to use me for a one-night stand because I look like an easy lay. Ever since I got my scar, men view me as an easy lay, or I’m invisible.” I exhale.
