Against All Odds Choices (2ndt in a series of contemporary romance books for Kindle) (4 page)

“Well, I don't
want to intrude any longer,” said Michael, smiling at me and Leo. “Have a good
evening.”

“Thanks, man,”
replied Leo as he patted Michael lightly on the shoulder.

“Nice to see
you again, Bridget,” Michael told me. He then offered his hand for a handshake.

I accepted it.
“Same here.”

“I'll call you
tomorrow night, Leo,” added Michael over his shoulder.

“Talk to you
then,” Leo called out.

Michael
glanced at us briefly, shook his head in amusement, and left.

As soon as
Michael was out of sight and Leo back in his seat, I was dead curious.

“You talked to
him about me?” I asked Leo

I tried very
hard to contain my eagerness on the subject. After all, who knew what these
guys talked about? Still, he actually took the time to talk about our
'relationship' with someone else. And here I thought, we were a secret.

I shouldn't
get my hopes up, though. Leo could just be kissing and telling – like every
other young man in the world.

“He's one of
my best friends,” shrugged Leo as if it wasn't a big deal. “Basically, I told
him everything about you.” He flashed me a grin, obviously seeing right through
me.

“Define 'everything.'”

“I didn't tell
him the details of our sex life, if that's what you're asking.”

He looked
quite amused now.

“Huh,” I
mumbled thoughtfully. “So guys do it, too.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Gossip about
each other's love lives.”

His lips
stretched into a crooked smile – the sexy one I adored so much.

“We have a
love life?” he asked.

I blinked.
“Oh, no,” I quickly said, waving my hands vigorously. “I didn't mean . . . I
don't . . . I mean, it's not . . .” I trailed off, saving myself from further
embarrassment. I took a deep breath and looked away from him. “It's technically
that, isn't it?” I muttered.

After what
seemed like forever for me, I suddenly felt a warm hand took over mine on the
table. I automatically looked up at Leo and saw his eyes trained on our hands
as he tangled it together. Then, he started to rub the back of my hand using
his thumb.

It was so
comforting that I completely forgot where we were until he spoke.

“I guess it
is.”

It took me a
moment to get what he said. And when the words sank, my heartbeat pounded so
hard. Then, I felt fluttery things in my stomach. My knees felt wobbly, which
was weird considering that we were sitting.

That was when
the realization came to me.

I wasn't sure
how it happened and I didn't know when it started. I mean, I had hints that I
was falling for him. But only now did I fully understand what it really was.

Maybe the
logical part of me continuously denied that little fact, and instead I led
myself to believe that it was only infatuation I had for him. After all, that
was the farthest you could go before you were fully in love, right?

The thing was,
I wasn't falling for Leo anymore.

I think . . .
I already fell.

“Did you like
the dinner?”

My eyes found
Leo, who was looking at me expectantly. We were now waiting for the valet to
get his car from the parking lot.

“Yes,” I
smiled sincerely up at him. “Thank you.”

He grinned,
leaning down his face closer to mine.

“You're
welcome,” he murmured, before kissing me full on the lips. “I hope you're not
tired from all the walking, because I cannot wait 'til I get you out of that
dress. It's been killing me all day.”

I laughed at
his expression as he added the last part. It was as if he was a ten-year-old
kid deprived from watching cartoons.

“Why'd you
hold yourself back, then?” I whispered as I gently ran my hand through his
hair, very curious as to what his answer might be.

He leaned
closer to me until his lips were right beside my ear. I shuddered, feeling his
warmth breath against my sensitive skin.

“It's a
secret.”

After that, he
pulled away and winked at me with a wide grin on his face. I was about to roll
my eyes when I caught myself at the realization that he looked so young and
carefree just now. It made him twice as handsome, if that was possible.

“You could try
and get it out of me, though,” Leo added.

I immediately
looked at him. He gave me a suggestive look, flashing his sexy smile while he
was at it. This time, I returned the smile.

“We'll see,” I
said.

On cue, his
car arrived. We exchanged glances, blue eyes to gray ones. We didn't say
anything, sharing a silent understanding on how this night would end.

A month
usually passed by so long that I normally wished it was the next month already.
But since my life wasn't exactly normal anymore, I guessed it would only be
suitable that I didn't realize the month passing by so quickly.

Remember the
phrase, 'Time flies when you're having fun'?

It was
undoubtedly true. And I must admit, Leo was a huge part of it.

Defining our
relationship now got even more complicated. Yes, we had the 'friends with
benefits' thing. But I couldn't help but think – in my case, hope – that maybe
there was more to it than that. Then again, maybe that was just my wishful
thinking. It wouldn't be the first time for me to think like this.

Sometimes, I
want to slap myself for being ridiculous.

We called each
other everyday now, even if we didn't see each other in person. He was a busy
man, after all. But we made it our thing to meet up every weekend and spend it
at their Villa in The Hamptons.

As much as I
hated to admit it, he managed to convince me to quit my job at
Rusty's
.
In my defense, he caught me off guard. He was pleasuring me in the most
sensitive part of my body. While I was high on ecstasy, he was thinking clearly
and took it to his advantage.

He's one
cunning man, I'll give you that.

So for the
past weekends, we'd leave the City in late Saturday afternoon, so that I could
spend time with Ariana and Sarah. And we'd leave the Villa same time the next
day, so that he could have dinner with his family.

He explained
to me that every Sunday night, their family would get together and eat supper.
Apparently, his father was big on spending time with his family and made it a
tradition – especially after Carlos died.

Carlos Russo,
his older brother who died a few years ago.

Leo wouldn't
tell me more about it and give details. He just said that his brother was at
the wrong place at the wrong time. So I dropped the subject, since it was
obvious that he wasn't comfortable discussing it.

On the lighter
note, I was growing fond of Susan. It was strange, but I noticed she seemed to
get happier and happier every time I saw her. Whenever she could, she would
tell me Leo's childhood. It drove him nuts.

I laughed at
loud at the memory.

“What's
funny?”

I snapped out
of my thinking and raised my head. I saw Jack, looking at me curiously. It was
just the two of us in the locker room. I was about to finish eating my lunch,
when I replayed all that had happened these past month.

Of all people,
I wouldn't tell Jack what exactly was funny. I didn't even dare tell him that I
was seeing Leo – or that we were sort of friends.

I knew Jack
enough to know that he would freak out if ever he found out, especially after
clearly warning me to stay away from Leo.

Gosh, that
night felt like a lifetime ago.

“I just
recalled something amusing, that's all,” I answered him, smiling weakly.

He watched me
for a moment as I took the last bite of my sandwich.

“Mr.
Vanderbilt asked about you,” he said a-matter-of-factly.

My eyebrows
raised up in surprise.

“When?” I
asked, trying to keep my voice casual.

After our
unexpected encounter in The Hamptons, I'd seen Michael Vanderbilt a couple more
times – with Leo there, of course. One could say we all hung out together. He
even brought a date with him once – a supermodel date, mind you.

He was a nice
guy, as far as I could tell.

It made me
wonder if Michael knew all about Leo's secret life.

“A few minutes
ago,” Jack told me. “Right before he left.”

“Did he say
why?”

Jack shook his
head. “I think you made an impression when you served him almost two months
ago. Were you that good a waitress?”

“Doubt it,”
was all I could reply.

“Listen,
Bridget,” he started, “I mean not to offend you, but . . . You didn't sleep
with him too, did you?”

My mouth
dropped open. I couldn't believe he just asked me that.

“No!” I
scoffed indignantly. “How could you say that?”

“I'm sorry. I
didn't mean to. He just surprised me, that's all.”

I sighed, and
threw the paper towel to the thrash bin.

“Yeah,
whatever,” I grumbled, standing up and getting ready to get back to my shift.

After that, I
avoided Jack. I gave him the cold shoulder all day. We were still friends, but
I just didn't like him right now. I still could not wrap my head around the fact
that he asked me the most insensitive question of the year. I thought he knew
me better than that. And for him to say that, it really made me feel low.

He apologized
discreetly quite a few times. Although I still felt angry at him for assuming I
slept with yet another rich bachelor like I was some sort of slut, I couldn't
help myself but to let it go and forgive him. I guessed there was that part of
me that was guilty for seeing Leo when Jack made sure I knew how he felt about
Leo.

As soon as my
shift ended, I quickly got dressed in my casual clothes in the locker room and
left the restaurant.

I thought that
little event was it for the day. I didn't expect there would be another
surprise waiting for me at home. It wasn't a good surprise either.

The thing was,
I should have seen it coming. With everything good that was happening, there
was something bad that was bound to happen.

I just didn't
think it would be this bad.

I was wrong.

The first
thing I noticed was his tousled brown hair. As I got closer, his tall figure
and stance was growing familiar. The way he leaned on the railing in front of
my apartment building like he was waiting for someone . . .

I halted to a
stop.

Suddenly, all
the air around me was being sucked away. And I couldn't breathe. My eyes were
in disbelief as I stared at the man from a distance.

I wanted to
turn around and run – run far away from here. Run to Leo.

But I couldn't
seem move my feet. I was frozen on the spot, just a few feet apart from the guy
I was most dreading to see. I prayed so hard that he wouldn't turn around and
see me. I didn't want to see him.

Then, he moved
his head . . . and saw me.

He smiled, the
same smile I once loved and thought was so angelic. How pathetic I was to think
that way? There wasn't an ounce of angelic in his body.

He carefully
walked towards me, watching me. I stood my ground, because really I couldn't
have done otherwise. He stopped when we were only a feet apart from each other.

“Hey.”

Something in
me snapped when I heard him speak. Suddenly, I found my own voice. There was
nothing in me but firmness and anger. How dare he show his face to me?

“What the hell
are you doing here, Ryan?” I spat in a cold voice.

“I missed
you,” he shrugged.

“Go away,” I
told him with gritted teeth.

I walked
around him, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Not until you
forgive me,” he pleaded.

I pulled my
arm away from him. He let me, thank God.

“Give me
another chance. Give
us
another chance. C'mon, Bri.”

“
Do not call me that,” I warned him. If
looks could kill, he'd be dead by now. “Only those I trust can call me that.”

“We're crazy
in love and happy together,” he reminded me. “Don't throw that away just
because I made a mistake.”

“No, you made
mistakes
,”
I corrected him. “And past tense, Ryan: We
were
in love and we were
not
happy. That was a lifetime ago. Now, 'us' is a mere history I'd love to
forget.”

“We were good
together, you know.”

“Screw you,” I
grunted. “You were only good to yourself, not to me.”

“I did more
than screw you,” he muttered.

I blinked.

There it was.
His son of a bitch personality. I was waiting for that to come out. It didn't
take him long to show his true colors. At least, not this time.

I swore to
myself that I would never shed a tear in front of this guy ever again. But that
kind of history still hurts sometimes, especially when the object of your pain
was rubbing that fact to your face.

“Yeah,” I
breathed out, nodding slowly. “My mistake, right?”

“I won't hurt
you again,” he promised, his voice soft.

“I'm
sick
of hearing that fucking lie, you know that?” I hissed angrily.

“I mean it
this time!”

“Just do me a
favor, Ryan. Do me a favor and stay away from me.”

With that, I
continued to walk towards my apartment building.

“I can't do
that,” he called out to me. “I won't go anywhere 'til you have me back.”

I didn't turn
around. I pretended that I didn't hear what he said. I just continued walking
until I was climbing the stairs, opening the door to the building, going up
another set of steps, and finally opening the door to the apartment.

But of course,
I heard him. And how I wish I hadn't.

The first
thing I did was tell Sarah. As soon as I threw myself at the couch beside her,
I told her my little conversation with Ryan. Boy, was she pissed.

“I told you,
you should've filed a restraining order months ago,” she scolded me.

I sighed. “He
was leaving the state then. I didn't think it was necessary.”

“Better safe
than sorry. Isn't that what your dad used to say?”

I looked away
because she was right.

“He won't do
anything stupid,” I said. I felt like I was trying to convince myself more than
with Sarah. “He knows that I own a gun.”

“I have a bad
feeling about this, Bri.” Sarah shook her head.

There was
silence, which was unusual for Sarah so I glanced at her. Her lips were pressed
together and her forehead was creased thoughtfully, like she was deciding
something.

“What are you
thinking?” I asked, impatient to know what she was thinking.

“I think you
should tell Leo about Ryan,” she told me seriously.

I looked at
her like she was out of her mind.

“What?!” I exclaimed.

 “A guy like
Leo can protect you from a lunatic like Ryan.”

I frowned
deeply. “No way. I can protect myself just fine.”

“Yeah,” she
snorted sarcastically, “like you protected yourself last time.”

I didn't
reply. Instead, I took a deep breath while my hand reached up to my temple and
massaged it. Involuntarily, flashbacks from the past came crashing back to me.

It wasn't my
fault that I fell in love with him. At least, to the charming version of
himself. I didn't have a clue that he was a two-faced bastard. Who could've
known that he grew jealous so bad? I mean, he was good-looking. Seriously, what
was he so worried about? He didn't have to be that possessive of me. But of
course, he was anyway.

I haven't
dated a guy ever since.

Then, Leo came
along.

I didn't know
what possessed me then to believe Ryan every time he apologized for hurting me.
It was probably because of his damned beautiful smile. Or maybe it was my inner
hope that he would eventually grow up and change. He didn't, though. And by the
time I realized I had enough of his crap, he was already in too deep.

See, Ryan's
family was loaded. Therefore, they were influential. That was why I couldn't
just press charges against him. It was too costly for me. I didn't want to
bother with all those legal things. Plus, I just wanted him out of my life.
That was it.

George helped
me with that. He talked to Ryan back then. I didn't know much about the details
about it, other than that they had an ugly fight and Ryan lost.

Sarah told me
that George was pretty influential himself. And he knew much about laws and
civil rights, at that. Like I said, I didn't know much what happened then. I
just knew that George managed to convince Ryan to leave.

But he was
back.

The next
night, I finally got the courage to tell my sister. I decided to tell her who
was back in town, just so she would be cautious and wouldn't be surprised.

At first, she
had a scared look on her face. Then, it was replaced by anger. In the end, it
was worry. She was worried for me. Of course, I consoled her and told her
everything was going to be okay. Ryan wouldn't go near them. He wouldn't do
anything stupid.

“Leo's here!”
yelled Sarah from the living room.

Ariana and I
exchanged glances.