Trish, Just Trish (5 page)

On… fucking… fire!

The party started out great and everything
went just as planned. Tony was all over me and I even gave up the
usual “hard to get” routine, but the timing hadn’t been right. In
my mind, I planned to tell him right after the gorgeous cake I made
for him came out.

I was nervous, but I was positive he was
ready for this. Our relationship might have started out as us being
just friends, but it was so much more than that now.

Tony had wanted more from me since the
moment we met, and I admit, it hadn’t been long after our crazy
first meeting that I’d realized I wanted all of him too, but by
then, he threw women in my face left and right.

He’d fucked around, and it pissed me off to
no end, but we weren’t a couple. I wasn’t ready. I knew I had no
right to complain, but I still fought with him about it and I knew
for a fact that he provoked the majority of our fights, because he
liked it when I fought back... a lot.

“
I love watching you get pissed,”
he’d say in a deep, low voice that made my whole body tingle.
“Your eyes flash, your cheeks flush, the nostrils in your cute
little nose flare and your tight little body perks up, preparing
for war with me. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, mi
reina.”

He tried to make me jealous on purpose and
it worked, but not exactly the way I assumed he wanted. I was far
from stupid. Instead of making me want to commit to him or tell him
that I wanted him all to myself, his actions kept me at a distance.
He had no idea how deep my emotional scars ran, but by him choosing
such a shitty way to try to win my heart, I couldn’t fully trust
him.

And I refused to let my heart be broken by
someone who spent his life breaking hearts.

I was already terrified of how I felt for
him and his reputation with the ladies only made it worse, but for
the past couple of months, things had changed.

We’d always gravitated toward each other,
but lately, we’ve become inseparable. He texted me daily just to
ask how I was feeling or ask how my day was going. He’d calle me
when he needed advice or just to talk. I swear we talked ten times
a day and messaged each other three times as much.

He had a full-time job as a Financial
Advisor, but he still managed to bring me lunch or dinner while I
studied for exams or couldn’t get away from my veterinarian
clinicals. I knew I could depend on him for anything and the only
thing he expected in return was for me to stay in his life.

He wanted more, but he never forced himself
on me.

Now, I was ready for more.

That is, until Missy walked through the
door. She was the latest addition to Tony’s spank bank, but he told
me he was through with her months ago.

He lied to me.

I felt so… crushed… defeated. My heart sank
to my stomach. She was the typical bimbo, this one blonde, and she
sashayed into the room. She wore the customary slut gear; ass
hugging, low-waist, boot-cut jeans, snug black tank top and black
pumps. She acted like she had every right to be here.

When she walked up to Tony, they hugged.
Tony’s eyes locked on mine and I knew it was only another play to
make me jealous, but little did he know… he’d just fucked up and he
did it huge.

I had never felt so disrespected my life. I
felt the tears pricking my eyes and the fact that I rarely cried
only made this situation worse, and embarrassed me more. I’d
trained myself as a child not to cry, but there were times, times
like this, that I couldn’t help it.

I wanted to run, but just then, I watched
the waiter walk into the room carrying the cake. The cake I made
for him. He sat it down on the table and everyone gathered around
Tony. I didn’t move. My tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched
Tony smile big and bright at all his friends. A second before he
sat down at the table, his eyes found mine and he froze.

He saw my tears, but luckily, Missy caught
his attention and the singing began.

I escaped.

“Hey, Ron? Can you get the ticket so I can
pay? And call a cab so I can get the hell out of here? I’m in a
hurry, please,” I rushed as I wiped furiously at my face.

Rhonda, the forty-something year old
bartender that worked nights here with Lex, tilted her head to the
side and her brows lifted to her hairline, but she didn’t say
anything. She reached for the phone and dialed. As she held it to
her ear, she poured me a shot and sat it in front of me.

“Patron,” she mouthed as she gave the cab
company on the phone my name and location.

I threw the shot back, slammed the glass on
the bar top, and sucked my lime dry only a second before I felt
hands on my hips and heat behind my back.

Motherfucker!

“What the hell do you think you’re doin’?”
Tony asked in disbelief. He knew I rarely drank, but this occasion
called for it.

“What the
hell
does it look I’m
doing?” I snapped back. I forced myself not to glance at the person
responsible for my ruined night, possibly my ruined life, the
person responsible for making me cry, the person--

My thoughts were cut off when a hand on my
hip moved to wrap around my belly, fingers pressed in, and I felt
hot breath on my neck, right at my ear. My stomach muscles tensed
and my spine stiffened upon contact, but all the psychedelic
butterflies in my stomach decided to come out and play. They
fluttered around so much that I felt a little sick.

I was not letting him do this to me. Not
this time
.

“Get away from me, Tony. Whatever sick
relationship we had is over. Just go back your friends and Missy,
and leave me alone,” I ordered. The fingers on my stomach dug in
deeper.

“I didn’t invite her, mi reina. I mentioned
it to her when you first started planning this party, but she took
it upon herself to show up… I’m sorry.”

He paused and rested his chin on my
shoulder. “The whole time I’ve known you… that was the first time
I’ve ever seen you cry and it fuckin’ gutted me. What the hell
happened back there?” he asked softly.

I couldn’t do this. If he didn’t already
know, I wouldn’t tell him. I also wouldn’t fall for his charm or
his sweet words or the use of his fucking nickname for me. I was
going to move on with my life without him. It took every ounce of
energy in my body to do what I was about to do, but I did it.

When I lifted my hands and reached behind my
neck, I felt Tony’s heat leave me. He probably wondered what I was
doing, but I ignored him and allowed my hands to continue toward
their goal. I managed to unfasten the dainty gold necklace that
held the small crown charm he gave me on Christmas Eve last year;
the same night he’d started calling me mi reina, my queen.

I moved to pull my arms from around my neck,
but I was jolted when my wrists were caught in a tight grasp. It
wasn’t painful and he wasn’t hurting me, but his grip was tight
enough that I couldn’t work my hands free.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
he asked, outraged and easily loud enough to turn heads.

“Tony, let me go,” I demanded.

“No. Put the necklace back on,” he demanded
in return.

I shook my head and spoke quietly, “We’re
done, Tony. I want more from you and I’ve wanted it for a long time
and you know it. You think I don’t know what game you’re playing,
but I do. You try to shove your women in my face to make me jealous
thinking I’ll come to my senses about you, but I’ve known all along
how I felt. All you did was prevent me from trusting you…” I paused
a second. “You have all your women, you have all your friends, you
don’t need me and I don’t want you anymore.”

“You don’t want me anymore?” he asked so
violently that his chest rumbled against my back. The butterflies
in my stomach slowly died one by one and weighed me down.

“No,” I lied on a barely audible
whisper.

Tony’s grip tightened.

“Put the necklace back on, Trish,” he
ignored me.

“No.”

“Mi reina, I’m askin’ you nicely, please put
the necklace back on,” he ordered again, this time in a low angry
growl and he sounded far from nice. I still shook my head
stubbornly.

“No, I told you--”

“Put the
fuckin’ necklace back on
!”
he roared at me so loud I flinched. No one had ever screamed at me
like that in my life and my whole body trembled. Tony must have
realized just how scared I was because he let me go so fast I
teetered forward. My arms naturally unwound from behind my neck to
catch myself. I grasped the necklace in an unbelievably tight fist
and turned to face Tony, but nothing could have prepared me for
what I saw. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the bar on us, but
I ignored them.

Tony looked shattered.

“I’m sorry,” he rushed in a rough voice.

“Everything okay here, Trish? You want me to
have Shark throw is ass out?” I heard Rhonda call out from behind
me. Shark, whose real name was Timmy, the owner of the bar, hated
to get his hands dirty. His idea of intervening was calling the
cops.

I glanced at her and answered, “No, I’m
fine.”

She stayed right where she was; arms crossed
over her chest, eyes narrowed on Tony, but I ignored her too and
turned my attention back to the problem at hand.

“It’s okay, Tony, you don’t have to worry
about me anymore.”

“Trish, damn it,” he muttered quietly, and
he might have said something else, but my attention was now fixed
on the movement behind his back.

Missy.

When she made it to Tony she glared at me
over his shoulder before she wrapped her arms around his waist from
behind him. “Baby, come back to your party,” she said and I
couldn’t believe she had the balls to say that in front of me.

I threw him this damn party
!

She turned my way and sneered, “Nice touch,
Trish, crying to get his attention. He only feels sorry for
you.”

My eyesight blurred, and through the
haziness, I was vaguely aware of Tony looking at Missy like she’d
lost her mind, but I had enough. There was only so much I could
take in one night. I was a twenty-five year old educated woman, but
at that very moment, my inner Medusa reared her pretty little head
and screamed, “You fucking bitch!”

I completely caught them off guard when I
lunged. Tony stumbled back when my chest hit his and Missy’s back
slammed into the table behind her. Chairs hit the floor, glasses
clattered and crashed. I heard Tony shouting my name as various
excited men shouted “Cat fight!”.

I swung over Tony’s shoulder because he was
unintentionally acting as a Missy’s shield. I managed to grab a
fist full of hair and I tried my damnedest to rip it out. I was
usually a much better fighter, but I didn’t have many openings and
I really wanted to do as much damage as possible.

“Get off me!” she screamed over and over,
quickly getting her wish when Tony grabbed my waist, lifted me off
my feet and surged forward. I started to bring her with us, but I
lost my grip on her hair when someone in the crowd helped untangle
her from my hands.

“
You stupid bitch!”

“Trish, calm down!” Tony yelled at me, but
that only made me wiggle harder to get out of his hold.

“Put me down!” I screamed in his face while
I pushed on his shoulders. He was walked so fast that we made it
outside, and before I knew it, humid air smacked me in the
face.

“Trish, stop!” he shouted. He turned a
corner and pressed my back up against the building.

“I love you!” Tony shouted, and for a
second, I stopped.

“Shut up,” I whispered.

“Mi reina, I knew from the moment you walked
into my life you were going to be trouble, but I couldn’t stay
away. I’m in love with you.”

I struggled against his hold again. “Let me
go, Tony. I don’t believe you. You would have told me sooner and
you wouldn’t have hurt me the way you did!
God
, all those
women! And I just sat back and watched! You know how I feel about
you and you have for a long time. I know you knew! You obviously
didn’t want me bad enough, because you didn’t fight for me! You
just gave up and moved on with other fucking women! I tried to
pretend I was happy just being your friend… I swear I did. I kept
myself busy with school and Lex and Layla, just to keep myself from
wondering which slut you were with. I wanted you to stop on your
own. I wanted you to tell me you were through screwing around and
that you only wanted me, but you never did. Even tonight you
brought one of your whores here! Just get the hell out of my life
and
let… me… go
!” I screamed.

He surprised me by letting me go and my legs
fell to the ground, but I realized too late that he only did it so
he could grab my face and kiss me breathless. His lips crashed down
on mine something brutal and I pushed at his chest.

It was useless.

“Stop fighting me,” he said against my lips,
and when I didn’t listen, he grabbed my wrists and pinned them down
at my sides to keep them still. His mouth moved from my firmly
pressed lips to my cheek, to my neck, down to my bare shoulder,
where he placed soft kisses.

“Can you please move away?” I asked in a
soft voice as I continued to tug at my wrists.

He answered by opening his mouth and taking
a soft bite out of my shoulder. My treacherous body gave away
exactly
how good it felt and goose bumps spread out over my
already sizzling skin.

“You taste so much better than I imagined,”
he whispered wistfully before he took another soft bite, this time
with tongue.

“I’m sure I taste like them all,” I
snapped.

He pulled back and our eyes locked.

“I fucked up. I fucked up so damn bad, but
it’s not as bad as you think. I didn’t touch half of those women. I
won’t lie and say I didn’t touch any of them, but shit… you have my
head so screwed up. You fight with me about it, but you never come
straight out and told me you wanted me to stop seeing other people.
All you had to do was tell me... I’d have done whatever the hell
you asked me to. I’ve never felt what I feel for you with any other
woman. I never cared about any of them. I’m in love with you. You
own my heart, mi reina. Please just give me a chance make things
right,” he pleaded tenderly.