The Beach House Ch. 02

Thea noticed his attention straying and when she followed his gaze to me, I saw how her mouth turned down at the corners. Her gaze went hard on mine. She leaned into the man and he startled when her fingers clamped around his elbow, his movement were a poorly concealed recoil.

"Hey, you alright Rose?" Max asked, leaning over the bar to touch my shoulder. I blinked away from the scene.

"Sure." I motioned to the shot glass. "I think I'll have another shot or three. So, guess that answers the question about what happened to him. It looks like someone is keeping him leashed short, riding him hard and putting him away wet, as the cowboys say."

Lilly looked like she wanted to stride over there and slap him. "Why... that stupid, limp-dick son of a bitch! After the fit he threw?"

"It's alright Lilly." I told her as Max filled my glass. "It's fine." It felt as though a pressure inside me had been released and even though it hurt, the understanding made me feel better in a way. I felt a tingle of shame for being duped, but this made sense. "There are other fish in the sea." I tried to think about Andrew as a possibility. Perhaps I could train him.

Maybe I should just plug up my sex and put an out of order sign on it.

I smiled and wiggled my fingers in their direction before lifting my shot glass in salute to Thea. I let a smirk twist my lips as I tossed my drink back. Her eyes narrowed and she clung tightly to her lover's arm. I would not even think his name. He was Thea's lover.

Thea didn't wave back and neither did he. Her plump lips went white as she pressed them together. As her eyes went flat, she slid her arm around the man, pressing against him. The motion didn't look sexy, it looked forced and uncomfortable. He didn't respond to her, moving stiff legged as she guided him after the waitress. Neither of them looked particularly satisfied with their situation.

Watching them gave me no pleasure. I didn't understand why they'd bother being together if they both looked so grim about it. Status maybe?

"Well shit." Max sighed, shattering my thoughts with a slap of his palm on the counter. "Do we invite them to the wedding?" He looked sheepishly at Lilly and then ducked his head as her angry look burned into him.

"Fuck no."

I interrupted them, my voice quiet. "It wasn't as though he and I were even having a relationship. We didn't promise anything to one another."

"Except I saw the way he looked at you. I saw how he wanted you invested in him. That's game playing, even if you two were just having some fun. I guess back in Cali they play serious games with hearts, but it's wrong. Didn't he beg for you to stay with him here?"

I shrugged up my shoulders. "But I didn't stay. Obviously it wasn't that important to him. I'm sorry you two built it up." I leaned over to Lilly and touched a hand to her cheek, "Something good came out of it. You two are together. You are a damn cute couple. You're happy. Right?" I enjoyed seeing them both wearing big goofy smiles of love and happiness. "He was really out of my league anyway."

"You mean, the good people league? Yeah, he is in the bottom-feeders level for sure. You deserve so much better." Lilly sighed unhappily and hugged me. "It is spring time, you are sure to find some new hunk of lust to distract you. I gotta go take more orders. Don't worry, I won't spit in their tossed salad." Her black eyes gleamed as she brushed a kiss to the corner of my mouth, lips soft and plush on my skin.

Max growled behind the bar, "hussy." He whispered affectionately after his fiancé before getting back to his work of drink mixing for the rest of the busy bar.

This left me to my thoughts and I found myself staring at the half finished beer. The shots of whiskey had gone to my head and I felt pretty buzzed. Thank goodness I only had a short walk back to the house. More people came in and true enough, this group consisted of young men just coming in after a day on the water. They were younger as well, the Spring Break crowd and not a lady between them. A couple of the guys gave me appraising looks and wide, inviting smiles.

It went a long way to boost my fractured ego. So I purchased a round of beers for the four of them. Max sent his toothy grin of approval as he took their beer orders and I enjoyed how easy they were on the eye. This is how it started. A smile, a wink, a beer and a conversation that lead to more and more. Lilly was right and I needed a date for their wedding. My heart might not be fully into it right now but my loins certainly were. This group were really hot. I wondered if I could get a pair of them to walk me back to my...

"Where do you think you're going? Get your ass back here." Thea's voice crackled out sharply from her table.

I looked up from admiring the men down the bar, realizing I was biting my lower lip as I raked my eyes down the thick bicep of the dark skinned man with close cropped curls. My ex-lover had lumbered out of his chair and was walking towards me with his teeth clenched. His movements looked uncomfortable. The way he walked was jerky and stiff, as though each step pained him. It reminded me of the way a zombie might walk, or Frankenstein's monster in those old black and white movies.

"Diondre Sol Poestra!" Thea's voice pitched higher as though using his full name would command him to obey her. A silence fell over the bar, even the rowdy group of four stopped their conversation to look over at the gaunt man who moved ponderously towards me.

I felt my cheeks heat up and glanced at Max behind the bar for help. "I didn't want any trouble." I warned, not daring to look at my ex-lover, I looked at Thea instead, accusingly. What had she done to this man? I could not even hazard to guess but it made me angry that she screamed at him as though he were some dog rather than a man.

The men down the bar from me bristled to attention as they sensed that there might be trouble and I sighed. "just go back to your lady." I said without looking at my ex-lover. I couldn't stand to see the dark rings under his eyes. People around the bar whispered together but the voices were held quiet and low, the room holding its breath.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his mouth working to form words but no sound came out. His hands made tight fists at his sides with the effort it took to hold is ground.

"Dio—this isn't cool." Max said, his voice quiet and soothing. "What's going on with you brother? You look like shit! Is it drugs man? "

He uttered a mirthless laugh at the question, bowing forward, head shaking. The limp golden hair swung before his face as his shoulders shook with the broken laughter.

"Do you need help man?"

Thea was there now, striding swiftly across the room, snarling at me, "Why couldn't you just stay away?" She clamped a hand onto the arm that tried to evade her grip.

It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. One moment the man, my ex-lover, struggled towards me, sobbing in a humorless laughter and the next he was rigid and silent, his lilac eyes staring off over my shoulder, jaw working while the rest of his features had smoothed out into an emotionless mask. Her fingers pressed so tight into his arm it left dimples in his skin and he didn't even move to shake off the grip.

The men down the bar murmured quietly together. "Damn, talk about pussy whipped! Fuck that shit."

I frowned and looked at her, this bewitching woman with her cruel beauty. She stood very still, body quivering, her eyes glazed and not quite seeing the bar. She only saw me and the man. I looked to where she gripped him and noticed the bracelet she wore, the intricate pearls woven together with dull blond threads. Tiny trinkets hung between the pearls, clinking and jingling like bells. There were silver and gold starfish and sand dollars and tiny blue and green baubles.

Reaching out, I put my hand over the bracelet with every intent to make her stop clawing his arm. The contact sent a shock of agony through my palm and arm. Thea's attention snapped back to now and she screamed in outrage and pain as she swung her other hand at me, blindly punching at me.

I let out a cry, jerking my hand away from the burning shock of the contact with the bracelet and attempted to shield my face from her savage punches. As I fumbles to get up from the chair, it tumbled backwards with me in it. Falling, I sprawled onto my ass with a bang and clatter of the stool. Stars danced in my eyes when my head struck the floor and Thea was on me, punching and kicking me.

"He's mine! Mine! You hear me? You crazy bitch! Keep your filthy hands off him!" Her words lost in the sudden uproar of voices as the men down the bar and Max leapt in to pull the furious woman off me.

I was too baffled to do anything but keep my hands up to protect my face and curl my knees up to protect my vitals from her kicks and punches. At last the assault and her shrieks faded to the distance but she kept warning me to stay away from 'her man'. I tasted blood in my mouth, I'd bitten my tongue or my lower lip, or perhaps both.

By the time the world stopped spinning, I found myself sitting on the floor, supported by Max who held a towel to my head and Lilly was handling getting the room back in order. I closed my eyes again, not wanting to see anything. I just wanted to go home.

Home to California, where things made more sense.