Page 33 of Veiled in Brick

He snatched the phone off the table and lied quickly, “Oh, Luke left his phone—silly goose.”

“Why are you ignoring me, Liam?” she inquired, adamant.

“Ah, I—simple explanation—um…”

Liam fumbled his words, his eyes shifting from side to side. I watched the gears in his brain churn away as he attempted to think of anything to tell the woman before us, and he was clearly coming up blank. I felt my face pinch together in sympathy as he stammered nonsensical words. Liam may have been one to fool around—he was similar to me in that aspect. He wasn’t one to have a girlfriend, but that didn’t change the fact that Liam was a nice man. He obviously didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he needed her gone—and I was more than happy to oblige.

I sighed dramatically, forcing both of their focuses to be on me, and said, “How many of these women do we have to talk to?” Liam squinted at me curiously, I smiled in a way that I hoped conveyed for him to follow my lead, and I looked up to the woman to say, “We’ve been together for a bit now—has a bit of a past on him, doesn’t he?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You?”

Now, I originally wanted to try to let her down easy. However, the way she spoke the word at me made me quickly change my tune. With just one syllable, she made it clear that the thought of someone like me being a threat to someone like her was, in her mind, ridiculous. And it was my mission to make that notion of hers disappear.

“Yes,” I replied calmly. “Me. Been a few months, hasn’t it, Lee?”

“I—yes,” he nodded vigorously. “Months, right.”

She shook her head quickly, as if she was having trouble understanding.

“I—Liam, that weekend that we were together was—I—” She turned on him, “I don’t understand…you were talking about getting me jewelry and—”

“Jewelry?” Liam scoffed. “Look, I don’t know what you heard, but—”

“You said you wanted to give me a pearl necklace—”

I let out a loud, “Ha!” that could have been heard around the entire bar.

“Oh, sweetie,” Liam said, his cheeks turning slightly pink as he smiled, averting his gaze from both of us, “that is not what you think that means.”

“I—what—” she began to ask what it was supposed to mean, but I answered for Liam myself.

“It’s a euphemism for a man coming on your neck, dear.” I mimed pumping a cock in front of my face, tipping my head back and gesturing gratuitously towards my neck. “Pearl necklace.”

Liam’s face pursed together from the effort to hide his laughter at my lewd movements. I chose not to ask whether she received the metaphorical pearl necklace or not—the image of Liam screwing the makeshift model had just barely left my mind, and I was in no mood to have it return.

“Okay,” she retorted to me, “I don’t know who you are, but I think you need to mind your own goddamn business.”

“You walked up to our table,” I reminded her. “You are officially in our business, not the other way around.”

“Liam,” she huffed, “tell this crazy woman—”

“Easy,” he warned her.

“You’re talking to his girlfriend,” I interjected, flashing as wide a smile as I could manage in her direction.

A combination of insecurity and rage flared in her expression and it may have made me an absolutely terrible person, but that just made me feel so…good. She could have been a good person—hell, I didn’t know her at all. For all I knew, she dedicated her spare time outside of fucking men that she barely knew to…I dunno…saving puppies or some shit. All I knew was that she had gotten right under my skin—and I was determined to get her out.

I decided to take it a step further, reaching my hand across the table to grab Liam’s. His head tilted to the side, a shadow of a smile creeping to his lips as he looked at our entwined hands. He had just begun to weave his fingers through mine, twirling my hand this way and that, before I was forced to yank it back in shock. The mystery girl had, in one swift movement, grabbed both of our very full beverages and upended them above our heads.

Liam sat across from me, laughing to himself as he wiped beer away from his eyes. I, on the other hand, had the polar opposite of a reaction. Maybe it was from the surprise of getting a drink thrown in my face for the first time in my life, or maybe it was just because of the absolute gall on this girl. I couldn’t be sure exactly why, but my mood had swung to you-have-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me in about a second flat.

I wiped the cider out of my eyes and glared up at her. I mean—I glared way up. My internal monologue whined something along the lines of, ‘Does she have to be so leggy? Tall bitch.’

I asked snidely, “What is wrong with you, you fucking Amazonian?”

“Zoey,” Liam called out to me as I stood to confront her, reaching out to grasp my wrist.

I whipped my head to face his, purring out, “Not now, baby, we’re talking.”

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