Page 44 of Keys

I didn’t dignify her request with a response. I took off. Trying to catch up to Keys turned out to be harder than I thought. By the time I stumbled out the clubhouse door, all I saw was her taillight hauling ass down the road.

“Fuck!” I roared.

A single slow clap from my left startled me, and I turned on wobbly legs to see Tash standing there shaking her head at me. At least I think she was shaking her head. Heads. Were there two of them? Shit.

“Man, when you fuck up, you just keep the shit rolling down hill, don’t you?”

I played dumb, which wasn’t hard to do in my condition. “Don’t ho what chew talkin’ ‘bout.”

“Sure, you don’t.” She snickered as she continued. “I know talking is hard for you right now, but maybe listening will sink in.” Her heads moved back and forth again, as if she doubted that would be the case, but she continued to tell me what she had to say anyway.

“That woman, who just left here like the hounds of hell were on her heels? She liked you more than she was willing to admit to anyone, herself included. What you said hurt her. Seeing you flirt with Ashley at the diner less than two weeks after never even receiving an apology from you hurt even worse.”

“Audrey,” I corrected. “Ahhh-brey” I tried again. “I sorried. Fuck’s sake. Blocked calls. Secure-y.” I growled, knowing my words were a jumbled mess. I tried to apologize to the woman though. Fuck Tash for thinking otherwise.

Tash looked stunned for a moment, but then shook it off and continued. “Watching you go from Ashley to a club whore in 2.5 seconds probably reinforced the fact that she was nothing special – like Ashley – and easily replaced.”

I didn’t miss the fact that Tash refused to call Aubrey by her actual name. One thing was certain, the core bunch of women making up S.H.E. were loyal as fuck to one another.

Tash wasn’t done though. “I bet that hurt her too. What you don’t understand about the situation, is there was a point when she may have considered giving into you again. At least until tonight’s shit-show. I’m sure she put you in the ‘never again’ category after your latest display.”

I ignored everything else she said, because I wasn’t ready to admit how badly I’d fucked everything up. “Sposed to wait forever? She was with someone. I was…”

Tash rolled her eyes, at my attempt to justify things, but I wasn’t done.

“She was on a date with some douchebag first.” I think my words managed to come out clearer that time. “Never looked at another woman until...” All I could think of now was the kiss I’d witnessed. Sure, it had been one-sided, but her lips were still touching someone else’s.

“You saw her on a date?” The color drained from Tash’s face as she asked the question. Then she hung her head. “That’s why you started seeing Aubrey?”

My head bobbed up and down, the motion making me feel queasy as all fuck.

Tash slunk down, her back sliding across the concrete wall of the clubhouse until her ass came to rest on the asphalt beneath her. “I pushed her to go on that date because she was so depressed. I thought it might help put things into perspective for her.”

“To get over me,” I scoffed.

“No,” she disagreed while shaking her head. “I thought it would make her see that the two of you were meant to be, and that she needed to stop comparing everything to her parents’ relationship. She self-sabotage based on what happened with them. I hoped that seeing another man who couldn’t compare would bring her around.”

“Well, that shit backfired, didn’t it?”

“I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have involved ourselves, but we love that woman. She’s had it rough, but she always has everyone’s back. Some people deserve the happy ending, even if they don’t believe in it.”

“I liked you with her,” Tash went on to say. “I don’t know if there’s anything you could do after what she just saw, but I still hope that both of you will pull your heads out of your asses and get your shit together.”

Tash glared at me, trying to cement her point before she even finished making it. “You either stay far the fuck away from my girl, or you man the fuck up and put forth actual redeemable effort.” Her eyes narrowed on me even more. “I am warning you now, do not half-ass that shit. If you want her, you better be one hundred percent certain, and you better be willing to work for it, because too many people in her life have already thrown that wonderful woman away, and I won’t allow you to add to that list.”

I nodded my head as Tash got up and walked away, headed back into the clubhouse. I couldn’t bring myself to go back inside just yet, so I went to sit on the picnic table over by where I’d parked my bike earlier.

“That’s why you threw me out?” A shrill voice called to me. “That bitchy red-head is the ex you were trying to get over when we got together?” Aubrey called from the other side of the fence, letting me know just how loud Tash and I had been with our conversation. Aubrey sneered at me again, visible only because she was standing under one of the security lights we had up along the fence. “I’ll make sure you never do get the chance to be with her again. No one humiliates me the way you did tonight and gets away with it. Do you know who my daddy is?”

I laughed. “Obviously, he can’t be much if he has his daughter working in a greasy spoon diner for tips.”

She smiled big then. “I took that job to piss him off when I found out some stuff about him. You just wait. I’m going to bring him down on all of you real soon!”

“You better watch threatening an MC, it never ends well for those who do.”

“We’ll see!” Her declaration was the end of the conversation as a convertible Mustang pulled up so that she could hop in. Aubrey didn’t hesitate to get in, she settled and threw her hands up with middle fingers held high as her friend took off again.

Chapter 15

---