Page 40 of My Infatuation with Isabella

“I’m sure you can.”

“I’m not some damsel in distress, so I don’t need you to ride in here on your white horse to rescue me.” She’s trying to bait me, lure me into a different fight from the one I’m here to have. When I don’t engage, she raises questioning eyebrows at me. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you.”

Her face tells me she already knows what the topic of discussion will be. “I’m working.”

“I’ll wait.”

“We have nothing to say to each other.”

“Speak for yourself. I’ve got a shit ton to say to you.” If she thinks she can get out of this, she’s got another think coming. “When you’re done, I’ll be waiting at that booth over there...And tell Jerry I’m here all night. I won’t hesitate for a second if he so much as touches you again.”

With a humph and a barely interested eye-roll, she walks away, and I return to my seat. I sit there patiently, watching her every move.

At nine o’clock, she turns the music down and climbs up onto the bar. “Okay, let’s have some fun!”

Whoops and cheers echo through the large room, and she waits for the noise to die down. “The staff ofBowled Overwill be unavailable for the next half hour because we’re team ONE.” The other staff members cheer and clap their hands. “So, we’re having a relay today. Team one gets lanes one and twelve. Team two gets lanes two and thirteen. Team three gets lanes three and fourteen. And team four gets lanes four and fifteen. The first player on each team will roll the ball. When it hits the pins, you grab another ball and run with it to your team member on the other lane. That person rolls the ball, when it hits the pins, they grab another ball and run back. Highest score wins. Losing team buys drinks for everyone. Y’all ready?” The response is a boisterous eruption of yelling. Just the atmosphere her words create tells me that she deserves thatEmployee of the Monthaward hanging up on the wall beside the bar. “Let’s go!”

She turns up the volume on the radio again, hops off the bar, and high-fives her teammates when she walks over to lane one. It’s total chaos when this game starts. Everyone is running all over the place. There’s screaming and laughter and some people tripping over their own feet. It’s incredible to watch.She’sincredible to watch. Her lively spirit and laughter create a vacuum, sucking everyone around her into it. Her energy has always been addictive, and I’m starting to feel the first signs of withdrawal symptoms.

She must bowl every night because she’s damn good at it. In fact, her whole team bowl like professionals, and they win by a landslide. I kinda feel bad for the rest of them because they didn’t stand a chance. The losing team buys everyone a round of drinks, and it takes a while for the buzz in the air to finally fizzle. At around eleven, the place empties out, and I wait while they clean and cash up. They switch off most of the lights, leaving the area near the bar in shadows with only the dim, luminous glow from the streetlamps outside.

“We’re closing up now, sir,” another staff member tells me.

“I’m waiting for Isabella,” I reply.

“Isa, someone’s waiting for you,” she yells.

Bella carries on wiping down the bar. “I know. Don’t wait for me. I’ll lock up. See you tomorrow, Nancy.”

Nancy nods. “Alright. See you tomorrow.”

She’s the last one to leave and when the door swings shut, it’s confirmation that I’m alone with her. I stand up to walk to the bar, and I wait for her to finish because I want her full attention. She doesn’t back down from the confrontation because as soon as she’s done; she walks around the bar and stops a few feet in front of me, crossing her arms over her chest.

“And what brings your pretty face to my neck of the woods, De Lorenzo?” she asks casually.

“You know why I’m here. I heard what you said the other night, and I wanna know why you lied to me.”

“Did I lie?” The question comes out almost playfully, as if that lie didn’t utterly destroy me and all I feel is white, hot rage that she’s treating this like some kind of joke.

“I point-blank asked you what happened when you went into that room.”

“And what did I say?”

I think back and all she said was that she was well within her right to do whatever she wanted because the terms of engagement prescribed a two-week cool-off period, and I was gone for three. “You didn’t deny it.”

“I didn’t confirm it, either.”

“But you knew how I took it, and you just let me live that lie. If you wanted to end it, you could’ve just ended it. Be rational for once, have a conversation with me, and end it. I don’t understand why you’d let me believe that. You knew how I felt about you, yet you still ripped my heart out, and you let melivethat fucking lie. I came back from the worst ordeal of my life to the news that you slept with another guy, and it crushed me...And now you’re saying nothing happened between you and him. You justtalked. I had assholes like Steven taunting me in the locker room. He’d shove his phone in my face and say:Is this your girl, D? He’s a lucky guy. We all know she gives head like a pro.” I grit my teeth, still feeling the amount of restraint it took to not punch him. “I had to listen to them talk all kinds of shit about you, and I couldn’t even defend you because, yeah, that was my girl disappearing into a room with another guy. I just had to sit there and take it...and now I find out it was just a rumor, a rumor you made me believe wastrue.” It started as a tiny flame. My anger, my animosity – they were just little sparks, but every word, every memory, is like a gallon of gasoline being dumped onto it. And now it’s like an inferno, burning through everything inside me. “For two years...Two. Years. I tortured myself with that video, drove myself insane with the thought of him touching you, and you’re telling me that you willingly put me throughallthat for a fucking lie!”

“Hmm...” My rage is matched by her indifference. “See, once again, it’s all about you. Who cares about my feelings in this whole mess, right? I was just supposed to sit at home, waiting for you like the dutiful girlfriend while you’re off somewhere screwing Francesca.”

“I don’t know how you got that shit in your head, but I told you then. I’m telling you now. I wasnotwith Fran.”

“But you’re with her now. Guess it all worked out for the best in the end.” She shrugs. “So, does any of this even matter now?”

“That lie changedeverythingfor us. Yeah, it matters!”

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