Justin was meeting with his friends from college. They had all just happened to be in town, and he needed to distract himself, so he agreed when they asked him out.
He had seen Claudia when she entered the bar. Her face seemed slimmer. She didn't have the usual bright air around her.
He thought, "was it because of me?"
I should have given her a better explanation instead of just blocking her out, but she weakens my determination.
"Is that her?" One of his friends asked. He had probably noticed that his sight never left Claudia.
"Yeah, that's her."
"Why aren't you walking up to her?" another person asked.
"I'm taking my time."
I knew that was a lie. I also knew that if I had told the truth, my friends would have convinced me otherwise. I wasn't sure if I was going to regret my decision, but I wanted so desperately to stick with it.
She drank her first glass, followed by the second until I lost count. He really wanted to walk over, break that bottle and scold her for drinking too much at a bar filled with testosterone.
If he showed up now, that would be him returning into her life like nothing happened.
"You look like you wanna go over. Why are you holding back?"
He was still thinking about an excuse when he saw Caleb walk over to her. After witnessing their "unpleasant" interaction, he heaved a sigh.
"She has company now."
His friends saw that he wasn't willing to share more, so they left him and moved on to another topic. Justin's attention was all on Claudia, and his friends chose not to disturb him.
He saw Claudia hugging the strange man. It made him angry.
When they laughed together, it made him angrier.
He was prepared to look away, but Claudia looked over at that time. Their eyes met, but he didn't dare linger.
When she hung her arms around his neck, he was about to lose it. Then he saw the strange man leaving and decided to follow.
"I had better teach him a good lesson!"