Lightning sparks, dissension and rivalry. Carter knew it would be like this if these two were to meet again after he broke up with Laurent, but he didn't expect them to be so brazenly antagonistic to one another.
"I heard that the lady has already found someone in BOA (Bank of America) branch downtown, wasn't his name Tyler?" Amber's wickedness exceeded the sharts.
!!!
This was downright poisonous. Laurent's visage went visually frightened as she exchanged a gaze with Carter, who was also frowning. As the rest of the members of the table decided to give up on having a regular conversation and instead blatantly gossiped about their ex-boss' private affairs.
"That's not the truth! about Tyler... he's my HR representative and has been helping me get myself initiated in the department, that's all, I could say the same about you Amber-".
"By the way boss, how is that Evanescence game you're playing? any good?!" Tanner was sweating worse than a pig at Christmas. He needed to forcefully interrupt these two from tearing each other's hair apart.
His meagre intent of peace wasn't well received by the rest of the members of the table excluding the involved trio, even the group at the next table twitched their tongues like this fellow had just deprived them of their rightful amusement.
Carter sighed in relief, but his relief was shortlived and his patience would be tested.
"Y-Yeah, you should all test it, it is a marvel to the senses. Like going to another world... yesterday I even made a friend" He started, intending to thrill them a bit with the tale of his adventures with Mr Miyagi, alas... hell hath no scorn like that of a jealous woman.
"Not a woman, right?" Started Amber.
"It can't be a woman" Finished Laurent.
"..." Carter's eyebrows twitched, especially because he didn't know how to answer their silly questioning. Miyagi-sensei is a man... but then he recalled the person's chumminess, 'H-He should be a man'.
"Right, (Carter/Boss)!?" Both ladies pressed and that was when the cup of Carter's patience overflowed.
"It is a guy!"
!!!
Death silence reigned in the table with both Laurent and Amber shocked at his outburst, or at least, that's what the onlookers thought. Nobody likes being around when Boss Banks is angry.
"So yeah there was this time we were fleeing from some demons, then some monsters appeared..."
Carter continued to explain, immediately enthralling the gazes of his ex-colleagues, talking about miraculous adventures and a world that lay beyond the pixels, a new dreamland that adults could only look from afar, yet youngsters eagerly delved in.
A blushing Laurent and Amber didn't dare interrupt once, not when the 'boss' had his hands firmly gripping their thick thighs under the table. The atmosphere settled in after the assassin took control of the situation and the alcohol continued to pour, taking away the frustration
While for Laurent and Amber, frustration kept pouring in.
**
**
The night was done, 2 AM in the morning with the weekend ahead of them, the bar was going to close the doors of paradise and send away the pitiful drunken souls it had cultivated.
"Boss! Even though I confessed to you!" Amber hiccuped, being dragged by Laurent and sending her crush the most aggrieved of glints, 'Even though you're single, you still don't look at me'.
Hiccuping once more she realised that her chest was firmly clashing against Laurent's, hiccuping twice she realised her inferiority and fell even deeper.
"Amber is gone, I'll get her a cab" Carter suggested, only for Tanner to hook his arm around the clueless boss' shoulder like everything was planned from the beginning.
"Come on come on, why don't you drive the two of them home? Laurent, if I remember correctly Amber lives three blocks away from you, correct?"
"I'm perfectly okay, boss... but if you want to drop me there, then... *hick* I wouldn't mind preparing a cup of tea for you once we're there" Amber winked his way, not giving up while she shamelessly placed all of her weight on Laurent, even if she was rejected... she was determined to make her rival's life as pitiful as possible.
"You *hick*..." Laurent realised her intentions, it was within her plans to be driven home... but not to be driven along with Amber.
"You're drunk as well, Laurent. Come the two of you, I'll drop you off myself" Seeing the state his two 'colleagues' were in; Carter decided to take matters into his own hands, 'I would be a douche otherwise...'
After paying the bill, cleaning a few tears, saying his farewells and cursing at Tanner's departing car, it was time to leave.
Tanner led the semi-drunk ladies to his car and placed both in the back seat of the double-door Mercedes; he started the roaring engine and made his way through the silent show of lights that was a Night in New York.
…
It was mostly silent, the drive was roughly twenty minutes. Laurent hugged a semi-asleep, Amber with her blue eyes dead set on the rearview visor which from her angle, pointed at Carter's face as he drove. Occasionally looking back at her, with their gazes meeting.
"If Tanner hadn't set this up... you wouldn't have answered any of my calls or met me at all, Carter".
"Yes".
"You know it is hurting me".
"Yes..."
"Do you think hurting me, is going to make things fair between us?"
"I'm not hurting you. You're hurting yourself".
"You wouldn't care then if I went to that man... and married him".
"Do it once or twice, what's the difference?"
*BANG!*
A fist collided heavily against the back of his headrest, Carter pulled the brakes abruptly and looked to the back seats in outrage. What he found was the crying silhouette of his ex. A mixture of feelings packed up in there tightly. From sadness to frustration. Nevertheless, she never said anything until the tears ceased with ten minutes left to reach Amber's house.
"S-So you're playing this new game, Evanescence" Laurent stuttered, bereft of the confidence that previously assailed him.
"Yes, sounds lame?"
"Not at all... I heard that game allows players to win money by playing it. I know you wouldn't play just for the sake of playing, Carter".
"That's what I am doing. It is an investment, as always".
"Always an investment, like our relationship".
"Why must you always return to this?" He asked with utter irritation, she just didn't give up.
"Because I love you, Carter... I don't want to lose this".
"We already broke up. I broke up with you! You're acting like an obsessive chick!".
"Because I don't believe... I don't believe that you would just drop me like that, after everything we've been through!"
"You ended my career! what else do you f***** expect!?"
He turned around and unashamedly pulled Laurent by her collar and she did much the same. What happened next was an exchange of saliva... and not in a good way.
"I didn't! It was Bryce and his father, not me! You have to understand that! Why do you keep blaming me as if I had personally blacklisted you from the industry!?"
"I told you to get away from that man and you went and started flirting with him behind my back!"
"Because you were flirting with Amber! Why are you acting all coquettish with other girls when you have me?! I wasn't flirting behind your back, idiot! I WAS FLIRTING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU BECAUSE I WANTED TO MAKE YOU JEALOUS!"
"THEN WHAT DID YOU EXPECT ME TO DO WHEN HE GOES AND TOUCHES YOUR ASS!?"
"I WANTED YOU TO BEAT THE SH*T OUT OF HIM!"
"AND I DID! SO WHOSE FAULT IS IT NOW?!"
"EVEN IF I WANT YOU TO BEAT HIM UP, THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN DO IT! YOU BLASTED HIM SO HARD THAT HE NEEDED SURGERY, HOW CAN I SAVE YOU FROM THAT?!"
"C-Could you two please calm down, why don't we have some tea in my apartment, please?" The shivering voice of Amber resonated in the heated car, perhaps she was the sobber one in the group after this outburst.
Both Carter and Laurent regarded one another with pure rage and outrage. Whether there was love there or not, Amber didn't know... what there was for certain... was an obsession.