Charles
"I never thought you'd reach out to me first." The annoying voice of Kaden sounded as I removed the ear muffs that were on my ears and dropped the gun in my hand as the target paper came towards me.
"You've said that a thousand times already. Say something different." I said dismissively.
"Oh, come on. Don't be so cold to your one and only friend. I know there is something up with you."
No shit Sherlock. There was definitely something wrong with and it had to do with one particular short brunette who I had met after almost seven years.
"So, what's up? What got you in a so shitty mood, you had to come to the shooting range today?" He said.
I had to relieve the stress that had weighed on me since I saw her some hours ago. And coming here normally would actually do relieve me. But, right now, I wasn't feeling much better than when I came in.
"Shit."
"Yeah. Something is definitely up." He said as I walked out of the shooting room with him hot on my heels.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"And you think I'll allow that. I'll pester you so much you'll want to do away with me in a blink of an eye." She continued as we got into the car.
"Men's club, Taylor." I said to my driver.
"Sir." He answered and started the car.
"He's just as stiff as you are. Hello Taylor." He greeted anyway, and Taylor been who he normally was, nodded in reply.
"Yeah. I should be used to that already." He said feigning hurt and making himself comfortable beside me.
"I shouldn't have picked you up." I bit out, regretting the decision now so bad. I should have just allowed him come in his car. He was such a chatterbox. How both of us got along so well for almost twelve years now is a mystery.
"Oh, come on now. You definitely don't mean that." I looked him dead in the eye to show him that I meant every word of what I said.
"I just know what got your panties in a twist is because of a woman."
He said and I stiffened a little bit.
"Gotcha. I said it. You know, I'm never wrong." He said giddily like he just got something huge.
"Who is this woman that has caught your attention, my dear friend."
I kept quiet and after a few minutes, we pulled up in front of the club. This wasn't a regular noisy club. People with the membership are the only ones allowed to go in. So that makes the amount of people there minimal.
We showed our membership card to the bouncer outside who didn't bother to check it but just let us in. He nodded a greeting and I did back.
We sat in our usual spot on the counter of the bar as the bartender, who happened to be an annoying specie of human. She went by the name Desire.
My misery has just been upped by fifty percent, with Desire and my dear Kaden in one place.
"Hello, Mr Emmett. Long time no see. I guess you're here to drown your sorrows away." She said in a mischievous tone. I gruntled on reply.
"My dear Desire. Did you miss me?" Kaden said as he picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. She looked at him in disdain. Desire had to be the only woman on the planet that doesn't fall for his horrendous charm.
She swatted her his hand away.
"The usual?" She asked me totally ignoring Kaden, which made me snicker. I nodded at her.
Few minutes later, our drinks were brought forward. I immediately chugged it down and pushed the glass back to her for another one. She gave me this look, but I didn't deter. So, she ppoured me another one.
"What's going on man?" Kaden asked sounding more serious now.
"I met Gwen today." I said shortly, after a few minutes of silence.
He sputtered the drink in his mouth out in surprise. I glanced at him.
"What?!" If he didn't sound serious before, he was now. Well, that's new. "How? Where? When?" He said all at once.
He was looking at me keenly now, like he was discerning me to know what was going on in my head. If only he knew.
I sighed gently and took a sip from my glass. I swirkes the drink around in the cup and looked at the ice. I wanted to crunch it with my teeth, maybe the pressure I was feeling in my head will reduce a little bit.
"Say something, Charles. Where did you meet her? What happened?" I don't exactly blame him for been this concerned about me right now. He saw and knew what happened to me when she just up and left me. I was at the lowest of my lows when she left.
I'd be concerned for me too if I were him. I drank like there was no tomorrow. Everything about me changed. Some for the better, but mostly worse changes.
My ruthlessness was from when she left me. Putting everything I had in my father's business that everything went from normal to triple of the original profits in a few years.
I could not bring myself to fall in love with another woman after her. She was literally it for me. But she left. Like I meant nothing to her. And my child.
Mother had said she removed the baby and left. I didn't believe it at first. But after the investigation at the hospital that had confirmed it and the engagement ring I gave her, I knew it was game over.
How could she remove a baby that was almost seven months old?
The anger I felt towards her intensified.
"Calm down man. You're scaring the glass." He sounded a little sarcastic.
"It was a business meeting."
"A business meeting?" He asked and I explained everything that happened today to him.
"Oh My God. If I was ever expecting a comeback from her, it definitely wasn't her coming back as a boss of a company. A famous one at that." He said quietly, but I could still hear him.
You don't say. That makes the two of us.
"What will happen now? Did you agree to work together?" He asked, even though he knew the answer already.
I nodded stifly.
"Why don't you just terminate it and pay the compensation fee. I know you can afford it."
"Why should I? This is purely business." My tone was hard as the words came out of my mouth.
I raised my head to look at him, and he had this look on his face like he knew I was lying.
"Do you think you can handle been around her? I saw you, Charles. I knew what happened when she wasn't around you. I thought you weren't ever gonna make it out of the dark hole you drilled for yourself everyday. Can you even look at her?" Kaden asked me.
True. True.
When I saw her today, acting care free like she didn't take the life of my child, like she didn't destroy what we had, I wanted to wrap my fingers around her throat and press the answers out of her. To ask her why she did what she did.
"This has nothing to do with what happened seven years ago. This is now, Kaden."
"Why do I feel like you're trying to remind yourself that we're in now and not seven years ago? What will happen between you later? What if the feelings come back? What if…"
"There aren't any what ifs, Kaden." I said harshly. My emotions flying all over the place. With a hardened look on my face, I continued, "There is no way in hell that I'll be getting back together with that woman. Nothing of such is going down between us." I was breathing heavily now. I wanted to punch something really hard.
I hated feeling like this. Not being able to get my emotions together. And since I met up with her few hours ago, that is exactly what has happened to me.
She's been in my thoughts. She's crawled her way back into my mind. Taking up all the space that is there.
I rubbed my hand over my face and swung back the remaining liquor in the glass.
This is insane. I'm insane.
For even allowing it to reach this level.
"Nothing is happening." I said. Kaden didn't reply with anything and I felt more irritated. It was like what he said the other time. That I was trying to assure myself that nothing is going to happen between us.
I felt is palm on my back.
"Can you get me any information about her?" I didn't know when it slipped out of my mouth. I needed to know what was going on with her. How she's lived till now.
I was already expecting him to decline and say no.
"On it." He said.
"I hate her." I said again. "I hate her so much it hurts." I continued. "When I saw her today, it was like she didn't do anything to wrong me. She didn't look guilty at all, Kade."
"I hate her as long ass you hater her too. You'll be fine bud." He said and I almost laughed out.
"Another round Desire." Kaden said and I could hear her curse him out in a language I can't seem to understand.