"I have to ask, why did you walk up to Tina?"
Enna leaned closer into her husband's warmth as they were being driven to the airport, contemplating his question.
The wedding was over. They'd done everything they'd planned and what was left was the honeymoon. Enna was excited to leave. No work, no calls, no distractions, just her and her lover.
"I don't know," she answered. "I guess she just reminds me of myself somehow."
Andrew gazed at her curiously. "How?"
She shrugged. "She just... She seems to be really lonely, sad and from the look on her face when I asked about Trevor, in love. Yet she acts like everything is alright." She sighed. "I know everything isn't."
Her husband frowned. "You were sad? With me?"
She smiled softly. "Yes, I was sad. No, not with you." She continued, "Before I just carried every weight from my family on my shoulders and I realized that wasn't good. No one cared for me like I cared for them. No one noticed I was breaking."
She looked at him gently as she said, "You did the moment you met me. And I'm happy you helped in taking that weight off of me."
Andrew smiled as he reached out to cup her cheek. "I'm glad you're talking more about your family these days. I still want to beat your brothers up though."
She chuckled. "Anyway, I want your sister to be happy like me. I know it's really none of my business, but I'd like to be her friend."
"To get her with Trevor?"
"Well..."
"You know she won't welcome that with open arms, right? They have history and the only one who can get them together is themselves," Andrew said. "Don't get involved."
"Can I at least be her friend?" Enna asked.
Andrew smiled. "I don't think you're asking me for my opinion. No matter what I say, you'll still do what you want. Even when it comes to her and Trevor's relationship."
Enna giggled because they both knew he was right. She was still going to do whatever she wanted.
"When we arrive, gimme her phone number, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," her handsome husband said obediently.
She grinned as she kissed him on the lip. "Thanks. Love you."
"Love you too," he replied as he stared at her with love.
*
Tina went to the nearby bar. She hadn't decided on whether to go back to her hotel yet.
One of the reasons she didn't like going to bars, especially by herself, was because of the creepy men who walked up to her and just wouldn't take no for an answer. Oh, and whenever she refused them, they'd turn to insults.
She prayed silently that tonight would be a peaceful one for her as she was served her drink by the bartender.
She glanced at her phone as she was doing so, seeing no need to check for anybody. Her PA was supposed to text her today, but it seemed he was busy. Or just totally forgot.
"Maybe I should've brought him here," she muttered as she went through his Instagram stories. He was already having fun when she hadn't even been gone for up to two days.
"Hello there, sexy," she heard an unfamiliar voice say from beside her.
Tina held her breath for a bit and started hoping that the person wasn't talking to her. She really didn't want the attention today.
"Hey, I'm talking to you," the person persisted, shattering her hopes that he wasn't talking to her.
She sighed as she looked up. "How may I help you?"
"No need to be so formal, sexy. I'm just want to be friends," he said and looked at her in a way that made her skin crawl.
He was a fully bearded man that looked to be in his fifties, yellow teeth visible as he smiled at her and rough-looking hands placed on the counter as he addressed her.
"My name is Alfred," he said. "And you are?"
"I'm not obligated to tell you my name," Tina said firmly. Being nice never got her anywhere, might as well be rude. "Leave me alone."
She turned her attention back to her phone, waiting for the inevitable tantrum. And it didn't take long to come.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" he said loudly, which caused a few conversations to seize as a few people's attention went to him. "Who do you think you are ignoring me? I'm trying to be nice to you and you're-"
He was interrupted by the bartender who was back from serving some people. He was a young man who had an annoyed look on his face as he spoke to the man.
"Hello, sir. You're causing a disturbance here and we don't condone harassment of women in our establishment, so it's either you stop bothering the lady, you leave or we'll make you leave."
Alfred looked at him in disdain. "What's a little boy like you going to do to someone like me?"
"You'd be surprised," the bartender answered dryly.
"I don't even know why you're trying to defend the bitch anyway," he spat. "It's not like she's-"
"Please leave. You're bothering a lot of us with your loud and annoying ass voice," a very familiar voice said from behind her.
Tina's eyes widened as she turned to look at the side profile of her ex-boyfriend. What was he doing here?
The older man looked offended, but backed up a bit as he saw how intimidating the new arriver looked.
"You can't tell me what to do!" he shouted. "I'm a paying customer! I have the right to do whatever I want!"
"Pretty sure you don't."
"I don't even know why you're talking to me, trying to defend her. Trying to defend this ugly bitch," Alfred spat.
Tina wasn't surprised at the insult. Men used it on her a lot and it wasn't like they were wrong.
Her dear ex didn't seem to agree though as he warned, "If you say that one more time, I'm going to break your fucking jaw."
Alfred backed up a bit more, especially now that he saw the two men walking up to him. Tina knew there was no way he'd be able to defend himself if they decided to strike. Her harasser was probably thinking the same thing because he ran out of the bar after letting out a few curses and throwing them, especially her, glares.
"What a piece of shit," the bartender muttered as he turned his attention to her. "Are you okay, ma'am? I'm so sorry about this."
She gave him a small smile. "I'm fine. And it's not a problem."
"Drink's on the house," he said. "Take it as an apology."
Tina wasn't one to refuse free things and so she accepted. "Thank you... Gabriel," she said after reading the name tag on him that she'd paid no mind to from the beginning.
He grinned. "You're welcome." After speaking with her ex briefly, he left to go serve other customers.
"I want to ask if you're okay, but you already answered that."
She looked beside her to see one of her rescuers seated.
"Yeah." She suddenly felt awkward. "Thank you for your help."
He nodded. "I'm sure Gabriel could've handled it, but sure."
She smiled, looking at the hard expression on his handsome face.
"You didn't seem offended by the mean words he said, why? Because I know I was offended."
She shrugged as she took a sip of her drink, looking away from him for a moment. If she stared any longer, she knew she'd be unable to look away. "I'm used to it."
"But you're not ugly, you're beautiful," he insisted. "And you're not a bitch."
She shrugged again.
He sighed when he realized she really wasn't bothered, and he took the drink he was served to take a sip. "I saw you at the wedding."
She gave him a small smile. "Yeah. I saw you too."
"Did you not want to talk to me?"
She smiled wryly. "That's not it at all. I just didn't want to bother you or anyone."
It was more than that and they both knew. But there's no way she's going to say anything more. She came to the bar to get away from certain people, not to open up to them.
"Are you... single?"
She paused, caught off guard by his question before she answered. "No. Are you?" she asked, waiting a bit anxiously for his answer.
His expression softened a bit at her answer. "I'm not either. Was about to go back into the dating pool after a few months break but..."
"But what?" she asked, curious.
"But you came back."
"Trevor," she began.
"I'm not saying you should date me or anything again, I was just saying what I thought when I saw you," he said. "Well... one of the things I thought."
He finished his drink, paid for it and faced her.
His expression was quite soft as he whispered, "Bye, Tina."
Tina immediately felt like crying. Felt like running up to him and asking him to stay so they'd talk.
She looked down at her half-empty glass sadly.
She really missed him and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to bump into Trevor like this again anytime soon.
Or ever again.