Tough Love

Part 23

You saw Paul pour out a shot into his cup and gulp it down. Wincing afterwards.

"Are you good?" You asked, as Paul nodded.

"Yep, totally fine, just going to go talk to Eric. You want to join me?" he asked, throwing his cup into the trash, as he offered his hand for you to take.

"Um, I'm going to go over and get something to eat. Don't want the booze to hit me so early on," you comment as he nods.

"Seriously though, if you want to leave, hell give me the word and I'll walk right out of here if anything goes south and you don't feel comfortable," Paul said as he squeezed your arm and then left you by yourself to go talk to Eric and the girl that was with him. As you walked over to where some of the food was already laid out for anyone to start taking from. Various platters were laid out on the table, all hor d'oeuvres of course.

Which made you want to take triple the amount of things to make up for the lack of an actual meal.

And then seeing a shadow looming over the table as a person came walking up next to you.

"So, how are you doing? Considering everything," Gene said as he grabbed a plate and started putting various items on it.

And you knew that there must've been a discussion between all of them about the breakup. And they might know about you being with paul. Despite the fact that he said he would keep things on the downlow if you wanted him to.

"What are you referring to?" You asked, trying to gauge the situation, since you didn't want to get cornered by him about something.

"Well we all kind of know the situation. Paul didn't tell any details or anything just the cliffnotes version. That Evan did something awful and then he came out to help you. And now you are with him. But regardless of all that, for Evan to just up and show up with a girl. I mean I did tell him you would be coming to warn him. And give him the out to not come this time but–" he said as you looked up at him.

"Wait, you told him I was coming and he still came here. And with that girl, to put her in front of me to make me feel crappy?" you questioned as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm just the messenger. I knew Paul wasn't probably going to mention it to him. But the boy hasn't missed a single year when we've had these get-togethers," Gene said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"But this is his house. You would think he would want to know if someone was for sure coming?" you questioned, getting a different vibe from this conversation than he probably intended when he walked up next to you.

"Like I said, he hasn't missed a year. Even if Paul didn't get explicit details he probably knew that Evan was going to show up. Plus it's not just some random person off the street, it's his son," he said as he turned to look at you with a scowl on his face.

Which immediately you knew that last sentence was more directed at you. You dropped the tongs that were in your hands and stepped away from the table and turned on your heel and walked away from him.

He just revealed how he really thought about you, and whatever he assumed was the relationship between you and Paul.

He probably thinks that this is just a rebound hookup between us. You thought as you walked over to one of the tables and sat down by yourself. Pulling apart the things that you had put on your plate into smaller bite sized pieces as you tried to fight the urge to get up and walk out of this party since now there were three people you didn't want to be around for an extended amount of time this evening. You were just waiting for Eric and Tommy to join in on that. And you would be for sure walking out.