When LOVE is not Enough

Chapter 29 - Axel

We just finished a meeting with the fifth farmer for the day, Blake and I are both exhausted and hungry. When we finally reached my office, we settled with a glass of whiskey as we tried to decide what to order considering it was 9 pm.

I took out my phone and I had 6 missed calls and 3 texts that's when I remembered it was Iris' birthday and we were supposed to go to her party after the gym. "Shit!", I cursed as I opened the texts.

My 👼🏾: Where are you? Is everything ok?

My 👼🏾: I took Alice to my place. Heading to the party now. I hope that's ok.

My 👼🏾: I know it's silly considering this is what I signed up for but the least you can do is reply to my texts.

The last one got to me. I checked the missed calls and saw that three of them were from Alice so I called her first. "Hey Alice, sorry I was caught up in meetings, how was your day?", I asked not allowing her to put me in my place. "No worries but I think Angel is the one who needs to hear that", she said sounding disappointed.

"What do you mean?", I asked and heard her release a breath. "She thinks that she's not important to you. Like she is not a priority. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on them but they were getting ready in her room and I wanted to ask if I could cook something from her kitchen when I heard her tell her friends that... you know what, this is wrong Dad. You should just talk to her", she said sounding unsure but I had to know. 

"Alice, please... what did she say?", I asked with a shaky voice, the truth is, I'm the one who's been screwing up most of the time and the thought of losing her scared the crap out of me. "Alice? You there? I need to know", I said running my fingers through my hair. I can feel Blake's eyes on me but ignored him. 

She released a breath again, she was nervous. "She thinks that she's just someone you go to when you need intimacy and nothing more. It's always just Me and Knox Produce. She just feels like she is using too much energy to get your attention and I think she's right Dad and it scares me. I don't want to lose her", she was sniffing.

Fuck, she was crying at this point and it made me lose my mind. I remembered how I shouted at her when she didn't tell me about Rachel beating my daughter. I remembered how I usually go off the radar when I have too much on my plate at the office.

In the past two months, she has been the one to reach out to me all the time because I was busy trying to recruit more farmers and forgot that she was my girlfriend. She needed me too.

"Dad... you there?", Alice asked her voice cracking. "Yeah... yeah I'm here, I just... I don't want to lose her too", I said then hung up.

"What's going on man?", Blake asked looking worried. "It's Alice. She's overheard Angel talking to Iris and Lily about feeling like our relationship is one-sided", I said trying to summarise the info as much as I could because I was not ready to relive the pain I felt when Alice was telling me.

"Why would she think that man? You guys are like a power couple, it's impossible", he said trying to assure me. "Are we though?", my question made him speechless.

I called Anthony and was grateful when he picked up. It was noisy so I figured the party was still young. "Hey, man. Where's the party?", I asked. "Hey X. Sending you the location right now", he said then hung up.

"So I guess we're going to the birthday party", Blake said finishing his drink. The drive was silent, I couldn't get Alice's words out of my head. "Axel... it's going to be ok. You guys just need to talk it out and you need to come clean and apologise", Blake said making me nod. I couldn't form any words.

INFINITY, it looked like a fancy club, from the type of cars in the parking lot to the type of clothes the people in the line were wearing. I was about to stand in line when Blake pulled me past everyone going straight to the bouncers, he slipped 100 dollars in his pocket and the rock dude opened the door for us. 

We found Anthony waiting for us at the VIP entrance. "You made it. Your girl has been off mood since we got here", he said making give him a weak smile. "Not anymore", Blake said making Anthony pat my shoulder.

It was a huge VIP with a dedicated DJ. To be honest everything amazed me. I was not the clubbing kind so I did feel uncomfortable a bit. I was admiring the place and starting to feel the music when I turned to the dancing floor and saw Angel dancing with a huge guy who was eye fucking her. 

She was oblivious to the fact and was keeping it PG13 but I know lust when I saw it. The guy had an army haircut and was wearing a Brioni Vanquish Li suit meaning he was loaded. My hands started getting sweaty.

"So you are alive", Iris said sarcastically. She was pissed and it didn't surprise me. She was protective of Angel since day one. "Happy Birthday Iris. Sorry I was caught up at work", I said hugging her.

"Mmmnh. It's not me you need to apologise to", she said as I pulled back and hugged Lily too. Her eyes were on Blake and vice versa. I chose to leave it since I had bigger problems. 

I walked to the dancing floor and pulled Angel to my chest without saying a word. She almost protested until she saw it was me.

"Hey, you made it? Uh! This is Titan Cozwell. Titan this i-", "Knox. We've met", he said then walked away. I didn't remember the guy and I didn't want to so my attention returned to Angel who was now super pissed.

"Can we talk, somewhere private... please?", I begged and she nod her head pulling me to an empty room that looked like a private dance one.

"You look incredible baby", I said taking in her tight short dress that put all her curves on display. "Why are you here? I told you Alice is at the apartment", she said angrily with her eyes watering.