Monachopsis | B. E

Chapter Six

"Come on! Is it behind your belt?" resting her head on palm of her hand, Billie questioned.

Slightly laughing with a glass of beer in his hand, he took a sip after rejoining, "Nope."

"What's going on?" everyone's attention got briefly shifted towards Denzel, who had approached the table with a tray of cocktails on it.

"We're trying to guess where Donovan keeps his off duty weapon," Claudia explained.

He set the tray of an assortment of drinks down onto their round table and sat down next to his wife, who was sitting next to Donovan.

"Ah. I'd assume it's somewhere wrapped around your ankle."

"Even if you would guess correctly, I wouldn't tell you," he grinned with a shrug.

Jokingly Billie booed him and grabbed one of the cocktails from the tray.

To Denzel's surprise, the two of them got along well. Though he couldn't figure out if she truly was fond of him as a person of if she was trying to overcompensate for her fear.

"Are you currently training anyone, Donovan?" she turned back to him with a wide smile.

"Yeah. He's been with me for about seven months now."

Prince had spent some time observing their interaction before he leaned closer to Denzel's ear and quietly spoke, "Is it me or is she getting a little too close to him?"

His eyes moved away from his friend for a second and watched them laugh about something, "Bil, has your mom texted anything about Elijah?"

Her attention shifted towards him. She answered his question by shaking her head and saying, "The last time I checked my phone there were no texts."

"Damn. Y'all got a kid?" in surprise Don's eyes moved between them.

"Yeah," Billie's grin grew wider at the thought of him. "Elijah. He's two. What about you?"

"I have a daughter from my ex-wife. Her name's Amelia. She's eight."

"I like that name. It's cute."

She grabbed the straw of her cocktail and finally took her first sip. That first sip soon turned into her first cocktail, then her second, third and almost fourth.

Laughs in result of Donovan's jokes that almost yet made her stomach hurt echoed from her mouth as she covered her face with one of her hands while the other one was placed on his shoulder.

Despite the fact that everyone found them funny, Prince's previous comment stayed in the back of Denzel's mind.

"I'll-" her sentence cut off when she set both of her hands on the table for balance to help herself stand up. "Go use the restroom."

Her husband wanted to use that chance to talk to her so he stood up along with her, "I'll walk you to it."

Before leaving, he let her hook her arm around his.

The bathrooms that were located down a hallway were separated by rooms and not stalls.

Denzel opened the door of the first one that was vacant and let Billie walk in first.

A smirk appeared on her lips once she saw him enter behind her and lock them in.

"Is this an invitation?" her hands traveled up his shoulders and slowly moved down to his belt.

"No, Bil-" he tried to remove her hands from him but instead she kissed him.

"I actually wanted to talk."

Carelessly she only mumbled out, "Yeah, yeah. We'll talk later."

He pushed her away and made sure to do it carefully but she pulled him in again.

"No. We'll talk now," he stopped her.

For a moment she squinted her eyes out of confusion. "What's up with you?" she chuckled.

"Listen," he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pants. "I'm a little uncomfortable with how you're acting around Donovan."

"What?"

It was clear that she wasn't taking the conversation seriously.

"You're being touchy with him."

"So what? I can't laugh at his jokes now?" slurred words escaped her lips.

"That's not what I said. I'm saying that you don't need to be touching his shoulder. You may not even realize that you're doing it."

"But when you're spending time with Natalie it's fine?"

"Don't bring her into this."

"Oh!" she slightly threw back her head with a sarcastic laugh. "You're protecting her now."

"I'm not!"

Disbelief took over her expression before she scoffed, "You're actually a hypocritical piece of shit."

Her insult caught him off guard. With raised brows and slightly parted lips, he stared back at her, "You know what?"

"What? Can't handle the truth?"

Truth be told Billie and Denzel didn't argue a lot. Surely there were a couple of minor differences in their opinions from time to time but it wasn't anything major. Ever since talking to Andrew, Billie had been very worked up and it resulted in her taking out her feelings onto him.

"When you came to me about the fact that you feel uncomfortable with me calling Natalie "Nat" and us two drinking coffee in my office, I respected that. Imagine if I acted the same way you do."

Visibly her jaw clenched before she raised her hand to slap him across the face "Fuck you!"

The moment she tried to leave he grabbed her wrists and pushed her against the sink.

"What? Can't handle the truth?"

"You're acting as if I'm sitting in his lap. I don't even like him like that. It's not my fault that you're that insecure."

"You might as well go back and sit then."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

With faces that were filled with anger, they stared at each other before Billie smashed her lips into his and he began pulling up her dress.

And just like that they found a temporary solution for a problem that was yet to emerge.