Rrinkers

Chapter 15

"Well...you see." Tyler scratched his head and tried to find the right words. But there were none. The truth was that he had duped Lucas and Zoe into showing up to the bar because he knew there were some tensions that needed to be loosened. And what better way to loosen tensions than a karaoke night at a local bar. The only reason he did this was because he could sense how much his best friend cared about Zoe, and he liked her too so he was hoping Lucas had finally found a nice girl and would want to settle down.

"I'm leaving." Zoe began to walk away from the both of them, feeling deceived that Tyler had made her come all the way for an emergency when there was no emergency.

'Wait!" Yelled Tyler. "Just hear me out."

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Zoe turned around and looked at Tyler. Lucas hadn't said a word but continued to look at her. Even in the moonlight and the street lights, she was beautiful. He found his eyes moving all over her face and landing on her lips, that were healed from the Ping-Pong incident but still looked plump before his eyes moved to her figure that was skinny but still curvy. She was good to look at and he felt happy to be in her presence.

"All right, all right! Ha ha! Let's go inside and we can order some food and talk." Tyler jumped up and down as he walked to the door of the bar and opened it for Lucas and Zoe to walk in. He then proceeded to lead the way to a booth, a little bit away from the karaoke stage and the bar.

Once they sat down at the burgundy colored booth, a waitress approached them. "Hi, what can I get started for you?" Zoe was in the middle with Tyler and Lucas on either side of her.

Tyler, again, took the lead and answered. "Margaritas, three of them, and a plate of nachos please."

"You got it."

"Thank you," Zoe said to the young woman, which caused her to give Zoe a smile before walking away.

"So," Tyler started, "I have called this informal meeting to figure out how we can all be friends. Now there has been a lot of tension about-." He was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing.

"Oh, so sorry, it's my wife—Hello?"

There was a lot of nodding, 'ahas' and 'yeahs' before Tyler let out an 'are you serious right now?' He seemed to be indirectly arguing with his wife. Once he was done speaking, he hung up the phone and looked innocently at Lucas Zoe.

"I am so sorry my friends, but my wife is having a real emergency. I gotta get going."

"What! Are you serious?" Zoe asked.

"I'm sorry! We will do this another time." Before they knew it, Tyler ran out of the bar in a hurry. Right as he was out the door, the waitress brought the three drinks and the large plate of nachos. That was fast, Lucas thought, feeling the waitress' eyes on him. Weird.

Those look good! Zoe drolled.

Realizing that it was just her and Lucas, she decided to say something because he hadn't said anything since the moment he saw her. "Umm, I think I'll be on my way home." She was about to get up when Lucas stopped her.

"Wait!" He speaks! She sat down again. "There's something I need to say." It was hard for Lucas to get the image of her when she was assaulted out of his mind. He felt so angry that anyone would do that to her.

Sitting there quietly, Zoe waited for him to speak. "I want to say sorry. Sorry for hurting you the other day, I didn't mean to. I hope you know that I would never, ever, hurt you on purpose. And I'm sorry for the other night. I should not have forced my help on you." The truth is, seeing those files had changed how he felt about Zoe. Before, he didn't mind butting heads with her, but now, all he wanted to do was to protect her at all costs and be the best version of himself.