"What?"
My voice had quietened now as I studied Joseph intensely. His handsome face which was normally tense, hard and neutral, now stood soft, bare and vulnerable. He pulled in his bottom lip, biting down gently with his front teeth as he studied my table - numerous thoughts probably whizzing through that complicated head of his. I mentally urged him to just let it out... whatever was bothering him needed to be spoken out loud to finally take off this weight that he had been carrying around since last night.
"Joseph." I brought him out of his thoughts and his eyes finally met mine. "What?"
"What would you do if you found out that one of your... closest friend, was stabbing you in the back?"
My face formed into a frown. "What do you mean?"
"What would you do if you found out that one of your closest friends was stabbing you in the back?" He repeated with emphasis this time. I had understood the first time. I was just confused as to why he was asking me this. I wanted to ask him if he was talking on behalf of himself, but I figured that I should just answer his question.
"Well..." I exhaled a breath and stared at my now empty glass of wine. "I guess I wouldn't let them know that I knew..." I began slowly, wondering if he was following. "I would carry on as normal and try to understand the situation better. Find out why they are backstabbing me... what their problem is. Dig into them, without them knowing." His gaze lowered as he slowly nodded. "Is this about you?"
He nodded again, running a palm down the bottom half of his face. "Remember the day we first met?"
"When you held a knife to me and threatened to end my life?" I asked in a deliberate tone.
I got a smile out of him, even if it was just a small one. "Yeah."
I smiled too. "I remember."
"I found out who was behind it all."
My eyebrows rose as I lowered my gaze to my table. His confusing, paranoid behaviour all made sense now. Peeking up at him, I saw that his eyes were squeezed shut as he rubbed at his temples. For a brief second, I needed to remind myself that this was serious matter to him... ignoring how sexy he looked doing that.
I cleared my throat. "So, it's a close friend?"
He sighed, raising his broad shoulders slightly. "Something like that."
Damn.
I bit on my bottom lip as I tried to put myself in his shoes. The whole situation was just too long. My thoughts suddenly ran wild and my eyes widened. "It wasn't..."
"Nah, it wasn't." Joseph shook his head, already knowing what I was going to ask him.
I breathed out a sigh of relief before cursing myself for even thinking that Remy would ever do something like that. I lifted a leg up and hugged a knee to myself as we both sat in silence, besides the calming music in the background.
"So, what are you going to do?" I finally broke the silence.
I studied his motions of running his tongue along the top row of his teeth as he reached out and picked up his brick Nokia. "I don't know. I've got some things to sort out first. This is just more shit that I gotta add to my list."
"What else do you have to worry about?" I asked curiously.
His eyes snapped up to me for a moment, as if considering answering my question. Eventually his attention turned back to his phone as he spoke. "We got a big delivery today... double what we usually get. I've got to make sure my guys move it."
