Delightful Yet Poisonous

Chapter 1: Mind Readers

~ "Done?" A quiet chuckle escaped him. "I'm just getting started, Teef. I thought you knew me better than this." ~

Rule 1. Men are NOT mind readers. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

Maybe this was all a bad dream. Perhaps she would wake up in a few moments, only to realize that she was warm and secure in her lover's strong arms. Or maybe, reality had just turned into a horrible nightmare and there was absolutely no way in hell that she could escape from it this time.

Okay, Tifa. Breathe in... and out... In... Out... Don't give in to your desires, no matter how tempting it is at the moment, the raven-haired beauty thought over and over again, but it was barely working.

Her frown deepened as she gritted her teeth. It seemed that this had become her personal mantra for the past few minutes. Though it wasn't necessarily helping her calm down...unfortunately. Not when it was more than obvious that this blonde bitch Arlene, who had appeared out of nowhere, was practically imagining herself in Cloud's pants right now. It was disgusting and plain wrong in so many ways that Tifa had to gag several times. And it was not only because Cloud was her childhood friend...

The worst part of all of this was that Cloud didn't even seem to mind the attention that he was getting! Well, all that the guy really was doing was sitting there next to that bimbo, looking at her as though he'd never seen a woman before as she continued flirting shamelessly with him. Yes, the blond ex-SOLDIER was just sitting there and letting it happen. Heck, he was probably enjoying it, too, hiding it behind his incredible poker face. So instead of helping Tifa a little with serving the customers, Mr. Chocobo-head decided to actually listen to that...that thing on high-heels!

Could you blame the beautiful bartender for being utterly pissed off at him at this point?

Tifa's hands were practically itching to strangle that woman, or at least slam her head against the smooth counter and then drag her out of the bar by her ugly, golden blond hair. But she couldn't because, technically, Arlene wasn't doing anything wrong. And she didn't want to give up on any potential customers. It was all about image, after all; she had made a silent vow to be a good bartender, no matter what would happen (or in other words, no matter how much some people would annoy her). However, it became very tempting the longer she looked at their interaction.

Tifa shook her head and let out a deep sigh. What the hell was she supposed to do with him? Cloud was driving her crazy, yet he had no clue because he was so damned oblivious. It was either that, or he simply didn't care enough.

Almost as though the blond ex-SOLDIER could feel a pair of eyes resting on his form, his head automatically turned in her direction, but Tifa swiftly looked away and busied herself in preparing the next order. A double whiskey, was it? Quite honestly, that sounded very appealing to her at the moment. Too bad she couldn't drink during work (another silent vow she'd made years ago). It would only make matters worse, both for her and the people around her. The last thing she needed was having the urge to dance on tabletops and not being able to remember any of it the next day, while the rest of the town hadn't forgotten about it...

Yes, been there, done that; she was never going to do it again if she could help it.

From the corner of her eye, the ebony-haired woman caught a blur of black and bright yellow approaching her slowly, instantly making her nervous. Sure, she was happy that Cloud had finally excused himself and left Arlene behind, but what if he'd seen the jealousy flicker in her eyes?

...Not that she was jealous, of course. Nah, how could you possibly think that?

Ugh, who was she kidding; she could practically drink the other woman's blood and enjoy it, too, even though she didn't really know her. That was how much she hated her for coming near her Cloud.