Desired Fate

Chapter Seven

Perched on the toe box of her glittery red heels, this beautiful woman was quick to lace her fingers together around the back of Aidan's neck. This pulled his face closer to hers as her plump, red lips attempted to devour his. No doubt the lipstick she chose today was scarlet red, scarlet by name, scarlet by nature.  

How could something feel like it was happening in slow motion but be over in a blink of an eye? After a piece of live video footage freezes, it resumes by skipping forward and thus missing the part in the middle. That was where I was because after being frozen from the shock of Aidan kissing someone else, I now saw him prying his lips from hers and I had completely missed the part of how we had gotten to this point. 

"No!" He hissed.

The anger that laced his voice was explosive, and out of reactivity, I had taken a few steps backwards. I didn't want any part of this situation, and I didn't want to find myself accidentally in the centre of it so I tried to give myself some distance to evaluate the situation from afar. 

Aidan tore the woman's fingers from their resting place around the back of his neck, throwing them down before he grabbed her forearms and began to push her backwards as though she were a venomous snake that had to be beaten away. Unfortunately, her six-inch heel caught the back of a chair leg and she ended up flat on her back with a small squeak escaping her lips. 

Immediately, forgetting this woman and the fact she could have possibly hurt herself, his head turned in my direction. Yet I wasn't watching Aidan's reaction, I was watching hers. She observed his every move with smugness and once she saw that his line of vision had landed on me, her mouth dropped open with a gratifying grin. 

"Don't worry, sweetheart, he likes it a bit rough," she flicked her loose curly brown hair over her shoulder. "This is like foreplay to Aidan." 

"I've never even touched this woman," his eyes widened, not out of guilt, but out of distaste.

"Is that her?" The scarlet woman asked piquing my curiosity. "Is that the girl that couldn't satisfy you last night so you came running to a woman who knows how to handle you?" 

For a brief second, I allowed her words to play on my insecurities about how sexually inexperienced I was. Uneasiness about sex that I had insinuated to Aidan last night, perhaps it was also because I had no idea about his sexual history, maybe he did enjoy vulgar and desperate women similar to how she was portraying herself. 

"Oh hell no, you fucking don't stand there and lie!" Before any more words could be exchanged between Aidan and this woman, Avery charged over. 

Her words dominated the situation, even startling the members of staff who had been lurking in the background pretending to work but had one ear to the ground. Up until that moment, I hadn't even considered that their presence watching this unfold might be the worst part of this scenario.

I was so preoccupied with wondering if Aidan was a liar with a secret girlfriend, which sounds preposterous now because Avery for sure would have informed me of any untowardness. That I hadn't considered the cat was out of the bag about our date. I hadn't mentally prepared myself for the other members of staff being informed about our private goings-on so soon. I had settled in here and everyone had been nice enough to me, at least to my face and I didn't want that to change. 

"Go to the staff room and take a break," Aidan commanded. 

The hostesses and waitresses began to shuffle about, even the chefs who had peeked their heads out suddenly dispersed. My eyes caught all their movements but for the twins, they acted as though there wasn't another single person in this building. Their focus was solely on the woman who was still playing the damsel in distress on the floor.