Broken Dreams

Chapter 15

"What the heck, Jane!" Mike exclaimed, "You blew me off to hang out with your "friend"
"Calm down bro, it's not what you think" Josh tried
His interference infuriated Michael the more. Jane asked him to go inside and she'd talk to him later. She moved the conversation to her apartment because the hallway was becoming crowded with nosy neighbours.
"Michael, you are overreacting. It's not what it looks like. You need to calm down so I can explain?"
"I'm overreacting? I just saw my girl coming out of some dude's apartment and he is in a towel half-naked."
"Would you chill? Damn!"
"What did you just say to me?"
"I said take a chill pill and let a girl talk"
Without another word, he smacked her on the face causing her to fall.
"What the hell?!" she screamed.
"Babe"
"You hit me?"
"Babe, listen"
"NO! You really hit me"
"I'm sorry. Please listen to me"
"GET OUT OF MY APARTMENT NOW!! How dare you put your hands on me?"
That was the moment that Josh rushed into the apartment. The walls in the building were pretty thin so when Jane cried out, he heard it and made his way to her place.
He barged in on them surprising both of them sidestepping Michael to reach Jane.
"Jane, you okay? What did he do to you?" he asked and right after he noticed the print he left on her cheek when he smacked her.
Without a word, he turned around a punched Michael in the face breaking his nose. A little fight broke out that drew the attention of her neighbours who successfully pulled the two men apart. Michael was then escorted out of the building to finally put an end to the altercation.
When everyone had finally dispersed, Josh and Jane sat down to discuss what had transpired.
"Thank you for taking care of the situation for me"
"No problem but why did he hit you?"
"I told him to calm down so I could explain why I was at your place."
"And that's why he went off? You need to stay away from him he has serious anger issues."
"You may be right but I didn't help matters either"
"Excuse me, what? Maybe right? I am right and this is not on you"
"Okay, I hear you. Now let me treat these injuries. He definitely got you good"
"Nah, you should have peeped his face. I did a number on him. He's never hitting a woman again"
"Okay, Mike Tyson" she laughed.
After his injuries were attended to, she was still hungry so they went back to Josh's place to eat and watch a movie. Josh offered for her to crash at his place because he thought that Mike would be back later on.
He wasn't wrong.
Michael hadn't left when he was escorted away. He circled around the block for a while and parked across the street watching them in her apartment. Their floor wasn't really high up and thanks to the spying equipment he had in his possession he could see through the windows.
He watched them laugh and talk all the while Jane dressing his injuries when it should have been him.
If Jane thought she was going to take him for a fool then she was sorely mistaken, he thought to himself. A little while later he saw them leave her apartment. Unlike Jane, Josh didn't keep his windows open so he couldn't see what was going on. He sat there for a few minutes and then drove away.
The next morning, Josh prepared breakfast and suggested Jane hide out at her brothers' place for a while but she declined. She told him that would definitely arouse suspicion and he didn't want to stress them so she'd just tough it out.
They stepped out and she was met with a beautiful arrangement of all her favourite flowers and teddy bears outside her apartment. The bears spelt out, "I am sorry"
"Awww, this is so beautiful"
"Tell me you are not falling for this" Josh said with an eye roll.
"Come on, let's give him a chance here"
"Hold up, what are-"
"Wait, there's a note"
"My dear Jane,
I am deeply sorry for my behaviour last night. I reacted poorly to the situation and you didn't deserve me putting my hands on you. No woman deserves that. I was raised better than that. I have been in such a similar position before and later found out my girl was really cheating on me. It, however, is not an excuse for my beast-like behaviour. I want to apologise in person.
Please meet me at La Comida Bonita at 7 pm tonight if you forgive me and give me an opportunity to say all this in person
Always,
Mike"
"Jane, you are seriously not thinking of going, are you?"
"Oh, come on Josh, everybody deserves a second chance"
"You must be kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not. I need to at least hear him out"
"Wow, you must've hit your head when he smacked you because you have lost your mind"
"No, I haven't. Are you going to help me take these in?"
"Nope, you got it. Don't come to me when it goes wrong"
"Really, Josh? I thought we were friends"
"We are but I will not support this madness. When you get your mind right, hit me up. Until then, goodbye Jane"

Thanks for reading 😊