ONCE

Chatper 12

"You're a bald-faced liar. A...fucking liar," I hear James yells.

I slowly walk towards the table, watching this scene taking place.

"A lair? No. I love Nastasia and I would never do anything to hurt her," Jax calmly says.

"You don't know what love is, Jax. What you and Nastasia have is not love" His tone serious.

"You're right, James it's not love, it's more than love. It's this raw, passionate emotion that burns inside of us," Jax smiles.

James goes to open his mouth and say something but my mother stops him.

"I think that's enough. You two have said enough. Leave it alone."

I walk closer to the table and take my seat next to Jax.

"What was that all about?" I scan over James and Jax faces.

"He was rambling on about how perfect your relationship is, when it's the furthest thing from perfect, Nastasia," James huffs.

"Oh, James, hush. They're perfect can't you see?" My mother waves her hand towards us.

"Dakota, you're blind," James huffs.

My mother fixes her floppy hat, so it's out of her eyes.

"James, stop being ridiculous," my mother sighs.

"I'm not!" James exclaims.

"Stop yelling, you're going to get us kicked out," I say.

"Good! Then I won't have to see you and Jax be 'in love', James mumbles.

"James," Jax sighs. "Just because you never got to make a move on Nastasia while you were growing up doesn't mean you get to say that we're not in love, when clearly we are."

"Clearly? Ha that's bull. Love? No, it's a bitter taste that's left in your mouth. That's what you and Nastasia have...a bitter taste that you call love."

"Well, I like the bitter taste then, James." Jax says.

James stands up abruptly, throws some money on the table and storms off.

"That went well," my mother says.

She then reaches into her ridiculously large bag and pulls out a small mirror.

"It went better than I expected," she continues while wiping red lipstick off of her teeth.

"Can we just go?" I whisper to Jax.

"Of course, sweetheart."

"Mrs White, we're going to leave." Jax and I stand up.

"Nastasia, darling," my mothers gets up and hugs me lightly. "It's rude to just leave so abruptly. Jax drove me here and I need him to drive me back."

"Mother, you can go shop around for a bit," I state.

She rolls her tongue against her teeth.

"Fine. I'll see you in a an hour, Alright."

"Thank you, Mrs White."

"Hurry up Jax, let's go." I tug on his hand as we exit the café.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jax laughs.

I spin my head around to look at Jax. My hair flying everywhere due to the wind.

"Ow." Something flys into my eye, making it feel scratchy.

"What's wrong?"

"Something's in my eye."

"Come here, I'll help you." Jax gently pulls on my arm, then grabs my face between his hands and slowly blows on my eye, trying to get rid of what was in my eye. Man, I'm lucky.

"I love you," I whisper.

"And I love you," Jax whispers back.

"Common lets go, my love." Jax grabs my hand and interlocks our fingers. I look down at our hands and see just how big Jax's hands are, they swallow mine, and I love it.