Love Is a Losing Game

“Well, I’m still not totally convinced that you really haven’t done anything with him.” Stuart announced as he flicked aimlessly through the rack of clothes as Angie searched for a new outfit.

“Have you no faith in me at all?” she replied with a smirk as she lifted her eyes up to glance at him.

“Oh, I have faith in you, but at the same time you’re dating probably the sexiest man in Huntington Beach, and I’m finding it hard to believe that you two have shared a bed together a few times over the past two weeks and your hands haven’t slipped into his boxers for a feel at least once.” He replied.

Angie shook her head with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I have this thing called self control.”

“Sweetie, you must have a shit load of self control to sleep next to him and not have a little grope.” She rolled her eyes at his remark.

“Okay, it is hard some-“

“I bet it is!” Stuart muttered interrupting her.

“Sometimes keeping our urges under control, and we have almost got carried away on more than one occasion, and there have been times, especially in this last week where I’ve wanted to say ‘fuck the last couple of dates’ but we both want to stick to this and go out tomorrow and make it all special and stuff.” She continued as if Stuart hadn’t said anything.

“Aww, Hun that’s really sweet, and I know I’ve been teasing the two of you about it but it is amazing that the two of you have stuck to this.” Angie blushed with a smile. With each date that she and Brian had been on she had been finding it more difficult to restrain herself. Her feelings towards Brian had increased with every date and she knew that in fact she was falling for him.

“Okay, enough of the mushy stuff, I’m going to try this top on and then we’ve got to go to one more store.” She said, holding up the red top as she walked towards the changing rooms.

“Oh Hell no! There is no way I am helping you pick out underwear that you plan on wearing to fuck Brian!” Stuart yelled drawing the attention of most of the shoppers around them.

“Stu! Shhh! And anyway, I’m not planning on wearing them to fuck Brian!” she replied quietly with a playful glint in her eyes, watching confusion turn into realisation.

“Okay, so let me rephrase that, I’m not going to help you pick out underwear that Brian is going to peal away from your body slowly before fucking you senseless!” he replied.

“Oh come on Stu, please, I need something new for tomorrow night. Just don’t think about what I’m buying it for!” she pleaded with her best puppy dog eyes.

“Okay! Okay, I’ll do it, come on lets get this over and done with, but you’ll owe me for this.”

“Thanks Stu, and of course, I’m in your debt!” she replied linking his arm and pulling towards the lingerie boutique.

“That sales girl keeps looking at us strangely.” Stuart whispered as the two of them wondered around the store with Angie looking for a lingerie set.

“That’s probably something to do with the look on your face every time I hold up a set for your opinion.” She replied with a smirk as she picked up yet another set.

“I’m sorry, but I keep on getting images of you two doing stuff.” He replied screwing up his face.

“Aw Hun, I’m sorry.” She replied stifling a giggle.

“Brian I can handle seeing, it’s you that’s weirding me out!” he continued.

“You know you could have just said that you thought the first set was the best and we could have been on the way home by now!” Stuart glared at her momentarily.

“Okay, we’ll pretend that’s not the case shall we!” he said as she picked up a red and black lace set. “And anyway, I know you too well now, even if I had said the first set you picked up was perfect you would still have dragged me around the entire store just to see if there was something a little more perfect.”

“Okay, yeah I probably would have, and you see, I think this one really is perfect.” She said holding the set up at him. He visibly shivered but nodded his head.

“Can we go now then?” he asked turning to head towards the sales counter.

“Shit, this has taken longer than I thought; I’m going to have to head straight to the bar.” She said noticing the clock on the dashboard of her Escalade.

“Does that mean I’m going to have to walk home from the bar?” Stuart moaned.

“Shit! No, you can drive, Brian’s meeting me after work anyway.” She replied.

“Meeting you after work or turning up an hour into your shift and hanging around like a lost puppy?” Stuart said failing to hold back his laughter.

“Shut up Stuart! He’s actually covering a shift up in Long Beach tonight.” She said sending a brief glare at him.

“Oh, so who’s going to be working with you tonight?” he asked with concern.

“It’s going to be a quiet Tuesday night, so there’s just going to be me and Craig and then Sonia from the restaurant if we need her at nine.” She replied.

“But none of the guys?” he asked.

“Do you not count Craig as a guy?” she giggled, knowing full well what Stuart meant, especially with the glare he gave her.

“Come on Stu, you know at least one of them will be in at some point and Jason and Johnny are working across the road tonight if I really need them.” She replied hoping to reassure him as best she could. He looked at her for a long moment and then nodded.

“I know what you’re worried about Stu, and I’ve checked the security tapes every day since he turned up and he hasn’t been back since.” She said as she pulled up outside the bar.

“I know, maybe Matt scared him off for good.” He replied.

“I hope so. Now take good care of my car.” She said with a mock warning tone as she got out of the vehicle.

A Tuesday night shift at the bar always proved a challenge for Angie. It was the quietest night of the week and she would always wonder why they bothered opening at all. The only up side she found was that it would usually give her the time to do a full stock check, although that was always such a boring and tedious task.

The time had ticked by slowly but it was finally approaching closing time. Angie stood behind the bar counting the evening’s takings as Craig went around cleaning the tables. Her concentration broke with the sound of her cell phone ringing.

“Hello” she answered without looking at the caller ID.

“Hey babe, listen I’ve been held up but I’m on my way now.” Brian replied down the receiver.

“Okay, I’m just cashing up anyway.” She replied with a smile.

“I’ll be there in twenty okay.” he replied.

“Yeah that’s fine, see you in a bit.” She said before hanging up.

“Craig I’m just going to run this down to the office.” She called.

“Sure thing boss, I’m almost finished up here.” He replied finishing cleaning one of the tables.

She took the money to the office and put it in the night safe; she did what she had to do on the computer and locked the office before wondering back to the bar.

“Is everything finished up here?” she asked Craig.

“I’ve just got to take these bags of trash out the back and then I’m done.” He said walking from around the bar with two black sacks of garbage.

“I’ll take those out now, you head off.” she replied.

“Are you sure?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’ve got to wait for Brian anyway. Go on, I’ll see you later.” She replied stepping forward to take the sacks out of his hands.

“Okay, cheers Angie. Good night.”

“Good night Craig.” She called after him as she turned toward the rear of the bar where there was a fire door that led out into the ally way that ran along the side of the bar where the dumpster was. She placed one of the bags onto the ground so that she could lift the lid to throw the sacks in. as she leaned down to pick the second bag she stopped; sure she had heard movement behind her.

She looked up and down the dark ally but saw and heard nothing. With a shrug of her shoulders she turned back to pick the second sack up off the ground allowing the lid of the dumpster to fall back with a clang. She turned to head back towards the bar but stopped abruptly when she saw a figure stood between her and the doorway of the bar.

“Hello Angel, long time no see.” David’s calm voice sent a shiver down her spin as she instinctively took a step back.

“Oh come on now Angel, don’t be scared, it’s me.” he said taking a step closer towards her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked quietly, jumping slightly as she felt her back make contact with the cold metal of the dumpster.

“I’ve come to see you, I’ve missed you. And I’ve got to say, I was a little upset the other week when you sent your muscular mate to get rid of me. I thought you and me were friends? Hell, I thought we were more than that, we were in love remember?” he said slowly closing the gap between them.

“No, no David, you may have been in love with me but it wasn’t the same for me. it was a bit of fun, that’s all.” She replied nervously.

“Angel I loved you, I left Elaine for you. But you wrecked my life. Elaine moved away and I haven’t seen my son in over a year because of you. I lost everything because of you.” he said, his tone of voice showing an undertone of anger through the calmness.

“David I really am sorry about that, but I never asked you to leave her. I never wanted that.” she said with him now right in front of her. She could smell the stale smell of alcohol on his breath, mixed with the smell of cigarettes.

“That’s not good enough Angel. I still love you, you know. There hasn’t a day gone by since you disappeared from Denver. I spent months trying to find you so that we could be together again.” he began, his one hand resting on her hip as the other came up to gently cup her cheek. She closed her eyes, cringing at the contact.

“But then when I finally find you I find you all over another guy, yet another guy who was in a relationship with another woman. You were playing him like you played me. You managed to get your claws into him as well though didn’t you. He kicked Aimee out for you didn’t he?”
Angie gasped at the sound of Aimee’s name, realising that David must have been watching her and had even watched her friends.

“You can’t go on like this Angel, it’s not fair on him, on me, on whoever your next victim will be.” He whispered his breath warm on her face. “I need to teach you a lesson again.”
Tears began to slowly trickle down her cheeks as his lips slowly pressed against hers and the hand that had been resting on her hip slid around to the button on her jeans. His lips trailed lightly down her jaw line as he loosened her jeans. She closed her eyes tighter as she tried to block out the feeling of his hand pushing its way past the zipper of her jeans and rubbing her through her panties.

Then she suddenly realised that the contact was gone. She opened her eyes to find Brian slamming David’s body into the wall before punching him. Slowly she sank to the floor with tears streaming down her face as she watched Brian repeatedly bring his fist to connect with a part of David’s body.