Love is a Two Way Street

The whole car ride to Starbucks I was queasy. What if Edwin did something stupid? Oh no. This had been a terrible mistake. But Gage was humming a nice little tune as he drove me to my doom.

He seized my hand in his own and we walked into the coffee shop. I scanned the area and let out a silent breath of relief: Edwin was nowhere to be seen. Luck was on my side for once and I was going to enjoy every moment of this.

Since I was with Gage no guys came to chat with me. That made me feel a bit crummy, but Gage was chatting away as I tried to catch everything he was throwing at me.

And I was never any good at catching! I remember this one time back in grade school when we were playing baseball. I was always last to be picked next to the kid that was always doing something obscene—AKA, shoving his finger in a rather disgusting place. They always groaned when the ball came to me since I was known as Madame Butterfingers. Now if we were playing get-hit-in-the-face-with-a-ball, I would win since that’s what the baseball always wound up doing! But that was how I got the nickname Madame B. Strangely enough I ended up taking French in high school…

Oh yeah. And the moral of the story was…Oh, what was I talking about?

“Hello? Jade?”

I snapped back into reality and looked at Gage who was in turn looking at me.

“Yes?”

“Welcome back to Earth, darling. We missed you,” he muttered.

I was about to make some crude remark concerning his grandmother and a potato peeler when I heard a voice I didn’t want to hear at the moment. It was a smooth, silky, seductive voice that belonged to a smooth talking seductive man with silky hair.

Edwin.

“Hello, Jade,” he bid me, pulling up a chair and sitting in between Gage and I. Gage looked royally ticked at that moment and Edwin was enjoying every second of it as I begged God to just shoot me now! There had to be some kind of sin that included being ready to badmouth someone’s grandma for crying out loud!! But back to the main plot!

“Oh, hey, it’s the ex-boyfriend!” Gage exclaimed. “Isn’t that the one you totally dumped on his ass? Oh yeah! Edwin! Good to see you. Now then, you two are over, so shouldn’t you be elsewhere harassing some more people? I’m sure there are others that deserve you being there more than us. So go on you little scamp!” He ruffled Ed’s hair and Edwin glared.

“How can I be her ex if we were never anything? As I recall we were always nothing.” That remark was meant to hurt me. And it did. Surprise, surprise!

“Edwin, don’t do this,” I begged. Not in public.

“Funny how close we got to getting married though. Good thing she set me straight!” he laughed. Gage stood up and grabbed Edwin’s shirt.

“Look, bud, I don’t care much for you being here. Leave. Now.”

“Gage! Stop it!” I demanded, trying to pull him back to the table. People were staring and it reminded me of two years ago of the scene Edwin had caused. Those days were gone...

“Jade, I’m tired of him! He’s been a pest for too long!” he told me, growling at Edwin.

“I’d let go of me.”

“Or what?”

“Meet me outside, Gage. Please.” A wicked smile spread across his face and I wanted to die.

“Certainly.”

No, Eddy, no. Not Gage! Anyone but him!! Or you!! Or me!! Ok: don’t murder people I know!!