We walk out to find Cash deeply embroiled in a conversation with Gavin, one I don't want to ask too much about since I have a child in tow. They both turn to look at us.
"Sophie isn't feeling well, so I'll work her shift tonight. And this little lady is in desperate need of some ice cream. Think you could help out with that?"
Cash's face softens when he looks down at Isabella. "If there's one thing I know, it's ice cream." Isabella grins that cute little grin of hers. I can practically see Cash melting. "There are just a couple of things I need to do before we go. Can I come and get you in a few minutes?"
Isabella nods and turns to run back the way we came. We all watch her go.
"Call me when you hear from him. Day or night, doesn't matter. I want to know what she's up to," Cash tells Gavin when he turns back around.
"Will do, mate," Gavin replies with a nod.
"Who are we talking about?" I ask.
"Gavin's contact. The guy I told you he'd asked to look into Sophie."
"What do you think she's up to?"
"I don't know, but something's going on. I can feel it. She hasn't changed that much and Sophie always had a devious mind."
Even though he didn't mean his words to encourage me, I'm still encouraged. I'm encouraged that Sophie hasn't gotten her claws into my husband, that she hasn't fooled him.
Deep down, I knew I didn't have anything to fear, but it's hard not to let worry invade just a little bit. I love Cash and he loves me, and I trust him, but a woman like her … with designs on a man … and no moral qualms about taking what's not hers … it's hard to know what lengths she'll go to in order to get what she wants. I wouldn't put anything past her. It's her that I don't trust, not Cash. Never Cash.
But hearing that my husband isn't falling for it, whatever "it" is, knowing that his guard isn't down no matter how relaxed he might seem, makes me feel better. Heart and soul and all the way down to my toes.
φφφφφφφφ
It feels good to be back behind the bar. It feels normal, and normal is very welcome at a time when most everything else feels out of control. It's like being in my happy place where there's no worry of pregnancies or paternity or conniving exes. Just the crowd and the bar, the place where I met the love of my life.
I smile at Ginger when she whirls around on her barstool, away from a retreating Gavin, and sips from her nearly-empty martini glass. Her eyes are practically glazed she looks so happy.
"Careful. You're going to dilute your martini with drool," I tell her with a grin.
She slurps up some more, oozing vodka from one corner of her still-curved mouth. Delicately, she swipes at it with the tips of her fingers, all lady. But then she licks dirty martini off those very same fingers as she winks at me, all Ginger.
"I've heard it's a punishable offense to waste vodka in Russia," she announces.
"Well if you ever go there, I think you're safe."
She sighs loudly. "The good thing about rocking Gavin's world is that I get to see you more often."
"Is that the only good thing about sleeping with him?"
"God no!" she says with a frown that says I'm being ridiculous, which I knew I was. "My lady parts haven't been this happy since I got my first vibrator."
I giggle when a guy leaning around her to order raises his eyebrows at her. "I got your vibrator," he says with a wide, lascivious smile.
Ginger's mouth drops open. "Seriously? Is that the best you've got?"
"What? You're hot. Something wrong with showing you some interest?"
She slowly swivels away from him, shaking her head before taking another sip of her drink. The guy looks to me in question and I just shrug, moving to fill his order of two gin-and-tonics.
"Keep the change," he says before he walks away, much more subdued than when he arrived.
"Thanks," I say to his back as he disappears into the dense crush of bodies.
I'm ringing up his drinks, tapping my foot to Katy Perry's Dark Horse when I hear the volume level of the crowd drop by a decibel or two. I glance up to see what's going on.
It seems as though everyone notices him at the same time. Like the world got quieter, the air got stiller. I think every single eye in Dual is turned in his direction.
"Holy shit on a stick! Who the hell is that and why the hell do I have to be a faithful woman?" Ginger breathes from the other side of the bar. From my peripheral vision, I can see that her glass paused half way to her mouth, which is currently slightly agape. That's the extent of what I notice about my friend. The rest of my attention, like practically everyone else's, is riveted to the man nearing the center of the room.