Love's Taming(41)
The three friends immediately jumped to her defense, each clambering that she was duped. Finally, Suzanne couldn’t hold it in any longer. “That rat bastard! How dare he do this to you!”
The taxi finally pulled up to the clinic and Leon told him to wait. “Doc are you gonna be okay?” he asked with concern.
“I’m staying with her,” Suzanne announced.
Annie quickly hugged her friend but said, “No, really. I’d rather be alone.”
Shirley chimed in, “Nothing like bein’ alone when you just need a good cry.”
Annie nodded, glad that Shirley understood. She turned to Suzanne, “But thank you. Thank all of you. I just need to have a good cry, pitch a fit, and forget all about him.”
Leon saw her safely in, making sure she set her alarm. “You be strong, doc. You’ll be fine,” he said softly hugging her goodbye. Nodding, she felt the tears wet his shirt before pulling away.
* * *
Shane stared at the woman he had fallen in love with watching him let another woman grind up on him. Jesus, fuck, NO! Before he had a chance to react, she was gone. The desire to run after her warred with the desire to distance himself to keep her safe. I just have to see if she is all right. Pushing Rochelle away from him, he tried to make his way through the crowd, but was hampered by the crush of people. Finally arriving at the doors, he saw Annie and her co-workers in a taxi pulling away from the curb.
Standing outside the club, he hung his head for a moment then turned around quickly and pulled out his cell.
“Matt. Did you call her?”
“Yeah, man. I called her cell from the road after I left you. Why? What’s up?”
“She just showed up with some friends where I’m tryin’ to be visible tonight and just got an eyeful of me with Rocky.”
“Fuck Shane. How is she?”
“How the hell do you think she is? Took one look, then bolted out of the door with her friends. Jesus, Matt. How much more of this shit am I expected to take?”
“Look, I’ll go over tomorrow and talk to her. See if I can make things right. Make her understand.”
“One more week, Matt. That’s all I’m giving.”
“I hear they’ve got evidence against one more man up the chain.”
“Well, they better go for it, ‘cause I’m done with this in a week.” With that, he put his phone back in his pocket and leaned up against the wall. Hearing a noise to his side, he watched as Rochelle walked out to of the bar and over to him.
“You okay,” she asked pressing close.
He moved away as he turned toward her. “Rocky, this is a job, nothin’ else.”
“It used to be more than a job, for both of us,” she said with sadness. “We used to be good.”
“Rocky, we met in shit circumstances. We did what we needed to do to keep our cover and make it work. But you know it was fucked from the start.”
Her eyes flashed pain as she glanced down. “I thought it could’ve been more. I was willing for it to be more.”
“Rocky, you were married. You may not have been happy, but you went under even though you were married. And, I might add, a fact you never shared with me when we were actually fuckin’.”
“Shane, my marriage was over before I volunteered for this job. Maybe not officially, but I wanted out. Meeting you just made that decision more real.”
Shane looked at the beautiful, desperate woman standing in front of him. Gorgeous. Built. Smart. Tough. But no sunshine.
“The bottom line is this. We both used each other for sex. It worked for our cover, but you always knew it was nothin’ but physical for me. Wasn’t ever gonna be anything else. Lookin’ back that was a mistake on my part. I should have kept with the illusion that we were together without us actually hookin’ up. But at the time, the physical won out. But you gotta know…if I had known you were married, I’d a never gone there. That’s on you. You made that call and you gotta live with the fact that your husband left you because of it. And you gotta live with the fact that my heart is somewhere else. Somewhere clean. Somewhere light.”
“The doctor?” she asked softly. “You’re in love with her.”
“Yeah. But she saw us here tonight. Fuckin’ mess. She never goes out clubbin’ and the one night her friends drag her out, she comes here and sees us.”
Rochelle stepped back over to Shane and placed her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for a lot of things.” She looked away for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts. “When this is over, I can go talk to her. Try to explain.”
Shane peered into her eyes, seeing honesty. “Rocky, you think a woman wants another woman to show up on her doorstep and tell her not to worry, it was all just physical? You really think that would make this fucked up shit any better?”