Jordie was shaking his head. “I was fucked up back then. I’m not that guy anymore, you know that.”
“Sure, but I helped you. I was there for you when she wasn’t,” she said, pointing at Kacey. “Who talked you through her losing her shit on you because she lost your baby so long ago? Not her, but me!”
Oh. Oh wow, Kacey thought as she slowly scooted out of the booth.
“Because you are my friend, Natasha!” Jordie yelled, his temper getting the best of him, but he must have noticed Kacey moving because he reached out, taking her arm. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, leaving, so you and your friend can catch up,” she sneered, but he wouldn’t let her go.
“No, she’s leaving,” he said, looking back up at Natasha. “Go, you’re doing nothing but causing issues.”
“Oh, what, I’m going to make your precious Kacey cry? If she meant an ounce to you, you wouldn’t have tried to forget her every second you got.”
Kacey hadn’t even realized that she was on the verge of tears until Natasha said that.
“That’s not true, and you know it. Stop this. Kacey, stay here,” he demanded, but she shook her head before ripping her arm from him.
“Don’t push me away now that I’m telling the truth.”
“You aren’t. You’re trying to cause problems because you don’t like not getting what you want. You aren’t going to get me, Natasha. Just stop.”
“You never told me to stop before.”
“Because I, for one, was a fucked-up mess, and, two, I wasn’t with Kacey.”
“Yes, key words ‘not with her.’ And you were good then,” she said and Kacey wasn’t sure if Natasha was trying to convince herself or Jordie, but she was pretty sure that was a damn lie.
“Are you serious? I had one foot in the grave with a bottle in my hand, and I must have been pretty fucked up to have dealt with you for as long as I did. Because now that I am stone-cold sober, you are fucking annoying.”
Oh, there went his temper.
“I can’t even believe I’m wasting my time on you,” she sneered as Kacey stood, fixing her shirt over her belly until Natasha started laughing. “Oh my God, you knocked her up?” she laughed. “Really, Jordie? What, you are going to be a husband and a daddy now? Do you really think you are ready for that?”
“Um, yeah,” Jordie snapped. “This is what I’ve always wanted.”
“Well, you’re doing it with the wrong person, that’s for damn sure. Because if she’s the one who drove you to drinking before, don’t you think she’d do it again?”
Kacey didn’t know what came over her. All she saw was rage, her heart pounding, her blood boiling as her arm just pulled back and her fist connected with the hard surface of Natasha’s nose. Underneath her knuckles, she could feel bones crack, but then she swore everything went black because surely she didn’t just hit Jordie’s ex-lover.
“Holy shit,” Jordie yelled before hopping up and blocking Kacey as Natasha tried to go after her.
“You stupid bitch, you broke my nose!”
“Damn right, I did! I would never do that to him, you stupid slut. Because, unlike you, I mean more than just a fuck. I’m a lifetime kind of chick, the one he is going to love forever, while he didn’t even mention you!” Kacey screamed as the waitress and two other waiters came over to see the commotion.
“Se?or, we need you to leave before we call the cops,” one of the men said, but all Kacey saw was the blood running down Natasha’s lips as she held her nose. Kacey felt like everything was moving at high-speed. Her heart was pounding, her body was shaking, and she felt like she was a rabid dog locked in a cage. The cage being Jordie’s arms.
“Call them! I’m filing a report against this bitch!” Natasha yelled, but Jordie was throwing money on the table before escorting Kacey out of the restaurant. When the chill of the November night hit her in the face, she wished it would cool her down, but she still wanted to go in there and rip that bitch limb from limb.