Narrowing her eyes, Rebecca planted her hands on her hips and glowered at me. “It’s bad enough that you don’t have any respect for your own relationship, but you could have spared a thought for Danielle’s!”
“What relationship?” Joey demanded, throwing his hands up. “Because she sure as shit isn’t in one with me!”
“Oh Joey,” Danielle sobbed, pressing a hand to her chest. “How could you?“
“No, no, no, don’t go there. Don’t give me that oh, Joey, how could you bullshit,” he snapped, shaking his head. “I told you, Danielle, I fucking told you that I wasn’t interested in anything serious. I told you that it was a one-time thing and you said that you were fine with it!”
“A one-time thing?” She glared at him. “Have you forgotten about the other couple of dozen times?”
Ouch.
“Don’t give me that shit,” Joey was quick to counter. “I laid it all out for you, said I wasn’t interested in anything more than one night, and you said that you agreed with me.”
“Well, I lied,” she cried out.
“Well, I didn’t!” Clearly frustrated, Joey ran a hand through his soaked hair and hissed, “You came on to me, remember? You propositioned me, and I made my intentions perfectly clear. You knew that I was out of mind that night. You knew I was unavailable. I was up fucking front with you, Dan, so these tears you’re spilling are not on me.”
“Have a heart, Joey,” Rebecca snapped when her friend cried harder. “The girl has feelings for you.”
“Then tell her to stop having feelings for me!” Releasing a frustrated growl, he pointed a finger at Danielle and hissed, “You promised you wouldn’t do this.”
“I know, but—”
“No buts,” he snapped. “And no promises, either. I’m a free agent.”
“You might be,” Danielle spat, pointing a finger in my direction. “But she’s not.”
“What she is or isn’t hasn’t got a damn thing to do with either one of you,” Joey sneered in a menacing tone. “So, why don’t you both turn around and walk your asses out of here before this gets messier than it needs to.”
“Who are you calling?” I blurted out, attention flicking to Rebecca, who had her phone pressed to her ear, expression smug.
“Hi, Paul, yeah, it’s me Becks.”
My eyes widened.
“Yeah, so, I’m up Elk’s Terrace, and I thought you should that I just saw your girlfriend, Aoife, with Joey Lynch.”
Oh god, oh god.
“Uh-huh, that’s right. Yeah, I legit just saw them scoring with each other.”
“Jesus Christ,” Joey groaned under his breath.
My mouth fell open. “What a bitch.”
“Yeah, I swear,” Rebecca said, grinning deviously. “No, I’m not lying. She was wrapped around him like ivy.”
“Ugh.” I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. It felt like my rolling stomach had fallen out of my ass, as I listened on helplessly.
What could I do?
Not deny it, that’s for sure.
I’d been caught red-handed.
I planned on owning up to Paul anyway, and it would have sounded a hell of a lot better coming from my mouth than hers.
Yeah, because the instant Joey Lynch reciprocated my kiss, my feelings, I knew there was no going back to pretending.
“Oh my god, Joe,” I groaned, screaming on the inside, as the realization of what I had done suddenly dawned on me. “I’m my father.”
“What are you talking about, Molloy?”
“Dad,” I choked out. “I’m him.” I looked at Joey. “He’s a cheater, I’m a cheater!” I threw my hands up in dismay. “We’re both cheating apples from the same cheating tree. Ugh,” I muttered, thoroughly distressed. “And now I’m no better than he is.”
“Relax,” Joey attempted to comfort me by saying, tone gruff. “It was a kiss, not an affair, Molloy. You’re nothing like your father.”
“Affair?” I stared at him, unblinking. “What do you mean affair?”
He shrugged, clearly uncomfortable.
“Oh my god, you know, don’t you?” I sucked in a sharp breath as my brain quickly twigged. “About the other women? What he gets up to? You know about my dad’s affairs?”
Joey didn’t respond, but he didn’t deny it either.
“You knew?” I shook my head. “You’ve always known? And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“It’s not my business,” he finally said, jaw clenched tight from the obvious tension that was emanating from him. Catching ahold of my arm, he led me slightly away from the girls before he continued speaking. “I work with the man. I’m not his keeper and I’m not your spy, either. I don’t get involved in shit that doesn’t concern me.”
The rain was beating down on us, plastering his halo of dirty blond hair to his forehead as rain drops trickled from his brow to his nose and then his lips. Yet still, he remained absolutely rigid, eyes locked on mine.
“Don’t make it more than it is, Molloy,” he said in a heated tone. “It’s an omission, not a betrayal.”
“Well, it feels like one,” I strangled out, looking up at him. “I feel betrayed.”
Emotion flashed in his eyes before he quickly schooled his features. “Tony gave me a job, took a chance on me when nobody else would. My loyalties have always been with your father, not your mother.”
“What about your loyalties to me?” I pushed the boat out by asking.
His jaw ticked. “That’s not fair.”
“What about me, Joe?”
“Molloy—“
“Oh my god, are you two having your first fight?” Rebecca interjected with a laugh. “Priceless. That didn’t take long.”
It was at that exact moment in time that a familiar blue Toyota Starlet came speeding up the street towards us.
Brakes screeching loudly, I watched as the passenger door flew open and Paul climbed out of his brother Billy’s car.
Lovely.
Just fecking lovely.
“Is it true?” he roared, red-faced and raging, as he marched towards me. “Did you fuck her?”
“What” Gaping, I shook my head. “No, I didn’t sleep with anyone, calm down.” Hurrying over to intercept him before anything happened, I placed a hand on his chest. “Paul, please, if you just give me a second to explain—“
My words broke off when he literally shoved me out of his way, in his bid to reach my partner in this particular crime, intent on one thing only, evoking violence.
“You just couldn’t leave her alone, could ya?” Paul roared, going chest to chest with his nemesis. “You had to have her. You had to mark her off your list.”
“List?” Laughing darkly, Joey met his challenge head on, shoving him back with his chest. “The fuck are you talking about?”
“You had no right to touch her.” Rearing an arm back, Paul punched Joey in the face. “You had no goddamn right.”
Joey’s head twisted sideways, and I held my breath, almost afraid to see what he would do in retaliation.
I didn’t have to hold that particular breath for long, because in the blink of an eye, Joey had Paul speared to the road.
“Newsflash, asshole, your girlfriend kissed me,” Joey snarled, pouncing on Paul like a lion would a gazelle, as his fists rained down on his face.
“Shut up, Joey,” I groaned, dropping my head in my hands. “God.”
“The truth hurts, Molloy,” Joey seethed, laying into Paul. “Yeah, that’s right, prick. Your girl over there made the first move.”
“And let me guess; you weren’t interested?” Paul roared back at him.
“Have you seen your girl?” Joey taunted. “Of course, I was interested. In fact, I was very fucking interested. Still am.”
“Joey, stop taunting him – Billy, don’t you dare!” I warned, only to curse in frustration when Paul’s brother ignored me entirely and jumped into the fray.
“Get off my brother, ya dirty junkie—“ Grabbing ahold of the back of Joey’s t-shirt, Billy dragged him off Paul before knocking him to the ground and driving his boot into Joey’s stomach.
Repeatedly.
Over and over.
Jesus.
“Oh my god, stop!” Danielle screamed, covering her face with her hands.
“Are you happy now?” I demanded, glaring at both girls, who were watching on in horror. “Look what you’ve done!”
“What you’ve done,” Rebecca choked out shakily. “This is your fault, Aoife. This is all on you.”
“Yeah,” Danielle sobbed. “Look at what you’ve done!”
Yeah, I thought to myself, as I raced over to break up the fight, I know.