Page 102 of Aaron's Patience

“What’s going on, Aaron?” I sat up, covering myself with my blanket.

“Don’t move from this bed,” was all he said before heading out the bedroom door, shutting it behind him.

I continued to hear a woman’s voice yelling and banging at the front door. It stopped and I could hear Aaron’s voice though he spoke in more hushed tones. The woman sounded irate and she kept referencing someone as a whore. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I grabbed the button-up shirt Aaron wore the day before, using it to cover myself. I exited my bedroom and proceeded down the hall to find Aaron glaring at a woman. All I could see was the bottom half of her, as Aaron held his arm up, shielding her from looking inside.

“Who’s this?” I asked, startling the both of them from their heated conversation.

“This is her?” she shrieked, pushing Aaron out of the way and stepping inside of my apartment. “How cute. She’s even wearing your shirt. Whore!” she yelled in my direction.

“Excuse you? I don’t know who the hell you think you’re talking to, but it sure as hell isn’t me!”

“Who else would I be talking to, bitch? You’re the whore sleeping with my fiancé!”

Her hurled words slapped me across the face.

“Don’t try to play Miss Innocent, bitch! You knew what you were doing!”

“Alicia, that’s enough!” Aaron roared, yanking her by the arm away from me, toward the door.

“Aaron, what is she talking about? Aaron!” I yelled when he didn’t answer me at first.

“Now she’s playing the hurt act.” Alicia began clapping condescendingly. “Bravo, sister! And the Academy Award goes to–”

“I said that’s e-fucking-nough!” Aaron shouted, punching the wall next to where she stood.

His outburst silenced her immediately, but my head still swirled. A fiancée? That couldn’t be right.

“Go home. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Home?” Alicia and I shouted at the same time. He shared a home with this woman?

“I just came from home and your father calling incessantly when he couldn’t get in contact with you all night.” She turned her eyes on me. “Now I know why.”

“Why was my father calling you?”

“Because the Japan deal is going south and you’re nowhere to be found.”

My eyes volleyed between the two. I had a million questions but was rendered speechless. I was zoning in and out but I heard Alicia say something about a Japanese client pulling out because they deemed another service superior to Townsend’s. His father had been trying to contact him all night.

“Your plane leaves for Tokyo in three hours.”

“Fuck!” Aaron grunted. “Leave.”

“Aaron, what ab–”

“I said leave. Don’t ever fucking come back here again.” He pushed her out the door, slamming it in her face.

I peered up to see him rushing past me to the bedroom. I was jolted into action, finally pissed enough to speak.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded, bursting into my bedroom to see Aaron gathering his clothing. “Aaron, look at me, dammit!”

He stopped, doing as I’d asked. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? For having a fucking fiancée?”

He jaw clamped shut. “It’s not like–”

“Not like what?”