Page 9 of Other Woman Drama (Content Advisory #4)

Eight

You go ahead. I’m going to dilly dally.

— Text from Silver to Aella

SILVER

He was there, with her , again.

I hated her.

I wanted her to swallow a three-pointed tortilla chip and have it slit her throat open from the inside.

I wanted to watch her bleed out and do nothing.

Hell, my luck, Webber would just give her the Heimlich and save her life and she’d be so grateful that she’d drop down to her knees and offer him the world.

He’d probably take it, too, because he was a jerk face.

A sexy jerk face.

He was wearing his standard lineup today, though he was in a cutoff shirt this time and jeans that were so damn dirty that it showed he was working right up until he came here.

He had grease smudges on his arms, a dark smudge on his face, and a backward-facing ball cap on his head.

It was covering his magnificent, wavy salt-and-pepper hair, and his eyes were alight with life.

So. Fucking. Sexy?—

I looked away quickly before he could catch me staring and my gaze clashed with Gunner’s.

“What?” I asked innocently, batting my eyes to add to the effect.

Gunner’s gaze dropped down to my chest, then went back up to my face. “Nice shirt.”

I flushed slightly.

It was an old shirt.

I’d gotten it in high school from Aella.

She’d bought it for my—our—birthday for me.

“I got it for her,” Aella said with a snicker. “Honestly, I’m surprised she still has it, though.”

I looked down at the shirt.

It was fairly innocent.

It read: I love mustaches.

“You bought it for me when I had nothing,” I said. “I’m never throwing it away.”

Aella smiled softly at me and said, “Love you, sissy.”

“I love you back, sissy.”

“Is there some hidden meaning behind it?” Keely asked curiously.

I touched it and laughed.

Aella laughed right along with me.

“She sucks really, really bad at Monopoly. As in, bankrupt in five rounds sucks,” Aella said. “Which made her hate the game of Monopoly. She refuses to play it even to this day. So I jokingly got it for her because the mustache looks like the guy’s mustache off of Monopoly.”

“Wore it every day for a year when I went to sleep. I refused to wear it out, though, because I didn’t want it to get dirty,” I explained. “It’s one of my favorite shirts.”

“I can tell it’s well-worn and loved.” Keely touched the sleeve.

Keely’s daughter, Mila, chose that second to make a reach for her mother’s hot sauce.

We all reached for it, but she was faster and yanked it to herself.

My hand that’d come out was enough to deter her from dumping it on herself, but not enough to deter her from dumping it on me.

I laughed as the cold sauce slid down my arm and dripped to my leg.

Luckily none had gotten on my clothing.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Keely apologized.

I could do nothing but giggle. “Gotta love kids, huh? I’ll be right back. Gonna go to the bathroom and wash this off.”

I got up and headed to the bathroom, salsa sliding from my thigh to my ankle by the time I arrived.

I hurried to the sink, aware that there were other people in the bathroom stalls behind me, but didn’t pay them any mind as I got to work on the salsa the best I could with the tiny sink and no paper towels.

I hated when restaurants didn’t have paper towels.

I hated it so much that I went to the stall and used the toilet paper to dry off.

Which was why I was half-hidden when she came in.

I heard her voice almost instantly and groaned.

Thinking this was a good time to close the stall door, I did, then leaned against it with both forearms as I listened to her ugly voice as she talked to someone on the phone.

“No, he got all pissy with me again,” I heard Devney say. “I mean seriously, if he liked me even a little, he’d be more than willing to go vegetarian for me. We’ve been together for three months. What is it going to take?”

The bathroom door opened and I let out a sigh of relief when I heard Searcy say, “Seriously, move. Why are you taking up so much space?”

I had to giggle.

“Sorry,” Devney snarled.

I loved Searcy so much.

Searcy walked past, and I saw her Crocs stroll past the stall door.

“I gotta go. Searcy is in here now.”

Meaning, she couldn’t talk shit about Webber now that she knew Searcy was in here.

“No.” Devney lowered her voice. “I’ll try to convince him with a blow job tonight. Maybe he’ll agree to do it then.”

That made me physically sick.

I sat down on the toilet as nausea rolled through me.

Just the thought of her doing that to Webber…

It made me want to cry.

Searcy flushed and came out of the toilet beside me.

“Nice Crocs,” Devney said.

“Ugly face,” Searcy said.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Devney asked.

“Because you’re a two-faced bitch and I don’t like you,” Searcy said. “Webber might be thinkin’ with his dick right now because you have a tight snatch and big tits, but he’ll eventually see you for the worm that you are and leave you. You should start counting your days now.”

“Fuck you. You don’t even know me,” Devney said.

“I know him. I also know that he may not admit it to himself, but he has a huge thing for Silver. You’re only a placeholder until he can figure out how to keep her without having to deal with her father,” Searcy shot back.

“He does not like Silver.” Devney snorted.

“Watch them,” she said as her voice started to drift farther away.

The door opened and closed, and I assumed Searcy left.

There was a short, frustrated growl, then the door opened and closed again.

I waited for another couple of minutes, then headed out myself.

I purposefully went down the length of the table that would have me squeezing behind Webber, Devney, Searcy, and Dima before I got to my seat.

Everyone scooted up but Webber.

Instead, he got up and pushed his chair in, then turned slightly so that his front was facing my front as I came passed.

“’Scuse me,” I murmured.

“You’re okay, girl,” he murmured back. “Heading to the bathroom myself.”

I smiled and felt warm tingles spread through me.

“You have a little grease on your face.” I pointed to his chin.

Our eyes met and held for a few long seconds, then Devney was interrupting. “Seriously, I can’t breathe over here I’m so close to the table. Would you hurry up and go past?”

I moved but kept my eyes on Webber’s as I got past Devney and Dima.

I sat down and saw Searcy’s smug look toward Devney.

Even better, when Webber got back from the bathroom, he came up to our end of the table and stood beside Jasper’s chair to talk.

“You missed that spot I pointed out,” I teased, touching my own neck where his was located.

“Damn, I thought I got it,” he said as he touched his neck.

“Sorry, bro, but you’re just adding to it. Your shirt’s just as dirty as your neck now.” Jasper laughed.

Webber sighed. “Didn’t have time to change before I came. Been a long day at work. I have a project car that’s due for the auction in Philly next month, and I’m not finished with it yet.”

“Oh, what are you working on?”

I listened avidly as he explained about the first-generation Corvette he’d found and what kind of work he’d put into it.

I was watching him so avidly that I saw the moment he jerked forward.

Frowning in surprise, I turned and saw Devney push her way beside him, which had nearly knocked him off balance.

His quick move to the side had me also spying another familiar face in the crowd.

Moran.

“Webber,” I said when he was about to open his mouth and light into Devney for her rudeness.

His eyes came to me. “Yeah?”

I jerked my chin in the direction of Moran. “We have company.”

His eyes followed mine and his mouth thinned.

Yep, he’d spotted her.

“She’s been following me around for a solid week now,” he grumbled.

“Us, too.” Gunner was fully turned in his seat. “She was at the school looking like a complete freak when I was working with Dallas ISD yesterday.”

Gunner worked for Angel Security.

He was the man schools called to make sure they were safe from armed gunmen and intruders.

The why behind his story was tragic and sad.

Gunner’s son, Jett, had passed away during a school shooting when Jett was four years old.

Gunner, a star baseball player at the time, had moved on with his life. Though, he’d done it only living half a life.

He’d gone on to play in the majors and had spent quite a few years playing. But something had always been missing for Gunner.

Then he’d founded Angel Security and had made it his life’s mission to make schools a safer place for their precious cargo.

He’d created one hell of a business and traveled all over the United States fixing schools’ security.

“Was hoping she’d just disappear quietly,” Webber grumbled.

I reluctantly moved to my seat but did it with the very real knowledge that there were now two sets of eyes on me that wanted to kill me.

Both maybe quite literally.

The rest of the night went smoothly.

I managed to keep my eyes off of Webber for the most part and had a great time.

Sadly, work called, and I didn’t have the choice but to get out of there before anyone else.

“I have to go to work,” I grumbled, standing up.

My shirt ended up getting caught up under my boobs, causing the shirt to ride up as I slung my purse over my shoulder.

Which was why there was a very angrily growled, “What the fuck is that?”

I frowned and looked over at Webber, who was now standing.

“What?” I asked, absently pulling down my shirt.

He reached over Dima’s shoulder since Dima was blocking his way to me and tugged up the tail of my shirt again, revealing the bruise I was sporting on my belly.

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t know. I just had it when I woke up one morning. I think it might’ve been the day I got into that squabble with the officer over there,” I explained.

Webber dropped his hand and glared. “She hurt you?”

I shrugged. “I bruise easily.”

I also blushed easily, and I was doing that in front of the entire table of twenty-two.

“Okay,” he stepped back, his eyes angry as hell.

There was a throat clearing and then Devney said, “Let her get to work or she’ll be late.”