The entire table went silent, and I lifted my head out of my phone and looked straight at Derrick. My mind flashed back to her standing outside on the patio New Year's Eve, feverishly typing away on her phone to someone. Derrick had been the someone, I’d been right, and anger flowed through me as I thought of the look on her face when I'd asked her if everything had been okay.
"Yep, you heard me. She cried and cried about a broken heart, and then I find out she was gallivanting across Europe with some fucking asshole, all smiles and shit."
"How do you know that?" Tom asked, looking to me.
"I had booked a dinner for us the night we were supposed to arrive. I'd given my credit card to hold the reservation, and when I checked my card, I saw the charge on my card. They charged a three-hundred-and-fifty-dollar meal to my card."
I laughed inside while trying to keep a straight face. Served him right.
"You think that's funny, do you?" Derrick asked, looking over at me. "I tell you when I find out who it was, I am going to tear him apart."
Both Tom and Pace looked to me and I to them. Double standards didn’t work well in my books, and I was tired of listening to him. "Derrick, do you need to be reminded that you were the one who walked away from her. What difference does it make to you if she went to Paris with some guy? What did you expect her to do over the holidays, just sit around and mope, waiting for another chance with you, in case Lucy didn't work out?"
He shrugged. "Something like that." He chuckled, the arrogance pouring off him as he sat across from me. "So, if any of you hear who she went with, let me know. I'm going to pay him a visit."
"You are one arrogant fuck!" I gritted while both Tom and Pace sat there, their eyes wide.
"What the fuck is your problem, man?"
"You're my fucking problem." My eyes locked with Derrick as I stood up. I no longer saw a best friend; I saw an enemy. I clenched my fists and held my jaw tight. "You've always thought you could have the best of both worlds, always thought the grass was greener on the other side. Well, wake the fuck up, asshole. You gave her up for a piece of pussy, and by the looks of things, that is exactly what you got. I told you that the night I found you the first time with that slut from your office. I told you not to ruin something amazing, and you begged and pleaded with me not to tell Tess, because you said you knew I was right. So, I did what any best friend would do, and I protected your ass. I took your word, and you still fucked around on her. Now that things aren't going as amazing as they were with your new flavour of the week and you find out that Tess was, apparently, with someone else, you think you have the right to have a say in the matter. Well, wake the hell up because you don't."
"Fuck yourself," Derrick gritted, standing and shoving me in the chest.
I took two steps closer to him, getting up into his face, and looked him square in the eyes. "Is that right? I should go fuck myself?"
"Yeah, you should, and you should also stay the fuck out of my personal life and keep your personal opinions to yourself. I’ve already told you that, but you keep sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong," he said, poking me hard in my chest.
I chuckled under my breath and dropped my eyes to the floor as I thought of how to drop the bomb. I could see Derrick look around the diner, embarrassment written on his face as he noticed people staring at us. He held a high finance position in this town, and this was surely going to reflect badly on his reputation. He looked around at the people who sat in the diner, then held his hands up, smiling. "No need to worry, everyone. We are sorry. Just two old buddies going at it. It's all fine."
I looked up to see that he was no longer paying attention to me but looking and smiling at the few patrons of the diner who sat whispering to one another as they watched us. I brought my finger up and tapped him on the shoulder and waited until he turned to face me. Then I leaned into his ear and dropped the bomb.
"I have no problem staying out of your life. It's never been clearer to me exactly what kind of man you are, but I think you should know, if you want to have a round at the guy who went with Tess, let me know. I'll gladly tell you who it was."
Derrick blinked hard. "You know?” He took a moment to let the fact sink in that I knew who it was and hadn’t told him. Then he cleared his throat. “Who was it?"
I looked at him a smirk coming to my face. "You're fucking looking at him," I growled, opening my arms wide.
“You?” he stammered. “How dare you!”
“How dare I what?” I yelled, getting up into his face.
Everyone in the diner froze as we stood eye-to-eye, neither of us backing down from one another. That was when my memory flashed back to us standing in the high school cafeteria in this exact position. We'd beaten the shit out of each other over a girl, only to both be turned down by the same girl a month later, and at that point, we had vowed never again to fight over another woman. Yet, somehow, almost fifteen years later, we stood in the same position. Only this time, it was different. The girl we were fighting over, I was in love with, and I was fully prepared to take the punch I was waiting for him to deliver. However, the punch never came. Instead, he turned and ripped his coat off the hook on the side of the booth and stormed out of the diner.
Tess
I studied the menu in front of me, trying to decide between either the southwest chicken salad or a green salad with salmon, while Laura finished her phone call with a new client. I'd just closed the menu and taken a sip of my wine when she tucked her phone into her purse. "So sorry about that. I knew I shouldn't have answered the call. Did you decide on something?"
"Think I'm going with the chicken," I said, putting my wine down and opening the menu again. "Or perhaps the pasta."
Laura laughed at my indecisiveness and quickly decided, closing her menu. "Okay now, I want to hear all about this trip. I've been bloody well dying."
I giggled. "Well, who on earth goes on a business trip two days after the new year for a week? You should have been home."
"Hey, in my defence, it was supposed to be John who went. He had a family emergency, so I had to be a good co-worker and step up. Plus, it’s one of the biggest accounts I've worked on, so the opportunity that it presented was way too good to pass up."
"So, things are going well then at this firm. That makes me happy. You deserve it. You've worked so hard." I smiled, taking another sip of wine.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. All right, so spill it. How was Paris?"
"It was absolutely breathtaking," I said, smiling. "Best decision I ever made was to take that trip, regardless of what happened between Derrick and me. I am so glad that you talked me into it."
"Aren’t that what friends are for? To talk you into doing the things you don't really want to do but know you should do them?" Laura laughed.
"Can you not take a compliment?" I laughed. "That's it, I will not say anything else."
"Well, you are! Now, what about the food? Was it amazing?"
"Unbelievable. My God, the deserts were out of this world. Seriously, I am surprised I didn't gain a hundred pounds while I was gone," I said, picking up a slice of bread from the basket and ripping a piece off. "I honestly think it was the best part of every meal."