"Jack, I have made it very clear where I stand with you. I've never played coy. And no, I can't give you a time line as to when I might feel differently," I shouted at him as I pointed, actually shook, my finger at him before he had the chance to say the most predictable of questions.
Jack was my ex-husband. What were he and I doing not only in the same time zone but the same zip code? The answer was very simple.
We had agreed to put aside hostilities for one night and show our youngest daughter support at an art show wherein all the monies raised would go to cancer research. The cause was very near and dear to all of our hearts as our darling Elizabeth had passed just a few months earlier.
From the moment that Jack and I laid eyes on each other that afternoon, I could tell there was going to be trouble.
Unfortunately for the world at large my ex-husband's asshole ways had come to envelop every member of our family throughout the day; a daughter, her girlfriend, a widowed son-in-law, and two grandchildren. There was no other way to put it other than he put a damper on the night's festivities and embarrassed my youngest.
The combination of arrogance, personified in my husband who was a classic case of a narcissistic personality, and alcohol had turned a potential problem into a headache for us all. Especially for me.
Putting the two of us in the same room after what was a messy divorce and the ten-plus years since I gave him back his ring and told him to stick it was a bad idea.
Apparently someone forgot to tell him that I, in particular, didn't need to hear his opinion on anything. He successfully turned the night into a tense series of encounters with every member of the family, the many friends in attendance, and spouted off his egocentric views on everything from career choices to certain life choices others had made.
As the night wore on, his behavior became more touchy feely with me. Uncomfortable was putting it mildly. When the night ended, everyone left together as Melanie (my youngest) locked up. She and her girlfriend dropped me off at my apartment and Jack got out and followed me into the lobby.
I waved the family off. I would handle this situation if it got out of hand. As they pulled off, I pulled the wrap I wore tighter around my neck. Taking a deep breath, I rolled my eyes as I watched Jack's drunk ass saunter to me.
He made a few cat calls and made a few references that he was going to show me what I had been missing. I told him to shut up and take a cab. I laughed to myself as I tried to understand exactly what he was thinking about and how he could possibly think things were going to go in any way that might see him step into my place.
Wasn't going to happen.
I have always wondered what was it that about black-tie affairs that made a man think he was going to get lucky afterwards? I might have been an idiot to try and coexist with him for the family's sake this evening but the fact remains he is my ex-husband and well, there was a reason the marriage ended. I wasn't the slightest bit attracted to him.
Jack was a bad idea.
The kind of idea that sounded great in theory. Time had proved that the actual application of that idea was mired in the same type of bad ideas that would see a coach call a goal-line pass in the Super Bowl instead of handing it off to one of the league's premier running backs. Surprised I know football?
Don't be.
Everyone watches the Super Bowl and even I know you hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch.
Despite the fact that I was trying to use my phone to call him a cab and that I had shown no interest in him whatsoever, he had gotten the idea I was playing hard to get. After a night wherein he acted as King of the Ass Clowns and insulted our entire family. He was going to follow me up to my room and continue to be an ass while trying to get down my pants.
Not going to happen.
I wondered if the impressive physical specimen down the hall from my place might "jack" him up a little bit. He was a bouncer at a local night club. My thoughts turned to touching those massive biceps and licking them. Then my thoughts ran towards doing the same to the hottie whose name was Robbie and lived on the fourth floor. Only I would lick that delicious man's entire body.
I felt my breath catch in my throat before I was snapped back to reality.
When the words I "needed to jump down off my pedestal" was spoken by Jack, I widened my eyes at the statement but also because he had the nerve to put his hands on my shoulders. When I took his hands off of me, he put them back and pushed me back, sandwiching me between the elevator door and his body. I twisted my face away when he made the attempt to actually kiss me. I thought I was going to throw up.
I told him to stop it. Insisted on it as nicely as I could. When he brushed away my wrap on the way to planting a kiss on top of my breast, my knee rose instinctively.
Ronda Rousey would have been proud.
He keeled over in pain. I've been told that getting kicked in the balls is a lot like a straight drop from seventeen floors up. If that is so, he deserved a lot worse.
"That hurt, you fucking bitch", he spat as he tried to catch his breath. When he stood up, I delivered a kidney shot. He staggered backwards but it was the punch that came out of nowhere that floored him and stunned me.
I barely had time to register the shadow that came from the corner of my eye before Jack cried out and winced from the fetal position on the ground. Grabbing his ear with one hand, I imagine it was to ensure that it was still attached to his head. Lord knows that the blood beginning to cascade down his cheek had made me wonder.
"Get. Out. Of. Here" a deep voice loomed from over my shoulder.
As he came into my line of sight, I was aware of Robbie from his cologne just moments after his fist smashed into Jack's head. That tone was one of annoyance and it rang of distaste. He would later tell me that he acted because he was like a dog pawing at my body without consent.
In a scene that involved me in a ball gown and my ex in a tuxedo it was my savior's attire that stood out like a sore thumb.
The tone of his voice and a cold right first weren't the only things striking.
Six foot, two.
Deeply hewed blue eyes. Blonde hair and neatly cut. Darkly tanned. Wearing nothing but a pair of Wranglers. It didn't leave much to my very vivid imagination. My very own blond Adrian Paul.
Without the scotch accent. This one had a very distinct Midwestern drawl. Educated.
I blinked it all in. I breathed in his spicy male scent and wanted to draw my finger nails down his back. Hell, it wasn't the first time that my mind had strayed to perverseness. Sure wouldn't be the last.
The previous two times I had seen Robert, or Robbie, as he instructed me to call him when he moved in a few months prior to the events of this night, my mind had certainly entertained the thought of, well, entertaining him.
The thought of him naked, at any time, several floors below me made me wet.
I forced my eyes away from this spectacle of a man when I heard Jack speak.
"Who the hell do you think you are to tell me that I need to leave?" Jack sputtered as he staggered to his feet and took several drunken steps back down into the lobby.
The gladiator who now stood at my side never spoke a word. He rolled his shoulders and the sound of them cracking echoed in the empty lobby.
I thought to myself that this is the guy who is going to kick your ass into a pulp if you don't leave now.
"Just go, Jack." I managed to say quite shakily, "Please."
I wasn't sure if the shakiness in my voice was from nerves or desire.
Maybe both.