It was a Friday night, me and my fiance were sitting in a local bar. Chloe looked beautiful, as ever, her red dress hugging her curves, her long legs folded elegantly, her long curled black hair flowing down her back. I loved her, hopelessly. She spoke and snapped me out of my gooey-eyed trance.
"Tom, get me another drink will you?", she smiled at me, bright red lips wrapped around her straw, finishing her gin and tonic.
"Yeah sure", standing up and patting myself to find my wallet in my pocket. I smiled back at her and walked toward the bar.
I had often been told that she was out of my league, and I fully believed it. I was skinny, tall, but lanky, an average haircut that I never thought too much about, glasses with a strong prescription. I never thought I was bad looking, but she was gorgeous, and I was not. I was the luckiest man in the world.
"A double gin and tonic and a pint of that IPA please", I said to the bartender. I scanned my card, and turned with the drinks in hand. A man hovered around our table, stocky, dressed in a nice suit, Chloe was laughing gently at something he must have said. As I walked over, the man returned to his group of friends, who laughed and patted him on the back and he joined them.
I sat down in silence, handing Chloe her drink. After a moment, I spoke.
"What that guy want then?", gesturing toward him with my eyes.
"Oh, just another one of those creeps you know. Just wanted to say hello I think."
"Oh right, fair enough, taken a fancy to him then have you?" I chortled.
"So jealous Tom, lighten up." Chloe started scrolling through her phone. I sat and looked around the room, I met the man's gaze, only for a moment. He was handsome, must have been about 50, I thought, not my type, but obviously good looking. I looked back at Chloe, her face lit up by the screen.
I cleared my throat.
"Come on, this is our one big night of the week, stick your phone in your bag will you?" Chloe sighed, almost sarcastically.
"Jesus Tom give me a second." Her nails tapped against the screen. I sighed and looked around the room again.
Chloe finally put her phone away, picked up her glass, and held it toward me.
"Cheers", she said.
"Cheers", I returned, and we clinked our glasses.
Hours rolled by, me and Chloe talked about all sorts, as usual. How we met, our first date, her proposing to me, our friends, our time at uni, moving me out of my friends flat to our first place together. We drank, heavily, as usual.
The clock approached midnight, and I staggered toward the toilets, leaving Chloe with a playful smile. I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky I was, it was nights like these, with her all dolled up, that my heart wouldn't stop jumping every time I met her eyes.
I opened the toilet door to return to the bar, and the man this time was sat down, in my seat, laughing loudly with Chloe. My heart sank, a little bit, I was jealous, I knew that, and alcohol tended to make me a bit emotional. I decided to go and hover by the bar for a while.
I ordered a whiskey on the rocks for myself, sipping it slowly, occasionally glancing over at them. The man had placed his hand on her thigh, I turned back around, face red. I waited another five minutes, then turned around again. They had moved closer to each other. I decided to walk back over to the table, taking a deep breath. Chloe looked up at me.
"Hi Tom, this is Alan." He extended his hand out toward me. I shook it and smiled at him. I turned around and pulled a chair from another table.
"Do you wanna go out for a cigarette?" Chloe said to me.
"Yeah sure." I said, relieved to get away from the situation. We walked out the door and into the cold night air. I pulled out two cigarettes and a lighter, which Chloe took from my hand. She lit her cigarette, then I lit mine.
We stood in silence for a moment. Chloe started to speak.
"I'm going to ask you something, and I don't want you to freak out." I turned toward her, uncertain of what she was going to say, but with a horrible feeling that I knew.
