Page 44 of Claiming What's His

Nat ordered shots and an array of other beverages I’d never heard of before and then the guys ordered some others with enough food to feed the entire restaurant. When she looked at me for my order Mav answered for me. “I’ll have a Johnnie Walker, neat. And she’ll have a glass of your top Cabernet. Thank you.” He said, handing her the menus. “Put all of this on my tab please.”

“Of course Mr. Jones.” The woman said, nearly drooling at his commands before running away to do his bidding.

He looked over at me and raised his eyebrow at me, like he was waiting for me to argue with his decision to order for me but instead I just leaned back in and kissed him softly. “Thank you.” I said, when I pulled back.

He watched me closely for a beat, and then smiled. “You’re welcome.”

The guys pulled Maverick into a conversation about mergers and businesses that meant nothing to me, so I ended up chatting with Nat. Turns out she lived not too far away from here with two roommates and had been working at Halo for a year, hoping to climb the ladder and get out of the reception area.

She had applied for my job but didn’t get it and I was glad she didn’t hold that against me personally. By the time our food was delivered, Nat and Reid were close to sloppy drunk, and Dexter was checking his watch like he wanted to be anywhere else but here. Declan and Carter were captivated with Nat and the other women that had at some point joined our table and were chatting with the guys like they were old time friends.

Mav’s phone went off and he looked at it before standing up and kissing my forehead. “I’ve got to take this. I’ll be right over there.” He said, nodding to the sidewalk outside of the patio, away from the noise of the restaurant and guests.

After he walked away another woman joined our group and hugged some of the women while looking over at Mav. She was our age, maybe a bit older but it was hard to tell thanks to her incredible Asian heritage. She had beautiful long black hair and exotic features and a killer body in a white silk shirt and pencil skirt. Her top was unbuttoned low, exposing her small chest but she flaunted it like she knew exactly how attractive she was.

She walked over and sat down in the seat that Maverick had vacated and picked up his drink and took a sip. I felt myself balk at her boldness but decided not to make a scene about it until I knew more about the woman, choosing to enjoy my food silently and instead grabbed our waitress’ arm as she passed and ordered him a fresh one. I caught a look from Reid as he looked between the two of us with a worried look on his face. He started to say something but the woman next to me interrupted him.

“How’s our boy, Reid?” She asked, leaning forward, and shaking her hair over her shoulder.

Reid once again looked from her to me and looked uncomfortable. Dexter, Declan, and Carter chose then to pay attention too and all three nearly recoiled when they saw us sitting next to each other. And that was when it clicked to me.

This woman was someone that Maverick dated.

One of the three.

“Uh- he’s good. Really good actually.” Reid said, passing me a tequila shot across the table.

Nat eyed me as the woman drank off Mav’s drink again.

“Is that so?” She asked with a seductive voice, looking over to where Mav stood with his back against the railing, looking out over the street on the phone. “He looks good, that’s for sure.”

I downed the tequila, not even bothering with the salt or the lime and then took another right after. It was about to get awkward as hell and I didn’t want to get into it right now. I had been enjoying my night, but it was about to go down the drains. It was incredibly uncharted territory for me. We were never supposed to have other people in our lives, we were supposed to be each other’s only, but fate had stolen that from us.

Reid smirked at me, knowing I had filled in the blanks and decided to make things interesting. “Sue, have you met Cora?”

He said, nodding to me where I sat next to her. She flicked her eyes over to me, almost dismissively and shook her head before sticking her limp, uninterested hand out in greeting. “Sue Lin.”

I eyed her hand and chose to dismiss her right back, keeping my hands in my lap and raised my eyebrow at her.

She dropped her hand as anger quickly flooded her eyes while Reid snorted and Nat laughed out loud, nearly toppling off her stool and into Declan’s waiting hands. He settled her and I took the tequila shot from her hands and passed it back to Reid.

“I think that’s enough for tonight.”

“Oh I agree.” Nat laughed. “I want to remember this tomorrow.” She looked at me and Sue like we were her favorite reality tv show and she was hooked.

I sensed him without even seeing him, feeling his presence like a mist in the air fall on my skin, and a moment later Maverick walked back to our table. Sue stood up off her stool instantly to greet him, but he chose to walk the long way around the table and came up behind me, settling his hand on my neck and leaning down to kiss my cheek and whispering in my ear. “I love you.”

“Maverick.” Sue said, eyes flashing with jealousy as he ignored her for me. “How have you been?”

He stood against my back and put his hand on my hip as he reached for his drink. I put my hand on his arm, stopping him. “She drank off it, I ordered you another.” I said simply.

His eyes flashed to Sue, and he scowled. “Interesting.” But his manners forced him to acknowledge her. “I’m well Sue, how are you?”

“I’m good.” She played with her necklace that dropped low into her cleavage and I groaned at the obvious ploy and took a sip off my wine. “I haven’t seen you around lately, where have you been?”

“Been busy building my life with my future wife.” Maverick said effortlessly and I choked on my wine.

Nat cackled and the others failed to hide their laughs as they watched on trying to look like they weren’t hanging on every word of the conversation but instead looked in other directions drinking their cocktails.