“I’m looking forward to meeting the little princess,” she told me, with a big smile on her face. “I’m sure I’ll love her loads if she’s even a tiny bit like her dad.”
I hoped so.
Holy fuck, I hoped so.
“Maybe we’ll make another little princess one day,” I said, and her eyes shot open wide. “Sorry,” I added. “Thinking out loud there.”
She pulled off another piece of garlic bread. “Maybe we will.” She took a bite. “Maybe if the epilepsy eases, and things settle down with everyone around us, and we can be that little family we want to be.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Maybe,” she smiled.
“Maybe in the meantime we should hit the bars, and head on out for another prosecco or two.”
“Maybe in the meantime we should indeed hit the bars, and head on out for another prosecco or two,” she laughed. “I think the girls from work are out at Bar Royale tonight.”
So out we went.
We met up with Stacey, Melissa and Lucia and I watched Anna join in with their work chat with a big grin on my face.
We danced to some terrible tunes that neither of us liked, laughing right the way through, and resisted the urge to head out onto the smokers’ terrace like true champions.
I couldn’t keep my hands off her when we left the club, my mouth on hers all the way up the street on our way to the taxi rank. Her arms were around my neck, and her tits were pressed to my chest, and clothes were a barrier I’d tear off in a flash just as soon as we were out of the realms of public indecency.
I hadn’t had quite enough proseccos for that just yet.
It was Anna who suggested we take a detour a few streets over and head to the Neptune fountain.
It was me who grinned right back at her and said I’d love to go the Neptune fountain, just so long as she didn’t expect me to be making any wishes with any damn coins.
Neither of us expected to be standing on the lawn at the front of the spurting water, staring up at Neptune himself, hand in hand, when the charge of stumbling feet sounded up the street behind us.
And there he was.
The cunt himself.
His tie was loose around his neck as he stumbled his way down the road, and I knew straight away where he was heading. His path was from Oscars to Casey’s Casino, with two of his suited idiot mates rocking along at his side.
They were oblivious, all three of them, clearly off their fucking heads as they made their way out for more of the same.
It would have been so much better if he hadn’t seen us standing there, but unfortunately Anna was looking divine enough to stop the world in her burgundy satin and heels.
He stopped in his tracks the very moment he saw her, and his jaw tightened as he looked her up and down. Angry, and bitter, and pure fucking spiteful.
His two friends tried to call him along with them, but he wasn’t having any of it, just kept on heading over towards us.
I pulled Anna closer to my side, and stepped ahead of her, but the prick was oblivious. His eyes were burning right on her as he closed the distance.
“So-called rape?” he sneered, and jabbed a finger at her. “That wasn’t fucking rape, Anna. You were fucking begging for it. I told the fucking police so, too. Good job they fucking believed me.”
“Stop,” I told him. “Seriously, Maitland, just fuck off and leave us, please.”
Anna pressed up close to me, edgy with nerves, but her voice was so fucking tough when she answered him.
“That was fucking rape, Seb, and you know it. I wasn’t begging for anything, you disgusting prick!”
His friends tried calling him over again from the street corner, but he gave them the middle finger.
“You’re a slut,” he sneered at Anna. “You’re a slut, and you were begging for it. And this is the loser you spread your fucking legs for, isn’t it? Lucas fucking Pierce, the pervert freak.”
He glared at me, and he was so vile. So fucking vile.
“Shut the fuck up,” I said to him. “Honestly, you need to fuck off now before this escalates. Call me whatever you like, but don’t you dare think of speaking to Anna like that again. Not if you’ve got any sense in that cuntish head of yours.”
“She’s a slut,” he spat. “A filthy, little, invalid slut.”
My gut twisted and my fists clenched. “Shut your fucking mouth right now.”
But he didn’t.
The cunt didn’t.
“You’re an ungrateful bitch,” he sneered. “You know that, Anna? You’re an ungrateful fucking bitch and always were.”
I was so fucking ready for him when he reached out to grab for her.
I twisted his arm behind his back, wrenched it hard and cut him off in his tracks. “Just get the fuck away from here,” I snapped, and shoved him away.