Since Summers

forty nine : proposal

VINCENT

"It's them, isn't it?" I asked Mario from the sidewalk. The black jaguar had been oddly following us for the last half an hour.

Mario turned around and crossed the street towards me. He shrugged one shoulder and narrowed his eyes as he kept looking at that black sedan. "No idea." He flipped his middle finger at them, clearly as annoyed as me that we could not even have a peaceful evening. "Maybe."

I scoffed. "Are they following us now?"

Mario put one arm around Faith's shoulders and planted a kiss on her left cheek. It was a small gesture but by the look in his eyes, I knew he was incredibly worried for her. The fact that the car had been parked across from Faith's yoga studio did nothing but added more worries. "If it's them, they were being sloppy."

I nodded in agreement. Subtlety was clearly not their method. It was not hard to notice them when they were being this blunt. "I wonder what's that about."

We started to walk when Mario who had been staring at the ground suddenly looked up. "Maybe they're sending us a warning."

Faith froze and turned to face us. "What warning?"

"I have done nothing but do whatever crazy stuff they have been throwing at me." One day after I had arrived in NYC, they told me to deliver a package to the outskirt of New York. It had taken me hours to find the place yet I had not breathed a complaint. I wondered what the hell did they want from me. "Seriously, a warning is not necessary. They owned me. I'd do whatever they said."

A silence fell before us as everyone knew how true the sad truth I had just said. Mario pointed at the bar in the next block. "We need a drink." As nobody disagreed, we crossed the road and entered the bar.

Mario was getting our drinks when Faith looked over her shoulder at Mario then turned at me with a serious look on her face. "Maybe it's because of me."

I frowned, not understanding how A could get to Z. "What?"

"Ty," Faith leaned forward, "whoever was following was following me and not you two. I mean, come on, do you really think I don't know what you and Mario were not telling me?!" She let out a deep sigh, tears were in her eyes. "It's me they're after. I'm a liability for you both. They cannot touch you but they can touch me. If I am staying with you two, they will have something to threaten you both. Maybe they will even make you both do horrible things."

As much as I wanted to disagree with her, she had a point. Mario had staged that cheating act so he could take Faith away from this and now that the Italian knew she was back with him and even hung around with us, they could threaten us because they knew we would not let anything happen to Faith. I looked up, about to say something when I saw Mario standing right behind Faith with three empty glasses in one hand and one pitcher of beer in the other hand. From the look on his face, it was evident he had heard what she had just said.

"You're not a liability." His voice resonated like a growl. He put down what he was carrying, making a loud sound as the pitcher landed on the table. Some of the content splashed on the metallic surface.

Faith shook her head slowly. "Rio, you know that's not true."

"I just got you back, Faith, I'm not letting you go." He knelt on the ground, holding her hand and using his thumb to rub her knuckles. "This is a wrong time and wrong place but who gives a fuck." His free hand reached the back pocket of his jeans. My eyes widened as I caught a glimpse of a black ring box.

"Holy shit," I cursed under my breath.

My friend seemed not to realize what was obvious to me and everyone around us. "What are you saying?"

With a smile on his face, Mario brought his hand to the front and opened the ring box. Faith gasped and I thought her eyes could not get any wider. The tears she had been holding for the wrong reason made a stream of happy tears down her cheeks. "Rio."

"Faith Antoinette Gauthier, I've lost you once and I know how my life felt like hell without you. I got you back now and I'm not going to beat around the bush anymore. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you so here I am kneeling here looking every bit like an idiot in the place filled with cigars and alcohol and a drunk fat biker in the corner," the audience laughed as they glanced at the dead drunk biker with cowboy hat in the corner of the room, his head was on the table. "and telling you that I don't need fucking alcohol or Beyoncé to know how drunk in love I am right now. Even your father know how much."

Faith blinked. "Wait, did you ask my father?"

"Of course," Mario shrugged. "It's the right thing to do. You're the right girl for me, I want to do it right." He cleared his throat and put his charm back on. "Will you marry me?"

All Faith could do was opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of the water. It was so unlike her to be speechless. Mario seemed to notice this as he let out a chuckle and added, "will you stop me from embarrassing myself further and accept my proposal?"

"Yes!" Faith laughed. He put the ring on and rose to his feet as Faith threw her arms around him and they kissed. Everyone else in the bar cheered for them and I saw one lady was taping the whole thing. I walked to her and asked her if she could email the video to me later. No doubt Faith would want to watch that and maybe they could even play that at their wedding.

I felt the vibration from the front pocket of my jeans and pulled out my phone. It was a private number but it did not take a genius to know who was calling. "What do you want?" I greeted them knowing this was probably one of their errands.

"So I met someone today near NYU."

I hated when they tried to come up with a prologue when all they wanted was something for me to do. "I said, what do you want?"

"You should not be rude to me. You know the consequences."

Maybe it was the anger from being followed earlier or maybe it was the sad and guilty look on Faith's face earlier. I was not sure what that was but it lit a fire inside me. When I worked for Santiano, it was very chill and he did not use threats or beating to make me do stuff. The Italian was very different and I did not like their methods. I did not like how they made me feel disposable. Moreover, I hated how I had let them control my life, how I had let them ruin my relationship with Autumn.

"Listen to me, jackass, I don't give a fuck anymore. I am done with all of you pushing me and threatening to harm the people I love." I stood and walked towards the entrance so I would not disturb the happy couple. "I quit. You can shove whatever you want me to do up your ass cos I am done."

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