Tug-at-your-heartstrings new adult first love story.
What starts as a bet to avoid cleanup duties at her minimum wage cashier job, wins Amelie D'Amico more than she's ever hoped for.
When Ben, a cute customer who always checkouts at her register, fi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The night I was desperate for Ben to talk to me was the night he was desperate to talk to me. The stars. They kinda aligned. It was not the sign I was asking for that day, but it was a sign. A stranger who cared enough to want to warn me. Ben's intentions were good. But his communication skills—less so.
"The night you told me about Xavier breaking up with you, I saw how upset you were. I concluded that I needed to do something about it."
"It had nothing to do with you. And starting a fight with Xavier would solve what? And it doesn't even seem like something you'd do."
"It wasn't what I was planning on." Ben sighs. "All I wanted was to talk to Xavier."
Ben paces the length of the room, while my feet remain rooted to the same spot. I'm trying to understand what happened. What Ben was thinking, but it's not coming together. I'm stuck between appreciating some misguided noble attempt from Ben to protect my honor and irritation at him for not talking to me about it before going to Xavier or after getting into a fight with him. He knew Xavier was cheating on me.
"Xavier, Mike, and I were at the same martial arts competition. I was there to support Mike. I never compete." Ben gets to the window, turns and heads back to me. "After it was over, I followed Xavier to the car and started telling him how unfairly he had been treating you. I didn't intend to get into Xavier's face, but I was so upset, I started shouting at him, and he punched me in the nose. That caught me off guard. I didn't react in time to block him, so Xavier's fist did a lot of damage, and there was so much blood." Back at the window. Turns. "That's when I lost control, and we started pummeling each other."
There was pummeling. And blood. The stupid men drew blood. Well Xavier started it.
"It's not a good excuse, but Xavier is much taller and heavier than I am, and he kicked me so hard, I lost my balance and fell on the asphalt, almost cracking my head open. Mike told me later that he saw us on his way to the car, thrashing on the ground, covered in blood, beating each other. Mike somehow managed to drag Xavier off me, then called the ambulance and took both of us to the hospital. They diagnosed me with a concussion and had to keep me for observation."
They hit each other so hard it landed them at the hospital. I had no idea Ben was capable of something like that. Even Xavier. He played tough, but kicking somebody in a parking lot? That's inhumane. Xavier was the one in the wrong here. With me. With Ben. With being a decent human being?
"Did you press charges?" I hope he did. Maybe spending a night in jail would scare Xavier against repeating something like this in the future.
"No, nothing like that. We haven't spoken to each other since, and Xavier got kicked out from our martial arts studio, but no police were involved." Ben stops pacing for a second and glances at me. "I'm not quite the knight in shining armor I've imagined myself to be. Admitting to you that I got beaten up by your ex isn't doing wonders for my ego."
