This chapter is all about our saucy bartender.
you've all been asking about his past but I was keeping all the secrets for this chapter and the next one.
I hope you like this and find it realistic since I did my research before writing this chapter and i assure you everything is possible even if it's hard to believe.
And in the end of this chapter you'll realise that the age gap between Jasmine and Martin is not little, I don't care lol, it's not like he's fourty.
last but not least, enjoy and I'll be updating again tomorrow.
Muffin
She thought he could flirt
Chapter thirteen:
Martin’s fingers got out a cigarette from his leather jacket’s pocket before lighting it and taking a breath.
He was standing in a dark alley opposite to his friend’s building.
Well, at least he hopes that guy still remembers him, they did go through a lot of things together, but Martin did the mistake, he left his friend when he needed him, he escaped and didn’t come back.
He ruined everything.
At the back of his mind, Jasmine was being shut out. It already tortured him how a week ago he watched her take the I-pod from the random guy he used as if she lost a part of her heart. He can’t afford thinking about her now, he needs to survive this.
The problems he went through when he was… rather important are never going to be wiped away. He might do some time, he might have to pay and live in prison…
He might be killed even.
He messed with the big boss and that was the number one rule to ‘not’ do.
He took another long drag before exhaling and closing his eyes slightly, he can do this. He can go up the stairs and knock on the door he had knocked on countless times before and he could hug the man behind the door like he always did, kiss his friend’s wife’s cheek and carry their baby girl.
They’re his friends, they should, would, welcome him.
But how could they, he thought angrily
He did the unthinkable leaving him like that. His friend might not even be alive.
Martin opened his eyes again and watched the building as if it was the most interesting thing he yearned to do for a while.
He was fighting off the memories from rushing back since he worked so hard to lay low and disappear, start fresh as a nobody and delete all important records about him and his ‘achievements’. He can’t reopen everything after they’ve been done.
He can’t.
He took another long drag.
How strange, life just changes without any warnings. One day he was drowning in pretense, the other, he was making love to the girl he fell in love with.
What about the girl before that? What about that girl whom he left just like he did with everyone else?
Could she be still thinking about him? Or she got over him?
Maybe she got married to her neighbor whom she liked.
He groaned desperately
The months he spent around Jasmine made him forget all about his past. He kept running and then he met her, standing there, in her brown hair and beautiful body’s glory, with a smile that made his heart race and she simply leaned over the bar and asked him about her pink haired friend.
Who knew he’d end up here now, rather than thinking about how he’ll storm into his friends life again, he’s thinking about her and how she might be doing.
He’s trying to push her out but whenever he succeeds in that, his heart is paralyzed with unexplainable fear of what to come.
His mind was confused at the moment to the extent that suddenly he questioned life and all about it. He read once in some magazine about how it was hard to understand how humans can smile all day long yet cry themselves to sleep. How their pictures never change betraying your trust and making you believe the ones in them never change as well but in truth they did change, they might not be the same person. How a best friend can turn into a worst enemy and a worst enemy might end up your best friend. How ‘forever’ is just a word said when you’re happy, how it’s a promise that is rarely kept since this ‘forever’ turns into ‘a few months’ that you long to live again or get back. How a human being can actually let go of something that earlier, he vowed he could never live without. And how even though you know something is best for you, you let it hurt you all the same, it doesn’t matter whether it was a decision, a choice or a promise, you just let it hurt you.
And one of the things that engraved themselves in Martino’s mind when he read that article was that how some people who once wanted to spend the rest of their lives with you, now think a few minutes is too much to spare and how people make promises despite the fact that they know how common it is for promises to be broken. How promises became just a word and not an act. When someone says ‘I promise’ it rarely means the true meaning that was raised by our history, but it ended up being a simple word that has no effect.
Last but not least, Martin never understood how a person can erase someone from their lives just because it’s easier than working things out.
That’s what he’d done. That’s what he decided.
Six years ago, he decided to leave and never look back because he knew how hard it was to solve things, even more so when he messed up big time in the end. He never understood something he himself did and never punished himself about it.
He let go of his friends, family, loved ones. He chickened out and didn’t allow himself to think about what he’d done because he knew he’ll regret everything that ever happened.
The only thing he didn’t regret was finding Jasmine, taking her out of the club when it was about to turn ugly and letting her make him fall deeply in love with her.
If he’s not willing to do this for himself, at least he’ll have to do it for her.
Since he promised he’ll come back if he survived and let’s face it,
He couldn’t break a promise like that, the promises he broke already were more than enough.
He threw the burnt cigarette on the ground and pressed on it with his combat boots before taking a long breath of fresh air and then he wiped his sweaty nervous palms against his pants before crossing the street and entering the building. The stairs were there and a wave of nostalgia shot him in the heart that he stumbled a bit but he didn’t escape, he kept moving upwards.
When his feet and eyes were finally met with floor number four, he coughed slightly and took another deep breath before exhaling. The bag he had the day he left his place was over his shoulder with everything he’ll ever need. He walked forward passing by doors with numbers on them and finally he settled in front of door number “45”
Another wave of memories shot him in the heart and he was to gasp if he didn’t train himself to be silent.
Or rather, if he wasn’t trained to be silent
He remembers when he carried the couch with his friend into this apartment, his friend’s wife had just chosen it and Martin vowed to help his friend with carrying it up the stairs. He remembers how they suffered till it finally was in the apartment and how the woman served them cookies and beer as a reward even though she hated beer in the house.
Those were good memories. Before he was summoned for the mission, before he screwed up and hurt his own best friend, before he reached a point where he knew that no matter what, he should either hide or fade in thin air or be killed.
It was before he did a decision he always regrets making.
(Eight years ago)
Martin short for Martino
Age: 19
Occupation: Special undercover FBI agent
Mission: Harley Mountain
Date of commencing: the eleventh of this month
Date of wrapping: not available
He will never forget how happy he was when the weird unexpected decision of his father’s was introduced to the family. Martin was hired as an FBI agent as the youngest guy in between his colleagues. Maybe it was meant to be, so he would live a longer life in shame of escaping what had to be done. His father must hate him for ruining everything, he entrusted his son to do the job and make his old man, who was also the head of the FBI, proud. And all his son did was pee his pants and run to mommy to cry.
Martin cursed. He wished he could forget this but he couldn’t and now, he was already standing at the door of the only one he’s sure might kill him at sight.
He knocked.
The seconds that passed were agonizingly slow as if every tick of a second was pleasuring itself with the torment in Martin’s heart. When the door opened to expose the man he long cherished and yet escaped from, Martin couldn’t do anything but stare.
Gasper held a glass of wine in his only hand while his wife opened the door with a baby in her arms. they were smiling but as soon as their eyes saw who was standing at their door, Gasper’s glass fell on the ground which startled the sleeping baby who therefore started crying loudly but he was ignored by his mother who was watching Martin with huge wide watery eyes.
Martin kept staring at the gap between them, he couldn’t bear looking at them, he knew they’d be scowling or Gasper will grab the gun from his sock and shoot the life out of him
Gasper, his best friend, his best buddy, lost an arm because of Martin.
He lost something so priceless because of his chicken of an ass friend who didn’t deserve ever being called best friend in the first place.
“Gasper” he croaked and winced. Gasper’s glassy eyes moved from the ground to Martin’s face where he stared again. Martin finally realized how stupid it was of him to come here, he could have dealt with things without forcing them to live this moment together.
Compared to the old times, this status of their company was abnormally hurtful and painful.
“Martino,” The woman, Bianca, whispered before running inside the house letting the baby’s cries to decrease in volume before she returned back in less than a minute alone without any baby. Martin moved his eyes from the gap between them to find Gasper’s fist pounding into his jaw.
Bianca shrieked as she covered her mouth in horror and she ran towards Martin whose back hit the wall. Gasper was scowling at his – ex- best friend and then he reentered the house leaving his wife touching Martin’s face as if he’s a ghost.
“We thought you were dead, we, w-we per-performed a funeral, your mother attended, your family believed it, we mourned your death, we-w” she kept mumbling to herself and that was the moment Martin realized that he was a douche
“I’m alive, I’ve never died” he stated, the phrase seemed incredibly stupid at the time but he meant it. It was like a hidden apology for lots of things.
Bianca helped him to his feet before welcoming him into her apartment. Gasper was watching a game – he sat on the chair Martin always used to sit on- smoking a cigar; his puffs were audible and angry.
“What happened to you, Martin!” she asked him softly as he sat on the kitchen’s table. He sighed and rubbed his jaw before saying,” I chickened out, Bianca. I chickened out at the most critical moment and I screwed up, and the only choice that seemed interesting was running away”
Gasper suddenly turned his head and hissed,” just like the chicken shits you always made fun of with me”
Martin eyed him apologetically before sighing again,” I shouldn’t have come here. I’ll leave you guys alone” he said as he walked to the front door.
A strong hand grabbed his shoulder and he turned around to see Gasped pushing him against the wall and saying,” No, you aren’t leaving. I lost my best friend once; I won’t live with myself if I lost him again”
This sentence, even though it made Martin’s guilt fly through the roof, it eased something inside of him. He didn’t lose Gasper as he thought; he still had a friend who was willing to lose an eye –or rather an arm- for.
“Gasper, I’m sorry” Martin said genuinely and looked at the ground letting his shoulders fall in defeat but he was pulled into a hug by his friend, his only hand patted Martin’s back and he shamefully felt tears collecting at the edge of his eye.
“I’m here to talk business, Gasper.” Martin said, Gasper eyed him from the corner of his wet eye before his trademark smirk appeared,” you don’t want to drink some beer and eat some cookies?”
Martin grinned as Bianca ran towards them wearing the widest smile on her face and carrying a plate filled with cookies, the same ones they used to eat years ago.
The seating was calm, he felt at home but he couldn’t forget what changed, so he spoke
“What happened to the mission?” he asked after he swallowed the bulk of cookies in his mouth. Bianca bit her lip as she looked at Gasper whose eyes fell
“They arrested the guy you shot, and it turned out that he was not the leader as we thought. He was the leader’s wing man. We never found the leader since after the shootings, he disappeared.”
Martin nodded before clearing his throat,” did you ever think that maybe the leader might be… someone we know?”
Gasper’s eyes shot up in alarm before he clamped Martin’s mouth shut.
Martin’s eyes widened as Bianca grabbed a piece of paper and wrote,’ they have hidden recordings that are activated with certain words. Don’t speak till we go out’
Understanding flashed through his eyes and he nodded.
Gasper’s short blonde hair and green eyes with the masculine chin made him look like a marine, but he was apparently scared of letting anything slip so Martin stayed silent as they left him to get dressed. In exactly half an hour, a teenage girl ran outside of the hall to stop as soon as her eyes fell on Martin pacing around the room. What made him turnaround was the sound of a sob and this girl ran towards him to hug him tight
“Uncle Martin” she cried as she hugged him tighter. Martin was awkwardly hugging her back, he didn’t know who she was but Gasper commented as if he knew what was in Martin’s mind,” she’s Lenny, Martino. See what six years do to a girl?”
Martin’s eyes widened again before he hugged her back with a passion, she was so close to him, he was there in her first birthdays and he always took her to ballet classes, he read her books to sleep, he took her out for pizza, she was his unofficial daughter.
“I missed you too!” he exclaimed and smiled as she broke away and wiped her tears away
“We thought you were dead” she said
“I know, I’m sorry, I’ll explain to you later though. Pinky promise”
Lenny smiled and nodded before planting a quick kiss on his cheek and walking back into her room.
After that, Martin, Bianca and Gasper drove away in Gasper’s car to a far away restaurant they used to go to.
The three of them knew that they had to talk.
The three of them knew everything became like before but it will never be like before.
The three of them knew that with whatever doubts Martin was having, everything that happened six years ago might actually change their lives.