The Bodyguard

Chapter 17 - We Belong Together

The rest of the week drags and is fairly uneventful, it's just classes and work and evenings mostly with Amy. I’ve had daily messages from Gabriel and a couple of pictures of where he’s staying in Italy, it looks amazing and I’m envious, I've never been to Italy and I've always wanted to.  He doesn’t give me much info about what he’s doing there, but talks a lot about the hotel and surrounding area.  I wouldn't mind any job that sent me around the world to amazing places.

It's finally Saturday and I’m half an hour away from finishing my shift and seeing Gabriel who said he’d pick me up so we can go straight to his place in the countryside.

I’m behind the counter today, which I prefer because time goes quicker when I’m there and it means I don't have much contact with Jordan, who I'm now avoiding thanks to Sandy.  I feel bad since he hasn't done anything wrong and even if he did like me he's never made it obvious, but I don't want to feed any rumours Sandy may have started or give Jordan any false hope if he is interested.

I'm so absorbed in getting through the long line of customers that when the queue finally disappears, I'm surprised at the familiar face walking up to the counter, I didn't notice him in the crowd.

Jason.

“Hey,” he says awkwardly.

“What do you want?” I reply sharply, I have nothing to say to him anymore.

“I just want to talk.”  He seems far less confident today, he looks like he's struggling and our break up has hit him far harder than it's affecting me now.  I did my crying weeks ago and I'm done now, the only thing left is anger that he'd ruin our friendship like that.

“There’s nothing to talk about Jason. You’ve moved on and I have too,” I say firmly.

“You have?!” His shock is evident.

“Yes, so please leave me alone. We have nothing more to say to each other,” I keep the firmness in my voice but I can hear the anger that is also present. How dare he!  Have Shona and Cassie dumped his ass?  Is that why he's crawling back all of a sudden after disappearing for weeks?  It's all way too little, way too late and in any case if I had to pick now, it'd be Gabriel without a shadow of a doubt.  He is so much better for me in every respect, he's more mature, more open and honest about his feelings with no stupid games, more stable in his life, not to mention our compatibility physically.

“Please Kristen, I’ve been an i***t. I didn’t know what I had until you left.”

“Well that’s your loss then,” I snap, I’m not backing down.

He grabs my wrist as I start to walk away.

“Please baby. Just tell me what to do to make this right.”

“You can leave, now before I call security,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Fine, but I won’t give up. We belong together!” He yells after me as I run into the back room.

I need a minute to get myself together, I seriously hope my boss nor nosey Sandra witnessed that.  I could do without being the topic of gossip at work because Jason made a show of himself. Why did he come now? I hadn’t seen him for two weeks! He had just started to fade from my life, then as soon I’m ok again and I have something good with Gabriel he thinks he can show up, snap his fingers and I’ll come running? No chance!

I take five minutes for deep breaths and go to the bathroom because it has really worked me up and I'm very flustered. I rinse the sweat from my brow and once I’m calm I head back out to the counter.

I'm surprised to see that Jason has gone and in his place is Gabriel with his hypnotic eyes, which light up when he sees me.

“Hi beautiful,” he drawls and the sound goes right to my toes.My anger is gone instantly and I can't help the grin that spreads across my face.

“Hi, I’ve almost finished,” I tell him.

“No worries, I’ll be waiting for you in the car, it’s right outside.”

“Ok.”

As soon as my shift is over, I grab my bag, say goodbye to Mr Smith and head outside.

Gabriel gets out of his beautiful deep red sports car and opens my door, I slip inside and I'm lost in thought about how much I love this car as he heads round to the driver's side. He slides into his seat beside me, gives me a gentle kiss and off we go to his cottage in the countryside.  Jason is long forgotten and I can't stop smiling, I have a really good feeling about this weekend.