Jax approaches me slowly and sensing my uneasy attitude, attempts an odd sort of bro- hug with absolutely no chest contact. It comes off looking like a weird siblings kind of hug with a half back slap and a hand shake and we both chuckle at the awkwardness of it as we move away from each other.

"Why is this so weird?" He asks but he already knows the answer.

"Ah... Do we have to go there?" I say tiredly as I make my way over to the tower to start my late night work out.

"Absolutely not. Not if you don't want to?" He asks, side eyeing me as he goes back to his weight session in front of the mirror, watching his own musk led flex and relax very closely.

I chuckle lightly to myself as I pretend not to observe him. Guys and their relationship with mirror at the gym never fails to give me an easy laugh, at their expense. The comraderie they seem to have with the mirrors must be mandatory, self- glorifying vanity always wins with these guys I guess.

Suckers.

"Nope. Hard nope." I answer swiftly, making sure he doesn't see me watching him as I busy myself setting the timer for my row and get my feet into the little latches on the side.

Stretching my legs back I set my pace and begin to out row my anger. The gym or running or dance never fails to make me forget what I was mad at. Nothing but the pace of my heart rate and my breath. No one to please but myself.

There is nothing better for the soul.

Or for temporarily forgetting assholes.

"So, while we don't talk about it, can I ask how you are doing?" He says quietly, changing up his weights for another pair of larger ones. Show off..

I pace my reply in between pulls on the machine, not wanting to waste my breath on talking about this but not intending to be rude. Jax hasn't done anything wrong here.

"I'm grand." I state coldly and roll my eyes at the straight out lie.

He chuckles again to himself this time and continues his chest work out.

The perve in me can't help but appreciate the way the weights have accented his pecs. It's not hard to notice that Jax is a fine specimen. All the right bulges in all the right places, apparently.

Not that I'm looking, but gym shorts really leave nothing to the imagination. It's all on show and I find myself appreciating the live action in front of me.

What is wrong with me.

I literally have all the reasons in the world to swear off guys for the next few years and here I am, leering on this sweet man like some kind of horn dog at a private peep show.

I need to get a grip.
On Jax.... on Jax's tight, muscly ass.....

Jesus.

I tip the timer and speed odometer up higher and make myself work harder to ease whatever tension I'm busy building over here on my lonesome.

We work out in silence for the next hour, stealing just a few side glances at each other here and there.
As I finish my last weights set and he finishes his warm down, I start to think about how easy it isn being in his company. He is a good guy. A good friend. And that is something one can never have too many of.

As he moves to leave, he stops and turns to face me.

"You know Ellis, it's not my place to say but I hate how it all went down, with Cara. She really is a nice person. And so are you. Neither of you deserve to be hurt." He says it so sweetly that I feel myself smiling at him, despite the uncomfortable subject.

"Thanks Jax, coming from you, that means a lot." I say, standing to gather my things and walking toward the door with him.

"And just because I'm dating Ren, it's doesn't mean we can't hang out. You and I were friends first." He smiles and I can't help but return it. I had forgotten he was seeing someone.

"I'm so sorry, I haven't even asked how that was going. Some friend I am. I haven't met her but I have heard she is great." I say and mean it. Anyone Jax liked was bound to be someone I would like.

"It's okay. I get it. And yeah, Ren is awesome. You need to meet her. She is so sweet Ellis. You will love her. I have told her all about you, she wants to meet you. What are you doing tomorrow? Can you come to see the band again? They are playing at a bar down town where Ren works, she got them the gig. It's a really exclusive bar, very up market." His face lights up like a kid on Christmas and my life feels lighter just being around him. I can't say no to him when he looks like this.

"Love to." I reply without even thinking twice.

"I'll bring Candice, that ok with you?" I say and he nods, holding the door open for me as we walk together to the entrance.

"I'll send you the details, dress up it's a suit and tie kind of place." He says as we walk back towards the dorm. We chat about other random people and events on campus and before we know it, I'm waving goodbye as he exits the lift and soon im walking happily back to my room. The quad sounds quiet now so I assume the party has died down.

I quickly shower and change into my most comfortable pjs. As I go about getting ready to settle in for the night, there is no sign of Lexi so I assume I have the room to myself.

Perfect. I read a series of text from Candice about the events of the evening, nothing new. Hook ups and haters. The usual shit that goes on. I absolutely made the right call to avoid that tonight. I send her a quick message to say we are going to see the band tomorrow and she just sends a thumbs up emoji in response.

She must be tired. Or in the middle of getting some.

I chuckle to myself at her expense as I fire up my iPad and settle in for a night in bed alone with Friends on binge and a supply of my favourite chocolate stash from back home.

For some reason, spending time with Jax makes me feel like things aren't so bad. Like I can make it through this shit show mostly unscathed. It's as if he is a breath of fresh air for me, where my life has been a fire that has been raging out of control. And it's such a nice change. I don't want it to end. I just hope I get along with Ren. For his sake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Candice and I make our way from the Uber to the curb and join the line up outside the bar, we get our first glimpse of our venue for the night. It's not quite what i expected. It's a hole in the wall, literally a sliver of a place jammed in between two large, looming office buildings.

It's as if they forgot the tiny dark bar was there and just built up all around it. The skyscraper, window filled office towers are a start contrast to the all black walls of the little square building.

As we take our place in line, Candice bustles about, checking out the crowd and trying to spot Jax and Ren, hoping we can skip the line.

With no such luck, we wait our turn and as it goes, we only have to wait for about ten minutes because Candice catches the eye of a smartly dressed man at the front of the line.

The tall, tan, tattooed guy, dressed in a sleek blue suit appears at the door and gives the crowd a once over but his eyes catch the glistening sheen of Candice's bare legs and his eyes never leave her. I stifle a small giggle as I watch him wet his lips, as he leans in to say something to the door bitch before he heads our way. She sends a scathing scowl our way as she watches him approach. Ouch.

"Don't look now Ellis but I think I caught one." Candice whispers to me with a quick wink before she flips her golden curls over her shoulder and turns to face him.

"Ladies, if you would follow me? I can't have such gorgeous girls waiting out here in the line, not on my watch." He says, eyes raking over every inch of Candice's body with not even a hint of guilt. She eats it up, taking his hand and grabbing onto mine.

"And who exactly are you?" She asks, stepping out of the line and in front of him boldly, looking him up
and down and earning a smirk from him in return.

"Just the owner of the bar, no one special, I'm Dom." he says, motioning for us to walk ahead of him and then lifting the red rope across the doorway and ushering us inside.

"Wow. Not at all what I expected." I say, taking in the decor of the room we entered.

"In a good way I hope?" Our host asks, handing us each a glass as he pours champagne from a bottle the waitress brings to him.

"In nothing but a good way." I say, noticing now that my words seem to have been swallowed up by the extreme sexual tension situation happening to my left. It's like a static porno and I can't help but feel like the very awkward third wheel all of a sudden.

I use the excuse that I need to go to the bathroom and our host Dom points it out to me down a hall to our right.

"We will be up here in Vip, you are welcome all night, drinks on me." He says as he takes Candice by the hand and guides her through the darkened curtains covering the Vip area. She turns to give me a tiny devious smirk and I nod my approval.

Guess I just lost my wingman. Oh well, who can blame her. Dom was giving off a major mafia vibe. Dark and mysterious. Sexy as all hell. I doubt I'll be seeing much of Candice tonight. Lucky bitch.

I take my leave and head down the thin stair case that takes me from the closed in Vip section and leads me to step out on to the main dance floor. The outside of this bar gives nothing away. It's like I have stepped into some sort of secret gentleman's club.

Everyone is well dressed. Suits, tailored shirts, high hemlines and heels. Even the band wear suits and ties and they look very serious and sultry, situated on a tiered corner stage, surrounded by small round tables that resemble a scene from a speak easy, rather than a bar.

The colour black is the major theme here. The stage, the tables, the chairs and stools are all black and even the curtains that are draped around corner booths and secret rooms are black velvet. The only colour change is the lighting which comes from bare globes hanging at different lengths and intervals around the vaulted ceiling. The exposed beams of the side panels on the walls hold long black torches and placed on each table around the room are tiny white candles, all adding to a warm glow around the entire space.

I don't think I have ever seen anything like it and I'm suddenly thankful that Candice practically shoved me into the little black slip dress I have on, along with Lexi's red heels. The dress code is sharp.

If Candice ever escapes the dungeon with Dom, she will stand out amongst all the black in her tiny silver body con, which I imagine is the point of wearing such a dress.

As I approach the bar and take a seat on one of the stools, I'm about to ask for a champagne when the door bitch appears and leans over, almost knocking me over and giving me a dirt filled look that all but screamed whore at me as her eyes take in my bare legs and tiny dress.

"Couldn't find one that fit properly?" She asks dryly, shaking her head at me as my mouth pops open.

What is her problem?

"Excuse me?" I ask, clearly she has me mistaken for someone who lets people talk shit to me.
Not tonight. I can't be fucked with girls like this.

"You heard me. I get it, dressing like a hooker gets you drinks and attention and whatever else it is you are after tonight, dressed like someone's wet dream. But not all of us need to show our vag off to get attention. Some of us have brains, we work hard and we have something you will never have, morals."

I sit there gaping, steam feels like it is building up inside of me and I feel as though I may combust at any given second. All over miss sour door bitch.

How dare she make an assumption of who I am based purely on this outfit. Based purely on stigma. On appearance.

She looks me up and down again, eyes rolling and whispers something to the bartender who just nods in response. She turns to leave but not before she tries to get another cheap shot in.
Before she can open her big mouth, I step down and get into her face;

"Listen sweety, I'm not sure who fucked your boyfriend or stole your vibrator but listen up. I am a college student. I graduated school at the top of my class and I work damn hard to get where I am. And on top of all that, I'm a bad ass fucking Aussie and I will not let some door slut who works at a bar for a living and who doesn't even know me, talk down to me. Why don't you go back outside and judge some other poor fucker to make yourself feel better."

Shocked, her mouth opens and closes a few times before she finally clamps it shut with a huff. She leaves as quickly as she came but this time her scowl covers her entire face and she stomps away but not without giving me a filthy look first.

Bitch, I think. She clearly has something up her ass.

"Dom said your drinks are on him tonight." The cute bartender says as he slides my flute across the bar, shaking me from my staring competition with little miss talks too much

"Oh, that's not necessary." I say, trying to hand him some cash as I try to calm the fuck down but he just laughs and shakes his head.

"I don't argue with the boss honey, from what Ren just said, you and your friend can have whatever you like all night, so you just let me know." He says, gesturing behind the bar to the plethora of drinks, most that I have never seen nor tried before."

My eyes go wide as I take in the sight. I'm not a huge drinker but I do feel like trying something new and hard to take the edge off. Maybe a cocktail? A shot?

He interrupts my inner drunk thinking and leans in to my ear;

"She isn't a fan of any girls by the way, don't take it personally. She hates when boss man lets girls in before people in the line. But she especially hates it when he does it for hot girls. It's the jealousy, gets her every time. And you, are just the kind she eats for breakfast. Watch your back. That is the most mad I have ever seen her! You gave her a serve! I was hoping maybe now she has that boyfriend of hers she might calm the fuck down." He rattles on, lifting his gaze to someone behind my head.

What in the world is he going on about?

"Wait, did you say Ren?" I ask and he nods, tipping his head up and nodding in the direction of the stage.

I gulp down the impending doom I feel and I turn to look over to where he is pointing. I feel my mouth go completely dry.

Of all people. Of all mother fucking people.

Jax stands by the stage, arms around my old mate door bitch as she hugs him from the front. He dips his head down to kiss her gently on the top of the head as she smiles up at him.
My heart rate picks up and I feel like I might just fall off my stool any second.

Shut the front fucking door.

How the hell does he think she is nice? She is an evil bitch! And worse yet, she hates me already and she doesn't even know I'm friends with her boyfriend!

She is going to love that.

There is no way in hell that this is going to go well. Poor Jax. What the hell have I done. I have ruined his night before it even began!