https://youtu.be/k5f7CtxRuTk

(Author's Note: If you would wish to listen to Chapter 15 parts 1 and 2 on audio, please click the videos. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it!) 

 His laugh fades when we hear a honking coming from outside my home and by that, I know Camille finally arrived.

  "Camille's here," I say when I grab my jacket and purse. Heading outside, Chris follows right behind me. The snow has finally almost melted by the sun shining down upon us, but it's still freezing with the wind blowing cold air, so thank goodness I'm wearing my jacket.

   A red pickup truck is parked in front of my home with the windows rolled down and I instantly, spot Camille's curly hair on the passenger seat. James must be on the driver's side.

   "Hey girl," she says then looks behind me and notices Chris. "Hi Chris," she says politely and smiles. Well, that was unexpected of her, maybe this evening will go smoothly if everyone will keep being nice to one another.

   "Sussianna and I are taking my car. We'll follow you there," he tells Camille rather harshly and hauls me away from her.

   "We'll meet you there Camille!" I yell as he pulls at my arm. Why did he say that to her? I didn't agree to go with him. She was actually being nice for once and not being the obnoxious person she always is. That was rude of him to do to her. What the hell is his problem?

   "You really need to stop grabbing me like that!" I scream and jerk my arm away, but he just grabs my arm again and pulls me to his car.

    He lets go of me and opens the passenger door. "Get in!" He demands by shouting at me. I cross my arms and stand my ground. Who does he think he is to treat my friend like that and then treat me like this? I'm so angry at him for treating her like that; when she was clearly trying to be nice toward him and now after that, she will be back to being vicious. Great! These two are going to kill each other before we even finish having lunch.

   "If you are going to act like this, then I would rather go with Camille," I threaten. I can tell he's getting upset with me by his cheeks flaring to a deep red, but honestly, I don't care. If he's going to act like a jerk, then he can go home.

    He stays silent and rubs his hand over his hair in frustration, I suppose. "Alright, have it your way... Camille!" I shout.

    "Okay. Fuck!" He yells, then corrects himself. "Can you please get in the car... please," he begs, but he clenches his jaw and if I didn't know any better, he looks like he wants to shove me in his car.

    "Yeah!" Camille shouts back.

   I glance at Chris's angry eyes, but there's something else besides anger in those eyes... pleading. "Never mind!" And with those simple words, a wave of relief washes over Chris like a waterfall.

    I guess, he would rather have me ride with him than Camille. He said he's not fond of her, but he must really not like her to go to this length to get me to go with him.

    "Then, can you guys get in the damn car, so we can go," she bickers. 

    Chris rolls his eyes at the same time I do.

   

    "If she doesn't get here in the next ten minutes, then we are going to go ahead and order," Chris growls.

  We have been waiting here for twenty minutes and the more I spend time with Chris, the more I found out that he does not have any patience for anyone and he's losing his patience, fast.

  Camille decided to text me the address. I thought they would be here already because they took off before we did. Where the hell is she? Maybe she's doing this on purpose because how of Chris treated her, she always gets even- somehow. Or just maybe she won't show up. Oh, she better come because she's the one who called and wanted me to come to this restaurant. This freezing restaurant, that's too cold for me to take off my jacket. Gosh, outside is warmer, than inside here. I should have requested to be by the fireplace, instead of by this window. She better show up or I might kill her myself if Chris is not planning right now to murder her; he has a look on his face that says he wants to do just that. I wish these two would get along, so we can all be good friends. But I can see with these two acting like they both want to murder each other; friends are out of the question. 

  After what seemed like forever the waiter with red hair and light brown eyes sits Camille and James at our table; along with a tray of the ice teas we already ordered. 

   "What would you two want to drink?" The redhead asks.

   "I'll have a diet coke," Camille says.

   "Get me a beer," James orders him.

   "Never mind on the diet coke, make mine a beer too," she says sweetly.

    "I'll be back with your drinks," the redhead writes down on his notepad and leaves.

    "Hey sorry, we're late. Did you guys order yet?" Camille asks not a sound of concern in her voice. Then again, why would she?

   Chris looks like he wants to say something harshly towards Camille, but refrains from it.

   "No. We haven't yet, we were waiting for you two," I say calmly, but on the inside, I want to yell at her. I see Camille's hair is sticking up like she stuck her hair in a socket which tells me she has been doing something they should have rented a room for or at least could have called they were running late. I guess having sex in a car is much more fun than having courtesy. 

   "Sorry. You know how traffic is," she obviously lies, but her looking like a complete mess tells me otherwise from the fake story she made up. 

   Clearly, Chris is not buying it either, by the way, he rolls his eyes.

   To lighten up the mood I say, "Thanks for inviting us here."

  "You're welcome. It was James' idea," she smiles at James. I force myself to look at him and he's smiling at her then at me, I return the smile.

  "Oh Chris, this is James, I was going to introduce you in the car, but you didn't want to ride with us," she smiles, but I know that smile, it's her evil smile that says I-would-get-payback-anyway-possible-if I-get-the-chance.

   Anger is plastered through him, no, rage. He looks like he wants to say something equally hurtful, but he's holding back. Camille still has that smile- challenging him and I mouth her to "stop it."

   I feel like this is my fault for coming here. Why did I come here and invite him? When I know these two don't get along even for one minute. We should have stayed at my house. 

  Chris stretches his long arm out to the center of the table to grab two sugars, he rips open the packages and puts them into his tea. He glances quickly to my side as he stirs it slowly with his spoon and a faint smile plays on his lips. I look away to my own tea. Shit. Is that obvious I was staring at him just now?

   "Hello, Chris. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself earlier," James says anxiously, his thick New York accent comes visible.

    Chris stays silent. He doesn't give him an answer and drinks his tea. No way. Not you too Chris, with them trying to get even, to see who will get the highest score of being a... Jerk! Playing this game with Camille and you started is not going to solve anything. This is not even James's fault for being in the middle of this. I don't like James, but just because I don't like him, doesn't mean I would want to be hateful toward him. Why does Chris hate James, anyway? Well, it looks like Chris does not like very many people- he did say he doesn't get along with others. But, why does he put up with me? Maybe because I am helping him in class and he has no choice, but to be nice to me. Technically, sometimes he can be cruel towards me, but he's not that bad compared to how he acts despicable with others. Right now, he's attacking James and I'm not having it.

   I kick Chris on the leg and he chokes on his drink. I pat his back to stop the coughing. Whoops. I didn't mean to choke him, I just wanted him to stop being a child and answer James or give him a nod- any of those would do. He turns to look at me and his eyes narrow.

   What? Yes. I kicked you because you are being rude, please talk to the poor man. Now I'm giving him a pleading look.

   He rolls his eyes and turns his gaze at James. "Hi. It's James isn't it?" He asks without looking at him. He wasn't at all polite about introducing himself, but at least he's not ignoring him.

   "Uh... Yeah. So, do you work Chris?" James is trying to make conversation, but I really don't think Chris is up to talking to this man. Please don't be rude to him, Chris.

   "No. I attend BU with Sussianna," he looks up and smirks at me. 

  "I heard that was a good school. I went to NYU and graduated last spring. Now I'm working at Brockmann Publishing."

   "What do you do there?" I ask, not because I'm being nosy, but because I'm curious. 

  "I'm an editor. I read manuscripts, review them and determine what material is most likely to please readers, and offer suggestions to improve the product. Are you an English major," he asks.

   "No. Just like me, she's a Marine Biology major." Chris snaps and I glare at him, more like scowl at him. 

   I can answer for myself, Chris. What's his problem? Today he's been acting like a jerk to people, including me. His mood swings always seem to change. First, he's nice, and then he's thoughtless. I can't keep up with him. I wish he would be polite to everyone, and not impolite. It seems like I am learning he has a temper on him and I don't like it.

  Why is he so moody?

  "Well, that's too bad, because I could have asked Mr. Brockmann, to give you an interview. You seem like you have great potential." His head cocks to the side of Camille. "Camille said you're a very hard worker and she believes that you work too much, but a person that works hard can get far in life. You seem like a person, who has a lot of passion for everything you do. Someone like that would hire you in a second."

  James is sweet to offer me a job, I do like books and I love to read a lot, but I'm more of a marine scientist.

  Before I can open my mouth to inform James of this, Chris already beat me to the punch. "She is a hard worker, but she is a Marine Biology major. Not a... what did you call it... an English major," he huffs.

   I nudge Chris in the stomach and he turns to give me you-did-not-just-do-that-to-me look. I shoot him a glare right back, yes-I-did-now-stop-interrupting-me-or-I-will-do-it-harder-next-time.

  I focus my attention back on James. "I appreciate the offer James, but I'm a science geek. I was asking because I love books," I inform him.

 "Do you like to read fiction or nonfiction?" He asks me.

 "Fiction," I say in a rush before Chris interrupts.

 "What genre of fiction do you like to read? "

  "I-"

  Chris cuts me off. "She loves to read horror." 

 "Sussianna can speak for herself, Chris," Camille interjects.

  I'm thankful for Camille helping me with Chris's interference. Now, hopefully, he will get the hint and stop whatever he's trying to do, so James and I can try to have a conversation without Chris constantly interrupting us every minute.

 "Well, horror is good to read," James says.

  "Actually, I'm more into romance, than horror." I correct Chris's conclusion about what he'd assumed I liked to read.

 "I thought you said you liked horror," Chris asks with a full surprise in his voice.

  I turn to him and try to manage a smile, but it's quite hard when Chris is irritating me. "I do like horror, but I prefer to read romance. I think you miss heard me, I said I liked to watch horror movies. When it comes to reading books, I prefer to read romance. When I read, I become that character in whichever book I'm reading and I would rather have love and passion to read, than be murdered by a psycho killer. But when it comes to watching a movie, I would want to watch a horror movie, then a romance. I would watch it, if the movie has romance and horror in it, like that one movie called Warm bodies which is also based on a book but that's beside the point." I shrug. "I don't know, I guess I'm weird when it comes to movies and books." Come to think of it I haven't watched a horror movie in a long time, but I'm reading books more, than watching movies, except for last night when I put on Fifty Shades of Grey. 

  James shakes his head. "No. It's not weird. You know what you want and you're not afraid to show it." 

 I glance at James and smile. "Thanks, James."

 "I bet you like to read the classic romance," James mutters.

  "Classic romance is good. Don't get me wrong, but..."

  "But?" Chris and James ask in unison.

  I look back and forth between James and Chris. I get why James is interested in what I want to say because he does work for Brockmann Publishing, and it seems that books are his life passion. But... why does Chris care about my interest in books? 

 "Classic romance novels are almost all the same- they fall in love, and then they live happily ever after. Today's romance novels are more dramatic. "They deal with what relationships are really like- with heartbreaks, love, passion, lies, and then there's the fighting with each other, back together to forgive one another, and then they're fighting, again," I laugh. "It's like make up your damn mind, but that's what makes it good because life is like that- you have to work hard to keep your love strong."

  Everyone pauses for a few minutes like the world had stopped in time.

  In almost a whisper, I think if Chris was not sitting right next to me, I don't think I would not be able to hear him when he says, "You're really a romantic person," he says sincerely.

   Who? Me? I want him to repeat what he just said because I thought I misheard him incorrectly, but I reframe against it.

   My gaze goes towards Chris and I shake my head. "No. I just read a lot to get an idea about how love works." I roll my eyes. "I'm not a romantic at all."

   I don't know where in the hell this comes from when this falls out of my mouth. "In books describe feelings and love. I have learned there's no such thing as in..." I use air quotes. "'Happy ever after'... and if there is, then you know it's all in books. It's not real."

  Camille holds up her glass. "Well, here's to no fucking happy ever after," she laughs and takes a drink. 

  "Babe, you don't believe in happy ever after too?" James asks Camille. 

  Camille laughs. "No!" She glances at me. "Sussianna is right, it's only in fairy tales."

 "You don't think I could be your happy ever after or your white and shining armor, babe?"

 "What? You want to be my white and shining armor?" She turns to James.

 "Yeah. I could be."

 "Oh really."

 "Yes really." 

 James grabs Camille and pulls her into his arms and makes a show of affection by giving her a lingering kiss.

  Oh, please. Get a room you two or go back to your car. Awkwardly, I stare at my tea. That gesture of him kissing her so meaningfully would have been compassionate if he was not cheating on her. I know he's cheating on her because a few nights ago, I was working the late shift when I saw him with another woman and he was kissing her, like the way he is kissing Camille. It was dark, so I couldn't see what she looked like, but I knew it was him because he had picked up Camille after kissing that woman in the parking lot. 

   That scum, and that's why I dislike James because he's a liar and a cheater. She does like him a lot and I don't have the nerve to tell her about that night. I had asked him who that woman was and he'd told me she was his cousin. I knew it was a lie because who kisses their cousin like that? He's a womanizer. I didn't buy it and I threatened him to stop having an affair or I will tell Camille. But if he keeps cheating on her and I see him kissing another woman again, then I'm going to tell her. I will always say this, she deserves better than him. That cheating bastard!

  Hey Readers. I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. I hope you're enjoying it so far and tell me if you are not, I would love to hear what you have to say and for your opinion. I love your comments and for your votes guys- your support means a lot to me; I really appreciate it! Thank you, guys!