Jealousy is a Gift

Chapter Four

"I still don't see why you agreed for us to go with Dana, without even talking to me first," Mary replied as she and Danny made there way together to Mystique.

"I didn't actually say yes."

"So then why did you say you already said yes to Dana? And I want you to be honest."

"Because I thought a night out with Dana was way better than a night out with Eric." Danny looked over at Mary then quickly added, "Hey, you wanted the truth."

"What is so wrong with the guy? He is really sweet."

"Maybe to you," Danny mumbled.

"He was mean to you?" she asked in disbelief.

"A little bit. Do we have to talk about this right now?" the security guard asked as he opened up the door leading to Mystique.

Mary grabbed his shirt telling him not to go in just yet. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing, Mare. Just forget I said anything, okay?"

"Will you at least tell me later?"

"Maybe. Come on, let's go," Danny said as he re-opened the door.

"Okay, brace yourself. I have a feeling this is gonna be a long night." Mary said half joking.

"Aren't they all?" the ex-marine replied a little more serious.

"Danny! Over here!" Dana screamed over the loud music once she caught sight of him. She turned to Johnny, "That's them, you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Now remember, you're my boyfriend. You have to kiss me at least eight times this whole night, and I don't mean pecks on the cheek. I'll be hitting on Danny and you'll be hitting on Mary, okay?"

"Looks like I'm gonna have some competition," the Mexican man replied.

"I'll have Danny preoccupied, he won't even see you make your move."

"Not Danny, the guy next to him. Looks like they brought friends." Dana looked over at the couple and saw what Johnny was talking about, but she didn't have a chance to reply, for they had made it to the table by then.

"I see you brought friends," Dana said nervously.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind," Danny said looking at Mary.

"No of course not. You know, the more the merrier."

Mary decided to cut in. "This is Eric and that's Leslie," she said pointing to the two of them.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Johnny, Dana's boyfriend."

Mary plastered a fake smile on her face; she so did not want to be here right now. Danny led her over to the other side of the table to sit down. He slowly pulled the chair out for her to sit in. Then he took a seat right next to her.

Eric saw an open seat right next to Mary, so he sat down letting Leslie find a seat for herself. Danny glanced at Eric and then whispered to Mary, "He left his girlfriend to sit next to you. Still don't think he's trying to win you back?"

"Danny, there's three chairs on each side of the table. One of us was bound to split up," she whispered back.

"Oh." Danny hadn't thought of that. His mind was just preoccupied with hatred for Eric Saunders.

"So where did you two meet, Danny?" Dana asked before taking a sip of her wine that she had ordered only moments before.

"Uh, we were best friends when we were little," he said taking a glance at the beautiful redheaded woman.

"So you guys were friends with benefits?"

He turned his attention back to Dana, "No!" he replied defensively.

"Whatever you say, Dan."

Danny shook his head. "Maybe this was a mistake," he mumbled to himself.

Johnny looked deeply into Mary's eyes. "So I hear you work here," he said trying to start a conversation with the beautiful woman over the loud music.

"Yeah, I'm the special events coordinator here at the Montecito."

"So you're the one who booked Dana to sing here?"

"Yeah," she replied, her fake smile coming up again.

"So who's performing right now?"

"Um, actually Eric is. He starts next week."

Danny cleared his throat when he heard Eric's name mentioned, causing Mary to elbow him in the side. "Is that how you met him? Interviewing him?" Johnny asked curiously.

Danny cleared his throat again. "No, we uh we were friends in high school."

Johnny looked across the table at Eric. "Is that so?"

"Well, we were kind of more than friends…" Eric started.

"Eric," she said softly while shaking her head and staring at him.

"What Mary? Are you embarrassed that you even dated me?"

"You guys dated before?!" Leslie shouted at Eric.

"Yeah, but for a brief time, Leslie," Mary tried to explain.

"Was I talking to you, bitch?" Leslie shot back.

"And I don't think a year is very brief!" Eric also yelled at Mary.

Danny watched as Mary started to get up, grabbing her purse and pushing her chair in furiously. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," She said before she stormed out of Mystique.

Danny started to get up, but before he left he turned back to face Eric. "You go anywhere near Mary during the rest of your stay here, you won't live to speak another word." With that, he walked away.

Once outside of Mystique Danny grabbed a hold of Mary's arm, stopping her in her tracks. "What do you want?" she asked him as he turned her around.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied with a hint of anger.

Danny embraced her into a hug. "Are you sure?"

"No." Mary broke out of the hug but remained holding his hand. "I never should've told Eric we could go out with him. I mean he's my ex."

"How about we go out right now. Just the two of us?"

"I just don't feel up to it right now, Danny. I'm sorry."

"Well I guess you do need your rest, tomorrow being the big day and all."

"Omigod, I totally forgot about that. I have to go get some boxes and I still have to make sure that I have--"

Danny lent down and kissed her. "I'll take you home. We can pick your car up tomorrow."

"Okay." They walked out of the Montecito, hand-in-hand into the Vegas night.

x-x-x

Delinda watched as Mary left Mystique. Some sort of fight must have taken place between the three couples. She then walked over to the couple that was left, the other one leaving seconds before her arrival. "May I ask what happened?" she questioned the pretty petite woman who was putting her coat on.

"Nothing really," she replied in a normal voice.

"Then why did I hear yelling?"

"They weren't yelling, they were just talking loud."

"Alright, I'm sorry but people just don't storm out of my club because 'nothing' happened," Delinda said raising her voice a little bit to seem meaner than she really was.

"If you want to know what happened why don't you just ask your friend, who as I recall was the one who stormed out of here. Have a good night." And with that the woman walked away with the man slowly behind her.

"Who the hell was that?" Delinda asked the waitress who was serving a drink to the table next to where she was.

"I think that was Dana Myers."

"As in the really nice rich girl who donates all of her father's money to charity, Dana Myers?" Delinda asked sarcastically.

"Not exactly…" the waitress said as she showed a quick smile.

"Okay, get a busboy to clean this table up and then send me the check for this table."

The woman nodded her head and walked off, doing as Delinda had asked her.

Delinda soon took out her cell phone and dialed Mary's number.

x-x-x

"Danny, where are you taking me?" Mary asked her best friend as he opened the door of his camero on the passenger side. "Weren't you supposed to take me home?"

"I just needed to make a pit-stop."

"Where, Danny? I don't recognize this place at all," she said gazing upon the large warehouse.

"Well you should," Danny told her as he opened the door to the building.

A thought appeared in Mary's mind. "This isn't…"

"Yup."

"How did you do this?" Mary asked as she looked at all of the chocolate that was stored in heart-shaped boxes.

"Well, I didn't Ed did," he said holding up Ed's credit card.

Mary laughed to herself. She then picked out a chocolate and put it into her mouth. "Remember when I used to work here and we would sneak past the security guards late at night and eat almost all of the candy that was in here."

"Yeah, I remember all the stomachaches I got. I'm was so glad the day you came home and said they fired you."

"You were not!" she shouted in disbelief. "As I recall you wanted to go beat my boss up until he gave me my job back!"

"Nah, I don't remember that at all."

Mary playfully hit him and pulled out another piece of chocolate. "Want it?" she asked holding it up to his mouth. Danny was about to bite it when she pulled it back. "Too bad," and she put the chocolate into her's and chewed it slowly.

"You are so going down." Danny started towards her but she picked up the hint and ran off.

After the two ran around the warehouse, throwing tiny chocolates at one another, they both wounded up on the floor. Mary was on the hard floor and Danny was on top of her.

"You really should have given me that chocolate," he said as he stared into her eyes.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah." He kissed her softly and then more deeply, but soon Mary's cell phone began to ring. "Don't answer it, Mare," he said before kissing her again.

"But what if it's--"

"Please don't say Eric," he said starting to get up.

She pulled him back down by his tie. "Nevermind, I don't need to answer that," she said before stealing another kiss.

x-x-x

"Why won't she answer?" Delinda asked putting her cell phone down for the third time.

"Maybe she had better things to do," answered Nessa.

"All I wanna know is what happened. Is that so bad?"

"Why don't you just ask her tomorrow?" the British woman asked her.

"Tomorrow? What are we doing tomorrow?"

"We're going to help Mary move into Danny's remember?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Uh, I have to find an outfit for tomorrow. Hey Ness you want to go shopping?"

"Delinda it's almost eleven and besides all we're going to do is pack-up, move, and unload boxes. Why do you need a whole new wardrobe?"

"You never know, Danny might have really cute neighbors." Delinda then grabbed Nessa's wrists and led her out of Mystique.

x-x-x

an: thanks for all the replies. Pleaz keep em' coming!!!

Charmboy4: She could kick Dana's ass and maybe later on she will…that's all I'm saying. Thanks!!!

ccabello: thanks a bunches!!!

miss invisible: thanks!!!

marydanny4eva: thanks nikki!

theresa: the name was supposed to be mighty mouse, and I just changed it to mikey mouse. Thanks!!!

mary1: thanks for your review!!!