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A night like this - Three
A few minutes later, after Erin had her face restored and was applying some lipstick, the door to the Ladies' room opened. She watched the movement of the door in the mirror and wasn't the least surprised - or happy - to see Rossi's playmate entering the room.
"Are you all right?" Stacy asked, genuinely worried.
"Just fine," Erin replied sharply, checking her lipstick. Damn, the cut was still visible. She pulled the collar of her blouse in place and did her best to ignore the younger woman who placed herself right next to her and checked her still perfect make up.
"I'm so sorry. It really wasn't our intention to hurt you. But Dave was so amazed to see you here that I thought we should say hello and on our way, we stumbled." Stacy smiled and Erin forced herself to smile back. It seemed the girl had no idea what kind of jackass David Rossi actually was and really believed he would never try to hurt her or Jason on purpose.
Sometimes she wished she could be young again and believe in people's best intentions.
"It's okay..." she said. "I don't think we've been introduced."
"Oh Stacy. Stacy Miller. I'm an interior in the publishing house Dave works with."
"Public relations, I assume." Bride smile. 'Don't be so mean, Erin. She's just a kid.' Stacy nodded with a smile on her face. "My boss thought working with Dave would be a good training for me. He's so funny and easy to get along with."
"He certainly is one of the easiest guys I know."
"And you're?" Question marks in her eyes.
"Oh... Chief... Strauss," she stretched her hand out. "Erin Strauss. Nice to meet you."
"My pleasure... so... where do we go from here?" she took Erin's hand and shrugged, a little insecure. Later Erin remembered that was the moment, when she had suddenly known what to do. Putting on her best smile, she made a small step forward and picked a lint from Stacy's jacket.
"Tell me... why don't we forget about our rough start and have a drink together? I'm sure David will have nothing against it."
"Some things just never change," Gideon remarked dryly, as he and Rossi had settled down at the bar. "You still can't stand to play the second fiddle... or in this case, the very last one."
Gideon made a toast and emptied the glass at once.
"Excuse me?" Rossi asked, sipping his own beer.
"This fucking accident was no accident. You've been watching us the whole time and when you couldn't stand us having fun while you had to listen to this barely grown up hat stand you had to disturb us. You're such a lousy loser." Ordering the next beer, Gideon shook his head.
"I'm a loser?" Rossi asked in disbelief. "Man, I did you a favor!"
"You did yourself a favor... just tell me one thing... why can't you just leave her alone?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure," Gideon scoffed. "And beer is just juice made of hop. You could never stand it when she was dating someone else... especially not me."
"Don't tell me, you're still angry because of that little fist fight back then."
"You broke my nose and seduced my girl!"
Staring at one another, none of the two men signaled surrender.
"And today you thought it's time for payback," Rossi spat. "You know what? Go and have her... !"
"Don't worry... I will!" Both men had jumped up, facing each other now. A glass crashed. Rossi had wanted to put his glass back on the bar and instead the pieces and the liquid were gracing the stool and the floor. Silence surrounded them since everybody in the restaurant had stopped talking and was watching them. Rossi's left hand had grabbed Gideon's collar, the right one had wrapped around his neck.
"Give me a reason," Rossi hissed, glaring at Gideon. "And your nose won't be only thing that needs treatment."
"Your kindergarten kiddo is coming back," Gideon answered calmly, patting Rossi's hand. "You better leave me alone or she learns you only tolerate her, because you can piss of your ex with her presence"
"Fuck you!" Rossi released Gideon and quickly checked his tie, before he turned. His smile faded when he saw Erin and Stacy approaching them together. Both were laughing about something and he noticed with slight discontent that Erin had wrapped her arm around Stacy's shoulder and whispered something into her ear. This couldn't be good. When women behaved like best friends, the men in their nearness had no chance to survive.
"What the hell..." he mumbled.
"Davie!" Stacy greeted him enthusiastically.
"Davie?" Gideon repeated in a low, but girlish voice. "Man, you have a problem."
"You haven't told me, Erin's been your boss... I don't think you even mentioned her in your books."
"She was too shy," Rossi answered in most charming voice.
"You have to devote your next book to her. She knows so much about you and your fantastic work for the FBI!"
While passing him, Strauss smiled sweetly at Rossi before she placed herself next to Jason and took his glass to take a sip from his beer.
"You know, I promised her some champagne, because I treated her so ghastly, when you ran into us... so why don't we order a bottle and search for a table for four?"
"You want to invite us for champagne?" Rossi asked, now visibly taken off guard.
"Yes... why not?"
"Oh, please, let us stay," Stacy begged. "We're getting along so well!"
"Yes," Gideon agreed. "We're having so much fun..." he grinned brazenly and kissed Erin's cheek. Rossi noticed Gideon's hand running down Erin's back until he had reached her ass and squeezed it gently.
"Yes, why not..." Rossi agreed, pressed. Damn, whatever Erin had in mind couldn't end well for him. She was like snake that now focused on a rabbit. But was he the rabbit or Tra... Stacy?
~tbc~