Page 11 of Protecting Kelli
After going through the line, Flash steered Kelli to an empty table. He put the plate down, then said, “I’m going to go grab some water, want anything? Juice?”
“Yes, please. Orange juice sounds great.”
There were waiters around, but there were also pitchers on a table not too far away, and it would be just as fast for Flash to grab one than to wait for someone tocome to their table. He’d just picked up two pitchers, one with water and the other with orange juice, when Seb and Rowan came up behind him.
“Where were you last night, man? You missed all the fun,” Seb said.
“Yeah, those chicks are fuckinghot. And horny as hell,” Rowan added.
“Not my thing, man,” Flash replied. He wasn’t that much older than these guys, around four or five years, but at the moment, he felt positively ancient compared to them.
“Seriously, the one I was with did some stuff I’d only seen in pornos,” Seb went on.
“Mine sucked my dick so hard, it’s actually sore today,” Rowan said with a smirk.
The two men high-fived each other.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Flash said, taking a step to the side, intending to walk around the men acting like a couple of frat boys at some college kegger.
“You with the fat cousin?” Seb asked.
The question made Flash’s temper flare. “Excuse me?” he repeated in a low, menacing tone that any of his teammates would’ve known meant he was on the verge of losing his shit. But since these men didn’t know him, they didn’t heed the caution they should’ve heard in his tone.
“You know, that chick Charlotte was obligated to invite. She didn’t even want her to come. Said she’s a stick in the mud.”
“I’ve heard fat girls are fun in the sack though,” Rowan added, leering. “They’ll let you do whatever you want since they’re so hard up for attention. It’s cool that you’re showing her a good time. Keeps her off Charlotte’s back. Iknow she’s the bride-to-be, but I’m gonna see if I can tap that tonight. Ben said he’d gladly take the girl I had last night, see if she’d be interested in a threesome with him and her friend. Or maybe we can talk Charles into having some fun.”
It hadn’t escaped Flash’s notice that the men hadn’t used any of the women’s names. He wondered if they even knew them. If they could distinguish at all between the women they were talking about so casually, as if they were merely holes to stick their cocks into.
He opened his mouth to tell these assholes off…when he noticed someone behind them.
Kelli was standing just five feet away, frozen, a look of shock and hurt on her face.
That, more than anything these two dipshits said,reallypissed him off. This woman, who’d been smiling not two minutes earlier, now looked embarrassed, as if she wanted to be anywhere but in this dining room.
But even as he watched, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. She stepped toward them and shoved between the two men roughly, making them stumble to stay on their feet.
“Sorry,” she said insincerely. Then she lowered her voice, as if imparting some deep dark secret. “I have it on good authority that my cousin just got back from the doctor before this trip. Heard her talking with her friends about some test results…something about how it takes chlamydia a week or two to go away.”
With that, she took the pitcher of juice out of Flash’s hand and sauntered back to their table.
Flash couldn’t keep the smirk off his face as Rowan and Seb immediately began to whisper furiously to each other.He quickly followed Kelli back to the table. She was frowning when he sat and refused to meet his gaze.
“Kelli?”
“Yeah?” she asked, staring at her plate as if it held all the answers to every question in the universe.
“Please look at me.”
She sighed, then reluctantly lifted her chin. “What?”
“They’re idiots. Thinking with their dicks. Don’t take what they said to heart.”
“They didn’t say anything I haven’t heard before. It’s crazy how being fat is a bigger offense than a lot of other things. It brings out the worst in other people. Everyone talks behind your back. Doctors blame all your symptoms on being overweight without even doing tests to find out what’s really wrong. And to men, it’s like we have the plague.”
“People are morons,” Flash said heatedly.
“It’s fine,” she said with a shrug.
