Brei Betzold - Tribal

I ducked out from under his arm and headed towards Sam; I didn’t want to be in the line of fire of her and X.

She walked up and ran her hand from his chest to his groin. “Hi X,” she simpered and I rolled my eyes.

“Hey Cyn,” he said then went back to talking to Sam and Seth, ignoring her. She ducked under his arm so it was around her shoulders then snuggled up to him.

“So Ash,” Cyn said glaring at me, “isn’t it weird dating a guy that at one time was engaged to your boss?”

I sucked in a breath. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh you didn’t know? I’m sorry. I just thought that he would have told you, I’m sorry.” Her tone sounded contrite but I could see it in her eyes, she’d meant to hurt me.

I looked around the group and all of them were staring at Cyn then at me, “Devi?” I asked quietly.

“We were never engaged,” she said between gritted teeth. “Before Seth came home, Cris did ask me to marry him; he wanted to help me take care of Jaks. I told him no and nothing was ever said about it again. Which Cyn fucking knows.”

I was pulled into a hug by X who was glaring at Cyn. “It was nothing,” he whispered in my ear. “It meant nothing. She’s just a backstabbing jealous bitch who’s trying to hurt you.”

I nodded my head slowly, but if that was the case, if it meant nothing, why didn’t he tell me? Why would he tell me he cared about me, then keep something that everyone else knew, and someone would have eventually told me? I would have made sure I told him something like this first so he wouldn’t be sucker punched later.

Cris walked up and I glared at him, I knew then after lying to me now this that he never looked at me as anything more than a plaything. I turned and smiled tightly at everyone. “I’m going to head out, night ya’ll.” Then I spun on my heel and marched out of his shop. I refused to let him know how badly he hurt me, humiliated me.

Cris

I walked up as Ash was slamming out the front door. I wanted to chase after her and find out what the hell was wrong but first I needed to know why she was so pissed off.

“You’re a fucking idiot, Crispin,” Devi said between gritted teeth then she spun looking at Cyn. “And that was a bitch move. I’m done; I don’t need this stress right now.” I watched as she pushed through everyone while carrying Cait and bulldozed out the front door with Seth and Jaks chasing her.

“Uhm…someone want to clue me in?”

X glared at me then turned and glared at Cyn before he shook his head at her in disbelief. Then he took off in the direction of Max’s station I was even more confused.

“Jules?”

“Prick,” she muttered then spun around and flounced off.

“Sam?”

“Well, you screwed up.”

“I got that, but how?”

“It might have been helpful if you’d told the girl you’re dating that at one point and time you’d asked her boss to marry you.”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “How?”

“Cyn told her, in a not so nice way.”

My eyes snapped open just in time to see a pissed off Cyn walk out the door. I looked around and found X staring at Haven and sighed. Of course she wouldn’t be pissed or upset that she’d just fucked me up the ass sideways, no it’d be because X.

“I was going to tell her.”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda, it’s all a little too late now,” Sam said.

I nodded knowing he was right. “How do I fix it?”

He snorted. “I have no fucking clue. I’ve got my own problems I can’t work out.”

I turned and nearly ran into Haven. “Uhm, sorry,” I mumbled then headed to my office quickly.

I grabbed my cell that was sitting on my desk and dialed Ash’s number, it went straight to voicemail. So I decided to text her instead.

CRIS: I’M SORRY YOU FOUND OUT THAT WAY I WAS GOING TO TELL YOU.

I waited for half an hour with no response. I let my head drop to my desk; I had really fucked this up.

Ash

I stormed into the house slamming doors behind me. I wasn’t sure who I was more pissed at—Devi for not telling me or for Cris for the same reason; you'd think that someone would have told me. Then again, it wasn’t exactly Devi's place to tell me that my boyfriend had once fucking asked her to marry him. No, that was all Cris. He should have told me, a long time ago.

I marched into the kitchen and started grabbing things; I needed to do something before I drove back to Pin's Ink and beat the crap out of Crispin. What was that idiot thinking keeping something like that from me? I mean how stupid did he think I was? Then again, he let me look stupid in front of everyone, especially in front of that conniving bitch, Cin. I wanted to punch her in the throat. I wanted to kick Cris's ass. I wanted to fucking scream. Why do men feel the need to do this to me? Did they look at me and think hey, here's an easy mark, let’s just fuck her over.

I went about banging things around the kitchen then focused on doing something, I lost myself in baking. I always went to baking when I was upset. It was safer than finding the person who pissed me off and beating the shit out of them. Instead, I took it out on dough, piecrust, and cookie dough. I don’t know how long I stayed in the kitchen baking, but soon Devi walked in and watched me like I was a caged feral animal.

"So you're baking," she stated.

"Yep."

She sighed. "He should have told you. I didn’t realize he hadn’t told you."

I jerked my head up and down and continued rolling out dough for cinnamon rolls.

"I'm sorry; I don’t know what to say."

"Not your fault, you didn’t propose, you didn’t knowingly keep it from me. I've had a lot of time to think, and it’s all on Cris."

She let out a breath. "Good, I'm glad you don’t hate me. About Cris—"

"Don’t."

"But—"

"No, he fucked up."

She nodded. "He did."

"He could have told me anytime over the past nine months, but did he? No never, and it’s not the first time he’s kept shit from me. I am done with it, if he can’t trust me to tell me simple things about his life, how can I trust him with larger issues?"

She nodded again.

"How can I trust him to tie me up and take a flogger to my skin? How can I trust him to fuck me without a condom? When he can’t even look at me and say hey so I once asked Devi to marry me. She obviously said no, and it’s in the past now."

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"But no, I didn’t get anything; instead I was humiliated being told something I should have known, by her no less."

"You really don’t like Cin, do you?"

I shook my head. "No, but I get it, she’s your cousin."

"She is."

"Cin's not even the point of this, it’s Cris. We fought earlier that day about him lying to me, now this? What else will I learn? I don't want a relationship where I learn his secrets, fears, likes, everything by other people.

She nodded. "I can understand that."

"So I'm done, finished, no more."

"Uhm, if that’s what you want. Just a small piece of advice?"

"Sure."

"Don’t say never. Something may happen to change your mind; I've learned along the way to never say never. Also don't close the door until you at least hear him out, because if you do, it could be something you regret later on."

She stood up and swiped a Mayan Chocolate Cookie off the counter. "Oh. My. God, these are amazing," she groaned after taking a bite. I watched as she made her way around the kitchen trying out the different things I'd made in the past few hours.

"God, we're going to have to have people come over and help eat all this, or I am going to become the size of a house," she said then popped a shortbread in her mouth and moaned.