“How rude of me,” I said, continuing the battle of wills with him. “Missy, this is Niall Bridges. Niall, this is my friend Artemis.”
“Everyone calls me Missy,” she said, cutting her eyes at me. Yes, that Niall Bridges, the one from last night.
“Charmed,” Niall said shortly.
“So, you're the famous Niall.”
“Please don't, Missy,” I whispered harshly. A blonde woman was approaching us from behind Niall. We made eye contact. She waved at me.
“What's all this then, and why wasn't I invited?” she chirped happily, coming to stand at Niall's side. My stomach tightened.
“Sorry, I don't think we've met,” Missy said because I already knew who she was.
She waved and smiled. “I'm Lisbeth Lane. Niall’s fiancé.” I didn’t think it could get worse but then it just had. That word hit me like a punch in the gut. It was already too much for one night, and now this had to happen. A girlfriend or woman he was seeing was one thing, a fiancee was a step too far. My body numbed. I nodded at the woman, conjuring the last of my politeness.
“Pleased to meet you, Lisbeth. I wish we could stay and chat, but we were actually on our way out.” I studiously refused to
make eye contact with Niall. The woman seemed to shrug it off, smiling and nodding, saying it was a pity but we could catch up later. I grabbed onto Missy's arm and practically pulled her with me towards the exit.
“What a coincidence meeting him here. The way you were talking about him, I wasn't sure I was going to get a chance to meet the famous Niall Bridges.”
“Please drop it, Missy.”
“You're really upset about this, aren't you,” she said. I didn't answer, and she didn't push the subject thankfully. We walked out of the house and down the stairs to the pavement to wait for the car. What a night. I didn’t want to think about Niall anymore. I looked over at Missy.
“Sorry about Dirk by the way.”
“Ah, well,” she said.
“Did you know about Dirk getting engaged?”
“What? No of course not. This is the first time I’ve seen him in over a decade. I haven't kept up with him. I wasn’t expecting it but how could I have anticipated it?”
“I'm sorry though. It must hurt.”
She nodded, then shrugged. “Oh well. I should have looked him up on Facebook first or something so it wouldn’t have been such a shock.”
“Don't beat yourself up.” I heard footsteps, somebody coming down the stairs behind us. I looked over my shoulder. Oh, for the love of God. At this point, the man was stalking me.
“Eddy? Eddy. We need to talk.” He rounded on us, visibly upset.
“We're leaving, Niall.”
“Where are you going? I’m coming with you.”
“I'm going back to Belshire and you’re not invited.” A car approached us on the pavement, but it wasn't ours. Niall waved it over, then pulled the door open when it stopped. And then, he grabbed me, pulling me towards the open door by my arm.
“What on Earth are you doing?” I yelled.
“I'm calling the police,” Missy said. Niall stopped and looked at me. He wasn't a crazy man off the street trying to kidnap me. I knew him, and yes, as much as I told him I didn't want to talk to him, there was a part of me that did. He wasn't going to hurt me, that went without saying. After everything we had been through, I trusted him. I still wasn't sure that I wanted to hear what he had to say, but that pull between us was getting stronger and stronger the more I stood there with him. I didn't want our last confrontation to be the one where a woman announced she was his fiancée. I turned to Missy.
“You can go. I'll meet you back at your house.” Missy looked at me warily.
“Are you sure?”
No, to be honest, I was not. I had no idea what was about to happen, and I was at least eighty percent sure that whatever Niall had to say to me would just ruin my night further, but I had to find out. I knew it would bother me if I left things as they lay.
“Yes. Everything's fine. I'll meet you back at the house. Go.”