She finally had enough by the end of the lesson, so as soon as the teacher dismissed them, she turned to face the blond boy.
“Brian, I had been patient with you but enough is enough. I am not interested in you. I was never nor will I ever be interested in you, so could you please, for the love of God, leave me the fuck alone?!”
Aria knew that she had hurt his feelings, without even having to look at his stumped face, and she also knew that Brian had done nothing wrong except liking her and being slightly annoying about it, but at that moment she couldn’t care less, as she grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom, leaving the hurt boy behind.
After taking a quick nap, which was thankfully nightmares-free, she took a quick shower and got ready for work. Tonight, would be her first time back at ‘The Echo’ after taking an impromptu time off after the date, and she was praying for everything to go smoothly.
Meg had assured her that she could take as much time off as she needed even when Aria wouldn’t tell her why she was unable to come to work, but it had been three weeks since then, and she knew that it was time to put on her big girl panties and deal with the consequences of her actions.
The club was packed as usual, and for the first time since she had started working there, Aria was grateful for it. Keeping busy kept her newfound depression at bay, and she slowly relaxed after what felt like a million years.
“Hey, Ari?” she heard Ash, another waiter, calling her from the other side of the bar and turned to look at him.
“Could you get these drinks to Meg? She asked for them a few minutes ago but I am swamped since Isaac took the night off. Please?”
Aria grimaced at the thought of leaving the bar and mixing with, but in the end, she just nodded, not wanting to come off as rude and flat out reject the guy. So, in the end, she took the tray and started to walk toward the VIP booth and as she got closer, she spotted Meg, sitting with some guys she had never seen before, joking and laughing, so she approached them slowly, with her eyes glued to the ground and her anxiety skyrocketing.
“Aria, what are you doing out of the bar?” Meg asked her as soon as she saw her.
“We are short one waiter tonight, so Ash asked me if I could bring you this myself.” she said and seeing that Meg was still worried for her, she quickly set the drinks on the table anxious to leave as soon as possible.
Just as she was about to excuse herself something caught her eye. She saw a woman, which she had never seen before, sitting to her left in a man’s lap, which was anything but unusual at ‘The Echo’.
No, the thing that stopped her in her tracks was the man in question. She raised her eyes slowly for them to be met with cold, green ones, and her stomach dropped.
She could feel something in her chest that she wasn’t even aware was there breaking into a million tiny pieces and her eyes started to water so she quickly tore her gaze away from his, pulling herself together and trying to act like nothing was wrong, even though she knew that everyone could see the turmoil written across her face if they cared to look closer.
“Do you need anything else, Meg?” she managed to say without having her voice waver to her great relief and when Meg said no, she immediately turned around and ran to the closest bathroom.
The Fight
"Hello Aria, it’s Will again. I just wanted to let you know that this will be the last time I call. It has been three weeks, and I am getting tired of talking to your voicemail. I wanted to say that I am sorry for whatever it is that I did wrong. So, if you don’t call me by the end of the day, I will respect your wishes, and you’ll never hear from me again, but I do hope that you will.
Goodbye, Ari.”
She didn’t call.
Will sighed while looking down at the phone in his hand, silently willing it to ring even though he knew that it won’t. He was seriously tempted to call her again, but he managed to resist.
Aria didn’t want to have anything to do with him, and Will would just have to suck it up like a man and keep the promise of not bothering her again.
His phone suddenly rang and he felt ashamed by how quickly he snatched it, but the hope that sparked in his chest, quickly vanished when he saw that it was Jenna, a woman he met a few days before in a meeting, who was calling. He was acting like a silly little school girl waiting for some guy to call and Will hated himself for it.
Jenna wanted to know if he was up for a drink or two, and the word ‘no’ was already on his lips when he stopped himself.
He realized that he was about to turn down a beautiful woman, who was by the sound of it, interested in him and all that because of what?
A girl, more than a decade younger than him who wasn’t even interested in him, so much so that she refused to return his call if just to tell him off for bothering her.
He shook his head at his own stupidity and accepted the offer, all the way ignoring the persistent voice in the back of his
