A Sidewalk Confrontation

You guys know I couldn't leave you hanging for too long!

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We wove through tables towards the back of the restaurant, looking for Ken and his friends.  I caught Ken's eye and he waved, and we headed in that direction.  Then I saw who else was sitting at the table and stopped dead.

Brody ran right into me.  "Liv?" he questioned, catching himself and stepping back.  When Jordan looked up and our eyes met, I took two quick steps back, treading on Brody's feet.  "Liv," he said again, sounding irritated this time.

Then he followed my gaze and saw Jordan.  "Let's go," he said quietly.  I was frozen, watching Jordan's face first register surprise, then melt into an evil smirk.  Ken looked up again, confused as to why we were just standing in the middle of the restaurant.  "Liv," Brody said, firmly but gently.  "Come on."  I was finally able to will my feet to move and I spun and pushed past Brody, walking to the exit as fast as I could.

The hostess looked confused when we hurried past her outside.  We walked down the sidewalk a bit and I was grateful that Brody didn't try to touch me.  I managed to at least keep all my wits about me this time.  Once we were stopped on the sidewalk, Brody pulled out his phone.  "I'm just going to let Ken know we're going home," he said.  I shifted from foot to foot, full of nervous energy.  He was in the middle of composing a text when Ken walked out of the restaurant.  He spotted us and started walking towards us, and then Jordan came out.

My stomach flipped and I nudged Brody.  He looked up and his gaze hardened immediately.  "What's going on?" Ken asked, stopping in front of us.  Brody kept his eyes on Jordan and stepped forward so he was between Jordan and I.

"Brody," I said quietly.  "We should just go."

"Long time, no see!" Jordan said cheerfully, walking up.  "Hi, Olivia."  He gave Brody a withering look.

"You guys know each other?" Ken asked, looking back and forth in confusion.

"Unfortunately we do," Brody growled.  "Because that motherfucker assaulted my fiancée."

"What?" Ken asked, looking even more confused.

Jordan laughed, and Brody took a step closer to him.  "Brody," I hissed.  Brody was not a small man by any means, but Jordan still had a few inches and probably 35 pounds on him.  Brody ignored me.

Without taking his eyes off Jordan, Brody said to Ken, "Can you get her out of here?  This asshole and I have a couple of things to talk about."

Ken looked at me questioningly, and I glared at the back of Brody's head.  "No," I said, loudly enough that Jordan looked at me.

Someone that had been sitting at the table with Jordan and Ken walked up to us.  "What's going on here?" he asked, looking from Ken to Brody to Jordan and back to Ken.

"We're apparently just having a conversation," Jordan replied smoothly.

"I want to go," I said.  The new arrival looked at me curiously.

Ken, taking advantage of the distraction, said, "Dave, you remember my brother Brody?  This is his fiancée, Olivia."  Dave said nothing, still looking between everyone in confusion.

"Jordan, do you know them?"

"Not intimately, unfortunately," Jordan replied, smiling lecherously at me.  That pushed Brody past his breaking point and he lunged and swung at Jordan.  Jordan managed to jump backwards just enough that Brody's fist barely grazed his face, and Dave and Ken were on Brody within a second, shoving him away from Jordan.

"What the fuck, man?" Dave asked, glaring at Brody.  "Throwing punches on the street?  Not cool."

"Yeah, well neither is what he did to her," Brody snarled.  "He fucking deserves it."

"Would you get the hell out of here?" Ken snapped at Jordan.

Jordan had the gall to look affronted.  "He hits me, and I get scolded and sent away?"

"Can you all knock it off?!" I exclaimed.

A random guy and his girlfriend walking past looked at me.  "Are you okay?" he asked me.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you.  Sorry."  He looked skeptical and I smiled to reassure him.  Once he left, I said, as calmly as I could, "I'm going home.  Someone call me if I need to bail someone out of jail or visit anyone in the hospital."  Then I turned on my heel and walked towards my car.

I hadn't made a full block before I heard footsteps jogging behind me.  "Liv," Brody called.  I stopped, but didn't turn.  "Look," he said when he caught up.  "I know you're pissed at me, but--"

"I'm not pissed at you," I interrupted.  "But I really want to go home.  Can we talk when we get there?"

"Okay," he agreed.  Then gently, he asked, "Are you okay to drive?"

I sighed.  "I don't know," I answered honestly.  Now that everything was diffused and he and I were both away from the situation, I was shaking as the adrenaline wore off.  I looked at him.  "Are you?"

"I will be in a couple minutes," he replied.  "If you want to drive yourself home I won't try to stop you, but if you want to ride with me, we can park your car at my office and I'll drive us both."

I agreed to ride with him, and he drove my car to his building's garage, then we moved to his SUV.  I was grateful we were close to his office.  We were quiet the whole way back except for my request to pick up food on the way.

The first thing I did when we got home was eat, and then I went and got in the shower.  I was almost done getting dressed when Brody came into the bedroom.  "I know you said you're not pissed at me, but I wish you'd talk to me," he said.

I hung my towel up and sat on the bed.  Brody sat next to me.  "I'm not pissed at you," I replied.  "This whole night was...stupid."  I couldn't come up with a better word.  "While I do wish you wouldn't have tried to punch him on the sidewalk in the middle of downtown, I understand why you did it.  I just hate that he keeps popping up.  And I wish you didn't have so much testosterone and were capable of just walking away."

"I'm not proud of the way I acted tonight," he admitted.  "But honestly, I don't know if I'll ever be capable of walking away where he's concerned.  I'd like to beat him to a bloody pulp."

"I'd hate to see what you'd do to him if he had actually hurt me," I said.

He shook his head vigorously.  "I can't even think about that," he replied fiercely.

"Thank you for your dedication to keeping me safe," I said, trying not to laugh.  This was not an appropriate time to laugh, and I wasn't sure what was funny, but I felt a strong urge to giggle.  Brody gave me a weird look, and I closed my eyes for a second and got it together.  "I'm going to go downstairs and read for a little while," I said.  He looked confused.  "I'm all wound up, I just need a little time by myself to calm down a little."

"Okay," he said.  He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn't.  I walked down the two flights of stairs to the lower level and down the hall to my little library.  I curled up on the chaise with a blanket and worked on getting lost in my book.

I had probably been down there for about 45 minutes when there was a knock at the door.  "Come in," I called, expecting Brody.  Instead, when the door opened, Ken stuck his head in.

"Hey, I'm really sorry to barge in," he said.  "Can I talk to you for a minute?  Or could you come get me when you have a minute?"

I was curious enough that I set my book aside and sat up a little.  "Come on in, you can have more than a minute if you want."  I smiled, and he returned the smile as he came in and pushed the door mostly shut behind him.

He perched awkwardly on the edge of the papasan chair in the corner and then said, "I am really sorry about Jordan.  Brody just explained everything--well, not everything, I mean he didn't tell me any details because it's none of my business.  But I want you to know that he is not someone I'm friends with.  My friend Dave?  It's his friend's friend.  I've only met him once before tonight, and that was back when we still lived here when we were kids.  So I'm really sorry, because I didn't know--"

"Ken," I cut him off gently. "It's okay, it's not your fault.  But thank you.  I appreciate you coming down to talk to me."

He smiled uncomfortably.  "I haven't seen Brody that mad since...well, since Heather died, I guess."

"You should have seen him the night he actually punched Jordan in the face and broke his nose," I said, smirking.

Ken laughed.  "Did he really?"

"He did," I replied, nodding.

"I'm glad to see all the practice he got on his punching bag growing up did some good."  He stood up. "Well, I'll leave you alone now, thanks for hearing me out."

"Anytime," I said, smiling.  Ken smiled back, said goodnight, and left, pulling the door closed firmly behind him.

I read for about 15 more minutes before I put the book aside and stood, stretching.  I saw light coming out from under Ken's closed bedroom door down at the other end of the hallway as I headed upstairs.  I found Brody sitting on the couch in the mostly dark living room, laptop open in front of him.  He set it aside as I came into the room, and I sat down on the couch next to him.  He put his arm around me as I settled against his chest.  "Did Ken come talk to you?" he asked.  I nodded.  "He feels bad."

"I know, but he shouldn't," I replied.  "He didn't know."

"I told him that too."  We were quiet for a few minutes, then he asked, "Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?"

I snorted.  "I doubt it."

"Should we put on a movie or something?"

"Sure," I agreed.  "Something funny."

After a quick scan of his shelves full of movies, Brody put in Napoleon Dynamite, which made me roll my eyes, but it at least fit the funny bill.  We laid on the couch together watching movies until nearly 2am, when I finally fell asleep.