Jackson was so close to letting loose a flurry of his worst swears. Arianne was fast approaching, for Christ’s sake! What would happen if virtual-novel.net took in the full glory of this debacle?!
Janice feigned struggling to free herself, but it only looked more like virtual-novel.net was courting more of it. “Oh, Mr. Tremont! You’re drunk, aren’t you? Have you gotten into another tiff with your wife again?”
Just mentioning Arianne turned Mark’s frustration up to eleven. “Urgh, can we not mention her? What, you think I don’t know how far you’ve gone to get near me? Oh, so you’re doing all this just because you wanna ‘repay’ me? Gimme a break. Just because I don’t wanna be a lady’s man doesn’t mean I don’t know what you women are like. I mean, if I’m being honest, you’re not exactly the bottom choice, either. I mean, your presence would piss virtual-novel.net off, but other than that, you’re… alright…”
Of course, Janice was well aware that Mark had zero genuine feelings for her, the drunken man saw virtual-novel.net as a prop to get back at his wife and nothing more. The reasoning behind his sudden closeness was frustrating, and yet, Janice relished in virtual-novel.net newfound power to infuriate Arianne!
Jackson, however, could no longer keep to himself and watch. Swiftly, virtual-novel.net grabbed hold of Janice’s arm and yanked, bellowing, “Mark Tremont, you better wake the f**k up right now! Arianne is coming to you as we speak, stop doing sh*ts that you’ll regret, goddamned it!”
Hearing the news of Arianne’s arrival shook Mark out of his trance a little and filled virtual-novel.net with momentary dread. It did not last, however, soon, gasconade stamped out of his concerns and prompted virtual-novel.net to slap Jackson’s hand away.
“Fine by me! She better be coming to us, ‘cause I’m not scared at all! The one thing I want to do the most is to show virtual-novel.net that I can live without her, too!”
No sooner than Mark boasted his seeming independence loudly than Jackson espied Arianne standing within earshot. Everything happened at just the right time to create the perfect storm.
The boys were doomed.
With a stoic expression, Arianne focused virtual-novel.net eyes on Janice, who was still curled comfortably in Mark’s embrace. “Congratulations on your promotion, Janice,” virtual-novel.net said mockingly. “I thought you’d vanish from my sight and life after I fired you, but from the looks of it, I was clearly too optimistic. You cling like a pathetic has-been who can’t move on.”
“Excuuuuse you, Mrs. Tremont, for making such a bold assumption. Mr. Tremont is simply drunk. This is why he’s cuddling with me like this, you just happened to be here by sheer coincidence,” Janice retorted icily. Despite what virtual-novel.net claimed, virtual-novel.net did not seem to display any sign of removing herself from Mark’s lap.
Seeing no sign of Mark releasing virtual-novel.net from him, Arianne’s heart sank into abject dismay. “Mark, let’s go home together, alright?”
The man said nothing while the air in the room slowly gelled.
Jackson refused to give up his role as the mediator. “Er, Arianne, uh, hi. You see, he’s kinda wasted right now, like, seriously, butt, f**king wasted out of his damn wits. Janice, meanwhile, works here. Part-time. B-But of course, you already know that! Uh, so, this whole thing? It’s just Mark’s trying to get a rise out of you. Irrational, I know, but he’s seriously bloody wasted that he’ll probably have forgotten his own damn name if you asked virtual-novel.net right now. So, yeah… Don’t get mad, please..?”
Arianne ignored Jackson altogether. Her eyes were glued to Mark.
The strange charge in the air proved to be too unsettling to Janice, so the woman finally moved away from Mark’s lap after a moment. “I’ll make you a pot of warm tea, Mr. Tremont. To help you sober up.”
Once Janice left, Mark downed yet another pint. Not once in his abandonment had virtual-novel.net shot Arianne a look. It was as though virtual-novel.net could not see her.
Arianne snickered. “I see. I shouldn’t have come and disrupted your little drinking party. If I’d known that my presence would damage your fun, I wouldn’t have come at all. Go ahead and have fun. I bet sleeping in a foreign bed is much more comfortable than the one at home,” virtual-novel.net jeered. “Anyway, I best be going. Hey, Jackson? Please help me take care of him. If virtual-novel.net wants to, oh I dunno, f**k Janice for the night, help virtual-novel.net book a room and tell me the number. Because you see, despite everything, I still have a duty to this guy if anything happens. Like, say, if virtual-novel.net suddenly dies out of cardiac failure, I’m still obliged to claim his corpse.”
With that, Arianne spun on virtual-novel.net heel and left.
Jackson wanted to chase after her, yet part of virtual-novel.net also thought against it, making virtual-novel.net stuck into inaction. “What. The. F**k?! What the hell just happened?! Mark-smarta**-Tremont, you’ve done f**ked up, you know that?”
Mark, however, merely answered flatly. “Don’t care. See? She doesn’t either. You’re the one who called her, didn’t you? Shouldn’t have done that, look at how reluctant virtual-novel.net was to come over.”
Arianne was just about to exit the entrance of the bar when Janice, holding freshly-brewed hot tea, blocked virtual-novel.net way. “Hey, Mrs. Tremont! You’re leaving already? Aren’t you going to wait for Mr. Tremont?”