16 Chapter 16 ~ Poison Tipped Daggers

"Do you know what you want sweetie?" Alex asked, resting his arm along the back of her seat.

"Uh, no, nothing looks good to me right now." Alex glanced sharply at Resa.

"But you love this place. You always find something good to eat here."

"I know. I'm just not hungry is all."

"But you were earlier. Are you feeling okay?" Resa glared at Alex, her eyes narrowing the longer she stared at him. He finally backed off, turning his attention to his menu. Mentally, he sighed, his mind already flipping over what he would tell her when the time came for questions and answers and he would be damned if he had a sensible answer for that problem.

-----

Kris watched the whole thing, frowning to herself. She knew Resa was pissed, hell, she herself was. But that wasn't cause enough for her to be a royal, class A bitch to him. Even if he did lie, which, a blind and deaf fool could see he did. Ah, hell, who was she kidding? The moment they got alone, Kris would so be ripping him a new asshole. Even if she rather be jumping his bones again. She shook her head slightly, not wanting to entertain those thoughts for a moment. And most certainly not wanting to do that with her best friend just down the way.

"Is something playing in your mind Kris?" Kris jumped slightly as D sat his menu down, resting on the arm of his chair.

"You know, don't you?"

"Pretty much. Alex is one of my best friends and it's not always easy to keep things from each other."

"I kinda gathered everyone knows."

"You are right. You know Alex has a big mouth, even bigger when he's got some serious issues on his mind. Not to mention, again, all of us are close. Granted, I know more than the other guys." She ducked her head, playing with her hands.

"Do you hate me, D?" He had to flinch at that. He did hate her, well, not hate, which was such a strong and harsh word. This wasn't really her fault, so it wasn't fair to her to be mad at her that one of his best friends was hurting.

"Hate you? No. How could you know that Alex was engaged? They haven't announced it to anyone. And unless you watched them closely, you wouldn't even know they were in a relationship." He reached over and captured her hand, hating the look that had crossed over her face. "Kris, no one blames you. I mean, the only who has any blame is Alex. He knew better. But he also didn't bother telling anyone the truth. If you knew and still did something, than yes, the blame can lie with you as well." Kris looked over at him and smiled.

"Thanks D, you are a sweetheart."

"True. But I hate people beating themselves up over something. And Resa is smart, she won't blame you."

"Maybe. She knows how badly I liked Alex."

"So, is this a way for you to try and steal him away?" Kris bit her lip, looked back over at the couple and knew that she couldn't do that to Resa again.

"No."

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Alex kept watching the interaction between D and Kris and tried his best to show anything other than anger. Although, his best friends, if not his woman, could tell he was holding onto that sliver rather lightly. Ugh, did he want to scream out his frustration right now. His hand rested on Resa's thigh under the table and even that had to be controlled.

It wasn't the touching her part, but the not flexing his muscles or clenching his hands that he had to think about. And that was hard. He took a drink of his water, wanting it to actually be anything but that right now. What was that about liquid courage? But not for the reasons that most men needed it. He just needed it to help sooth his damn nerves right now. And he knew damn good and well that the only one to blame for this oh-so-wonderful problem, was him. His heart, his mind, his body might have all screamed 'no', but it lasted for a grand total of sixty seconds, if even that.

He leaned back in the seat, his body angled toward Resa, trying to block the rather intimate setting that was happening between D and Kris. And Resa, in turn, turned to him, smiling.

"They make a rather cute couple huh?" Mentally, Alex was screaming and clenching his teeth and then ramming D's head into the wall. But, he just smiled at Resa and shrugged.

"I suppose. Are you playing matchmaker?" Her eyes just took him in, her eyes that caught everything and missed nothing. And he knew that his emotions were probably are lot more noticeable than he wanted at the moment.

"Alex?" His eyes shot over toward Resa and he smiled.

"What baby?"

"Can I have a cigarette?" Oh, that wasn't a good sign. Neither was the fact that her eyes were shooting poison tipped daggers right at him.