Love Like a Man

Chapter 20 - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

(I accidentally deleted this chapter, here is is again!)

The moment Gabe closed the door, Chastity thrust herself onto him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She used the split second it took for him to each up and start to unclasp her arms to press her lips onto his and slide her tongue into his mouth.

Under normal circumstances, Gabe was acutely aware that Chastity was the embodiment of bad news, But tonight, the taste of her cherry lip gloss mingling with the alcohol on her breath caused the blood he used for thinking clearly to redirect itself from the head that sat atop his shoulders to the one that hung below his belt.

Gabe indulged the devil on his shoulder and pulled Chastity closer to him, cupping one of her round ass cheeks with his hand while roughly putting his fingers through her bleached blonde hair and grasping the back of her head with the other. He kissed her back as hard as he could in a desperate attempt to forget the image he had seared i his mind of the way Claire looked at that other guy. 

Unfortunately, their sloppy kiss wasn't enough of a distraction to prevent thoughts of Claire on her date from creeping in. Gabe couldnt stop himself from wondering if at this very moment Claire was kissing someone else as well. 

Damn.

It was bad enough that Claire had chosen another man over him, but why did she also have to ruin him for anyone else?

***

Claire's cab pulled up to Gabe's house just in time for her to see him let his hooker of an ex-girlfriend inside. She was royally pissed that she found him about to do the nasty with someone else, when she had been barely able to wait to be back at his size after he accosted her in the bathroom at Fitzgerald's.

Claire would've followed Gabe straight out of the bathroom to wherever he wanted to take her had she been at Fitzgerald's alone. Unfortunately, she had been there with one of her best friends and felt obligated to stay on her double date for a little while longer. Miriam and Adam were hitting it of and she would've been a crappy friend if she'd ditched so early on in the night. 

But now, here she was - Sitting outside of Gabe's house while he was inside getting in on with Chastity.  Why had she bothered leaving her date at all?  What had she been thinking skipping out early on a guy like Brandon? Claire was kicking herself for messing up a date with one of the most handsome, kind and accomplished men she'd met in a long time for a guy who'd jump into bed with his ex less than two hours after kissing her. 

Normally, Claire felt that messy confrontations were beneath her. Her style was to freeze a guy out by avoiding his calls or giving him the cold shoulder. But this wasn't a usual circumstance; Gabe had intentionally ruined her date and then had the audacity to move onto his next conquest before her panties were dry.

Nope, this type of callous behavior definitely warranted Claire slinging some of the mess Gabe created back his direction.

Gaining courage from all the gin she'd consumed at the bar, Claire told the cappbie to wait for her and marched up Gabe's front steps. 

***

Gabe pulled away from his kiss with Chastity at the sound of loud knocking at his door. 

"Ignore it..." Chastity said breathlessly. She gabbed his face between her hands and pulled him back towards her.

Gabe resisted her pull, the knocking having thankfully broken the moment - It stopped him from making a mistake he'd come to regret.  Even if Claire wouldn't have him, it didn't mean his only option was to hook up with his cheating ex.

"Naw, I better get that. It's probably a cab. You should go." Gabe said forgetting that he hadn't called a taxi yet.

Unfortunately, it took GAbe opening the door to find a ticked off Claire staring him down to remember that a cab hadn't been on it's way.  Gabe wanted to yell out in frustration at how crap this night was. Of course Claire would turn up at the same time as Chastity. 

"Claire..." Gabe started, completely taken off guard by the turn of events. 

"You've got a lot of nerve bud." Claire said cutting him off as she stabbed a manicured finger into his chest. "What the hell is the matter with you? Why would you tell me to leave my date when you've already got a piece of ass here?" Claire said looking over to Chastity.

"That's right Bitch... I was here first!" Chastity said, oozing smugness.

Oh hell no. There was no way Gabe was going to allow himself to be caught in the middle of a cat fight.  Glancing over Claire's shoulder he saw a way to prevent the drama that was about to unfold. There was a cab parked outside his place. Thank God.

"Actually Chastity, you were just on your way." He said as he directed Chastity to the door. "You better get going before it leaves." Gabe then added as he closed the door behind her, leaving him alone with Claire.

Before Gabe was able to gather his thoughts, Claire took control of the situation. 

"I should go too." She said in a tone so cold that Gabe wouldn't have been surprised to see icicles hanging off her lips.

As desperate as he was to be with Claire, Gabe's patience was running dangerously thin. He thought it was pretty ridiculous that Claire was mad at him for seeing Chastity when she'd pretty much ignored him the entire week then wen on a date with some dude.

"Well that's pretty rich." Gabe said, tempted to show Claire the door as well.

"Excuse me?" Claire said, obviously taken aback by Gabe's curt reply.

Before answering, Gabe moved towards Claire until she'd backed up enough hat he had her pinned against the hallway wall with his body - He wasn't about to allow her to escape until he'd said was he needed to. 

"Claire, you made if very clear tonight, when I found you on a date with ANOTHER MAN, that we don't belong to each other."  Gabe said, looking right into Claire's angry eyes.

"Now, we can spend the night debating which of us has the right to be the most pissed off with the other, but I'd rather spend it giving you what you came here for in the first place." 

Without another word, Gabe stepped away from Claire and went upstairs to his room. He'd happily offer himself to the woman, but he wouldn't beg her to stay. For the second time that night, Claire was left to decide if she'd follow Gabe to his bed, or put an ed to what he had together.