The Rampage MC #1: Levi/Chain and Genny

Chapter 8: He's Been Staring At Me

After shutting the door in Levi's face once I'd dropped my bombshell, I'd expected pounding on my door, perhaps bellowing...anything except absolute silence. That was almost more worrisome than a reaction. If Levi still thought of me as his, and I was pretty sure he did, he'd defend his territory with a ruthlessness I'd seen on a few occasions when men hit on me and didn't take no for an answer. 

Right now, though, I had more important things to worry about than his lack of reaction, like what to do with my hair, how to do my makeup, how short of a dress I should wear, if I was absolutely insane for contemplating going out on a friendly date when my life had descended into total chaos.

That scene in the grocery store had left me so furious and demoralized that I'd called up a local moving company to see when they could pack and move my things into storage until I got my own place. It was a small company and one of the owners came out the same day to give me an estimate. Tyler was just my type: thick, muscled and bearded. Just like...nope! Not going there.

Since he wasn't sporting a wedding ring, and I was still stinging from the grocery store fiasco, I decided to just lay it all out there. As he looked up from his clipboard, I gathered my courage and just word vomited at him.

"I know the timing sounds all wrong because I'm moving soon, but honestly, I'm not looking for serious right now, and I'd love to just have dinner with someone who's nice to talk to and good to look at and wondered if you'd like to go out with me for a no-pressure, no-expectations dinner?"

He just shot me a grin. "I think you just asked me out to dinner?"

I nodded.

"Sure. Friday work for you?"

Again, I nodded. 

"You have my number if something comes up, but let's plan on meeting at that steakhouse on Central at seven."

I'd had no inkling that our dinner would fall on the same day that Levi would be confessing everything to me just hours before my date. However unexpected, Levi's talk with me wasn't going to change my plans. I wasn't going to be second runner up to the MC; once had already destroyed me, so no way was I signing up for a lifetime of that pain.

The restaurant Tyler mentioned was a nice, but not too nice, restaurant that had an excellent dessert menu. After everything I'd been through lately, dessert and eye candy sounded pretty damn good. Ella agreed when I called her, panicking, ten minutes before I was supposed to walk out the door for my date.

"It's just dinner," she kept repeating to calm me down. "It's just dinner with a nice man who hasn't fucked you over. No stress because you're moving. You'll have a good time, Levi will probably hear about it and get jealous, so it's a win all the way around. Whatever you do, just have fun."

That seemed like good advice, so I walked out my front door boldly, empowered in a short red dress that looked great with my hair. If my eyes did a quick scan of the area to make sure Levi wasn't lurking, well, who can blame me? Nothing in my life had been easy and I was too suspicious to expect Levi would just let this go.

Tyler was waiting outside of the restaurant for me and greeted me with a big smile. We walked inside and were seated after a few minutes, during which time we made typical getting-to-know-you conversation. From the minute we met, it felt like I was with an old...friend. Zero chemistry, and somehow, with both of us knowing this wasn't going anywhere, the pressure was off and we launched into a great conversation, able to talk without all of that normal first-date pressure. There's something about talking with a complete stranger that allows you to be more open than you normally would be, and we were soon swapping "done me wrong" stories. His ex had recently gotten pregnant by his brother-in-law and had tried to pass it off as Tyler's. I shared my story of Levi and my step-sister and the broken engagement. We were laughing and commiserating over our steaks when Tyler suddenly leaned toward me.