Page 72 of Beautiful Killer

I strode to the counter, standing beside Julia, cringing when the only customer we had in the shop quickly left. “Leave or I’ll call the cops,” I said to him.

He ignored me, eyes locked on Julia. “I miss you, baby,” he said. “I’m lost without you. Look at me. I’m a fuckin’ mess.” He took a step closer. “Please, baby. I promise, it’ll never happen again. I’ll never lay another finger on you.”

Julia was frozen at my side.

“I love you, Jules.” he said.

I slid my arm around her shoulders. “If you love someone, you don’t hurt them . . .”

He spun on me. “I told you to shut the fuck up!” he yelled.

Julia jumped.

“Now see what you made me do?” he barked at me. “You made me lose my temper . . .” He took another step closer. “Jules, please, baby.”

“You need to leave,” she said, voice small, broken. “I want you to leave.”

“You don’t mean that. That’s her talking.” He pointed a finger at me. “Not you. You hate that bitch,” he said. “What the hell are you doing with her?”

Julia flinched. “You’re wrong, about everything,” she said. “Sunny’s always been there for me.”

“She’s brainwashed you against me . . . she’s . . .”

“Leave,” I said, lifting my phone and hitting 911. I let my finger hover over the CALL button. “Now.”

He looked at me with so much hatred, it took gargantuan effort not to take a step back. He wasn’t as composed as the last time I’d seen him. The man looked desperate and that’s what scared me the most. That look on his face . . . He was capable of almost anything.

He backed up toward the door, pointing at his wife. “We will never be over, Jules.” Then he pushed through the door and took off down the street.

I pulled her into my side. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “He looks . . .” She bit her lip. “Maybe he means it this time, maybe . . .”

I cupped her face. “No, Julia. I know you want to believe that, but you know it’s not true. Bobby will never change, and you deserve so much better than him. So much.”

She burst into tears and I pulled her into my arms and held her while she cried. “I still love him,” she sobbed. “Why do I still love him?”

I shook my head and held her tighter. I wish I knew the answer. I had no idea why our hearts completely ignored our heads, why they set us up for pain, then kept hanging on even after the inevitable happened.

Julia pulled out of my arms and wiped her face on her sleeves. “Thanks, Sunny, for being here for me.”

“Ditto,” I said and gave her another hug.

* * *

“Ready for lunch?” I asked Julia when she finished serving a customer. “I thought maybe we could try something from that new deli down the street?”

She turned to me, a smile on her face. “I’m so in.”

She seemed to have bounced back okay after Bobby’s visit yesterday. We’d had a movie marathon after work. Her to take her mind of her abusive ex, and me to pretend I didn’t have to tell the father of my unborn baby, a man who did not want kids, that I was pregnant and he was the daddy.

“Thought you might be,” I said. “You never could turn down chocolate if I remember right. And I hear they make a mean chocolate cake.”

I walked to the counter and pulled out my purse.

“Oh, you remember right,” she said. “But I think we can safely say, you’re a bigger chocoholic than me.”

I laughed. I’d been craving the stuff in large quantities, served in any way, shape or form, and Julia hadn’t missed this.