The seatbelt bit hard between Reyona's breasts as she slammed hard on the brake when she belatedly saw Maxwell standing in the path of her reversing car. She was thrown back and then forward as the car screeched to a stop, and her heartbeat stopped for a moment before it accelerated again.
"Wha…" she sputtered as she took an inventory of her body to be sure that she was fine before looking outside for certainty that she had not hit any of the cars that were closely parked to hers.
"What was that bastard thinking?" she said in anger as she yanked on her seatbelt to remove it. The way the belt was getting tangled infuriated her more, and she swore fluidly as she yanked on it again.
She had been annoyed when she got out that the truck and Camaro were parked so close to hers, and now that idiot was about to make her commit homicide too.
She finally got rid of the belt and growled when she had to restrain the outward opening of her door to prevent it from scraping the truck's paint.
"Stupid seafood eaters," she muttered under her breath, her blood steaming as she turned to face him, and she saw him with that ridiculous grin on his face as he spread his hands out at his sides in surrender.
"Are you crazy?" she yelled at him, not giving a care that she might be putting on a show for whoever it was that decided to come out or go into the restaurant at that moment. "What is wrong with you? If you want to die so badly, do I have to be the one to do the deed for you?"
She shouted at him as she advanced on him menacingly. The fact that he danced back, still with his hands stretched as he put his hands out as if to ward her off, only succeeded in infuriating her more.
"Whoa, whoa. Take it easy, Reyona. I just wanted to talk to you, and I know that you wouldn't mind if I didn't do something so drastic."
Reyona scoffed as she stood at a distance and gave him a chilling glare. "Have you no respect for people's words? I am not so close to you that you will call me Reyona, am I? I keep telling you that I am Mrs. Lanoth to you, yet you will not listen!"
His playful look changed in an instant, and he stood his ground as he gave her a keen look. "Are you, really? Is that a name you will still like to have despite everything?" He shook his head as if he couldn't understand her. "For a woman who values self-respect so much, I have no idea why you would allow such a thing even after everything. I would rather call you Dexter than that name, you know."
Reyona threw her hands to the heavens as if she were pleading for all the help she could get to deal with such a dense man "Do I look like I care about what you think? What gave you the idea that you knew anything about me?" She scraped her hands through her hair and then looked back at him. "Look, I already told you that this meeting was a mistake. I am sorry if I wasted your precious time and stopped you from eating your delicious meal," she said with her hand flung in the direction of the restaurant. "Let's put a stop to it now, okay?"
"Not yet, Reyona, and you know that." he raised his hand when he saw her facial expression change at the mention of her name "Oops, my bad. I am sorry; I swear that wasn't intentional. I just…"
"I don't care. I don't care," Reyona repeated. "What other business are you so sure that we have together? I already told you that that ridiculous story you told in my office the other day has nothing to do with me. What else do you want?" She shouted at him.
"The truth, Reyona. Or at least the closest thing to the truth. Look," he said, looking sideways and moving closer to her. "I think it is ridiculous for us to stand in the middle of the road like this and discuss this. Let us find..."
"No, I am not having anything else to do with you, nor am I going back in there. I just want you to stop bothering me. That is all," she said firmly as she turned back to go to her car.
Maxwell tried to reach out to her, but she jerked her hands away, pulled back, and punched him hard on the side of his face.
"I say, let go!" she said through gritted teeth.
Maxwell's wind was knocked out, and he was more surprised that she would hit him than the pain he felt from the blow itself.
"What was that for?" he asked involuntarily, genuinely stunned that she hit him like that.
"You don't touch me when I do not ask to be left alone. You don't go about with your ridiculous theory, thinking you know all there is to know about me. You don't judge me based on your self-important perspective of me! I don't care who you are, but when I say let, you let go, bastard!" Her fury steamrolled him before she turned away from him again to go to her car.
Maxwell would have still been dazed by her outburst if he had not seen it before she turned away from him. Her heaving chest could have been attributed to her anger, but he had seen a sheen of tears in her eyes.
He knew he should let her go and probably find another means to sort out this issue, but he just couldn't. Not when she was bottling up that much pain in her. A woman who could let loose like that without warning had a lot eating her up.
He braced himself for another assault while cursing Thomas for being such a cad as he stepped aside when she entered her car and reversed. He prayed that his calculation was right as she waited on the right side of her car.
He made sure he was at the right spot when she maneuvered out of the crevice between the two cars, While she was changing her gears to accelerate out of the lot, Maxwell opened the car door and jumped in.
She looked at him in surprise before saying, "Are you wishing for death? What was that for? Get out of my car!"
Maxwell shut the door behind him with a quick thanks to the heavens that she did not lock the passenger door. "Drive Reyona," he said in all confidence.
"We have a lot to discuss. Then I will leave your hair."
She was having none of it, though. She switched off her ignition and said through gritted teeth, "Get. out!"