46 I'd Kill Her First

Isabelle

I opened the door to the bar and stepped inside. I made it a point to come a little early as I wanted to see Noami before things got too busy. With the holidays it has been a minute since I've seen her. We've texted here and there but that's about it.

I had some time to kill anyway. Sterling had been out with Killian for part of the day. Damon had taken Kaydence out of town on a little getaway so he was on his way to check in on Scarlett. He offered for me to tag along but I decided since I was in the city that I should use some of my time for my friend.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Noami smirked as I took a seat on the stool in front of her.

"I know, it's been a little bit." I responded.

"Damn right. I was beginning to think you died or something." She chuckled as she made her joke.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "It's just been slightly crazy at work and the holidays. The Tipton's also happen to be very family oriented people so that doesn't help."

"How is work?" She smirked as she raised a brow.

"It's fine, thank you." I answered. "I did however set up a meeting for my boyfriend to go and meet with his ex-girlfriend in the next two days so that should be real fun."

Noami scrunched her face. "Gross, why?"

"My guess is this is another attempt to get him back." I knew damn well what Elise was out for. I was going to make damn sure she didn't get it too.

She had her chance with Sterling. She's the one who blew it and fucked herself over. She's getting desperate though for some reason. Either she really really wanted him, or she needed him for something.

Regardless, Sterling Tipton is the one thing the spoiled little brat wasn't going to get back. She didn't deserve him. He may be taking the lead on this but I wouldn't hold back. If I needed to put her in her place I'd be more than happy to do so.

"You're just allowing it?" Noami seemed a little surprised.

"If I don't allow it then she'll get the impression that I feel threatened by her. That would only give her even more drive to continue fighting for someone who isn't her's." I explained part of my reasoning for why I thought he should take the meeting. "She's spent too much of her life thinking she can get what she wants by throwing tantrums and scaring people. It's about time she learns that the world doesn't work like that."

"I see." Noami nodded. "It makes sense. Sounds like she would expect you to run away from her, not to her."

"Exactly." I responded. "Besides, I'm his assistant. I'll be there so it's not like she'll get away with trying anything. I'd kill her first."

Sterling and I have made too much progress for Elise to come in and ruin. We had fought hard to get to this point. If she thought she could take me out so easily she was dead wrong. I wasn't going to go down without a fight.

That's one thing I've learned from being orphaned and out in the real world. You have to fight for what you want. No matter how hard or tedious it may get. If you know it's meant to be your's you don't give up until you're the last man standing.

"You're going to have to keep me posted about this then." Noami spoke as she leaned on the counter. "I'm a sucker for gossip and this sounds like it'll be pretty juicy."

"Don't worry you'll know." I reassured her. "How are things going for you? Did you have a good Christmas?"

"Yeah." She nodded as she poured a drink in a glass. She then glanced up at me. "Do you want anything?"

"No." I answered. "Not right now."

She took a sip from the glass and set it on the counter. "Christmas was good. Spent some time with my parents and they're doing fine. Then I came to work here for a couple hours."

"On Christmas?" I raised a brow. "Does anyone even come in?"

"Oh yeah, you'd be surprised." She responded as she took another sip from her glass. "A lot of the customers that come in are either lonely or they spent way too much time with their family's and need to take the edge off. It's actually a pretty profitable day."

"Interesting." It made sense I guess.

"Besides the horrible ex, how are things going with the boss man?" She smirked as she brought Sterling back up into the conversation.

"Extremely well." I smiled smally. "Honestly better than I could have imagined."

"Better than you could have imagined? Well how did you think it was going to go?" Noami questioned.

"I mean, I was worried that there would be some awkward tension." I confessed to her. "Just with everything that had happened between us I was worried that it would impact things a lot more. I'm grateful it hasn't."

"Good. Because you deserve to be happy." She smiled.

Noami and I continued talking for a while longer. We had been so caught up that I had spaced how long I had been here. I didn't check the time until my phone began to ring. I pulled it out of my purse and realized it was a little past eight-thirty.

"It's Sterling, I've got to take this." I spoke before getting up from the stool I sat on.

"Okay." Noami nodded before going over to take care of some customers who had just sat down.

I went into the bathroom to get away from the music and answered the call. "Hey."

"Hey Sweetheart." I could hear a tinge of frustration in his voice. "How far are you from my apartment?"

"Not very far. It probably would take me about ten to fifteen minutes to walk there." I answered.

"Nonsense, I'll send a car for you." I already knew he wasn't very fond of the idea of me walking on my own.

"Okay, I'm just at the bar. Thought I'd pay a visit to Noami." I informed him.

"I'll have someone there shortly for you then." I could still here the frustration in his words. Clearly something had gotten him worked up within the time we had been apart.

"You sound either frustrated or like you're irritated. Is something wrong?" I asked as I wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"Yes. Everything is fine." His tone softened up.

"Sterling." My tone was stern as a way to let him know I wasn't letting up on this.

He let out a low irritated sigh. "It's Scarlett. She's fine, she was just being well, Scarlett."