Babes Stripping For Love

They both stay still not wanting to break the silent comfort, but Gage can only hold her for so long before things got uncomfortably awkward. “I have your number on my phone, can I call or text you later?”

“Yes,” She said almost instantly making him smile warmly.

“Can I take you out for coffee, or maybe lunch?” Gage thought dinner will have to wait, coffee or lunch sounded safer. At least that was what the man thought.

“Of course,” her smile grew wider, he could see she hesitated but he couldn’t help but feel happy for both of them.

“Thank you, Bree, for giving me a second chance,”

“Thank you for wanting it,” Bree said sweetly to him.

Gage took her hand on his and rubbed her knuckles with his thumb, not sure about kissing her, though he did want to. Again it was another thing that he needed to wait for.

Slowly, he thought, he was going to take it slow with her.

The sparks of happiness he had minutes ago were different from the way he felt when he was around Jade. Gage was only with Bree for minutes and the high of watching her smile lasted way until Marvin drove him home.

“Well, you look happy. Care to share?”

“Not yet. Anyway, thanks for dropping me off. Rockford should be back driving me around by tomorrow.”

“Gage, don’t worry about it,” Marvin left his driveway and Gage went into the house greeted by Duke, the dog woofed in excitement while Gage feels bad for leaving the dog alone in the house for a long period of time. He kept on thinking about getting Duke back to his parents so he wouldn’t be alone in the house when Gage goes to work. But when night came and Duke snuggled by his feet he was reluctant in calling his mom to execute his plan.

Instead, he called Rockford and asked about his whereabouts.

“I… well, I’m taking care of things on your behalf.”

“Which is?”

“I know you don’t remember, but before your memory loss, you asked me to be on the lookout for Bree. So, I’m going through her neighborhood right now, checking in with my contacts and I know you didn’t ask, but I might as well report that everything is good, no threats.”

“There were threats?” Gage didn’t like the thought that Bree’s life was ever in any danger and he knew he had to dig out the information from Rockford.

“She had a client from the club stalking her, and her ex-husband,”

“Shit,”

“Eh, yeah, but she’s okay now, boss.”

“Don’t call me that, I’m not your boss and you know it. I don’t get why you’re so stubborn with your identity. No one has been able to find you, I think it’s time you climb up the ladder. I could always find someone to drive me around.”

Rockford sighed, he was glad that Gage remembered him and the situation he had himself entangled with. Running from one of the most notorious biker gangs in the country was not what he had envisioned for his future. But Rockford will just have to deal. He was thankful when Markov, the country’s most dangerous mob boss graciously agreed to make him disappear with a new identity and a new job as Gage’s right-hand man.

There was something shady going on between Markov and Gage knowing the mob boss wouldn’t just sell his business to a commoner. But Rockford was not stupid enough to ask questions, he was thankful that he made it out of the biker’s gang private compound alive.

Since then everything had been quiet with just a couple of bumps here and there. One of them was Bree who seemed to attract bad men where ever she went. The latest being her loser ex-husband.

“What time do you need me tomorrow?”

“I’m thinking morning, around ten. I need to visit my downtown office then lunch before going to Babes.” They both talk for a while longer before he felt Duke stir under him and let out a little whining sound. Gage said a quick goodbye knowing the dog could sense that a headache was coming. The man groaned when the first wave of headache hits him.

His doctor had warned him about the headaches after the craniotomy hence why he was not allowed to drive and operate heavy machinery. Gage almost laughed at the thought of him operating any heavy machines, but then he cursed at himself when he almost burned his hand while operating his coffee machine the second one of his headaches struck hard. Lately, they don’t sneak up on him that often and Gage did thank Duke for giving him warning signs.

It was almost eleven when he decided to rest on his bed, he set his phone to charge and that was when he remembered Bree. Somehow his wanting to get to know her better made the man nervous. Deep down he didn’t want to disappoint her, they were supposed to be engaged.

Some might say having a memory loss and getting back to your current life was like riding a bike. But Gage knew better, though he lost one year of his entire life, it seemed that the memory was the most crucial for his future. He couldn’t just pick up where he left off, he didn’t have any memory recollection of Bree. The thought made him feel shitty and according to his doctor, the headaches were also contributed by his wary state of mind.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Relax, Gage, and let the memory flow.

He chanted the words, his neuropsychologist had discussed the issue with him and he needed time to heal. But Gage had never been a patient man. He browsed through his phone too many times already and read the text exchange between himself and Bree dated months back before the memory loss. He was familiar with his words and style of texting, yet he was irritated that he did not remember anything about them together.

There were I love you stated in those texts, then there were pictures. God, he had seen their pictures together. In some, he posed together with Bree and an adorable-looking toddler that he assumed to be her daughter, Hazel. Gage hated that he couldn’t even remember what she sounded like. Gage did not erase those text and pictures, he kept them and was still not sure what to do with them until he made a big decision that day and he was going to follow through with it.

“Hello, Bree, I hope I did not wake you?” Gage did not text, he decided to call her instead. He had hurt her, they had shared too much, and every picture and text on his phone confirmed so.

“Gage? is everything, okay?”

“I’m okay, sorry, I shouldn’t have called you this late. Maybe I should call back tomorrow morning?”

“No, no… it’s okay, what’s on your mind?” her voice was soft and it suddenly calmed him down.

“I… um, was thinking we should get coffee or lunch, I want to apologize.”

“Gage, you don’t have to apologize but I’ll meet you for coffee. How’s your headache?”

The man smiled from the other when Bree was still concerned and asked about his headache. “Coffee it is, how about morning before your shift at Babes? and my headache is manageable, it comes and goes.”

“Tomorrow’s my day off. I was planning to go to the zoo with Hazel in the afternoon. So, coffee should be in the morning.” There was a slight pinch in Bree’s heart. Hazel would love to have Gage take her to the zoo and Bree hated that her voice was a bit croaked showing off her emotion that she was trying hard to hide from Gage.

“What did you say to Hazel about me not being there? I… I saw our pictures on my phone, the three of us seemed happy, but I can’t remember any of them.” It was Gage’s voice’s turn to croak. “Shit, Bree, I messed up didn’t I?”

“Gage, no, you did not and you were right, you didn’t ask for the tumor. And I didn’t mention being engaged to Hazel and Mrs. Mancini, she’s my neighbor who babysits Hazel. But yeah, she’s been asking for you. I just said you were sick and needed time to heal.”

“You didn’t tell her about my sickness?”

“Do you want me to explain it to her? right now, she’s probably blaming me for your disappearance and honestly not knowing what the future holds for us… I, I did not correct her or feed her more information.”

“I’d like to have coffee with you tomorrow morning and maybe I can convince you to take me to the zoo with you and Hazel?” Gage was not sure where the thought came from, but he did not back away from his words. He did not want to back down from his intention, Gage had read their text and looked at their pictures too many times before to know that he looked so damn happy with them.

Time had passed too long and he had wasted too many weeks without reaching out to her. Surely if she and Hazel made his face look that happy in the pictures they must’ve made him so freaking happy.

“Coffee, let’s say around nine? we can talk and as you said before, you’re going to get to know me again, and maybe Hazel.”

“Yes, thank you. Rockford and I will pick you up…”

“No, I’ll meet you at the coffee shop. I don’t want Hazel…”

“Fair enough,” Gage agreed with Bree to meet at the local coffee shop around the corner from Bree’s apartment complex and they ended the call moments later.

He felt lighter when their call ended, then he texted Rockford for the change of plans, and his phone buzzed with a confirmation from the man.

That night Gage slept better than he ever had in the past couple of weeks.