Isabela Part 3

"You're my person, foul-mouthed!" Harry whispers. "I'm going to kill your ex! You're just being all mushy because that guy is messing with your mind."
"Shut up!"
I pull away from him, smiling because I know he's right. I'm really needy and messed up. I clear my throat when my eyes finally meet the tattooed jerk next to Harry, who is staring at me curiously while he brushes his thick finger against his lower lip. Bill is even taller than Josiah, stronger, with tattoos all the way up the side of his forehead. I’m shocked, even opening my lips, because he always shaved his head to show off the tattoos, but now the hair is growing back.
"Hey!" he greets, then closes his lips, looking a bit tense as he pulls down the hem of his black shirt, covering the waistband of his matching track shorts.
His thick thighs look like an invitation to bite, but I ignore how hot I think he is.
"So, are we starting?" I raise an eyebrow at Ana, ignoring Bill's greeting.
The ceremony planner, a short, chubby woman with a kind smile, comes over to us. And I have no idea why Harry is here. After all, his partner for the wedding isn't here. It's an elderly neighbor of Ana's who seems to be a hundred years old, walks at a snail's pace, and is the reason Harry grumbles like an old man all the time.
"I can't believe it, why don't you send André in with his Jap girl?" Harry says after half an hour of complaints. "Then I’ll enter the church with Isabela."
His real name is André. I was stunned to find out that Bill was a nickname he's had since his teenage years, and he has no idea why they gave it to him.
"Bianca has an event on the day of the wedding," Bill shrugs, positioning himself next to me at the entrance of the church.
My heart starts to race as I catch Ana's yellowish gaze and see her swallow hard, something resembling fear in her expression. Harry said Bill's girlfriend is a Jap, and the man next to me, waiting for me to take his arm to walk to the altar, just revealed that her name is Bianca.
I have this absurd feeling that his girlfriend is Nate's sister.
"Don’t tell me it’s her, Ana?" I ask, going around the jerk who kicked my ass like a coward over some stupid message, making me loathe his face. "Say it, damn it!"
"I was going to tell you when I saw Bia at college yesterday and connected the dots that she was Nate's sister. But you were already feeling bad enough."
My face turns red with anger. Of all the women in the world, fate put that bitch back in my path. Why do I feel like she's the second man she's pushed out of my life?
I swear on all the saints: when I run into her, there will be nothing in the world that will stop me from going for her throat.
"Out of all the women on the face of the Earth, did you really have to be with the girl who ruined my life?" I ask, finally directing my voice to Bill. He furrows his thick eyebrows, then crosses his arms, muscles flexing as he tilts his head, seeming not to understand anything. "Bianca, my long-time acquaintance!"
"What? How am I supposed to know you have a problem with my girl?" His voice is a mix of indignation and mockery. "Let’s go outside! I really want to talk to you."
"I have absolutely nothing to say to you!" I turn my back to him.
"What do you mean? How am I just finding out about this?" Harry questions, holding his hip. He’s a big gossip, capable of dying if someone doesn't tell him the details of other people's lives, complete with the date and place where the drama happened. "Where do you know Japinha from?"
"Bianca is just the bitch who bullied me for an entire year. Plus, she separated me from her brother!" I say, looking at Bill with disgust over my shoulder. "And you know what? I hope you get really screwed with her!" I wish, growling and turning to him. "And I don't need any rehearsal next to that son of a bitch. I know how to enter a church!"
I walk out, leaving everyone speechless. As I step onto the street, stomping so hard that I could swear my feet would open holes in the ground, I feel a hand gripping my forearm tightly.
It's that familiar feeling of powerlessness, of freezing. The whole world goes silent, and the only noise I can hear is my heavy breathing, my trauma dragging along my skin. It takes me a few seconds to snap back to reality, then I turn to face Bill, swinging my hand to slap his face. He catches it in the air, with more doses of suffocation to my Afefobia. With wide eyes, I see him hold back from slapping me in return. Bill is breathing heavily, looking like a monster, twice his usual size. I've never seen him so angry. His whole face is red, and he scratches his thick beard.
"Never call me names again, you hear? Have I disrespected you?" His question sounds more like a shout. "That’s why we wouldn’t work."
"You did, just now. You know very well what happens to me when someone touches me like that!" I retort, not backing down an inch in front of his intimidation. My loathing for him seems to multiply. "I will never look at you with the same respect again. And it's not just because you're with someone as vile as Bianca. But because you were a coward, you didn't have the decency to break up with me in person."
"I called you dozens of times after that message. You rejected all my calls."
"If you wanted to talk to me, you would have come after me. You always knew how to find me!"
I start walking again, heading to my car, my whole body trembling. I can't believe he was so rude, grabbing me without permission, ignoring all our months together, knowing what those non-consensual touches do to my mind. I open the car door, but his words stop me from getting in:
"I fell in love with you!" he says, still in a thick voice, taking on a nervous tone. "I wanted with everything inside me to be with you, Isabela. But we would never work as a couple."
"Why not?" I ask, my eyes brimming with rage.
"You have a trauma that would prevent me from doing the things I need." Bill swallows hard, shaking his head as if saying those words is a struggle. "I love your skin, your voice, your smell. I've never fallen in love with a girl like I did with you. Not even with Bia. I like her, but in a different way. I dreamed of having a life with you. Ask Josiah; he saw me drunk several times in the last few days because it messes me up not being able to be with you."
"You were with that woman while you were giving me hope?"
"I was with her a few times a week before we broke up. But Bia wasn't the real reason I made my decision about you and me."