Chapter ten – I lied to you

The friendship between Tony and Adeline grew every day. They were training together, learning new fighting skills, discussing many ways how to defeat Goth and how her shield exactly worked. They didn’t discover anything interesting. Her abilities remained the same and the only thing she could do was to create it around her. Tony tried to solve how she could expand the ability. The only answer he got was more training.

James, from time to time, spent the time with them, trying to learn something new, useful and also wanted to get to know the young attractive woman. Unfortunately, he didn’t have that much time for them. He was needed in the military base, where he worked. When he did visit Tony’s mansion, he and Adeline would train together. She was skilled; she knew how to fight and taught both of them, new moves and fighting technique.

“Can you work with a gun?” James asked her when they had a day off of fighting. “I can teach you…”

“I took lessons,” Adeline gave him a simple smile while she was looking at a hologram filled with interesting information. Her finger touched the blue screen and opened a new file. “You seem to be surprised,” her green eyes were looking at him. “I’m not an ordinary girl,” she giggled. “That is a very long story.” While they were having this pretty much normal conversation, Tony was checking them from afar. He was working on his suit such as adding the newest lasers.

Every time his best friend came to work with them, Adeline was mostly talking to him, ignoring Tony almost the whole time. Was he jealous? Tony Stark is never jealous. If he can’t have her, he can have any other girl. However, Adeline wasn’t like the other women. He sighed and continued with his work…

Adeline was surprised when Tony supported her on the day of the funeral. He even took her from the cemetery and they went to his place, where they continued with the work and cheered her up. They listened to Tony’s favourite music. He was surprised when he heard her singing the lyrics from one of the songs.

Back on the funeral, Dan, Adeline’s friend, wasn’t very pleased when he saw Tony waiting for the brunette. “Why can’t we see each other, Ad?”

“Because I have other important plans to do, sorry,” those were the last words he heard from her. Adeline had to cut him from her life. He was in danger like the girls were. They paid for it with their lives. The woman gave him the last soft smile, fixed the big black sunglasses on her nose, and walked away from the taller man.

From that moment, everything seemed to be fine. There was no sign of Goth, nobody died for a very long time, and Adeline felt more comfortable in Tony’s presence. They had a laugh, they talked, even had pizza nights together. It felt right like they knew each other for a very long time. All the negative thoughts about that man disappeared away and the new feelings came unexpectedly. Sometimes, she caught herself looking at him differently while he was talking about the newest weapons installed in the Iron Man suit.

Everything was great, until a day without seeing Tony, training and preparing for their mission.
The first three days were fine. Adeline cleaned her apartment, solved the contract with the bar she worked in and officially quit. It was destroyed by Goth, so why work there when there’s no bar? Also, she did her own training. Every day Tony didn’t call, she made an excuse for him in her head. He was running a big company – maybe he had meetings, or he had to unexpectedly travel abroad. But as the time went by, she was sick of it. For over two weeks nothing happened. Tony didn’t call or return the call.

She tried it one more time. Adeline put the device to her ear, leant against the doorframe of the balcony, and waited for Tony to pick up the call. After several long, annoying beeps, there was a voice mail.

“Fuck,” she whispered grumpily. What if something happened? That was impossible. The city looked peaceful, not a thing was happening at the moment. What could change?

Without any hesitation, she called herself a taxi, put on some skinny jeans of blue colour and a tight purple top – the first pieces of clothing she found in her closet. There was no time for high heels. Instead, she chose regular black shoes. Her long brown hair was in a ponytail and before she left her little apartment she grabbed her black purse with the most important things as keys, wallet and mobile and - for an emergency situation – the mask.

The car was waiting for her outside the building. Adeline tried to call Tony one more time but once again, there was a voice mail. She was annoyed by this. Was he avoiding her for some reason? She thought they were friends, very good friends. Her opinion changed and she even found him attractive – even more than before. Why was she thinking about him like this? There were many questions in her head and it all made her nervous and confused at the same time. When she got into the car and said the address, the driver didn’t say anything but his face told everything. She saw it in the reflection of the back mirror. “Just drive,” she said angrily.

For two weeks, everything seemed to be fine. Then after two weeks, another two came where he was ignoring her. Maybe he didn’t even want to be a friend – fine! At least they could be work buddies and nothing more. When the war is over they would say good-bye and she will leave from his life. Adeline made herself comfortable in the back of the taxi and rolled her eyes. The whole time she was looking outside of the window, scanning the surroundings with her green eyes and thinking about him. Did it really make her that upset?

After almost thirty minutes, the car stopped near Tony’s mansion. She paid for the ride, left the car and looked at the big entrance gate. When the taxi left away, she took a step closer to the entrance. On the left side, there was a screen of colour blue. “Eh, JARVIS?” she cleared her throat.

~ Good day, Miss Montana. Should I inform Mr Stark your appearance? ~

“Oh, yes, please,” she said pretty much angrily. “May I enter?”

~ Of course, Miss Montana. You are on the list of important people who have the access to Mr Stark’s mansion, ~ and the entrance gate opened for her.

Until she came to the front door, she was preparing her speech. What should she say to him? Show him how really mad she was or just act normal like nothing happened? Adeline was pissed off. There was no way she would treat him nicely. The fresh air from the beach cleaned her head a little bit. She could feel the salty ocean and sandy beach in her nose. In other situation, it would have calmed her down. However, the rage didn’t leave her at all.

After several minutes of walking, she finally got to the front door. Without any hesitation, Adeline went inside like an angry tiger. Her green orbs sparkled with fury. When she scanned the glorious sizable living room, she found only a piece of clothing thrown on the floor. It looked like Tony’s black blazer. He was inside, so was he in the garage?

Adeline was just about to scream his name when a sweet giggling noise came from the stairs. And in a second later, another giggling was heard, but this one was slightly different. Subsequently, a male’s voice was heard. The brunette turned to the stairs and there she saw Tony with two women with bright smiles on their faces. He was whispering nonsense into their ears.

Adeline crossed her arms over the breasts, and she loudly cleared her throat just to catch their attention. Tony looked at her. “Adeline!” is sounded surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” she shook her head. It was unbelievable. “Well, since you weren’t answering my calls, I came to check you out,” she said it normally, without any hesitation in her voice. “But as I can see you are doing just fine, more than fine.”

“Who’s that?” asked one of the women. She was slightly taller than Tony; she had short black hair and deep brown eyes. Her hand was on his shoulder, slowly stroking it. “Is that your girlfriend?” she tried to mock both of them.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Tony replied seriously.

“I can believe this!” the brunette was mad at him. “We have work to do and as I can see, being with some hookers is a better thing to do than actually working on our plan and… ” she didn’t finish her sentence. “Why do I even bother,” she mumbled under her nose.

“Hey, boss,” another male voice was heard from the living room. Happy interrupted their conversation by his presence. As usual, he was wearing a black suit and dark sunglasses. His face was serious. “Hi, Adeline,” he smiled at the brunette.

“Hi,” she replied with a lower voice. The green eyes were silently looking what was happening. Both of the girls gave Tony a sweet kiss on his cheeks and said goodbye. It was fake like their fake boobs. Adeline was annoyed by them. She was standing at the same place; her glance was evil and unpleasant. And when they passed by her, one of them looked into her green orbs.

“Bye-bye, Tony’s friend,” she laughed a little.

“One more word and I’ll knock you to the ground,” the brunette warned her and squinted her eyes.

When they were finally alone, she looked at Tony. “What’s with you, Adeline? Nothing bad happened,” he rolled his gorgeous chocolate eyes. He was wearing a black undershirt and his arc reactor was glowing from under it. “Why so grumpy?”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Stark?” she was frowning. “You were ignoring me for two weeks! And now you ask me why am I grumpy? You can’t be serious. First, I thought, okay, maybe he has some work to do but after two weeks of ignoring my calls…”

“So what? I had some work to do and then I wanted to relax a little bit.”

“Oh yeah, sleeping with some underaged hookers is the best way to relax,” she said sarcastically. “I’d rather fuck some young girls than work on something very important – is that what you thought?” she shook her head. “I can’t believe you! Everybody is in danger, and you just don’t give a fuck!”

“Why don’t you look at yourself, little miss special,” his voice was higher and angrier. “If it wasn’t for your father, nothing would have happened. You put me into this. It is only your fault.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. “Oh, so now it is a problem!? Suddenly, all this is my fault. It is my fault Goth attacked L.A. several times. It is my fault that my friends died. It is my fault that you are in this too. It is my fault that I have the cure in my veins. Yeah, everything is my fault!” she wasn’t controlling herself anymore and she was yelling at him.

“Yeah, it is your fault, Adeline. All of this is happening because of you! Do you realise that?”

“I do realise that some things happened because of me. I do!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry you poor innocent thing. Did I hurt your feelings?”

She made a quick step forward to him. If she had a knife, she would instantly put it on his throat. “What is the matter with you, Tony? What changed? You said we are in this together that it is not about me anymore.”

“Yeah, I lied.”

“What?!” that shocked her. “You lied?”

“Yeah! It is a new thing that kids use these days,” he said ironically.

That was it. That was the last drop. “I thought,” she gulped dryly; “we were friends. We trained together, we had a great time. I suppose I was wrong. We are not friends and those nights we spent talking, eating pizza was probably a lie – like you said.” Adeline’s voice was sad and there were tears in her eyes. “When the war is over, don’t worry, you’ll never see me again,” she sighed.

“Oh my fucking god, Adeline…”

“Stop! You don’t have to bother anymore,” her hand was up as a sign of no talking. “I think it is too late for any other words.”

~ Sir, you have a telephone from James Rhodes, ~ said JARVIS unexpectedly.

Both of them were looking into each other’s eyes. Adeline was breathing deeply; her chest was boldly lifting up. Her fists were clenched because she was extremely mad at him. How could he say that? Few weeks ago, it wasn’t a problem and now it was?

~ Sir, the telephone, ~ JARVIS reminded him.

“In a minute,” Tony replied calmly.

“No, go and take your call. I’ll let myself out,” Adeline said with a sad, disappointed voice. Right in that moment, she turned around on her heel and as fast as she could, she left his mansion. That was it – this fight was over and so was their friendship or what was it. She felt broken, humiliated and empty. It was even worse because she felt something to him. However, only the rage to him remained in her soul.

When the fresh salty air hit her nose once again she knew it wouldn’t clear her mind and calm her down. What happened did. Tony made his decision. Obviously, she wasn’t his friend and everything was a lie. She can finish this whole thing alone. But was she strong enough?
I lied! It is a new thing that kids use these days.

Walking down the sidewalk, trying to get away from his house, she called a taxi service. Before she could even dial the number, a car coming opposite her stopped. “Adeline?” The brunette looked into the window and saw there Tony’s best friend. “Where are you going?”

“Home,” she hissed.

“Hey, whoa,” he tried to stop her. The car’s engine stopped working and he stepped out from the car. “What happened? You seem to be really pissed off.”

“And I am really pissed off! He,” she pointed the way Tony’s mansion was. “He’s an idiot. He was lying to me the whole time. He blamed me for everything. I can’t believe I spent that much time with him for nothing!”

“Wait, did you two have a fight?” he was shocked.

The brunette threw her hands into the air. “He was avoiding me for two weeks; he didn’t even call me back when I called him. And when I came there,” she was looking at the big luxury house, “he had there two young girls probably for a one-night stand.” At the end of her short monologue, she rubbed her nape.

Rhodey was standing opposite her and watching her sad face. “I think I’ll kill him very soon,” he rolled his dark eyes. “Hey, do you want a lift home? And don’t worry, you are not bothering me or anything,” he gave her a small smile.

Adeline nodded. “Okay, thank you, James,” and suddenly the smile was back on her lips.

Until she got home, they talked about what exactly happened back in the mansion. Adeline explained to him why she was mad at Tony but she didn’t say anything about some feelings he had for the billionaire. Why was he acting like dingus? “Fuck him; I don’t have nerves and time for his shit. If he really thinks it is just my fault – be it.”

“I’ll talk to him, okay? Few days ago, everything seemed to be fine. I have no idea what got into him,” Rhodey sighed and turn right where he connected to the main road in the city. “He didn’t call you? Anything? I knew he had some work to do in the Stark Industries. Uh,” he was thinking.

“Never mind. Hey, if you need anything, you have my number, call me. And thank you for the lift.”

…

Everything was at the freezing point. Tony and Adeline weren’t speaking together. He didn’t call her, there were no more training. The friendship ended very quickly. What else she could expect from that snotty playboy? For days she remained in her bed, watching her favourite TV series on the Internet and looked for a new job. Sooner or later she will need one because her bank account was almost empty. Maybe she could live without a job for a month or two, not more.

One night she was in her bed lying after a hard day in the gym. She was looking at any kind of information about Goth. She didn’t find anything. Like that guy suddenly never existed. Did they injure him that much? Was it that fatal, he died? Something wasn’t right. Over a month, nothing bad happened.

Adeline opened the new browser window and checked new interesting information. And there he was – Tony’s name as the headline of the news. Even his picture in a tuxedo was there. She read:

STARK’S ANNUAL GALA THIS FRIDAY!

“What?” she mumbled under her nose. “Tony’s having a gala?” and she continued with reading.

~ Third annual gala us being set up this Friday. A lot of famous people are attending this event and as usual, Tony Stark will be there too… After the several attacks, this Gala will be rigidly guarded by police... ~

He didn’t even tell her about this event! “Oh, fuck you, you motherfucker,” she gritted her teeth. Her eyes were immediately looking at the closet. “Oh no, Adeline,” she started to talk to herself. “Don’t even think about going there.” Luckily a phone interrupted her. It was still the one from Tony. When she took it to her hands, she was immediately angry. James’ number was there. “Yes?” she answered.

-Did he call you already?-

“No, he didn’t. And I’m not even expecting it. I’m done with his shit.”

-Hey, don’t be mad at him. It’s Tony…-

“I don’t give a fuck, Rhodey. Tony or not, he’s not acting like an adult. As we can see, he has no interest in calling on my mobile and talk to me. I think he already made a decision. Listen, I have got to go. I have some work to do. Bye. It was nice knowing you.”

-Wait!- he stopped her. –I know you are mad at him but don’t be mad at me. Listen, Adeline, this is Tony. You don’t know him that long like I do.-

“Don’t stick up for him,” she stopped him. “I know he’s your friend. Evidently I’m not his and he’s not mine. That is the end of the whole story. I really have to go now, Rhodey. Maybe we’ll meet somewhere. Bye,” and she ended the call.

Notes