A DATE FOR THE FAIR

by Dover, L. P.

  Closing his lips over mine, he kisses me gently as he slides the rest of the way in. I wrap my legs around his waist, squeezing as tight as I can to keep him there. I want to feel all of him, as deep as he can go. He slowly starts to move against me; our bodies slide against each other. I can’t think of anything else but the two of us, our bodies connected as one.

  Picking up his pace, he grunts with his thrusts. My orgasm keeps building, and the more he pushes against me, the closer I’m brought to the edge. “Jude,” I scream, digging my nails into his back. Holding me tight, he finishes inside me, his cock pulsating with his release. He collapses on top of me, his breaths coming out in huffs. I have never felt so happy in my life.

  * * *

  When I wake up, I feel like a different person. Maybe it’s because I’m exuberantly happy. Jude gave me more satisfaction in one night than I ever had in six years with Shawn. I stretch my arms above my head, loving how I feel achy and sore. Jude and I worked our muscles out hard last night.

  As quietly as I can, I slide out of bed and slip into my clothes. I have class in an hour, so I have to get back to the apartment and get ready. Jude pats my side of the bed. “The bed’s empty. I need you here.”

  Giggling, I toss his T-shirt from last night at his head. “Don’t you have a class to teach, professor?”

  Groaning, he glances over at the clock. “That I do.” He sits up and gives me a lazy smile. “Will I see you in class today?”

  I wink. “Maybe. If you’re lucky.” I stuff the lingerie into my bag and blow him a kiss. “I’m going home to take a shower and grab my books. I’ll see you later.”

  “And I will be here dealing with this.” He throws off his blanket, revealing his naked body and how happy he is to see me. My body aches to feel him inside of me again, but there’s no time.

  “I promise I will take care of that tonight.”

  Jude grins. “I look forward to it.”

  I wave quickly and rush out of the cabin to my car. My hair looks horrendous, so I put it up into a messy bun. When I get to my apartment, I grab my bag and run across the parking lot.

  “Laura!” a voice yells.

  The sound makes me freeze mid-step. I haven’t heard that voice in over a year. Slowly, I turn around and there he is… Shawn. He gets out of his little silver sports car and rushes over to me. I’m stunned into silence. I haven’t seen him in so long. He looks the same with his perfectly coifed hair and expensive designer clothes; the total opposite of Jude.

  Shawn takes a long, hard look at me and smiles. “I like the college look on you.”

  I sling my bag over my shoulder. “Why are you here Shawn?” I don’t know what he’s expecting, but he seems disappointed that I’m not excited to see him.

  He clears his throat. “I thought maybe we could talk. Your parents told me you moved up here and decided to go back to college.”

  I have to remind myself to scold my parents later for telling him. “What do we need to talk about?” My time is running out, so I head toward the stairs and he follows me. I take them two at a time until I get to my floor.

  “Well, I’ve been doing some thinking,” he begins.

  I unlock my door and rush inside. “About what?” I set my bag on the kitchen counter and he shuts the front door.

  “About us,” he murmurs.

  The breath hitches in my lungs and I slowly turn to face him. “What do you mean?”

  His expression on his face is genuine, but I’ve been duped by him before. “I mean, I miss you. I want you to give us another chance.”

  I don’t know what comes over me, but I laugh. “Seriously? It didn’t work out the first time. Why would it a second time?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe because I lost my way. You loved me before and I know you can again.”

  Shaking my head, I close the distance between us. I did love him once upon a time ago. We shared a lot of good memories, but that’s it. I don’t love him anymore… I love someone else. Deep down, I think I’ve always loved Jude.

  “I’m sorry, Shawn,” I whisper regretfully. “I don’t want to go back to my old life. I like the way things are now. I’m happy.”

  His brows furrow. “You can’t be happy with me?”

  And just as I’m about to answer, my front door opens and Jude walks in. The second he sees me standing close to Shawn, the room turns icy. He glares at Shawn but then I can see the uncertainty in those gray eyes of his.

  “Jude Daniels? Is that you?” Shawn asks, his voice condescending.

  Jude narrows his gaze. “Shawn.”

  Chuckling, Shawn glances back and forth at us both. “Well, damn, Jude you look different now. I bet the ladies go crazy over that lumberjack look.”

  Jude snorts. “It’s much better than the douchebag look.” He turns to me and his jaw clenches. “I’ll see you in class.”

  He walks away and I rush after him. “Jude, wait!” By the time I get out the door, he’s already down the steps and storming toward his Jeep. “Jude,” I shout again.

  Shawn comes up beside me and we both watch Jude speed out of the parking lot. “Something going on between you two?”

  I roll my eyes. “That’s none of your business. I never should’ve stopped being friends with him because of you.”

  “There’s not a man alive who’d feel comfortable having their wife be friends with a man who was in love with them.” I understand that, but Jude and I had history. I’ll always regret tossing him to the side the way I did. “You have feelings for him, don’t you?”

  I turn to him and look right into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Shawn. It’s not going to work for us again. You should probably go.”

  He looks off into the distance and sighs. “I’ll go, but I still have hope for us.” Turning on his heel, he heads toward the stairs and leaves. I grab my phone out of my pocket and call Jude. Of course, he doesn’t answer.

  8

  Jude

  She’s too good to be true.

  I knew this and should’ve known better than to think someone like me stood a chance with Laura. She hurt me once before because of Shawn and now she’s done it again.

  “I’m a damn fool.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand.” I stare at my radio and flip off the console. Maybe it’s a good thing Siri doesn’t understand why I’m a fool. If she did, she’d probably laugh and agree with me.

  The drive from Laura’s is too quick, much like my relationship with her. Ouch, that stung. I need more time to figure out my thoughts and being on campus isn’t the best place to do this. It really sucks sometimes when you have to be an adult when all you really want to do is go to the bar and get so drunk you forget the last week.

  Instead of going to class, I head to my office. There is no way I can safely teach people today, not without letting my emotions take over. I send an email to my first couple of classes, canceling today’s lecture and because I’m pissed off, I give them a massive assignment due by midnight tomorrow night. It’s shitty of me to do, but right now I don’t care. If anyone has a problem, I’ll happily give them Laura’s email and they can tell her how they feel about my sunny disposition and thank her for it.

  After the email is sent, I turn my computer off, go to my door, lock it and pull the shade down. My office is small but it’s the one place I have that Laura hasn’t been in so it’s the safest place for me. As much as I want to go home, I can’t. Laura’s perfume lingers in my car and there’s no doubt she’s all over my cabin. Especially in my bedroom, which means I’m going to sleep in the guest bedroom until I can convince my mom to come clean for me. I won’t even have to beg her, which will be nice.

  My phone vibrates and I pull it out of my pocket. I see that I’ve missed a couple calls from Laura and while my finger hovers over the send button to call her back, I’m not ready to hear that we are over before we truly started. I guess I chalk last night up to a one-night stand, which is something I never ever thought I’d have
with Laura. I almost wish we never had kissed, had sex, or even reconnected because the pain of losing her again is too much to bear.

  My hand covers my chest, right over my heart, where a pain like I’ve never felt starts to rise. I set my head down on my desk and inhale deeply, exhaling slowly. I do this repeatedly, but nothing helps the pain subside. I’m having a damn heart attack and I’m too young for one. I take care of myself, eat right, and exercise so this shouldn’t be happening.

  The pain changes and I realize it’s not a heart attack but straight up heart break. Laura broke my heart. I didn’t feel like this when she left our friendship though because her departure was gradual. A missed call here or there, a late response on a text, canceled plans. Her actions built up. They went from hours to days, to finally weeks, and then I gave up. The writing was on the wall. Our friendship was over. It was hard to accept, but I did. And when she didn’t return to campus in the fall, I knew then that there was no hope of ever seeing her again. This was, and still is, the only time I’ve been ghosted. It hurt so bad that I made sure to never ever do it to anyone else.

  But this pain is different. It moves rapidly through my body, all the way down to my toes. The waves of emotion are too much for me to handle and I let out a groan that starts in my stomach and turns into a scream. The next thing I know, the items on my desk go flying and things crash against the wall. My old-fashioned paperweight shattered and the sprinkling of glass sounds like rain. I can’t be bothered to get up and look at the damage I’ve done because I don’t care. I’m more concerned with the tears coming from my eyes. They’re streaming down my face and into the scruff on my face; the couple days growth that I left purposely for Laura. I wipe angrily at my face, my watch digging into my skin and likely leaving a mark. I don’t care. What I do care about is that I’ve allowed this woman to hurt me again.

  My office phone rings. I want to be childish and pick up the receiver and slam it back down because I suspect that it’s Laura on the other end. However, losing my job is not an option because my luck, it would be the President or Dean calling about something—probably the fact that I had sex with a student.

  I knew this would come back to bite me in the ass.

  The ringing is incessant but there is no way I’m going to answer this call or any that will come after. I yank the phone line from the wall and the ringing stops. The silence is welcomed. But the pain and tears are still there. I hate that I’m crying over her. I didn’t the first time, so it doesn’t make sense as to why I am now.

  I finally give up, email my other classes and tell them there isn’t going to be class today. I make sure to add extra homework to the philosophy class because I’m pissed off. As I look around my office, it’s destroyed. Not sure if I can get my mom to come clean this mess for me though. I’ll have to find the energy to pick it up all up because there is no way I can work in a space like this. For the first time in my career as a teacher, not just a professor, I’m going home sick.

  On the way to my car, students stop and talk to me. Some complain about the homework, while others ask questions about a problem or what technique would be best to stop a hacker but can clearly see that I’m in no mood to discuss anything. They’re lucky I don’t assign more and the only reason I’m not is because I don’t want to grade a bunch of shit right now.

  My day is an epic shit show, but it turns into a fucking diarrhea fest when I see Laura’s husband coming toward me. I turn slightly and walk in a diagonal toward my car, hoping the piece of shit won’t realize I’m not in his line of sight.

  “Hey, Jude.” The tighty-whitey wearing asshole elongates my name, much like Laura does. Only she does it to be cute and this dickwad is doing it to be a shitbag.

  I keep walking. I have nothing to say to him and I don’t care to see him gloat about Laura. I get it. She’s what he wants. I know I’ll never compare to him. Not in looks. Not in money. I know women enjoy the finer things in life and guys like Shawn can provide that. The country clubs, yachts, elegant dinners out. My idea of a good meal is hitting the diner inside the bowling alley because they make the best damn chicken strips I’ve ever had. I’m a simple man, who likes simple things and I’ll never able to compare to the likes of Shawn. And oddly, I’m okay with that or I will be. There is no reason for him to be here rubbing salt in my gaping wounds.

  When I reach the parking lot, I make the mistake of looking behind me. Shawn is hot on my heels and too close for me to hop into my Jeep and speed off. Honestly, I shouldn’t have to, but I hate him, and I hate confrontation, especially when I’m at work.

  “What do you want?” I seethe.

  “Just want to talk, man to man.”

  I smirk. Shawn has never wanted to talk to me before, and now we’re going to have a man to man conversation. Something that could’ve happened years ago. I may be blinded by Laura but I’m not when it comes to Shawn. We will never be friends.

  Neither will Laura and I because I’m done.

  “We have nothing to talk about.” I press the unlock button on my key fob, but nothing happens. I’ve been meaning to replace the batteries in this stupid thing but haven’t gotten around to it.

  “Yeah man, we do.” He sets his hand on my car. Right in the spot where the window and door meet, mostly preventing me from getting inside. How childish.

  I sigh and turn to face him. “What Shawn? What could we possibly need to talk about?”

  “Laura,” he says because it’s not obvious. I feel like saying duh but instead I motion for him to continue. I have places to be. Not sure where, but I’ll find a place to go and hide out. “Here’s the thing. I know she’s in love with you and probably has been since middle school or some shit, but she loves me too, and the shit going on between us is just a speed bump. We lost our way or whatever, but we’re a strong couple and can find our way back.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “My point is, I want you to stay away from Laura. I’ve already told her to drop your class and it would just be best that when you see her around campus you act like you don’t know her.”

  “Excuse me?” Is this dickwad for real? “Look, I’m not going to stay away from Laura.” I am, but he doesn’t need to know this. “If she wants to see me, take my class, or have a cup of coffee with me, we’re going to do it.”

  “Look man,” he says as he steps closer. “You’re the only thing standing between us and I want you gone. Since I know Laura will get pissed at me for saying this shit to her, I’m saying it to you. Stay the fuck away from my wife.” He points his finger in my face and I seethe. My hand clenches into a fist and before I know what I’m doing, my arm is cocked back, and my fist is crunching into his nose. Blood spews everywhere before Shawn has a chance to react. His hand comes to his nose, cupping the geyser that’s rushing from his nostrils. “You broke my fucking nose, cocksucker.”

  “Yeah, you know I’ve wanted to do that from the first day I ever met you and you took Laura from me. Too bad it’s taken me this long to tell you how I truly feel.” I pull my car door open and toss my bag inside. Shawn is doubled over and people are watching. I should care, but I don’t. I get in, slam the door and bring the engine to life. But, before I put my car into drive, I push the auto button on the window and wait for it to go down. I lean out and say, “You’re a douche.” And drive off.

  I feel exhilarated and humiliated. Two contrasting emotions. Going home isn’t an option, so I head to the bar. It’s the last place I want to be, but the only place that is going to block out any memories I have of Laura and that is what I need to do right now. I tell the bartender that I need the bottle of tequila, without the limes and salt.

  I’m deep into the bottle when someone sits down next to me. Her perfume takes over the wretched smell of tequila. She orders water because she’s smart.

  “What do you want?” I slur.

  “You,” is all she says.

  9

  Laura

  I heard and saw everything in
the parking lot. Shawn and Jude had no clue I was watching them. The last thing I expected to see was Jude laying into Shawn and breaking his nose. I heard the crack from where I stood. Shawn had no right to say the things he did to Jude. I’m not his wife anymore and nothing he says or does will change my mind to take him back. Especially now. I want to get back in my car to follow Jude, but I have to settle things with Shawn once and for all.

  Blood seeps through his hand as he stumbles to get to his car. “Did you fall on your face?” I ask, coming up behind him.

  Growling, he jerks around and glares at me. “That fucking cocksucker of a boyfriend of yours broke my nose.”

  “I think you deserved it.”

  He untucks his shirt and uses it to wipe the blood off his face. “I told him the truth. You’re my wife. We deserve a second chance.”

  “Ex-wife,” I correct him. “And there are no second chances for us. I love Jude.”

  Shawn stares at me in disgust. “Seriously? He’s a teacher that only makes like thirty grand a year.”

  I shrug. “Don’t care. He makes me happy.” Jude could make only ten grand a year and I’d still love him. Just the thought of him makes me smile. “Goodbye, Shawn.”

  “Laura, wait!”

  Turning on my heel, I march to my car and speed out of the parking lot. I don’t know where Jude went but it shouldn’t be too hard to find him. Boone isn’t exactly a big town so just a few minutes driving down Main Street is all I need. There, sitting right in front of the bar is his Jeep. I park beside him and rush inside. He’s supposed to be teaching class, not in a bar being stupid. I already got the email alert on my phone with our Philosophy assignment from him. There’s no way in hell I’m going to type a ten-page essay on whether or not I think a bush is a small tree or just simply a bush. It was either that, or a ten-page essay on if we can see wind. How the hell can you write that long of an essay on those two topics? I know I can’t.