by Gabi Moore
I could hear my own breath on the line as I thought.
“Well, there might have been this woman…”
“Go on.”
“I asked her out. But in a totally normal way. She said no, maybe that’s inappropriate? Shit, Hugo, am I that bad at this that my flirting attempts are now cause for public complaint?”
“Oh my god. Yeah, I mean, maybe it wasn’t her. Could have been anybody, right? Ah fuck, just forget about it. It’s probably nothing. It’s just one review right?”
“It’s the only review.”
“Damn.”
I chatted with Hugo a little more but in the back of my mind it started to seem unavoidable. It had to have been her. Hadn’t she said something mean about the bathrooms? My heart sank. I said goodbye Hugo, just after he threw one of his best pep talks at me, then paced the room again.
I had turned down a few good gigs so far. I had sunk a huge amount of money into getting these classes off the ground. It was a small start but dammit I had been proud of the idea, and proud of how hard I worked to put together a curriculum. But it was more than that. It was the fact that I would be doing something legitimately useful. I could teach women to defend themselves. There was value in that, and dignity. Well, right up until this stupid review.
Knowing all along that I shouldn’t, I reached down and opened my lower drawer, pulled out an ancient pack of cigarettes and pushed one out the end of the pack.
I wasn’t a smoker. Not really. But there were certainly moments in life that were made a bit easier to understand once you were on the other end of a smoke. I don’t know why. I’m not super proud of it, and nothing in the world would make me jeopardize my health or fitness …but just then I didn’t care. I went outside into the courtyard with a single cigarette and a lighter and all the rage that comes with knowing there’s nothing you can do about something that irritates you.
And that’s when I saw her.
I nearly leapt out of skin when I realized who it was. For a split-second I wondered if she had followed me here, but when I saw her make her way from her parked car and up a walkway, I realized she lived here.
That bitch.
I dove behind some bushes; relieved she hadn’t noticed me, and then stared at her long and hard, trying to find proof somehow that it was her that left that awful review that was going to hurt my business before it even started.
Cigarette unlit, I crouched a little out of sight and looked on. Her apartment was just a few doors down from mine. My heart beat loudly in my ears at the sight of her. Just the way she carried herself, completely unaware of my presence, made the whole thing feel so illicit, even though all she was doing was walking to her front door. Maybe I was fucking inappropriate. But she dawdled at her front door. She was acting strangely, looking over her shoulder and keeping her hand tucked halfway in her bag. I couldn’t understand her body language.
She seemed prettier now than what I remembered from the class. Softer somehow. Like she had been straining to wear a particular mask in public but now that she was alone her face relaxed completely and you could see how pretty she really was. She had a classic, uncomplicated beauty, like something you’d see in a statue. True, she was frowning, but I was still transfixed. Hell, I hadn’t meant anything by asking her out. I’ve been out of the game for so long I no longer know what the damn rules were for any of this, but surely I hadn’t committed any crime by just asking some sweet-looking girl out somewhere?
I angled my head to see her digging in her purse and then pull out her front door keys. I shrugged and lit the cigarette, but when I looked up again, I nearly fell over in shock. She made eye contact with me and was walking straight towards me.
In a fumble, the cigarette dropped from my lip and landed on the gravel, which was now crunching loudly as she took angry strides over to where I was standing. Or …hiding. This looked bad. This looked really bad. I suddenly saw myself through her eyes and there was no time to come up with some excuse. It was plain as day – I was definitely, 100% watching her from behind the bushes.
Shit.
Chapter 8 - Kate
“Is this, like, revenge? Are you trying to get back at me?” I yelled at him.
I couldn’t believe it. For a good few minutes I had thought the shameless and poorly hidden head bobbing behind the bushes was Derek for sure, but when no attack came, I got curious. I didn’t know what I was expecting when I walked over to uncover my spy, but I certainly wasn’t expecting him.
Truth be told, I was the one who was embarrassed. It was more or less the precise spot I had been hiding out in only a while ago, on a night that I did not want to be reminded of. I never considered a fact that suddenly became obvious to me: from this point in the bushes, my house was pretty visible, too. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the unobstructed view towards my front door and tried to gather my thoughts.
“I’m sorry …get back at you?” he said, looking hilariously confused. I looked him over. He was dressed in grey track pants, had bare feet and a lighter in one hand. My eyes travelled down to find a cigarette dropped between his feet. A smoker, partaking of his filthy habit outside in the garden. Unbelievable. It was clear he had seen me that night, and now he was …I don’t know. Trying to humiliate me? Is that why he had asked me out on a date? It took me way too long to stand there in front of him and figure it all out when I was doing my best to act outraged.
“Don’t play dumb, please,” I said, and tried to jut my hip out to show I wasn’t intimidated by him. Even if he was twice my size. “Look, I didn’t mean anything by it, don’t take it personally or anything …but God, spying on me like this? It’s so creepy.”
I watched as the cogs seemed to whirl behind his eyes, then his jaw slackened.
“So it was you then!” he whispered, and then he took a step toward me, suddenly frowning.
“Of course it was me. It certainly wasn’t Mrs. Able next door, right?”
He was still frowning at me.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” he said.
“What? Nothing. What are you talking about?” Fuck. Was I misunderstanding and he hadn’t seen me creeping around outside after all? We both stood eyeing one another like cowboys at high noon.
“The review. The review of my self-defense class you left.”
All the blood drained from my face right down to my feet.
“Oh, that.”
“Yeah that. What were you talking about?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” I said quickly and rejoiced inside that by some miracle, he hadn’t seen me that night. But then again, I hadn’t expected this either. He narrowed his eyes at me. Damn, he was a good-looking man. A good-looking jock, I should say. And a creeper, too, which I was now allowed to judge him for since he didn’t know I had done precisely the same thing.
“I don’t understand why you left such a negative review. It’s a new business,” he said quietly. “Did you really not enjoy it?”
My mind raced.
“I… I’m so sorry Max. To be honest I didn’t even know you stayed at this complex,” I said, and immediately felt like a moron for saying it. His frown was deepening. But I felt a little bolder now that my guilt was out of the picture and he was still the one peeping at me from behind the bushes.
“But to answer your question, jeez, I don’t know. It’s not personal, OK?”
“You said I was inappropriate.” His voice was cold. I was beginning to want to just run away from this whole encounter. He pinned me with his gaze and I had nowhere to put my own eyes to get away. Something about seeing his naked feet on the gravel was almost more intimate, and so I cast glances back to my front door instead.
“Is it because of… you know, because I asked you…”
I laughed.
“Look, no, obviously not.”
“Really? Because I’ve been thinking hard about whether I was inappropriate or not and–”
“Jesus, can you really not accept that maybe the clas
s just sucked?” Whoops. That was definitely a step too far. It’s hard to say exactly how I knew he was getting angry at that moment, because he made no visible signs. No tightening in the jaw. No reddening in the face. But it was like his whole aura sank and deepened with anger, and I suddenly felt like a class-A bitch.
“It sucked?”
“Well …to be honest, yeah,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. He bent down, picked up the cigarette and examined it like it held the secrets to life. He flicked it away into the flowerbeds. Then, without looking up at me, he said, “the class didn’t suck, you just got hurt, and you got hurt because you have a bad attitude.”
We got started staring at one another again.
“Excuse me? I had a bad attitude? Well, maybe that’s your problem right there, treating paying customers like that. Well, you don’t have to worry, I won’t come back, rest assured.”
“Yeah but you left a review to scare off other people. That’s not fair.”
I tried to chase from my mind the memory of him on the sofa that evening, his cock in his hand and his eyebrows twitching like that. If only he knew.
“It’s totally fair. You offered a service and I rated that service as a consumer. Look, if you’re running a business, you can’t take that kind of thing personally.”
“But it is personal. I don’t understand. Have I done something to offend you?”
“I already told you. But I’ll say it again. The class sucked. Sorry. You clearly know what you’re doing but teaching is another thing entirely…” I stopped speaking as I realized I accidentally might have given him a compliment. He noticed me looking at his chest.
“I think you’re wrong about that. The other students loved the class, and I did a good job with it.”
“Well, where are their reviews?”
“Katie, please take that review down.”
“No,” I said quickly. “And it’s just Kate.”
I could see his nostrils flaring. I had wanted to ask him about being in the Navy. I had never met a SEAL before and had no idea what they were about. Just the word conjured up ripped heroes in action movies, and he certainly looked the part. Too bad all those muscles came with a big honking asshole personality. He was probably so used to bullying his way through life. Well, I was done with big men and their big egos, and maybe I was going to play the hero of the story for once, and teach him a thing or two.
“Look, I get your point, but the class wasn’t for …entertainment. You aren’t meant to just pitch up and get those skills for free. There’s still some effort required on the student’s part.”
“Oh, I made an effort.”
“You have to put in the work, or you won’t get results. It’s got nothing to do with the facilities or your personal opinion about the teacher…”
I glared at him.
“Look, I don’t know you, and we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. Please take that review down, and we’ll look at a free class or something…”
“No.”
The look he gave me could kill kittens.
“Are you serious?”
“Yup.”
His jaw clenched. “You don’t understand a damn thing,” he hissed, and turned to leave.
“And you don’t understand your target market,” I spat back.
I don’t know how or why, but seeing the anger on his face did something strange to me. He was a complete idiot, obviously, but in that split-second I didn’t want him to leave.
“My target market?”
“Yeah. Women. I don’t know, maybe you haven’t had much experience with that demographic.” His eyes went wide.
“Oh, I’ve had plenty of experience,” he said, drawing his words out. I knew it. Not only a jock, but a womanizer too.
We both fell into staring at one another. Again. It was surreal, to be flinging insults like this with a person I had just met. Something twisted in me wanted to say even meaner things, just to see what he would do. And for some reason, he didn’t walk away. So the only thing to do was stare at one another. Again.
“Look, do what you want. But you left that review out of spite. I don’t know why it’s such a crime to have asked you out…”
“Oh, it’s no crime. Kind of creepy, sure, but the review had nothing to do with it. It was just your class.”
It gave me a secret thrill to know that even though it was probably just him trying his luck, that he had asked me out. But at least turning him down evened out the playing field a little. His face lost that angry tone and he nodded once and stared down at the gravel.
“Well, OK then. For what it’s worth I tried my best with that class and I meant no harm. I thought you seemed kind of cute so I asked you out. But, cool. Thanks anyway for your feedback,” he said, and walked away stoically.
I stammered for something to say after him but came up with nothing. He thought I was cute? I groaned and trudged back to my house, let myself in and threw myself on the sofa. I heard the distant slam of a door. God, I was an idiot. Why did I have to be such a bitch to him? I had gone too far. My mother always told me that I should stop treating every guy in the world like they were Derek in disguise, and she was right. I mean, clearly he was a big meathead and I wasn’t wrong to leave that review… but maybe he wasn’t as big of a meathead as I first thought.
I went to the living room window and tried to get a look at his apartment. But I could only just make out that the house was dark inside and all the curtains had been drawn. I had to find a way to speak to him again. I wasn’t sure yet if I wanted to apologize or to tell him off even more for being such a dick. But once I had the idea, I couldn’t shake it; I had to find a way to speak to him again.
Chapter 9 - Max
She came in with that slutty blonde hair of hers all neatly done up around her face, and she was wearing a tiny black dress that hugged every neat little curve of her body. I could smell her – her perfume, her skin. It was touching how hard she had tried to primp and preen before coming over here like this. She quietly closed the door behind her and wobbled over towards me in her black heels.
“I… wanted to say sorry,” she almost whispered. Fuck, I loved how desperate she looked with her lips parted like that and her eyes big and pleading. I gestured for her to take a seat, but she kept standing, switching her weight from one heel to the next.
“I wanted to apologize…”
“So then do it,” I said. She seemed stunned at my tone. I was a man of action. Words mean shit to me – if you respect a man, show it.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, and this time I noticed the little gold necklace nestled in her cleavage. “I didn’t mean to call you a creep. You’re not a creep.” Here she batted her eyelashes and looked at me imploringly.
“Take your dress off and put your hands against that wall,” I said.
The shock on her face thrilled me. But she only hesitated for a moment. She reached down to grab the hem of her dress and when she lifted her hands overhead, I could see how violently she was shaking. Her body was perfect. Womanly. I’ve always tried hard to be strong and fit, but when it comes to a woman’s body? Well, she was soft and round in all the right places. I sat motionless until she found the courage to walk over to the wall, place her delicate hands on it and cast nervous glances back at me.
When I stood and walked to her I could almost hear her heart thumping in her chest. She looked back to the wall and hid her face behind her curtain of blonde locks, but she tilted her hips closer towards me and braced her fingers against the wall. I roughly peeled her panties off and let them slip down to her ankles. The sight of her full, exposed cheeks was enough to make me instantly hard. Good. Let her repent. If she wanted to apologize for being so disrespectful, she could start by shutting her mouth and offering me her gorgeous ass. The goosebumps all down her back appeared a split second before my fingertips touched her.
She had tried to insult me, and now she would pay. I would fuck her so hard and so deep she’d be really be
gging for my forgiveness, pleading for me to excuse her insolence… and begging for me to do it some more.
She didn’t cry out when I grabbed a fistful of her hair and pinned her to the wall. She didn’t cry out when I gripped her supple waist with my other hand and pulled her hard against my body. But when I jammed the head of my cock into the already-drenched little slit between her legs, and thrust hard up into her, oh, she cried out. In fact, she screamed all through each and every inch I rammed into her.
“Now, what were you saying?” I whispered loudly into her ear.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, cheek squashed hard against the wall. I drew back and slammed the length of my cock all the way back into her, without a stitch of mercy. Her fiery hot little pussy swallowed me happily, even though the goosebumps on her skin seemed to morph into full-blown shudders.
“You’re what?” I said and pounded into her again. This time, she couldn’t even catch her breath to speak again.
“I’m …I’m…” she sputtered, but my hips were thrusting into her so viciously she couldn’t finish. I felt her entire body tighten and convulse around me.
“Say it,” I breathed into her ear. “Or do I need to make you--”
A loud bang from outside caught my attention and when I spun to look, the scene in front of me dissolved in an instant, and I was immediately in my bed upstairs.
A dream.
I had been dreaming.
The room was silent and almost perfectly dark. Another loud bang told me that some dogs across the street were interfering with the trash cans again. Just a dream. I looked at the clock: 4am. Then I lifted the blankets and looked down. Well, that part was pretty real.
Once my heartbeat slowed and the sweat on my brow cooled, I tried to recall the details. I didn’t usually have dreams. And her? Why would I have a sex dream about a woman who was probably the biggest pain in the ass I’d ever met? I wracked my brains and couldn’t remember the details of the dream. Maybe we had sex, I wasn’t sure. But I couldn’t fall asleep again. I tossed in bed for a few moments and resolved to get up and fetch my laptop. Clearly, I was letting that woman get to me. That was also unlike me.