It's You

by Tracy Tegan

  “I was hoping you were going to join me in the shower,” he said friskily.

  It was then he saw the look on Zoey’s face and the cell phone in her hand. “What are you doing with my phone?”

  “The beeping woke me up and I thought it was mine. Who is this girl and why is she sending you a video of the two of you having sex?”

  Evan didn’t have to look, he knew exactly who it was.

  “It’s no one important,” Evan insisted as he swiped the phone from her hand.

  “What is it she wants you to tell me?”

  Evan glanced down at the message before tossing his phone on the nightstand and dropping his towel in an effort to distract Zoey with sex, but she wasn’t having any of it.

  “If you think I am going to be intimate with you after watching you bang some whore doggie style, then you are sadly mistaken.”

  “Zoey, baby please, it’s nothing. This chick is just crazy and had been hounding me for weeks now. Hell, she even showed up at my sister’s place to harass her too.”

  “Tell me the truth,” Zoey demanded. “We’ve been together every night since this thing between us started so clearly you haven’t been with her since then. So why is she so insistent I know about you and her? I know you had girlfriends before me and I knew you had sex with random sluts before we got together too. So obviously there is something more to this story.”

  “I swear to you there isn’t Zoey. That really is what she wants me to tell you, that we had sex.”

  “Bullshit Evan, bullshit!”

  Zoey gathered up her clothes, put them on and stormed out of Evan’s house, slamming the door behind her.

  As she opened the door to get in her car, she noticed there was a large manila envelope in her front seat. She ripped the package open to find dozens of photographs of Evan with the crazy girl.

  There was one photo of the girl, clearly self-shot as if she was taking a selfie while giving him a blowjob. There was one photo of the girl from behind, showing off her tiny G-string panties. Evan had to have taken that photo to her, there was no way she could have taken it herself. She took one photo of herself while riding him cowgirl style. Some of the images looked different and Zoey wondered if they weren’t photos at all but just screen grabs from the video she had recorded of them having sex. By the various angles of the images though, that would have meant the video was filmed by more than one camera.

  Was that what all of this was about? Did Evan film a real porno tape with this girl?

  Zoey had heard once that some people could hire a professional crew and make a real sex movie just for themselves. Maybe that is what he and this girl did. Still, why was she so insistent that he tell her about it? That’s the part that Zoey couldn’t figure out.

  The last two photos were of Zoey, one of her coming out of her office and one taken on another day getting into her car. Now she knew who had been following her.

  Zoey gathered all the photos up, placed them back into the large envelope, and put them in her glove box. She would deal with it later; it was all just too much for her mind to process right now.

  Normally when she was upset about a guy she would run to Kara, who always seemed to know the perfect thing to say to make her feel better. But Zoey knew that was the last person she could go to now because Evan wasn’t just some random jerk, it was Kara’s brother.

  The very guy that she had spent years warning her not to hook up with and now she understood why. Evan wasn’t mature enough for a relationship or he would have told her the truth about that girl.

  Zoey realized that what she and Evan needed was a break. She had to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of their situation. They hadn’t even been together a month and they already needed a break.

  For days, Zoey avoided answering his calls or responding to his text messages. At first she was just hoping the time apart would be good for them, but eventually her feelings changed. She had decided she wasn’t going to talk to him until he was willing to tell her the truth. She didn’t get what the big deal was or why it was so hard for him to just tell her the story, the whole story. Evan tried sending her flowers, but still Zoey wouldn’t cave. She wanted only one thing from him and that was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She wouldn’t accept anything less.

  Evan knew he had to face the music and finally confess to Zoey but at the same time, he feared that in doing so, he would lose her forever. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Still, one way or another, he had to tell Zoey. She deserved to know the truth, and if after she decided to leave him forever, that was just a reality he was going to have to face.

  As he knocked on her door he realized that he was the most nervous he had ever been in his entire life. When she greeted him, the beautiful smile fell from her face.

  “Can we please talk?” Evan asked.

  “Is there something you actually have to tell me or is this more bullshit like before?”

  “I’ll tell you everything.”

  Zoey opened her door all the way, allowing him inside. Shutting it behind him, the two made their way to her couch and sat down.

  “You were right, there was more to the story with Cora.”

  Zoey tried her best not to respond, and instead she just stayed quiet to let Evan tell his story.

  “Cora’s father owns a small bar I hang out at sometimes after work. She helps her father with the books, ordering supplies, just basic office type work. We’ve chatted a few times over the past two years, nothing serious. I hadn’t seen her in a while though. I heard a few months ago that she had gotten married and that was the first time I had seen her since then.”

  Zoey clinched her jaw, trying her best to remain composed.

  “The night of my sister’s dinner party, after we parted ways, I was frustrated and confused and stopped in the bar for a drink. I just needed to blow off some steam. Cora was there, and joined me. I congratulated her on her engagement and we made small talk.”

  Zoey grimaced at what she feared was coming next. She demanded the truth of Evan and now she had to face it.

  “Several drinks later, I realized that her hand was on my knee and a few more drinks after that, she had moved her hand all the way up my thigh. I should have stopped her but I didn’t. Before long she had her hand on my cock under the table.”

  Zoey flashed back to Ami and Stefano and what she had seen her doing to him under the table.

  “I suggested we go somewhere more private and she led me to her office. We were drunk and being stupid, that’s where all the pictures came from. Earlier that night we had been talking about all the selfies hot girls take and somehow that turned into taking selfies during sex. I know it was a stupid thing to do, but we were drunk and not thinking straight.”

  “And the video, whose idea was it to record the two of you having sex?” Zoey asked.

  “I didn’t know about that. I had no clue she had cameras setup in her office. She said it was for security, but I can’t imagine an office in a dive bar would ever need that much security.”

  Zoey had to admit, that did seem a little suspicious.

  “The next morning Cora started texting and calling me, saying we needed to talk. Obviously that was the last thing I wanted to do, since we were together by then and I just wanted to put that night behind me. When I wouldn’t answer her, she stopped by Kara’s to tell her that she left her fiancé for me. She gave Kara some bullshit story about how she had been hot for me for years but since I never gave her the time of day she moved on and got engaged to some other dude, but when we finally hooked up, she thought that meant we were together.”

  “Why would she assume that after one night of drunken sex in her office you were going to be a couple?” Zoey asked.

  “I don’t know baby, I really don’t. I never said anything to her to make her believe that. She’s just fucking crazy. When ignoring her didn’t work, I had finally had enough of her antics and told her to stop calling me. I told her that s
he was just a one night stand and that I was in love with you and she should go back to her fiancé because the two of us would never be anything.”

  “So if you told her to go away, why did she insist you tell me about your affair? I don’t get that part, Evan.”

  “Cora just became obsessed and I think she felt like if I told you the truth, you would leave me and that would free me up to be with her. That’s what Kara thinks at least. I think she is just a certifiable nut bag and wants everyone to be as miserable as she is.”

  Zoey didn’t know what to say. Technically, she and Evan weren’t together at that time, but still, just hours before he had been intimate with her and then he went off to fuck some girl in a bar. She knew that Evan wanted her to respond but she didn’t quite honestly know what to say. It was all just so much to take in, her head was spinning.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Zoey didn’t get a chance to respond because there was a knock at the front door. What now? She wondered as she went to find out who was ringing the doorbell incessantly.

  Flinging the door open without looking through the peep hole first as she normally did, she was surprised to see it was Cora standing before her.

  “Is he here?” Cora demanded to know as she pushed her way inside and began looking around frantically. “I know he is, I seen his car outside. Don’t try to lie to me.”

  Zoey didn’t know what to say in response but she started to suspect that Evan was right, this Cora girl was crazy.

  Evan heard what he thought was Cora’s voice in the other room and went to see if he was right.

  “What are you doing here Cora, have you lost your fucking mind?”

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away from her,” Cora said as she pulled out a large knife and pointed it towards Zoey.

  Without hesitation, Evan jumped in front of Zoey, protecting her body with his own.

  “Oh the big protector, isn’t that special?” Cora cackled.

  “You don’t need to do this Cora. Why don’t you give me the knife and we can go somewhere to talk,” Evan said, while trying to diffuse the situation.

  “I have been in love with you for two years, Evan, and you never gave me the time of day. I get engaged and you all of a sudden decide you want me. I give myself to you, leave my fiancé and you throw me away like trash.”

  “Cora, it wasn’t like that. I didn’t know you had feelings for me or I would have never let things go as far as they did that night.”

  “It’s too late Evan, I’ve made up my mind.”

  Evan inched closer to Cora while pushing Zoey further away.

  “If I can’t have you, then you can’t have her,” Cora said while pointing the knife towards Zoey.

  “If that is your only concern then you have nothing to worry about Cora. Zoey and I aren’t together anymore.”

  “Then what are you doing here now?” Cora demanded to know. “I’m not blind, you don’t just go hang out with someone you are no longer dating.”

  “I only came by to do what you wanted me to do, to tell Zoey what happened that night with us.”

  Cora pointed towards Zoey with her knife. “Is that true?”

  “It is,” Zoey confirmed.

  “I suppose now the two of you are going to get back together?” Cora asked. “I’m sure he told you how it was all my fault and how I seduced him and made him have sex with me.”

  “No,” Zoey said. “That isn’t what he said at all. He told me every dirty detail of your night together. He told me that he was the one who suggested you two go somewhere more private. He knew what he was doing and it sounded pretty consensual to me. I think both of you knew what you were doing that night.”

  “And now that you know the truth, you still want to be with that pig?” Cora asked.

  “No, I don’t. I’m glad he told me the truth. But it took him a long time to do that. Had he just been honest with me up front, I think this was something we could have dealt with and moved on from. But because he couldn’t be honest with me, that shows me that he isn’t ready for a real relationship.”

  Evan lifted his eyes to Zoey’s and saw that her entire face held a look of seriousness. He knew at that moment that Zoey was telling the truth and it killed him. He felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest.

  “If you want him Cora, he’s all yours. I want a man in my life, not a boy.”

  Zoey turned on her heel to walk away but when she did, Cora surged forward, too quickly for Evan to catch her, and rammed the knife into Zoey’s side.

  “DIE BITCH DIE!” Cora screeched.

  Zoey fell to the floor with a loud thud while Evan pulled Cora away, getting the knife from her hand and pinning her to the floor while she screamed and demanded he let her go. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he called 911 and within minutes, Zoey’s house was swarming with police officers and paramedics.

  While the cops dealt with Cora, Evan went to check on Zoey, who was being looked after by the paramedics while loading her into the ambulance.

  On the way to the hospital, Evan called his sister to fill her in on what had taken place. She and Trevor rushed to be by Evan’s side while they waited to hear news about Zoey’s condition.

  It took about an hour but finally they were able to get an update on Zoey.

  “The stab wounds in Zoey’s side pierced the skin but did not penetrate any vital organs. The muscle tissue was damaged and that will be the source of most of her pain and discomfort during her recovery, but she’s lucky, it could have been worse. Overall, the wound was not too serious and only needed a few stitches to close it up. The loss of blood wasn’t substantial enough to need a transfusion. She should stay off of her feet for at least the next seventy two hours and after that, she’ll need to take it easy for the next few weeks, limiting her physical exertion while the damage to her tissue heals. The nurse will give you a packet to help you better care for her as well as guidelines on what she can and can’t do while her body recovers.”

  Evan blew out a breath. “Thank God.”

  “She’s going to be okay, she’ll just need lots of rest to give her body time to recover. As long as she has someone there to take care of her, we can release her today.”

  The doctor looked between Evan and his sister.

  “Of course,” Kara said. “She’ll come home with me. I’ll make sure she has the best of care.”

  “No,” Evan interjected. “I’m taking her home with me.”

  “But Evan, you have to work.”

  “I have months of vacation time and sick leave I can use. I want her home with me.”

  “Are you sure?” Kara asked.

  “Absolutely, I have to do this Kara. I need to take care of her. I need to make sure she is going to be alright.”

  The doctor escorted Evan to the nurse’s station so that he could get all the information he would need to care for Zoey over the coming weeks, including details on changing her bandages and specifics about her medication.

  “She’ll be pretty out of it for a while. Just make sure she doesn’t try to do anything on her own,” the nurse explained. “She probably won’t know where she is, so she might get scared. Just remember to keep her calm and comfortable.”

  The nurse went on for a good twenty minutes, explaining everything in detail and making sure Evan fully understood before giving him a large packet of papers with written instructions of everything she had just went over with him.

  Kara stayed with her brother to help get Zoey settled in. When they got her into the car, Kara realized just how out of it Zoey was. She slept the entire car ride and didn’t even wake up when Evan carried her into the house.

  When she did come to, it was in the middle of the night. She was alone and not sure of her surroundings so she began to panic. She had faint memories of Cora bursting into her home wielding a knife, and she felt her hands and wrists to make sure she wasn’t handcuffed and being held hostage. The room was dark so she moved her hands around on the
nearby nightstand, trying to find a lamp. A vase of flowers crashed to the floor and made a loud enough noise that it caught Evan’s attention, who then came rushing to Zoey’s side.

  When he flipped the light switch, Zoey blinked several times as her eyes tried to adjust to the brightness. Eventually the sight of Evan standing there came into focus.

  “Evan, is that you?”

  “Yes, it’s me baby. Are you okay?”

  “Where am I? Why am I so thirsty?”

  “I put a bottle of water next to your bed in case you woke up.” Evan handed Zoey the bottle. She sat up straight and began to take in her surroundings.

  Opening the pill box on the dresser, Evan pulled out her medication and handed it to her while he helped her to remember everything that had happened.

  Zoey sat there quietly, just watching as Evan gently replaced her bandages. Afterwards, he helped her lay back down and within moments she was fast asleep.

  She spent the next two weeks in his care and never during that time did he pressure her to talk about their fight from before. All Evan wanted was for her to get better. He was attentive and gentle, and he made her feel safe and loved.

  Evan came into the room to check on her, just as he had every few hours, day in and day out for the last few weeks.

  “Oh, you’re awake. How you feeling today?”

  “Better. I was thinking that I should start making plans to go back to my own place soon.”

  Evan sat down on the side of the bed and Zoey slowly sat up to face him. His eyes never left her face, he was searching for answers and for hope.

  “Why would you do that? How can I take care of you if you aren’t here?”

  “I’ve already taken you away from your life for the last two weeks. I can’t stay here forever. You are going to have to return to work eventually.”