Broken Toys

by Jackson Lear

  ‘Yes.’

  Josh held his hand out, helped Brooke out of her seat, waited as she quickly powered down her computer, and they slipped away to his car that was parked around the corner.

  Ten minutes later, Josh and Brooke pulled into Amanda’s garage without anyone seeing them.

  “So no one’s here?” Brooke asked.

  “Not a soul.”

  “How long do we have the place to ourselves?”

  “Until Sunday afternoon.”

  Brooke turned in surprise to face Josh. “What have you got planned that requires an entire weekend?”

  Josh grinned and climbed out of the car.

  “Seriously? You’re not even going to tell me?” Brooke asked. She climbed out and followed Josh into the kitchen.

  A moment of disappointment came over Brooke that she had to shoo away. She had hoped for anything other than reality, perhaps a palace-like house with chandeliers, candles, and rose petals falling gently from vaulted ceilings. Josh caught her look and pinched her arse. The surprise sent a quiver of excitement running down her legs.

  “Come on. Let’s have a tour,” said Josh.

  “Shoes off?”

  “I think we can start with them on.”

  “Start ... what, exactly?”

  Josh wrapped his arms around Brooke and pulled her in for a kiss. Two minutes later: “The bathroom’s to your right, the bedroom’s upstairs to the left. You have five minutes on your own, after that you’re all mine and you’ll have to ask for my permission. So, surprise me. I’m certainly going to surprise you.”

  Brooke stepped back to get her bearings. “Surprise you?”

  “Yep.” Josh reached into the cupboard and pulled out two thin wine glasses. “You have four minutes.”

  Brooke turned and settled on hiding in the bathroom. At the very least it would give her a moment in front of the mirror to check herself over. The moment the door closed she fell back on Josh’s last words to her.

  Surprise me.

  She stared at the bathroom counter and found a new toothbrush, yellow, still it its wrapper, with a pair of scissors sitting next to it. Josh had been prepared. Brooke pulled the wrapper apart and brushed her teeth, hoping it would give her some more time to work up the courage of doing the impossible.

  How to surprise him, how to surprise him?

  She rinsed and looked back at herself. Behind her she could see the washing machine and laundry hamper. She hated using a repeated move but the washing machine had worked once before to spectacular success.

  And it would definitely surprise him.

  Brooke lifted up the lid of the washing machine and removed everything she was wearing as fast as she could. She threw it all into the washing machine and set it to spin cycle on, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to leave the house until her clothes were dry.

  That’s it. You’ve surrendered with no way out.

  She pulled out the blindfold from her purse, took a deep breath, counted to five with her hand trembling on the door handle, and swung the door open.

  Josh had been busy. The curtains were closed, there was an incense oil burner with melissa breathing into the air, two dozen heavy candles were grouped in threes around the house. two glasses of red wine.

  Brooke walked in wearing nothing at all. “Josh, my love?”

  Josh’s eyebrows shot up and his jaw fell open. “Wow.”

  Brooke beamed with a grin. She felt Josh’s eyes devour her, taking her in as a flash of heat spread across his face.

  Josh nodded at Brooke’s crotch and noticed her piercing. “Yep. That would certainly catch someone’s attention.”

  “Good. Aren’t candles a little ... done?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Anna. You love candles.”

  Brooke raised an eyebrow. “I do?”

  “You told me yourself.”

  “Oh? What else did I tell you?” The cheeky grin echoed between them and, somehow, the tremor in her chest eased the moment Josh called her by a different name, allowing her to sink into the guise of someone else’s world.

  Josh stepped forward, laid one hand around Brooke’s waist and took her wrist in the other. He placed his lips on the inside of her wrist and slowly kissed her. She flexed her fingers and brushed against the back of his ear.

  “You told me where you liked to be kissed,” said Josh. He brought her hand down and kissed the base of her palm. Brooke started to twist one of her ankles.

  Josh could hear the washing machine hit its stride. “So this means you’re mine for the weekend?”

  “Maybe not just for the weekend,” said Brooke.

  “Good.” He took the velvet blindfold from her hand and slipped it over her eyes. “Time for Anna and Chester to come alive.”

  The blindfold was form fitting, eliminating any light from underneath or to the side. In the full light of day Brooke may have seen where she was going with some basic shadows in front of her, but with only the warm candle light she found herself at Josh’s mercy. She kept one hand behind his ear, stroking his hair, to keep herself from losing track of him. Josh looked her over, admiring her yoga curves and the occasional freckle, and respecting the guts it took to dump everything she had in the washing machine.

  Josh stepped behind Brooke, reached out and held his hand against her stomach. He then pulled her in against his body and ran his other hand up between her breasts before gliding over her neck. He kissed her shoulders, continuing to the base of her hairline.

  “Anna,” he whispered.

  “Hmmm?”

  “Would you like some wine?”

  “I would.”

  Josh held a glass to her hand. It was an unusual sensation to drink a glass while blindfolded. She was done after a couple of sips and handed the glass back to Josh.

  “You know you turned my imagination wild when you did the splits,” Josh said.

  “Oh really? If you’re a good boy you might see me do it again, but only when we’re at work.”

  Josh leaned in and whispered into her ear. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

  “And you won’t be able to,” said Brooke.

  They fell asleep in Amanda’s bed. Just before midnight he gave a thought to Amanda and hoped she had managed to win Anthony over.

  32

  Amanda

  Amanda spent the first night of Lucy’s hen party pacing around Josh’s house, wondering what kind of mess she would find herself in if Hannah unexpectedly came home and found an old friend of her boyfriend’s just lounging around. She also spent the night trying to figure out how to approach Anthony and whether it was a good idea to go over that evening. She kept checking the time, debating when Anthony would have put the kids to bed. She considered popping over to surprise him in her best lingerie. It took all the strength in the world to quieten her nerves and keep herself from slipping over. She knew she could either spend half an hour with the man she loved in whispers, afraid of waking the kids, or she could have him to herself all day tomorrow.

  She sent Claire a message to see if she was up for a late night chat, anything that would take her mind off Anthony. Claire was delighted as she needed something to take her mind off the hen night snub.

  Amanda had no idea that, two glasses of wine later, there was a phone filming her as she stepped into Claire’s downstairs bathroom.

  33

  Josh

  Josh stirred in the unfamiliar room. He stretched one arm out across the bed, paused, and sat up. Brooke had slipped away while he had been asleep. He looked around for something that would tell him the time but both his watch and phone were downstairs. He turned on the overhead light and chastised himself for blast of colour he now had to endure. He flipped the switch off and chastised himself once again. Now he was virtually blind.

  Brooke was lying on the downstairs sofa. Even from the street light coming through the windows Josh could see the twinkle in her eyes was not caused by happiness.

  “Can I tur
n on the light?” Josh asked.

  “All right,” mumbled Brooke.

  That tone alone sent Josh’s confidence dropping like a rock off a cliff. He fumbled at the unfamiliar wall and found the light switch was closer to the kitchen than he expected. The clock on the wall told him it was just past one a.m.

  Brooke was wrapped in a towel. She sat up, wiped away her tears, and stared at her knees. “I’m sorry.”

  Josh sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. “What for?”

  “I wasn’t expecting to be a wreck about this.”

  He had worked through a thousand ways to seduce her. What he failed to plan for was a crushing disaster just hours later. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Brooke fixed the towel over herself. “I never thought I was a slut, despite several people telling me I was. I’ve slept with six guys. For the first night with five of them I burst into tears and could never figure out why. Gavin was the only one I didn’t cry with.”

  Josh reached over and took her hand, squeezed it gently, and felt her draw away.

  “I need to borrow some clothes from Amanda and go home.”

  “What will Gavin say?” Josh asked, hoping that her guilt was limited to when the sun was down.

  Brooke held out her phone. “He went out drinking tonight. I sent him a message an hour ago asking him where the hell he was and that I was out looking for him.” She stood and headed for the stairs. “I’m going to rummage through Amanda’s wardrobe. I’ll bring her clothes back on Monday. Can you drop me back to my car?”

  After months of fantasising, through hundreds of conversations where he knew that Brooke was the one, and thousands of daydreams of them living happily ever after, every certainty he had slipped away within a minute.

  “I’m in love with you,” he said.

  She leaned in, gave him a sympathy kiss, and pulled away. “I have to tell my husband.”

  “Oh, fuck. Don’t. Just … wait before saying something you’ll regret.”

  “I know it won’t mean much, but I liked it.”

  Josh sprung to his feet. “No, wait. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in ten years–”

  “Josh?”

  “And a little bump like this is not the end of the world–”

  “Please?”

  “I am so crazily in love with you that I can’t stop thinking about you and how incredible you make me feel. No one has ever come close to that. I’m more terrified of losing you than anyone else and I’m kinda falling into a world of panic right now wondering – aside from the obvious – what’s changed.”

  Brooke lowered her head. “I need to go home.”

  “Is there any part of you …”

  “I know what you want me to say, but I’ve fucked up here and I’m not ready for this conversation. I need to go back to my car.”

  Josh stared up at the ceiling, willing the gods of inspiration to help him out, but they were quiet that evening. Finally, after resigning himself to one hell of a speed bump, he wheezed in agreement. “I’ll get dressed and drive you back to your car.”

  “Thank you.”

  34

  Anthony

  It was the first time in four months that Anthony had the house to himself. He had a month’s worth of plans to cram into the one afternoon, from beating all of Tom’s high scores on the game console to sitting back with a cocktail or two while watching Indiana Jones, but the moment he stepped inside his empty house he was met with an unusual sense of uncertainty. The list of chores and things to do on the fridge were going to be ignored, that was a given. The problem began that morning as he was driving Tom, Sarah, and their dog Ernie across town. A young woman was jogging along the road. Anthony gave her a fleeting glance as she had the same build as Amanda. Then he returned to their conversation from the previous day. Something about it seemed off. She had never expressed any interest in Gemma whatsoever. Then there was talk of ‘a way out.’ It wasn’t until he pulled onto Fielding Street that Amanda’s intentions hit him like a freight train.

  An hour later there was an uninvited knock on the door. Anthony glanced through the side window and felt a jolt of nerves escape him as Amanda smiled back.

  Gemma was not the forgiving kind.

  Amanda knew Anthony had the house to himself.

  The only thing that allowed Anthony to hold onto his sanity in that moment was seeing Amanda in a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a tank top. She was too casual for seduction.

  It would be rude if he didn’t at least let her in.

  “Hello stranger,” Amanda said as Anthony opened the door.

  “I had a feeling would you turn up.”

  “I wasn’t sure if you’d be in your boxers, blasting some music now that the house is yours.”

  Anthony pulled the door open and allowed Amanda inside. He quickly glanced out along the street, checking to see if anyone saw her come in. He closed the door and locked it. “And you didn’t even bring chips.”

  Amanda took a deep breath and looked as though Anthony had just shattered her dreams before she had even managed to say a word. “Right. Not exactly how I planned it, but ...” She looked Anthony dead in the eye and, for a moment, wished that he would say it before she could. But he didn’t. “I’m in love with you.”

  The house was painfully empty and the silence chilled his skin. He had to look away as the worst case scenario was now a reality.

  “Please say something,” Amanda said. She tried her best to keep her hands from fidgeting but the more she moved the more awkward it seemed.

  Anthony finally raised his eyes back to Amanda. “How long have you felt this way?”

  “I had a crush on you since I was twenty that didn’t go away. It got stronger every time we met up. I knew six years ago when you came out to see me in Edinburgh. We stayed up all night, drinking wine, talking about everything we’ve been through, and how we always meet up at least once a year, no matter what we’re doing with our lives or where we are. Life is not the same without you. You’ve been my best friend since I moved here. I would marry you in a heartbeat.” Her eyes cracked and began to water. She had to lower her head and wipe the tears away. “Sorry. It’s not the most straight forward of I love yous.” She turned and sat down on one of the high stools at the kitchen counter.

  Anthony did his best to maintain his composure, but that was difficult while being bombarded with a million fears all at the same time.

  “I tried to bury those feelings years ago,” said Amanda. “I really tried. Once in a while it worked, and when it did it was the most horrible feeling of emptiness I’ve ever gone through. Then all it would take is one little email from you, where it seems like you’re about to tell me that you feel the same and I fall for you even harder than before.”

  Anthony stepped up to the kitchen counter and kept it between himself and Amanda. As long as that was there he could keep the situation under control. “Is there any chance this is a rebound thing because you just broke up with Scott?”

  Amanda shook her head. “We broke up because I was in love with you and not with him.” She stared at the ceiling and felt herself nearly laugh with frayed nerves. “You know I even had to ask Josh for help in asking you? That’s how scared I was.”

  Anthony drew a measured breath inwards as he thought over every conversation he had in Hoolan’s over the last few weeks. “You told Josh?”

  “He thought I should just come over naked and that would get your attention.”

  “Certainly would,” said Anthony.

  “And if you and I had to settle for a fling then I, perhaps, would? But I’m not after a fling, so I’m just wearing jeans. Kinda wish I’d worn something else now.”

  Anthony was sure he wouldn’t have been able to let her into the house if she had been wearing anything else. “I’m still on catch up mode, so …”

  Amanda shot him a look in the eye. “Is this really a surprise?”

  “It’s a surprise hearin
g it out loud.”

  “Well then, I might as well just keep digging this hole like a crazy person,” said Amanda, as she finally did crack and laugh awkwardly at the ceiling. “I want to be the person you go to sleep with every night and I want you to be the person I wake up with every morning, until we’re old with wrinkles and nothing but grey hair.”

  Anthony started hating himself for having his conscience tell him a dozen conflicting things at the same time. “Who else knows about you and me?”

  “I only told Josh. I don’t know if he told anyone.”

  “No, he’s pretty good at knowing when to keep something to himself, especially if it doesn’t involve him. But Claire said something interesting this morning.”

  “You saw her this morning?”

  “She was at my mum and dad’s. She knew I was coming over with the kids.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She said, in a whisper and only to me: ‘Amanda’s biological clock has kicked in, in a big way.’ And when I pressed her for more details she refused to give me any.”

  Amanda leaned back in a mix of shock, near betrayal, and reluctant acceptance. “I had a glass of wine with her last night. I was going to come here and I thought the better of it.”

  “Probably a good idea,” said Anthony, as his heart was still ricocheting through his chest.

  “But I needed something to do last night so Claire and I kept each other company for a while and talked about failed romances and ex-boyfriends.” She wished Anthony would come over to kiss her already. The longer it took, the harsher the reality settled around her. “I should have told you years ago.”