Ink Slapped

by A. M. Jones

  “I was trying to save you from death.” She winks and hands me an empty plate. “Mission accomplished.” I pile on food and grab a cup of coffee. I sit closest to the sugar, which happens to be right across from Eli. Everyone watches as I dump more than enough into my cup.

  “Gross. Why don’t you just drink a coke?” Milo twists his mouth.

  “That’s a good question. I like this though.” I keep my eyes on my coffee. Out of my peripheral vision, Madison loops her arm through Eli’s to hold his hand. My hand shakes a little while stirring. I don’t know what I was thinking. This is a bad idea. Eli seems tense, and I feel bad for him being in this situation. He removes his hand from hers and drinks his coffee with it. I’d smile at his tactics—if they weren’t so clear.

  John lumbers into the kitchen. The wood under the laminate floor protests beneath his size. He’s huge and I can see where Eli gets his build.

  Crockett beams. “There’s the stallion.” Everyone bursts into laughter, except for Madison. Gina smiles sheepishly. Her cheeks turn a rosy peach color as she hands John a plate overflowing with eggs and bacon.

  After sending Gina a heartwarming smile, John cocks a brow at Crockett. “That’s right. Don’t you forget it.” When he sits down, he squirts ketchup and hot sauce on his eggs. He stirs the concoction until it looks like a B-movie pile of bloody brains. The fork stops an inch away from his mouth when he notices the tension in the room. A scoop of egg plops back on his plate. “What the hell is going on in here?” He catches sight of Madison. “Oh hey, Maddie. Didn’t realize you came last night.”

  “No, this morning. Eli didn’t come home. He should have called and I would have come to get him.” She plasters Eli with sideways introspection and twirls an ebony lock around her finger.

  “You’re living together again?” Gina eyes them both.

  “No.” Eli’s tone of voice leaves no room for doubt.

  Madison snorts. “That’s not what you were saying the night before last, or even yesterday morning.”

  Crockett picks at a biscuit, watching the drama unfold. Eli appears stricken and won’t meet anyone’s eyes.

  Gina clears her throat, looking at me. “Taylor, will you do me the honor of signing my copies of your books? I meant to ask last night.”

  “Um, sure.” Gina is trying to change the subject, but from the way Madison looks at me, she could’ve picked another topic. She hurries from the room.

  Crockett sucks food from his teeth with his tongue. “Too bad you couldn’t have been here last night, Madison. It was a great time.”

  Now she looks uncomfortable. “Well, my event ran later than I expected.”

  John waves away her statement. “You know how our parties go. We didn’t crash until around 3:30 this morning,” he explains, shoveling in the forkful of eggs. “You’d have been fine to show up.”

  “Oh my. I’m just—beside myself,” Gina says with her hands full of books. She smiles and hands me a pen. “When is the new one due out?”

  I tell her what I tell everyone, “Soon.” She squeals and gushes about Jaxon and how Eli looked last night. How she loves him on a book cover.

  I smile and nod. I sneak a peek at Madison. My pen freezes. Something ugly hides beneath the obvious facade she’s putting on right now. Still twirling her hair, she watches me and says, “Maybe I’ll buy some so you can sign them.” Her words don’t match the venom spewing at me through her eyes. Rage. Not anger, not suspicion. She’s pissed. I’d say it’s paranoia on my part, but she wants me to see it.

  “You should,” Gina tells her off-handedly. She stacks the books after I sign them and hands Eli a digital camera. “Take a picture of Taylor and me?” She wastes no time throwing her arm around my shoulders and grinning. I don’t want to ruin the picture for her, so I smile wide. Even wider when Eli sends me a secret wink.

  Eli looks at the preview screen and smiles. “Perfect.”

  Milo groans, tossing his phone on the table. “Hey Eli, one of us has to go to the shop early. Mick just left me a text. He’s got the brown bag sickness and can’t open so Mr. Williams can collect his truck.”

  “So, do I.” Eli scoops up his phone. “I see. Shit. Yeah, I’ll do it.”

  After that, everyone breaks into different conversations. Eli and Madison converse low so no one can hear. The cup of coffee sits like a brick in my stomach. It turns and turns as my mouth fills with saliva. I get a small kick in the boot, and I glance to Crockett, but he chats with Gina. Another kick. My gaze darts across the table. Eli’s eyes are full of mischievous amusement as he sips from his cup. I glance to Madison, but she’s immersed in her phone. The amusement drops from Eli’s face when I give no reaction. Why would I? We’re having breakfast with his wife. After his face was between my legs. He savored me as if I were his last fucking supper.

  I stand, rinse my plate, and place it in the dishwasher. “I’m heading out and going back to bed. Thanks for the invite. Crockett,” I add. He laughs and waves me away. Gina gives me a warm hug and looks into my eyes. They are apologetic. For what? I’m not sure.

  “You come see us. Right, John?”

  “Right, girl. You better. Great story and by the way, it’s on YouTube.”

  I don’t answer him. Before I even get to my car, tears stream down my cheeks. Heaviness weighs on my chest. This is why my mother is like she is, because now, I feel like the other woman. It’s not going to fly.

  Even though I’m half asleep, my stomach flips at the sound of a knock on the door. Throwing the covers off, I rush into the bathroom to straighten myself. The knocking gets louder. When I open the door, I’m only half way let down.

  “Expecting someone?” Crockett’s evil laugh echoes down the hall.

  “No.”

  He rolls bleary eyes and lifts a plastic bag with flair. “Girl talk.” Pushing past, he sways his hips in an amplified movement and throws the bag over his shoulder.

  “Uh, I’m not much on girl talk.”

  “You mean you’re not the kiss and tell type?”

  I should’ve expected this. Really. I should have. “Nothing happened.”

  “You sure? Cause he looked pretty sa-tis-fied, if you know what I’m saying. A lesser man would have turned to stone with the look he gave me for waking you two.” Crockett sinks into my couch and examines his fingernails.

  “I doubt it was a look of satisfaction you saw.”

  Crockett eyes me with intensity. Noticing the boots I kicked off yesterday in the middle of the floor, I put them in place by the rest of my shoes—all the while feeling his gaze. I shift on my feet and look at them before walking over to sit on the couch. When I glance at him again, he’s still watching, trying to stare an answer out of me. A car honks somewhere in the distance. I cross my arms and legs and situate my glasses. The silence stretches on.

  I’ve had enough. “Stop staring. It’s rude.”

  “Nope, I’m having a grand time watching you fidget. I’ll stop when you tell me how he is in bed. I’ve always wondered.”

  I stare across the room as my mind conjures images of dilated eyes, heavy breathing, thick hair, stubble, hands, lips, and tongue. Oh God, the tongue. “We didn’t.” Not only that, but I can hear him saying I shouldn’t feel guilty—hear him saying he doesn’t want her to taint whatever is going on between us. Now that I think about it, that’s kind of romantic. I smile as fire shoots through my body and into my face. I’m sure it’s an awful shade of crimson. My hands fly to cover my cheeks.

  Crockett bursts into laughter. “Gotcha.”

  I sling a throw pillow at him as I laugh. “Fuck you. We didn’t, I swear.”

  “Ah, but that is only a small thing on a huge list of fleshy pleasures.”

  “Fleshy pleasures. I like that. I might use it.”

  He grins, looking pleased. “I have more where that came from. But first, cheeseburgers.” He rummages through his bag and stacks six or seven cheeseburgers on the coffee table.

  “I’m not goi
ng to eat all of those.”

  “Pffft. You get one. I’ll eat the rest. I drank my weight in scotch and need my grease.”

  I struggle to mention my next subject, but I need to know how embarrassed I should feel. “Gina knows Eli spent the night with me?”

  He snorts. “Yep. Not too sure what she thinks about it. She poked me awake, thinking I was Eli, since I took his spot on the couch. Couldn’t walk anywhere else.” His brow furrows as if recalling some drunken memory. “Anyway, she was shocked and asked where he was.”

  “You told her?”

  The indignant look he shoots me is comical. “No, I did not. Thank you, very much. I said, ‘I don’t know’ and rolled over to resume sleeping like the dead.” Shoving half a burger in his mouth, he keeps talking with food showing. “She poked me again and told me to go get him from the garage apartment because Madison was there. She figured it out on her own, but anyone could. Especially after watching the video of you two telling that kick ass story.”

  Dread worms its way through my veins like venom. “What do you mean?” I squeak, remembering John saying something about the story posted on YouTube. Jumping up, I rush to get my laptop. When I sit, Crockett tells me the name of the video.

  “What?”

  He smiles around his food. “Tainted District’s, Eli Gregor and bombshell author, T.M. Dabney Tell A Story.”

  My fingers shake as I type it in. Not a title I’d come up with, but… It appears with a few hundred views already. “Oh my God!”

  “No, it’s just Eli.”

  I snort and elbow him. Clicking play, the show starts. The video is shot from where John sat, judging by the angle. Eli and I whispered to each other, and he belted out, “Once upon a time.”

  Crockett and I laugh as the video replays through the false starts before I said I’d start and set the tone. Then Eli stuck his face in my wig and a small smile played on my lips. When his face reappeared, he peered at me with hooded eyes and I said something to him with a coquettish smile.

  My body trembles. The whole scene is blatant. “Shit.”

  “Yeah, you two look like lovers. And this was before.”

  I ignore his assumption and watch the story play out. We did great. It felt amazing to do that with him even though I downplayed it. I don’t think I could’ve done an improv story without him. When I bowed at the end, Eli tilted his head and peeked underneath my tutu. It was subtle, like he didn’t realize he did it. I pulled him to his feet to bow, and he wrapped an arm around my waist as we both bent over and swept our arms at the same time. The video stops.

  I gasp and cover my mouth with my hand.

  “Yeah, that’s what John said when we all watched it this morning. I guess we were all too tipsy to realize what was going down last night.”

  “Madison saw it? Fuck, I’m such a hussy home wrecker.”

  “I hate to burst your bubble of gloom here, but Madison wrecked her own home a long time ago by deceiving and leaving us high and dry while the ink was still wet on the divorce papers.” He lifts his brows. “And anyway, she didn’t see it. She left soon after you did.” Watching me for a minute, he sees my obvious anxiety. “Let me tell you something about Maddie. She is grade-A stuck up her own ass and doesn’t give two shits and a fuck about John’s silly little YouTube videos.”

  “I don’t know… all she’d have to do is Google Eli.”

  “Pfft… doubtful. Like I said, her head is too far up that skinny little ass of hers. Although, how she fits a head that big in there is a mystery. I’m thinking serious butt pluggage. I’ve asked Eli but the stubborn ass refuses to give me the intel.”

  My phone buzzes from the bedroom. When I check it, it’s an unknown number. “Yo.”

  “What are you doing?” Eli questions, and his deep voice seems to resonate between my legs.

  I shift, lick my lips, and glance at Crockett still lounging on the couch. “I watched the video.” Crockett gives me a slow smile.

  “You did?” His tone gets huskier if that’s possible. “It was hot, wasn’t it? It made me hard all over again, not that it ever went away. In fact, I can’t stop thinking about you, I’m—”

  “How can you not be worried about this? And what phone are you on?” That weird feeling from this morning returns tenfold, but now I know what it is—dread.

  “I knew you’d freak out.” The smile in his voice only serves to freak me out more. I sit on the edge of my bed out of sight from Crockett. “Was it the looking under your skirt part? Because your ass was in my face, I couldn’t ignore it. It wasn’t the only time last night I got a peek of white lace.” He lowers his voice. “And I’m not talking about the garage apartment.”

  I squeeze my thighs together as my stomach dips with arousal. I’m going to kill Crockett and his idea of a good costume. Not that I wouldn’t have worn it on my own, but at least I can blame him.

  He sighs when I don’t answer. “Hey… it'll be okay. You agreed you trusted me. Does that still hold true?”

  “Yes. Is this a new number?”

  “What? No, I’m on the shop phone.”

  “You’ve never called me from it before.”

  A long pause. “Okay, this is going to sound really bad, but I deleted your number from my phone and I—”

  “You’re hiding me? I can’t do this. You know, if a death laser was imbedded into Madison’s stare, I would have been struck dead this morning.”

  “Tay—” I hang up before he can say anything else. My heart pounds and my chest heaves when I turn the phone off completely. I stand in the doorway of my bedroom and watch as Crockett continues with his cheeseburger binge.

  “Oh, there’s something I want to ask you,” he says, chewing his last bite. Wrappers litter my coffee table. I open my sliding glass door and light a cigarette. There goes my three-day streak. I’ve been doing so well. Inhaling, I lean against the frame to blow the smoke outside.

  I make a ‘go on’ motion and he swallows more food than a person should be able to swallow. He clears his throat, wiping the corners of his mouth. “In the middle of January is an annual gay pride event, Winter Pride Night. It’s small but can get wild. Will you participate as a LGBTQ supporting author?” He blinks his lashes at me with his laced fingers under his chin.

  “Um—”

  He sighs. “Come on, lush. I’ll be there, so will Eli.”

  I’ve already scheduled a ton of events. I might as well start the year with a bang. “I’d love to.”

  After staring at the phone for a long time, I dial her number again it goes straight to voicemail. I place the phone in its cradle and lounge back in my chair, trying to figure how I will fix this. Beginning with getting Taylor to listen for two seconds.

  “Daydreaming about blue skirts and red, shiny boots?” My mom stands in the doorway.

  I smile and shake my head. “Nah.”

  More like white lace, goose flesh-textured tattoos, fingers pulling my hair, and seductive moans. There’s something raw and sensual about Taylor I can’t quite put my finger on—something lurking right beneath her surface. Something I can’t wait to find.

  The look on her face when she wanted more won’t leave my brain, but I couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right after being with Madison just yesterday morning. Taylor deserves more than being treated like a side piece.

  I wasn’t lying when said I couldn’t stop thinking about her, being with her, waking up next to her—even if her hair was in my mouth. Our timing is the unfortunate thing. “Just going over some statements while I’m here. Did you know if you call and ask, people will pay? Amazing. I might keep this business afloat and keep my apartment.”

  Mom laughs and puts my cell phone on the desk since I left it at her house this morning. “Your dad would help you run it. Why not move here?”

  “Because of Mad—” I stop myself and give her a grim smile. “And I know he would. I like doing this myself.”

  She walks in, closing the door. “I feel like I’m about
to give you terrible advice.” I eye her, and she keeps going, “I feel like I should tell you to keep working on your marriage. To never give up. You made your bed and now you have to lie in it. But…” She scans the room and moves to take a framed photograph off the bookshelf full of grease-stained automobile manuals. Setting it down in front of me, she asks, “You remember this day?”

  It’s of Madison and me on our wedding day. I rub the back of my neck. “Mom—”

  “Do you remember?”

  What’s with women cutting off my words today? “Yes. Well, kind of.” The picture always makes me uncomfortable because I was shit-faced. So was Madison. Don’t get me wrong. We were smiling and happy, and if someone asked me a few months ago what the best day of my life was, my automatic response would have been that day. We were so young, twenty-three. Little did we know we didn’t know shit about anything. Still don’t but I believe that’s a part of becoming an adult—realizing you don't know much and you never will.

  “I was intoxicated.”

  She smiles. “We all were. It was more like a party than a wedding. And anyway, it always made me wonder… but then Maddie left you, and you were so broken, I thought you were in love with her. Then, this morning I got to thinking…”

  “I hope you didn’t have too much smoke coming out of your ears,” I jest in an attempt for her to stop thinking.

  “Oh, hush, you! No, what I mean is, you’d have been heartbroken if Crockett, Milo, or Jack had done the same thing. You’ve all been together as a team for so long.” She pulls something out of her purse. My heart swells when I take in Taylor’s smile as I have her scrunched next to my big body. “I’ve never seen you smile like that,” she says. Yeah, I’m smiling or cheesing in the picture, but there’s a light in my eyes, too. I glance to my wedding photo. Yes, there’s a difference. Subtle but there. Mom leans in, grabbing my chin, reminding me of my childhood. “I wasn’t talking about your smile in the picture, but that works, too.” I think back over the past few seconds. I suppose I smiled when I saw Taylor’s happy face.