Sex Tape: Second Chance Romance

by Kylie Walker

  This blackmail threat was a pesky irritation but it was also a reminder. Friends were precious. Good ones even more so. Geo was one of the best. I just hoped he knew I was always there for him; No matter what.

  **

  I finally left the office around eight and went to meet Chase and his friends at the new club in Manhattan that everyone was talking about.

  Dance clubs aren’t my thing, but Chase is doing me a huge favor and the least I can do is show up for a drink. Not that Chase won’t be getting heavily compensated for the favor, but there weren’t many attorneys in the city that would have agreed to my terms. If not for our friendship Chase probably wouldn’t have either.

  Chase Kessler is my other best friend. That first year out of high school I spent working my ass off and applying for every grant and loan the government offered so that the next year I could go to college. I had spent that year feeding something other than my college fund. I’d also spent it feeding my anger toward Abby and her father.

  It started out as hurt and confusion and each day that went by was like a snowball changing its shape as it rolled down the hill. Abby’s father never thought I was good enough for her simply because I was being raised by a single mother on “the wrong side” of the tracks. I was okay with that though, as long as Abby loved me. I never even knew love like that existed. My every waking thought was about her and what our future would be like together. Then one day her father decided to change all that…and as far as I was concerned, Abby allowed it to happen.

  The love I felt for her and the hurt that she would just let me walk out of her life without a fight morphed into anger and that anger grew and grew until it threatened to destroy me and everything else in its path.

  When I applied to John Jay College I’d enrolled in Pre-Law as part of my plan to spite her and her father. Abby had always planned on becoming an attorney. Of course her controlling father had talked her into pursuing medical malpractice someday. I let my anger once again guide me and I decided I would become a lawyer too, one who specialized in class action suits, specifically against medical malpractice. Sometimes at night I’d dream of representing a group of clients who were suing her father and I’d win and he’d lose his license and Abby would regret turning her back on me when she did. Never mind that the man was actually a good surgeon, one of the most respected heart surgeons on the planet in fact.

  In my angry mind and my broken heart, the fantasy was alive and well for that first year, and John Jay was where I had met my two best friends.

  By the second year in pre-law, the anger began to ebb and I realized I was wasting my own life obsessing over her. But, even with that realization, I was still lost. One particularly hard day had ended for me in a bar in mid-town within walking distance from the college. I met a woman who worked on Wall Street. She was an older woman and at first I thought she was looking for a boy toy. As it turned out, she was just lonely and desperately needed someone to talk to. She talked and I listened and somewhere along the way I decided the thrill I got when she described being on the floor when the exchange opened in the morning and stocks that doubled and tripled every hour, outweighed the thrill my fantasy gave me at that point. That was when I took my first real risk. My savings account was barely large enough to buy a nice dinner in Manhattan and I was still looking at years of paying off student loans, but something was driving me to stop living for the past and take a risk on the future so I did.

  My first stock investment was a conservative one but when that stock doubled its value in a very short time it triggered something inside me. I invested in another one and another and I quickly discovered I had a talent for picking which stocks would do well and which would tank. By the end of that first year, I’d made enough money to pay off all my debts and even start helping my mother out with some of hers. I took another big risk then and quit law school and concentrated solely on the stock market. By the end of the second year, I pulled in six figures. I hit the million dollar mark somewhere around twenty-four and now at the age of twenty-eight, I own an internationally respected investment group and employ thousands of people.

  My life is rich with friends and everything money can buy. I bought my mom a house in Queens and these days when she’s not working in her garden, she’s traveling with her friends. My older brother was too proud to take anything I was offering so I secretly paid off the mortgage on the building he runs his body shop out of in Brooklyn. He knows it was me, but at that point, what could he do? He has two beautiful little girls and a wife and he works from sun up until sun down to support them. He deserved at least that much. Life was good…until the day I got the video in the mail.

  Though it’s like a mosquito bite, I had been thinking of little else for the past two weeks. It made me question everything about myself. I never had a problem attracting women, but when I first began making a lot of money it seemed they wanted to cling to me. I had no interest in a relationship, falling in love, having kids…none of it. Abby and I had our whole future mapped out once and look how that turned out. I wasn’t ever going there again. I mentioned to a friend of mine one night when we were out that I’d love to find a woman who actually only wanted to play. He jokingly told me I’d have to hire one.

  That was when the wheels in my head started turning and I looked into some of the sex clubs in town. There were a lot of sleazy ones, but it hadn’t been hard to find one that a guy in my position could indulge in with guarantees that no one had any diseases and no one would get pregnant. I actually loved the idea of being with a different woman nearly every night and walking away knowing she knew nothing about me. The club issued me a fake name and personal things were never discussed with the employees or other patrons of the club. It was all fun and games…and then someone lost a fucking eye. Not literally, but the saying seems to fit otherwise.

  I drove up in front of the club I was meeting Chase at. It’s called Cobalt and if the outside of the building was any indication, the name fit. Bright blue neon lights lit up the building and gave it an almost ghostly hue in the moonlight. I gave my keys to the valet and my name to the bouncer at the door. He looked at his list and then stepped aside and let me brush past at least fifty annoyed young people standing in a long ass line. If they made angry eye-contact with me I only smiled and shrugged.

  Once I was inside, I stood at the doorway waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dim light. It was dark but when things began to come into focus and I saw almost everything was back-lit with blue rope lights. The bar glowed and so did the stage where a live band played and the dance floor was packed.

  I walked over to the bar and ordered an imported beer. When the bar maid sat it down in front of me, I thanked her, gave her a generous tip, and looked around for a quiet place to sit until I heard from Chase. That was when I saw him near the dance floor at a small table with two women. One of them had long hair that hung to her waist in ringlets and even from here I could see deep dimples along the sides of her full lips when she smiled. She looked like she was mixed-race, maybe black and Asian. She was gorgeous and judging from the way she and Chase sat thigh to thigh I’d have to guess she was Joze, the woman he’d told me about.

  All I could see of the other woman from where I stood was long, golden-blonde hair. Chase said he was going to try and talk the associate working on my case with him into coming tonight. I wondered if that was her as I approached the table. I went around the dance floor and past the gang of frat boys standing between me and the table. I smiled at Chase who had just noticed me and the beautiful woman he was sitting with. I glanced across the table at the other one and suddenly, the earth stood still.

  Chapter 3

  ABBY

  “What the fuck?”

  I heard Chase choke and Joze burst out laughing before I realized I’d said that out loud. But in my defense, I felt like all the air in the room had just been sucked out. I was staring at a man that looked identical to Will, albeit more mature and definitely more filled out. He was
staring back at me as if he’d just seen a ghost too. Obviously he hadn’t been expecting to see me any more than I was him.

  “Hello Abby.”

  His voice was the same, but different. It was deeper. His eyes still shone like giant emeralds and the dark eyelashes that surrounded them were still a mile long. His hair was longer than he used to wear it, almost to his collar in the back and it looked like he’d just gotten out of bed and ran his fingers through it. My eyes focused on his lips before I realized it. Those lips had taught me how to kiss and to this day I’ve never tasted anything as sweet.

  Damn it! What am I doing?

  This is Will. This is the man who stuck his fist through my chest and pulled out my heart. He may as well have been some kind of zombie who ate it right there in front of me. It left a big, empty hole that I haven’t been able to fill even nine years later.

  “Will,” I finally managed to choke out. “Wh-“ I cleared my throat. Damn it! I don’t want him to stand there in his expensive clothes and think he’s having any kind of affect on me.

  Fuck, he looks good though.

  That black designer silk shirt clings to the muscles in his chest and arms, and with the sleeves halfway rolled up, I can see he’s got colorful tattoos on both of his forearms. His pants look tailored like they were made to fit his thick, hard thighs. I almost wished he would turn around so I could see how they fit in the back. Shit! Pull yourself together Abby! “What are you doing here?” I was proud the words all came out that time…small favors.

  “You two know each other?” Chase asked. Will was still standing there with his hands in his pockets staring at me. Who the hell did he think he was? He has no right to stare at me.

  “You two know each other?” I asked Chase, throwing the question back at him.

  Chase chuckled and Joze was giving me a look like she wanted to know what I knew about this guy and now. “Yeah, Will and I have been friends since college. Have a seat, Will.”

  Without taking those emerald eyes off my face he told Chase, “Maybe you should ask Abby if that’s okay.”

  I chanced a look back up at him and his green eyes caught my blue ones and held them there. I had so many questions. Why didn’t he fight for me? Was the fifty-thousand dollars my father gave him really enough to make him stop loving me? Did he ever really love me?

  I felt like I was going to be sick. Nausea mixed with equal parts of sorrow blended to create the worst cocktail. I stood up and said, “I don’t care where you sit. Joze, do you need to use the ladies room?”

  She was on her feet in half a second. I was already pushing my way across the dance floor. I wasn’t even going to take the time to go around. I had to throw up and if these people didn’t get out of my way, they would have what was left of my PB&J all over their dancing clothes.

  “Abby!” I heard Joze call out to me but I didn’t stop. When I got to the bathroom, I pushed my way to the front of the line and got cursed and pushed back. Suddenly Joze was at my side and had her hand on my arm. “She’s diabetic. Her blood sugar is really high and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Please, can we go in front of you so I can give her insulin and get her settled down?”

  The story was so ridiculously elaborate and this night was such a ridiculous bust that it triggered something inside of me and suddenly I was laughing like an idiot. The people around me must have thought I was crazy. Judging from the looks most of them were giving me they doubted the diabetes story and thought I was mentally ill instead. Joze smiled her pretty, dimpled smile and pushed more than led me into the bathroom. Once inside the nausea was back and I dropped to my knees in front of the toilet and started to puke. Joze didn’t say anything, she simply waited until I was finished and then handed me a wet paper towel. I wiped my mouth and then looked up at her.

  “I’m sorry, Joze. I didn’t mean to ruin your night.”

  “The night has only just begun and you haven’t ruined anything. But honey what was that? Who is that guy?”

  Instead of answering her, I pushed against the toilet with my hands and got to my feet on shaky legs. She took a hold of my arm again and led me to the sink where I rinsed my mouth with mouthwash I carry in my purse and then scrubbed my hands nearly raw. When I finished drying them off, Joze handed me her lip gloss. I laughed at that. Only Joze would worry about my lips being bare at a time like this.

  “Who is he?” she asked me again.

  “His name is Will Sheridon.”

  “Wait…this isn’t “the” Will you told me about? The one that you thought was the love of your life…is it?”

  I nodded. “One and the same, only hunkier to boot. Damn him for not at least getting ugly!”

  She giggled at that. “He is hot,” she said. I gave her a dirty look and she shrugged. “I didn’t say he’s not an asshole. Wow, I can’t believe in three years you didn’t know he and Chase were friends. They must not hang out a lot.”

  “Just my luck they chose tonight. Shit. I have to go, Joze. I’m sorry.”

  “No! Please don’t go. Abby what happened between you and him was years ago. You can’t

  seriously tell me it still hurts that much.”

  “I can tell you that because it’s true.” Someone knocked on the bathroom door. “Just a minute!” Abby and I called out in unison. “The sight of him took all my breath away and made my chest feel like it was going to explode. I’m shaking and sweating. I know it’s crazy, Joze…I’m twenty-seven years old and I have a great life. Will Sheridan should be ancient history…and he is, most of the time. But I can’t sit across a table from him and pretend he didn’t do irreparable damage to my self-esteem and my psyche and my heart when he took my father’s money and left. I can’t do it!”

  Another knock on the door sent Joze over to pull it open and snarl out a, “We. Will. Be.

  Right. Out. Do. Not. Knock. Again.” She slammed the door and took a deep breath and said, “Please don’t go. It’s been too long since we’ve had a night out. I’ll ask Chase to send him away. Chase will do that for you.”

  I didn’t have the energy to fight. I also didn’t want to tell Chase what Will did to me. It was humiliating enough back when I told Joze about it. “I’ll try, Joze. But please don’t ask Chase to send him away. I can’t handle having to tell him the story right now and you know he’ll try and brow-beat it out of me.”

  “You’re sure?”

  I nodded. “But if I just suddenly get up and walk out, please let me go, okay?” She nodded and put her arm around me.

  “Whatever you need,” she said. “We can even go to another club if you want.”

  “Maybe. Let’s see what Chase says when we get back out there.”

  “Do you think Will told Chase?”

  “I don’t know but if I were him I wouldn’t tell anyone. What kind of man takes money from the father of a girl who is deeply in love with him and then just disappears?”

  Joze curled her lip and said, “You probably don’t want to hear this, Abbs, but he was just a kid and your father can be really intimidating.”

  “I know he’s intimidating. Hell, he still intimidates me and I’ve known him for twenty-seven years. That’s not the point though. A man who loves a woman should stand up for her. He chose money over us, Joze. I can’t forgive him for that.”

  She nodded and said, “You look good tonight, did I tell you that?” She’d told me ten times before we left my apartment. She’d talked me into wearing a pale blue cotton mini dress that stopped just at the tops of my thighs and hung off the shoulder on one side. By the time I had my hair curled and my four inch strappy sandals on, I was feeling pretty hot myself. Now that Will was here, I just felt like a hot mess.

  “You told me,” I said.

  She smiled and said, “Well then you’re armed to the teeth. You know what they say the best revenge is?”

  If she meant looking good, Will was way ahead of me. Damn him!

  Chapter 4

  WILL

  I had
always been a pretty articulate guy. My mother loved to read and she started me reading when I was in pre-school. We used to read together and when there was a word I didn’t know or understand she would stop and explain it to me and help me learn how to pronounce it. But right at the moment I saw Abby tonight, all of my words escaped me.

  She and her friend seemed to have disappeared in the bathroom, at least, they’d been gone for a really long time, and Chase was bugging me about how Abby and I knew each other and why she’d seemed so angry when she saw me. I couldn’t find the words to even begin to explain it. My head and my heart were completely immersed in chaos.

  “Will, did you and Abby date?” Chase sounded dubious, he knew that I didn’t “date,” at least not in the traditional sense. “You didn’t sleep with her and never call her again, did you?”

  I finally looked at him; semi-amused by how well he knew me. With a sigh, I said, “Not exactly. What Abby and I had was a long time ago, when we were kids.”

  “She still seems pretty broken up over it. I’ve known her for three years and I’ve never seen her upset over a man once. She’s really independent and smart.”

  And drop-dead gorgeous.

  God, when she looked into my eyes with those big cornflower blue ones of hers, I swear every nerve in my body was suddenly raw. She was always pretty but at eighteen I had no idea what a classic beauty she would turn out to be, even with her eyes burning with hate when she looked at me. Then when she stood up, every last drop of blood in my body raced down south and sent my suddenly hard cock into a tailspin.

  Even now after she’d been gone for ten minutes and the rest of my vital signs had settled down, it was still trying to stand at attention. Apparently it doesn’t realize there is absolutely zero chance it’ll ever get within a foot of her.