by Liz Lorde
And he had made a promise that there was going to be something really exciting for me to do. I’d tried to pry the information out of him, but he said it’d come to him while we were laying in my bed and drifting to sleep – I swear that asshole was tighter lipped than a rebellious boy with a broomstick firmly planted in his backside.
Grabbing the bottle of Raven’s Wood merlot, I snatched my keys from the basket on my small hanging shelf, said my goodbyes to the pup, locked the door and made my way to the car.
***
“Ooh,” I couldn’t tell which Sabrina was more excited about; the wine or myself? “You look nice,” she said, closing the door of her much fancier place. Guess there were perks to having an actual high paying job right out of college.
I didn’t want to be envious of her. She’d worked hard for all that she did, and never once complained unless it was to me – and of course, what else were friends for if not being therapists that you occasionally paid in wine and hugs and laughter?
I buried the darkness in my heart where it belonged and tried to convince myself that invasive thoughts, and unwanted feelings were just a part of being alive.
That was when it came to me, I hadn’t felt so alive in years. The time that I’d spent with Hunter in the shower last night; how could a human be so caring? Did all the men that I’d been with just have some core malfunction in their being. Some update that they never got to their human persona.
I flashed Sabrina a small smile, “Thanks, not all of us can roll out of bed perfect in the morning.”
She walked in line with me towards the living room of her posh quarters, “Oh please,” she waved a hand, “we’re both equal tens. Would you just take the damn compliment without back handing me?”
“Fetch us a glass and when the red starts to pour I’ll let you get to intimately know the back of my hand.”
“Threaten me with a good time,” she said, a small laugh rumbling from her, “go on. Do it,” she continued, turning on her heel and walking over to the kitchen. She was wearing a pink tee and shorts today, guess she was in one of those feel like a princess type moods.
I plopped down onto the royal blue couch and fingers of happiness pressed against my heart, and a stupid smile overcame me no matter how hard I tried to push it down. For once, I had a prince. For once, I felt like a princess.
Sabrina padded back with two glasses in hand and a bottle opener in the other, “How long ‘till you have to leave?”
“I can stay for probably an hour, but not much later than that. Can’t drink too much, either. Maybe half a glass.”
“All the more for me,” she chirped in her sing-song voice, setting the glasses and the opener down before planting her hind end on the edge of the couch.
I spied the remote to her forty something inch plasma TV and flicked it to life, working my way to the guide section and casually browsing through it, hoping to find some decent background noise – or failing that one of the better music channels. “Isn’t it stupid,” I said, shaking my head slightly.
“Yes,” Sabrina agreed and reached for the bottle opener.
I shot her a heated, if not playful glance, before looking back to the TV. “What happened to MTV, I mean. It’s so dumb.”
“Oh that, right,” Sabrina concurred, “come on Jess,” she teased, “don’t you love watching sixteen and pregnant?” She fiddled with the bottle opener. You’d think for all of the times that we’d sat down and done this that she would be an expert in the field of opening an alcoholic beverage. You of course, would be both severely wrong and disappointed.
“Yes,” I pretend gushed, doing my bestest impression of a mock ‘typical’ valley-girl, “like, I think it’s hotter to get knocked up at fourteen. But, you know,” I made a silly gesture with my hand, “the boys, they just aren’t hot enough for me so I—“
“Oh my god-d-d,” Sabrina droned, “shut up and help me get this stupid!”
“Give it here,” I scooted closer and yanked the opener from her, finding myself infinitely more successful and promptly releasing the cork from its home. “There,” I said, “I fear for the wine market when I’m not around to help you get into it.” I finally settled the TV onto a channel of old nickelodeon cartoons.
Sabrina chuckled, pouring two glasses for us, “Stop, you know I’d hate to think about that.”
“Me too,” I admitted, brushing back a strand of my hair and feeling a rush of heat claim me, my mind going back to last night.
Sabrina brought the glass to her lips.
“So uhm,” I started, “we fucked again, last night.”
Hell promptly broke loose. Sabrina spat out what little red she had sipped and caught herself from spilling the glass of wine, cursing aloud and setting down the glass – her eyes rounded and she just looked at me. “Okay first of all, shit, I have to clean that up.” She picked herself up from the couch and headed towards the kitchen, turning around to say something, “second of all I know you did that on purpose.”
I rested my chin on my hand, the tips of my fingers covering my mouth.
“Third of everything,” she spun back around and proceeded into the kitchen, “we didn’t fuck,” she joked. “Fourth and definitely not least,” she had to raise her voice as she undoubtedly rummaged around below the kitchen sink, “you tell me every last damn detail before you leave tonight.”
***
So after Sabrina cleaned up the mess that I’d help to make, and I’d told her of some of the details of the night before that we had did the deed; I moved on to the fine frenzy that was still fresh on my mind and body.
“Mm,” she moaned, “do you have any pictures of this guy? You know, to sate my own personal curiosity.” That was code for give me masturbation material.
“Not on me presently, no.”
“Damn,” she leaned back against the arm of the couch, facing me and taking a swig of the merlot. “Can you just tell me again how it looked?” A devilish smirk touched her face.
I tittered, “I’ve told you twice now, I’m going to get a sore throat if you keep making me repeat myself.”
Sabrina Winters gave me those sad, puppy dog like eyes and an equally impressive sad smile.
“Not happening,” I smiled.
The mood, and I swore the room itself, both darkened. Sabrina pulled her face to a more considering and uncertain look.
“What’s that face for?”
She didn’t say anything, and it just made me want her to speak even more.
“Winters,” I said hoping to get a rise from her, “I’ve never known you to not have an opinion on something. You have a paper stored away somewhere from when you were thirteen, where you tried to explain why a certain ketchup bottle – which I can’t even remember the what or the why of it – was superior in design to all the rest.” I sucked in a breath, “that was you,” I raised my brows and nodded my head, “I’m glad my brain deleted most of that nonsense because you would not stop talking about it back then.”
Finally the façade cracked and she gave a full-body laugh. After a moment she perked up in her spot and inched a little closer, “I’m just concerned,” she admitted, her eyes looking to her feet. “You’re investigating this guy for your boss,” she said, “and everyone he knows and works with, and I just – I don’t want to be a downer. But how is that going to play out?”
I straightened out on the couch and the depressing feeling sunk itself back into me. She was right to be concerned. “I don’t know,” I admitted.
“That’s not good, Jess.”
“I know,” I must be crazy for getting involved with Hunter. But I couldn’t bring myself to stop now, not that he would let me. “I know, I know,” I repeated like it would actually bring me some modicum of peace.
It didn’t.
“Are you going to go through with it?” She asked, “the article.”
“I have to,” I set what remained of my glass of wine down on the coffee table. When I sucked in a breath, it felt li
ke I’d inhaled a thousand glass particles, and I looked over to Sabrina who was watching me with those sad, pensive eyes, “It’s just—“
“You have feelings for him,” she read what was painfully obvious. “He’s more than just the best lay of your life, honey, and if he’s got you feeling like this? Well, you’re in for a whole lot of trouble.”
“Heartache, you mean,” my tone was harsh and sour.
“I think you’ll figure it out,” Sabrina offered kindly, “there’s more to love than heartache. Love is like the flower you never knew you planted. It’s roots will reach deep and touch everything, and even through the storm it’ll bloom in time.”
“Yeah well call me cynical but I’ve never had a green thumb,” I upturned my thumb as if to say ‘see?’. “I’m a brown thumb, disgusting as that sounds. Everything I plant dies.”
“Takes two to love, Jess,” she opined, “twice as fun to garden when you’ve got someone you love by your side. I’ve got a good feeling about this one, girl.”
I looked to her and smiled, “Thanks. Me too.” So long as I didn’t end up destroying us first.
Chapter 20
Hunter
The place inside was buzzing with noise, and even though I’d called her again and tried to convince her that I should pick her up – Jessica insisted she’d come by herself. Girl had a real independence to her, even if I could tell that she enjoyed having it taken from her, from time to time at least. Jameson and Reyes and a few of the other boys were inside, told them that even though I was sure the crowd would be more than appreciative, it’d be nice to have a couple of warmers in the audience.
Reyes had initially declined, but after enough pestering I did get him to agree to come out. He was still plenty sore about me ditching the other day, but I knew that he’d cool off about it after some time – they’d brought in Pooh Bear in my stead. Thankfully nothing went wrong, but the tensions remained high; we needed to root out who was going against the club, and things were going to get violent in-house if something didn’t crop up.
I kicked up a leg onto the round table just outside The Ybor, a modest bar and grill where they had Karaoke every other night of the week. This was the only fact I mentioned to neglect when luring Jessica into the date, cause if she even had a whiff of it before getting here there’d be no way I could convince her.
When I saw her car slowly roll into the parking lot my heart filled with this simple, powerful feeling and I smiled. Three songs. That’s how many I booked for her, and damn if she didn’t know tonight she’d be singing that sweet ass of hers off.
Might be a dead man walking, I pondered and lifted myself off of the green plastic chair. I wandered over to Jessica’s ride.
She slammed her door shut and checked the lock, turning on her heel and flashing me that gorgeous smile I couldn’t get enough of. “Sorry I’m a little late.”
“All good,” I snaked my arm around her waist and brought my other hand to her chin. She had to stand on her tiptoes as I pressed my lips against her, planting a long, deep kiss. “You excited?”
“I am now,” she said playfully.
I just laughed. She was about to be in for a real treat.
“What?” She asked.
“Nothin’ gorgeous. Nothing at all,” I kept my arm hooked along her waist, my eyes raking over her breasts as we walked through the parking lot.
“I’m kind of doubting that,” she was incredulous, “and stop staring at my tits you caveman.”
“I am not a caveman,” I continued to stare until she struck my side. I gave her a fake little ‘ouch that hurt’ motion.
“I hope the place is nice; there’s a lot of cars here, it’s not going to be too packed is it?”
“Uh,” well shit, “it’s a nice joint, hence all the people. Plus you know, Jameson and Reyes are going to be here.”
We approached the entrance to the vestibule. There was a large glass pane that gave us a preview of all the people inside, and a small traffic of guys moving in and out of the vestibule and into the restaurant. I could practically smell the apprehension mixed with the delightful perfume of flowers on Jessica’s neck.
I pushed open the door and let her go ahead of me, making sure to check out her thick ass on that hourglass body. An apple of a bottom if I’d ever seen one. I whistled at her.
Jessica craned her head back to shoot me a look and then, picking up on what I was putting down, she swayed purposefully slow to give me a teasing view. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
I swallowed hard, feeling the fire of my chest drip down to my gut and spill over into my balls, a tight quarter sized feeling strangling me between my legs. As she opened the door, I closed the distance between us and put my hand on the door – keeping it held open as we walked through together. The place was as packed as it looked, it was a full house and there couldn’t have been a more mixed crowd of people. Old; young, jock, blue-collar, white-collar, black-collar, every color under the sun though mostly white. Tonight, my babygirl was going to have an audience – albeit a varying degree of drunk audience members.
When Jessica’s eyes caught the stage, witnessing some random nerd of a guy adjusting the microphone on the black stand, they rounded and she looked at me. “Karaoke? Wow I feel bad for that guy,” her mouth went agape and she laughed, “he’s got some balls getting up there with everyone here.”
It took every inch of my willpower not to snicker. “Yeah, yeah balls for sure. Come on,” I said, pointing with my chin towards the bar, “let’s get some drinks.” We went and ordered a couple of drinks. Long Island for her, and two Coors for myself. Took us a hot minute to find where Jameson and Reyes had sat down at, since we all got here separately, but we found them at a table towards the back with a couple of seats that they’d managed to reserve. Reyes and Jameson had two random chicks cozying up by their side.
Jameson got up and clasped hands with me, “Nice of you to finally show up, brother,” he said.
I tilted my head in the direction of Jessica, “Can’t trust that one. Had to make sure she’d behave herself on the way in.”
A chuckle rolled from Jameson’s throat and he stepped over to Jessica.
She gave me that pissed hellcat look from the comment I’d made, but her and Jameson hugged regardless.
“You’re stealing one of my best men,” Jameson told her before everyone found their seats.
Jessica’s dark eyebrows narrowed, “This guy?” She looked to me, “I hope he’s not your best. He’s an asshole.”
Jameson nodded his head, “Ah, yes. Except he’s our professional asshole. Always hard at work and exceptionally harder at play,” Jameson brought a hand to his chest, “of course now he seems to want to do more important things with his time. Such as chasing you, my dear.” His smile was bright and infectious. But I knew he was mad about what I’d done.
I could see that Jessica was starting to get a little red in the face, “I’m sorry,” she offered.
“Oh don’t be,” Jameson waved his hand, “just make sure that he is kept in line. That’s all I’m asking.”
I folded my arms over my chest, “Don’t tell her that, James. She’s five feet of fury, and she’ll take the featherweight with the way she beats on me.”
We shared laughs and drinks and conversation, ordering pizza and wings and of course Jessica swore that she had to have a salad, even despite the fact that I suspected they’d made their salads with a pair of oven mitts. Probably sourced their leaves straight from the fake plastic plants out of doctor’s offices or some shit. Still, she had to have it, and she insisted that she would pay her bill separately, no matter how much I tried to strong arm or charm her.
Everything went well and good, and even the ever grumpy Reyes seemed to be in a light hearted mood tonight. Maybe he was finally starting to accept her a little bit; though it did hurt to know that Holly was still sore about it – even though me and her were done, I guess I never really thought on it too much, about ho
w it must slight her for me to talk about Jess.
Over the course of an hour, we’d devoured the food until only a couple of slices of pizza remained; the wings that I’d ordered were nothing more than bone scraps now, and I’d needed another two beers outside of the first couple to even get started with feeling tipsy. This amazed Jessica, but it was a common plight that my two brothers-in-arms and I equally shared. It was even harder getting wasted, which was just one of many reasons why I didn’t do it as much anymore as I once did.
Jessica sipped on her second Long Island, and the girl that was up on stage was reaching the end of her song. Money by Pink Floyd blasted out through the speakers above, littered across the walls and the posts of the eating hall. She placed a hand on my thigh and my whole body lit up in attention. Even just a small, private touch like that was enough to easily turn me on.
Christ what was this woman. A witch?
Chapter 21
Jessica
The night was going along great and I could feel the liquid courage working it’s magic. I couldn’t believe the iron stomachs these guys had though, it was like they could just eat and eat for days and yet here they were, perfect models of muscle and being fit. How they were able to do it without getting fat was simply beyond me.
I leaned over to Hunter’s side and whispered in his ear, “This shouldn’t come as a surprise,” I started, “but I really want to fuck you.” I rubbed along his thigh, making sure not to get too close to his crotch. “I want to throw you down on the bed and ride you,” just the words leaving my lips was enough to send rivulets of fire through my veins.