by Anna Collins
He couldn’t be more than 25 and I was two years younger which made him the older man. It was that delectable thought that had me wondering what it would take to get him out of that suit and into my bed. He had covered his exposed skin. I thought for sure that what he had done was a figment of my imagination. It seemed real enough. He was standing there dapper and put together. It made me believe that I had given myself license to daydream in vivid and explicit detail. The only thing that proved otherwise was that piece of him that did not show any signs of bringing his excitement from a boil to a simmer.
“I know that I’m prying. You can call it a curiosity or anything else you want, but what changed? You don’t have to tell me and it’s none of my business. I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t say something then it is never said,” I said knowing that the only exception was my parents and their judgmental stare that felt like a cold knife stabbing into my heart.
“I don’t see any reason why I can’t tell you. It’s not exactly a secret. My father even from the grave has made us into his puppets. He specifically said in his will that all the money from the estate goes to the eldest son on his 40th birthday. There is a caveat. The eldest son has to be married. Here’s the kicker. If on the off chance that the eldest son is not married then the fortune in its entirety will be split evenly amongst the other three children. I’m that eldest son and you can imagine what kind of responsibility that I have. It’s like a Damocles sword over my head,” He said as I retrieved his prescription for Proscar.
I knew what the medicine was primarily used for, but it also had a secondary use. I’d already noticed quite a change in him from the time that he started to use it. He claimed it was for his grandmother, but his thinning hair had now become lush and full. I think that I saw a bit more confidence and that came from the vanity of having something that a lot of men would’ve given more than their life savings to prevent from happening. Hereditary baldness was spoken in hushed tones and it was not my place to tell him that not many women would care about his hair.
“That has to be a substantial burden on you. I’m sure that the ring that you’re going to put on her finger will fit perfectly. Might I suggest taking her shopping to Tiffany and let her pick out something that catches her eye when the time comes. You only get this one chance to leave her breathless with appreciation. That appreciation can turn into the best night of your life,” I said wishing that I was that girl and feeling this green jealous streak running down the small of my back.
“What gave you the idea that I was involved with anybody in a long-term commitment? I’m not saying that I’m lonely, but one-night stands get old very quickly. I’ve never had any inkling that someone wanted to spend more than the night. I attract only those girls that are looking to use me and my money. I make a fair living with my real estate holdings, but nothing like the billions that are waiting for me to grab with my greedy little hands. What my siblings don’t realize is that I would gladly split the wealth with them, but they see this as a way to make me look bad. They want me to wear that black eye like the adulterous letter A on a woman’s chest,” He said as he hung onto the bag in his hand with his fingers curling around it in a death grip.
“I shouldn’t have assumed anything. I just figured that a man like you would have found somebody by now. Wait, you said that things are changing because the eldest son needs to be married before his 40th birthday. You have plenty of time. I’m sure in the next few years that you will find the woman that you want to spend the rest of your life with,” I said with him shaking his head and almost in hysterics with his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.
“It’s very flattering that you would think that I was younger than I am. I’m 39 and my 40th birthday is in one month. That doesn’t leave me a lot of time to find that special someone that will get married on such short notice. My siblings need to believe that the love that we share is universal. They will scrutinize the woman that I bring with me and they will grill her mercilessly to see if our stories match up. It’s one thing to be engaged, but it’s another thing entirely when you have to convince your siblings that it’s on the up and up. My father even brought in a disinterested party to make sure that there were no problems,” Drake said as he stood there and told me all of these things without very much prodding from me.
“I never would have guessed that you were almost 40. You must have some young genes in your family to be able to pull off the look of somebody in their early twenties. I have to tell you that your age means nothing to me. I do like the idea of an older man in my life. I hope that I’m not having some sort of daddy issue,” I said feeling comfortable around him and not feeling like I had to put on airs.
“I think that it’s high time that I take you to dinner. Someplace fancy where the meals are a work of art on the plate. You may not get the quantity, but the quality more than makes up for that. I know a place that has a decadent dessert that is almost better than sex. I’m asking you out. I should’ve done this a long time ago. We have a lot in common. We both had childhoods that were not conventional. I feel lucky that my parents are no longer around. I know how distasteful that might sound, but we were suffocating with them playing warden to our trust funds,” Drake said.
“I understand what you mean. I wouldn’t admit this to anyone, but I sometimes dream of the day that those shackles of family obligation are taken off. They never let me forget that I was a miracle baby. That I was blessed and that I shouldn’t squander that gift. I try to tell them that it’s my life, but the words get lost in the way that they look at me. They love me in their own way. I didn’t have the close connection that other kids had. I was surprised to see them hugging their kids. That never happened under our roof,” I said with thoughts of my childhood making me shiver in place.
“I don’t envy you being an only child. I felt that way all of my life. My siblings thought that my father treated me differently than them. I never saw it that way. He did teach me some valuable lessons in business. I’ve been knocked down, but I always get back up again. My father would never allow me to fail. He demanded excellence,” Drake said with both of us getting things off our chest that we couldn’t talk to anyone about.
Chapter 3
“Don’t you find that it is a little bit suspicious that he wants to take you out tonight? You can’t be that naïve to believe that he doesn’t have ulterior motives. You just finished telling me that the family estate will be given to him when he is married before he’s 40. It can’t surprise you that he’s grasping at straws. He’s going to propose a union that is beneficial to the both of you. Are you really the type of girl that will even entertain the idea of an indecent proposal?” Jackson said as he stood there in only a towel like he always did to get a rise out of me.
I could play the game, but not in exactly the same way that he was with me. I was wearing my underwear, the lingerie original that I’d gotten from Victoria secret. I didn’t mind him looking at me and the attention was very much wanted.
“I didn’t tell you all of that so that you could convince me to call this thing off. I’m sure that he will broach the topic, but I don’t think that there’s really anything that he could say to make me be a part of this. I’m going to enjoy my meal and try something different. I’m not going let any negative influences ruin this for me,” I said holding onto that little black dress from a well-known designer named Donna Karan.
Every girl has that certain dress that makes them look spectacular and this one did it for me. I didn’t care about the price tag. I was still paying it off like I would a student loan. It was slinky and sexual. It sent a message that I was ready to be courted. It also said that I wanted it to be ripped from my milky flesh and for the guy to ravage me until I was screaming in the throes of passion. If anything, I might be able to parlay dinner into an exercise that would burn off those calories in a more constructive way.
“I’m just trying to be devil’s advocate. I certainly don’t
want to ruin your chance to paint the town red or in this case black. I know what that dress is used for. You’ve taken it to the cleaners with several different stains that I’m sure had the owner scratching his head. You can be a dirty girl when you wear something that makes you feel like you are in somebody else’s skin,” Jackson said with the towel slipping and showing the swinging evidence of his manliness.
“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t grab for a bit of happiness. It might be temporary and I probably have lost my mind, but I don’t want to think about it. I just want to do something totally out of character and just let the chips fall where they may. I don’t even know what restaurant he is taking me to, but I’m curious enough to find out. He said that he’s sending a car for me. I can only imagine what that might be. I doubt that it will be anything less than a limousine stretched as far as the eye can see. I’m imagining a chilled bottle of champagne and possibly strawberries and whipped cream to round out the evening,” I said as I slipped into the dress and twirled clockwise to see myself from every angle.
“I will never understand where your romantic notions came from. You have romance in your blood, but don’t you think that you’re expecting a little bit too much from this evening. I implore you not to do something that you’re going to regret in the morning. I don’t want to see you stumble in here drunk, wearing that embarrassed smile on your face with your panties rolled up into a ball in your purse. You do know that is called the walk of shame. It might feel good in the moment, but then the rug will be pulled out from underneath you,” Jackson said as he sat down and looked at me like he was undressing me with his eyes.
“I’ve never seen you look at me like that before. Could it be that this dress is luring you over to the other side? Have I done the impossible and converted you to trying the other half of the population? I know that I could find a lot of girls that would be willing to teach you the fine art of what it is to be with a woman. The one that comes to mind is Sheila. That girl is a man eater. You wouldn’t stand a chance and she would leave you without pants and unable to walk in the morning. I can easily give her a call and have her over here,” I said teasing him and seeing that he was blushing from the obvious idea of being with someone that did not possess the same thing that his lovers would have 24 hours a day.
“I know her quite well and I wouldn’t be able to resist. Actually, it’s more like she would attack me and leave me little choice than to play along. I’m asking you as a friend not to do that. I don’t want her to be leaving here with her high heels in her hands and her lipstick marking my body in various locales. I’m not even sure that the soldier would salute her. To be honest, I’m scared of her and I try to keep her at arm’s length for a reason,” Jackson said.
“Sheila has been our friend for a long time. She was my friend before she started to look at you like an unattainable piece of fruit that she needed to have. I’ve done my best to keep convincing her that your taste is with something more masculine. That only encourages her. It’s just a matter of time before she goes in for the kill. I can’t be with you 24 hours a day seven days a week. One of these days she’s going to slip in when you least expect her,” I said knowing that Sheila’s infatuation with him had been going on for quite some time.
“I’m not blind. I do see the way that she constantly undresses me with her eyes. I don’t like it but I have to give her credit for going after something that she can’t have. It shows that she is open to the possibilities and not affected by how I feel about the same sex. I know that you’re only bringing up Sheila to keep me from convincing you that going out with Drake is the wrong idea. It’s a good ploy, but you have used it in the past a few times too many. You always think that I back down because I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s more that I don’t feel like getting into an argument with my best friend,” Jackson said as I heard the honk and looked out to see that a white stretch limousine was waiting for my arrival.
“I’m rethinking this idea of being with Drake. Fantasies and reality sometimes don’t work out in the way that we want them to. Things like this never live up to the expectations that I have in my head. It’s a whole lot better when I think about him doing exactly what I want, but that is hard to do when somebody has a will of their own. This might be taking things too far. I flirted with him shamelessly over the last little while, but I thought we were just playing a game. I’m glad that you are here and I may have made a mistake that I would regret for the rest of my life,” I said thinking with my head.
“Hmm…it would be a good idea for you to go to dinner with him. I don’t want to be the one to make you look at me after everything is said and done and think that I led you down the wrong path. We’ve both come to learn a very painful lesson that sometimes people have to do what they think is right. It doesn’t matter if a friend is against it. It doesn’t matter that what we feel is wrong, but feels so right. Do yourself a favor and get him out of your system before he has you wrapped up in the notion that he could make you happy. Money does not make you happy. It might help to lavish you with luxuries, but do you really think that is going to make you feel complete?” Jackson asked me as I looked at this stretched limousine and wondered if there was a chilled bottle of champagne and fresh strawberries and whipped cream in the back.
“You are very confusing. In one breath you tell me that I shouldn’t be doing this and in the next, you say that I should be getting it out of my system. Do you really know what you’re talking about, or are you just winging it? I only ask, because your love life hasn’t exactly been burning up the sheets lately. I haven’t heard anybody in your bedroom in the entire time that we have been roommates. You told me that you don’t bring your love life behind these doors because you want things to be main private. I respect that and I’m grateful for the discretion. I’m sure that you have a very kinky idea of what sex is like. I didn’t tell you, but I’ve seen your browser history. At first, I thought that you were some kind of perverted freak, but then I realized that you just have a unique taste. It might not be normal for everybody,” I said hoping that I was making myself clear about where I stood about his love life.
“I never wanted to do anything that made you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. I didn’t think that it was right to parade a cavalcade of guys through my bedroom with you still looking for the one. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve kissed a lot of frogs to try to find your prince charming. You’ve done a lot more than kissing if the sound that I have heard from your bedroom is any indication,” Jackson said looking at me and letting me know in no uncertain terms that my love life was not off limits.
“I’ll have you know that my love life has been pretty much dead on arrival for the last few months. The noises that you have heard from my bedroom are me the throes of passion with a select number of toys and old home movies of past lovers that gave my body a reason to think that they were a keeper. It’s just that every time that I get close to someone they always fool me into thinking that there’s more there than there is. I get caught up with my heart on my sleeve. I always get it broken by guys that can’t keep it in their pants long enough to make a commitment. I’m not sure that men know the meaning of that word. It’s always the good ones that are either married or gay,” I said talking to hear myself think because I really didn’t know what I was going to do about the limousine waiting for me.
“I didn’t know that you were having a dry spell. By all means, go out with Drake and get your groove on. Find a reason to leave him like a skid mark on the side of the road. It would do you good to use him and for once not get carried away with feelings and expectations. Just do what feels good for the first time in your life and not worry if there’s a future involved. Sometimes you just need a good time and to paint the town red with that black dress that leaves little to the imagination,” Jackson said as he got up to put his hands on my shoulder in a comforting gesture that soon turned a little bit more intimate. I wasn’t ready for that. He did have soft and demanding h
ands.
I could feel his hot breath on my neck and I thought that it was a mistake, but then that certain something in behind me said that his interest did not necessarily mean that this was platonic. It was possible that he was not strictly into men. That he had been lying to me about only wanting to drive stick. It wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that he was dabbling for the sake of not allowing the other half of the population to go to waste. I was kind of flattered that he found me interesting enough in this black dress to lead him astray.
“I would say that somebody is happy to see me, but I’m not sure that it knows the difference of one ass from another. I’ve been trying in vain to get you to sleep with me when I was too drunk to give a damn. I got blitzed New Year’s Eve and came home practically swinging from the chandelier. I was giving you an opening. You didn’t take it. I told you that I was drunk, but I wasn’t too drunk not to know what I was doing. You rebuffed me and made me feel stupid. I realized that you were just doing what a good friend does. You prevented me from making a mistake that would leave us with the inevitable task of trying to find separate places to live,” I said with his fingers pressing into my back and making me moan despite the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be sexual. He was always good at making me relax.