Fake Boobs

by Ryan Ringbloom

“Can I at least apologize?” he asked.

  This was interesting. I gave him my full attention. “Go ahead.”

  “I’m sorry. College was a blur, and I’m sure I did exactly what you just said. I was an asshole back then.”

  “Oh, and now you’re not?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “If I walk away from here without getting you to forgive me and at least ask you to let me make it up to you, then I am,” he tried saying with conviction.

  I was fed lines all the time. He was giving me a line. I had no interest in forgiving him or letting him make it up to me. I started to turn away when Kenna met my eyes and mouthed “Fate.”

  Fate? With this guy? I didn’t think so. I reached down to my wrist to touch my bracelet for assurance. It was no longer there. That part of me was gone. I rubbed my bare wrist and gulped down the small lump in my throat.

  “Go ahead, apologize. Make it up to me.” I crossed my legs and sat back in the stool.

  Brendan leaned over to Kenna and asked her a question I couldn’t hear. She threw her head back and laughed, before whispering her response in his ear.

  “I am so sorry, Tori,” he said, apologizing to me. Smart. I’d give him that for asking Kenna my name before he apologized. He wouldn’t have gotten too far without that info.

  “Please let me take you out and make up for what an asshole I was back then.”

  I polished off the rest of my drink. “Fine. Take me out. Make it up to me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Grant

  Fucking balls. Huge ones.

  That was what I needed to be standing at their door knocking. But there was no other option. This was what needed to be done.

  The door opened and she gasped. “Grant. Oh, my God. I can’t believe it. What are you doing here?”

  “Jeanie, I’m sorry to just show up like this, but I didn’t think he’d see me if I called first.” I scraped a hand over my head, clearing my throat.

  “Come in,” she offered and opened the door wider. “Jim isn’t home yet. He’s due home soon though.”

  A little boy ran out and stopped. He was the spitting image of my long lost friend. A big boy now, probably around four years old. I hated that this was only the first time I was seeing him.

  “Isaac, say hello. This is Grant. He’s one of Daddy’s friends.” Isaac covered his face and ran from the room. “Sorry, he’s shy around new people.”

  “It’s my fault for being new.” I hung my head.

  She led me over to the living room not far from the door and we took a seat on the couch.

  “Grant, I’m sorry, but we’re so confused about what happened. Where did you go? Jim heard a little bit from Tori recently, but she was vague. He felt like she wasn’t giving him the whole story. I tried talking with her and didn’t get very far either. Was Tori really the reason you disappeared?”

  “Yes, Tori is the reason I left.”

  Jeanie rubbed a hand over her mouth and sighed. “Oh, Lord, so it’s true. You used her.” She bit her nail. “Grant, I don’t think it’s a good idea that you’re here when Jim gets home. I can’t have a big fight in my house with our son here. I’m sorry. I think it’s best if you leave.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Jeanie, I swear. I was in love with Tori. That’s the reason I left. I loved her and she just wasn’t ready for what I was. Jim said it himself. She was naïve and needed some life experience.”

  “You told Jim you loved her?” Jeanie asked confused.

  “No, because I knew it didn’t matter. He was right. She wasn’t ready. I needed to back off. He said he was going to look after her. And that’s part of the reason I’m here. I saw Tori a few weeks ago. I…I—”

  Jeanie put her hand on my arm. “I know. She’s not the same. We’re struggling with it too. Jim feels responsible for not keeping a better eye on her. He tried. He wanted to be more involved in her life. But I found out I was pregnant. We had graduation. We got married, the baby, the house, the job. It became overwhelming. Next thing we knew it was like she was…gone.”

  “What about her parents? Her friends? No one stepped in when all these changes started to occur?” I had no right to ask, but I still did.

  “Jim’s parents were oblivious. Always traveling, ignoring the situation. I don’t think they even acknowledged something was truly changing with her until she came in with the…” Jeanie closed her eyes, “the fake boobs and announcing she worked as a waitress over at Backsides.”

  My stomach dropped. That was where she was waitressing. No wonder she wasn’t teaching. Calling Backsides for a reference probably wasn’t too assuring to most schools.

  The front door opened and Jeanie startled standing up. “Jim, look who stopped by. Grant’s here,” she spoke each word with caution.

  “I can see that.” Jim’s jaw clenched tightly as he walked toward us. “Want to explain to me what you’re doing here?”

  “I’m here to discuss Tori,” I said, getting up from the couch, standing tall.

  “Jim, don’t get upset. Please, go outside, talk to him and discuss this.” Jeanie wrapped her hands around her husband’s arm. “Listen to what he has to say. Maybe he can help.”

  Jim nodded, releasing a breath from his nose. “You can go wait outside for me. I need a moment to say hello to my wife and son before I can deal with you.”

  “I’ll be out there when you’re ready.” I walked down the hall and stepped through the doorway.

  This conversation with him could go any number of ways. I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for it. Cars drove down the small street while I paced anxiously. Jim made me wait. I lost track of how long. It was deliberate. He probably wanted my nerves rattled. They were. He’d succeeded.

  The door finally opened and Jim stepped out. He trudged to the end of his driveway, away from his house and I followed.

  “Start talking.” He raised a hand summoning me to begin.

  “I’m sorry.” The two words I needed to start off with right away.

  “For what, Grant? Leaving us all behind without a word? Not being there on my wedding day? Or for the birth of my son?” He punched a fist into his hand. “For fucking my sister and then leaving her?”

  “I didn’t,” I answered quietly.

  “You didn’t?” He cupped his ear encouraging me to speak up.

  I shifted my weight. This was not good. Telling Jim the way I felt about his sister four years ago was hard; now, I felt like it would be damn near impossible to get the words out. To explain everything that happened between us back then.

  “I did. I left everyone. I had to. But it’s not what you think.”

  “Tell me, Grant, what do I think? Enlighten me.”

  Fuck, I needed to just say it. “I fell in love with your sister.”

  Jim pulled two fingers to his lips and contemplated this. “You fell in love with Tori. Okay, you see, there’s a bunch of problems with that, starting with if you loved her, why would you leave? Makes no sense.”

  “I left because you said she was young, inexperienced, being taken advantage of, needed life experience. You said she didn’t even know what love was. I couldn’t be the next guy taking advantage of her. I couldn’t love someone who wasn’t ready for love. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Block her from living life? Get my heart broken when she realized she didn’t have real feelings for me?”

  “If you loved her like you say, I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me.”

  “Because you were right; she was too young. She did need to experience life. You said she’d fall in love with a tree stump if it paid attention to her. I didn’t want to be that tree stump. I couldn’t be around her anymore. The only way to assure that would happen was by leaving.” I raked my hands through my hair. “And she was in a bad place. You’re the one who pointed that out. You said you’d watch over her, but I saw her Jim. You didn’t do that.”

  “Get the fuck off my property. Don’t you dare come here and blame me for w
hatever shit Tori is going through.” Jim stalked away a few feet and came back. “I wanted to be there for her, but I had a lot of other responsibilities going on. I’m trying to help her now. This isn’t all my fault.”

  “Sorry, I’m not saying it’s your fault.”

  “Jesus Christ, you loved her. She loved you. Maybe one of you should have spoken up instead of you running away and Tori changing who the fuck she is ‘cause she never felt loved by anyone.”

  “If I thought there was a chance she really cared for me, I would have stayed. I would have come to you. That’s what I wanted.” I released a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose and looked up. “Did you just say she loved me? Is that what she said?”

  Jim shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know what I’m saying.” He paced. “So, why are you here now? Are you back because you saw the hot mess my sister’s become and want to point the finger at everything I fucked up on? Tell me it’s my fault you two aren’t together and off getting married? It’s my fault that the love between you guys got all fucked up?”

  “Why do you keep saying it like that? What do you know? What did Tori tell you about us?” My hands were moist. My whole body was starting to sweat.

  “She told me about you guys. She said she was the reason you went away. She said she loved you, but you left because you were just using her.”

  “But she told you that back then, when she was nineteen?”

  “No, I never knew about you guys or any of this until a few weeks ago. Goddammit, I feel like I’m Mr. Fucking Furley who misunderstood and screwed everything up.”

  I’d only seen Three’s Company like once or twice, but I understood the gist of his reference, things were confused. I just needed to know what those things were.

  “What’s the misunderstanding?”

  “That she was in love with you. That she never really got over it. That she lacked self-confidence, but you were the one who could have helped her with that. Instead, I jumped in and prevented that by rattling off my own opinions without knowing all the facts.”

  “She told you this a few weeks ago?”

  “Yes, she finally broke down and I had a conversation with the sister I remember. She told me everything that happened back then. She did love you, and from the sounds of it, I think she still might. She wears some damn bracelet you gave her. I’ve never seen her without it. I had no clue all these years it was you who gave it to her.”

  It was coming together in pieces. Tori asked if I talked to her brother. She said she wore the bracelet as a reminder never to fall in love. Was walking away a colossal screw up on my part? Did she love me back then? Was it possible she still harbored some type of feelings for me now?

  “When I saw her, she was so different. I could only catch glimpses of the girl I remembered, and every time I caught that glimmer, she snapped into this other person.”

  “She does that. After she got it all out, telling me what happened, she went right back to her ‘new self’. It’s like she pushes a button.” Jim rubbed his neck looking off into a neighboring yard. “Do you know where she works?”

  “I didn’t until ten minutes ago. Jeanie told me.”

  “She wanted to teach. Now she gets paid to have guys smack her on the ass and look down her shirt. I don’t know what’s gonna happen next with her. I’m trying, but I can’t get through to her.”

  “Let me help.”

  “Why would you do that?” Jim’s eyes squinted at me in question.

  Wasn’t it obvious?

  “Why do you think?” I asked.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Tori

  “Everyone, this is Tori,” Brendan introduced me to his table of friends seated in my section at Backsides. His skeevy friends leered at me in my revealing uniform, all eyes landing on my breasts.

  “Can I get you guys some drinks?” I rested the tray on my hip, set the smile on my face and waited for their order.

  The guy at the end of the table flung a coaster onto the floor. “Sorry, Sweetie, you mind getting that for me?”

  I gave a quick look to Brendan who just smirked and got ready to watch me as I bent over along with the rest of them. I swooped down and picked up the coaster as quickly as possible and stood back up.

  “Goddamn, Bren, you are one lucky son of a bitch.”

  “I am.” Brendan reached his hand out and grabbed my ass in response. We’d been on four dates and already I was his little show pony. He relished in showing me off to the guys. They were calling him lucky because of me. I made him lucky. All the attention I always dreamed of, I now had. That should mean I was happy, I reminded myself.

  Kenna came out of the backroom scowling. I excused myself from the table and ran over catching up with her.

  “What’s going on? You look upset,” I asked.

  “Yeah, I am.” She sneered at me. “Apparently, there have been a few complaints around here that I’m too fat.”

  “That’s crazy. You’re not fat. You have curves.”

  Kenna shot me a dirty look. “It’s your fault. You bring all that shit food into the house and then I’m the one eating it, getting all fat, while you stay nice and thin.” She looked over at Brendan and his friends. “Go back to your admirers, Tori. I need to go make myself throw up in the bathroom so I can fit in my uniform better and still have a job.”

  I sulked on my way over to the bar and gave the drink order from Brendan’s table to Henry. I watched Kenna disappear into the ladies room, most likely to do exactly what she just said.

  The pressure to keep up our appearances was brutal. Kenna was by no means fat, but in this business, those extra five or six pounds that snuck up on her were a very big deal. Her uniform needed to fit a certain way. Lately, a small flap of skin squeezed out where the corset met her black shorts. One size bigger would probably alleviate the problem, but I doubted Kenna wanted to hear that suggestion.

  Brendan’s touches grew more inappropriate with every drink order I delivered to his table. His friends were also getting a bit handsy. All it would take was one glance at Leo, our hired protector, to have these guys booted out, but I kept smiling and letting Brendan believe I was enjoying their crude remarks and inappropriate behavior.

  Putting up with their shit paid off. I slid three crisp one–hundred-dollar bills out of the leather folder they left for my tip. Brendan’s friends trickled out one by one, each one staring down at my cleavage instead of my face as they said their goodbyes.

  I finished up and changed in the backroom before leaving with Brendan who had waited for me.

  Tonight was the night. It had to be. I couldn’t continue dating him and not expect that he’d want sex. He’d been hinting at it all night, whispering dirty innuendos into my ear whenever I was close enough. I wished those comments turned me on, but they hadn’t.

  “Hey, you all set?” I met Brendan by the door. He was leaning on the podium used by the hostess, his eyes drooping shut. With the countless drinks catching up to him, it was a good thing I was driving.

  “Mmm, yeah, baby, I’m all set.” Once he let go of the podium, he stumbled, clinging onto me for support. I couldn’t support his deadweight. We both dropped down. Leo walked over and hoisted Brendan up onto a chair.

  I stood up embarrassed by Brendan’s drunkenness. “I think it’s best if I just take you home. You can sleep it off,” I said.

  “Mm, errr…yeah, okay,” he stammered out.

  Thank God, Brendan was plastered so he couldn’t see the happiness on my face. We would not be going home together after all.

  Leo stopped me from trying to help Brendan up from the chair. “I got this. Tell me where he needs to go. It’s too much for a girl to deal with a drunken fool like this.”

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief at being completely off the hook. I gave Leo Brendan’s address and then dutifully kissed both of the guys on the cheek. The tall, dark and ripped Leo hoisted up the slumped, sloppy Brendan and half dragged him into the parking
lot.

  Kenna left earlier and I sent her a text that I would be coming home instead of going out with Brendan. I sighed and opened the four text messages I missed from my brother. I usually ignored him, but lately, he was getting more persistent. All four texts were in regards to Thanksgiving. He and Jeanie were hosting it because my parents were, surprise, surprise, planning a vacation for Thanksgiving weekend.

  I would be there and I texted him that. I actually couldn’t wait. I’d get to spend the day with my nephew. That was the one part of avoiding my family that sucked, not seeing Isaac as much as I wanted to. I usually spent my time with him loading up my phone with pics of his adorable face so I’d have them for later on. He was so damn cute. I loved kids. That was why I wanted to teach. Kindergarten had to be the cutest age. That little tug in my belly wishing for a kid of my own popped up. I looked up at the neon Backsides sign and frowned. A baby was an unlikely and far off dream. I hadn’t had sex in four years and my potential boyfriend, who was in the process of being chauffeured home to most likely pass out in his own vomit, wasn’t exactly father material.

  I drove home to our apartment. After a night like this, I was thrilled to be able to relax in a warm shower and snuggle up in my cozy bed. Kenna was on the couch with a pile of magazines and a pair of scissors. She greeted me icily.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, puzzled by the mess of cutouts lining our sofa.

  “I am cutting out pictures of skinny girls with good bodies to hang on our fridge. Hopefully, it will keep my fat ass from eating. Do you have a problem with that?” she snapped, pausing from her cutting spree.

  “Kenna, you don’t need to do that. Don’t listen to whatever Jay said to you. Curves are hot and you have crazy curves. Guys love curvy girls.”

  The scissors in her hand whizzed past my head, missing me by a mile…but still.

  “Curvy?” she screamed. “You’re calling me curvy! That’s just another way of saying fat. You are such a fucking bitch, Tori. When I met you, you were nothing. I made you into what you are today and now you’re gonna turn around and call me fat. Tell me my days as a hot chick are numbered.”