1 Hot Scheming Mess

by Lucy Carol

  I wish Grandma would have explained that to me. She didn’t exactly help us to get along.

  This new thought shocked Madison. She had never put it together before. Grandma had always wanted every young child within a mile to be her own, especially Madison. If she were honest, Grandma and Ann had been fighting over her. And Grandma always won. Ann was a teenager looking to her mother for help. Grandma took advantage of that. Then Madison’s loyalty to Grandma hit fever pitch when Grandma was dying, and afterwards, Madison couldn’t bear to call Ann “Mom” for a long time. But after today’s visit with Ann, Madison felt hope in her heart. Maybe they could be a family after all. She couldn’t get over how pleasant their meeting had been.

  I wonder if she likes rose gardens? There’s a really cool one right next door to the zoo that I could show her.

  She nibbled on an ancient apple that she had found in the back of her refrigerator. Yuck. But it was better than that old container of yogurt she had tried to eat. She was so hungry, but at this rate she would be found dead from food poisoning. The delicate buzzing sound from her old scanner completed another cycle, and the image showed up on her computer screen. She set up the next photo on the bed of the scanner and pushed the button, the slow buzzing starting up again. Peering at her apple, Madison held it close to the glow of the computer screen, trying to see the next safe place to bite it.

  Just then Madison heard the doorknob turn and the door swing open. She jumped up, kicking the scanner and banging her elbow into the wall. I didn’t lock it! She would have screamed, but she was coughing and trying not to choke on a bit of apple.

  A black silhouette stood in the doorway with a large flat box balanced on one hand, the neck of a long bottle in the other.

  ExBoy put on a deep announcer-like movie voice to call out, “I come seeking retribuuutionnn! I shall ravage a juicy braaain, and why are the lights ouuut?”

  Madison crawled out from behind her couch, saying, “Oh, my God, ExBoy! You scared the shit out of me! I swear to God I’ll kill you if you ever, ever do that—” She stopped. She inhaled through her nose. In the dark her eyes grew wide. The scent of fresh baked crust combined with cheeses, garlic, and oregano. Spices and meats. Fresh hot pizza. The seduction was complete.

  “Why are you on the floor, in the dark?” he asked. His foot reached around behind him and kicked the door closed. “On second thought, stay there.” His dark shape advanced through the short entryway into the living room where Madison clung to the carpet, her heart still pounding from her fright. With no effort, he balanced the pizza box and the long bottle as he sank down and sat into a cross legged position on the floor. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a cork screw opener and proceeded to open the bottle there in the dark on the floor. Madison, on her hands and knees, sat up into a more dignified position and felt tears trying to burn her eyes. She didn’t know if it was from her fright or from the comfort she felt knowing someone who cared about her was here.

  She stared at ExBoy’s face in the dim light from the window, hearing the small pop as a cork left the bottle. A cool breeze blew in from the window. He reached over and picked up her hand, placing it on the neck of the bottle. It was chilled. From the shape of the bottle she guessed it to be a white wine. In this heat, touching something chilled felt lavish and healing. He pushed it up to her lips. She took a drink from it… delicious… and handed it back. Reaching to the back of her head, he lifted her hair up and placed the cold bottle on the back of her neck, the length of the bottle going down her back. The sudden chill caused her to arch her back with a shudder and a sharp intake of breath; at the same time she heard the rustle of tree leaves outside the window from the wind picking up. He then gave her the bottle and while she took another drink, he blew a light stream of air on her neck where the chilled bottle had left it wet. He opened the pizza box, the aroma flooding out now, and took out a piece, holding it up to her mouth, feeding her a bite. He sat there quiet, watching her eat in the dim light. She swallowed and leaned forward to take another bite while asking, “Aren’t you going to have any?” He took a drink from the bottle before finally taking a bite for himself. She took the bottle from him. The wine seemed to taste better with each swallow.

  He said, “I couldn’t stay mad. I tried.”

  “I’m sorry. I was trying to cover up a stupid lie about you. I’m tired of always being the one who never gets laid, so I let Spenser think that I was getting it from you.”

  “You’re kidding. That’s what it was about?” A slow smirk grew on his face. “You’re always surprising me. Like now. I thought you’d be mad after all the secrets came out today. I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

  About other women? His friends with benefits? Huh. She had never kidded herself. He was a flame, and some women were moths. It was his personal business.

  This time she fed him the next bite and said, “I understand,” then took another bite for herself. Outside the window, the wind was on a busy errand as it rushed past, the rustling leaves picking up in volume and mixing with the sound of tires softly crunching gravel down in the parking lot.

  “Really?” he asked, sounding unconvinced.

  “Of course,” she said. “I’m not saying I like it, but it’s not like I can break up with you. We’re not even a couple.”

  He said, “No, but I can never stop thinking about you. I don’t know what we are, you and me.”

  She thought about that for a moment. “Neither do I. That’s why I never know how to be around you. But I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Are we okay then?”

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  They took a few turns drinking the wine and ExBoy said, “You realize of course that I’m afraid to put any moves on you now.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Totally paralyzed. Watch.”

  He leaned in and kissed her mouth, soft at first, but as the pressure of his lips increased, her breathing rate increased with it. With one hand behind her head and the other bracing himself on the floor, his kiss pushed her back and downward as he gently let go of the kiss, her chin and lips reaching upward in protest as her eyes fluttered open and saw his face in hers, keeping close eye to eye contact as he supported her slow descent, until she felt the floor on her back. Putting his other arm under her, he used his whole body to bury her in the next kiss. Her primal needs kicked into high gear as the material of the t-shirt on his back balled up into her fists. She pushed her fists upward, pulling his shirt off, as his arms came up, taking her tank top with it. Their mutual tangle of arms and clothes cut off the kiss but only for a moment.

  Her mind emptied of all the worry and fear from the day. She had delayed this long enough, and it brought to mind her memory of that hot July day, two or three weeks ago, when they had almost taken this next step but were interrupted by friends who had arrived to help with the move into the apartment. Those friends weren’t going to interrupt this time, because someone else was.

  The knock on the door made them both jump.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Madison said, jumping up to grope around in the dark for her tank top, plunging her head and arms back into it, tripping on his pants on the floor. Her own pants were still halfway on. She quickly straightened up her clothes to the sound of a second knock on the door. “With the luck I’ve been having,” she grumbled, “that could be my mother right now. She’s already decided she doesn’t like you.”

  “She doesn’t really know me,” said ExBoy. “She just thinks she does.”

  Madison looked through the peephole in her door.

  There stood Jason.

  Madison’s heart fell and hit the floor. There was no time to argue with the illogical feelings doing battle in her head. She wished it really were her mother instead of Jason. She turned to ExBoy, his naked silhouette near the window, and with her plaintive voice barely audible, said, “Hide.”

  He expelled a breath, exasperated, saying, “Shit,” as he ducked behind the co
uch.

  She opened the door. “Jason, what are you doing here?”

  “I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” said Jason, looking in her eyes from left to right. “You and those gorgeous green eyes, and they reminded me of something I saw before we got into the elevator.”

  ExBoy stood up from behind the couch, his nudity visible from the hips up, saying, “I may not want your mom to know we’re together…”

  Madison whipped her head around in panic, seeing ExBoy standing there, his hands on his hips, “… but I’m not hiding for any dude.” He lifted his chin at Jason, “Hey,” his eyes hard, “This is exactly what it looks like.”

  Staring wide-eyed at ExBoy, she heard Jason asking, “You’re together?”

  She turned back to Jason, seeing the hurt and confusion in his eyes. Her mouth hanging open, searching for words, she blurted, “He brought pizza.”

  She turned back to ExBoy, furious, and said, “You’re not afraid of another guy, but you’re afraid of my mommy!?”

  “She’s FBI! She could make my life hell with a phone call!

  “How did you know that? I never told you that!”

  ExBoy’s face lost its bravado. “You did see your mom today, right?”

  Silence.

  Madison heard something and looked back at the door. Jason was gone. She grabbed the sides of the doorframe and thrust her head out into the hallway in time to see him pounding down the stairwell.

  *****

  The whole thing came out when she held ExBoy’s clothes out of the window, threatening to drop them out into the parking lot if he didn’t tell her everything he knew. When he said she was being ridiculous, she loosened her grip to drop a few items. Both shoes went down together, and bounced off in different directions when they hit the ground.

  He rolled his eyes saying, “I’ve been trying to tell you about it because I was tired of waiting for your mom to tell you. It started out as a little surprise.”

  “What surprise?”

  He held a hand out and gestured all around her dark living room. “This. The whole scheme to get you into this apartment.”

  For the next few minutes Madison couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Ann had arranged for ExBoy to “find” this apartment for Madison. She paid hefty deposits and made a deal for the landlord to charge Madison cheap rent while Ann paid the difference. ExBoy referred to some tall old lady showing the apartment to Ann while the landlord was on vacation.

  “She said she wanted to surprise you,” said ExBoy. “I thought that was pretty cool of her until days went by and she still hadn’t told you. Then days turned into weeks and I felt kind of weird, so I told her I would tell you about the apartment if she didn’t. She said you called her today and were on your way over. She promised she would tell you. Obviously, she didn’t. Satisfied?”

  “Hell, no!” She dropped his shirt. She still had his pants and underwear and continued to hold them outside the window. “Tell me why she went through all this to get me in here.”

  “Why do you think? She’s trying to help you. Sometimes a mom will do that kind of thing.”

  “Not this mom.”

  “What do you mean ‘not this mom’? She did it, didn’t she?”

  Fretful, Madison said, “You don’t understand.”

  “I can see that now. But I swear, I thought I was just being nice to your mom.”

  He didn’t seem as upset as she wanted him to be. He stood there in the buff, acting completely natural. His eyes, still amorous, looked at her as if he were getting back to business.

  In a conciliatory tone, he said, “This is what I was referring to when I said I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

  “I thought you were referring to your secrets about other women,” Madison said.

  He scrunched up his face, “What other women?”

  “You said you had fuck buddies.”

  “No, I said I have offers. You’re the one who wanted to be my fuck buddy.”

  “I didn’t want to be your fuck buddy! I wanted to let Spenser think we were having sex.”

  “Why lie to her? What do you think we were about to do here?”

  “Well, keep the first part and take out the buddy part.”

  “Okay. Let’s.” He walked toward her, and she flinched.

  Finally, he seemed annoyed. “Again, I don’t know what we are, Madison. Every time we get to this point, you back out.”

  “That’s not fair. Last time, people were arriving. We had to back out.” Her arm holding his pants and underwear outside the window was getting heavier.

  “What do you want from me, Madison?” He stepped closer and stood in the slanted light flooding in the window from the parking lot lights. She looked from his face, all down his body, and melted. He must have sensed it because he said, “I want you, too.” He was too gorgeous. She couldn’t remember the main point of why they were arguing. Someone should throw a blanket over him and break the spell.

  “Was that idiot at the door someone important?”

  “He’s not an idiot,” affirmed Madison.

  “Is that what’s going on here?” he asked. She tried to look away and he held his palms out, saying, “I’m standing here, asking you an honest question.”

  “You’re standing there with a loaded weapon. It’s hard to think right now.”

  He stepped up close, facing her. In a soft voice he said, “Well, maybe if you gave me my pants back,” he put his hands on her rear end, caressing, rekindling her earlier fire, “I could cover up my weapon,” he nibbled her ear and whispered, “and you wouldn’t have to be so scared of it.”

  She whipped him back and forth with his underwear, the elastic slapping into his face. He ducked his head with his arms up to protect himself and backed away a little too fast, right into the backside of the couch and went sailing over the top. He then bounced from the cushions to the floor while Madison wadded up his pants and underwear, sending them flying out into the parking lot. Jerking her dirty fairy godmother costume up from the floor nearby, she threw it on top of him saying, “Here. Don’t say I sent you out there naked.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  At Toonie’s window, Madison and Toonie were side by side, leaning over with elbows on the windowsill, resting their chins in their palms, watching ExBoy down in the parking lot under the glow of the lights as he continued looking for his shirt and one of his shoes. Madison passed the wine bottle to Toonie who took a swig. ExBoy was wearing just his pants now, albeit commando. He had found his pants first and had put them on before he located his underwear and the first shoe. The sad fairy godmother costume lay in a heap nearby, having been used like a Turkish towel to get him to the parking lot.

  “I never would have pegged him for the tighty whitey type,” said Toonie. “It’s nice to see those again. Of course, this ain’t the circumstance I was hoping for.” She eyed the bottle of wine and took another drink. “So your mama never told you?”

  “I wouldn’t have come pounding on your door if she had.”

  “And that young man down there, what was that weird name you called him?”

  “ExBoy. His real name is Xander Boyd.”

  “I’ve seen him around here. Bet the girls are all over him. So how’d he catch the brunt of this?”

  “My mother used him to lie to me and get me to move in here.”

  “Was throwing him out naked a good idea?” asked Toonie. Madison didn’t answer. She looked back down at ExBoy in the parking lot. He was still shirtless and needed to find one more shoe.

  Toonie said, “Don’t get me wrong. I know you young people have to work out your problems, same as anyone. But did he deserve it? Is he a bad sort of guy?”

  Madison hung her head. “No.” She rubbed her face and sighed. “I have to get down there and apologize. If he’ll let me.”

  Toonie nodded, saying, “I’ll bet it has something to do with that other young man you introduced me to earlier. Jason? Did you two fight about Jason? Handso
me brute, that one.”

  Madison’s heart sunk again at the thought of Jason. They were pulled together now through their grandfathers. Like a couple of bad boys, their grandfathers were friends who covered up one another’s secrets. She and Jason had promised to check in with each other with any updates from their grandfathers. Only now Jason’s opinion of her must be crap. She had chased him away from her place, claiming she had a lot of work to do. Then she let him find her with a naked guy behind her couch. That takes real talent.

  Madison said, “The whole thing is a mess. I couldn’t believe ExBoy would let my mother use him like that. But our argument was winding down, and I was about to let it go. Then he had to go and imply that I was scared of his penis.”

  Toonie laughed.

  Madison said, “It’s not funny.”

  Toonie’s laughter increased as Madison tried not to smile, saying, “It’s not funny. It made me furious.” Toonie laughed with her eyes closed, and Madison started to snicker.

  Toonie laughed out, “Scary penis, huh?”

  Madison’s laughter bubbled up. She made her eyes wide and held her hands apart to indicate twenty inches as Toonie covered her face like she was terrified. They fell into helpless laughter as Toonie reached for the bottle in her laughing fit but stopped suddenly. Madison was still laughing with a hand over her face when Toonie said, “What the…” She nudged Madison, and said in a serious tone. “Look.” She pointed down into the parking lot.

  A car had pulled up. Two men in slacks and button up shirts had climbed out and were questioning ExBoy, their sleeves rolled up in the summer heat. The taller one had brown hair, while the shorter one had muscular forearms, his hair buzzed extra short. They appeared to be showing ExBoy the IDs in their wallets. Holding his underwear and a shoe in one hand, he started digging around in his pockets with the other. He seemed bewildered, looking around on the ground. He must have been looking for his own wallet, which might have fallen out of his pocket when Madison threw the pants.

  “Oh, no,” said Madison. “One of the neighbors must have called the cops because he was naked.” She jumped up, “I’ve got to get down there and explain!”