MANIAC - LOVE DERANGED

by Violet Shaw

  The Käfer tent was like a large, colorful circus tent, and each person present played a role to impress someone else.

  All the prominent residents of Munich were gathered here; the so-called in-crowd of Munich. Several producers and actors, a number of candidates from “Germany’s Top Model,” and girls who were always attractive to the media, marketing themselves as formerly with this well-known football player, or that successful producer.

  Valerie was attracted by the colorful goings-on but at the same time also repulsed.

  It was a world of the purest artifice, nothing was real here; it was a dance on the edge of an erupting volcano, and if one came too near to the fire, near enough to be burned, it was all over. In the midst of the merriment, in the center of Vanity Fair, Valerie spotted an old acquaintance. He was a renowned lawyer from Frankfurt, who reacted with great enthusiasm as soon as he laid eyes on her.

  Valerie wasn’t interested in the well-known attorney, but Jason was still awol – he had disappeared without a trace -- so she allowed herself to be persuaded to share a bottle of Champagne.

  The conversation with the lawyer was lively and animated. He was clearly interested in her and in a flirty mood.

  Valerie also seemed to be interested and flirted in response – as if there were no tomorrow and despite the fact that she really had no interest in him. They had just gone at it again when Jason appeared out of nowhere. “What’s going on here?” he hissed at her.

  He was visibly outraged and jealous.

  But what was he thinking? If he was going to leave her alone here, he could have expected that she wouldn’t be alone for long.

  His narcissism had made him sick again. Valerie recognized that he was ill, that he was beyond everything, beyond good and evil.

  He wanted and desired her the most when she was distancing herself from him and another man was interested in her. He wanted to play this game, it’s what made him really hot!

  Valerie smiled at Jason smugly, but now his fire for her was newly rekindled.

  He kissed her lips, thereby marking his territory in front of the lawyer, and then forcefully addressed Valerie:

  “Come, let’s go to our table, we’re going to eat!” And Valerie obeyed promptly; his dominance impressed her.

  “See you later!” was all that she could shout to the lawyer, as Jason pulled her by the hand back to their table.

  When they arrived, Jason was still spewing with jealousy.

  He confronted Valerie: “He’s actually from Frankfurt!”

  “Yes!”

  “He’s a lawyer, right?!”

  “Yes!” Valerie said in an indifferent tone that was provocative at the same time. “He’s a friend of one of my girlfriends!”

  “Oh, well then,” Jason answered brusquely, “then everything is okay!”

  He pulled Valerie close and kissed her passionately; the principle -- first a lump of sugar then the whip – seemed to be governing their relationship.

  Now everything was resolved again, and Valerie felt as if she were in Seventh Heaven.

  As she discovered to her own amazement, she too could apparently play his game very well.

  After the Oktoberfest weekend, Valerie was confused by Jason’s behavior, and yet she found herself more and more attracted to him.

  In great measure it was because he wasn’t an ordinary man and because he was often in her thoughts.

  “Hello, Sweetie, how are you? Zurich is cool, my apartment and friends, too; I travel a lot, but everything is going well. I miss you; when are you coming to visit me in Zurich, Valerie? Kisses, Jason.”

  His text message immediately improved her mood and she felt excited, with butterflies in her stomach:

  “Hi, Jason, nice to hear from you! I’m glad that you’re so happy in Zurich! I wanted to come to Zurich this weekend . . .How does it look at your end? Do you have time for me?”

  His answer was not long in coming:

  “Cool that you’re coming! Yes, of course, I always have time for you! When exactly will you arrive and where will you stay? I think you should stay with me since I have a nice apartment and it would be fun if we could spend a little more time together.”

  And before Valerie could answer, she received another text from him:

  “I’ll be here for you the whole weekend, except for Saturday evening; I have to go to a ball in Zurich! Do you think you can use the time to do something else?”

  There it was again, that lack of trust that she always felt towards him – and apparently for good cause.

  She felt validated in her feelings towards him.

  Her instincts told her that he was an outrageous womanizer who loved life, particularly his own. And many women. He considered her merely as a secondary interest, for in-between times, so to speak.

  The situation with the ball said it all.

  What should she do? She teetered back and forth in her decision, weighing the pro’s and con’s of a visit to Zurich.

  Should she accept this as his terms? After all, she had a great deal of pride and sense of self-worth and had always assumed the attitude that nothing better could happen to a man than to have her as his date, particularly at a ball.

  But here, the situation was clearly different.

  On the other hand, she just wanted to have fun, without annoying obligations – and he was the ideal guy for that.

  And besides that, she had found all the balls that she had attended up ‘til now to be very conservative and bourgeois; they were events at which one met bourgeois couples who danced the rhumba, enveloped in miserable clothes. She categorically rejected this kind of entertainment for herself.

  Just at that moment of indecision, she received another new text message from him:

  “Valerie, should I book a flight to Zurich for you on Friday?”

  He wanted to pin her down again.

  Why not, what was there against it? She could generously overlook the situation with the ball and use the time while he’s out dancing to get together with a girlfriend. Happily, her friend Vanessa, whom she had wanted to visit for some time, was spending a semester abroad in Zurich.

  “Yes, that would be great! I’d like to come to visit you on Friday; please book the flight for the morning since I’d like to meet a girlfriend first, and then we can see each other in the evening! Kiss.”

  “Perfect, I’d be glad to! Cool that you’re coming . . .Then we can rock again, since we really didn’t manage it in FFM, and only began to in Muc, at least. I’ll book your flight for Friday . . .Am looking forward to seeing you and will call you tomorrow to discuss everything! Kisses, Jason”

  Oh dear, she would really be spending the weekend with Jason in Zurich. What was about to happen to her there?

  Flustered, she dialed the number of her girlfriend Vanessa in Zurich. She immediately had to discuss everything with her and make plans.

  “Flight LH 441 to Zurich – now ready for boarding,” the announcement rang out from the loudspeaker at the gate, followed by the request by the ground crew that all passengers should proceed to do so.

  Valerie was just reading the last text message from Jason from the evening before.

  “Sweetie, can’t wait to finally see you tomorrow, to throw my arms around you, and give you really hot kisses again . . .Have a good flight and come back safely to me in Zurich!”

  With a smile on her face, she boarded the plane.

  And Zurich appeared to glimmer and shine at her, as she drove from the airport into town in her girlfriend’s car.

  The weather reminded her of a late summer day – and it was the middle of October!

  Zurich glowed, she thought, as she sat in the car with Vanessa and laughed. They were like little children, so happy to see one another again.

  Valerie’s cell phone rang, showing no caller ID:

  “Hellooo, Valerie, how’s it going? Did you land safely?” She recognized Jason’s deep voice, which she found to be very sexy on one hand, but whic
h at the same time always aroused feelings of fear which she could neither define nor explain more clearly.

  “Hellooo, Jason, yes, thanks, everything is fine! I’m just on my way to lunch with Vanessa.”

  “Well, then, welcome to Zurich!” Just be careful that you don’t meet some banker,” Jason countered. That again was typical of him. Always cool and casual. His trademark.

  “What are the plans for this evening? Should I pick you up for dinner at eight at your friend’s place?”

  “Yes, perfect, I’ll send you a text message with her address later!”

  “Okay, great. ‘Til later; looking forward. Ciaooo.

  Vanessa burst out laughing after Valerie had ended the short conversation:

  “You’re both pretty excited already, aren’t you?”

  That was certainly true. She was monstrously flustered. Excited to see Jason again and to spend a night with him for the first time.

  The excitement brought with it an incredible feeling of anticipation, which she hadn’t experienced for an eternity.

  And at the thought of seeing him today, she became ever more excited and felt that unbelievable feeling of butterflies in her stomach again.

  She already knew Zurich quite well from her earlier visits: the somewhat sleepy Swiss atmosphere, which intermixed with the international banking business, plus exclusive shops, restaurants, and cafes, especially appealed to her.

  That evening Jason wanted to go to Razzia in Seefeld for dinner. A friend of his was apparently going to meet them there and spend the evening with them.

  Valerie was a little disappointed when she heard the plans since she had hoped to spend the evening alone with Jason, without other friends –

  mostly because in all probability, they were supposed to have sex with each other that night for the first time. Without doubt, a more romantic mood to usher in the remainder of the evening could have been established without friends in tow.

  But there was nothing to suggest romance as far as Jason was concerned. Even during the drive to Seefeld he was fielding hectic telephone calls with his friends to discuss business and also to invite them to meet for dinner that evening: Sure, everyone should come along! Why not?

  Valerie didn’t let her disappointment show. It could be that he was simply also a little insecure since they were supposed to spend the entire weekend with one another, and therefore a lot of company would be convenient as a diversion to hide his nervousness and insecurity.

  Whatever happens, she thought to herself, they would presumably spend the night together as a twosome!

  As they entered the restaurant, they immediately encountered two sets of eyes.

  Oh, Jason had lied again. They had a date not with one, but with two friends. But before Valerie could say anything, Jason jumped in: “Oh, hello, Romain, I just wanted to call you! Good that you made it!”

  Romain didn’t react to Jason’s greeting; he nodded his head, somewhat disinterested and thereby signaled that he had seen through Jason’s lie. Jason had had no intention of calling Romain, but Romain didn’t particularly care, and was above it all. And instead of paying any more attention to Jason, he immediately turned to Valerie. He was apparently attracted to her at first sight, which she could recognize in the beaming expression on his face.

  And Romain also made a positive impression on her, completely opposite to that of the other friend, Frank, who was also sitting at the table. Frank looked at Valerie with complete contempt or perhaps jealousy, as she unfortunately had to admit.

  And the first bad impression was validated in the course of the evening, as Frank revealed himself to be skeptical, cynical, and frustrated.

  But first all of Frank’s attention was directed to Valerie.

  He wanted to find out as much as he could about her life; he wanted to know where exactly she lived in Frankfurt, what she was studying, and similar information. He tried to find a blemish that would throw a bad light on her reputation in Jason’s eyes.

  “Where do you come from?” Frank began his question and answer game as casually as possible.

  But Valerie had seen through his nasty game, which was probably attributable to his jealousy of her, and she didn’t want him to lead her onto a slippery, icy path since she really had nothing to hide – no murky past in the porno world, for example.

  When it was clear that he was having no success in discovering something bad about Valerie, he turned to Jason.

  His intention was explicit. He wanted to drive a wedge between Valerie and Jason, which was all too obvious.

  He was non-stop outrageous, in that he was also looking for a job for a friend of his, and Jason was the one at the bank who was to hire him.

  “Jason, I’m telling you: He’s a lawyer, intelligent, talented, smart, and so forth,” he tried to sell the person to him.

  Jason, however, acted disinterested:

  “Yes, but it’s not going to happen; I just hired five people.”

  But Frank wouldn’t give up.

  “C’mon, just take a look at him, without any obligation. How does your calendar look next week?”

  “Next week doesn’t work at all; I have to fly to London!”

  But Frank, blatant and insistent as he was, didn’t give up so easily.

  “How is Thursday of next week, for example?”

  “On Thursday I have to make a quick trip to St. Moritz!”

  “Oh, man, you’re really hard to pin down. Unbelievable!”

  And Frank still kept coming: “What’s up on Tuesday?”

  “I have to take a look at the calendar!”

  “Okay, very good – I think it’ll be best just to send him your number!”

  And before Jason could respond, he continued:

  “Your cell-phone number is funny – the last numbers are 2017!!! Is that symbolic? Is it the year that you want to get married?”

  And he laughed rudely, as if to reveal that Jason was the greatest playboy of all time, probably of this century, that there’s no relying on him, and that he only knew the “M” word from hearsay. But, as usual, Jason remained cool and calm.

  He looked at Valerie and said to Frank, without taking his eyes off Valerie:

  “No, the number has no meaning; I got it from the bank!”

  “Nonetheless, how inconsiderate you are!” Frank continued, “your life is really crazy! When I think back on the story with Paris Hilton, my heavens, old boy!”

  Yes, exactly, Valerie remembered that too, when he supposedly spent the night with Paris Hilton in Munich. Strangely enough, she hadn’t believed the story and consequently hadn’t been jealous.

  Jason still had no reaction; he put on his familiar poker-face and let Frank know under the table that he should be quiet in Valerie’s presence and not talk about other women. And definitely not about Paris Hilton.

  In the meantime, however, Valerie had lost her appetite, and pushed her plate in Jason’s direction.

  This gesture of intimacy was too much for Frank. He almost exploded with jealousy.

  After dinner Frank wanted to go with them to the Club. Valerie wasn’t taking him seriously any more. He was pitiably jealous because he himself was single and unsuccessful. That was clear.

  In front of the restaurant, Jason took Valerie briefly into his arms:

  “Valerie, please don’t listen to the others; Frank is just jealous!”

  “Yes, I know that!”

  She smiled at Jason and he gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

  “I have to make a quick stop at the ATM before we go to the club,” Jason said, turning to Frank and Valerie.

  “Why do you have to do that? Have you topped out your credit card?” Frank laughed sarcastically.

  “No, not ‘til now, but I want to join the Diagonal Club tonight, and for that I need 500 Franks, cash!”

  The three of them had hardly entered the Club, when a very attractive woman came hurtling toward Jason:

  “I know you, you’re Jason! You do me
rgers and acquisitions!”

  “Yes, exactly!” Jason felt flattered and smiled in spite of himself.

  “Well, hi, my name is Isa!”

  And faster than Valerie’s eyes could see, this ominous Isa had placed her arm around Jason and gave him a lasciviously challenging look.

  Valerie tried to remain very quiet at the sight. Although the stranger had not perceived her as Jason’s possible girlfriend, Isa was so pushy that Valerie also didn’t consider her as competition, let alone as a dangerous rival.

  With her revolting impudence, she had excluded herself from the running.

  Jason glanced at Valerie, who was just chatting with his friend, Frank, whom she could well use at the moment despite all her loathing. Valerie acted as if nothing bothered her and she was simply highly amused.

  And Jason immediately fell in with her approach, his interest in the persistent Isa having evaporated with one stroke; he unwound himself from Isa’s arm and came over to stand with Valerie again.

  Isa, totally professional, immediately recognized the rejection for what it was, and disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, into the darkness of the club.

  Valerie had to admit that a variety of women were really crazy for him.

  It was unbelievable, but he had something magical about him that as soon as he entered a room, he captured everyone’s attention for himself.

  And he had to do nothing to get it.

  He only needed to be present.

  His presence alone was enough to turn the heads of all the women in the room.

  And Valerie had to pick him of all people. This would not be a simple game for her, but apparently he appealed to her for the very reason that all other women seemed to be so crazy for him.

  That seemed to spur her on; and lately she was also becoming crazier and crazier for him.

  Valerie had barely processed that line of thinking to its end when two girls positioned themselves next to their table, and Jason immediately said to them:

  “So, what’s going on with you two? Are you going to dance tonight?” The girls looked at him with friendly interest, but Jason immediately turned the tables: