Once Friends

by Z. L. Arkadie

  “And listen, you’re beautiful. He’s beautiful. The two of you can make lots of beautiful babies together.”

  Sonja laughed as her cousin hopped to her feet. “I’m leaving.”

  “Come on, don’t leave,” Sonja said even though she was sleepy and eager to get in bed with Jay.

  Robin shook her finger at Sonja. “You just be careful with Jay.”

  Sonja groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Okay. You’re right. Time for you to go.”

  Robin was right on her heels as Sonja walked toward the door. Robin wasn’t one for sticking around when a boy she liked was in the vicinity. Sonja couldn’t count Robin’s ex-boyfriends on one hand because she had none. Although she wasn’t a virgin. Robin had just never let a guy stick around long enough to strike up a relationship with her.

  However, never had her cousin ever inquired about a member of the opposite sex. Dexter must’ve really made an impression on her, and of course Sonja’s curiosity wanted Robin to give her the play-by-play of the interactions she’d had with Dexter before Sonja and Jay showed up. Instead they hugged at the door and said they would see each other soon.

  With Robin gone, Sonja went to the den to meet Jay. Dexter had already gone to bed, so Jay escorted her to his room. The mood had been set. There was no doubt about what would come next. They hadn’t partaken in each other’s bodies since that morning when Sonja had reached divine heights.

  However, even though her body and soul craved more of Jay, she couldn’t get Robin’s warning out of her mind. Robin was one of those interesting people who famous people liked to know, so she knew just about everyone in the entertainment business from LA to New York and across the Pond to London. If Robin had heard anything about Jay’s reputation, then she would’ve gotten it from a credible source.

  Jay’s room was large and modern but very sterile like the rest of his house. Each room could’ve used a woman’s touch. They had both stripped off their clothes and met under the sheets of his bed. The mattress was comfortable and the linens nice and soft.

  He gathered her in his arms and guided her ass against his erection. She breathed heavily as he grinded against her indulgently while sliding his fingers through her warm slipperiness. She would’ve already given in to his attempt to make her horny, but she couldn’t rid herself of Robin’s warning.

  “Hey, what’s going on with you?” Jay kissed the back of her shoulder.

  His lips made her body shiver with delight. “Nothing.” When he grinded her again, she said, “Well, something.”

  “What is it, baby?”

  She could tell Jay was so close to flipping her on her back and sliding himself inside her. “It’s just that Robin told me I should be careful about you.”

  Suddenly she didn’t feel his erection dipping deep into the crack of her ass.

  “Why did she say that?” There was no more seduction in his voice.

  She flipped over to face him. The lights were still dim. During their lovemaking the previous night, Jay had kept the environment dusky. It was clear to her that he liked to see all the parts of her body that got him hot and bothered.

  “You know Robin,” she said.

  He shook his head against the pillow. “No, I don’t.” He sounded irritated.

  “You said yourself that you have a reputation.”

  He looked so solemn as he stared into her eyes. “You’re not going to hold that against me, are you?”

  Sonja smoothed the side of his face. “Absolutely not.”

  “Because I’ve changed.”

  “I believe you.”

  Jay flipped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “How far do I have to run from this shit?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He turned to face her. “Fame sucks ass. My parents did this shit to me. And what did they give me for it? They’re fucking dead. My dad committed suicide, and when you slice it all up, my mom fucking let herself die. She didn’t even try to fight cancer. She drank, smoked, and bumped coke up until her last breath.”

  Sonja tried to think of the right words to say, but in a sense, they shared the same wound. Her mom sucked. She hadn’t seen Carrie Anne in years. She could be dead for all Sonja knew, and more than that, Sonja couldn’t have given two fucks if she was dead.

  “You know what I really want to do, babe?” he asked.

  “What?” she asked breathlessly.

  “I want to run away with you. I want to make up for living the last fifteen years without you. Because at the moment, I can’t fucking think because you’re all I want.”

  Jay snatched a condom off the nightstand, rolled it over his erection, and climbed on top of her. She let him spread her lips and insert his fingers into her vagina. He moaned greedily when he felt how dripping wet she was.

  “Hell, I can’t wait anymore,” he whispered as he plunged his erection into her smoldering depths.

  Sonja gasped when she felt his thickness. She loved how his size stretched her wide. She felt his every thrust sparking pleasurable sensations through her pussy. And he knew what the hell he was doing too. Jay liked to take it nice and slow. He loved to angle this way and that so he could try to get her off in more ways than one. Sonja felt as if her pussy were a five-course meal prepared by a world-famous chef and he was savoring every swallow of her.

  And then something happened from some mysterious spot within her vagina. It started slowly.

  “Oh my God, I’m coming,” she whimpered as a full-on orgasm blasted off inside her. She shook and shivered as she clung to Jay.

  “Shit,” Jay said once the tension relaxed from her body. He shifted in and out of her like a powerful jackhammer until he came.

  They kissed and groped, caressed and petted. They couldn’t keep their hands or mouths off each other until finally one or both of them had fallen asleep.

  When Sonja and Jay woke up the next morning, they made love again. Not only could they have stayed in bed all day, they could’ve remained together between the sheets, making love, sleeping, and eating, all year. But they couldn’t. They had work to do.

  Jay’s cook was back and made them breakfast. This time, Sonja could see that Jay and Cam were actually friends, and when he asked her how she’d achieved the flavors in her eggs Benedict, she step-by-step listed her recipe.

  Dexter had been up for hours, and when he joined them at the table, he had a story checklist ready to go over with them. “What we’ll do first is discuss the elements we want to keep and get rid of the shit we can’t use.”

  So they sat at the table for hours, working together like a well-oiled machine.

  Chapter 16

  Cam had served them a late lunch of sushi and various kinds of Asian styled salads. It was remarkable how well all three of them worked together. They had changed the murder victim four times and built a world around the death of each particular character. They had continuously created themselves down a dead-end road.

  It was going on ten o’clock at night when a bright idea came to Sonja. “What if he’s not dead? He’s like one of those guys with a lot of money who make tons of promises to a lot people while he’s alive. And then in a later season, he’s murdered, but by then, everyone is a suspect, even the son who comes to town asking questions.”

  “My part,” Jay said, grinning at her.

  She grinned back. “Yeah, you were too much of a choirboy. Now you can be just as bad as the rest.”

  “I like it. Let’s bang out an outline before bed.” Dexter tapped his finger on the tabletop three times. “By the way”—he kept his eyes glued to his computer screen—“Sonja, is Robin single?”

  Her lips slowly reformed into a smile. She had been wondering if he was going to ask about Robin. “Perpetually.”

  He looked up, frowning as though her answer had puzzled him.

  “Robin is perpetually single,” she repeated.

  “A woman as beautiful as she is?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why is that?” />
  “She’s not cuckoo, she’s just hard to get. But she did ask about you tonight, and she never does that.”

  Dexter’s miraculous blue eyes looked so defenseless. “Does what?”

  Her smile grew wider. “Ask about someone she’s attracted to. It seems you made an impression on her.” She narrowed an eye curiously. “What did you guys talk about?”

  Dexter rolled his eyes slightly. “Not much. But she did mention a dinner you’re having on Tuesday night. She asked if you had invited me?”

  “What dinner?” Jay chimed in.

  “Oh, my family’s throwing me a going away dinner before we head off to Canada.” She squeezed Jay’s shoulder. “You’re invited, hon.” Then she winked at Dexter. “So are you.”

  Dexter’s incredibly glassy eyes turned even more brilliant. He tried to hide them by sticking his face close to his computer. He cleared his throat. “Another thing,” he said in his all-business tone.

  “Yeah?” she said, trying to sound extra nice to get him to look up.

  “We don’t go to sleep until we have a new script ready to send to Vincent Adams.” He looked up. “Are you both with me?”

  Jay raised his eyebrows at Sonja. “We can fit in fifteen-minute quickie breaks, can’t we?”

  Dexter’s face turned red, but Sonja could see in him exactly what she saw in her cousin. They both had a secret sexy side that only a profound intimate encounter with someone they were deeply attracted to could bring to the surface.

  Sonja playfully nudged Jay’s shoulder. “Jay, come on. You’re embarrassing Dexter.”

  “I’m fine,” Dexter said, his eyes still on his computer. “Quickies are allowed if they don’t interfere with getting shit done.”

  “All right, then no quickies,” Jay said jokingly.

  Sonja chuckled.

  Dexter remained serious. Sonja only knew one other person who could keep a stone face like that and she had asked about him, and he had asked about her. But Sonja wondered if they were opposite enough to not send the other running for the hills. She had a feeling that one day soon, she would get the chance to see.

  “All right then.” Sonja stood. “Let’s go to the kitchen and make coffee.” She winked suggestively at Jay.

  He hopped to his feet. “Dexter, this is going to take us about fifteen minutes.”

  Dexter rolled his eyes. “And not a minute longer.” He shook a scolding finger at Jay. “I mean it.”

  Jay swept Sonja off her feet. “Let’s go break some records, baby!”

  Sonja laughed her head off as he scurried away, carrying her over his shoulder. The fact that his strength made her feel as light as a feather was so hot. When they reached the kitchen and he spread her out on the massive white quartz-topped island, things got hot and heavy real fast. Within fifteen minutes, they had managed to please each other’s body and desire as well as make a large pot of coffee for the start of a long night.

  Sixteen Hours Later

  When they got down to business in Jay’s office last night, the space was tidier. Now sheets of paper covered the floor, some crumbled and others not. Sonja’s eyes were so tired that it hurt to concentrate on her computer screen, yet she was captivated by the world they had created and couldn’t look away.

  They had first written a detailed outline with Jay acting out most of the scenes for precision and deliverability, just as he used to do when they were kids. The three had laughed a lot. They’d shared moments of extreme appreciation for the creative process whenever one of them had a moment of true brilliance. And Sonja and Jay’s first quickie was actually their last. Who could think of sex when what they were doing was just as fulfilling?

  Finally Sonja reached the last word of the fifty-page pilot episode.

  “The end,” she sang while her heart pounded with exuberance.

  Jay raised a finger as his face inched closer to his computer screen. His lips moved as he read silently. Finally his finger came down and he sat up straight. “Done.”

  “Been done,” Dexter said.

  “Dude”—Jay heaved a balled up sheet of discarded paper at him—“do you always have to be an overachiever?”

  “Yes,” Dexter said calmly.

  Jay laughed.

  Dexter snickered then folded his arms as he sat back in his seat. “Shit, I can’t believe we did that. We make a great team.”

  Sonja couldn’t stop smiling. “So is this how it’s going to be in Canada?”

  “It’s going to be a lot more chill than this, but yeah.” Dexter sat up. “That’s if Vince approves the story.”

  “He will.” Jay sounded sure of himself. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll fund the whole production and find another network to air it.”

  Dexter smirked. “That’s pretty gangster, man.”

  Jay flicked his thumb up. “Going gangster or going home.”

  Dexter swiped his phone off the desk. “I like the sound of that. Let’s call Vince and get it over with.”

  Chapter 17

  Jay West

  It was three o’clock in the afternoon when they ended their call with Vincent Adams. He wasn’t thrilled about the changes being sprung on him, but he was impressed they had managed to crank out a new pilot script in less than twenty-four hours.

  “It better not be shit,” he said before announcing that he’d get back to them before Wednesday to let them know if they still had a deal or not.

  Jay knew they were lucky that Vincent Adams enjoyed the excitement of working under the gun. He had often repeated in meetings that without risks comes zero rewards, and the guy hated formulaic bullshit.

  Sonja had crawled into bed with him, and she was naked. His hand ran up and down the soft skin of her curved hip. He burned to have her at least once; however, less than a minute after Sonja’s head hit the pillow, she was snoring gently.

  “Shit,” he muttered as he guided her closer to his hard-on.

  It would take a while before he stopped wanting Sonja every minute of the day. He recalled seeing her around the neighborhood fifteen years ago after he had decided to put some distance between them. If Sonja was a needle in a haystack, his eyes would’ve been able to find her. He used to love her so much.

  He’d always wanted her, but he knew she hadn’t been exposed to the same shit he’d had to endure early on. Being a child star in a land of predators made every day feel as though it was one he had to survive. But he had been lucky to have Margareta, the woman who was his nanny and guardian. She had been good at protecting him. All he’d had to do was tell her that some sick individual had touched his dick and she would figure out a way to get him out of that job.

  However, although Margareta could save him from the creepy old guys, she wasn’t so successful at teaching him how to wait it out with girls his own age. He felt as if every hyper-sexualized girl who needed to be banged to feel loved would find him to do the job. It took years for him to learn that he hadn’t obliged them because he was a sex-starved boy who couldn’t control his dick. He’d given the girls what they’d thought they needed because he too craved shots of intimacy with his hits of dopamine. Not only that, but he had been angry at his mother and disappointed with his father for abandoning him. But he’d had Sonja, Riley, and all the Hester girls in his life too. For some unknown reason, he’d always believed they were too good for him, which was why he had slowly pulled away from all of them.

  Jay guided Sonja closer against his body. “If you don’t get to know what’s loveable and good about yourself, then you will never stop running up the road to complete and utter destruction,” Dr. Reynolds, the one therapist who had changed his life, had said.

  Jay had thought it was too late to make amends with Sonja when he finally realized that he did deserve her. He’d also realized, around the same time, that instead of rubbing her pussy the night of her birthday get-together, he should’ve gorged on the entire pizza and struggled to stay awake from one movie to the next with her. He’d repeated that night over and
over in his head many times and each had a different outcome.

  Jay knew one thing for sure—Sonja was the one for him. God had made her specifically for him, and vice versa.

  Finally Jay fell asleep, and he must’ve done it with a smile because he had never been happier.

  “Hey, Jay,” someone whispered sharply.

  Jay was being shaken. The lights were on and he felt groggy as he turned and opened his eyes. “Jim? What are you doing here?” The potency of Jim’s cologne blew him away. Then Jay looked at Sonja, who was still sleeping. “Shit.”

  “Why the fuck haven’t you answered my calls?” Jim barked.

  Jay put a finger to his lips and shushed his agent. He was steaming mad as he carefully got off the bed and turned the light back down.

  “This way,” he snapped and led Jim out of the room, closing the door behind them.

  “I’m you’re fucking agent, for fuck’s sake,” Jim said way too loudly for Jay’s current condition.

  Jay had been sleeping hard and his body hadn’t caught up to the situation yet. “What time is it?”

  Jim thumbed over his shoulder. “Is that the Hester bitch?”

  Fueled by ire, Jay grabbed Jim by the collar and shoved him against the wall.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jim yelled.

  “Call her a bitch again and I’ll split your head in half.”

  “What the fuck—”

  “And say fuck in my house one more time and I’ll toss you out the front door.”

  Their glares were stuck on each other. Jay meant business and was waiting for Jim to test him.

  “Okay,” Jim said defiantly. “Let go of me.”

  Jay got ahold of himself and released his agent.

  Jim circled his shoulders and stretched his neck by moving his head side to side. “Don’t ever put your hands on me again.”

  “Don’t ever call the woman I love a bitch and I won’t have to.”

  “Love her? You just met her!”

  Jay shook his head. The fact that Jim didn’t know about the past he shared with Sonja was reason enough to get rid of the guy. Jay remembered telling Jim about Sonja and her screenplay on three occasions. “I didn’t just meet her. I’ve known her just about all my life.”