Arousal

by Simone Sowood

  As soon as we opened the door, the noise and music hit us like a tidal wave. I followed Blake to an area towards the back, away from the railing overlooking the main dance floor.

  A blond guy was on the floor and another man was hoofing him in the ribs. Jenny screamed Even though the man doing the kicking was a big guy, Blake was a mammoth and managed to get his arms around the dark haired guy long enough for the blond to get to his feet.

  “This asshole drugged her and was going to rape her,” the guy said.

  I tuned into Jenny’s voice long enough to hear “It’s Abbie!” I thought she’d just been screaming at the violence. She’d run over to a sofa and cuddled Abbie. This wasn’t right. This blond drugged Jenny’s friend and I wouldn’t stand for that.

  The man who’d been doing the kicking fought off Blake and bolted to Jenny and Abbie on the sofa.

  I balled my fist and clocked the blond, my knuckles connecting with his cheekbone. His head flung back, a shot of blood flying from his nose as he went down and landed in a heap. He was out cold by the time he’d hit the floor.

  “Bundle that fucker up and get him to the police station,” I ordered Blake. I didn’t need the flashing lights of a cop car turning up at my club. I helped Blake carry the deadweight of the unconscious body into the private hallway, away from the crowd on onlookers. I wondered if I should call an ambulance but thought fuck it, he doesn’t deserve one.

  I hurried back to the table Jenny had been given on the ground floor to find the champagne glass Abbie had drunk from and gathered all the glasses on the table up with napkins for evidence. If there’s one thing I won’t stand for in my clubs, it’s this type of shit.

  By the time I got back upstairs, Abbie and the man were gone and Jenny was sitting by herself, looking shell shocked and shaking. Still conscious all my VIPs were looking at me about the commotion, I pulled Jenny up into my arms and hustled her back to my office.

  “What happened?” I asked her after we’d sat back on my sofa.

  “That was Jay, the guy she’d been seeing. He noticed the blond and how Abbie was behaving and knew something wasn’t right. So he kicked the shit out of him.”

  I patted her hands. “Don’t worry babe, that guy’s on his way to be arrested as we speak.”

  “Is he okay? I mean, Jay was doing enough of a number on him, but I saw that punch you knocked him out with.” I laughed, unsure if she approved of it or not.

  “Baby, I would floor anyone who messed with you or one of your friends.”

  Jenny was still shaking, so I got up and poured her a single malt scotch.

  “Here, have a drink to calm your nerves.” I passed her the tumbler and sat back down beside her, putting my arm around her.

  “Aren’t you having one?”

  “No, I don’t drink.” Her brow creased at my answer, but it didn’t stop her from knocking back the amber liquid.

  “I’m so worried about Abbie.”

  “Of course you are, and if there’s anything I can do to help her, just say.”

  “Jay convinced me to let him take her to his house, where the best doctors will see to her. He’s loaded and all, he can make that happen.” I squeezed her shoulder.

  “That’s great babe, she’s going to be well taken care of, you don’t need to worry.”

  Jenny set her empty glass down and slid her hands over my shirt, my abs hard underneath. Her hands moved under my suit jacket and up my back. She pulled herself toward me and rested her head on my chest. Her hands squeezed my back but she otherwise stayed motionless.

  I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight. We stayed like that for several minutes, and I never wanted to let her go. Even with all the shit going on in my life, her presence chilled me out. The way she cared for Abbie, for her mom. Jenny was perfect. Far too perfect for me.

  She pulled back and looked up at me. “I have to go find Sam and Marla and tell them.”

  I let her go, knowing that was what she needed to do right now. Abbie’s well being was all that mattered to her right now. Jenny would do everything in her power to keep everyone filled in and she’d be stressing over this for ages.

  Jenny’s everything Raylene isn’t. I couldn’t help but visualize Harlan in Jenny’s arms. She was exactly what my son needed. But I just couldn’t see a way to taint Jenny with my life.

  Jenny

  I walked out of Collin’s office, stunned at the way he had handled the attack on Abbie as well as the way he comforted me afterwards. When I first went to his office that night, I’d thought he was going to bend me over his desk and fuck me hard. Instead, after Abbie, he only cared about how I was feeling.

  For some reason that shocked me. I guess I’d been thinking he only wanted me for one thing: sex. But tonight made me think otherwise.

  The way he’d sprung into action for Abbie, getting her tainted glass and having the blond whisked off to the police. I don’t know why but for some reason I hadn’t expected it.

  And my god, the way he knocked the guy out with one punch shocked the hell out of me: I didn’t know he could fight like that. Not that it was much of a fight, he only needed on punch to knock the guy unconscious. When did he learn to do that? I’d thought he was just a suit-wearing business owner.

  Once through the heavy door marking the private section of Collin’s area, I pushed my way through the noisy dance floor, searching for Marla and Sam. They were nowhere in sight so I started on the tables, stools and benches that ringed the room.

  Holy cow, was that for real? They were sitting side by side on a bench against the wall, each with their mouths locked on what could only be a set of twins. Damn, I didn’t want to break up that kind of fun, but I had to, Abbie mattered more.

  I marched up to them. None of the four noticed me standing in front of them, so I whacked the backs of Sam and Marla’s heads at the same time.

  They both yanked away from their men in confusion.

  “Jenny? What the fuck?” Marla said.

  “Yeah lady, can’t you see we’re busy here?”

  “It’s an emergency, you need to come with me, now.” I gritted my teeth as I said now and tugged on their hands.

  The two must’ve sensed the seriousness in my voice and stood.

  “Whoa, ladies, you’re leaving us?”

  “Sorry cuties, another time,” Sam said.

  “Here, take our numbers at least.” Marla snapped a photo of her twin’s screen with his number showing and we took off.

  We ended up back at Marla’s, since, after Abbie, she lived the nearest to the city center. Her condo always floored me, like I’d walked straight into the pages of a home magazine.

  It reflected how perfectly in control she was. Even though she couldn’t see how sometimes she needed to loosen that self control and take some risks.

  I doubt she’d ever would though, she was too concerned with not opening herself to the kind of stupid risks and actions she thought Abbie took. She put Abbie in the lovable basket case category and saw herself as the polar opposite. At some point she was going to have to realize there’s a happy middle ground.

  “Don’t worry honey, Jay will make sure she’s taken care of,” Sam said, putting her arms around me and hugging me for the zillionth time since we left the club. I forced a smile to try and relax her. I didn’t need her worrying about me at a time like this, our thoughts should have been focused on Abbie.

  “She’s right sweetie, it doesn’t serve any purpose to have us fretting about her here, where there’s nothing we can do anyway.” I couldn’t believe Marla said that. She was probably still annoyed I pulled her face off that twin.

  “Excuse me for ruining your little night of fun with twin boy,” I snapped at her.

  “Okay ladies, enough.” Sam positioned herself between us and gave us each a little playful slap. “It’s been a crazy few weeks, and too much booze and drama tonight. All we can do now is wait and see how things turn out.”

  “I hope Abbie doesn’t
get mad with me for letting Jay take her home instead of me.”

  “She won’t,” Sam said.

  “How would you know that?”

  “I was there when the blow up happened at work, remember. She might not have seen it, but it was pretty damn obvious to me that she loves him.”

  Marla made a scoffing noise and we both looked at her.

  “It’s fine Jenny, stop stressing about things you can’t change,” Marla quickly said.

  I forced a smile at her and said, “You’re probably right.’

  “Who wants a drink? Wine, beer, tea? Sorry, I don’t have any tequila.” The mention of tequila made me think of the phallic bottle Collin had given me and I blushed at the memory.

  “Tea is good, I think we’ve all had enough to drink tonight,” I said.

  Collin

  “Blake, you stupid asshole, you need to do a better fucking job at keeping that shit out of my club.” I tried to control my voice, but it felt so good to vent. I’d already unleashed a long, verbal attack of Blake, each word relaxing me a little bit more.

  The hulk of a man sat in the middle of my office sofa, warping it. I didn’t care how big he was, I paid him to keep control of that type of troublemaking scumbag in my clubs, and his failure had resulted in Jenny’s friend getting hurt.

  I kicked at the sofa’s leg.

  “Come on man, he couldn’t tell,” Daniel said.

  “Stop defending him.”

  “Of course I’m going to defend him, he hasn’t done anything but cover your ass for the past three years.”

  My eyes flared at Daniel. I knew he was right, but right didn’t matter right now. We both turned our heads to Blake, who was sitting looking at his meatball hands.

  “You put him on the banned list?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Enough with the sir bullshit.”

  Blake angled his face to mine and gritted his teeth. Even sitting, he wasn’t far off my eye level. “Yes, Collin.”

  “Sorry, man. Daniel’s right. It wasn’t you, I was just blowing off steam.”

  “Why don’t you go blow it off in the person it’s directed at,” Daniel said.

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “I mean go fuck your ex-girlfriend,” Daniel said, his voice strained.

  The corner of Blake’s mouth quivered, a rare movement on his normally stony face-.

  I glanced around the room for a reason to stay but couldn’t come up with one. Without another word, I grabbed my suit jacket and fled the room.

  Jenny

  The three of us sat around Marla's perfectly polished ebony dining table, sipping peppermint tea. By this point it was nearing two in the morning. Sam and I decided we were crashing at Marla’s, even though she hadn’t offered.

  Sam said we were staying there, whether she liked it or not and Marla didn’t have the balls to say no to Sam. Either that or she knew resisting Sam would be a waste of time.

  “Okay, enough about Abbie. Spill Jenny, what’s going on with you and Collin?” Sam said, her eyes boring into me.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” Marla said.

  “I mean, I thought it was just a few nighttime calls but…”

  “But all those feelings you used to have for him are bubbling back to the surface.”

  I stayed silent, mulling over Marla’s words.

  “I couldn’t get back with him, he hurt me too bad.”

  “Yeah, you’ve never gotten over him, you realize that, right?” Marla asked.

  A lump formed in my throat, preventing me from answering her. It was late at night, and too much had gone on that evening.

  The attack on Abbie; the way Collin had handled the situation. The way Collin was so concerned about my mother. The way Collin had said ‘this thing between us is anything I want it to be, as long as you don’t want marriage and babies.’

  The way he’d abandoned me years ago, when I thought he was coming home to me from London after six months. He’d never even had the decency to phone and tell me to fuck off. Instead it was nothing, nada, radio silence from him.

  I couldn’t fight my tears anymore and soon I was a blubbering mess.

  Sam and Marla each rushed to my sides, passing me Kleenex and rubbing my back.

  “I don’t know what to do.” I had to suck air into my lungs before saying each word through my blubbering.

  “Honey, you don’t need to think about this now. Let’s go to sleep, and you’ll see it with fresh eyes in the morning,” Marla said. Practical Marla.

  “Sweetie, I know you think thirty is old, but it isn’t, I promise you. There is no urgency in your decision. If you want to follow your heart, then follow your heart,” Sam said. She almost made me smile.

  “But what if he leaves me again? Like last time? He’ll leave Chicago as soon as he’s ready to open another club in some far off city.”

  “You don’t know that. But like I said, there’s no point stewing over it tonight, that’s not going to accomplish anything,” Marla said. At least her voice was soothing, even if her words were harsh.

  “The thing I’m hearing from you is that you care about him. A lot. I know I didn’t know you when you were with him before, but from where I’m sitting, it’s pretty clear those feelings never went away,” Sam said.

  “Yeah, but the hurt he caused her never went away either, did it?” Marla said.

  I felt like I had a little devil and angel sitting on each of my shoulders, and my head shook trying to figure out which one of them to listen to.

  Sam said thirty wasn’t old. Maybe she was right, plenty of people don’t get married and start families until their late thirties. Just because that’s where I wanted my life to be at this point doesn’t mean it has to be. I am not a failure for not being married by thirty. I am normal. A deep sigh shuddered from my chest. I was normal because everything in my life didn’t turn out the way I’d expected it to.

  My phone chimed, a text from Collin. I guessed he was probably getting off work.

  Hey baby, thinking about you.

  My heart both leapt and stopped. The message left me just as confused as I was in the moments before I read it. Was he thinking about me because he cared, or because he finished work and was looking to hook up? I tapped out a reply.

  What are you thinking?

  Marla let out a sigh of disapproval in my ear. Sam patted my back.

  I’m thinking I need to find you, are you at home?

  Though my heart pounded in my chest, it still didn’t answer the question stewing in my head.

  No, at Marla’s, am staying here tonight.

  This time it was Marla who patted me on the back.

  Where does she live? I’ll pick you up.

  I didn’t know what to do. It was probably the first time in my life I didn’t have an answer. Sam squeezed my arm, giving me the prompt I needed.

  Okay come get me.

  Marla walked away in disgust as I typed in her address. I couldn’t not go. I had to find out where this would lead. If he thought about me the way I thought about him.

  I never thought he’d be marriage material these days, especially to be a father. After all, he as much as told me that. But I didn’t know. Maybe he’d change his mind for me. When we were in college we used to talk about what life would be like in our thirties, and it always involved kids and a Golden Retriever.

  But maybe once you have as much money as him, maybe a normal life in the suburbs loses all its appeal.

  Collin

  In the car on the way to get Jenny, Raylene phoned for the fourth time that night. I hit reject and turned my phone off as we pulled up to Marla’s address. Right now I wished I’d never heard Raylene’s name. No, I always wished I’d never heard her name or seen her face in my life. What a mess.

  I’d been meaning to find out which of my employees hired her to work at the Honolulu club in the first place, so I could fire the fucker.

>   Raylene texted.

  Careful, or We’ll take you down along with your money.

  What the fuck did she mean by we? I deleted it.

  Jenny looked amazing as she opened the door to the backseat of my Maybach. Her eyes were ringed red like she’d been crying, her hair was disheveled and her body slumped with fatigue. The sight of her like that made my heart thump.

  It reminded me of all the times when we were young and I used to take care of her when she was sick, or hungover or upset. Her little body would melt into my arms and let me make her all better.

  I flipped up the armrest and reach across the backseat to pull her close to me.

  “Where to, boss?” my driver, Mo, asked. I loved Mo, he’d been with me for four years now. Took me everywhere and never asked questions.

  I liked loyal people around me, and rewarded him handsomely for it. And in his case, I knew he sent the bulk of his money directly to his mother and sister in Morocco. It made me happy to know I was doing something to make a real difference in someone’s life other than my own.

  I looked at Jenny. “Where do you want to go? Home or my hotel?”

  “Can we get breakfast from room service?” A massive smiled spread across my face and I kissed her cheek.

  “Of course.” I turned my head towards the driver, “My hotel, Mo.” I loved having a driver. Even though I didn’t drink and never had to worry about driving after a few, I loved the ease and lack of stress of having someone drive me around, and drop me off at whatever door I wanted dropping off at. Who wants to waste time looking for a parking spot? Fuck that shit. I’d rather be sitting back here relaxing, with Jenny in my arms.

  I fixed us each a cup of decaf, and Jenny and I sat side by side on the drab gray hotel sofa, but our bodies remained apart.

  “So,” Jenny said.

  “So.” She glanced at me, the flash of her amber eyes sending me back in time.

  “I can’t thank you enough for what you did for Abbie tonight.” She stared into her coffee mug.