by J A Fielding
“Well, it is obvious that something is up and I am not leaving here until I know what it is,” Andy said.
“Really? Why do I feel like sometimes you forget who is the employer and who is the employee in this arrangement?” she asked.
“Oh honey, in the back of my mind I always know you are still the boss lady but this time round, I am not letting you off the hook that easily,” he said. Julie took a long deep breath and shut down her computer before she looked up at Andy. She hated when her assistant got this way. He was like a dog with a bone, never giving up. “So, what’s up with you and is there any way we can drown it in martinis?” he asked.
“You are not going to let this go, are you?” she asked.
“Your best friend is on some weekend getaway with her new boyfriend and you need to vent so, no sister,” Andy said as he got up. Julie watched him as he helped her pack up her desk. “All done, let’s go,” he said with a smile.
She shook her head. “Drinking was not really on my day planner today.”
Andy laughed.
“Drinking is never on anyone’s day planner. That’s what makes it so much fun,” he said.
Julie got up and walked towards the door. “Fine, but we are going to do it on one condition.”
“What’s that?” Andy asked. They were now at the door.
“You cannot bug me about what is on my mind. It’s deeply personal,” she said. But immediately she said it and saw the twinkle in his eyes, she knew that was a bad idea. She looked at him and shrugged. “I just screwed myself by saying that, didn’t I?” she asked. There was a big grin on Andy’s face as he nodded.
“Oh yeah,” he said before they walked out of her office.
*****
Steven was a mess when he finally got back home. When he walked into his house, he took a moment and took everything in. He was still getting used to having Julie here 24/7. Her décor was impeccable. She liked the same things he did and as far as decorating was concerned, they spoke the same language. He even loved her taste in art. It was almost as good as his, as far as he was concerned. A smile played on his lips when the thought crossed his mind.
“It’s a good thing she can’t read my mind right now,” he thought as he looked around. He walked to the kitchen and placed his laptop bag on the counter before he walked to the fridge. “Another good thing about being married,” he thought as he pulled out a bowl of leftover tandoori chicken. He then pulled out a bowl of rice and then took a plate from the dish rack before he went on to serve the food onto a plate. He stuck the plate in the microwave and then poured himself a glass of wine before he leaned over the counter. He caught a glimpse of the clock and sighed. It was almost nine in the evening and Julie was not home yet. He pulled his phone out to call Julie but there was an unread message from his wife.
Hey sweetie. Having drinks with Andy. Be home late.
He put his phone on the counter just as the microwave beeped loudly and then loosened his tie before taking the plate out of the microwave.
“I might just as well go to the living room,” he thought as he walked to the living room. He smiled again when he remembered how much Julie hated when they had saucy food in the living room. She always said that accidents were prone to happen when you had sauce in a house with white couches. He sat on the floor and put his glass on the floor next to him before he took a big bite. “That’s some good spice,” he said in a low voice before he took another bite. He had just taken the last bite when he heard the front door open and then close. He took his glass and took a sip of his wine as he looked at the doorway.
“Hey baby,” Julie said as she walked into the living room. He smiled at her and patted the floor next to him.
“Hey there babe. Want to share in some floor time with me?” he asked. She nodded and kicked off her shoes before joining him. He leaned in and gave her a long kiss before she tossed her purse on the couch next to them. She looked at him and smiled. “How was your day?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“Can’t complain. Closed a pretty darn good deal,” she said.
He smiled and gave her a high five.
“That’s my girl,” he said with a smile. She looked at the wine in his hand and then at the plate on the table and frowned.
“That looks like tandoori,” she said and he nodded. “Are you washing spice down with wine?” she asked. He nodded. “I’d hate to be your gullet right now, I can tell you that,” she said.
“Really? And you didn’t have to wash down hot wings with cocktails?” he asked. She looked at him and shrugged. “Talk about the log in your own eye, huh?” he said with a smile.
“By the way, you will have to drive me to Marvel Bar and Grill tomorrow so I can get my car,” she said. Steven draped an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m just glad to hear you didn’t drive,” he said before he kissed her forehead. He then looked into her eyes and she shrugged.
“What?”
“You went drinking on a week day.”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. Except the fact that you drink a glass or two of wine during the week. Cocktails are usually saved for the weekend which means that something big must have happened,” he said.
She shook her head. “I told you. I closed today.”
He kissed her forehead again.
“I know you better than you think Juelz but I also respect your decisions. You’ll tell me when you are ready.”
“There is nothing to talk about, babe,” she hiccuped.
“If you say so,” he said. She looked into his eyes and then rolled her own before she reached for his wine. “Should you really be having that? I mean, how many cocktails did you have and what were they exactly?” he asked. She smiled and shrugged before taking a long sip. “Maybe you should call Dana and tell her you will be late tomorrow,” he said as he watched her take the contents of the glass down in one flash. She put the glass down and closed her eyes tightly as she felt the drink burning its way down to her stomach. She then looked at him and then leaned in to kiss him.
“Do you still want to talk about this?” she asked when she pulled away from him.
He smiled and shook his head.
“It can wait,” he said as she untied the knot that held her wrap around dress together. She kissed his neck as she let the dress fall off her shoulders before she began to undo his shirt buttons.
“Should we move this to the bedroom?” he asked in a low voice.
She pulled away and looked into his eyes as she shook her head.
“Why? All I need is you and all you need is me,” she said as she unbuckled his belt and pulled down his zipper. “And I am right here, baby. And I’m all yours,” she added in a low voice as she straddled him. Steven looked into her eyes and smiled before he put a hand on her neck and pulled her down to kiss her. She closed her eyes and as he flipped her over before lowering them onto the floor. She moaned softly as he caressed her and kissed her but she was hoping that this would be the home run.
*****
Steven was not sure what had changed in his wife but the fact was that she was not the same woman he knew. She was suddenly too demanding in bed and she never wanted any foreplay. At first, he didn’t really mind but with time, it was getting old and by the end of the fourth week, he just couldn’t do it anymore. He was tapped out, literally. It was like she was trying to drain him and given the fact that she was jumping his bones every chance she got, he needed at least a day off sex.
“I never thought I would have such thoughts,” he thought as he drove home on Thursday evening. “I hope she understands though. It’s not like I don’t want to make love to her but…” he shook his head and then cursed silently. How was he supposed to convince her if he didn’t even know whether he could convince himself? When he finally got home, he took his time before getting out of the car. He was trying to play out the conversation he would have with Julie in his head but nothing was working out.
He had no idea how he was supposed to tell the woman he loved that she could not have him every night. The minute he opened the front door, he knew what lay in wait for him when he heard the sweet slow music playing. From the front door, he could see that the living room was dimly lit. Damn it, she was at it again. At the back of his mind, he knew that any man who heard his thoughts would probably hit in the face. He was a sane man getting upset about his hot wife being too sexy with him.
“Hey baby,” Julie said when she saw him. She took off the long sexy silk gown she had on revealing a sexy lacy number. He never intended or expected to feel the effect of what she had on but he suddenly felt his cock twitch. He loved that lingerie. It was one of the sexiest lingerie she had.
“Baby, no….you know what that does to me,” he said as he looked at the black lace lingerie she had on.
She smiled and began walking towards him.
“I know,” she said when she got to where he was. “That’s why I wore it,” she added as she raised her arms to secure them around his neck. He closed his eyes as she began kissing his neck, slowly working her way up. She knew all his weak points and she was exploiting them well. He loved what she was doing to her but at the back of his mind he still had the next day’s meeting in mind. The meeting that was meant to take him to the next level. With this in mind, he put his hands on her shoulders and pulled away from her. “What? Do you want me to just get right to it?” she asked as she cupped a feel of the bulge in his pants. He exhaled loudly and closed his eyes again before he pulled away. She looked at him and then brought her hand up to hold his waist. “What?” she asked. He looked into her eyes and wondered how he was supposed to say it.
“I love you but I don’t want to fuck you? I am just not feeling that frisky today?” As he looked at her, he realized that there was no good way of putting what he had in mind to words. And at this point, Julie was getting increasingly uncomfortable.
“What? Did something happen at work today?” she asked as she looked at him. He forced out a smile and shook his head. Actually, in all honesty, something did happen at work that day. He actually dozed off at work. But even then, he could not find the right words to say. “Steven, you are making me nervous,” Julie said. Steven took another long deep breath and took her hand in his before leading her to the couch.
“I need to tell you something,” he said. As soon as those words left his mouth, he realized his mistake. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I mean, we need to talk,” he said again.
She was looking into his eyes, her heart beating fast and hard.
“Babe…” she said feeling as if the world as she knew it was going to end.
He shook his head again.
“No…it’s nothing bad, it’s just that you…we….” His words trailed off. He had no way of saying this without sounding like an asshole. He looked into his eyes and took small deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down. “We need to slow down a little,” he said.
Julie looked at him and shrugged.
“Okay,” she said even though she was not sure what she was agreeing to. “What exactly do we need to slow down on?”
There was a long silence before Steven finally answered. “The sex,” he said.
She looked into his eyes surprised. “The sex?” she asked astounded.
Steven nodded.
“And don’t get me wrong baby. I love you and I love making love to you but lately….it’s like we are not making love any more. We are just going at it like rabbits and I miss us. I miss talking to my wife and just coming home to hold you…” he looked at her and shook his head. “I feel like there is maybe something I am not doing right and you don’t want to tell me, like you are masking it with sex.” He had finally said it. He looked at her and waited for her reaction, something to tell him that he had not just said the most offending thing to the woman he loved most. But she didn’t say anything. She was just sitting there, blankly looking into his eyes. “Please say something Juelz,” he said in a low voice. She took a deep breath and that’s when he saw it. A single tear rolling down her cheek. Great. He had upset her. “No, no, no….baby. I didn’t want to hurt you…I’m sorry,” he started as he pulled her into his arms.
“No, it’s not you,” she said as she sobbed into his chest.
“Then what is it?” he asked. She pulled her head away from him and shook his head. “Don’t do that. It’s clear that you are upset and I would love to know what I can do to help.” She looked into his eyes as another tear rolled down her cheek. He brushed it off and then held her face in his hands. “Babe, don’t do this, right now. Don’t shut me out,” he said.
“I feel like…” she started before she exhaled loudly. She didn’t know how to tell him that she felt like she was failing him, failing their marriage.
“You can tell me,” he said softly. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She nodded and sniffed back a tear.
“I have been trying…since the wedding night…I have been trying to get pregnant,” she said in a soft voice. She looked up into his eyes and at that point, every emotion she had been holding back, came free. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks and he moved closer to her and held her tightly.
“There…don’t cry your heart out,” he said as he gently stroked her hair. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
She shrugged and shook her head.
“I didn’t know how to,” she said in a soft voice.
He pulled away and looked into her puffy eyes.
“You should never have to carry something like that all by yourself,” he said as he brushed off her tears. He held her face and leaned forward to kiss her lips and then each of her swollen eyes. “You know what? I have just the thing to make you feel better,” he said in a low voice. She tried to force out a smile as he kissed her quickly before he got up and rushed to the kitchen. After a few minutes, he came back carrying two bowls of ice cream. “Chunky monkey, your favorite” he said smiling.
“Just what I need,” she said as he sat down next to her. He handed her one bowl before he took off his jacket from where he had tossed it earlier and draped it over her shoulders. She leaned back as he took his own bowl and joined her.
“Better?” he asked as they ate their ice cream.
She looked at him and nodded.
“It’s weird but yeah, I am,” she said before she took another bite.
“See, I know you better than you think,” he said.
She looked at him and rolled her eyes.
“If you insist,” she said before taking another bite. “I’m sorry I fucked you into exhaustion.”
He smiled and then laughed.
“You caught that, huh?” he asked. She smiled and nodded. “Well, you did, not that I’m complaining,” he said.
She looked at him and raised an eyebrow over the other. “Really?”
He smiled and shrugged.
“Okay, maybe there is the little fact that I may have dozed off in a meeting earlier today,” he said. She looked at him and laughed. “You are laughing at me now, really?”
She put a hand on her mouth trying to desperately stifle a laugh.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” she said. “Wait, the meeting…was that the big deal? The Noble and Byrnes one?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“That’s tomorrow. And given the way you have been taking me lately, I was not sure I could handle it,” he added before he took another bite.
She smiled and took the last bite before she suddenly looked up at him. “Oh my God,” she suddenly blurted out.
“What?” he asked as he looked at her.
“Dinner! I totally forgot all about it,” she said as she put her bowl down.
He shook his head and put his bowl down on the coffee table next to hers.
“Chunky monkey is as good a dinner as any,” he said with a smile.
She shook her head no.
“I am not about to fail in my wif
ely duties. Not this early anyway,” she said as she got up. “I think we have some frozen pizza. How about I get it started and we can have it in bed watching reruns of Mad Men?” she asked.
“That sounds heavenly,” he smiled. She took the two bowls and carried them to the kitchen. “And what do you mean not this early? Are you planning on failing in your wifely duties as you put it?” he asked. She looked at him over her shoulder and shrugged. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, one day when we are old and tired after a long day’s work, we will both get home and there will be nothing to eat. I would probably not have straightened up before leaving and the house will be a complete mess and then I will ask you why you didn’t get dinner on your way back home,” she said. “Now that’s the day I will have failed. Today, I still feel a little wife left in me,” she added without turning around.
He looked at her and laughed.
“There are like ten different things wrong with your story starting with the fact that we have a housekeeper.”
“So?” she asked as she washed her hands in the sink.
“The whole idea of having an unkempt house is never going to happen, that’s what.”
She looked up and smiled.
“Well, you get what I mean at the end of the day,” she said as she took a glass from the dish rack and got herself a drink of water.
“And is it that you are planning on this day to come or something?” he asked.
She looked at him and then put her glass down frowning.
“No, not really. But these things happen and when they do, all you can do is wonder what the hell happened to you. It’s like lightning in a storm. It happens but no one knows why we don’t get it in the summer,” she said.
Steven frowned. “Sometimes your metaphors are way off.”
“And that is why I think I would be a great mystery writer. It would take ages for people to figure out who the villain is and what not. You know, keep the viewer interested and all that,” she said.
He shook his head.
“Well, I love you babe but writers like you are the reason shows get canceled. But in other news, you would be a great hit in the UK…you know, six episodes at a time.” He was now smiling at his joke and he was relieved to see her smile too. It was good to see that she was finally relaxed and no longer thinking about all that pregnancy bullshit.