Rumor Has It: A Bad Boy Romantic Comedy

by Lila Moore

  I grabbed his collar and ripped his shirt down the middle. This was not the time to slow down. I wanted to feel his body against mine and forget about my mother and the fact that this was the end. I bit his lower lip and ran my tongue inside his mouth.

  “Fuck me,” I said breathlessly. “Fuck me hard.”

  Luke grabbed me behind the knees and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist securely, as if he might change his mind and toss me aside.

  Luke walked over to the bed and threw me down. I bounced on the mattress, then sat up and pulled off what remained of his shirt.

  Luke’s hand slid over my stomach and came to a rest on breast. He kneaded my tits softly, then peeled off my top. I froze. Was I showing? Did I have a small baby bump? Luke’s eyes scanned my body. His face betrayed nothing. As far as I could tell, he didn’t notice a change.

  He unhooked my bra and pushed me down flat on the bed. He kissed my neck, then my breasts and stomach. I thought he lingered for a time on my stomach, but it may have just been my paranoid imagination.

  Luke unbuttoned my jeans and pulled them off forcefully. He’d apparently changed his mind about wanting to take things slowly. Not that I’m complaining. I wanted him to fuck me raw.

  I grabbed his arm and pulled him down on top of me. I kissed his face and neck, then stopped. Fading scratch marks ran across his neck and down his back. Had I done that the last time we fucked, or had he been with another girl? Had he been with my mother? I nearly hurled him off me in disgust, but I knew for a fact my mother had not been back in contact with Luke. Even if she had, I don’t think Luke would sleep with her after stealing his credit card and lying to him about everything.

  “What’s wrong?” Luke asked.

  “Nothing.”

  I kissed him again and ran my fingers through his hair. I dragged my nails down his back, following the path of the fading marks. It felt familiar. I had scratched him before. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  A second wave of hunger rose inside me. I pushed Luke over onto his back and climbed on top of him. I slid down onto his hard cock slowly. My pussy pulsed as the head entered me.

  I threw my head back. A small whimper passed over my lips.

  Luke grabbed him hips and drove his cock deep. My hips started to move in fast circles. I focused on the head of his cock. If I angled my hips just right, I could work my g-spot perfectly.

  Luke’s mouth fell open. He groaned as he watched my body sway on top of his. I ran my fingers through my hair, twisting and pulling. It was odd the way pain added an edge to the pleasure of sex.

  Luke’s hands drifted up over my body. I leaned in a bit, encouraging him to massage my breasts. His soft hands passed over my nipples. He started to thrust into me harder. I met his strokes, moving my hips faster. It was like we were caught in a dance where the tempo kept increasing.

  I rode him hard. Sparks of heat flooded my body; chills shot up and down my spine. Luke and I moved faster and faster until we couldn’t go any quicker.

  The rush of energy boiling inside me came to a head. I put my hands over Luke’s and squeezed. I came as an explosion of energy broke inside me. I continued to ride Luke, but it was difficult. I felt weakened by my orgasm, though he finished soon after I did.

  I collapsed on the bed beside him. I wanted to rest my head on Luke’s chest, but I was too hot. Sweat beaded my skin. I watched his chest rise and fall as he tried to catch his breath. He ran a hand through his hair then leaned over and kissed me.

  “I’m going to go get us a drink. I’ll be right back.”

  Unable to form a coherent sentence, I simply nodded. Luke kissed me again, then jumped out of bed. I watched his high, firm ass and meaty thighs as he walked away. I still couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to fuck a guy as hot as him. Not for long, a voice in the back of my mind said.

  It was true. This was our last night together. Sadness threatened to destroy the rush of pleasure still coursing through my body. I wouldn’t let it. I was going to enjoy tonight. I’d only just gotten started with Luke.

  Luke

  I braced myself against the stairwell and caught my breath. My cock still throbbed wet and hot with the feeling of Genevieve’s pussy.

  I rubbed the sweat from my brow with the back of my arm and continued on down the stairs. I reached the bar and poured myself a drink. I downed it all in one gulp. Genevieve’s behavior was strange. First she ghosts me, then she wants to fuck my brains out. It was odd. Why had she spent so long ignoring me only to jump on my cock the first chance she got? There was definitely something going on.

  I poured a second drink for myself and a soda whiskey for Genevieve. I picked up the drinks and started to head back to my bedroom when the elevator dinged. Was someone coming up? I wasn’t expecting guests.

  I put down the drinks and headed to the front door. The elevator opened directly into my apartment. You can’t get in unless you have a key. When I reached the elevator the doors were just closing. There was no one inside. Weird. Maybe it was a glitch? The building was new and they were still working out the bugs. The fire alarm randomly went off and sometimes the elevators shut down without warning. It was probably nothing.

  I went back to the bar and decided to add cherry and lime to Genevieve’s drink. I could tell she didn’t like the first drink I’d made her. Maybe if it was a bit sweeter she’d enjoy it more. I was just picking up the drinks when I heard a crash from upstairs followed by a woman’s scream.

  I didn’t think I just ran. Was Genevieve hurt? Was there an intruder?

  At the foot of the stairs, I found Val. She was lying on the floor motionless with one arm twisted behind her at a painful angle. I stared at her dumbly. What was she doing here? How had she gotten inside?

  Suddenly, she gasped. I fell to her side and cradled her head in my lap. Questions could wait for later. Val needed medical attention.

  “Don’t move,” I said.

  She cradled her arm to her chest and whimpered. Her lips moved as she tried to form words, but none came out.

  “Don’t speak,” I said. “Save your energy. I’m going to get you to the hospital.”

  “The baby…” she whispered.

  “What?” I thought I hadn’t heard her right. Did she say ‘baby’?

  “Our baby!” She screamed and clutched her stomach. Red blood stained the front of her jeans. “She did it! She killed our baby!”

  A vicious look passed over Val’s expression. She looked up into the dark. I followed her gaze. Genevieve stood at the top of the stairs with a sheet wrapped around her naked body. Her eyes were wide with horror; her mouth hung open in disbelief.

  “It was her! She pushed me down the stairs.”

  Genevieve

  After Luke left to fetch us each a drink, I stretched out across his bed. I pushed the negative thoughts out of my head and focused on everything I was going to do to Luke when he returned.

  I grabbed his bed post and shook it. It felt sturdy. Maybe I’d tie Luke to it and fuck him until he begged for mercy. I smiled to myself in the dark.

  “Something funny?” a familiar voice asked from the shadows.

  I grabbed the sheets and pulled them around me. My mother stepped into the low-light pouring through the windows.

  “Mom? What are you doing here?”

  “How many times have I told you not to call me mom?” she said calmly.

  Her response through me off; I had no idea what to say.

  “I knew you’d come here,” she said. “As soon as I gave you that ring, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to return it to Luke. You were just dying for any excuse to see him again.”

  I looked down at the ring. My finger was bare. It was then I remembered I’d given it to Luke already. My mother would be furious. I hid my hand beneath the bed sheets, but it was too late.

  “Where is it?” she demanded.

  Her coolness disappeared like a dropped curtain. The calm mask she wore wasn’t real. She o
nly wanted to intimidate me. This realization emboldened me, though if I’d been smart I wouldn’t have said a word. I would have dressed and left. The only way to win against my mother is by not playing her game.

  “I gave it back to Luke. You should have seen how relieved he was to have it back. He finds the idea of being engaged to you repulsive.”

  My mother’s eye twitched. A strange smile spread across her face as she reached inside her coat. For a second, I worried she’d pull out a weapon. What she did was far worse. She pulled out a small plastic bag filled with dark liquid. She tore it open and dipped her fingers inside, then started to spread it over the front of her jeans. The fluid glistened red in the light of the moon.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Buying in,” she replied.

  “What?”

  She didn’t respond she only smirked. Then I remembered the conversation we’d had when she’d announced she was marrying Luke. She’d told me she’d decided to ‘buy in’ by getting married. It was her way of saying she was securing her future.

  My mother turned her back on me and walked out of the room. I heard a crash. I jumped up and ran out to follow her. By the time I reached the stairs she was lying at the bottom screaming.

  Luke ran into view. He stood dumbfounded for a moment before falling to my mother’s side to help her.

  Why had she thrown herself down the stairs? Was she trying to kill herself? No, that didn’t explain the red liquid. She mumbled and whispered to Luke, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

  Suddenly, her accusing eyes fell on me. Luke looked up at me with an expression of shock. My mother winked at me, then twisted her face into a fake mask of fear and pain. Luke clutched her to his side and petted her hair. His eyes fell on the wet stain on the front of her pants. It was then I understood what she was mumbling: “The baby… she killed our baby.”

  Genevieve

  I stared at the tiles in the hospital waiting room. They were filthy and cracked. How many people had sat in this very spot and waited to hear bad news? My situation felt extraordinary, but the truth is emergencies are common. Well, most emergencies are common. I’m willing to wager the amount of people who fake miscarriages and throw themselves down a flight of stairs is small.

  I tapped my foot nervously and checked my watch. Only three minutes had passed since I’d last checked the time. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Luke. He passed by the front of the waiting room door. He refused to come in and sit with me. He’d taken to pacing the halls because he ‘needed to think.’

  I suspect he didn’t want to be near me. As we waited for the ambulance, I tried to explain what my mother had done. I begged him to understand. I would never do something as heinous as push my mother down a flight of stairs, especially if she was pregnant. Luke didn’t respond to pleas for understanding.

  “Your mother is what’s important right now,” he’d said.

  I replayed the events over and over again in my head. The way she’d pulled out the plastic bag full of what looked like blood and spread it over the front of her jeans. It was clear she wanted it to look like her fall down the stairs had caused a miscarriage. Did that mean she was still pregnant? She’d never throw herself down the stairs hard enough to cause serious injury. She was faking, right?

  The waiting room door opened. I jumped up, hoping to see Luke. It was the doctor. My heart sank. I knew my mother wasn’t seriously injured. I was hoping the doctor would prove I was telling the truth, though I wasn’t sure how.

  “You are…?” he said.

  “Genevieve. I’m Val’s daughter.”

  “Right,” he replied.

  He looked tired. He probably saw so many patients that he had a hard time keeping them straight.

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “She’s stable. Her shoulder was dislocated. We’ve reset it. She’ll have to wear a sling for a while, but it should heal on its own.”

  This took me by surprise. She’d flung herself down the stairs hard enough to dislocate her shoulder? She was seriously committed to her role.

  “However,” the doctor continued, “she unfortunately suffered a miscarriage.”

  I sank down into my seat. She was pregnant and she’d given herself a miscarriage, why? Was she doing all of this simply to win Luke back? It was insane.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Absently, I nodded. She’d lost the baby. Luke would be devastated, and he would blame me. Maybe that was her plan all along: make Luke hate me, then win him back with sympathy? It was evil. I never imagined my mother was capable of this level of manipulation. I guess I never appreciated how desperately she wanted his money. She saw Luke’s fortune as being up for grabs and she was not going to let anyone get in the way of her payday.

  “Do you have any questions?”

  “You’re sure she lost the baby?”

  “There’s no sign of pregnancy.”

  The way he phrased his response intrigued me.

  “No sign?” I asked. “Meaning: you can’t find any evidence she was ever pregnant?”

  The doctor grimaced. “According to your mother, it was very early on in her pregnancy. If she suffered a miscarriage, it can be hard to determine exactly how far along she was, or-”

  “Or if she was really pregnant?”

  “You suspect she was not expecting?”

  I laughed, earning a hard, judgmental stare from the doctor. Luke, of course, chose that exact moment to walk in.

  “Are you the father?” the doctor asked him.

  Luke swallowed hard. “Yes,” he replied meekly. He kept one eye on me. My hysterical laughing was doing little to endear him to me.

  “I’m afraid your girlfriend has suffered a miscarriage.”

  “Don’t you see?” I said. “She was never pregnant to begin with. This was all part of her plan to manipulate you.”

  “Genevieve, this is not the time for these crazy-” Luke started.

  I cut him off. “Tell him,” I demanded of the doctor. “She was never pregnant to begin with.”

  Luke looked to the doctor expectantly. He shrugged.

  “I cannot conclusively say one way or the other.”

  “Her jeans were covered in blood,” Luke said.

  “Yes,” the doctor said awkwardly.

  “It was just on her clothes though, right? There was no evidence she was actually bleeding.”

  “I didn’t say that,” the doctor replied defensively. “The paramedics removed her clothes in the ambulance; she was cleaned up quickly. Things happen so fast in emergency situations that it can be difficult to determine the exact nature of the problem.”

  Luke pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Thank you, doctor,” he said, then asked when he could see Val.

  “You can see her now,” he replied. “She’s resting comfortably.”

  I was impatient for him to leave. I needed to talk to Luke alone.

  “Can I ask: how exactly did she fall down the stairs?” the doctor asked. He shot me a suspicious look. Had my mother told him I’d pushed her?

  “She tripped, I believe,” Luke said.

  The doctor nodded and gave me a hard sidelong look. He wasn’t buying it.

  “If you have any questions, I’ll be on call for the rest of the night.”

  “Thank you,” Luke said and shook his hand.

  Finally, we were alone.

  “Luke, you can’t possibly believe that I-”

  He held up his hand.

  “Don’t. Don’t say anything,” he whispered. He pointed over his shoulder to the door. “The paramedics overheard your mother tell me that you pushed her. You need to keep your mouth shut. If the police want to speak to you: decline. Say nothing. Don’t speak to anyone without a lawyer present.”

  My heart beat like a jackhammer in my chest. Would they arrest me? What would they charge me with? Assault? Attempted murder? I braced myself against the wall and tried to breathe. The room was spinning a
round me. I felt Luke’s hand on my back. He rubbed it slowly. I glanced up at him; he wouldn’t meet my eye.

  “I didn’t do this, Luke. You have to believe me. I was lying in bed and suddenly she was there. She pulled a plastic bag full of a red liquid out of her pants pocket and then-”

  “This is insane.”

  “Yes, it is. I wouldn’t believe it, if I hadn’t seen it.”

  “Did you know she was pregnant?”

  I bit my lip.

  “Did you?” he demanded. There was an edge to his voice now. He was losing his temper.

  “Yes. She told me three weeks ago. That’s why I cut you off. Earlier today she gave me her ring for safekeeping and then you texted me wanting it back and I thought it would be the perfect time to return it and say goodbye.”

  I was starting to ramble. When I get nervous I speak quickly.

  “That’s what tonight was? Your way of saying goodbye? Christ, Genevieve you really are a chip off the old block.”

  “I’m nothing like my mother. I was trying to do what’s right.”

  “By fucking me, and then…”

  “Go on, say it. You don’t believe me. You think I pushed her down the stairs.”

  “I don’t know what happened.”

  “Why was she in your apartment? You don’t find that suspicious? Did you let her in?”

  “No.”

  “Does she have a key?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t you see what’s going on? She’s trying to manipulate you into hating me.”

  “You sound nuts.”

  “Fuck you. I was going to tell you everything. I knew she’d try to trap you with a pregnancy. Now, I’m not even sure she was pregnant to begin with. I thought you were smart enough not to fall for it, but clearly I was wrong. The two of you deserve each other.”

  I heard him call my name as I pushed past him and stormed down the hall to my mother’s room. The nurses watched me curiously as I practically kicked down the door to my mother’s hospital room. My mother was sitting up in bed with two pillows behind her neck. Her arm was secured tightly to her chest in a sling. Her eyes narrowed when she saw it was me.

  “Feeling better, mom?” I asked with acid in my words.

  She smirked. “You really are a sore loser, sweetheart. You have to learn to control your temper. I’ve told you repeatedly that it’s awful for your skin. You’re going to need Botox by the time you’re twenty-two.”