by Dee Ellis
I caused this. All of this. Had I just taken Gigi the way I wanted to years ago, we wouldn’t have gone through so much shit. So much fucking pain. Clearly, the stalking had been Bree. Just like Gigi had suspected. I had never taken her as a serious threat.
What’s more, I had never considered what her motive might have been. Cocky fuck that I was, I assumed Bree was jealous of me and Gigi. I’d been only half right.
“Gigi does not want you. Gigi never wanted you, Bree; whatever happened was her seeking something she wanted from me. You know that.” I almost felt bad for her. Almost.
“Handsome, I know Gigi used me to get over you. Gigi laughed and lay in bed with me and let me kiss her. Our very last night, I made her come so many times, I thought it was enough. Said your fucking name every time. Gigi didn’t remember the next day. We came back, and I thought rooming with her might give us a shot.”
“Instead, Gigi spent most her time at Cage’s. To be close to me, Bree. Don’t you get it? We love each other. We were always going to end up together. You can’t make Gigi love you. Gigi tried to want someone else. Didn’t you see how impossible it was?” Bree nodded, seeming prepared for this.
“Jordan was never going to be enough for her. Gigi needs someone who can erase what you were to her. I did that. For four months.” I shook my head, disgusted with how she twisted the truth.
“Bree, if you made her come, but she said my name, did you really? When you made me come, I said her name. Gigi was thinking of me, like I always thought of her. Every time I fucked someone else. I saw her face. I said her name with almost every bunny I was ever with. There is no getting her out of my system. No getting me out of hers. We’re rooted too deep in each other for someone else to dig us out.” Bree giggled as she arced up off the bed, pushing her big tits out and wiggling her hips.
“Mmm, yes. I am aware. I saw the ring. The house. I know you plan to have your happily ever after. With my Gigi. I don’t intend to let that happen. Gigi might be heartbroken. I was the closest person to her for a while; I think I can convince her it was all you. I mean, you did lie to her about me once,” Bree seemed manic, popping back up and giggling as she laid out her plans.
“It might take some time, I know. I can give her everything. I know how to make her laugh after you. I know how to make her smile. How to make her come. Gigi is all I ever wanted; like you, I don’t deserve her. You were right about that. I will get her, though.” Bree’s expression twisted, and I didn’t even recognize the girl standing in front of me.
“After? After what? The cops will be here and your after will be you in a fucking cell.” Her eyes widened a little, but she recovered quickly.
“That won’t happen. Do you know who my father is? Daddy does anything I ask, so long as I keep my mouth shut. Keep my secrets for him.” Bree was not talking to me now; just talking. Rambling.
“What is your grand plan, Bree?” My hand slid into my pocket and I hit record on the camera. I needed proof because yes, I did know who her daddy was.
“Gigi should be home soon. Our girl will catch us. Or not, that hardly matters; I have proof I was in your bed. Gigi won’t take another lie. I will tell her I came to make amends. I missed Gigi, I was upset. Your dick got involved. You exit the picture so I can enter it. End of story.” Again, she arched back on the bed, as if despite her plans to ruin my fucking life, I might find her enticing. Dumb broad.
“Bree, if you love Gigi, you know this will crush her. Your fucked up sense of love may not see that. Gigi loved you once, but not the way you want. I’m sorry for that. I’m not sorry Gigi will only ever love me. It’s a fucking fact, and you know it.” Bree glared at me, shaking her head, her wild hair bouncing.
“No. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Gigi was happy those months with me. With me, Finn. I erased you for a while. I can do it again. Gigi loved me once and she will again. It will just be different now. I love her, Finn. More than you ever could.” I tensed as I snatched the camera away from her.
“Bullshit. I know what it’s like to love that woman. To lose her when she’s right there. I know how this hurts, Bree. Trust me, I do. If you loved her, the way I love her, you would never want to see her hurt again. I hurt her for too long, and I won’t ever do it again. If you loved her, you couldn’t do this knowing it would hurt her.” Bree shook her head again and again, backing away with the sheet twisted around her.
“Wrong, wrong. I love her. I need her. You didn’t need her; you fucked anything and everything you could. You wanted to fuck me. I drop to my knees right now, pull your cock out, and you’ll want to fuck me again. If you loved her, you’d never touch someone else.”
“Bree, you fuck everything that moves.” I shot back as I gathered photos up. More evidence I would need.
“No. I don’t. I fuck people to keep them away from her. That’s all. All I’ve ever done. Keep people away from her. Like Jordan. So fucking easy, that guy was. I thought he was obsessed with Gigi. Yeah, right up until I was riding his cock in his office. Least he left Gigi alone, right?”
That explains some shit. Like why the stalking ramped up after he talked with Gigi. It was never Jordan. Also, he had mentioned something about the situation between Bree and I; now I think he meant something else. Maybe the situation with Bree wanting me out of the fucking picture. So she could have my woman.
“Explains some shit. Doesn’t change the truth. Gigi is mine because she wants to be mine. I’m going to fucking marry her, and you won’t ever see her again.” Pushing her maybe wasn’t a wise idea.
Bree launched herself at me, a tangle of limbs and tits and wild hair. I caught her about the waist, but still stumbled back. My head made a sick thud as it hit the floor and I saw stars. Bree went wild, those stiletto nails tearing at my face and neck. Bree was panting and cursing and naked.
“What. The. Fuck.” Gigi’s voice filled me with dread.
Standing in the bedroom door, looking beautiful and broken, Gigi was a mess. Tears streamed down her face, and her eyes were red and swollen. My chest ached with pain, knowing she was hurting. Doubting me because I had given her plenty reason to.
I willed her to believe this was something other than it looked. Because it looked fucking terrible. Bree leaned in and pressed her face into my neck, giving up the fight she’d been waging.
“Oh, my God, Gigi! It’s not what it looks like…. well, I mean it kind of is.” Bree sat up and bucked her hips, her hands moving suggestively over her body.
“Call the fucking cops, Gigi. Please. Bree broke in, I found her in our fucking bed.” My eyes tried to capture hers, but they were wild, bouncing all over the room.
It looked exactly like Bree wanted it to. Clothes were strewn about. The bed was a fucking mess. The photos had 52-card pick upped from my hands and were scattered everywhere.
The room reeked of Bree and sex, and I don’t want to know why the latter was true. Gigi pressed her hand to her trembling mouth and began to back out of the room.
No. No. No!
“Gig, please! You fucking know better.” I hollered and she jumped.
For several moments, I thought I lost her. That just would not do. I couldn’t have her believe I would ever hurt her like this. I had done enough damage and would never do something so fucked up. Gigi had to believe me.
“You fucking bitch.” Gigi hissed with so much venom in her voice, we both jerked up.
I shoved Bree off my lap and rushed to Gigi. Her hand came up, trembling a little, keeping me away. I ached to hold her. My arms actually hurt because I needed feel her close.
Gigi’s dual colored eyes flew up to meet mine, and I waited. Tears slid past them, but they were soft. Forgiving. I mouthed, “I love you”. Gigi nodded, and I almost dropped to my knees.
“Already called the cops, actually. Figured some shit out today. Lots of shit. Your dumb slut façade never fooled me. I always knew you were smart. Something you should be smart enough to realize; even then, I was always
fucking smarter than you.” I smirked and shifted behind her, my hands itching to touch her.
“Meaning what, sweet Gigi?”
I wanted to know too. Then, Gigi soothed balm over the jagged wounds ripping through me. Stepping backwards, she pressed her back to my front. My arms went vice tight around her, and we both let out a sound. Fuck, I breathed for her. I breathed to make her happy, to love her.
“I fucking love you, Sweet Girl.” I murmured as she twisted to show me the love on her face.
“Love you too baby. Now, listen close. It’s about to get good.”
Gigi was about to prove how golden we really were.
18
Lightbulb: Bree was in love with me. Not Finn.
I was sitting at the coffee shop, trying to forget it all for a moment. I had a client waiting for prints, and I was happily working through shots. Finn's sweet gesture had turned into a bankable business. It also gave me the last piece I needed to fit this fucking puzzle together.
Since I was a kid, I always lugged around a camera. Ancient Polaroid’s, digitals, or the oh-so-trendy Fuji instapix. I took photos all the time at school events and when hanging out with friends.
I had photo boxes full and plenty of scrapbooks from years of my life. I led a good life, no doubt. Bree lived for her photo to be taken, but often insisted I be in the shots with her. Bree also took photos constantly; often of a seedier style. Either way, it bonded us.
The summer we spent overseas, we had taken thousands of photos. No joke. We hit all the touristy spots and plenty of everything else. Cameras in hand every single day. We both took shots and would spend hours going through them each night.
Those last few weeks, it had been different. I was the object of many of her photos, and if Bree was in a shot, so was I. I still had most of those photos backed up in my cloud.
I saw that folder of memories while sifting through my client folders. Nostalgia made me do it. I was angry and hurt with her still, but something compelled me to look. For a while, it filled me with remorse.
Where was that Bree? The one who laughed and talked with me for hours? Why did she want to hurt me so deeply? What had I ever done to her but love her? Then I came across a set I didn’t recognize.
“Our last night in Rome.” I whispered aloud as I began clicking through photos.
We were in the flat we had rented, and bottles of wine strewn about. I sat close to Bree, who had her slender arm around my neck. Her face burrowed into my hair as she snapped a photo with her other hand. Clicking through more, I covered my mouth in shock.
Clearly, the drunker I got, the more affection I welcomed. By the time we had emptied a crate of wine, evidenced by the many bottles littering the table, I seemed unaware of the lines I never blurred between Bree and I.
We were kissing and laughing, and Bree gazed at me in a way I had never noticed. Later shots showed us cuddled in bed, both of us naked. Bree documented each moment she ripped away the fragments of friendship we’d had.
By the time I reached the shots of her head between my legs, my head thrown back and my body clearly in the throes of orgasm, I knew. Bree not only fucked Finn, she fucked me too.
Both figuratively and literally, it seemed.
I was wracked with guilt and weighed down with rotten disgust. Just like that, the pieces started to come together. I had been so fucking blind. A folder of forgotten photos pieced together the timeline of us falling apart.
Why Bree had stayed and roomed with me. With hopes of picking up where we had left off in Rome. The way she chased off any man who showed an interest by ruining them for me. Not because she was jealous of me; because she was jealous of them.
“Bree is in love with me. What. The. Fuck.” I loved Bree once, but somehow not enough to have seen this coming.
The stalking had to be her. A final valiant effort to keep me and Finn apart. When it clearly hadn’t worked by pinning it on Jordan Dexter, Bree kicked it up a notch. The photos of her and Finn, the dirty messages to us both. It was all Bree. Well, maybe not all.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I was making a phone call. I had to hear what he had to say. How he was involved, because whether he realized it or not, he was. The phone rang just once, and I rolled my eyes at his eagerness.
“Hey, Gorgeous. What’s up?” I knew they were tangled up in this together.
“You said Finn and Bree’s situation. Explain. I see your cute little green Mini Cooper all the time, Dexter. Too often for it to be a coincidence in a city like Chicago. Either you’re stalking me or enabling Bree to do so. I don’t want to wreck your career. I will if I have to. I’m not going to let you or Bree ruin what I have with Finn. Start talking.” There was a pause, then he did start talking.
“I liked you, Gigi. Really liked you. Bree always told me you talked about me and that Finn was no good for you. I thought I might get to play knight in shining armor or some shit. After that day at the coffee shop, I waited a few days. Thought he might just break your heart again. Then Bree came to my office; told me to fight for you. That you wanted someone to fight for you. I liked you Gigi, but I wasn’t going to fight someone for you; especially not someone like Finn. I, uh…we fucked in my office, and I don’t know…I think Bree must be the queen of using her pussy to control someone. I followed her around like a fucking dog.” I sighed because he wasn’t wrong; I’d seen her use and abuse guys that way before.
Girl must be good.
Apparently, I should know. Might hurt her ego when she finds out I can’t remember a single moment of it. Guess I could ask Finn if she was any good. That should be a fun conversation. Hey, love of my fucking life, man I want to marry, just how good is my best friend’s pussy? I can’t remember, exactly. Good talk.
“The calls, the texts. Following us. You or her?” I knew the answer, but wanted it confirmed.
“Her. Gigi, I thought it was because she was protecting you from Finn. Thought, man, she’s one of a kind, a friend like that. That day I saw you last, I didn’t exactly lie. I hadn’t seen Bree in a while because she had gone off the rails. Became obsessed when nothing we did drove you two apart. I thought she might be in love with Finn. Then, one day…she went on this rant when I asked. Told me she was doing this for you. For. You. To get you.” I was shoving my shit into my messenger back, listening to him sigh.
“Thanks for nothing, Dexter. You realize she is still following me, obsessing, trying to tear us apart. You could have told me, you dick. Is her pussy that fucking good?” I raged but he just laughed.
“According to Bree, yours certainly is. Maybe I should be asking you that, Gigi?” Sick fuck. I ended the call and rushed towards the L.
I had a client in a few hours so I started to call to reschedule. When I did, I realized I had a ton of missed messages. Ridiculous amounts, some dating a few weeks back. The fuck? Sinking into a bench at my L stop, I began scrolling through them. From Finn, Charli, Cage, even my parents.
Weeks’ worth of messages about where I was going, plans for the holidays, everything. A basic itinerary of what Finn and I would be up to with our family and friends. I’m an idiot!
The location app! It allowed Bree to access my phone to locate me. I had turned it off, but not the access to my phone. Bree had access to where I was going, what I was doing, and who I was doing it with. Didn’t need the locate app; the access the app gave Bree to my phone was better.
Bree had been able to read and delete messages before I ever even saw them. Certainly explained why the notes and texts got dirty when they did.
After gaining access, she saw the photos I sent to Finn. The way we talked to each other. Clearly it was not agreeable with how Bree obviously felt about me.
Just as my train pulled up, a barrage of images from Bree flooded my screen. Had I eaten lunch, I might have retched. Bree in our place. Well, Finn’s place.
From today.
I glanced at my watch. From fifteen minutes ago, to be exact. Lying in the bed I’d shared
with Finn just hours earlier. I’d kill her.
“Charli,” I was talking fast and loud, but Charli kept up, “please get my brother and Diggs to the condo. Pretty sure my stalker is lying in my man’s fucking bed, waiting to catch one of us. Bitch thinks I’m clueless. I’ll kill her. Charli, I will kill Bree if she touches Finn.” A sob broke through my threat, and Charli laughed harshly.
“Not if Finn kills her first. It’s been Bree, like we suspected, then? We’re on our way, sweetie. Don’t do something you might regret. Be careful, Gigi.” I nodded as I sank into a seat on the train.
Ending the call, I went back to the messages. I was surprised about a lot of what I was finding out. Not truly surprised Bree had the brains and the cognition to pull it off, though.
Bree was cunning and slick as an oil spill. Bree played dumb for dick, not because she was dumb. Clearly the girl had fooled me for a few months. For a few years, if I was being honest with myself.
The ride to our condo was full of plenty of realizations. Why Bree was so against my hooking up with Finn. How pleased she seemed when we broke up months ago. Bree clearly viewed Finn as a serious threat.
The stalking was proof enough of that; Bree had spent the last month and a half doing everything she could to tear us apart. Too bad it worked against her.
Despite realizing the truth about them being together once--God I hoped it was once, I didn’t care. The stalking had done nothing but push us closer. Force me to trust Finn and give him the chance to prove what I meant to him. So basically, an epic fail on her part.
“I love you so much,” Finn had cooed just hours ago, “I didn’t think I’d ever get to have this with you.” Finn spoke softly, full of emotion as he held me close, driving up into me as he made love to me.
“Me either. I wanted you for so long. I love you so fucking much, Finn. Please, baby.” I watched the emotion in his eyes as he kept me just on the edge of an orgasm.
The dirty, reckless fucking had always been hot. This new shit we did, though, was unlike anything else. Lingering kisses and arduous touches that felt like worship at my skin.