Naughty and Nice

by Sarah J. Brooks

  It honestly felt amazing. I stared after her as she hustled from the casino in a huff and felt amazing. Like there was a weight off my shoulders. I grinned widely.

  “Do you think we’ll see her again?” Melina asked.

  “Honestly? Yes, I do think we will,” Dean said. “As much as I would like to say, otherwise, I’m sure we will be seeing her again. She’ll try to find a way to make money out of this. Did you get that video?”

  “Yup.” I slipped my hand into my pocket where I kept my phone and handed it to him.

  He shook his head. “It’s fine, as long as we have it, I don’t care. We might need her confession at some point.” He gave me a smile before glancing at the clock. “Well, I’d better go get some work done; it’s almost opening time, and we just lost our marketing manager.”

  For a split second, I felt guilty, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I bit my lip. “Is there anything I can help with?”

  “I’ll let you know if I think of something,” he promised as the door opened.

  “Why does little miss snarky look like she wants to kill someone?” Natalie asked. She caught Dean staring at her, her eyes widened, and she cleared her throat. “I mean, um …”

  I laughed loudly. “She just got her ass fired.”

  “Really? Why?”

  I glanced at Dean to let him know I wasn’t going to say anything, and he stroked his chin. “I um, didn’t feel she would be a good fit for our little casino.”

  I could see the grin spread across Natalie’s face and tried not to laugh. Instead, I cleared my throat.

  “Anyway, it’s almost opening time; I’m going to go get dressed and … do stuff.” I had no clue what I was going to do yet, but I was more than happy just to know I was going to have a normal day of work. One without having to worry if Dean was going to pick some other woman over me.

  Natalie followed me to the change room. It wasn’t until we were behind closed doors that she spoke.

  “So, he actually fired her?”

  “Yup.”

  “Because she wasn’t a good fit?” She raised an eyebrow. I hung my purse on a rack, laughing softly.

  “In a way, yes.”

  “She totally tried to sleep with him, didn’t she?”

  “I think so, yea.” I wasn’t going to say yes, but I could give her an idea of what was going on. I knew Dean wouldn’t want any of it to be known to everyone, so if it was all rumor, I couldn’t be blamed for it—right?

  “I have no clue how you didn’t kick her ass. I would have killed her the second I saw the way she looked at him if I were you.”

  *

  I took a deep breath, trying to relax as we both sat down across from my therapist. She looked us up and down, tilting her head to the left.

  “I’m so glad you two were finally able to make it, but this seems a little rushed; is everything alright?”

  “No,” we admitted at the same time.

  Dean looked at me, bowed his head and motioned for me to take over.

  I took a deep breath. “I mentioned that other woman at work.” My therapist nodded. “Well, I didn’t like her … and I didn’t trust her. A friend and I both agreed there was something up about her.” I looked away. “And we hired someone to look into her.” It felt so stupid to say, but I mean, what else were we supposed to do, right?

  “Wait—” She cut me off. “You mean a professional?”

  “Yup. Private investigator. The whole nine yards; well, except he didn’t wear a trench coat. Is it bad that I was kinda disappointed about that?” I paused and shook my head. “Not the point. Anyways, it turns out we—my friend and me—were right about this girl and …” I glanced at Dean. “Dean and I have had a couple issues because of her. We thought it might be best to … you know, get it all out of the way and into the past.”

  “That’s a very good way of looking at it.”

  For a couple of seconds no one said anything. Honestly, I was waiting to see what she was going to tell us to do because I had no fucking clue what we were supposed to do now; all I knew was that we paid her for something, right?

  I knew it was a bad way to look at therapy, but the truth was, I needed help.

  “So,” she finally said after a couple seconds. “It must have been hard having these issues. It must have affected you guys somehow, right?” We both nodded, and her eyes locked on Dean. “Dean, how did it affect you?”

  He stared at her with wide eyes. “Um, I—uh.” He coughed and let out a low laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t think you were going to have me go first. It’s been hard. Not only because of the fact that I hurt Becca, probably a lot more than she’s willing to admit, but also well … it’s just left me questioning everything I’ve ever done, and everything I am doing.” He paused.

  I listened carefully, trying to take everything in. I wanted to understand what was going on with him.

  “I just … I can’t believe I didn’t see it; like maybe if I hadn’t been so stuck on the idea that she could help, I would have seen through her. I can’t believe I didn’t and can’t help wondering how stupid I had to be not to see through it, you get what I mean?”

  She nodded. “That sounds like it must add a lot of stress on you.”

  “It does. I mean, it’s like constantly questioning myself the entire time because maybe I fucked up; hell, I’ve got three resumes sitting on my table, and I can’t bring myself to look at them because I can’t bring myself to have faith that I won’t fuck up again, and if I do—” He stopped, went dead silent, and his eyes locked on me.

  I couldn’t take not knowing. “What? What will happen if you do?”

  The way he stared at me, it felt like we were the only two in the room, like the therapist watching us didn’t matter.

  “If I fuck up again, I’m going to lose you, and I don’t want to, hell … I’m not sure I can stand to lose you.”

  I stared at him, totally shocked by what he said and unable to believe what I was hearing. That feeling you get when you know someone has a crush on you? When you see them for the first time and realize you have a crush on them? Yea, that one—it returned. My heart did a backflip.

  “I love you too.” I knew it was lame, but it was the best I could come up with.

  “It must have been hard on you too, Rebecca.”

  I jumped, turning to face the therapist.

  “Yea, it was,” I admitted, reaching out and taking his hand. “It was really hard to feel like he was picking someone over me, and then when I found out she had a habit for sleeping with guys like Dean … it just scared me even more. I thought for sure he was going to sleep with her or already had because …” Well, because she was way prettier than I was. “Because I was scared.” I didn’t dare admit it, even if it was in therapy.

  “Why were you scared?”

  “What?”

  “You said you were scared he was going to sleep with her. What made you scared that he was going to sleep with her?”

  I swallowed dryly. Maybe I would have to fess up. “I just … was.” I knew it was a bad answer, but I kept going before either of them could say something. “And when I tried to tell him about her, he didn’t believe me.” I sounded defeated.

  “That must have hurt.” Of course, it fucking did! But I just nodded. “And this girl, is she still working for you, Dean?”

  “No. I fired her recently after realizing some things.”

  “That’s good. It would be very hard for you two to work through this if she was still around. You do plan on working through it, I assume, right?”

  I nodded as Dean spoke. “Oh, yes.”

  I had no doubt that I wanted to work through it with him but had no clue how we were going to do it. I squeezed his hand gently as his eyes locked on mine. He gave me a soft smile, and it was like that simple word changed everything. Like I knew then and there that we were going to work through this.

  My therapist cleared her throat. “I can tell just by looking at you that you two want
to work things okay, and that’s great! You seem like a really strong couple, but it seems like maybe you aren’t communicating about your needs enough.” She tilted her head to the left. “Because of that, I’m going to print off a couple exercises for you guys to do over the next couple of weeks so that you can practice improving that, and everything around you.” She stood and continued, “The important thing is that you both take the time to talk and listen to the other, that’s why I suggest you do it with a timer. Give yourselves a set amount of time to talk about your most important thing, and then your partner will listen before they say anything else.”

  Without another word, she strode out of the room, leaving Dean and me alone together.

  “So, this is …. going to be interesting,” he said.

  “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m just not looking forward to it.”

  I honestly couldn’t say I was either, but I was looking forward to being able to put this behind us. So when my therapist came back into the room and handed us five sheets of paper, I took them and thanked her before Dean and I left the building. I looked him up and down as we walked out of the building, and then reached out and took his hand unable to stop thinking about what he had said in there. He’s probably had enough of spilling his feelings for now. I’ll ask him about it later.

  “You know, she said we should take some more time just for us,” Dean said.

  “Yea, I was listening.” Where was he going with this?

  “I was just thinking, maybe we could take another short vacation.”

  “No!” Oh, God, I couldn’t afford that. “You’ve got a business to run, and I’ve got rent to pay.” It sounded so silly, but there it was out in the open.

  Dean laughed.

  I rounded on him with my eyebrows raised. What the hell did he think was so fucking funny?

  “Babe, I’m not going to knock your pay because you’re spending time with me. You have more than enough reason to take months off if you want, after everything you’ve been through.”

  “No.” I didn’t want to be a victim to this; I didn’t want to let it control my life. I wasn’t going to let it. “I just … don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be hanging around doing nothing is all. I need to keep busy.”

  “Alright, well how about we take a weekend off? Is that alright with you?”

  “Well, except the fact that the weekends are when you’re needed most.” I mean, come on, the casino would be packed on weekends.

  “Fine, how about a two-day vacation midweek? How does that sound?”

  I mulled it over as we strode to his car and I slid into the passenger seat. I glanced at him, for a split second, admiring the man beside me. I gave him a smile. “I like the sounds of that.” I reached out and touched his muscular arms, squeezing gently and then swallowed dryly. I wonder if she ever touched him. I took a deep breath, getting ready to ask the one question that had been on my mind since all of this had happened.

  I’d asked him if she tried to sleep with him when I confronted him and who she really was—but he’d never given me a real answer.

  “Shit,” Dean muttered, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he looked at me. “So, I have to head back to the casino; I’m sorry, but Melina came by a couple of issues. I can drop you off at home first.”

  “No, it’s alright. I’ll go with you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “You want someone who wants to help you work late, right?” I raised an eyebrow. That’s what he had said yesterday. “Well, I want to help, so don’t try to push me away.” I reached out and took his hand. “Alright?”

  He grinned softly. “Yea, alright.”

  Chapter Four

  We spent three hours at the office after closing hours, and Becca didn’t complain once. Actually, she’d been a hell of a helping hand.

  “I mean it, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “I know.” She beamed. “I’m just glad you let me help.” She spun to face me as we entered my house and kicked off her shoes, pulling me into her arms and kissing me before breaking away. “So, did you get a chance to look at those papers that she gave us?” she asked, getting them out of her purse. Since she had them the entire time, I guessed she knew the answer, but I didn’t say anything. She kept talking anyways. “Some of it actually isn’t that bad.” Handing me the list, she let out a yawn.

  I didn’t look at them; instead, I focused on her. “Tired?”

  “Yea, I think I’m going to go to bed.”

  I followed her as she headed into the bedroom. “I’m going to stay up a little longer, alright?”

  “For sure.” She slipped out of her shirt and tossed it down onto the floor. I closed the distance between us, my hands touching the small of her back and pulling her close to me. She let out a soft moan as my lips brushed her neck, pushing her hair out of the way. “You shouldn’t tease me.”

  Her hand touched my hip as she leaned against me.

  “Who said anything about teasing?” I pushed her down onto the bed gently and she grinned as I crawled on top of her.

  My lips brushed their way up her back ever so gently. I could feel the blood flow change in my body, but sex was the last thing I wanted right now.

  I sat up, straddling her legs, and my knuckles pressed into her skin gently between her shoulder blades. She sucked in a deep breath before letting out a soft moan.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered as my knuckles worked over her back gently. “I didn’t realize I was going to get a massage.”

  “I figured with how hard you’re working, you could use one, and you more than deserve it.”

  I heard her laugh gently. “I’m glad you think so.”

  “I do.”

  I really did. There was no doubt in my mind she was working her ass off, and I knew that was my fault on some level because if we weren’t together, she wouldn’t be this dedicated to proving that she could get the work done. And she wouldn’t be going through all this mental bullshit that you brought on. I hated myself for thinking it, not because of the thoughts themselves, but because they were true.

  We sat there in silence for a while as I massaged her, but soon I realized the deep breathing coming from under me. I slipped off her silently, trying not to wake her as I grabbed the blankets and pulled them over her body, making a mental note to grab myself another blanket before coming to bed.

  As I left the bedroom, I pulled the papers she had given me from my pocket and looked at them while making my way to the island. Normally, I would check email or do last minute work that I forgot to do at the office. I glanced at the clock and let out a deep breath, closing my eyes. We were going to be opening the casino up later next month, and in turn, we’d be staying open later; by this time next month, we’d still be at the casino wrapping things up. I closed my eyes, letting out a deep breath and resting my head in the palm of my hands.

  I didn’t realize just how tense I was until I started trying to relax and found it almost impossible.

  Since it wasn’t working, I shook it off and looked down at the paper on top of the other four from Becca’s therapist. I took a deep breath and focused on reading it, despite the fact of wanting nothing more than to join her in bed right now.

  Five Quick Tips for Couples.

  When you start dating someone, often it’s instant. It’s like a spark that brings you together, and the longer you are together, sometimes that spark fades. That’s okay.

  When we are with someone for a lengthy period, sometimes we forget to provide the attention that we used to give them. Life gets busy, it gets in the way, and we forget, or we just put it off, telling ourselves that we will ‘do it later’ or ‘do it on the weekend’, but when we do that, we just keep putting off spending time with our partner, taking an interest in them and making them feel like they are wanted.

  These five quick tips (just l
ike your choice to come to counseling with them) are made to be an easy reminder for yourself and your partner that you love them, and you don’t want anyone else. That you have committed yourself to them.

  Today, find something that you and your partner never agree on. Talk to them about whatever it is and ask them to come up with a compromise. Work together to come up with three options.

  Catch your partner doing something good! Something you know they always do or something they are doing to surprise you; whatever it is, catch them and validate them. Let them know how much it means to you that they did this for you.

  Surprise your partner with something small today. Something thoughtful will always be better than something expensive. It doesn’t have to be lavish to let your partner know you were thinking about them.

  Make time for your partner today. When you are relaxing at the end of the day with the TV on, turn it off and turn your attention to your partner, ask them about their day and really listen. Ask follow up questions.

  Learn to listen. Not just with your ears but with your eyes as well. Learn how your partner reacts when they are upset. Learn what gives them away when they are angry- not so you can hold it against them but so you can help to understand them, and you clear up communication errors. Listen to your partner as they talk and ask them follow up questions that will move the conversation along; find out how you can help them and how you can help them help themselves.

  TV and media give us this idea that relationships are easy, or that if they aren’t, then they are not meant to be, but that is not the case. The truth is that every relationship is hard—be it sexual or otherwise. When you join two lives together, it is not easy; it takes years of work and often more than a few bumps in the road to make things work. What matters is that both you and your partner are committed to making this work, and that will be the deciding factor.

  With hard work and the tools provided to you by A New Way therapy group, you will be able to overcome any of your issues.

  I stared at the paper, taking it all in. I really did hope that we could make it through this. I really, really hoped we could. I’m going to do every fucking thing on this list tomorrow, I promised myself.