by Vaughn, V T
Billy nodded.
“Even if it is a dying trade,” I continued, as Dave and the apprentice lassoed themselves into our conversation. “Personally, sometimes there's nowhere I'd rather be than sat on a barstool talking to a stranger about everything and nothing in the world-”
“I spent half my life doing that, mate,” Billy interrupted, cringing over the sound of Tracey's howls. “I'd bang the world to rights, I'd solve the Middle East, the economy, the war, poverty, hunger, Australia...”
The apprentice and I glanced at each other, clueless as to what was wrong Down Under.
“... Then I would go outside and I couldn't find my car in the car park.”
Dave and the apprentice laughed. I slid half the contents of the Harp tin down my throat.
I recalled Jill's tale of Sean's mouth on her lips. How her pussy had soaked her thighs. How her legs had parted. Wishing for his fingers.
“Do you know what I did in the end, guys?” Billy asked.
For his cock. Upon which her eyes had been fixed.
“What?”
She was with him. She was throwing herself to her temptation. To her desire. To her need for degradation. To present herself to someone she couldn't stand.
“I started sharing taxis.”
To give herself to him.
“Hahahahaha, Billy! Good one. Hahahahaha!”
To submit to his affluent, privileged will and his wealth.
George crunched a used tin in his palm, took aim and tossed it at the apprentice. His eyes were cruel, determined and knowledgeable. The apprentice was doused in the last splashes of lager. Billy grinned, though he was shaking his head in disapproval. As was Dave. The apprentice feigned a giggle, attempting to dissuade any inkling that he couldn't take a joke. Meanwhile, it was as if George knew. He knew that something despicable was occurring between Jill and Sean. Within reach and yet somehow out of sight. His laughter launched louder.
Enough was enough.
I slammed down my beer on the nearest desk, and stomped across the floor in the middle of the office.
Alarm bells echoed in my head.
Voices and faces blurred into insignificance as I passed.
My eyes caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window. The red Santa hat was still sat ridiculously on my head. I grabbed the pom-pon, wrenched it free from my scalp and hurled it towards the nearest bin.
Tracey would be so disappointed. At least when she finally recovered from her drunken drop to the floor, and Sharon and Nici ceased in their incessant needs to nurse her back to her health.
Jan Dildo she was not.
9
My shoes thundered on the steps which led from the office to the reception. I was determined to locate Jill and Sean. To interrupt them. To expose them. Yet I hammered my sole heavier with each additional step, hopeful that my commotion would disturb them. That Jill would find her senses. That she would call a halt to their activity.
The doors and glass front came into view. The lights of the reception shrouded the darkness outside, hiding anyone enjoying a cigarette from view.
My ankles crashed my feet to the steel steps, sending a cacophonous vibration in every direction.
Hear me, Jill, I thought, hear me and spare me the humiliation of catching you in his arms. Her own thoughts on him reverberated in my mind, summoning sickening sorrow and disgusted despair.
I hit the floor and charged onwards to the front door, renewing purpose in each step. I was resolute. Certain. Conclusive.
Hollow words swirled into a silent exhalation of breath, as I careered out of the building and onto the tarmac ground, swivelling and surveying the area. Accusations, orders and rebukes charged from my abdomen to my throat, and fell dormant upon the sudden discovery of their absence.
“Jill?” I called finally, and wearily.
The still air of the evening returned neither suggestion nor clue.
“Jill?”
Nothing.
“Jill?” I sounded more uncertain, and more ridiculous, with each additional futile attempt to find her.
I slammed the front door, shaking half the building.
Nobody moved.
No heads twisted in and out of sight, stealing a glance.
No mouths shared clandestine whispers within earshot.
Wherever they were hiding, I would not find them.
10
“You find Jill?”
I shook my head.
He was a labourer I hadn't even spoken to yet. The fact he knew she was missing meant either the rumour mill was rumbling or he and the whole lot of them were scheming together.
I glanced around the office. Nici and Sharon were dancing to The Jackson 5's rendition of Frosty The Snowman. Tracey, or Jan Dildo as I couldn't help but think of her, was slumped on a swivel chair, salivating on her blouse. Billy, Dave and several others were joking, chuckling and swigging more beer. The apprentice was the butt of many jokes, taking them in good jest and surrendering none of his true insecurities. And then there was George, laughing louder than all the rest and flicking his eyes ever so occasionally to mine.
He knew.
I was certain.
If Sean's tongue was in Jill's mouth, he knew. If his hands were on her ass, he knew. Her breasts, he knew. Her ass...
Oh God.
Jill's pussy.
I swallowed.
His fingers... Ploughing into her... Frustrating her at one second... Pleasuring her the next... She would be gasping... Gagging... Gargling... Oh fuck!
“Give me your thick, fucking cock, Sean.”
I could hear her.
In my mind, I could hear her.
11
Frantic thoughts clawed at frenetic fears. Frenzied feelings boiled under bridges of resolve. Laying claim to lands of longing. Longing for lust. For revenge. For indictment.
Sean entered the office, slipping smoothly between drinkers and avoiding my eye. Sweat matted his hair to his forehead. I was certain it was sweat. There was no room for consideration or wider speculation in my scope. No reasoning of snow. Nor of rain. Nor sleet. The weather outside was irrelevant. The boss' son had worked himself up into a perspiring lather with my girlfriend. Every indication he had ever given to her of desire had netted him the end result he sought so hard.
So hard?
Who was I kidding?
Jill had thrown herself after him like the slut he so accurately accused her of being.
Sharon grazed her crotch against Nici's ass, their bodies swaying in time to Christina Aguilera's Dirrty. Whoever was in charge of the music couldn't have picked a more appropriate tune, as I waited for Jill to return.
I was certain she was deliberately taking her time, hoping to fool I and anyone else who wasn't a part of her plan that she hadn't been with Sean.
But she had.
There was no other explanation.
No matter what story or lie she concocted, I would not believe her. I couldn't. She had shaken my trust. Quaked my belief. And reawakened the lack in my faith.
12
“You left me up here... On my fucking own... I had to witness Jan Dildo's fucking hysterical shenanigans.” I was seething, speaking through clenched teeth and forcing the volume of my voice to remain under the steady beat of the music.
“What?” Jill asked, perplexed.
Anger contorted the expression on my face, freeing my muscles from my clamped jaw. “Jan Dildo.”
Billy was watching, weary as Jill's body language betrayed the false smile she wore on her face.
“Matt, what is Jan Dildo?”
“Tracey,” I explained. “She went down as if she was shot, and you must've bolted out the door hand-in-hand with Sean when everyone was distracted.”
George tapped the arm of another labourer, then pointed past a water dispenser draped in tinsel to us both.
“I... I don't understand, Matt...” The wine was wreaking havoc with her voice, articulating at a much higher sound than she re
alised. “Why Jan Dildo? Who is Jan Dildo?”
“Jan Dildo,” I said quietly, thinking. “Aw, what was her real name?”
Jill shrugged her beautiful shoulders. Her cleavage clutching at my attention.
“You know who I mean,” I insisted. “She presented Crimewatch years ago. She was shot in the head-”
“Jill Dando! Matt, that's not funny. That poor woman was murdered on her doorstep.”
I was unapologetic. “Tracey murdered the dance floor.”
Jill was shaking her head, crossing her arms and, especially noticeable to I, rubbing the inside of one leg against the other. She was suppressing her arousal. Her pussy was alive. Desiring to be devoured. Degraded. Destroyed.
I checked the time. “What the fuck did you do while you were away with him?” I demanded, hiding my rage from her colleagues behind a tin of Harp.
Jill breathed deeply, and her breasts heaved under her black lacy top. Her lips were deep red, clad in a newly reapplied layer of lipstick. They parted. Her white teeth were revealed. Underneath, was the soft texture of her tongue. “Who?” she asked, blinking slowly.
“You know who.”
Jill stared ahead.
“You were with Sean.”
“I didn't tell you that,” she snapped, her emphasis clearly upon control.
I knew she had been with him.
She knew she had been with him.
“You were with him, Jill. You were gone for ten minutes. Do you think I'm a fool?”
She twisted her head to face mine. “Baby, I don't think you're a fool. Please, don't talk like that. I'm just...”
“What, Jill?” Fury trapped my comprehension in suspicion. “What are you just?” Madness mauled at my composure. “You're just what?” Rage ripped from my throat to my tongue.
“I'm just having a little fun.”
My blood boiled. “A little fun?” Anger echoed from chasm to chasm within. “Jesus, Jill.” Emptiness swallowed hope and spat delirious, vehement disgust. “What do you mean?”
“Look at me, Matt,” she said calmly.
My vision was vexed, fixed on Sean.
“Please, baby, don't be mad.” Jill tucked her blonde hair behind her ear. “You have no reason to be angry. You know you're the man I'm in love with.”
Did I?
“I've searched all my life for you. I don't want to lose you. Can you please just look at me, Matt?”
I eased the tension in my torso, and turned towards her. “Okay.” The lager in my liver did little to ease the burden of her beauty on my forgiveness.
Jill smiled.
My eyes wallowed in the wealth of her beauty. The sexy stance. The manner in which her brown leather boots shaped her legs, bending at her knees and slithering together at her thighs, her red miniskirt barely covering the bottom of her ass cheeks, the black belt tightening her waist and her tight top showing off every perfect inch nature had been kind enough to conceive. How could I ever walk away from that?
“Baby,” she began, teasing her tongue across her top lip, “I want you to answer me honestly.”
The atmosphere of the office changed as My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion's hit from the movie Titanic, started slowly. Somebody was taking the fucking piss.
“Have you ever kissed another girl in the time we've been together?”
“No!”
Sharon and Nici were the final refugees to flee the makeshift dance floor in the middle of the room.
“Are you sure?” Jill demanded firmly, placing her hands on her hips and accentuating every consummate curve of her form.
“Yes!”
Sean performed an about turn and marched over to the stereo.
“Shit,” Jill said.
“What is it?” I demanded.
Sean switched off the music.
“Well, Matt...”
He fed the lead of a microphone to the apprentice, who promptly plugged it into the stereo. The high-pitched feedback was instantaneous.
“... I guess you have my permission...”
Sean stood forward and the unfortunate output was cut.
“... To kiss the next girl you think you have a chance with.”
“I don't understand, Jill.” My coherence was crumbling. “That doesn't make any sense.” My attention was swapping between Jill and Sean. “Why would you-”
“Can I have everyone's attention please,” Sean began, his voice brass and compelling over the speakers.
The labourers and the ladies turned towards him.
“What's happening?” I asked. “What is he doing now?”
Jill's brow furrowed. “I...” Fear flushed her face. “I don't know.”
My mind parachuted into a panic. What if he had taken centre stage to brag about his conquering of the office slut? To proclaim her treasures for his trove. I would be ostracised by his audacity. Humbled by his humiliation. Emasculated by his exposé.
Jill positioned one boot in front of the other, sealing her legs together and carefully, slowly rotated her hips. Her thighs tightened. Her groin rubbed in between. Her mouth partially opened. My girlfriend was visibly aroused.
“Ladies, gentlemen,” Sean began, stretching the microphone lead away from the stereo, “can I have your attention please? I have a very important announcement to make.”
Jill was losing her self-control. Her self-worth. And albeit her self-awareness in a state of lustful longing for the boss' son.
“Tell me what's going on, Jill,” I insisted quietly, stuck between desire and desperation as my hand reached instinctively for hers. I crushed my hand into a fist. I wouldn't be holding hers in the second Sean shamed us.
“First of all, my family would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas-”
“Get on with it, Seany boy!” George heckled to the laughter and applause of his peers.
Sean sighed, his exhalation amplified over the speakers. “Thanks for that.” He pointed to the remaining tins of Harp. “No more beer for him!”
The raptures of laughter returned for another round.
“Anyway, have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and all that fecking bollocks. My da's left you's all a Christmas bonus.” Sean reached into his inside pocket, produced a collection of red envelopes and placed them on a free spot between files on the nearest desk. “Don't forget to lift yours on the way out. And, George...”
George looked up.
“... You just fecking lift your own, okay?”
There was more laughter.
George raised his middle-finger, a swagger only afforded the most brazen of leaders.
Sean returned the gesture. “Right back at you, big fella. 'Tis the season to be jolly, and all that.”
Sweat saturated the small of my back. My boxers clung to the cheeks of my ass. My testicles matted claustrophobically by my pubic hair. “Where's he going with this, Jill?” I whispered.
Her red thumbnail was nervously rotating the tip of each finger in one hand. She closed her mouth, held her chin high and pushed out her breasts. Her ass jutted magnificently against her miniskirt.
“All right, now those formalities are aside, I can make my announcement.” Sean tilted his head to one side. His eyes lingered on Jill's legs momentarily. “Today is officially my last day with the company.”
Jan Dildo gasped.
Dave cheered, expecting his peers to follow suit. He fell swiftly silent when they did not.
“Thanks, Dave.” Sean looked to the labourers. “Guys, it's been a pleasure working with you. I've never met harder workers in my life.”
“Cheeky fucker!” Billy shouted.
Sean winked, smiling. “It's time for me to move on.”
“Where are you going?”
The colour drained from my face as the heads of every attending employee in the company turned in Jill's direction.
“I'm leaving the country, Jill,” Sean said coolly.
“Where?” she said, her voice barely audible.
My heart pounded i
n my chest, jealousy and angst coagulating as one.
“I start in January. I won't be back here. So... I guess... It's goodbye.”
“Where...” Jill's whisper fell to silence, lost in the sudden commotion of George and the others volleying a dozen different questions to the centre of the room.
Sean handed his microphone to the apprentice, as U2's Beautiful Day pumped out from the speakers, serenely celebrating his impending departure.
“This is my last chance to gain the upper hand on him,” Jill stated quietly, then sipped more white wine.
I watched her. Her eyes narrowed as she studied Sean. Her boots were parted again. Her legs free. She was a stunning woman, her features dominated by determination that was at once defying and applying to the alcohol in her system. How thin was the line between arousal and anger? Disgust and desire? Valour and vengeance?
Do you think it's possible to want to fuck someone you don't even like?
13
Jill glanced to the office clock, inhaled, then slipped another mouthful of her wine down her throat. Her neck was pale, refined and elegant as the liquid fell through her form.
“Jill,” I started quietly, checking around us for eavesdroppers, “what the hell is going on here?”
Her mascara moved with magnificent ease as her eyes curled with the most minutest of smiles appearing on her face. “Things are falling into place, baby.”
Suspicion stabbed at my chest. “What do you mean? Am I losing you?”
Her neck whipped her face around to mine. “No!”
I was overtly aware of the attention we were drawing, and moved closer to her, taking her free hand gently in mine.
Jill squeezed. “Of course you're not losing me, Matt. Why would you think that?”
Anxiety anchored dread in my drawl. “Because you can't keep your eyes off him, you disappeared, he disappeared, you were obviously together, I can't have been the only one to notice and then you tell me I can kiss the next girl who comes along. Why? What happened? Where did you go with him?”
Jill stared at Sean. Was she a man-eater eyeing her prey? Readying her lure? Her tongue tugged at her lipstick, peeling glistening sparkles from her upper lip. Her nostrils narrowed as she breathed in, inhaling the atmosphere and seconds later expelling her lust.