One More Time

by Ford, Mia

  “Fine,” Janice said. “This is not over, despite what you think. You and I belong together. It’s just a matter of time until you wake up and realize it.”

  Janice stormed past me and out the door, slamming it behind her.

  I locked the deadbolt, rested my head against the door and breathed deeply. I was proud of myself. I wasn’t going to let myself get roped back into that world. Janice was a bona fide psycho who was not used to not getting her way.

  I could imagine that she would find a way to keep popping into my life and do anything she could to ruin things for me.

  Debbie.

  Dammit. Janice was going to be gunning for her now, too. She would try to find a way to break us up or to attack Debbie directly. That was just the kind of vengeful bitch Janice was.

  Why the hell had I stayed with her for so long? I thought I loved her once. When we first started dating she was just a fun girl I hung out with. And then we kept dating. I believe it was probably about eight months into the relationship when I realized that I had real feelings for her.

  It was nothing like the way I felt about Debbie. The sparks and the passion we had for each other had never existed, at least not until much further down the line, between me and Janice.

  I was going to tell Debbie about her. I felt that I owed it to her, especially now that Janice was in town and it was difficult to say what she was going to do. Janice was a loose cannon; you never knew where she was going to end up.

  But you could count on there being plenty of destruction.

  Chapter Eleven

  Debbie

  I logged out of my computer with an exhausted sigh. It had been a long day and I was dead tired. This time of year was always extra busy for commercial accounts freaking out about getting things ready for quarterlies and the holidays and end of the year fast approaching.

  Leaning back in a good stretch I let out a somewhat rejuvenating yawn and felt my neck crack in a few spots.

  “Wow, that sounded painful,” Julie Michaels, one of our top level accountants said as she walked by.

  “Yeah, it’s been that type of day,” I replied.

  I quickly grabbed my coat and briefcase and headed out of my cubicle. As I walked out of the building I passed Julie’s large office at the end of the hallway and waved to her through her large window. She smiled and waved back. She was a sweet lady and had quite the potty mouth on her when we weren’t at work, or so I’d been told.

  I dreamt of having an office like hers one day instead of a noisy, cramped cubicle. But I was the new girl. I was just starting my career and I had ambition. I hoped that was enough to rise through the ranks.

  I had just slid behind the wheel of my old Honda when my phone rang.

  It was Paul.

  “Hey,” I answered cheerfully.

  “Hey, you, what are you up to? Still working? You trying to burn that midnight oil? It’s getting dark.”

  “Yeah, something like that,” I replied. “I’m actually just leaving work. What are you up to?”

  “I just got home from work and I was hoping you would want to come over and hang tonight. I figured we’d order a pizza and watch a few movies. We can skip horror and go with comedy if you prefer.”

  “Sure, that sounds awesome,” I said. “Let me go home and shower first and I’ll be right over.”

  “Why shower?”

  I laughed. “Because I’ve been at work all day and I’m wearing uncomfortable work clothes.”

  “Well, you can shower here and just chill in your birthday suit. It’s all good,” Paul said.

  I felt myself blushing.

  “Wow, you are crazy. But I love your enthusiasm and your dirty little mind,” I said.

  “I know you do,” Paul said.

  “I’ll be over in like an hour,” I said.

  “Ok,” Paul replied. “Take your time if you must, but I can’t promise there will still be pizza left. I am a growing boy after all.”

  “Don’t you dare order food before I get there,” I playfully threatened.

  “Oh, that’s the spot,” Paul said. “You sound so damn sexy when you are angry.”

  “Yeah, you may not agree if you ever see me actually angry,” I replied.

  “Well, I’m sure I’ll piss you off at some point, so I’ll see if my insight needs calibrating then.”

  “Fine, I said. I’ll see you soon.”

  * * *

  “Jim Carrey is the funniest guy alive,” Paul said.

  I took a bite of pizza and nodded. I was on my fourth slice. I hardly ever ate that much—three was usually my limit—but I was feeling crazy hungry. Paul didn’t seem to mind.

  “I agree, these old Ace Ventura movies are classic, but the dude hasn’t done much recently,” I said.

  “That is not true,” Paul replied. “He has just branched out to other things. The Number 23 was an amazing flick. Such a great, creepy psychological thriller.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” I said.

  “So, how was your day at work?” Paul asked.

  “It was ok,” I replied. “It’s just a really busy time of the year for us.”

  “I see,” Paul said. “That’s rough. But I’m sure you will get through it with flying colors.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” I said.

  Paul went to the fridge and came back with a few more beers.

  I took one, opened it, and took a nice, long sip. It tasted great, very satisfying and I was getting a slight buzz. This was my second drink of the night.

  We watched the movie in silence for a few minutes. I was stuffed full of pizza and cheese bites. My stomach felt like it was about to burst if I tried to force myself to take another bite.

  Suddenly, Paul put the movie on pause.

  He turned to me with a very serious look on his face. I had never seen him that somber looking before. He was so damn handsome that it was really difficult to pay attention to what he was saying, but I could tell that he had something very important to tell me.

  “This is hard to say,” Paul began. “But I feel that it is something you need to know.”

  “Ok,” I said turning to face him on the couch. I was on high alert now. What was he about to tell me? My mind began going to crazy conclusions. I concentrated on my breathing and tried to just pay strict attention to everything Paul was about to say.

  “It’s about my past,” Paul said. “I know I haven’t told you much about it, but it’s part of the reason I moved here for a fresh start in things.”

  Paul paused and sighed. I could tell this was really hard for him to do. It would be the first time he had ever actually opened up to me about anything really important.

  “It’s ok,” I said. “We all have things in our past, demons, things we aren’t proud of. You can tell me.”

  “Thanks,” Paul said. “It’s about my ex-girlfriend. Her name is Janice. We dated for about a year and then I found out she was cheating on me with my best friend at the time. I immediately dumped her.”

  “Wow, your best friend? That’s crazy. Did you…?”

  “Did I beat him up?” Paul asked with a laugh. “No. But God I wanted to. I was afraid if I laid into him I might not be able to stop and I’d end up in prison for life for murder. He wasn’t worth it. Neither was she.”

  “So, what happened next?” I asked.

  “Well, I tried to move on and continue life as normal, but Janice went crazy after I broke up with her. She started harassing me, driving my family nuts, and eventually I just decided I needed to leave town and try to make sure that only my family knew where I was going. Well, somehow she found out where I was.”

  “Shit,” I said.

  “Well, she showed up here the other night, after we had dinner with your folks.”

  “She showed up here? What did she say?”

  “Same old stuff, really. She wants to be with me, wants me to take her back, she threw herself at me and tried to get me to sleep with her. I told her to ge
t lost.”

  “But it’s not that simple, is it?” I asked.

  Paul shook his head. “No. She is going to be around now. She will find out about you and she may harass you and target you. She is a psycho. And she is relentless. I hope she leaves you alone, but I know she is gunning for me and will do whatever she can to make my life a living hell.”

  “Have you tried going to the cops?”

  “I did back home when all of this started, but they said they couldn’t do much since she wasn’t actually breaking any laws. She hadn’t threatened me or anyone else. She wasn’t trespassing or anything either. She is smart and knows how to work the system.”

  “But if she cheated on you then why does she want you?” I asked.

  “Because she can’t stand to not have something she wants. She can’t take rejection. It sets her off and she will make sure you pay the price for it. She’s crazy, but not stupid.”

  “Wow,” I said. I took a swig of my beer. I needed a drink now. I’d just had a possible mountain of crazy land on my plate.

  “I understand if you maybe want to keep your distance from me for a bit, or—“ Paul began.

  “No,” I answered sharply.

  I didn’t even think about it. I just knew that I wanted to be with Paul. It was going to take a lot more than some crazy chick that was probably off her meds to keep me and Paul apart. He was so important to me.

  “What?” Paul asked as if he couldn’t believe I was saying it.

  “No. I’m not going to let Janice get in the way of us,” I said. And then I kept talking. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I suddenly felt that I had a lot to get off my chest.

  “I care a lot about you,” I said. “I love this, what we have together. I have to pinch myself half the time just to remind myself that this is really happening.”

  Paul smiled warmly. He reached out and pulled me close. His eyes caught mine and he leaned in and kissed me softly. It felt so good, sweet, and comfortable. His lips were soft, but his face rugged. The rough, thick skin of his stubble filled chin scraped against the softness of my face. I loved the feel of his stubble. It was coarse, warm, and inviting somehow. It made me feel safe and secure. I always felt like that with Paul and I had never had that before.

  “I care about you, too,” Paul said. “In fact, I believe I’m falling completely, hopelessly, in love with you.”

  Tears stung the backs of my eyes. A feeling of pure and total joy warmed through my chest, followed by a slow burning sensation like excitement that can’t be managed or fulfilled. All of this welled up inside of me until I had to remind myself to take another breath.

  My mind was trying furiously to process what Paul had just said to me. He said he was falling in love with me. He felt the same way that I did. Was that really what he’d said? Was that what I’d heard? I wasn’t sure I could trust my own senses right then.

  “Wow,” I finally managed after some very concentrated effort and focus.

  Paul smiled widely.

  “Does that mean you feel the same?” Paul asked leaning in very close to me, his words barely above a whisper.

  I swallowed hard and tried to remember how to approach the art of speech.

  “Yes,” I finally said. “I’m falling in love with you, too.”

  Paul pulled me close then, holding me tightly against his chest, his hands stroking through my hair gently. He kissed me on the forehead, the cheeks, the chin, and then finally a deep kiss on the lips, his mouth opened up and drew my tongue out of my mouth into his.

  My tears were beginning to give way to lust. Having Paul’s sweet, tongue wiggling around in my mouth, his hot lips on mine, pressing, probing, kissing me, warming up my whole body—I felt like I was being drawn into some higher state of being.

  Paul’s mouth moved from my lips to my cheeks, and then down to my neck, kissing sweetly, nibbling occasionally on my skin, like getting a million hickies at once moving along the jugular almost in sync with my heartbeat.

  He was now kissing me just above the collarbone. He’d found a pressure point that sent shivers over my whole body when his soft, warm lips came into contact with it.

  My nipples were growing hard. I was getting so wet already. My lower body was squirming, aching for some kind of attention and satisfaction.

  I decided to take a bit of the initiative. I was too turned on to sit back and let Paul take full control.

  With both hands I reached down much to Paul’s surprise and unfastened his pants, reached inside, found the slit in the fly hole of his boxers and pulled his already very hard cock out of its holster.

  “There he is,” I said with a smile.

  “He is all ready for you,” Paul said.

  I licked my lips and without further adieu opened wide and went down on his cock, quickly swallowing most of his full length.

  “Oh, baby… that is so good…” Paul moaned.

  I adjusted my position on the couch so that I was now on my knees leaning over, my ass stuck up in the air. Paul took full opportunity of my position as if reading my mind, and with his left hand hiked up my skirt and pulled down my panties. Now my naked ass was hiked up high in the air ready for Paul’s magic fingers. He quickly went to work.

  “HMMM,”I moaned with Paul’s cock deeply in my mouth as he stuck two of his thick, long fingers into my pussy. I was so wet he slid in so easily. I was practically gushing as he pushed all of my buttons in that expert manner of his.

  His cock was at full mast in my mouth. I concentrated on sucking him well. I took my task seriously, plus he tasted so damn good that I couldn’t believe it. I quickened my pace as he quickened the pace of his fingers which were essentially finger banging me now moving in and out of me. He then added a third finger filling me almost to capacity.

  “HMMM,”I groaned, continuing to suck his large prong deeper and deeper into my waiting mouth. I was drooling all over his cock, greasing it up more and more all the time. I could feel that Paul might come soon.

  I decided to change strategies a bit.

  Moving his cock out of my mouth I gave it a few strokes and then I climbed forward moving into position where I sat down on his hard dick, allowing him to slide all nine inches into me.

  “Fuck!” Paul said. “You are so amazing. I love you Debbie. I fucking love you so much!”

  Hearing Paul actually saying the words “I love you” threw me into an even higher level of lust. I couldn’t believe it. He’d actually said it.

  And I could tell he meant it. He wasn’t just caught up in the lust of the moment. No, I could tell he had really fallen for me.

  I’d also fallen for him. Without a doubt I knew it for a fact. I felt it deeply in my bones, in my heart, in my gut, in my mind. And it was out in the air. It couldn’t really be taken back.

  “Paul, I love you, too!” I said as I leaned in and kissed him hard on the mouth, never stopping my constant bouncing, riding his hard cock as furiously as I could.

  Paul held me tighter, pulled me even closer to him. When he did that he was suddenly hitting a sweet spot over and over inside of me.

  “Fuck!” I shouted.

  “I’m going to fill you up with so much of my sweet cum,” Paul growled. “It’s going to be a bucket full.”

  “Give it to me!” I demanded.

  “AAAGGH!” Paul yelled.

  I felt him quiver inside of me and then his huge load was released, as if purging his body of some pent up anguish that he was finally able to expel into an act of pure joy.

  As his body finished its orgasmic fury he collapsed on top of me. The room was silent now, except for our heavy breathing. The air was cool against my wet skin. My body was aching in that special way, where it wasn’t pain but relief, the endorphins racing through every cell, and my body beginning to come back to reality away from the fantasy world of all consuming lust.

  I loved his afterglow, his sweaty, masculine scent after sex. It turned me on. And it made me feel safe.

  As we
lay there together I thought about all that had changed in such a short time. Paul and I had both admitted that we had fallen in love with one another. And it no longer felt strange, or too fast. It was perfect. Looking ahead I could see only positive things in both my life and in Paul’s.

  But I knew in the back of my mind that there would be some dark days.

  And I knew that somehow we would get through them together.

  Chapter Twelve

  Paul

  I pushed out from under the barbell and slid to the end of the weight bench where I began to stretch my sore chest out. The burn from the last set was intense; it felt great.

  As I waited for my heart rate to come down I thought about doing another final set. It was getting late, but I was really into my groove. It was amazing how much work you could get done so late at night.

  I’d finally decided to join the twenty-four hour gym in town. It was only ten dollars a month, so I figured for that price if I even used it once or twice a week I could get my money’s worth out of it. I usually preferred working out at home, so I was surprised at how much I liked the flexibility of the gym equipment.

  And when I went at eleven thirty at night no one was there. So, that was a nice added bonus.

  I’d been home trying to get some sleep so I’d be rested at work the next day but my mind was restless. I kept tossing and turning trying to relax, but it just wasn’t working. I had too much energy going through me to get settled.

  I kept thinking about Janice and how much of a threat she was going to be. My life was finally moving in the right direction. I was in a new town I loved, and I had a woman I loved dearly who felt the same about me. I had moved on. And I thought I left everything behind that was causing me pain.

  But that pain had caught up with me.

  I grabbed my jug of water and finished the last of it in one long gulp, the thoughts of doing a last set on the bench press was beginning to fade. I was alone without a spotter and if my chest gave out due to fatigue there was a chance I might trap myself under the bar. That was not a fun place to be in.