by Jessa York
I said yes to the fun, but had they specified we were going out dancing, I’d have told them to take a hike. The last actual thing in the world I wanted to do right now was dance. In fact, being here in this crowded place was its own unique brand of torture.
All I wanted to do was go home and finish devising my plan to find Jason. The big idiot was still not answering my calls or texts. I was certain that if I could just talk to him, I’d be able to straighten this all out. Finding him was going to be tricky without a home address and no actual work address either.
If I’d had a cop for a friend, I’d be all over them to do a search and find out his home address. I still couldn’t believe I never asked for it, but we were fairly busy…
Audrey spoke up. “This place is crazy tonight,” she yelled, taking another sip of her margarita. I doubted she had any frame of reference as to how crazy it was here. With twin boys at home, she rarely saw the light of day, let alone the nightlife.
In fact, the first time we were together was the night we all went to the Venue Club and Harper met her Mr. Wonderful. That had started a quick romance. Now they lived in her tiny apartment. Don’t even ask me why, because Jack had a huge, gorgeous, expensive penthouse suite downtown that he gave up when moved in with her.
Love made people do strange things.
The music in here was deafening. The varying scents of a hundred perfumes and colognes mixed together were less than appealing. What I wanted most in the world was to leave this joint and slip into a nice hot bath.
That was a lie. What I’d like most in the world was to have Jason in that bath with me.
Soon. First, I needed to track him down, apologize, then have him forgive my sorry, lying ass. Yeah, that was all that needed to happen. The impossible.
“It’s really loud in here,” Harper shouted, cupping her hands in front of her mouth. Her beautiful blonde hair was scooped up into a messy updo.
Trying not to be a bad sport, I smiled, roaming my eyes around the heated club. The tables were tall, dark wood, and if you were a chick in a short skirt—or any skirt for that matter—getting up on the matching chairs could be a feat in itself.
But, maybe that was the whole point.
“It’s really loud,” I agreed, with not much else to add to the conversation. There wasn’t a whole lot of choice in the matter anyway because she probably wouldn’t hear. You either had to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard or get up nice and close to someone and talk right into their ear.
Again, maybe that was the whole point.
I did my best not to check my phone every minute like some kind of crazy, obsessive maniac. Obviously, I failed. Even after three weeks, I still held hope that maybe tonight Jason would respond.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought. “Stop looking at your phone, girl. If he hasn’t called by now, he ain’t gonna. Leave him be and let’s find you another cutie to sink your teeth into,” Audrey bellowed out to me. Interestingly, her voice was the only one of ours loud enough to hear in this place.
I stashed my phone back into my designer bag, smiling sheepishly, even though the thought of being with someone else right now made me sick to my stomach. There was only one person I wanted to “sink my teeth into”.
Harper’s neighbor, Riley, came along for the ride. That girl was sex on a stick if there ever was one: tall, slim, long blonde hair, legs that went on for miles. Her clothes were always top-of-the-line. She wore each outfit like it was made strictly for her. When she looked at you, it was either with an I-have-no time-for-you-move-on look or an I-have-all-the-time-in-the-world-for-you-but-make-it-quick kind of look.
There was something about that girl that piqued my curiosity. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Some kind of mystery that only she was privy to. You could be in the same room with her for hours, talking and chatting, but at the end of it, you had learned not one thing about her. However, you’d told her every last detail about your life, including the disastrous birthday party you had in fifth grade—where Johnny V. kissed you in front of everyone and you were so embarrassed you ran up to your room and cried for hours while your mother had to deal with thirty rowdy kids for three more hours without the guest of honor. The weird thing was, you didn’t really care. You were just so grateful to be spilling the beans about your life, and she kept you so busy asking questions, that you ended up having a great time.
So here we found ourselves again, out at some nightclub. Except this time, it was for my benefit. The first time we went out, it was Riley’s idea that Harper get back into the dating world after way too much time spent mourning her divorce and her lying, cheating, scumbag ex-husband.
It worked, needless to say. She ended up meeting Jack that very night. I was not in the same situation. I was actually trying to get back with my—what was he exactly? A boyfriend? A lover? Whatever he was, I’d get him back, so this night out was all for naught.
These girls, however nice, loving, and supportive, were little demons when they wanted their way. It was near impossible to refuse.
“Oh my God,” Harper screeched to me again, but this time her eyes were wide, non-blinking, her mouth gaping open. “Over there. It’s him.” Our entire table very uncouthly gawked in the direction she was currently staring in. Low and behold it was him. Jason. Standing at the bar, looking just as hot as I remembered.
Without delay, I jumped off my chair, readying myself to see him for the first time in weeks. As I strutted toward him, I heard my girls catcalling, “Go get him, tiger,” followed by various growling sounds. How many margaritas did they have? Idiots, all of them, but I loved them just the same.
Jason hadn’t spotted me yet. If he had looked over, he would have seen a big, stupid, goofy grin on my face. My poor stomach was doing flips. My nerves were shot. Normally, I thrived in tough situations and negotiations, but this meant the world to me. I didn’t want to mess things up more than I already had. My heart beat so hard I was surprised it was still contained inside my chest.
Then I saw her. A scantily clad, dark-haired woman. She was smiling like she wanted him for supper. Damn it all to hell, he was smirking right back.
Socked right to the gut.
Clearly a glutton for punishment, I continued walking toward them, no idea why. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would read that situation and hightail it out of there, then proceed to go home and cry into a tub of ice cream.
But not me.
I carried on, arriving closer to my waking nightmare with each step. My heart thumped so fast, skipping beats as I walked. Vaguely, I wondered if it was possible to give yourself a heart attack from shock alone. Only a few yards away, I saw her raise up, wrap her scrawny arms around his neck, and kiss my man.
Yep. Heart attack. The air whooshed out of my lungs. A sudden urge to sprint the hell out of there overcame me. Go figure. For some reason, I was stuck to the spot, unmoving. My entire body went numb.
Watching them continue to kiss was like driving metal shards through my stomach and heart at equal intervals. Nothing had ever been that painful. Finally, he peered down at me. The look of outright shock and confusion on his handsome face gutted me. I’d never been hurt this bad before.
Any normal woman would have headed for the hills, but I wasn’t any woman. I’d been trying for three weeks to get a hold of him. Nothing in my brain could make sense of all this. He was supposed to be kissing me, not some teeny tiny bitch who was presently giving me the stink eye. Rightly so. I couldn’t blame her. I’d interrupted her seducing my man and she was pissed.
I knew quite well how those firm yet soft lips felt when they took your mouth. You had no choice but to surrender and let him do what he wanted. And boy were you glad you did, because what that man could do with his mouth was without exception, amazing.
“Vivienne,” he said, wiping his mouth, looking me up and down. Immediately, he placed the brunette to the side. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Appa
rently, getting my heart broken even more than it already was. I didn’t think it was possible, but plainly it is,” I replied, stepping closer to him. I couldn’t cease staring at the train wreck. I was drawn into the fire and wouldn’t stop until it completely consumed me—and him.
The scantily clad brunette said, “Umm, excuse me, but you’re interrupting something here.” She really was quite beautiful. I couldn’t blame him for jumping her. Be that as it may, I still felt like punching her gorgeous face until she shut the hell up.
“Janine, look, it was nice to meet you, but I’m sorry. I’m really not interested.” He turned to the kissing bandit, letting her down easy.
She wasn’t in the mood to be dismissed. “Ha, you seemed pretty interested a second ago,” she said, crossing her arms, jutting out a hip.
“I’m sorry. I should never have allowed you to do that. It took me by surprise, and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Burn, ouch. I felt sorry for her. Was that possible? A moment ago, I wanted to scratch her eyes out. Now I pitied her.
“Whatever,” she said, giving him the dreaded word that men hated most. She frowned and strode away, not giving me another glance.
“We need to talk,” I told him, pulling him out of that godforsaken place.
20
Jason
Holy motherfucking shit.
Vivienne dragged me outside to God knows where to do God knows what.
Vivienne.
She looked even better than I remembered. Her long blonde curls bounced determinedly as she walked, and that ass, oh fuck help me, that ass of hers looked delicious in her tight red dress. I felt like such a pervert as I ogled her. There was no way I could stop raking my eyes over her luscious body.
She finally spun around to confront me. I had to physically force myself to shut my eyes and take a breath before I did something stupid, like yank her amazing body into mine and kiss the absolute shit out of her. I squeezed the bridge of my nose, asking for serenity because I was literally seconds away from making out with this woman on the sidewalk. It was going to get X-rated pretty fucking fast if I didn’t get myself under control.
“Can we take a cab? Or is that against some law of yours?” she asked haughtily, with one hand on her hip and the other on the door handle of a bright yellow cab. How did we get out here so fast? And why in the world was she getting into a cab?
Confused, I asked, “What? Why would it be against a law of mine?”
“Because you drive for a living, Jason,” she stated, wide-eyed, clearly annoyed at my ineptitude.
“I drive for a living, so it’s illegal to take a cab?” I questioned her sanity.
“I guess not,” she snapped back, swinging open the door. “Get in,” she ordered me, in no uncertain terms. She used a voice that didn’t invite questioning, but I did it anyway.
“Why am I getting in a cab with you? Where are we going?” I asked, staring at her, pretending I wouldn’t jump at the chance to be alone with her again, even though I was still so fucking mad. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Where are we going?” she said, glaring at me like I was from Mars, then repeated herself. “Where are where going? Not here. That’s where we’re going, Mr. I-Don’t-Answer-My-Goddamn-Phone. Now, get in before I really start making a scene.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” I answered, gazing around at the smokers and hangers-on standing around watching us.
“It can get worse. A lot worse. Do you want to see?”
Part of me actually did want to see how much “worse” it could get, because so far, the show was pretty fucking great. She was in a big tizzy. Pissed off as hell suited her. Those soft cheeks of hers were flushed while that tantalizing chest heaved with the effort it took to control her emotions. If she thought for one second her attitude was a turn-off, she should think again. Right at this moment, it was a huge fucking turn-on for me. If I didn’t sit down soon, everyone out here would be able to see exactly how big.
In order to avoid adding to the show, I gave in. “Ladies first,” I said, grabbing the door handle from her. Relief flooded her face as she drew in a deep breath. She was close enough now that I could lean down and kiss her. Fuck, was I ready to do just that. I was also ready to yell at her and have my own hissy fit. Not knowing which I wanted more, I did neither, standing there in a stare-down with the woman who ripped out my heart and stomped all over it.
She gave in first, but not without a big huff as she pivoted around and got into the cab. I restrained myself, but I so wanted to grab her ass as she got in. Taking one more cleansing breath, I followed, but not before looking up and waving to the onlookers.
In response, I got a loud variety of hoots and hollers followed by a very loud, “Good luck with that one, brotha!” Good luck indeed. I’d need more than luck by the look of things.
“What’s your address?” she asked, back to looking pissed. No way in hell was I giving her my address. The last place on Earth I would take this classy woman was my shit-hole of an apartment. Not gonna happen.
“We aren’t going to my place.” I frowned at her.
“We are,” she countered childishly.
“Um, no, we aren’t. There’s a coffee joint around the corner. We can go there.” I decided for us, turning to look out the window.
“Um, no, we can’t,” she mimicked me. “Tell the man your address so we can stop wasting his time. I’m sure he has better things to do,” she ordered again. There was no way in hell I was taking her back to my place.
“Then I guess we’re going to be wasting more of his time, because we aren’t going back to my place.” I raised my voice at her.
“We are.”
“No, we aren’t.”
“Yes, we are.”
“No, we fucking aren’t,” I yelled now, as our immature fight escalated. Neither one of us was ready to give in.
“Please drive us around anywhere until this man gives you his address.” She poked her head over the back seat, telling the driver, motioning toward me with her thumb. What the hell? Oh well, it was her dime. No way in hell was I paying for her temper tantrum. Far be it from me to rip this guy off of a great, easy fare.
“We’re going to be driving around for a long fucking time, you know,” I informed her, my arms crossed on my chest.
“Great. I was hoping to take the scenic route around the city tonight anyway,” she retorted back sarcastically, giving me a haughty look. Damn, she was cute. I wanted to lean over and kiss that attitude right off her face. I would have except for the fact that she was screwing another guy.
“Great.”
“Fine.”
“Fine,” I said louder, turning her way. “It’s your money. Do what you want with it.”
“I will. Thanks for your permission,” she said, always needing the last word. I silently sat back, throwing my head against the seat. It was going to be a long ride.
Vivienne
We’d been driving around forever. I could tell from Jason’s body language he was about to break. He kept shifting around in his seat, taking covert glances at the fare counter thingy in the dashboard. Any minute now we’d be off to his place. Finally.
If there was one thing that made me great at my job, it was my ability to read people. Knowing what someone’s thinking even before they do came in handy. Right now, Jason was thinking that no matter how mad he was at me, he didn’t want to cost me a load of money.
He might be upset, but he wasn’t an asshole.
“It’s close to fifty bucks now.” He nodded toward the front, hoping I was ready to call uncle. But I was nowhere near close to buckling. I made great money. Nothing would make me happier than sharing some of it with this poor driver who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time to pick up our sorry asses.
“Awesome. It’s completely worth it, isn’t it?” I dug back because I knew he was feeling guilty at costing me so much money for nothing.
“Fuck. Fine,” he said, leaning towa
rd the front seat. “First and Wagmire.”
Now we were talking.
If he looked pissed before, now he was downright seething. I couldn’t really blame him either. It wasn’t like we’d had a chance to talk yet, other than our infantile bickering, which went nowhere to resolve the misunderstandings between us.
He just sat there, staring blankly out the window, ignoring my presence. I could understand why he was mad. There was something more there than just anger that I couldn’t figure it out. Now was not the time to ask him to explain his feelings, so there I sat, gazing at him, wondering how the hell I was going to fix this. Fix us.
We stopped outside a very small apartment complex. I saw his car parked in one of the designated spots.
The area sure wasn’t the greatest. Where my end of town was in transition—from not great to really great—Jason’s neighborhood was one step away from the ’hood. In fact, I wouldn’t feel safe walking on this street at night by myself.
He huffed again, throwing the driver some money, then reached over me to open the door. “Let’s go,” he said, gently placing his hands on me to push me out. Uh, I did not think so.
“You’re not paying for the fare,” I barked at him, digging into my purse for my wallet.
He ripped my wallet out of my hand. “You’re not fucking paying. Now go before I have to give the man more money because you’re too stubborn to move your ass out of his car.”
“Give me my wallet back and I’ll move,” I countered, hoping to get it back and pay the stupid fare myself. If this was where he lived, then I could guess fifty bucks meant a whole lot more to him than to me. Not to mention, this had been my brilliant idea. It was only fair I should pay.
He stared at my outstretched hand, a scowl crossing his face. “Not exactly the kind of neighborhood a woman should be swinging her wallet around, honey. Now move out before I carry you out.”