by H. M. Irwing
I nodded and unquestioningly dug in before my stomach made its hunger known by rumbling out loud.
My first bite was ecstasy. I moaned out loud. "This is really good," I said rudely through a mouthful. Sam smiled at me.
"You were always so cute. I could see Jake's fascination with you," she started to say and I gulped down my mouthful with a quick swallow of water. This did not bode well.
"I have loved him for a long time you know," she said then glanced down at the folder that was in front of me. "But I can see now it's a lost cause. Jake would never pick me over you. Even if I am taller, slimmer and more beautiful than you."
I was glad my mouth was empty for I was sure I would have choked over that one. As it were it hung open, agape. I was clueless over what to say. So I took another big bite of my burger and prayed that a meteor would strike this diner and that topic would suddenly change. In short I prayed in vain. Sam seemed unperturbed by my lack of response for she went on.
"I would have given anything to have Jake but you don't seem to care either way,” she glared at me.
I took another bite and munched faster
“He was in a snit when he came to work this morning. I know you are the only one who could have that effect on him," Sam continued.
I felt bad but I still didn’t really have a response I was willing to give. So I merely chewed on ensuring at least that the conversation remained one-sided.
"Will you stop eating and pay attention here," Sam started to say, but then her own order was before her and I threw a thankful glance at the waitress for her timely interruption. She returned it with a merry wink and a knowing smirk. Sam must eat here pretty often if the waitress knew her that well. I hid my own grin and chowed down on my burger.
The food got to her like nothing else would. Throwing a disparaging look my way she picked up her new fork and knife and did the needy, battling her way to capture a pieces of the burger onto the edge of her fork. I watched on with vast amusement as she delicately dipped the edge into her sauce then bite into it with zeal.
Sam was a contradiction of all sorts. I could relate, for I was the same. Only my focus was different...in that, I hadn't any. Focus that is.
We both ate in silence deliberately avoiding the sensitive topic. I was unwilling to retaliate. I did, after all, owe her one for her assistance over my private matter even though she did it at Jake's request.
All too soon the utensils clattered back onto the empty plates and we were both finished yet unwilling to part and leave this discussion open ended.
I hesitated then said," Thank you for your help with this."
Sam merely nodded tightly.
I hated to have left things like that but that is just what I did. Picking up my belongings I walked over to the counter and paid for my meal. I even dropped a tip for the saucy waitress then quietly ambled back to my car without a backward glance.
I took my seat behind the wheel and had a quick glance at my phone for messages. But there was none… from anyone. Then I opened the folder and flicked through the report and what I saw staggered me.
I went through it twice more then again until I lost track of time and the shrill tone of my phone brought me back to reality. I glanced down to find an unknown number. In the current state I was in that just spooked me even more.
I answered with a hesitant," Hello?"
"Are you still there?"
I recognised the voice as belonging to Barry. "Yes! Yes it’s me...I mean I'm here," I replied rattled by my own nerves.
"Right! Stay there. I'm coming. You're giving me a lift back."
"Ok," I said vaguely, barely listening to what he was saying. The line clicked off and again I reverted back to my void.
"Hello? Are you okay?" Barry waved his hands in front of my blank stare and I was alerted to the fact that he was sitting beside me.
"That was quick," I said giving him a vague empty smile.
"God! What the hell happened? Are you alright? More importantly are you fit to drive this...this contraption you call a car?"
"Wogwarts."
"What’s that?"
"I call it Wogwarts," I said vaguely still in my dreamlike state. “You know, wog for wagon and warts for farts.”
"Bloody hell! As if your car isn't bad enough that you have to name it...never mind. What's wrong?" Barry demanded. Then at my lack of response he said more softly," Tell me what’s wrong, luv? I can help. You know I will."
I looked at him then. Really looked at him and I realised he would help. I trusted him. So without a word I handed him the folder still open on my lap.
With a searching glance in my eyes, he took it and after a swift glance through, he uttered under his breath," Fucking hell!"
Chapter 14
Several weeks later
"Lucy?"
I looked up at Jake.
"Are you coming?"
I looked back down at the diary I had only just started to write. Seeing my awful nearly ineligible crawl scribbled across the otherwise immaculate page, I read back what I wrote. I was recalling that day when I met Sam. She was what inspired all that had happened since. Tall, slim, beautiful... and yet insecure, Sam was the catalyst in bringing all this about. I wondered momentarily over introducing her to Barry or maybe even Michael. She needed someone real to place her affections on. She had placed Jake on a pedestal. Jake was not unblemished as she saw him to be. He was real. He was flawed. Just like me. I glanced up again and closed my diary shut. So much has happened since that fateful day in the restaurant.
"I'm coming," I smiled ruefully at Jake knowing he had a lot on his min. We had to get going. There was so much we needed to do still and yet I had lingered over long already.
I glanced down at the sparkle on my finger and sent a loving smile up at Jake.
His eyes soften. Dropping down to his haunches beside me he pulled my face up for a deep warm loving kiss. I melted right there.
But then he was pulling back reluctantly dropping lingering kisses as he did so.
"Really, we have to leave."
I nodded again and drew in a deep breath. Then I rose to my feet and stuffing my diary into my bag I hauled up the McDonald wrappers and stuffed it all into the bag as well. Then taking off at a jog after Jake, I dropped the rubbish in a bin along the way. We were still at Blakeney’s campus. But we had to get across town to Barry’s office.
Jake and I had met up that very night after I dropped Barry off back at the office equipped with the folder that Sam had given me and plan of action over what was to unfold ahead. I had returned to work to put in a whole nights worth at the office with Michael before I dragged myself back to campus in my faithful Woggy and clambered up the darken stairs to collapse in exhaustion onto my bed, beside my beloved Jake. He was there. He had come back.
"You took long enough," Jake had whispered out into the dark.
"Jake?" I called out in sheer happiness and threw myself into his arms in joy.
"I love you. I missed you so. I hope you are not angry with me. I really really am sorry," I pleaded with him.
He sighed," I wanted to be angry with you but I couldn't. I need you too much. I can't picture my life without you, Lucy. I love you and I want to marry you."
Stunned, I hadn't known what to think. After the eventful day I had I hadn't expected this. I turned to look up into his face and with a sudden calming insight I decided then and there that this was what I wanted. There would be no Sam, Celine or Richard coming between us. We would have each other always and be happy.
"I love you Jake. I want to marry you," I said confidently.
So that was how the sparkle had landed on my finger. We've been engaged for a while now. The Neels have not been happy but they had adjusted to us as a couple and were even now planning for a wedding that I have determined will be years away.
But that hadn't been all that had happened. Thanks to Davey and Barry, we had even come to a satisfactory agreement with Sadiq. He would have
visiting rights to his child and for some odd reason despite the heated looks he still sent Cat's way he seemed inclined to live up to his end of the deal. The repercussions of his displeasure were unfortunately born by the Neels and the Reeves for their combined companies were indebted to Sadiq. And Sadiq being the sadist that he was had naturally decided to foreclose on his loan, effectively stripping the Neels and the Reeves of everything they own.
It was there that Jake and I were heading to now. Barry had achieved wonders with the contents of that little folder that Sam had dropped into my lap that momentous day. It was now that I would reap the fruits of his labour.
I tossed the key to the ignition to Jake even as he lowered himself into the Shagmobile as Jake now fondly calls the old Wogwarts. It had seemed fitting that our first time together be in the back seat of this awful car. Awful but wonderful. I love my Woggy!
"Are you sure?" Jake asked me quietly.
"It’s the least I could do. After all, it’s my fault he is in this predicament in the first place," I said to Jake. I was set in my course. I would do what I am setting out to do.
"Do you remember our first time?" Asked Jake...again...for the umpteenth time. It has become the regular conversation opener. Every single time, we sat in Wogwarts he would bring up our first time together. I threw him a bemused smile.
"Yes, I do," I said abruptly, knowing it would irk him. I did of course remember it well. It had only just happened just a week ago. We had at first romantically planned on waiting till our wedding day but the sweetness of that dream got quickly replaced with the frustrations of reality.
Sure enough he turned to send me a quick questioning glance. Seeing that I was teasing him he relaxed. I could understand his apprehension. Our first had been pretty spectacular ...though not in the usual sense. But it had started off awesomely. Jake had been driving behind me following me back to campus. We’d been having a particularly trying time in attempting to refrain from ripping each other’s clothes off. Somehow the presence of this bling on my finger inspired our already spiralling lust for each other to bound out of control. It was only a matter of time before we gave in to our baser urges and made love to each other.
Jake has grown fond of Woggy ever since. He had even gone so far as to express his regret over installing that blasted air horn.
"I'm thinking of restoring old Woggy."
I stared at him stunned but he kept his gaze tuned on the traffic ahead. Even so I could see the red hue of embarrassment tinge his tanned reflection to a shade of pink right up to the tips of his ear.
"Ok," I managed mildly. I was wildly trying to curtail the burst of laughter that was threatening to erupt.
He threw another quick glance my way before turning his attention back to the traffic ahead.
"Go ahead and laugh. I appreciate that more than your one word answers," he muttered grumpily.
I grinned widely and made cooing sounds at him," Poor baby! It's just that you spent our entire lives, eversince I acquired Woggy from my aunt, telling me to donate it to scrap metal because and I quote 'The rust bucket is so bad that even the scrap mongers wouldn't want it'."
"Shhh…you'll hurt her feelings," he said urgently. I stared at him then. Who was this guy and what did he do to my Jake? Could Jake have fallen in love with old Woggy? Was I willing to share his love with Wogwarts? I smiled over my amusing conundrum.
I settled back uncomfortably into its hard as plank seats and recalled fondly that momentous day when I granted Jake acess to my V-card.
Jake and I had been returning from a particularly fraught meeting with Sadiq over the Cat situation. I had been distraught. Jake had followed me back in his own vehicle. He had been angry. So much so that when I mistimed my shift in the clutch and the whole car stalled right there in the middle of the road, Jake had slammed his breaks behind me and then angrily slammed out of his vehicle.
“Fuck!” He had all but snarled at me. Wrenching open my door he had demanded, “What the fuck happened?”
I had already been teary so I shook my head, wiped away at my drenched cheeks and muttered unhappily, “I lifted.. I lifted .. my foot of the clutch ..too soon.” I sobbed out at him.
“Fuck!” He bit out again slamming his hand down on the roof of my car. “Release the breaks!” He’d demanded and I’d automatically complied. Before I realised what he was doing he’d already pushed my wogwarts to the side of the road. He ran back to his car then and parked it behind mine.
“Get out. I’ll drive you back in my Evoque.”
But I had steadfastly refused. I was not leaving my Woggy behind. Looking back I had been beyond irrational over the whole thing and Jake already pushed to the limits and bit out a string of curse before finally giving in.
“Move over.” Jake demanded and I did. He tinkered with the key in the ignition, then popped up the hood and did some more tinkering there. I wasn’t even sure he knew what he was doing but I didn’t question it. I just sat there feeling miserable and let him do his manly thing with the car. There really wasn’t much more damage his inexperience over mechanics could do to the car.
Miraculously, the engine roared back to life. I started to laugh then. I realised I was hysterical. Jake slammed shut the hood and moved back into the car. He shut the engine and stared at me hard.
“I’ll drive you back,” he offered, no doubt knowing I wasn’t fit to drive. And that I would steadfastly refuse to leave behind my Woggy. An overnight here in its prominent parking spot is just asking for trouble. It was bound to get towed away...again.
So Jake started us back on the road heading back to my campus accommodation.. It was not Woggy's fault that I had forgotten to fill up the tank. So this time when Woggy ran out of its diesel and clunkered to a stop on the middle of the quiet road there was no blaming Jake for losing his gasket and blowing off his steam. Only he didn’t do it in the usual sense. There was no string of curses, not even a wholly of diatribe that would blister my ears. Nope, this time, he simply leaned over to unbuckle me from my seat and haul me over his lap before he settled us into a punishing kiss that was anything but a punishment. I revelled in his manhandling and reached out to flick his thrusting tongue with my own. That was when Jake really lost it.
The tensions of the day had been overwhelming for him as well. So when he broke free to slam his hands onto the steering and let out a string of curses. I did the only thing I could. I pulled his lips down to mine and fused it shut. The spark that ignited was instantaneous and explosive. We said not a word we only revelled in the release that we chased after. Each of us craving the intimate touch of the other.
I ripped away his shirt that had been nothing more than a hindrance to my searching hands and dropped my head to devour his flesh. It had been only natural for him to reciprocate in kind. It wasn’t long after before we were both naked and writhing against each other. The initial penetration had been god awfully painful but Jake had gentled his advances then. Dropping soothingly cool kisses across my brow where only moments before he had been igniting raging infernos with his heated kisses. Jake eased his way out only to trigger that wildly consuming urge. That uninhibited craving for more… then more still. Always more.
I found myself, moaning, begging, pleading for …more. Then it came upon me. It happened upon us. That sheer moment of exquisite bliss that was ultimately shattering. Collapsed in an ungainly heap of sweat and musk, I was lost to all of reality.
It was only afterwards that the blasted hard surface of the damn seats bitting into my skin from that odd angle in which I lay that the discomfort begun. Begun and grew as yet more unpleasant aches and pains made itself known. I was sure that my back was littered in bruises.
So losing my V-card in Wolgwarts had not reduced me to be blushingly in love with old Woggy. Not like the effect it had on Jake. I was not enamoured with where I had my first with Jake but in act itself. That had been exquisite.
I shook my head recalling the past with startling clarity. In the end
we did have to ditch Wogwarts out there for the night and walk back to where Jake had left his Evoque. Only that time, it hadn’t been me fretting over leaving old Woggy behind. It had been Jake.
Jake pulled into what has become Wogwart's spot before the Building.I was nervous as I grabbed my belongings and made my exit. I clutched Jake's hand close as we made our way to the front entrance.
"I can't believe you are doing this."
Sam stood there glaring daggers at our linked hands even as she addressed me. Sam was the only other person in the know. I could hardly keep her out of it. She was the one who had made it all happen.
I pulled her into a surprise hug and dropping a kiss on her cheek, then I said," Thank you." I reached into my bag to pull out an envelope. I handed it to her. I hoped the contents of that envelope would keep her well occupied and more importantly away from Jake and I.
Leaving behind a very startled looking Sam, we continued on taking the elevator up to the highest floor where Barry's office was located.
We emerged into an empty foyer. The place was dead. Empty because it was a Sunday. An auspicious day I think for what I was about to do.
I strode up to Barry's closed door and just before my courage left me I pushed it open.
There gathered in the room was Richard, his parents and sister and of course the Neels.
"Ah late but present," Mr Neel beamed at us before thumping me on the back and pulling me into his trademark bone crushing hug.
I was turning blue when Jake deigned it reasonable to interrupt and rescue me. I threw him a scowling look.
"So has it been done already?" Jake threw the question to the room while he at rubbed my back, apologetically.
"Yes," Barry responded his keen eyes trained on me questioningly. I nodded back.
"Have they gone?" I asked, unwilling to have Sadiq and his lawyers be about to hear what had actually transpired behind the scenes. What we had done. I couldn't let all our efforts in stealth to go to waste. It was why we were late in the first place.
"They're gone."
I sighed with relief only then able to address the other occupants of the room. Turning my gaze, I unerringly zeroed in on Richard's questioning look. I gave a grimace that I hoped passed off as a smile before I turned to face the others. Celine gave me a mild smile. She wasn't affected by Jake and I as a couple. She might even be happy that we were engaged. Mr and Mrs Reeves, however, had not pleased and made that sentiment known by steadfastly refusing to acknowledge me.
