Game Changer

by Beth Orsoff

  His wrist was throbbing, but his ego had taken the bigger bruising. Jake considered himself fit—he worked out daily and lifted weights a few times a week—but that lunatic had bested him, twice. It must be the years of police training. He breathed in deeply and puffed out his chest. “I’m fine.”

  “Good,” she replied, suddenly angry. “Then tell me what the hell you’re doing here. Because the last time I saw you, you were throwing me out of your apartment.”

  Chapter 99

  Samantha

  I won’t say I wasn’t happy to see Jake again, because I was. And despite just having witnessed him getting his ass kicked by my seventy-two-year-old neighbor, who was admittedly in amazing shape for a man his age, Jake was just as attractive to me as he’d always been. But I was hurting too. Whitney and Jenna had spent hours convincing me that I deserved better than the treatment Jake had given me, and I was finally starting to believe it.

  “I wanted to see you again,” Jake said.

  Just like that? One day he wants me, the next he disappears, then he’s back again, and I’m just supposed to accept that? I folded my arms across my chest. “You didn’t want to see me Friday night.”

  “I know, and I’m really sorry about that. You caught me by surprise.”

  “Obviously.” I didn’t have to say Lydia’s name. He knew.

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “How do you know what I’m thinking?”

  He folded his arms across his chest too. “You think I slept with her. But I didn’t.”

  I wanted to believe him but…

  “Lydia’s a friend,” he continued. “That’s all.”

  “A friend you still see for booty calls.” I hadn’t forgotten his admission.

  “In the past, yes, on occasion. But I promise you there was no booty call on Friday night.”

  “Then why was she at your apartment, Jake? And before you answer, I’d like to remind you that I caught you in your underwear.”

  Chapter 100

  Jake

  He felt like he was being cross-examined, probably because he was. He couldn’t tell her the truth, especially not after what had just happened with her crazy neighbor. He’d been emasculated enough for one day. But he had to tell her something or she’d think he was lying.

  In sports the best defense was a good offense. There was no reason that same principle shouldn’t apply to relationships too. “How about we talk about why you lied to me. What were you thinking, Samantha? That I’d never find out? Although apparently the entire bridal party knew the truth.”

  She moved her hands from her chest to her hips. “I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work. This isn’t about my bad behavior, it’s about yours. I told you one innocent little lie, which was totally justified, by the way, and I had every intention of telling you the truth when the time was right. You, on the other hand, just walked out on me without explanation and immediately fucked someone else. Or were you sleeping with Lydia the entire time we were dating?”

  Innocent little lie? Totally justified? He wasn’t letting her off so easily. “I’ve never lied to you, Samantha, and I’m not lying to you now. It’s too bad you can’t say the same.”

  “I was drugged, Jake. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t even remember going to Lux that night, let alone meeting you. And when I heard how I’d acted, well, frankly I was embarrassed. And I didn’t think it mattered if you knew since, at the time, I thought we’d never see each other again. Then you showed up at that breakfast with Selena, and we became friends, and I didn’t want you to know the truth.”

  “We became more than friends, Samantha.”

  “I know, and I felt really bad about lying to you. I planned on telling you. I knew I had to eventually.”

  “When?”

  “I don’t know, Jake. The next time there was a lull between orgasms.”

  He smiled at the memory and so did she, and he marveled again at his own idiocy. How could he have dumped her over something so stupid? Mark was right. Who cared where they’d met? All he cared about now was getting her back.

  Chapter 101

  Samantha

  I’d sworn I wasn’t going to defend myself to him and I did anyway. That was the power he had over me. But I wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily. He still had a lot of explaining to do.

  “So if you didn’t sleep with Lydia, what exactly was she doing at your apartment Friday night?”

  “Yes, Jake,” Whitney said, “we’re all dying to know.”

  Jake and I spun around and discovered Whitney and Jenna loitering at the end of the hall, apparently listening to every word. I wasn’t upset. It would save me from having to repeat the entire conversation to them later.

  Jake nodded in their direction. “Lovely to see you again, ladies.”

  “I bet it is,” Whitney said, followed by Jenna’s, “Be quiet. I want to hear this.”

  We all turned to Jake, whose expression reminded me of a lost dog surrounded by a pack of wolves, desperately searching for an escape.

  Chapter 102

  Jake

  He already felt like he was under attack, and then she brought in the reinforcements. He couldn’t admit the truth, especially not in front of her disapproving sister and snarky best friend. Oh hell, he couldn’t tell her the truth even if they’d been alone.

  Why hadn’t he thought up a convincing lie on the drive over? Of course she would ask him about this. She’d be hurt and possibly angry and want an explanation. He’d been so excited at the thought of seeing her again that it had completely slipped his mind. Caroline was right. Men did turn stupid over women sometimes.

  “I can’t explain,” he said. “Not now.” Then he glanced in the direction of Whitney and Jenna as if they were the cause.

  He was hoping she’d ask them to leave. Then maybe he could work up the courage to tell her something resembling the truth. But she said, “Whatever you want to say to me you can say in front of them. They’re going to hear it all later anyway.”

  That he believed, but it didn’t make it any easier. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her so her sister and best friend were at her back. And although they were still in his peripheral vision, he kept his focus on Samantha. “I swear to you on my life that I didn’t sleep with Lydia that night. You have to believe me.”

  He heard a snort from the end of the hall and assumed it emanated from Whitney, but he refused to look up to confirm. He kept his eyes pinned on Samantha’s face, willing her to believe him.

  “Then tell me why she was there that night.”

  “Because I asked her to stop by.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Jake, I got that. Why did you ask her?”

  Evade, evade, evade. “Because I wanted to talk to her. We’re still friends.”

  “Well, I know for a fact you don’t normally talk to your friends in your underwear. You always had your pants on when you talked to me.”

  “Not always,” he said and winked at her. But this time his charm failed. It just seemed to make her angry.

  “I’m not dicking around, Jake. I want an answer.”

  “I know you do. But I can’t give you one.”

  “No, you won’t give me one.”

  “Samantha, you admit that you lied to me for weeks, but I’m willing to trust you again. Why aren’t you willing to trust me?”

  “Because you’re a snake,” Whitney shouted, reminding him again that they had an audience for what should’ve been a private conversation. Was this what the rest of their life together was going to be like?

  Whoa. Rest of our life together? Where had that come from?

  Chapter 103

  Samantha

  I wanted to believe him. I really did. Had he given me even the flimsiest excuse, I probably would have accepted it as the truth. But I couldn’t accept no excuse at all. I still had some self-respect. “I think you should leave.”

  “Why?” Jake asked.r />
  “You heard her,” Whitney replied.

  I spun around to face my sister. “Enough, Whitney. I can speak for myself.”

  “C’mon,” Jenna said and grabbed Whitney’s arm. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

  “Finally,” Jake muttered.

  When I heard the back door slam shut, I turned to Jake again. “They’re gone, just tell me. Whatever it is, it has to be better than not knowing.”

  Jake stared down at his feet. “I’d rather not.”

  Now he was just pissing me off. “Yeah, I got that, Jake, but I’d rather you did. I promise I won’t tell anyone, not even Whitney. I can keep a secret.” I kept them for my clients all the time.

  He sighed heavily, then gazed up at the ceiling as if the answer was written there and all he had to do was decipher it. “I was upset. About you. I thought you’d made a fool of me and I’d had a lot to drink. So I called Lydia.”

  I felt like I was questioning a reluctant witness. Some attorneys became belligerent, but I employed a different tactic. “Jake, there’s no right answer here. All I want is the truth.”

  He sighed again but finally looked down at me. “I’d had a lot to drink, Samantha.”

  “Yes, you said that.”

  “A lot to drink,” he said again and stared at me.

  Obviously I was supposed to infer some meaning from that statement, but I had no idea what, so I took a guess. “You were so drunk you don’t remember why you called Lydia?”

  Chapter 104

  Jake

  He should’ve lied to her. He almost did. The “yes” was practically out of his mouth when he pulled it back. He’d even thought of an answer to the obvious follow-up question—Lydia had come on to him, and in his inebriated state, it had gotten as far as her undressing him before he’d come to his senses and asked her to leave. He had no idea why he said, “No.”

  Her empathy dissolved, replaced by anger. “Then you’re going to have to spell it out for me, Jake, because I’m really at a loss here.”

  He stared up at the ceiling and blurted out the words that every man dreaded. “I’d had a lot to drink and couldn’t perform. Happy now?”

  But when he looked down again, she seemed confused. “You mean you couldn’t get it up?”

  “I could get it up, I just couldn’t keep it up. At least not when it mattered.” He hadn’t been this embarrassed since Joe Raspy had given him a wedgie in front of the entire fifth grade gym class.

  But instead of her being understanding, she just became angry again. “So it really was a booty call?”

  “It’s not a booty call if you don’t have sex. That’s the definition of a booty call.”

  “It is if that was your intention, which it obviously was. You wanted to cheat, and you would’ve if you could’ve gotten it up!”

  “I can get it up, Samantha. I think you know that. I told you, I’d had a lot to drink.”

  She started pacing in front of him, as if he were in the witness box and she was arguing her case to the jury. “Yes, so you’ve been saying. But that’s no excuse for cheating, is it?”

  Cheating? “How is it cheating? We were already over.”

  “Except that you never bothered to tell me you’d dumped me. I didn’t know what was happening until I showed up at your apartment that night.”

  “I hadn’t called you all week, Samantha. Did you really believe we were not only still together but exclusive too?”

  Chapter 105

  Samantha

  I’d thought it meant I was bad in bed. But I wasn’t about to admit that now. I’d have to ask Jenna about the drinking too much/not being able to get it up excuse. I’d never experienced that myself. But I assumed he wouldn’t have told me that if it weren’t true. It was obviously painful for him to admit. But that didn’t excuse his cheating on me.

  “Attempted cheating,” Jenna said after I’d kicked Jake out. I didn’t need to break any confidences because she and Whitney had had their ears pressed against the window screen the entire time.

  “Attempted crimes are still crimes,” Whitney said and turned to me. “Right?”

  “Yes, but they carry lower penalties than if you’d successfully committed the crime.”

  “That’s a stupid law,” Jenna said. “Why should a criminal be rewarded for failing?”

  That would normally be the type of question that would set me to Googling, but at the moment, all I could think about was Jake. “Even if he didn’t cheat, if he was so willing to jump from my bed to Lydia’s, what does that say about him?”

  Whitney sat up in her lounge chair and gave me a hard stare. “It says he’s another Marco and you should stay far, far away.”

  This time I had to admit she was right.

  Chapter 106

  Jake

  “I tried to fix it,” Jake said to Caroline, who refused to leave his office Monday morning until he’d told her exactly what had happened with Samantha. “It can’t be fixed. She’s got this crazy idea that I cheated on her.”

  Caroline raised one eyebrow.

  Why did no one believe him? “I didn’t. Lydia came on to me, but we didn’t go through with it.” He didn’t feel the need to tell Caroline the truth.

  “Well, it’s easy to see how she could be laboring under that misconception. You did answer the door in your underwear, then refuse to let her in.”

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours, of course, which is why I’m trying to help you.”

  “Even if I had slept with Lydia, which I didn’t,” he quickly added, “it still wouldn’t have been cheating. Samantha and I never said we were exclusive, and we hadn’t spoken all week.”

  “You sleep with a woman on the first date and you can tell yourself that. You chase her for weeks, take her away for the weekend, then spend two days in her bed, you’re exclusive.”

  “What, is this in a handbook somewhere? Who makes these rules?”

  “God,” she said, “who happens to be a woman.”

  He assumed she meant it as a joke, but he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. He was still wrapping his head around the tools of torture comment. Caroline was beginning to scare him a little.

  She leaned back in his guest chair and shot him an evil grin. “I can help you win her back, but I’ll want something in return.”

  Now she was beginning to scare him a lot.

  Chapter 107

  Samantha

  After five days of silence from Jake, I considered the possibility that I’d overreacted. It all depended on which legal theory I ascribed to. Legally speaking, although Jake had had the required state of mind (i.e., he’d intended to cheat), he hadn’t actually cheated because he’d been foiled by impossibility. His guilt or innocence rested on whether I analyzed his actions under a theory of legal impossibility or factual impossibility.

  Under factual impossibility, where extraneous circumstances prevented the completion of the illegal act, the defendant was still found guilty. It was Jake’s excessive drinking that had caused his temporary impotency, not his unwillingness to cheat. Verdict: guilty.

  But if I went with legal impossibility, where the act in question was completed but still didn’t rise to the level of a crime, Jake would be innocent. If, as Jake claimed, we were broken up or otherwise non-exclusive on the night in question, then even if he had been able to get it up and successfully sleep with Lydia, he still wouldn’t have cheated on me. Verdict: innocent.

  Even the courts were split on this issue, so how could I be expected to decide? I called an expert, one with much more experience in such matters than me.

  “What do you think?” I asked Jenna when I’d presented both theories.

  “I think you’ve lost your mind.”

  “No, seriously.”

  “Seriously,” she said. “You’re using legal mumbo jumbo to decide if you want to get back together with him? This is not normal, Samantha.”

  It seemed perfectly normal to me. “Well, how
do you decide?”

  “I ask myself if I want to be with the person. If I do, I forgive and forget. If I don’t, I dump him and move on.”

  “That’s not very judicious.”

  She laughed. “And obsessing is?”

  She had a point. I’d wasted many hours thinking about this, and that didn’t even factor in the time I’d spent researching the theory of punishment (or not) of attempted crimes.

  “So I’m just supposed to ask myself if I still want him? What good will that do? Of course I still want him.” I’d had the best sex of my life with him. It was natural for me to want more. “But that doesn’t mean I should want him.”

  “There’s no should or shouldn’t. It’s do or don’t.”

  “Okay, Yoda, what if I still want him but he treats me badly?”

  “Why would you still want him if he treats you badly?”

  “Oh please. There’s a whole body of self-help literature devoted to women who love men who treat them like shit. The guys cheat, steal, even beat them, and still they come back for more.” Thankfully I’d only seen that last one in my practice a handful of times. But the first two, and especially the cheating, were regular occurrences among both my male and female clients.

  “Long-term couples stay together for lots of reasons,” she said. “But that’s not what this is. This relationship’s new, and you either want to be with him or you don’t.”

  “And I’m just supposed to ignore the warning signs?”

  “No, you’re supposed to acknowledge them and decide if he’s worth it. No relationship is perfect, Samantha. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life.”

  I hung up with Jenna and called Whitney. She was much more opinionated, as I knew she would be. “Forget the scumbag and move on.”