by Anthology
“What did he say?” I ask when she hangs up.
“He said for me to trust him. That I’ll do better when I’m rested and focused,” she huffs.
“He has a point, you know.”
“The doctor completely released me,” she says. “So you’re free move back to your house now. There’s no reason for you to stay and take care of me anymore. You’ve taken off work long enough and missed enough important appointments in your own life.”
I wasn’t expecting that as a reply in the least. All I can do is nod, like I agree with her. Which I don’t. “Yeah, he did release you.”
The elevator ride up to her condo is quiet and strained. When we step inside, she starts picking up my belongings from the various rooms and putting them all in one spot. She’s making it easy for me to just throw my shit in my suitcase and walk away.
“Mali, I need to talk to you,” I state.
“Jagger,” she sighs. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Too fucking bad, because I do,” I reply angrily. “I do want to do this. I want this with you.”
“No, you don’t,” she angrily replies. “I overheard you and Cass in your kitchen, Jagger. I know that you agreed to do or say whatever it takes to keep me until you and your band get signed. I appreciate everything you’ve done since I injured my shoulder, but we’re through pretending.”
“I’m not pretending. You want to hear something funny? After I told you not to get attached to me, I’m the one who’s now permanently attached to you. My dad gave me some advice after he met you. He said if I couldn’t stand the thought of you being with another man, then you meant more to me than I acknowledged.
“But it’s more than that, Mali. Just the thought of never being able to hold you again is enough to bring me to my knees. I can’t picture my life without you in it–not today, next week, or in the future. It’s not just that I’ve missed you, it’s that part of me is missing without you. The things that were so important to me before are not so important now if I have to lose you to gain them.”
She’s like a beautiful statue, standing motionless. Her eyes remain glued to me as I pace back and forth during my confession. Strolling straight to her, my expression hungry and determined, I cup her face in my hands and hold her attention.
“Are you listening to me, Mali?” I ask. “I’m going to tell you something very important and I need you to hear every word.”
She nods slightly but remains silent. Her eyes search mine and silently plead with me for reassurance that she can trust me.
“I love you, Mali. I am so head over heels, wrapped around your little finger, turn in my fucking man-card, put my balls in your pink purse, in love with you. Don’t give up on us,” I all but beg her.
“You weren’t trying to trick me when you said I was your girlfriend?” she asks, her voice thick with emotion.
“No, baby, I wasn’t tricking you at all. Don’t let what you heard Cass say come between us. I’ve been fighting this feeling almost since the first night I met you. The more I got to know you, the more I knew it’d be impossible to walk away from you. I’m sorry for hurting you, though, and I promise to spend forever making it up to you,” I vow.
“I love you, Jagger,” she says, her eyes brimming with tears. “I really want to believe you, but I don’t want to be hurt again.”
“Never, Mali. I’ll never hurt you again. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove that to you. Let me show you.”
EPILOGUE
MALI
AUGUST
THE WEEK OFF FROM practice was beneficial in more ways than one. My mind and body really did need the rest. When I went back to diving, I performed better than ever. The qualifying tournament was a huge success and I made the cut for the Olympic preliminary competition. Now, I have a year to prepare to compete against the best of the best from every country to earn a spot on the final Olympic team.
“Jagger,” I call from the deck, “you’re going to burn the steaks.”
“Back away from my grill, woman,” he teases as he steps out the sliding glass door. “You have my balls in your pink purse, but I maintain control of the grill. That was the agreement.”
“You and your agreements,” I roll my eyes.
“It was your idea,” he counters. “It’s the end of summer, you know. Should we make a new agreement now?”
“You two act like you’re already married,” Dane interjects. “You should just go make it official because we all know you’re going to anyway.”
“Stop rushing us,” Jagger points the grilling fork at Dane. “We’ll get married when Mali says we’re good and ready.”
Dane and Cass bust out in laughter at Jagger’s humor. It’s actually one of the first things I fell in love with about him. That and how he saved me that night. How he makes me feel impetuous and brave. How he makes love to me. How he’s turned me into a raging nymphomaniac. The list goes on and on.
“I know that look, Mali,” he lowers his voice and leans in whisper in my ear. “I’ll let the damn steaks burn all day if you look at me like that again.”
“Maybe Dane and Cass aren’t that hungry anyway,” I suggest.
Jagger growls and extends his arm to throw the grilling fork across the deck when Cass stops him.
“Yes, Dane and Cass are that hungry. Don’t overcook my steak, Jagger,” she warns.
Jagger points at me. “You’re making this up to me later when they finally leave,” he emphasizes ‘they’ loudly so that ‘they’ hear him.
“My pleasure,” I reply. “Actually, it’ll be your pleasure, too. But you know what I mean.”
“I do believe I’ve been a bad influence on you, Miss Greyson,” Jagger quips.
“I agree. But I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world,” I smile just before his mouth covers mine.
“Jagger,” Cass yells, “my steak!”
JAGGER
ONE YEAR LATER
“HOLY SHIT,” I EXCLAIM. “I’m more nervous than she is. How can she be so calm at a time like this? Doesn’t she know what this means?”
“Jagger, if you don’t sit down and shut up, I’ll be forced to duct tape you to that chair,” Milo threatens me. “No court would convict me.”
Mali takes her place on the platform again. She jumps off of a perfectly sound structure and hurtles her body toward the water below. Her body is bent in an unnatural shape with her chest touching her thighs. Her form is so perfect that not even a speck of light could fit in between. She performs one somersault after another, before straightening and entering the water with barely a splash. Her cheering section at the Olympic preliminaries goes crazy with screams, whistles, noisemakers, and flashing signs with her name written with bold permanent markers.
“She still doesn’t know about your decision?” Milo asks.
“No, I didn’t want to tell her before this tournament. It wouldn’t be fair to put that kind pressure on her,” I reply to Milo, but keep my eyes on the love of my life that’s exiting the pool right now.
“You’re a good man, Jagger,” he pats me on the shoulder.
“Only because she made me want to be a better man.”
My parents, Cass, Dane, Milo, and Mandy, Mali’s mother, are here with us to support Mali’s dreams of Olympic gold. Her scores from each of the judges flash up on the board and I immediately search Mali’s face for her reaction. I’m still learning how everything is scored. I don’t even know how the judges see her form with her body moving at about forty miles per hour, all while twirling, twisting, and spinning.
At the end of the competition, Mali walks straight into my waiting arms, buries her face in my chest, and I try to console her. “I’m so sorry, baby. I thought you were the best one here,” I tell her sincerely. “I’m proud of you. No matter what.”
“You can be proud of yourself, Mali. Not many people ever even get this far. This is a great accomplishment,” Milo says as he looks around the enormous facility. “I love you, baby girl.�
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“Mali, you kicked ass out there. Do you want me to kick those judges’ asses? Because I’ll do it,” Dane offers.
Mali gets a chuckle from this and turns to reply to everyone. “Thank you for coming, everyone. I really appreciate it. I can honestly say that I did my best here today and held nothing back. It really sucks to not have made the team, but I can only say it just wasn’t meant to be.”
At the end of the night, after we’ve all enjoyed dinner together and relived the highlights of the day, we go our separate ways to our hotel rooms. As we say our goodnights, Milo raises his eyebrows at me and inclines his head toward Mali in his silent command to approach her about it now.
I nod in agreement. It’s now or never.
Inside our room, I wrap my arms around her from behind and hold her close to me. “I love you, Mali.”
“I love you, too, Jagger,” she replies sweetly.
“We need to talk, baby.”
“What kind of talk? Dirty talk? Because I didn’t really have a conversation in mind,” she purrs.
“You know I love it when you take charge like that,” I growl. “You’re making this very hard.”
“That’s the point,” she quips.
I’ve created a monster. A very beautiful, sexy, tempting, seducing monster.
“Mmmm, you have to stop that for the next five minutes. You’re killing me,” I warn her as my hands roam over her body. I’m only adding to my own frustration but she just feels too damn good.
“Okay, let’s hear it,” she says as she turns to face me. “You’ve been hiding something from me for a while now. What’s on your mind?”
“How do you know?” I eye her suspiciously.
“Because I know you, Jagger. Spill it.”
“All right,” I sigh. “You know we’ve been recording our first full-length album over the past year. And our tour is slated to start this fall.” She nods. “Well, if you’d made the team today, I arranged with your father to put the tour on hold so I could stay here and support you.”
“You what?” she gasps. “Jagger, why would you do that?”
I smile. She doesn’t know? “Because I love you more than anything, Mali. I meant it when I said part of me is missing when I’m not with you.”
Beautiful tears slide down her face. Tears of love. Tears of happiness. She rushes to me and repeatedly kisses my face. My arms wrap around her and hold her close to me. “I love you so much, Jagger. You’re all that I need and want. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’d be so lost,” she says as she lovingly strokes my face. “What happens now that I didn’t make the team?” she asks.
“How would you like to go on tour with me and the band? For just one fall?”
The End
Keep Me
By Kathy Coopmans
CHAPTER ONE
A QUICK LOOK AT my alarm clock tells me I have about two hours before I have to leave for the airport to head to Michigan and help my sister with final touches on her wedding. A ping of excitement courses through my body as I think about her and my niece Sierra and how happy Adam has made them.
Adam is a rare man. A man I know truly loves my sister and her daughter. Knowing she will never be in harm’s way again gives me enough courage to swing my legs over the bed, stretch, and get my ass in gear.
“I’m still going to kick Markus right square in the crack of his ass,” I say out loud, speaking to the four walls in my bedroom. Markus, my best friend since we were little kids, booked my flight for me.
“You’re so busy at work, Swanky,” he’d said. “Let me take a load off of your plate.”
Swanky, my ass. I am not a morning person and he knows it. Who the fuck catches a flight so early in the morning, anyway? Oh… me, that’s right. Forcing myself out of bed, I stretch again, take my first step, and trip over my shoe, stubbing my toe on the carpet.
“Shit, that hurts!”
Sitting back down on the bed, I rub my toe and decide right there that those pointy-toed pumps will be the perfect pair to shove straight up Markus’s ass.
I finished packing last night so everything is ready to go except my swanky ass. Maybe this three week trip is just what I need to try and get my life back in order. I’m going to enjoy spending time with Sierra while Adam and Erin are off for a two week honeymoon to Italy, a surprise for my sister from Adam.
Erin is obsessed with vineyards. A huge grin sweeps across my face thinking about the look on her face when she finds out where they are going and especially where they are getting married. Erin thinks they are getting married at the Luke and Shayne’s house. HA! Little does she know where Mr. Romantic has really planned for their wedding to be. She is going to cry her eyes out and then scream at all of us for keeping it from her. The pictures Shayne showed me are going to take my sister’s breath away when she sees everything.
Leaning over to switch on the light, I grab the remote off my nightstand and flick on the television, abruptly halting as I stare at the scene on the morning news.
“You have got to be shitting me!” I exclaim to myself. I seem to be talking to myself more and more lately.
My eyes bug out of my head and my mouth hangs wide open as I gawk at the screen. The weatherman is displaying a map showing that Michigan is getting a major snowstorm. Up to twelve inches are expected over the next twenty four hours.
Oh, my God! I hate snow and cold. Like being cold is the worst thing ever. Panic really starts to set in as I throw the remote onto my bed and hoof it over to my closet to pull out another suitcase. I stand there looking over all the clothes in my closet.
I love living in flipping Texas where it’s warm. Even though I was warned by Erin and Adam that it’s freezing cold in Michigan, I figured my jeans and sweatshirts would be enough. I am going to freeze my damn ass off, like, literally. I am far from being conceited, but I kind of like my ass. Lord knows I work hard enough at it with all the yoga I do.
Speaking of yoga, I rush over to the shelf where I keep all my DVDs and swipe a handful of my favorite workouts. No way in hell am I going out into that freezing ass weather any more than I have to.
“Who the hell gets married outside at a vineyard in the middle of freaking winter, anyway?” I bitch again to no one as I pull down every sweatshirt and pair of jeans I own and just throw them into the suitcase along with the DVDs, not caring at this point if they get wrinkled or not.
Closing the lid and zipping it up, I bend down and grab the handle and wheel the suitcase across the floor alongside the other two. Busting my ass back across the room, I turn on the shower, take off my clothes, and get in.
“Ahh.” This is just what I needed.
My nerves have been wound up a little tight for the past week. It couldn’t be because I am about to see the man I dream about constantly. The man with the emerald green eyes, short dark hair, and killer body. No, not that man; especially not the man who, every time I use all three of my vibrators to get myself off, I wish was him instead.
“Damn it.”
I drop my bottle of shampoo on the floor when I feel that ache in my core that hits every time I think of Antonio Schavone.
“Ugh!” I bang my head on the tile wall. “Fucking shit balls!” I scream.
This is going to be three long weeks of torture. At least I packed enough batteries with my vibrators. I am definitely going to need them.
“Swanky, you better be about ready,” Markus calls up the stairs in his little queen voice like he’s on top of a rainbow and his box of Lucky Charms is waiting for him at the bottom.
“In here,” I call to him from my bedroom standing with my hair dripping wet and a towel wrapped around me.
“Well, I am coming in.”
Yup, he’s in a mood today. A good mood. I can tell by the sound of his voice- all sappy and sweet.
“I’m naked, so no, you’re not,” I retort in a singsong voice.
“Girl, do you really think seeing you naked is going to do a damn thing for me
? Please.”
He waves his hand as he enters my room.
“Markus, I don’t care if you’re gay or not. I am still naked, so get out until I am dressed.”
I place my hands on my hips and try to act all badass against my friend, who I know damn well isn’t going to move from the middle of my bed now that he has plopped his ass down.
“Really, get up. Go make me some coffee, would you? I’m running late.”
Markus quirks an eyebrow as he still just sits there. No, now he leans back and props himself on one of my pillows. Crossing his legs one over the other, he starts swinging one leg away.
“Are you for real, Shelby?” he says, waving his hands my way. “For crying out loud, you’re always late and I am always early, so move it. Now, shoo, ’cause seeing your vajayjay ain’t going to turn me on, it’s just going to make me jealous because I so want one.”
I’m falling over laughing at how brassy he is.
“You asshole.”
“Nope, got one of those there assholes, sugar, but I ain’t one.”
His eyebrows go up again and a self-satisfied look spreads across his face.
“Well, you are not seeing my ‘vajayjay’.” I grab my panties and walk into the bathroom to shimmy them on.
“Why not?” Markus hollers as I drop my towel and put on my bra.
“Why not what?” I yell back.
“Maybe I want to see what you’re hiding underneath your work uniform. Hell, it’s all you wear these days, anyway. Plus, the only time I have ever really seen one was from those porn movies you and I watched. I was staring more at the big dicks those studs had rather than some coochie. But hey, maybe I want to swing over to the other side or become bisexual. You never know until you try something once, right?”
I scoff at his bluntness. If I showed him my coochie, he would run for the hills. I shake my head as I continue to get dressed.
