Last Chance To Fight

by Ava Ashley

  “Fuck off,” I said, and hung up. I was so furious my hands were shaking. I just wanted a quiet, peaceful night at home, and this jerk had to ruin it for me. There was no way I could stay at my apartment, not if he was watching me. I called Betsy.

  “Hey, girl,” she said, picking up with what sounded like a mouthful of food. “Whuffup?”

  “Douchebag strikes again,” I said, trying to control my voice.

  “Oh no, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, swallowing. “Did you see him? Is he there? I’m coming to get you right now.”

  “Thanks, Betsy. No, I didn’t see him. But he left me something, and he called and made it sound like he’s watching me,” I told her.

  “Oh God, what a creep!” she yelled. “I’m going to kill this guy if I ever see him.”

  “Not if I get to him first,” I said.

  “All right, you hang tight, OK? I’ll be there soon.”

  “Thanks, Betsy. Sorry, I should have just come over to your place after work,” I said.

  “Please,” she said. “First, it’s not your fault. Second, it’s no problem. A drive will be good for me.”

  “You’re the best.”

  I hung up the phone and waited nervously for Betsy to arrive. I hoped Nate wouldn’t call again—or worse, show up in person—before she got there. And in that respect, at least, I was lucky.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hunter

  I knew I was a jerk for not telling Anna why I had to go to San Diego, but I just didn’t know how to say it. How does a guy come right out and say: I need to spend some time with my daughter, you know, the one I had with another woman and never told you about? The answer was of course that I couldn’t. Not right before she had to go to work, and I had to leave. So, although I felt dishonest and guilty, it really had to wait.

  And, if I was being perfectly honest with myself, it wasn’t just the timing. Everything with Anna was going so well, and I was so happy. I was happier than I’d been since she left me nine years earlier. I didn’t want to ruin that. If nothing else, I just wanted to hold onto that for a little longer, until I found the right way to tell her. And hopefully, if I told her the right way, she’d understand. Anna was the girl for me. I always knew that. There was never anyone else. I wanted her to be in my daughter’s life, too. I wanted Jane to have such a sweet, kind, loyal, loving person to be an influence on her life. I wanted that so badly that it scared me. Because the last time I wanted something that badly, I was forced to watch it all crumble right before my eyes.

  I got to Jane’s mother’s house in the evening and exchanged a few pleasantries with her, then got the car seat from the garage and strapped Jane in. I waved goodbye to Jackie and got into the driver’s seat.

  “Are you ready to go to Daddy’s house, pretty girl?” I asked Jane, looking in the mirror. She just smiled her bright, beautiful smile, and melted me right to the core.

  I was lucky that, if I had to screw up and get a girl pregnant during my “bad boy” phase, at least it was a girl like Jackie. She was a sweet girl, and actually ended up being a pretty good friend. She was a great mother to Jane, and didn’t hold it against me that I didn’t want to stay together. She never did anything vindictive like try to keep my kid away from me. A lot of the girls I met during those years would have definitely made life a living hell for me.

  Jackie really was a very caring, wonderful person. If I didn’t know that there was something out there that was even better, so much stronger, I probably would have stayed with her. And we probably would have been fairly happy together. But I knew that love could be so much more than that. I knew that there was such a thing as soul mates, and that I had already found mine at the tender age of sixteen. After that, there was no way I could settle for anything less.

  I will never, for as long as I live, forget the moment when I first saw Anna. I was waiting in the library for my new math tutor to show up, fully expecting “Anna Blakesley” to be a nice, sweet girl with glasses and an old lady sweater. So when I heard her say, “Hi, are you Hunter?” and I looked up from my desk, I was in for the surprise of my life.

  She was so amazing, it was like getting punched in the gut. It wasn’t just that she had a great body, or a pretty face. I had seen plenty of girls with those two qualities, and sure I liked them all right. But with Anna, it was different. Right away it was different. There was just something about her, as she stood in front of me smiling sweetly, that made my heart break into a million pieces.

  “Hi,” I think I finally managed to say. “Yeah, I’m Hunter. Are you Anna?”

  “That’s me,” she said, still smiling.

  And that was it. She sat down and we started to work on some math, and let me tell you never in my life had I been so motivated to understand geometric proofs. By the end of the semester, I was acing it. And not just because I wanted to impress her, though that certainly helped. She was such a great tutor. Not only was she a whiz at math, but she was really good at explaining it too. Sometimes when people are good at something naturally, like my geometry teacher for example, they totally suck at explaining it, because they think everyone should just get it as naturally as they do. Anna wasn’t like that at all. Anna, in a word, was perfect.

  I was lost in daydreams about her the whole ride home, so when I pulled into my driveway it almost seemed like no time had passed at all. I looked back at Jane, who was sleeping peacefully like a little angel. I turned the car off and closed the doors quietly, careful not to wake her. I picked her up and brought her inside, into her room which was just down the hall from mine, and put her in her crib. I turned the baby monitor on and went downstairs to the living room, eager to give Anna a call. All that reminiscing had me missing her more than ever, and for some reason I felt it was urgent that I got in touch with her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Anna

  I brought the tape over to Betsy’s, not entirely sure what I would do with it. I didn’t look inside the envelope or even open it, so I didn’t know if Nate had left a note or something like that. I knew that whatever it was, it was some poisonous trick meant to break me and Hunter up, to get back at Hunter. So why should I watch it? At the same time, I didn’t think that anything Nate could show me would make me change my mind about Hunter, so really no harm could be done.

  I didn’t have to decide right then whether to watch it or not though, because I was at Betsy’s house and couldn’t exactly pop it in the tape player for family viewing time. Whatever I decided to do, it would have to wait.

  I was pretty tired by the time I got to their place, and they had already had dinner. Avery was sleeping, so Betsy and Ted wanted to take advantage of that to catch up on some much needed sleep themselves. We all went into our separate rooms for the evening, and I was glad to get a little alone time.

  I had just undressed and gotten under the covers with a book when my phone rang. I almost didn’t want to look at it, afraid that it was Nate again. But when I saw that it was Hunter, I picked up eagerly.

  “Hey, you,” I said.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” he answered. I knew I had just seen him that morning, but I was unbelievably happy just to hear his voice.

  “Would it be weird if I told you that I missed you?” I asked.

  “Not at all,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “As a matter of fact, I was just missing you, myself.”

  “Is that right?”

  “I was,” he said. “I was thinking about the first moment I saw you. Do you remember that?”

  “I do,” I said, laughing. “You were sitting there in the library and when you looked up at me I thought you were about to have a seizure or something, you looked so shocked.”

  “What can I say?” he asked. “All my other tutors were nice girls, you know, but not exactly... well they weren’t like the illustrious Anna Blakesley, let’s put it that way.”

  “I’m surprised you learned anything at all.”

  “Are you kidding me?
I’ve never been so fired up about...um...math.”

  “Haha, yeah, I’m sure that was it,” I said.

  “OK, if you want to know the truth,” Hunter said, his voice changing from playful to deep and sultry, “I thought you were pretty sexy.”

  “Is that right?” I asked, matching his change in tone with my own.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I wanted to reach up and pull you down into my lap, right there in the library. I wanted to kiss you, deep, pull you in close to me.”

  “Go on,” I said.

  “Do you want me to do that to you, Anna?”

  “I do,” I said, curious about where he was going with this.

  “What else do you want me to do to you?” he asked.

  “Oh, um,” I hesitated, not sure what to say.

  “Don’t be shy,” Hunter said. “You can say anything. You can tell me how you want me to strip your clothes off, and run my tongue along your nipples.”

  “Yes, I want you to do that,” I whispered, feeling myself getting turned on, and wishing Hunter were there.

  “What else,” he said. “Tell me.”

  “I want you to take me in your arms,” I said. “I want you to run your hands all along my body, squeezing every part of me.”

  “Oh Anna, I want to do that too. What else?”

  “I want you to touch between my legs,” I said, surprised a little at myself. I had never said anything like that over the phone before. I kind of liked it.

  “I’m doing it right now,” he told me. “It’s so wet down there, Anna. It gets me so hard.”

  “Oh, I want you inside me,” I moaned, completely giving in to the fantasy.

  “I’m touching you right now,” he said. “Can you feel me?”

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  “Now, can you feel how hard my cock is?” he asked, his voice deep with desire.

  “I can feel it,” I said. “Oh God, it feels so good.”

  “I’m going to put it inside you, Anna,” he said. “Do you want that?”

  “Oh, yes. Yes, yes,” I moaned, trying to keep my voice quiet.

  “God you get me so hard, Anna,” Hunter whispered.

  “Oh, I want you,” I told him. “I want you inside me now.”

  “Take off your panties,” he demanded. “I’m going to push inside you, right... now.”

  “Oh, yes. Yes,” I cried, closing my eyes and imagining Hunter there, next to me.

  “That’s a good girl,” he whispered. “I’m going to fuck you good now. Can you feel me?”

  “Yes, yes, I can feel you, baby.”

  “Does it feel good?”

  “So good,” I said, and soon his voice was too much and I felt myself getting closer and closer to climaxing. I tried hard not to cry out so that Betsy and Ted would hear me, and then let out one great sigh of relief.

  “Oh, Hunter,” I said, smiling. “You’re so damn hot.”

  “Glad you think so,” he said. “You’re pretty hot too.”

  “I can’t wait to see you,” I told him.

  “Friday, kiddo,” he said. “I can’t wait either. We can do this in real life.”

  “That’s all I want.”

  “Me too, Anna.”

  “Goodnight, Hunter,” I said, not really wanting to say goodbye.

  “Goodnight, Annabelle,” he said, and then hesitated before adding, “I love you.”

  “Oh,” I said, putting my hand to my heart. “I wanted to say it too, but I wasn’t sure...”

  “You can always say anything you want to me,” he said.

  “I love you too, Hunter.”

  As much as I didn’t want to get off the phone, I was dead tired and needed to get some rest. I slept as peacefully as ever that night, not thinking about Nate or anything else at all except Hunter, and how lucky I was to find such a perfect love.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anna

  Three Weeks Later

  I spent the next few weeks working, and staying at either Betsy’s or Hunter’s places. I’d go to my apartment now and again to get clothes or other things, but other than that I stayed away. I didn’t tell Hunter about the video Nate left, because I thought it seemed unnecessary and I didn’t want to upset him without good cause. I still hadn’t watched it. After three weeks of no signs from Nate—no creepy packages, no mysterious phone calls—I decided that it would be all right if I went back to my apartment and stayed there by myself. I told Hunter that’s what I’d be doing, and he was a little worried. But I told him it was time I started taking control of my life again, including where I spent the night.

  On Friday after work, Hunter was back in San Diego and I thought I’d like to spend the evening relaxing by myself at home. I could go running, make myself some good food, maybe watch an old movie or read a book. It was going to be peaceful and quiet, just what the physical therapist ordered.

  I decided that the first thing to do would be to take a long, rigorous run. One of my favorite things about running was that it inspired me to eat healthy food afterwards, so as often as I could I ran right before dinner. It would prevent me from being lazy and just ordering a pizza rather than making something wholesome.

  Outside, it was another beautiful night for a run, and I thought about my life with each step I took. I thought about how it just kept getting better and better, ever since I’d passed the great trial of cancer at age seventeen. Although I couldn’t have kids, and that still made me sad, it didn’t get me down like it used to. Especially now that Hunter was back in my life. When I ran, every time my feet hit the pavement it made me feel stronger, and more able to fight against anything life might throw my way. Overall, things were going pretty well.

  When I got back to my apartment, I was happy to see that nothing was there waiting for me on the steps. Nate must have run out of ideas, or gotten tired of lurking around outside my building waiting for me to come home the past three weeks.

  I started to unpack my things from Betsy’s place, and took out the package he had left last time I was there. I still hadn’t even opened it, and wasn’t sure I wanted to now, either. It seemed useless to watch a video from that creep, but I guessed I could at least see what else was inside the envelope.

  Inside, there was nothing other than the video. But what Nate had scrawled on the label made my blood run cold. There, in that same black marker, it said: Thought you might like to know what Hunter’s wife looks like.

  Wife. Hunter’s wife. The words swirled around in my brain until I thought I was going to be sick. This couldn’t be real. Hunter couldn’t be married, could he? This had to be one of Nate’s tricks, like the photographs of me and him on my couch. It might seem real, but then on further inspection, it was just a hoax.

  Hunter couldn’t have a wife. I trusted him completely. He had always been honest with me, and I knew that he loved me. He couldn’t be married, and seeing me on the side, could he? Horrible, creeping doubt started to wash over me. After all, I’d dated Nate for more than a month and had no idea that he was only using me to get back at Hunter. I’d proven in the past that I was a terrible judge of character. Just because I thought Hunter was trustworthy, didn’t mean he really was.

  Not only that, but why was he always going off to San Diego “to take care of some business”? What kind of business did he have there, when his coach and his gym were here, in L.A.? What kind of business couldn’t he even tell me about? Could it be possible he was going there to spend time with his wife?

  My stomach was starting to hurt. I decided I had to at least see what was on the videotape. Maybe it would be an obvious fraud, and then I could relax. I popped it into the player and turned on the television. And then I immediately regretted it.

  There, grainy but unmistakable, was Hunter, naked and on top of some blond woman. She was moaning in pleasure, and calling out his name as he pulled in and out of her. I guessed that must be his wife. I quickly got up and turned the television off. If I thought I was going to be sick before,
now I really thought so. I rushed into the bathroom and retched.

  I was too upset and stunned to even cry, and I certainly lost any thought I’d had of making dinner. I didn’t think I’d have my appetite back for a while. I grabbed a bottle of wine from the cabinet and opened it. I wasn’t going to even bother with a glass. I went to my bedroom, crawled into my bed, and pulled the covers all the way up to my chin. I started to sip on my bottle of wine, hoping that at least it would make the terrible ache in my stomach go away.

  I must have fallen asleep eventually, because suddenly I was bolted awake by a frantic knocking at the front door. I jumped out of bed, terrified.

  What the hell?

  I hoped it wasn’t Nate, but just in case it was, I crept downstairs as quietly as possible, without turning on any lights. As I got closer to the door though, I could hear that it wasn’t Nate at all.

  “Hello! Hello!” I heard Hunter shouting. “Anna, are you home?”

  I turned on the lights and unlocked the door. I took a deep breath and opened it. Hunter let out a huge sigh of relief.

  “Oh, thank God. I was so worried, you weren’t answering your phone,” he said. “And I knew you were staying here, so I thought maybe that piece of shit Nathaniel—”

  “No, sorry,” I said, interrupting him. “I must have just fallen asleep.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing my sour mood. I took a deep breath. There was no reason not to just come right out and say what was on my mind, though I wasn’t really sure I wanted to hear his answer.

  “Are you married, Hunter?” I asked. He was silent for a moment.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” I said, and started to close the door.

  “No! Anna, no, please let me explain,” he pleaded. “Can I come in?”

  “I guess so,” I said.

  “Before I tell you, could you tell me what’s going on? Why are you asking if I’m married?”

  “Sure, I’ll tell you. Nate gave me this,” I said, ejecting the video from the VCR. “It is a wonderful film about you fucking some woman who, apparently, is your wife.”