by Wood, Lauren
When I finally got back to the cell, it was one of two and there was another guy in both. Matt put me in with a big guy and it was another flick from the officer.
“Now you two play nice.”
I just flipped him off and went to sit down on the concrete bench. I had no intentions on laying down in the bed. I would’ be here long and I went to the pay phone and reached for my phone. It was then that I remembered that Officer Friendly had taken my phone. I had no numbers and it was sad how few I remembered. I couldn’t even remember my mom’s number and it made me groan out loud. I was cursing the smart phone that made me forget everything.
“Are you going to use that or what?”
“You need it?”
He nodded, and I moved away, trying to rack my brain with someone that I could call. I knew the numbers of people out in Texas where I just came, but I didn’t have any who was even still in town here. Who the hell was I going to call?
I was coming up blank and when the other guy was done, I went back to sit in front of the phone. How many times had I looked at this very thing? It was amazing to me that I was back here and while I was thinking about the past, I saw a number that I’d etched into the brick a long time ago. I knew instantly whose number that was and I was a mix of emotions. It had been a long damn time since I’d seen her.
“Fucking Gemma.”
Of course, she would be the one number that I had, but there was no telling if she was still there or not. It was an old number. I wasn’t good to bring up old ghosts, but after a few more minutes, I decided to call her. I told myself that it was because I had to get bailed out, and it was, but there was another reason all together. I wanted to see her. It had been quite a while since I’d thought about Gemma and a lot longer since I’d seen her. Was it wrong to want to know how she was and what she was up to?
I dialed the number and waited. It was a collect call and even if she did answer, I almost doubted that she would accept the charges. Why would she? Gemma had been in love with me and I hadn’t been as deep as her. The little bitch was hot as hell and a bit crazy, but it was at a time that I didn’t even know what love was. Sometimes I figured that I still didn’t even know what it was.
“Hello?”
Her voice was the same and it made me hard. It was fucked up to be hard, trapped in a tiny cell with another man. I leaned forward and waited to hear the computer-generated voice tell her that she had a call from the jail. It took her a few seconds, but she finally agreed to the charges and waited for it go through.
“Well this seems about right. I don’t hear from you for almost ten years and you call me from the jail, collect no less.”
I chuckled into the phone and had a rush of emotions. I realized then how much I’d missed her. It all came back to me now.
“Damn Gem. It’s good to hear your voice.”
Chapter 2
Gemma
Why did I just melt a little? I wasn’t supposed to. There was nothing inside of me that told me that I was supposed to have any feelings about Frank calling me.
“What do you want Frank. You know the drill. Talk fast because it’s by the minute.”
“Right, I need someone to come here, get my wallet and meet a bondsman to get me out. I will pay you to do it. I know that I don’t have any right to ask you to, but I am. I’m in a jam and the officer around here has a hard-on for me apparently.”
“I guess so. You beat the crap out of his cousin and he had to get his jaw wired shut for months. You don’t remember that?”
I didn’t. I got into a lot of fights back in the day and there was no telling who was related to who. At the time, I didn’t care. I still really didn’t, but at least I knew why. That question had been rolling around in my mind since he picked me up. Now it made more sense.
“No, I guess I don’t. A lot of it is blurry.”
“Like you not coming back?”
“It’s by the minute, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah. Well I guess I will be down there in a few. I got to get dressed. You’re coming in late huh?”
“Matt took his time booking me.”
“Now you know why.”
“Yeah. Thanks Gemma. I really owe you one.”
I didn’t say much more. I hung up and looked at the phone in a mix of shock and disgust. I can’t believe that such a docile instrument such as a phone could make such a big difference. One minute I was about to watch a movie on the couch with Justin and the next minute, his best friend and my ex-lover, Frank, was back in town. I didn’t know if I should tell Justin or not.
There was a huge part of me that wanted to go pick him up by myself. It would mean that I would get to see him alone. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen, but I wanted that first meeting. It would be wrong if I went and didn’t tell Justin. He would want to know, and I knew that. I knew that he would want to go get him. I would either tag along or not go at all.
When I got inside, I figured that the latter was the best way to go. There wasn’t anything between me and Frank any more and all it would do is bring up a past that I was still trying to forget.
“Hey baby. You will not guess who just called.”
“Who?”
He wasn’t even paying attention to me, all of it focused on the television in front of him. I had the popcorn in my hand, a big bowl of it for the two of us, but it was about to be a bowl for one.
“Frankie.”
That got his attention and his head snapped to the side.
“What?”
“He just called and needs a ride.”
“He called here?”
“Yeah. He’s at the jail. I guess he just remembered my number. I never did change it over the years. I liked it to stay the same, so I didn’t have to change it for everything.”
“Well damn. I don’t know what to say;”
“Go get him out of jail.”
“Yeah, shit, of course. I just hadn’t heard that name in a long ass time. Are you okay?”
I agreed that I was and let him walk closer to pull me in for a kiss. It felt good, like it always did, but now my mind was clouded with ghosts from the past. I wasn’t ready for a haunting, so something was going to have to give, right off the bat.
“So, is that all that he wanted?”
“What do you mean?”
Justin gave me this look and I sighed loudly enough for him to know what I thought of his question. I wasn’t worried about anything. I knew what happened and it wasn’t like that. I told Justin that and he tried to play it off like that wasn’t what he meant. It was. I knew that, but he wasn’t ready to come out with it.
“Come back soon or I’m going to tell you how this end.”
He grinned and kissed me again. There was a little extra heat there that I wasn’t sure about. I don’t know what was going through his head, but I knew that he was just as thrown off about Frank popping up as I was. Maybe not in the same way, but he was of course, with his girl now. I wondered if that would matter.
After Justin left, I was left to ponder it all over a glass of wine. The movie was over, and I went to bed. Justin wasn’t back, and I wasn’t worried enough to call and find out where he was. I figured he was out with Frank. They’d been good friends for a long time and us being together was going to be awkward.
I went to sleep thinking about Frank and all the times we’d had together. He was my first love and it had certainly been my crazy love. I’d fallen so hard and so fast for him that it was painful. I wanted to think that I’d changed, but the biggest fear of mine was that I hadn’t.
***
I woke up the next morning and Justin was next to me. He still had his clothes on and smelled of alcohol, so I figured that he had a good time at the very least. I wanted to ask about Frank. How he was. How he looked, that sort of thing, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to. I was going to have to wait until he told me, and I wasn’t going to be able to act too excit
ed. I was trying to be good, but I knew if I stayed in bed all that long at all, I was going to be waking him up and asking.
So instead, I got up and jumped in the shower. It was hot the night before and with Justin next to me, I had gotten sticky. I wanted to rinse off before I started my day. It was going to be a long one. I had a double shift later that started earlier than I was used to. I wasn’t prepared for the day and I blamed Frank for me not being able to get any sleep. He had a way of getting in my head and I woke up several times in the middle of a rather naughty dream that he was the star of.
I heard the bathroom door open and I jumped a little when I saw that it wasn’t Justin. It was Frank, and I was trying to figure out why he was in here. The glass was frosted on the shower, but I could still see through it. He pulled his pants down and started to pee. I could see a silhouette that I wasn’t supposed to be seeing.
“Thanks for letting me crash here last night. I couldn’t go home that late after that asshole cop pulled me over and hauled me in. You know it was over that one time we stole that tractor out at the old Montgomery Farm. I’d forgotten all about it.”
I didn’t know what to say. He thought that I was Justin and he wasn’t really looking at the shower because that’s who he thought it was. It was harder to see in than it was to see out and I wanted to tell him that it was me, but I didn’t know how. I just kind of made a grunting sound and hoped that it would be enough.
“I hear ya man. I got a splitting ass headache too. I’m going to go make some coffee. So, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about last night? We started drinking and I never got around to it.”
I made another sound that I hoped sounded like Justin and it was apparently enough because Frank finally left, and I was able to breathe again. I don’t know what in the hell I was doing, but I didn’t want to see Frank. For the girl that wanted to see him yesterday, I was certainly not feeling inclined to do it now. I wanted to hide back upstairs in the bedroom.
When I got out and had the towel wrapped tightly around me, I stopped when I saw where he had been sleeping. He’d been in the living room and I went around through the kitchen to the stairs, hoping that I would miss him. I almost ran right into him instead.
“Gemma. It’s good to see you. I was hoping that you would have came out with us last night. I missed you darling.”
He pulled me close to him and his lips were on mine before I could say anything to stop him. Sadly, I didn’t know if I did or not.
His lips were soft and insistent and so damn familiar. It had been so long since we’d kiss, but it felt just like the first time. There was something about him, the feel, the smell, the way he held me that would never be the same with anyone else. I knew that I was supposed to push him away but kissing him again was like coming home.
It was only when we heard a noise on the side of us that I saw Justin standing at the bottom of the stairs. He was looking at us with shock and I can’t say that I blamed him all that much. I don’t know what the hell I was doing, and I moved away from him rather quickly.
Frank did not get the situation and I didn’t get that my robe was open, and I was flashing them both.
“Come on man. I think that me and Gemma need some time alone to get caught up.”
He didn’t seem to get what was going on at all and I sighed to myself. This was going to be messy. Frank didn’t know that me and Justin were dating. Why didn’t Justin tell him last night?
“Justin, this isn’t what it looks like. He was just there and kissing me. I don’t know what’s going on. Didn’t you tell him?”
I was shocked at the way Frank had kissed me. I liked it of course, but it was out of the blue. I didn’t get why Frank was making a play when he knew that I was with Justin.
“I didn’t realize I had to tell him or you were going to jump on him.”
His words hurt, but I knew where he was coming from. There was a lot going on that he’d walked in on. I was embarrassed, confused and ready to get out from away from the two of them. I needed to get upstairs and get changed, take a breather. They were going to have to work this shit out on their own. I wasn’t getting involved. I knew that Justin was going to be pissed and he was going to make me hear about it later.
What else could I have done though? Frank was kissing me, not the other way around. When I had responded a little bit, it was just because I had kissed him so many times before that it was like second nature. Once the shock wore off, I had stopped it. Or it was the sound of Justin. Not really sure, but it was just a kiss and it hadn’t gone any further.
As I was leaving, I looked back once in the kitchen to see the two men arguing. This was not how I figured this would all go down. I was just trying to help an old friend. That’s it. Now I was going to be into it with my boyfriend and I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it. I would. I just didn’t know how. I hated when he was mad at me and it was all because of Frank.
Why the hell had he come back to Hartford? At the moment, it just seemed like he was here to make my life that much more complicated. I really didn’t need any help at this point.
Chapter 3
Frank
I really hoped that I was reading this wrong, but there was no mistaking the look in my friend’s eye. He was pissed at me and I was still trying to figure out why that was.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“I told you that I had to tell you something. Something that was important.”
I didn’t like where this was going at all. I had told myself when I first saw her name that I wasn’t all that interested, but then I saw her, and she looked even better than she did before. We’d always had this magnetism to us and it hadn’t changed obviously. It was good to have her next to me and the more I tried to deny how I felt, the less able to I was.
“So, what is it that you have to tell me? That you are shacking up with my ex?”
“Come on man, she hasn’t been your ex in a really long time. You bounced, remember. You bounced on all of us, including Gemma. So why you so worried about it now?”
He had a point. I had taken off when Gemma was holding on too tightly. I was too young for the commitment that she required. I tried to put her mind on other things, but she was steadfast that she wanted to get married. I wasn’t going down that route, so I thought it best to leave. I regretted it for a while, but life happens, I got into a club in Texas and I was given enough distractions to keep me going for a while. But seeing her again had set things right in my head. I couldn’t believe that her and Justin were together. It just didn’t seem right. It would never seem right for Gemma to be with anyone else but me.
Justin was a good-looking guy, then and now, but we were very different. Justin was smaller and had struggled to find his place. He never was really confident with the ladies and I had to know what changed. How did he even pull Gemma to begin with? She was still out of his league, even hotter than she was back in the day.
“Look, I didn’t know that the two of you were together. You didn’t say anything. I saw her, and I started kissing her. It was the first thing I thought to do. You know that we got a hell of a lot of history together.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Justin wasn’t going to let it go like that, but at the moment he was. Maybe it was the bike and jacket. I wasn’t sure. Justin seemed different now. Last night has seemed like old times. But now it felt different, awkward and forced almost. I had overstayed my welcome and I was sure that it had something to do with making out with his old lady. I could have kicked myself. I didn’t know if it was because I wished I had done more or that I’d came here at all. I really should have known better.
It wasn’t long before I had my stuff together and I was riding on. I didn’t want to worry about it any longer. I looked back at the house that I’d just left and the girl that was no longer mine. It hurt more than I thought it would. I knew then that I wanted Gemma back. I came for many reasons and now o
ne of them was her. The problem was Justin. He’d always been into her and now he’d somehow gotten a shot. It didn’t make sense to me, but that’s what happened when I left. It’s kind of hard for me to say much though. I was the one that left after all. What did I think? That she would still be single?
Pushing the thoughts out of my mind, I went home and met up with some of the people that stayed. I had family in from a hundred miles away that had stayed the night. It was a nice homecoming. It wasn’t what was planned in the beginning, but life never did work out that way.
When I’d taken a shower and righted myself, we had a cookout and I called Justin to see if he wanted to come. Besides the messiness with his girlfriend, he was a good friend and I wanted him to come by. I wanted to talk to him about some plans for the club. I needed him to be part of it because I trusted him. There were more coming today to start it up with me, but I wanted Justin. He was going to be my second. After all these years, I trusted his loyalty more than any others. I just had to make sure to not ruin it by fucking with Gemma. We were history and I was just going to have to get it out of my head. I knew that was going to be easier said than done.
Justin came by a little while later and I could feel the absence of Gemma. I didn’t ask about her. I wasn’t that stupid, but I did want to know where she was. Had it been her decision not to come, or his?
“What’s up man. Good to see you. I was hoping you would come by.”
“Of course. I see you have some of your crew with you. What’s that about?”
“It’s about the start of a new chapter here in Hartford. We have a few clubs in Texas and I thought that this would be a good place to set up shop. I have some interest north now and connecting the two will be very profitable.”
