by Nella Tyler
Although, when I opened my eyes and looked around my father’s house, I was confused. I groaned and shielded my eyes from the light as I tried to piece together why I was here and not still with Jenna.
I knew we had slept together. That, I knew I would never forget, but after a moment, the sense of embarrassment that had plagued me with a loss for words the night before caught me off guard again.
I laughed. She threw me out, I thought, shaking my head in disbelief.
“I can’t believe she fucking threw me out,” I said to myself, sitting up and rubbing my hand across my face as I thought about the multitude of women I had done the same thing to.
It was a rare occasion that women allowed me to leave without trying to persuade me otherwise, but I had never been asked to leave by one of them. That was definitely a first.
There were so many unanswered questions, which left me feeling insecure. I didn’t like this sensation at all. I had the immediate urge to call Jenna and see if she would agree to a second date, simply so I could try to obtain a few answers.
Yet, as I reached for my phone, I realized how desperate that would seem and decided to forget it. I knew I should wait at least a day to contact her.
Instead, I got up and started collecting my father’s medicine. I made him breakfast, something I hoped he would actually like, and helped him get settled into his recliner. We didn’t say much to one another and when I brought him his breakfast, he looked at me as though he was suspicious.
“Well, it’s this or I go get you something. What do you want?”
“No. This is fine. Thanks.” He tried to grin at me, yet it seemed that even that was difficult. I sat down next to him. “Ain’t you eating?”
“I’m not hungry,” I replied, honestly. Picking up his ancient remote, I flipped the channel to the stock market. I hadn’t had the chance to actually watch the report in a few days, so I hoped I hadn’t missed anything substantial. I figured if I had, someone would’ve contacted me, but there was still a chance – and when it came to the fiscal wellbeing of the company, I never wanted to be surprised.
We watched in silence for a moment until finally, my father spoke up. I was half-expecting him to complain about his breakfast but instead, what he said took me by surprise.
“It looks like your company is doing well.”
I looked over at him, my jaw dropped as I tried to figure out if I had heard him correctly. I hadn’t even sure my father knew the name of my company, much less have the ability to pick it out on stock statistics.
I grinned.
“Yeah, we’ve had a good year,” As I said it, I nearly bit my tongue as Jenna’s voice reverberated in my head, and I had to admit that I had, as a knee-jerk reaction, given my father a company line.
I was pissed at myself for two reasons: the first was questioning how I spoke to my father and secondly, for taking what Jenna Barnes had said to me to heart.
This isn’t you! I thought to myself, trying to focus. I looked over at my father, who didn’t respond to what I assumed he thought was a conversation ender and tried to think of something add. After all, I couldn’t discount the fact that he had tried to say something nice. He had even delved into what I assumed was a limited pool of knowledge about my interests in order to engage me.
I wanted to reciprocate that, especially since it looked like we were going to be stuck with one another for a while. I thought about a few things to say, but couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound forced. If I was going to put forth the effort to have a conversation I wanted it to flow. I didn’t want it to feel as though we were pulling teeth for the sake of abolishing dead air.
However, when the conversation completely died, I considered whether talking for the sake of fishing for a conversation might be better than the silence. Minutes went by until we had watched the stock market together in silence for nearly an hour. The same information was playing on loop with only slight variations, and by the third time, I couldn’t take it anymore.
The awkwardness was too much.
So, I asked my father if he needed anything and when he grunted a no, I told him I had to go work and that I would be back soon. I didn’t receive a reply, so I figured that would be fine. I gathered up all of my equipment and headed to the coffee shop.
When I walked in, I ordered my crappy coffee, found a seat by myself away from everyone, and booted up my computer.
Once it was all set, I started a conference call with Carly and Donovan.
“What’s going on out there?” I asked, trying to get as close as I could to the camera so they couldn’t tell where I was. I must have failed because as soon as the video call synced, I heard Donovan start to laugh.
“Dude? Where the hell are you?”
“Bum-Fuck-Egypt,” I answered, narrowing my eyes in warning. “Or I might as well be.”
“No. Seriously?” Carly insisted, starting to laugh, as well, as she caught on to what had humored Donovan so much. “Are you…calling us from a coffee shop?”
“Yes. Ha! Ha! Ha! Real funny! I have limited time.”
“Why? Does someone need to use the phone?” Carly asked and they both cracked up.
“No! Seriously, guys! We’re all adults here.”
“The nineties called. They want their hangout spot back!” Donovan replied.
“Listen! We have a deadline and we need to talk about this!”
“Come on, Tim. You know if you were in our position, you would be way worse,” Carly retorted.
“Yeah, we’re going easy on you.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew they were right, but I couldn’t find the spirit in me enough to laugh along with them and be amused. “This is the best I’ve got! My father doesn’t have internet at his house,” I complained.
“Does your mail come by plane?” Donovan asked and teased, in his best Southern accent. “Do y’all meet fer grub at the Quickie Mart?”
I didn’t even dignify that with an answer. Instead, I gave them a blank stare until they realized I wasn’t going to play into their game any longer.
“Okay. I’m sorry, dude. Were done.” Donovan cleared his throat, trying to sound as though he wasn’t stifling another laugh.
“Good,” I huffed. “Because we have a lot to do and only a little bit of time to do it in. Two weeks, and with the shit this program has already put us through, I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t take us every bit of that time to finish it. But, we will finish it. I promise you that.” I narrowed my eyes and hoped the crappy coffee shop Wi-Fi kept up enough with the feed to be able to show the sincerity in my expression.
“Don’t worry. Don had a breakthrough last night. I think we will finally be able to break down the firewalls enough to reconfigure the core of the program remotely,” Carly insisted, almost as though she was covering for Donovan.
This made me wonder briefly if they had slept together in my absence. However, my second thought was consumed by wonderment of, if that was the case, why the hell they’d think I’d care. Whether I was here or there, what Donovan stuck his dick in and who Carly received was none of my concern. Knowing personally the lack of talent in Carly’s attempt at receiving made me feel bad for Donovan, but that was the extent of my emotional range toward the subject.
I did think about giving them hell for my suspicions, figuring it was only fair, but quickly decided against it. I didn’t want to be personal with either one of them, especially here, in the middle of Bum-Fuck-Egypt with bored, prying eyes and listening ears around every corner.
So, instead, I focused on what actually needed to get done in the real world, away from all of this boring as hell, go sink in a mud hole because there’s nothing better to do.
“This is a big deal. If something happens with this client, it could be a domino effect and that could end up being catastrophic.”
“I told you, we’re taking care of it,” Donovan answered. “We got the schematics you sent over and we’ve been running trials. Like Carly said, I
had a good breakthrough last night and I think I might actually be able to figure out how to reverse-engineer the system to create the back door we need.”
“Good. I’m glad. I’ll keep working here on my end…” I watched their faces contort with a certain degree of humor and I rolled my eyes, figuring I should say something to them before they did. “Yeah, I’ll keep doing the best I can from the year 1999 and you keep forging new frontiers in the new millennium.”
There were a few snickers that reached my headset, but my aggravation was certainly able to limit their reactions. “Is that all?” I snapped, sensing a smart-ass answer from Donovan that I simply didn’t want to hear.
“Yeah, I guess…” he replied as I watched a slightly slow, pixilated version of him raise and lower his shoulders while the audio crackled.
I decided hastily that was probably a good thing, considering the connection seemed to be breaking up. The thought that this was the result of a storm caused me to cringe. I hadn’t had to deal with crap like that since…well, since I had left here for the civilized world.
“Good,” I huffed, before deciding to soften my tone. “And thanks, both of you. I wouldn’t be able to get this done if you weren’t such dedicated workers. I am really counting on you, and you are delivering spectacularly.”
“We’ll remind you of that when it’s time to give us a raise,” Carly teased.
“Or…you know, hire full time,” Donovan added.
“Wow…look at you growing a set of balls,” I teased, looking at Donovan the best I could. “Don’t you think so, Donnie? Before I left, she would've never talked to me that way.”
“It must be the computer screen. It gives her technological courage,” he responded without missing a beat. I laughed, knowing I was getting too friendly with them, but simply so happy to be talking to people who understood me that I didn’t care.
“All right, well, it looks like I’m probably going to be here another three weeks, but I’ll keep you posted, especially if there is any change in plans.”
“Sounds good, Boss!” Donovan answered.
“I’ll keep ‘em in line,” Carly replied. Again, I thought about teasing them, but decided against it. Instead, I said goodbye and logged out of the call.
It was a lucky thing, too, because I disconnected my chat with them only a few moments before the internet crashed. I snickered, feeling lucky that I wouldn’t have to try to live that one down. It was bad enough that I was only a step above dialup out here. If they had found out the place had only sprung for the cheapest package, I would’ve never heard the end of it.
Still, with everything going on, both inside my head and around me, in the coffee shop and the civilized world, there was a thought that domineered my brain. I knew I shouldn’t be worried about it, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get the thought of Jenna out of my head.
It still bothered me immensely that she had thrown me out of the house. I couldn’t understand why.
That had never happened to me before, and I had slept with lawyers, doctors, and even the occasional California swimsuit model. I had my pick of the litter, complete with snobbish personalities and woman-lib confidence. I had been with multiple women at a time and some of the self-proclaimed pedigrees in a state where being ugly was practically a crime. I had even been with desperate housewives, starved for affection, only moments before their husbands were supposed to be home.
Yet, not one of them had ever even tried to throw me out. There wasn’t one who had such audacity and yet, this…beautiful, real, exciting, hometown hick from North Carolina thought nothing about excusing me from her bed.
Maybe she’s dating someone…I thought, drawing a new perspective. I knew I definitely wouldn’t want to face off with an angry hillbilly, likely wielding a shotgun. However, in my experience, most women in this situation would simply wait for their husbands to come home. Revenge sex was a fairly common practice – even if the man had yet to comprehend exactly what she was seeking revenge for.
I had the thought that maybe she was different, but that thought prompted a more cynical insistence. If she was that fucking different, she wouldn’t have been with me in the first place.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the needling insistence that my mind was wandering in the wrong direction. Hayden said she was single.
Where I lived, that wouldn’t mean much. He could be right when he thought it and wrong by the time the thought crossed his lips, but here, word traveled way too quick. The only reason Hayden would’ve told me false information would be if he was lying, and people around here only lied in the form of omissions. Even then, it was usually reserved for recipes, bra sizes, and dieting.
For the majority of the gossipers, the truth concerning other’s misfortunes was simply far too good to omit or lie about.
Besides, Hayden wasn’t like that. He might have loose lips when it came to idle chatter, but he was honest and loyal; probably part of the reason he didn’t want anything to do with the women in this damn town.
Therefore, I knew that having a relationship couldn’t be the problem. Yet, I refused to believe that it had anything to do with me.
Eventually, I decided that I simply had to see her again – even if it was for the last time. I had to end it on my terms, or I was certain it would haunt me forever.
Chapter 18
Jenna
The next morning, I felt the sun shine in my window, warming the covers and spreading evenly over my already glowing skin.
Remembering the essence of the night before, I felt a grin pass over my features. I squeezed my eyes shut and slid my hand over the bed, searching for the warmth I had found in the heat of the night, the passion still burning through me, a lustful cinder, yearning to be reignited.
However, as my hand glided over the sheets and eventually underneath a pillow, cooled by disuse, I remembered what had happened. I didn’t regret throwing him out. In fact, I was pleased that I had. Yet, that didn’t stop the yearning for more.
Instinctively, I leaned over, drew in a deep breath, and caught a whiff of his cologne. My beam brightened as I snuggled deeper into my own pillow, reminiscing about the night before.
What a night… I felt my cheeks redden from the memory and my heart palpitate faster with the need to feel his nakedness against me once again. I closed my eyes, pulled the covers up, and in the warmth, I thought about what it was like to have Tim on top of me.
Reaching my hand down my stomach, I felt a pressure weighing in on my femininity. The memory of his muscular, tan, toned body on top of mine sent chills up my heated body and caused my loins to contract.
I yearned to feel his skin pressing against my nakedness and draw from the heat of his rippling physique, allowing him to take me, fully and completely.
I groaned, knowing I had never felt quite like that before but was discouraged at the idea that the reason was likely because he’d had a lot of practice. As much as I wished that the experience was bred from a unique form of intimacy, I knew that wasn’t likely.
Still, the memory remained and that was one thing that I refused to discredit.
Yet, the thought of how many other vaginas Tim had likely entered in order to gain the skill set for such a perfect night had doused the fire cultivating in my pelvic region. I sighed and rolled my eyes, reaffirming my decision that a one-night stand was all that would ever come of the fling. As wonderful as it was, tempting fate’s good fortune by trying to outdo perfection was a fool’s errand.
So, I got up, got dressed, and headed over to my sister’s house for another day out with the girls – the perfect remedy, I thought, for any looming doubts that might creep up.
When I arrived at Michelle’s, I barely had a moment between ringing the bell and catching Kassie in my arms. The girl must have been right by the door, since it flew open almost immediately with the four-year-old flying righty behind it.
“Aunt Jenna!” she exclaimed, as though she hadn’t seen me in weeks.
“What did I tell you about…” Michelle yelled as we stepped through the doorway, but when she saw me, she stopped. “Oh…hi, Jenna.”
Running up to me, she threw her arm around my neck in a hasty hello, before turning back to her daughter. “Kassie! What did I tell you about answering the door without knowing who it is?”
“I knew who it is, Momma…” she answered, playing with her fingers in a nervous manner.
“How is that?”
“Maybe she’s Supergirl and has x-ray vision!” I suggested in a teasing voice, trying not to start my day off with my niece getting reprimanded. I was in far too good a mood for any of that.
“Yeah!” Kassie answered. “I gots x-ray vision…” She laughed at me before looking at her mother and asking in a lower tone. “What does that mean?” The two of us laughed and she looked between us in a confused manner.
“I saw your car pull up…does that count?”
“X-ray vision means you can see through walls,” I answered.
“Ohhhh…” She giggled. “I never tried that before,” she admitted as she slid down to the ground and concentrated on the door, that was now shut behind us. I snuck around to see through the window as Kassie concentrated.
“What do you see?” Michelle prompted. “You look like you're really trying…”
“I see…I see…” She squinted and walked closer to the door. “I see a person walking a puppy…”
“Oh really?” I asked, and she looked at me hopefully.
“Was I right?”
“Believe it or not, yeah!” I answered, but as she ran towards me, I told her, “Hurry up, hurry up! You’re gonna miss them!” I giggled, making sure to explain that the person and the dog had rounded the corner before she was able to climb up to the window.
At first, her shoulders sagged and she huffed a sigh. She thought for a moment in silence before finally, she turned and replied with confidence. “I knew that! I just wanted to see if I could get there super quick.”
