Lust and Lies (The Jamie Reynolds Chronicles #1)

by Casandra Charles

  With every ring, my heart skipped a beat.

  “Hello,” David answered as if he was also dreading my phone call.

  “Hey, I wanted to call because I felt like I owed you that.”

  “Look, sweetie, you’re a great woman with a lot to offer. You got a good man who cares about you and you him. Move forward with him and let our memories be just that. Start your own traditions and take that chance on building what everybody wants with a person who wants you. I care about you enough to step aside, leave you alone and let it go. Yeah, it sucks, but you deserve to be happy with Mr. Antonio. I will miss our time together, but I respect you enough to allow you to be happy with or without me.”

  That was all he said, and just like that, David was out of my life.

  Does This Mean What I Think It Means?

  “Hey, honey, how is school?”

  “It’s cool, I’m learning so much. How is the movie going?”

  “Man, it’s great. I have a real office and the crew is super chill. I’m pretty happy. I’m making money, saving money and enjoying everything.”

  “I’ll be done in two weeks; then I come home before I head off to Norfolk.”

  “I still can’t believe you got orders in Norfolk, Virginia. I was hoping for something better, like New York or Atlanta.”

  “I know, babe, but like I said, it’s only for a few years; then we may get stationed in another cooler place. I’m a newbie, so I didn’t realize I didn’t have many options, but Norfolk won’t be too bad. It’s pretty close to both Atlanta and New York.”

  “I think it’s funny we had our first official weekend away in Virginia and now we’re moving to Virginia.”

  “Well, babe, you know you can’t officially move in with me and reap the benefits unless we get married. I know we haven’t talked much about it, but we pretty much need to talk.”

  “I know, babe, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and the past is the past and I’m ready for the future,” I said, speaking of my last conversation with David without Toni realizing it.

  “So, babe, does this mean what I think it means?”

  Ever since my last call to David, my head had been clearer, and Toni and I had been doing really good. I’d been working, making money, and Toni was doing his own thing, so I thought I was ready for the next chapter.

  “Yeah, babe, I think I’m saying what you think I’m saying,” I said.

  “You are about to make me the happiest man in the world is what I think you’re saying. I’ll be back in New Jersey in two weeks; we can plan out the next step when I get up.”

  “Well, a wedding takes a lot of time and money, but I guess we can iron out the game plan when you get in.”

  “Well, babe, I don’t know much about planning a wedding, but I was thinking of doing a quick wedding to just get you on some of these documents. Then maybe we can plan a bigger wedding down the line.”

  I had to pause for a second because I’d never thought about any of this. I didn’t even think about a wedding a year and a half ago, so I really wasn’t the type of girl who needed this fairy-tale wedding. I was actually okay with a courthouse wedding for the time being. Not to mention I didn’t tell anybody about this “proposal.” It was crazy, the only person I kind of told was David, and we didn’t even talk anymore. I hadn’t even told Angela. She knew me like a book, and I thought she knew something was up.

  ***

  Toni was finally back in New Jersey and it was great to see him. I had a much-needed weekend off from the movie, but of course, I was on call. I was happy to spend some quality time with Toni since we spent so much time apart. I kind of liked our new arrangement. The military had him for a few months, which built up some space and distance between us, which allowed us to miss each other; then we would be in the best place when we finally did see each other.

  “Hey, babe, when is your next day off?”

  “I don’t really have one. I’m supposed to have a half day next Thursday. Why, what’s up?”

  “I’ve been doing some research and we can get married any time after we apply for our marriage license. The courthouse is like ten minutes away, so maybe we can go on Thursday and get more info.”

  “Why don’t you get the info before Thursday so we can talk about our options? I know you’re bored during the day while I’m at work.”

  “Okay, that sounds like a plan. I can’t wait to call you Mrs. Hall.”

  I just smiled, as I was taking this whole marriage thing so nonchalantly and he was more excited than I was about this whole thing.

  We enjoyed the weekend, which was full of take-out food and some really good sex. My mind was clear now that I had work and didn’t have to worry about money since Toni was bringing in a steady paycheck and was paying the mortgage, which was very helpful. I finally felt in a happy place.

  Toni even surprised me with a special bedroom gift, a new dildo; this one was called the butterfly and was designed especially for me and my clitoris. However, it was more of a solo toy than a couple’s toy even though one would say my neon dildo was also a solo toy. The butterfly had a mini vibrator inside, wings and elastic straps to strap around my legs. At first I wasn’t feeling it because I missed my neon dildo and I wasn’t ready to part with it, but once I learned the butterfly’s tricks, I was hooked. Toni even figured out a way for it to become a couple’s toy. He would strap it on me, lift up my lips to expose my clit, and pushed the butterfly directly on it and then finger me at the same time. It was crazy; then he would replace his finger with his manhood and sex was amazing all over again.

  My life was finally in balance and I was in a happy place, Toni and I even made it down to the courts and got married. We ended up using a nearby couple as our witnesses for our courthouse wedding because he didn’t do his research and realize we needed a witness. We were also witnesses to their wedding, so it kind of worked out.

  It was official. I was Mrs. Hall now and no one knew besides Toni and me. Days before he left to go to Norfolk, I finally made the announcement that we were engaged. Everyone was happy, of course, because my life was looking pretty good. I had almost everything back in order, my movie was great and was about to wrap up, and I got signed on for another indie film, which was only six months long, and I was happy.

  Toni and I lived our first eight months of marriage apart. He would come to New Jersey to hang out with me when he had time off, or I would go down to Virginia. He was staying on base, so we had to stay in a hotel when I visited, but I didn’t mind because we made it a sex game and it was kind of cool.

  I often felt bad because I understood this was not a true relationship since we lived in two different states and kind of lived two separate lives, but it worked for us. Well, at least it worked for me, since I never really asked Toni how he felt about the whole thing.

  I Moved For You…

  “Hey, babe, when are you coming down?”

  “Babe, I’ll be there on Thursday. I wouldn’t miss our last chance to say good-bye. I can’t believe you’re going on a deployment.”

  “I know, babe, I was hoping this wouldn’t happen, especially so soon,” he said, referring to him only being in the navy and in Norfolk for six months before going on his first deployment.

  “I’ll be there in a few days, but it works out great because I start my next movie in a few days and it’s six months long, so I’ll stay pretty busy while you’re gone.”

  “Then what?”

  “What do you mean then what?”

  “Babe, I haven’t said anything, but I’m not comfortable with this ‘arrangement.’”

  “What arrangement?” I said, playing dumb.

  “Babe, we’ve been married for almost eight months and we live in two different states and only see each other like one or two times a month. When are you going to move to Norfolk?”

  I knew this topic would come up sooner or later, but I guess he had a right to ask. I was his wife and he was my husband.

  “I don’t kn
ow, babe?”

  “I moved for you, so it’s only natural you move for me?”

  Wow, really? You moved for me? I thought to myself. I couldn’t believe he was bringing this up again. He still didn’t know I knew he got fired from his job in Georgia and that was the real reason why he moved to New Jersey because he had like no place to go. I visited Jonathan a few months ago and he said Toni still hadn’t reached out to him to say anything. It was like they just stopped being friends. Jonathan said he didn’t even care anymore. At first he was pissed because he found out Toni not only skipped out on the rent but also on two of the bills he was responsible for that were in Jonathan’s name, so Johnathon got stuck with the bills and the late fees.

  Besides, unlike Toni asking, I never asked him to move for me. I was just starting to establish my career in New York/New Jersey and hadn’t had a need for a tax job these past few months. I felt happy and everything was lining up for me.

  “Babe, all I’m saying is I miss you and want you to move down to Norfolk when I get back. Maybe you can start looking for a home and we can buy a house. I know you’ve been saving money and I get separation pay while on deployment, so it’s extra money. We can use this money towards a new house. I will trust your judgment and you can look while I’m gone. I just want out of base when I get back. Maybe you can even start planning our wedding.”

  I understood what Toni was saying and had to respect it. We had been living two different lives, and as much as I enjoyed it, I knew he wasn’t happy with it all.

  “I understand, babe, and yes, I’ll take the time away to restructure everything and start to make my move to Norfolk,” I said with a heavy heart.

  “Okay, this means you won’t find any more work in New York or New Jersey, and you’ll find a tenant to rent the house, and move to Norfolk,” he said as if he needed to explain all of the steps I needed to do to make it happen.

  “Yes, babe, I’ll make it all happen before you get back.” It was easier said than done, but I was willing to try my best to make it happen.

  ***

  Man, I was ready to get this deployment over with. Everyone was driving me crazy. This was his first deployment, but everyone was telling me scary stories of the experience. I even spoke to a few of the wives, and they began giving me their rundown on everything. Telling me how a deployment changed the guys, but I didn’t listen to them, as Toni and I were solid and had been apart off and on for so long we would be fine.

  “Are you ready?” Wendy, one of the navy wives, said to me has we all waved good-bye to the ship as it began pulling off.

  “Ready for what?”

  “You’ll see,” she said as she smirked and walked away with her three kids.

  I was not the typical navy wife. I had a career, I didn’t live in Norfolk, and I didn’t have any kids. It seemed as if most of these ladies didn’t have much of an identity outside of being a navy wife. That was not me, so I hoped Toni wasn’t expecting me to be a real navy wife when he asked me to relocate my life to Norfolk to be with him.

  I felt like an outsider with these ladies as I walked by myself back to the car until one wife ran over to me.

  “Mrs. Hall? Are you Hall’s wife?”

  “I am and you are?”

  “Hi, I’m Natalie, John’s wife.”

  I felt bad because I didn’t know who John was. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know anyone from the ship. They all knew me, but I didn’t know any of them. I heard a few names, but they all were called by their last name, so I really didn’t know anyone’s first name.

  “It’s nice meeting you. Hall said this was your first deployment. This is my third, so if you need anything, let me know.”

  “I’ll be fine, thanks,” I said, being antisocial.

  “Hall said you’re looking to buy a home and move down soon.”

  I hated that this chick was in my business already, so I stopped and spoke more in detail to hear her out. Since she knew about me and I knew nothing about her, I was trying to be polite to my new city.

  “Yeah, Toni wants me to make my way down to Norfolk to get settled and stuff.”

  “I’m a real estate agent if you need help finding a house.”

  I was a little shocked because I’d never met a navy wife who had a job, let alone a career, since I’d been in Norfolk.

  “Shocked I have a career?” she said as if she were hearing my thoughts.

  I just laughed. “I’m new to this whole thing, so I’m just trying to get adjusted, and most of the other wives are so different from me,” I said, trying to be nice about the other ladies.

  “Not many wives work, as the guys make enough money to support them or they have kids and stuff to take care of when the guys leave. I have a daughter myself from my first marriage, and my ex-husband and I share custody, so I can work and have support when the guys are gone, unlike most of the other women.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Have you thought about the area?”

  “To be honest, I haven’t thought much about any of this place, but I have the rest of the day, so I was planning on driving around to check out my surroundings.”

  “Would you like some company?” Natalie asked.

  At first I just wanted to say no, please go away, but I decided to be nice and said, “Sure, that would be nice if you have the time.”

  “My daughter is with her dad, so I’m just chilling all day.”

  Natalie and I spent the whole afternoon together, our first stop was to the NEX, which was located on base and was my first time going. She gave me the tour of everything, the best places to eat, buy drinks and things to do both on and off the base. Natalie was very helpful and even cleared up some misinformation Toni gave me over the last few months about the navy. She even helped me understand why everyone kept saying the guys come back different after a deployment.

  I felt bad after hearing about the living conditions Toni and the guys had to go through over the next six months, so I could understand the change in the guys after a tour. Natalie and I became very close and she even helped Toni and me find a home in Portsmouth, which was like twenty minutes from base.

  Since I had two houses already and worked freelance, she advised us to use Toni’s credit to buy a house. Since I had power of attorney, I had permission to pull up Toni’s credit, and to my surprise, Toni had all kinds of crap on his credit.

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Hey, JR, how is everything going? Have you gotten my letters?” Toni asked, referring to his letter about the phone being bugged so we couldn’t talk in detail.

  “I did and I understand. Natalie is helping us find a new house, so I pulled your credit and found a few interesting items on it.”

  “Why did you pull my credit?” Toni said very angrily.

  “Babe, I told you last week I was going to pull it to see how much we can afford. I can’t use my credit to buy a house since I already own two houses, and you told me this was fine and you trusted my judgment.”

  “So you think you’re better than me?”

  “Wait, what are you talking about?”

  “Look, I’m tired of you and that stick up your ass, thinking you’re better than me. I get it, I don’t own a home and you own two, so what?”

  “Okay, I’m going to hang up now because you’re tripping and I don’t understand what is going on with you lately.”

  “Fine, hang up, then,” he yelled as he hung up and the phone went dead.

  I was shocked because the last few times we had spoken, he’d gotten worse and worse. It was only three months into this six-month tour and I was trying to understand this madness, but Natalie had prepped me for this kind of behavior, as the first tour hits the guys so hard. I was hoping Toni was stronger than this, but it looked like he was so far gone and there was nothing I could do about it. It hurt, as his words got more hurtful as time passed, and even his letters started to be out of character. He would often call when they got off the boat and apologize and talk about
how crazy everything was and say he was trying.

  Because I was still working, I found ways to stay busy and not think about Toni, but my movie was wrapping up in a few, which meant I had less than six weeks to get my life together in Norfolk. I didn’t want to make a decision on the new house until Toni got back, so I decided to sneak away to Atlanta before my life officially changed and Toni came back and I became a real wife in Virginia.

  Closer to Atlanta…

  “Hey, Angela, I’m here. How far are you?”

  “I’m right around the corner, will be at Chow Baby’s in like two minutes.”

  “Alright, I’m ordering a glass of wine, do you want one?”

  “Look at you, are you driving?”

  “Yeah, I’m driving. I’ve switched to wine since it doesn’t affect me at all, so I can enjoy two glasses without any issues.”

  I learned about my tolerance for wine during my dinner dates with David.

  “Oh, okay, I’m parking. I’ll see you inside.” Within seconds Angela was joining me at the table. I gave her a hug and we picked up like old times.

  Angela and I enjoyed dinner and talked for over an hour. I finally came clean with her about everything. I told her everything about David, Toni and my new life in Norfolk. She was shocked to hear about my and David’s “friendship” and even more shocked to hear Toni and I got married.

  “Why did you keep all of this from me?”

  “I don’t know, I was embarrassed, confused and lost,” I said as tears started to well up in my eyes.

  “Don’t cry. I would never judge you and I’m happy you’re happy. Toni is a great guy and I know how you felt about David, so I’m glad you found an exit from him. You said your life is back on track, so you’ll be fine in the end. I know Norfolk is new, but it is closer to Atlanta,” Angela said, trying to cheer me up.