by Urban, Ami
“No…” His fingers curled around my forearm just below the end of my brace. He pushed my hand away to rub his face. “No, it’s not. He took over my body and did or said things to you that were never things I’d actually… He… He took everything I had…”
“I don’t understand, Jack. I’m here.”
“All I had was what I could give you.” He continued to rub the heels of his hands against his eyes. “I thought… I really thought what I had to offer was special. But he had to show me up again.”
“Jack, I need you to focus on what I’m about to say.”
He dropped his arms between his legs and nodded but didn’t meet my gaze. After he sniffed, I continued.
“No one took over your body. No one spoke or did anything for you. The opiates were running your subconscious on autopilot. Absolutely nothing otherworldly happened inside your head. You aren’t crazy.” I paused. “A case study, maybe.”
His back heaved with a sad chuckle. “I’ll only consent if it’s you I get to study.”
“See?” I touched his cheek with my fingertips. “You are capable of everything you said that night.”
But he shook his head, glancing my way. “He got you to scream, Lisa.”
Blood crept into my cheeks. Heat settled in a pool between my legs. “No. You did. It was your name.”
Something passed between us in that moment. It was electric. But it died when he stopped looking at me. “It’s not me, though. I don’t know the first thing about pillow talk.”
“Neither do I,” I said. “Let’s explore together.”
The electricity was back. There, the look of smoldering arousal in his eyes. But how could I have made him see that it was a feeling and not a skill? How could he not see that the words he spoke to me were his own?
I scooted closer to him, allowing the towel around me to slip down past my waist. His gaze dipped to my chest where it lingered, causing a sharp arrow of heat to pierce my middle.
“Damn,” he said, dropping the tone of his voice. “Um…” He paused, a subtle blush reaching into his cheeks. “You drive me crazy, Babe.”
I dropped my voice to a whisper. “There you go.”
“You…” He reached for me, his fingers curling around the cotton of my towel. “Your body drives me crazy. I want it all the time.”
With a soft swish, I was naked and in his arms. His warm hands slid down to my backside.
“Keep going.”
His fingers dug into my skin, eliciting a soft moan from my throat. His arm snaked around my waist, pulling me into his lap until I was straddling him. Then, he kissed me.
“I wanna make you scream again.”
A flutter danced inside my belly. He was looking at me as though I were the last meal on earth and he’d been starving. Every bit of me loved it. Every bit of me craved him.
“I’m gonna make you come.”
My back arched, pressing our chests together. His mouth explored other parts of me as I felt myself losing what little control I had left.
“God, Jack.” I hugged him to my chest until his fingers tapped against my back, asking for air. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled at me and my heart pounded harder. “Did it work? Did I do it?”
I sucked in a breath. “Yes. You’ve managed to bring me to orgasm without touching me between my legs.”
“And the sexy talk ends.”
I kissed him on the mouth. “I thought it was sexy.”
Even though we’d been completely exhausted, we managed to make the night about us. I understand I’m a medical professional, but multiple orgasms weren’t something I was accustomed to until I’d met Jack. Even then, that night, I’d gone farther than ever before. Most of the time, I didn’t even want to come back.
At one point, after the fourth or fifth time we’d made love, we held each other for a while. It felt as though we were just soaking in the moment. Neither of us wanted it to end.
“Don’t get too comfortable, Babe. I’m almost ready to go again.”
A breath of air puffed out of my chest of its own volition. “Good God, Jack.”
He chuckled. “This is what you get when I’m not in pain or high off my ass.”
I sat up, placing one hand on his bare chest. “I like it.”
The smile that stretched across his face at that moment was beautiful. Happiness glittered behind his hazel eyes. I don’t think I’d ever seen him with that much joy on his face. It caused the muscles in my stomach to contract. The feeling known as “butterflies” tickled me from the inside out.
“Oh, do you?” His tone crescendoed into a high note as his hands slid up my backside to my hips. Without warning, he pulled me on top of him. “Well, I like you.”
July 7 – Jack Reynolds
It was 8 am the next morning before either of us were ready to start the day. Even then, only I got up. Lisa wasn’t ready. When I kissed her on one rosy cheek, she grumbled before turning over in bed.
“I don’t believe my legs work yet.”
“I really need to take you with me to high school reunions.” I tugged the sheets past her shoulder as she smiled. She’d smiled a lot since we got there.
As I descended the stairs, I began whistling. Not a particular tune. Just random notes flowing out of me. Brendon wasn’t the only one with talent. It wasn’t until I reached the entrance to the kitchen that I stopped in my tracks.
Brendon was seated at the table eating pancakes. He was the only one there. And the refrigerator was outside on the back porch. “Oh, look who’s up. Good morning, Romeo.”
“Did you just NATO my last name?” I arched a brow his direction.
“Ain’t no one wanna hear you and your lady fuck, Dood.” He finished off the last of his breakfast and stood with his plate.
My entire body cringed. “Shit. Sorry.”
At the sink, Brendon plopped down his dish and started the water. Then, he began imitating a woman in the throes of passion. “Oh, Jack! Jack! Yes!” He glanced over his shoulder. “Your love is your gross inner self. Your love is your dick in your head,” he sang. Then, he turned to me with a dishrag in his hands. “It wouldn’t kill you to make more noise, during, you know. Chicks dig it.”
“Noted.” It wasn’t.
“You’re lucky those kids are hard sleepers.”
“Speaking of which.” I pointed at him. “Why aren’t you keeping an eye on them?”
“Relax. That boy could sleep through a hurricane.”
After a moment’s silence, I gestured outside. “Do you want to tell me why the fridge is out there?”
He fished in the pocket of his jeans and cocked his head toward the sliding glass door. “Let’s have a smoke and I’ll tell you.”
The door shuddered in its casing as he shut it behind us. Once we were away from it a good thirty feet, he lit a cigarette. Then, he passed it to me while exhaling.
“So…” He pronounced it like sue. “The fridge was stinking up the house.”
I shot him a look. “And you had to bring me out here to tell me that?”
My companion shrugged. “Nah. I’ve just been pulling my beautiful hair out trying to run with these kids. I needed some adult time.”
“They behave?”
He nodded. “Aye, aye.” He was quiet for a moment. A bird chirped somewhere close by. “You got some good kids.”
A heavy sigh left me. “Yeah. But that girl is growing up too fast. Lisa tells me she may ask about sex, and I do not want to have that conversation with her.”
Brendon chuckled. The same bird fluttered down, landing on top of the fridge. It scratched its feet against the plastic, then pecked at it twice. With each hop, its tailfeathers bounced.
“That’s when I lost my virginity.”
My eyes rolled skyward, and another sigh escaped me. “Jesus.”
“And it was a threesome.”
“I get it!”
“With another guy.”
“Stop!” I turned on him, r
eady to tell him off. But he was grinning from ear to ear. It was a contagious smile, lighting up my own. “I can only get so erect.”
We laughed. But something inside me kept tugging. It was like there was something I was supposed to do.
“You can play guitar, right?”
Brendon’s eyebrows drew down as he dropped the cigarette butt to the ground. Crushing it with the toe of his converse, he said, “You starting a band? Because I should really check with my other members before I bail on them.”
“Ha, ha.” I glanced up at the closed second-story window. “I want to do something special for Lisa.”
“And I’m bored now.”
“Get fucked.”
“I’d love to. Point me to the nearest single person and I’m on it.”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I want to write my wife a song. Is that going to be too much to ask of Your Highness?”
He seemed to ponder my proposition for a second. “Hmm… Ok. I’ll do it. But only because you gave me a new title.”
Inside at the table, we’d gathered a piece of scrap paper and a pen. But the entire process was a lot harder than I anticipated.
“Okay, so… Do you write?” Brendon passed the paper over to me.
“In my journal.”
He rolled his eyes, taking the paper back.
“I owe you.”
“Yeah, ya do.” He tapped the pen on his chin once. “What do you call her? Like, you got a pet name for her or something?”
“Foxtrot.”
He scrunched up his face. “What rhymes with Foxtrot?”
“Buckshot?”
He tilted his head and frowned. “Romantic.”
“I don’t see you coming up with anything better.”
“She’s your wife.”
“How about hot shot?”
“Or Money Shot.” He grinned at me, but I wasn’t having it. When I glared at him, he went back to the paper. “What else do you call her?”
I leaned back. “Lisa.”
Brendon’s head hit the table with a thunk. “The only thing that rhymes with that is pizza.”
“Why does it need to rhyme again?”
He sighed again, lurching forward as if explaining things was a burden. “It doesn’t. But it makes it a lot easier.” He paused, staring at the blank paper. “This isn’t working. Okay, what does she mean to you?”
Without even thinking, I answered, “Everything.”
He looked startled for a second, then dropped his chin into his hand. “Okay, okay. Instead of writing something… Let’s…” His gaze was cast to the ceiling as he began humming in his chest. Then, words began to form. “Everything I need, I need is someone who believed me. I needed someone who wouldn’t leave me. I needed her.”
I sat up straight. “I like it.”
He nodded. “Anything you need I promise you I will believe you. I promise you I’ll never leave you. I need my girl.”
Goosebumps broke out on my arms. It was perfect. Simple and perfect. She’d love it. “That’s it.”
He nodded. “Yeah, a traveling musician sang that to me last year when he stopped by the hospital. It’s a great piece. Can you remember that melody?”
“Me? You’re singing it, Christina Aguilera.”
He glanced at me again, his eyebrows low. “Are you serious? Am I being paid?”
“You do it for free all the time!”
“When I want to…” He scowled, looked away and blinked a few times. “This is like…work.”
“Weren’t you upset like, two days ago because you didn’t have a job?”
Jerking his head back to meet my gaze, his mouth turned into an O. Then, he smiled. “Oh, yeah.”
A door closed upstairs. We flipped our attention toward the staircase. Two sets of footsteps hurried down to the bottom floor and all three kids rounded the corner looking sleepy. Rex bounced against Lexi’s hip before she set him down.
“We’re hungry,” she said flatly.
“All of you?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Well…” I couldn’t resist. “Hi, Hungry. I’m Jack.”
“Oh, my God.” Brendon’s head hit the table as he giggled. Lexi and Cyrus exchanged glances as if I was a burden on their existence.
“You’re old.” It was all Lexi said as she went to the cabinets for something to eat.
“I mean…” Brendon watched me as he spoke. “She’s technically correct. That’s the best kind of correct.”
“You’re—”
“An idiot. I know.” He grinned. “There’s pancakes by the sink, guys and gal.”
“Sweet!” Cyrus grabbed a plate from Lexi and scooped up three pancakes onto it before he could even finish his exclamation.
A soft set of footsteps descended the stairs as the kids seated themselves at the table. I stood to get Lisa a mug of coffee, because she missed it like crazy. The instant stuff was putrid to her. She seemed to like Brendon’s home-grown stuff, though.
She padded into the kitchen looking like she’d only half woken up. Her now short hair had flipped inward at the ends while she’d slept on it. And her eyes were slits. I handed her the mug full of what she called her life-force and she took it from me without hesitation.
“Thank you.” She plopped herself into what used to be my chair and began sipping her coffee, waking up an inch with each swallow.
I leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing my arms. “So, what’s our plan?”
From the Desk of Dr. Lisa Reynolds – July 7
Tehachapi City was emptier than a graveyard. At least a cemetery had corpses inhabiting it. But the once beautiful and bustling small town had been deserted two years prior when the outbreak reached the city limit. Déjà vu seeped into every fiber of my being when I stood at the nurse’s station. It was there that I’d seen an infected patient bite the throat out of my Chief of Medicine. Gore had splashed onto my scrubs and shoes, giving the once-blue cloth a crimson sheen.
I turned toward the left hallway where I used to spend my on-call days. In the patient room just three doors down from where I stood, I’d seen another infected patient succumb to the virus, enter a state of full convulsion until they could no longer breathe.
To my right was the emergency department. That was where five infected patients were brought the day before I picked up and left. Two of them were far too gone to treat. The other three had just been bitten. I watched the transformation happen in real time. It almost seemed like yesterday.
“Lab’s on the second floor.”
I turned toward Jack’s voice. He was studying the map on the wall. A single handprint in blood was smeared on the bottom right corner.
“Yes.”
“Got the vials?” Brendon touched my elbow.
“I do.” I turned toward Lexi and Cyrus. Rex was toddling around behind them. “Please stay close to Jack. He’ll protect you. If anything happens, I need you all to be safe.”
“Okay.” Lexi nodded. After a second or two of us looking at each other, she threw her arms around my waist. “Be careful.”
I was startled at first, but then I embraced her. “I’ve got Brendon with me. We’ll do fine.”
After pulling away, Lexi’s attention went to Brendon. She seemed to gather her thoughts for a moment before running to him at a full sprint. She almost tackled him into the wall. He caught her, but not before all the breath left his body.
“You’d better take care of her.”
Brendon pulled back then dropped to his knees in front of her. “You know I will.”
Lexi smiled through glistening eyes. Then, her expression changed to a playful one when she turned to Jack. “You turned that dirty, didn’t you?”
Jack placed a hand on top of her head. “You know I did. I don’t even know why you asked.”
Even through the seriousness of the situation, Lexi giggled. Then, she took one last glance at us before the kids headed down the hallway toward my old office.<
br />
“Here’s the key to the office.” I dropped it into Jack’s outstretched palm, then looked into his eyes. “If anything happens, lock yourselves in there.”
He grabbed my shoulders. “Nothing’s going to happen.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
He looked down for a split second, then met my gaze again. “If your phone goes off…” He swallowed. “You run. I don’t care where. You just drop that fucking thing and run.”
I nodded.
“Promise me.”
But, how could I? How could I promise to abandon my family? Jack, I am so sorry if you ever read this, but… I lied. “I promise.”
Emptying the air out of his lungs in a long whoosh, he tilted his head back. “Okay. Thank you.”
I smiled weakly before turning away. But he caught my wrist, pulling me back. Startled, I glanced up at him.
“Hey… Do I… Do I make enough noise during sex?”
For a second, I wasn’t sure how to respond. Was he joking? His face didn’t look it. Sometimes it was hard to tell, but when he was being serious, an extra horizontal line creased into his forehead above the other two.
I opened my mouth to respond. “Uh…” But what was I supposed to say? “I’ve never thought about it.”
He inhaled, the breath whistling past his teeth.
“After last night, Jack, I have zero complaints.”
He nodded, hooking a finger under my chin to tilt my head up until I was looking at his smile. “That’s good to know. I love you.”
“I love you, too. See you soon.”
***
“I’m most excited about this blood.” I inspected the vial of red substance as it sloshed inside the glass tube. “This is blood, yes?”
Brendon handed me a pipette and a slide. “I mean, it came out of his veins, so…”
I nodded, noting the sarcasm and storing it in the back of my brain. Once we had four solid slides of the blood, I asked him to prepare the brain tissue the same way. As he did that, I checked the blood under the microscope.
“Well, it’s blood.”
“Way to earn that meritorious award, Mama Reynolds.”
“But there’s no platelets.”
Brendon looked up from his work to meet my gaze. “Que?”
