Jyme and the nurse loaded the giveaway items onto the cart and the nurse pushed it away.
My phone buzzed; I looked at the screen, and it read, “We’re on our way.” I sat the phone back down on the bed.
“Mrs. JJ, could you give us a minute?” I asked, not looking at her; I kept my eyes on Jyme. Mrs. JJ looked a Jyme for a long moment, and then I saw her pain for him. Her face was crumbling right before me. She went from concerned to heartbroken. She had a sickly and pained look on her face. He eyes watered and I knew then, she knew what was coming, and she wanted to be strong for him. She walked out the room, shutting the door all the way.
Jyme stood up straight and turned towards me. Still not making eye contact with me. He walked over to the window and stared at the buildings with both his arms crossed.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
“Cricket, don’t do this,” he begged.
“Jyme, look at me,” I demanded. He turned around to face me and finally looked me in the eye.
“You’d be so much more scared of my truth than a lie,” he sighed.
“This is why I don’t let people in my heart,” I breathed out.
Jyme walked over to me and kneeled down right in front of my face. “You didn’t let me anyway near your fucking heart; don’t kid yourself. I couldn’t hurt your precious heart if I tried.”
I turned my head away from him, and he nuzzled his face into the side of my neck. I closed my eyes and let the tears fall.
“Cricket, please don’t do this,” he begged.
“Stop it,” I pushed him away from me.
“Cricket, let me love you,” he begged through falling tears now.
“You don’t know how to love me,” I cried.
“You don’t know how to let me love you.”
There was a knock at the door, and Jyme turned and yelled, “NOT NOW!” I heard two sets of feet shuffling.
I crossed my arms around my chest and squeezed my eyes shut. “You need to go now,” I told him.
“Cricket?” Chelle whispered from outside the door.
“Where am I supposed go without you?” Jyme weakly responded.
“Back to your life.”
“I had no life before the 28th of October. You kick started me up.”
Then, the 28th made sense now. Those flower arrangements had twenty-eight flowers in them.
“Lil Samson, we should go now,” Mrs. JJ said nervously from a distance. Jyme kissed the side of my neck, and then he kissed my wet cheek.
“I’m cutting you off completely and don’t try to contact me!” I said sternly.
Jyme grabbed my face in such a quick movement, I gasped. He was grabbing my cheeks so hard that my lips puckered up like a duck.
“Get the fuck off her,” Chelle yelled.
I could not turn away from his hold on me. My cheeks started to burn, and Jyme was staring at me with a crazed look.
“Sorry, I don’t have a cutoff switch,” he growled. Jyme then pressed his lips down to my painful puckered lips and bit down hard.
I thrashed from the pain, and I felt hands tugging in all directions. There were so many voices shouting now, but my eyes focused on the black pair right in front of me. I could taste the blood on my tongue. Jyme sucked on my lips so hard, and then he took a loud swallow. He pushed me back onto the bed, and pushed every single person dangling from his arms, neck, and torso to the floor one by one.
Mrs. JJ followed Jyme right out the door.
Ayashe made it off the floor and to me first. “OH MY GOD!” she screamed.
Chelle jumped up off the floor and yelled, “He fucking bit her. She’s bleeding!”
Two nurses started working on me immediately. A doctor in a white coat ran in with a syringe and injected something into my lip. I ended up having to get six stitches, and my lips stayed swollen for over a week.
* * * * *
I cried myself to sleep for weeks, and the pounds started shedding off.
The front desks at the condo and at the office were notified by D’Artagnan not to let any packages, or anyone – who was not authorized on the now very short list – to come through. I am not sure how long the flower deliveries would have lasted if D’Artagnan hadn’t stepped in. I was receiving arrangements at the condo and at the office. D’Artagnan insisted on me working only in the office for at least a month. He picked up all of my territories, and I did all of our paperwork.
We were a great team and started to become good friends. We began carpooling, and we would leave the condo every morning by nine and always retuned by a little after five. We ordered take out for dinner Monday thru Friday. D’Artagnan was now the big brother that I never had. Our relationship was professional and platonic. He never once asked me about Jyme, and I appreciated that. I had a new-found respect for my new friend, D’Artagnan.
My old friends, on the other hand, had been begging me to have a full girl’s night out with them. When I told them I was not up for partying, they agreed to have drinks instead and catch up. It had been a few months since that dreadful day in the hospital. I met the girls that Friday night; we all met up at Pink Ultra Lounge. I went right after work and caught a cab downtown. The girls were already sitting at a table, and they both had drinks. They didn’t see me walk up; they both turned around scoping out the bar. I sat down and took a swig of the drink in front of Chelle.
“So who are we scoping out?” I asked. They both turned to look at me, and then both of their faces showed horror. Chelle gasped, and Ayashe squeezed her eyes shut.
“What?”
Neither one of them said anything.
“Is something on my face?” I asked, touching my lips and then my jaws and chin. “So, I haven’t seen you guys since Thanksgiving. What’s been going on?”
They both just sat there staring at me, and then a waitress showed up and took my drink order.
“Uhm, so the kids are dying to have a grown-up dinner party, and they wanted me to invite my friends for dinner; they’ve been watching the food network and they want to cook,” Ayashe said with a fake smile.
I looked over at Chelle; she was looking down at the table.
“Sure, that sounds great, just let me know when.” I smiled.
Ayashe looked over at Chelle, and she kept her eyes on the table.
“So, I got a promotion and I’m thinking about putting the kids in private school; I can finally afford it.” Ayashe stated.
Ayashe and I both looked over at Chelle, and she was still looking down at the table. “So, how’s everything at work?” Ayashe asked.
“Oh, I’ve been really busy, we have these two new products coming out for the spring and we --”I was interrupted.
“How much weight have you lost?” Chelle demanded.
Ayashe gawked at Chelle and then widened her eyes and started looking at the table. Chelle was glaring at me as if she hated me.
“I don’t really know,” I answered. Now I was the one not making eye contact with her. I looked everywhere in that lounge except at her.
“What size are you now?” she demanded.
“Oh, I’m a 16, “I lied.
“Bull fucking shit!”
“I’m a 14/16.”
“14 going on 12 soon,” she whispered, shaking her head.
“I’m trying to be healthier,” I lied.
“Cricket, you’re an 18; you’ve been an 18 since high school; you’re a fucking 18,” Chelle said.
I looked down at my martini and cringed.
“Has he tried to contact you?” she asked.
I shook my head and took another swig of my martini.
“So, now the only way we hear from you is if we contact you?” she asked annoyed.
“No, it’s not like that.”
“You know, Cricket, I’ve known you since our freshman year in college, and I’ve seen you through over a dozen breakups and three engagements, and you have NEVER looked like this before. You look like something someone drug from the crypt
.”
I looked down and reached into my purse. I laid out the money for my drinks and a five-dollar tip. Then, I drank the last of my Martini and slid away from the table.
“Cricket, no, wait,” Ayashe said.
I stood up and made eye contact with Chelle.
“No, let her go. This is what she does best: RUN,” Chelle snapped.
“Cricket, please we’re your friends, but it’s so hard to see you like this. Let us in. We can help you,” Ayashe pleaded.
“She doesn’t know how,” Chelle said.
“Honey, you will bounce back, and you’ll be fine. We will stand strong with you.” Ayashe smiled.
“’We will stand strong?’ Is that what you said?” I asked through tears.
“Yes, honey, we will,” Ayashe said.
“I can’t stand anywhere if I’m barely crawling,” I cried out.
I turned and headed towards the door. Outside, the heavens had apparently opened the floodgates. I hailed a cab and slid in out of the rain. As soon as I shut my door, the other back door opened. He slid into the seat right next to me. He gave the cab driver a hundred dollar bill and told him to drive. His mouth was on mine instantly, and I couldn’t stop him if I tried. His tongue was so hot, and he was panting as if he had been running. He kissed the side of my neck, and then he went for my ear. “You don’t look good, Babe,” he whispered.
“I know,” I breathed.
“Fix that.”
I nodded with my eyes shut.
“Look at me.”
I shook my head no at him.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want this memory in my head.”
“Cricket,” he sighed.
I turned from him and curled into a ball facing the car door. He pulled away from me, and as soon as the cab stopped at a light, he got out.
I sobbed into the sleeve of my trench coat. The cab driver never said a word. We rode around for thirty minutes in pure silence. “Miss, you have fifteen dollars left on the hundred,” he said.
I gave him my address, and when he pulled up at the condo, I owed him four dollars. I handed him a hundred dollar bill and opened the car door.
“Miss, this really isn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it is. Thank you.”
Robert held the car door open for me and held my hand as I got out. The tears were starting again, and I needed to be in a cold, dark place.
“I got you, Ms. Hooper,” Robert said as he pulled the front door open.
He whistled once, and Randy was to his feet running towards the elevator. Robert and I made it over to the elevator just as the elevator doors opened. Randy stepped in and pulled me into him. He pressed the tenth floor, and I began to sob. He walked me to my door and used his master key to unlock it. The door opened before he could turn the knob.
Ayashe and Chelle stood there, looking frantic, I stepped into the condo, and Chelle pulled me over to the sofa.
“Let it out, Cricket. Let it all out,” she soothed.
I obeyed every word she said. Two full meltdowns, a box set of Sex in the City, and six weeks of this passed.
By February I was almost 90% of my old self. I had been hanging out with the girls more and more. The insisted on taking me out, we ended up at a sketchy looking building called Cat’s Nip for my birthday. I thought, well, they did ask me what I wanted to do, and I did tell them I didn’t care. I guess Chelle took that to mean I wanted to see some stripers.
“Oh God, it looks like Cupid threw up in here,” Chelle frowned.
“Who has a birthday on Valentine’s Day? That is just so wrong on so many levels,” Ayashe stated.
“I know, and I’ve hated this fucking day every year,” I said.
“Well, Happy Birthday to the most bootylilcious size 18 I’ve ever seen,” Chelle crooned. We clinked our glasses and slammed the shot down our throats. All three of us hissed from the strong drink.
“Okay...Okay. No more drinking. We have another destination for the evening.” Chelle said.
It was true I was back in my size 18, and I’d never felt better. Some people are meant to be size 4s and 6s, but I am a bonafide bombshell 18 and extremely proud of it!
A man in velvet – and I do mean velvet – red suit got on the stage.
“What is the place?” I whispered into Ayashe’s ear.
“Shhhh,” she teased. The announcer introduced a band called Sensation, and the crowd went wild. When the lights hit the stage, there were four women dressed up like a bad eighties video, and then they started the concert with Pat Benatar’s “Love Is A Battlefield.”
My mouth dropped open, and Chelle burst out laughing. “I know how much you love eighties music, so here you go,” she beamed. I hugged her around her neck, and then we all started shouting back at the stage.
I looked around, and everyone in the lounge was a woman, seated in a party of three or more. There was not a man in sight; well, except for the half-dressed waiters; they wore bow ties and things.
The band sang everything from Cyndi Lauper to Whitney Houston. It was amazing. An hour had passed when Chelle and Ayashe took me to our next destination. We made it to an underground bar in Tacoma.
Chelle knew I loved good music, and she told me this club was off the radar. She said the stuff was so underground here that the CD’s don’t arrive until twenty minutes before the set. The bar was called No Judgey, and there was no telling what went down in here.
We went down a flight of stairs and walked for a few steps, and then hit another flight of stairs. I would have taken my heels off and jogged down like everybody else passing us now, but I was sure I would need a tetanus shot if I did. Apparently, this was the spot where Ayashe and Sheen could be incognito. Ayashe knew almost everybody in here, and there was some kind of code. Sheen wasn’t from around these parts but he felt safe here with her. They both seemed so at ease in the setting. Chelle said they played nothing but Underground music here.
We finally made it down to the concrete floor and entered a set of double doors. The space was huge and freezing. Good thing I wore my jacket over the little, sparkly, off-the-shoulder shirt I loved so much; well, the one the mud god adored so much. I wore a pair of black skinny jeans, sparkly heels, and silver hoop earrings. My hair was down, and I had on very little makeup.
I started noticing that each song they played in this club had a sort of grind beat to it and everyone was grinding up against each other.
“Do you like it?” Ayashe asked.
“Yes, it kind of reminds me of dirty dancing,” I explained.
“But in a good way, right?”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
The crowd was wild, and the club had a nice, flowing rhythm to it. I didn’t know any of the songs they played, but I desperately wanted the CD. If the songs weren’t filled with driving beats, they talked about sex and seducing somebody. On my third warm beer, I was standing up cheering Ayashe and Chelle on the dance floor. The music was amazing, and we were all having fun. Ayashe was dancing with Sheen, and Chelle was grinding on a local. I shot my eyes over to the side and saw a huge pole entering the dance floor. I was not sure if something was about to pop off or not, but I was ready for whatever.
A guy walked out on the dance floor and pulled Chelle up to him, right at a song change. Chelle’s previous partner didn’t mind and he found another dance partner right away. She caught the beat to the new song and really laid it to this partner. I caught the side of his face, and it was Kanoke. I felt a ping in the pit of my stomach, and I was just about to turn and go back to my original watch spot when I felt someone press up against my back and then a hand moving my hair to the full shoulder side of my shirt. A pair of warm and familiar lips was at my ear on my shoulder that was now fully exposed. Those arms were wrapping around me like a vice. I breathed in, and I could smell fresh Irish Spring in the air. I felt the tingles rising inside of me. No matter how hard I tried to hate him, and no matter how much I tried to prepare myself for this enc
ounter, it wasn’t enough. He was my kryptonite, and our past problems didn’t matter to me at all. They all melted away with just one touch.
Jyme sang in my ear, matching the same deep tone the singer was belting out.
“Can you lie next to her and give her your heart, your heart as well as your body. Can you lay next her and confess your love, your love as well as your folly.” My skin rose in chill bumps, and my toes were tingling. He swayed me in his arms, and I couldn’t think of any other place I would rather be.
Jyme sang, “Tell me now where my fault was in loving you with my whole heart.”
I was a little scared of him, but I pushed every fear and every negative emotion down. My body and mind craved for this man, I was so lost in him now; he had completely hypnotized me, and I didn’t want to ever wake. He grinded up against me, and I tried to turn around so I could see his face, but he yanked me back in place.
“Don’t,” he growled in my ear. Just hearing his thick deep voice, made chills run across my neck and back.
I was so caught up in him. I pressed back and bounced my ass slowly up and down on his anaconda. Jyme slid his tongue in my ear, and my insides went crazy. The singer’s voice coming out the speakers all of a sudden got angry. The song still kept its slow grinding tempo, but the vocals now sounded like thick molasses and razor blades. The singer was mad and his words cut: “A white blank page and a swelling rage. You didn’t think when you sent me to the brink; you desired my attention but denied my affections.”
“Cricket, come with me,” Jyme demanded. I nodded and gripped his arms around my stomach and torso tighter. He turned us around, still not letting me see him.
“Walk,” he growled in my ear, and I started moving straight through the crowd. He guided me by pushing or tugging. Why won’t he let me see him? Had he gotten beaten up or maybe he had a fishing accident? Surely, someone would have told me that; I mean if he was now deformed someone would have told Ayashe or Chelle.
My heart pounded as we rushed through the crowd. The song was at its climax, and everyone was rocking to it. A man I hadn’t seen before stood at a door. He nodded and let us pass through. We were in a pitch-black room, and I could hear a train in the distance. If Jyme wanted to fuck me right here and now in this dark cramped room, I’d let him.
Heels of Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) Page 13
