Jealousy at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

CHAPTER 13:

  Plotting in the Steam Room

  Tucker wallowed in the wave pool wondering how he could possibly get the attention of the goddess. She had disappeared somewhere, but where he had no idea. All that he knew was that Rex and Nadia were still missing. He hoped they would stay away.

  He peered over at Maggie who swam around in the water with some guy he’d never seen before.

  ‘Huh,’ Tucker said aloud. ‘Given up on chasing Rex have you? Too much competition?’ Fortunately, they were too far away to hear him.

  A few minutes later the unknown guy swam over to Tucker. ‘Hey. You Tucker?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tucker said, puffing his chest out. ‘That’s my name, don’t wear it out.’

  ‘Maggie says you go to the same school as her.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘I hear you don’t really like Rex Cassidy.’

  ‘He’s an ubbhead.’

  ‘Ah what?’

  ‘You heard.’

  Shawn snickered. ‘Whatever. But man, that Vanessa, she is just so darn hot. I mean what a total babe.’

  ‘She’s a goddess.’

  ‘Yeah… Yeah, that’s exactly what she is.’

  ‘She’s my girl.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard. Well at least she will be mine before too much longer.’

  ‘Huh. Oh yeah? You got some fairy godmother hidden away in a bottle somewhere?’

  ‘No. But I’ve got a mastermind brain.’ He tapped his own skull a few times.

  Shawn laughed. ‘Whatever you say, but, hey, it seems you and I have something in common. We both think Vanessa is the hottest babe in the entire universe, right?’

  ‘And beyond.’

  ‘Exactly. And we both agree that Rex Cassidy is a right royal pain in the butt who’s just preventing Vanessa from seeing guys like us and how hot and studly we are right?’

  Tucker’s eyes widened and he stared at Shawn, amazed that someone else saw things the way he did. ‘Yes! That’s right.’

  ‘See that’s the problem with guys like him. Rich guys like him with flash cars and money to splash around snap up all the hot chicks. All the girls can see is the dolleros, bro. Guys like you and me don’t even get a look in.’

  ‘That’s right!’

  ‘Are we gonna accept that, bro? Are we just gonna stand by and let that happen?’

  ‘Hell no!’

  ‘Damn right we’re not. So it’s up to you and me to try to get this guy out of the picture. To make the babe see that he’s not worth it.’

  ‘Yeah. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, but it never seems to do any good.’

  ‘Maybe you just haven’t come up with a decent plan.’

  ‘But what can we do? He’s around her all the time.’

  ‘Well he wasn’t a short while ago. I got him away from Vanessa for a bit. Problem is she wouldn’t talk to me. Kept playing hard to get. I know she likes me, but she’s too obsessed with him.’

  Tucker didn’t particularly like his claim, even though his comment about her obsession with Rex was 100 percent accurate. ‘How do you know she likes you?’

  ‘I know man. I can sense these things.’

  Tucker very much doubted it, but decided it best to keep his thoughts to himself. If this guy could be a potential ally, he didn’t want to blow it with him.

  ‘Nadia’s gonna help us,’ Shawn said.

  ‘Nadia?’

  ‘Vanessa’s half sister. Because she wants Rex. What we need to do is come up with a plan that makes Vanessa so angry at Rex that she refuses to have anything more to do with him.’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘Well I think we’ve already achieved something already, but that’s only the beginning. What we want to do is continue to show Rex to be a lying, cheating jerk. I can’t do a lot because I don’t go to your school, but you, you could probably help out quite a bit.’

  ‘Anything, I can do, just call on me. They call me Mr Fixit when it comes to getting the job done.’

  ‘That’s what I like to hear. I’ll grab your phone number before we leave here, so we can talk some more about what Nadia and I have in mind...’

  ‘Hey look.’ Tucker pointed to the end of the building. Rex had just stepped out of the steam room, wiped steam and sweat from his brow and walked in the direction of the changing rooms.

  ‘The girls must be in there,’ Shawn said. ‘We should go in there.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  The two waded to the nearest ladder. It took a great deal of effort for Tucker to haul himself out. On arriving at the door to the steam room, Shawn reached for the door handle but paused. He then turned to Tucker and put his finger to his mouth.

  Tucker listened and could hear just hear Vanessa and Nadia talking.

  ‘You did use protection, right?’ Vanessa’s voice said.

  ‘Nessa. Come on. Get real. We had both been in the pool and we were both in our swimsuits. Where were we going to get a condom from?’

  Shawn’s eyes widened, he stared at Tucker and a smile appeared on his face.

  ‘He promised he’d always use protection when having sex with anyone else, so that he and I wouldn’t need to.’

  ‘Sorry. What can I say Nessa? He was like an animal down there. Virtually dragged me into a private spot... of course I was willingly dragged.’ She laughed. ‘Pretty much tore my top off. He obviously wasn’t thinking about taking any precautions, I can tell you that much.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Why don’t you ask him? I’m sure he’ll give you all the details, right?’

  Vanessa didn’t reply.

  ‘Relax! I’m clean. I promise you I don’t have any diseases or anything like that. Last time I went to the doctor I was given a clean bill of health. And contrary to what you might think of me, I don’t sleep around. I’m very particular about who I get with.’

  Vanessa sighed. ‘I’m sure you’re fine, but...’ She paused.

  ‘What? You’re upset because he went back on his word to you?’

  Vanessa said nothing again.

  ‘He’s a guy, Nessa. Guy’s get carried away in the moment. Heck, I did too, but he’s just impossible to resist. I just couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to say no. You understand, right?’

  ‘Of course,’ Vanessa said after a few seconds. ‘No girl could say no. But if what you’re saying is true...’

  Nadia sighed. ‘I know. It means that you can’t necessarily trust Rex with other girls. He’s made a promise to you and on this occasion he broke it. How can you know just how many other times he’s betrayed your trust in that way?’

  This time silence remained. Shawn turned his head back to Tucker and smiled again. He then turned the handle of the door and entered. Tucker followed.

  ‘Hi girls,’ Shawn said. ‘Mind if we join you?’

  ‘Sure,’ Nadia said. ‘Take a seat.’

  The intense heat and humidity hit Tucker right away and it was a struggle to breathe in there, but he was willing to endure any type of discomfort to get to hang out with the goddess and her extremely yummy sister.

  ‘Wow, you girls sure look hot, all sweaty and steamy,’ Shawn said.

  ‘Well yes,’ Vanessa said. ‘When one is sweaty and steamy it usually means one is hot.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’

  The door to the steam room opened and Rex stepped inside. Vanessa suddenly leapt to her feet, reached him and grabbed his hand. ‘Come on, Dollbaby. I’ve had enough of this steam room. Let’s go back to the pool.’

  ‘Ok. Whatever you want.’

  They both turned and exited the room.

  Nadia scowled. ‘She’s very fast. Stealing him away like that.’

  ‘She should be pissed at him,’ Shawn said.

  ‘Maybe… I’ve learnt pretty quickly that what you see on the outside is not necessarily what’s going on underneath. For her to suddenly snatch him away like that shows me she’s bothered by everything. I think we�
�ve successfully planted seeds of distrust and doubt in her mind.’

  ‘Great.’

  Nadia peered at Tucker. ‘Are you sure we can trust him?’

  ‘He hates Rex.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because he’s an ubbhead,’ Tucker said.

  ‘A what?’

  ‘An ubbhead! He’s brought me nothing but misery since I’ve known him.’

  Nadia snorted. ‘If he doesn’t like you there must be a darn good reason… but it doesn’t matter. All I care about is removing Vanessa from the picture so that I can have him to myself.’

  ‘And I want Vanessa,’ Tucker said.

  Nadia burst out laughing. ‘You have got to be kidding!’

  Shawn smirked. ‘Well once we get Rex out of the picture, both Tucker and I can compete, but until then we’re working together on this, ok?’

  Tucker nodded, feeling miffed at Nadia’s manner. However, she was just too cute to have a go at. ‘I’ve already got her chatting with me online. She even asked me here today.’

  ‘She asked you here?’ Shawn scoffed. ‘You are kidding, right?’

  ‘She really likes me.’

  ‘Give me a break!’

  ‘She does. I chatted with her a couple of nights ago, actually.’

  ‘Wait, I was with her almost the entire evening two nights ago,’ Nadia said. ‘She never chatted with you. She chatted with some chick called Cherry, but that’s all.’

  Tucker decided it was safe to reveal the truth to these two. It would also show them that he had indeed accomplished what he’d claimed. ‘That was me.’

  Nadia’s eyes widened. ‘You’re Cheeky Cherry?’

  ‘Yep.’ Tucker beamed. ‘I knew she wouldn’t chat with me if she thought it was me, so I pretended to be someone else. Someone she wouldn’t think was trying to trick her.’

  Nadia smiled and laughter broke forth. ‘Wow, Tucker, I’m really impressed. Vanessa seems to think you’re the real thing.’

  ‘Cool!’

  Nadia turned her eyes to Shawn. ‘We could use this.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  She turned back to Tucker. ‘Tucker, you managed to get a photograph of Rex with some girl... what was her name?’

  ‘Chelsea Brown.’

  ‘Was that for real?’

  ‘Yes. I snapped them both together, but it was in Te Arawa though, not here in New Plymouth.’

  ‘She thinks Rex really was in New Plymouth. Rex pretty much said he didn’t go there that night and Vanessa didn’t push the issue. It means Rex has not told her about that rendezvous with Chelsea and according to her, he tells her everything. It works in our favour because once again seeds of doubt and distrust have been planted. All we need to do is build on it.’

  Shawn nodded. ‘But how do you know she hasn’t talked to Rex about all that?’

  ‘I’ve been around all the time. Never given them a moment alone.’

  ‘But they may be talking right now.’

  ‘No, the others will be around.’

  ‘And what about after this? Are you going to be around them tonight?’

  ‘No, I have to go back home. Vanessa’s staying at Rex’s overnight.’

  ‘Well then she’ll find out everything then, won’t she?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Nadia smirked. ‘She won’t question him.’

  ‘What makes you so sure?’

  ‘Because she doesn’t want him to think she doesn’t trust him. She has this idea in her head that Rex will tell her when the time is right for him, but because she now has these seeds of doubt, if I know girls like her, she’s gonna stew on it and hope that Rex proves himself to her in some way.’

  Shawn grinned. ‘So we need to make sure that she only has more doubt and distrust, somehow.’

  ‘Yes. And I think I know how we can do that. For one thing, tomorrow, I am going to meet Cheeky Cherry for the first time.’