Текст книги "Suite 269"

Автор книги: Christine Zolendz

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

8

Lexa

“Men and women were not created equal. Example: Consecutive orgasms. Really ladies? Yes. I’d like to walk in your vagina for a day.” @Kavon #VaginaLuggage

I stood in front of the mirror staring into the eyes of a complete stranger. She was dressed in white silk and lace, a veil hung from her wild hair, and she looked ready to jump right out of a window. My mother and so-called future mother-in-law stood behind me, proud tears in their eyes.

I'm gonna hurl.

The wedding gown was suffocating me. It took me about two seconds. Two seconds of seeing myself in that idiotic dress to realize my wedding was still happening; like storm clouds hovering on the horizon and thunder rolling in. There were fifteen more days.

The organza and lace choked me, smothered me with its Vera Wang claws, and had me hyperventilating on the floor. "Off. Off," I panted, hands fumbling at the tiny pearl buttons that held me captive in the silky coffin. "Get this stupid thing off of me!"

Mandy was next to me instantly, her fingers hitting precise strings and buttons to get the fabric off my skin. "Okay, sweetie, okay. I'm taking it off," she whispered into my ear.

"Don't be so silly, Lexa. You look lovely, dear. If you're that worried about how you look, we could get you on one of those detox diets until the wedding. I bet you could lose all those extra pounds before you step one foot down the aisle."

Mandy and I both stiffened at the same time. Her hands up the back of my gown, me bent over; we must have looked the sight. "Hold me back, Mandy. I'm going to throttle her," I snapped.

"No. No. No, you won't." Mandy grabbed me by the waist and dropped the gown, which fell off me in one quick puff of fabric. "Calm down. Breathe. Just breathe." She stepped directly in front of me and cupped my face in her hands. "Look at me, Lex. What are you thinking?" Somewhere outside the walls of the store, a loud group of kids walked past, their voices happy and screeching, yet almost muted from so far away.

"I can't do this. I don't even know why I'm here. I can't marry someone who cheated on me, Mandy." I tilted my head to look past her. My mother stood with her hands covering her mouth, tears filling her eyes. Mrs. Trager next to her, eyes wide with shock. "I'm sorry. I need air," I said, grabbing my clothes and bolting out of the dressing room.

Yes, I ran through the front of the store yanking my shirt over my head (inside out and backwards), with my jeans and shoes in hand. No, I didn't think about it, it wasn't really a priority. All I wanted was air and to be out of that wedding gown.

By the time I reached the front door, I was hopping into my pants and stumbling out into the street, zipping up my zipper and gulping for air. The small crowd of teenagers I heard stood staring at me from the corner. All their laughter ceased.

I needed to think, and I certainly couldn't think with that stunning wedding gown on and my mother watching. Trager had said it was only one time.

Only one time.

He said it was only one time and that if I cancelled the wedding I'd be giving up our future for one silly little mistake. An accident. An ass fucking accident. I don't mean to be crass here, but that's what it was, it was exactly what I saw. It still lingered in my vision as if it were burned into the back of my eyelids. It made me want to pour bleach into my eyes and scrub them clean.

I drove home enraged and on a mission. Every stupid love song that had ever been created sobbed out of my car speakers.

The truth was I didn't want to forgive and I couldn’t forget. May God forgive me, but I didn't want to spend my life in a marriage where I would wonder constantly if my husband was doing something I knew him capable of once doing. Mistake or not. So, I needed more. I needed proof, because I knew in my heart that the whole 'only one time' had to be a lie. Just like everything else that fell out of Kevin's mouth…all lies.

I stormed through my apartment on a mission: find proof. I searched through clothes, drawers, receipts, and calendars: nothing. Then I turned on his laptop. The idiot always used the same password for everything: moneyman789.

That was all I needed.

As I scrolled through the countless porn and disgusting emails detailing their not only one time affair, my phone buzzed.

Kevin.

"Hello," I sung sweetly into the phone. My heart pounded in my chest. My stomach flipped and churned. Screaming at him and crying was all I wanted to do, but I held back, held myself together, and clenched my teeth.

"Babe? My mom said you left the fitting. I thought we we're getting past this. I love you. Tell me what I can do to make you feel better about this situation," he pleaded.

"Okay. I need the truth to make this decision; I want to know all the lies Kevin. No more games." Calm. Deep breaths. Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Come on, babe; leave your fact checking for work."

I hate you! I hate you for hurting me you stupid, stupid, stupid fool! Tears trailed down my cheeks.

"Lex, it was just that one time. Only last Wednesday. I swear. I swear on everything. I promise you, baby."

"Really?" Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. I will never forgive you.

"Hey, you know the scene in that famous movie, the one where the guy tells the girl how he feels and he holds up that big radio? Well, it's like that. That's how I feel about you. And I want to marry you so bad."

"You can't even tell me in your own words, can you?" I barked out a laugh.

"I'm not good with words, Lex. You're too good for my silly words. Come on, just forget about this, okay?"

"I don't want to play games, Kevin," I snapped.

"No games, baby. No games. I love you. Now get back to your fitting so you can look hot for me on our wedding day."

As soon as we hung up, I dialed another number and cried while listening to the phone ring, "Hello. Dream Wedding Planners. How may I help you?"

"Hello? Laura? This is Lexa Novak," I chirped through my tears.

"Hi, Lexa! Are we excited? Only a few more days!" she sang, her words full of joy. I wanted to reach right into the phone and punch her in her cheerful little throat.

"Yeah, about that. I'm going to need to cancel the wedding," I said in an eerily calm voice.

"If this is a joke, Miss Novak, it's not really a funny one," she said in a low voice.

"I really wish I were joking, Laura. But I can't get married now."

"Well, how about a reschedule then? If you cancel now you will lose all your money, but if you reschedule, I might be able to pull some strings and..."

"He cheated on me. I won't be rescheduling any wedding with him," I snapped. She gasped and coughed out an apology.

"Lexa, hun. We can't cancel the wedding. We have five thousand dollars worth of flowers being made, guests are flying in; you need to just take a few days and rethink this," she said hesitantly.

"Cancel it," I said, gritting my teeth.

"Hun, you are going to pay for all of it, whether you cancel or not. It's too late for refunds. You should just go through with the wedding and fix your problems after it," she huffed. "I just spoke on the phone with your mother-in-law this morning and there were no problems then, dear."

"Then she could marry her cheating bastard of a son," I yelled into the phone.

"Okay. Let's not do anything rash. Take a few days and think this through. You're talking about thousands of dollars."

I hung up on her. I understood completely. I was going to lose a lot of money because of his mistake.

With eyes out of focus from crying, I sat curled into a ball on my couch. I rubbed at my vision, trying to remember anything from the relationship worth holding on to. Nothing came to mind. My eyes roamed the apartment and I smiled to myself. No, nothing came to mind. Sophia could have him.

My phone chirped. I hoped it wasn't Kevin or anyone from my family who would try to persuade me to change my mind, because I had a lot to get done in very little time. I looked down at my phone.

How did James get my number?

My next phone conversation was to my building's superintendent. Within an hour, my locks were changed and a sign was hung on my door. And no more tears would be shed for Trager the Mailroom Guy—ever again.

I stood in front of the note on the door, smiling and feeling a bit better. I knew I made the right choice.

To my EX-fiancé, Kevin Trager,

Since you still thought our relationship was a game, let's play the last one together... A treasure hunt—romantic, right? Remember, that's how you asked me to marry you? Here's the game: I packed up all your belongings from MY apartment and now you have to find where all your crappy stuff is...Here are the clues! Have fun.

Clue 1: All your clothes are where you first told me you loved me.

Clue 2: All your personal papers and important files are where we first met.

Clue 3: All your pictures and stupid things you left around my house are where we had our first kiss.

Clue 4: Your laptop with everything on it, like naked pictures of you and Sophia, are at the house of the person who gave birth to you. She enjoyed the slide show as much as I did. I believe she understands my side of things a little more now.

What do you win for playing this game? All your stuff (I'm not sorry about your clothes—I had a little accident with scissors). And your freedom. Because I will never be okay with marrying someone who lies and cheats. I wanted a marriage, not a wedding, and you couldn't give me the marriage I deserved.

I hope you have a nice life.

It's just going to have to be without me.

Because I deserve better than this.

Wednesday.

I called into work sick. Ben and Jerry kept me company.

Thursday.

I still couldn't make it to work. There was an important John Hughes marathon on the television. Ben and Jerry left. Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels spent the night. I think Mandy came over too.

Friday.

Rain. I think.

My mother visited with a list of dating websites and chicken soup. She said it's good for the soul. But so was Jack Daniels. I introduced them. We ended up burning all of Kevin's pictures I had left in a pot on the stove. My curtains went up in flames and a fire extinguisher had to be used. That white foam was a pain in the ass to clean up.

Saturday and Sunday? Unmemorable—mostly because I truly have no recollection of either of those days.

Monday morning was work.

I sat at my desk—right hand clenched around a huge Caramel Frappuccino, second one of the day, and left hand rummaging through an enormous box of Godiva chocolate some anonymous person left on my desk. It was most likely Kevin. I didn't really care, you know, free chocolate and all.

I was so enrapt in my research (and sugary goodies) I barely heard the voices as they entered the office. I glanced up and saw a bright-eyed Mandy bouncing on the balls of her feet, standing next to a handsome...I scrambled up off the seat. "Mr. Holt."

"Miss Novak," he smiled, "you've missed work. Haven't answered any calls. How were your days off? Is everything okay?"

"Um. Yeah. I just had a rough day on Tuesday. I went um, to bed Tuesday night after getting rid of a rodent infestation I had in my apartment. When I woke up, it was this morning."

"Really?" he smiled, knowingly. God it feels like he’s the only person who gets my snarky jokes.

"Word to the wise, never drink NyQuil with our friend Jack. You might believe it's absolutely delicious at the time and admire the lovely shade of vomit it creates, but it packs a greater knockout than you could ever expect," I said.

James chuckled. In the cubicle next to me Frank, another fact checker, popped his head up. "You seriously drank NyQuil and Jack Daniels? Together?"

I winked at him. "You'd be surprised at how good it is."

"I'm surprised you're not dead," he said, laughing.

I glanced back up at James. He was smiling at me, his gaze lingering on my lips. "So what brings the managing editor all the way down into the basement this morning?" I asked, imagining him kneeling in front of my chair, my knees hooked over his shoulders and his lips against my flesh. A rush of blood heated my cheeks.

"I was hoping you could check on some information for me," he said, giving me one of his crooked smiles that made my heart practically explode.

"We usually use the office phone or email for that," Frank cut in.

"Shush, Frank," Mandy snapped, standing behind James and gesturing for Frank to either slit his own neck or to stop speaking. This was Mandy; it could have been either one.

"Well, I tried actually, but talking to the intern at the research desk is an exercise in patience," James said, still holding my gaze.

"Is it?" I laughed.

"Yeah, the kind that makes you want to throw your patience out the window and repeatedly jam your office phone against someone's head," he said, laughing.

Frank rolled his eyes. "All I'm saying is Mr. Holt didn't need to come all the way down to the sub basement to hand you a file of facts to check." A wadded up piece of paper crashed against the side of Frank's face, and his eyes narrowed at Mandy.

"I don't mind. The scenery is much nicer than upstairs," James said, stepping forward and laying a folder on my desk. My cheeks burned as I watched him stare at me. A stare that pierced my skin and bit intensely through all my senses.

My eyes moved over him. I couldn't help myself. From his strong hands to the top of his head and back down again, really slow. His smile widened as his eyes remained locked on mine. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered, leaning his hand on my desk, drifting forward, closer to me. A slightly sheepish look in his eyes, smile full of danger. He took a slow, deep breath, "You've been on my mind."

My heart slammed against my chest. His eyes were everywhere: on my face, eyes, lips, and back to my eyes. Heat flooded through my body under his gaze. He is a dangerous, dangerous man, I thought as he leaned closer.

I clenched my hands around my bag of chocolate to keep them from pulling his face to mine. Somehow, without thinking, I unwrapped one and popped it into my mouth.

"Well, then," he said blinking and leaning back, running a hand through his unruly hair. "I'll see you when you finish, yeah?"

I nodded and chewed. Words? I had none.

James spun around and walked out without another word.

What the hell just happened?

Mandy stared at the door for a beat then slowly turned her head in my direction. "You slept with that man on that airplane!"

"I did no such thing," I gasped loudly.

"Dry humped?" she asked, looking confused.

"No," I said, shaking my head wildly.

"A feel up?" she squeaked, jamming her hands on her hips.

"No! Stop. Not even a kiss."

"Something happened. He was about to grab you and drag you over your desk and screw you in front of us!" she said way too loudly, pointing her index finger in my direction.

"I agree," Frank piped in from behind his cubicle, "that man looked like he was hungry and remembered you were his favorite meal."

"Trust me, nothing happened. I, um just somehow misplaced a pair of underwear in his presence."

"What?" they asked in unison.

9

Jameson

“All my friends are couples. Married. With kids. It’s all good though. Because I have beer. Who’s the loser now?” @Kavon #NotMe

I laughed at my phone. Somehow, in the last few days of not seeing Miss Novak, I’ve given up on keeping her out of my mind. Every time I tried to sway my thoughts to different things, they'd just end up back to those blue eyes, plump lips, and smile that lit up her whole face.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you watching porn?" A deep, annoying voice invaded my thoughts.

I looked up to Evan carefully watching me, eyes wide. We were in my office, a spread of sandwiches in front of us, and stacks of work to get through. "No, you idiot. I'm not watching porn."

"You could have fooled me," he mumbled, lifting his sandwich and biting a huge crescent shape into it. He chewed slowly and pointed his fork in my direction. "Why are you looking at your phone like that? What are you looking at? Pictures? Friends share naked pictures; it's in the guy code. Let’s see them."

I held my hands up, laughing. "It's just a funny text. That's all."

Evan shifted in his seat, straightened up. "Yeah? From a woman?" His eyes widened. "Bro, are you sexting someone while you have lunch with me? Ugh. I feel dirty."

I laughed. "No, ass. It's Lexa Novak."

His sandwich fell out of his hands. "Spill. What's going on?"

"Nothing, Evan. I swear."

"So, it's okay if I try to have a go with her, right?" Evan smirked and chewed at the same time.

"I'd have to kill you first." Was it wrong of me to ward off potential dates for her? Yes. Did I care? Not one damn bit. If this was so wrong, why the hell did it feel right?

"Yeah, I thought so. This is so sweet, Holt. My eyes feel a little watery. Can I be your maid of honor?" Evan teased.

"Shut up." I glanced up at him. "You know Mandy; she's the secretary to the assistant to the creative director. She's hot. And Lexa's good friend. Very single."

"Interesting." Evan smiled, wagging his eyebrows.

As Evan cleaned up, singing about bringing sexy back, I excused myself to the bathroom but never made it in. Strangely, I found myself in the basement, standing in front of the fact-checking intern who was polishing her nails. I walked past her—she never even looked up—right into Lexa's office.

"You'll never take me alive!" Lexa yelled as she stood on her desk, firing what looked like a Nerf cannon into Frank's cubicle. A bright yellow barrel slid out of the side of another small cubicle, popping an orange foam cylinder out, and hit Lexa in the middle of the forehead. Her pantsuit was askew, face flushed, top button undone, hair wild. Leaning her head back, she burst out laughing. Fucking gorgeous. This girl was perfect.

"That was a kill shot. Kill shot!" a deep voice screamed out.

"No way," another deep voice called out. "You did not get Lex, I don't believe it." Somewhere behind that was a low feminine giggle.

The door closed behind me with a loud click and there was a moment of silence, then an, "Oh, shit."

Lexa's eyes locked on mine, the air around her hummed quietly. "Mr. Holt," she said quickly. "We were just letting off a little steam," she smiled, eyes dancing.

"By all means, continue."

And she did, by popping me in the chest with a foam bullet.

"I win," she winked.

"How exactly is that fair, Miss Novak?" My fingers curled around the edges of the folder I held, nearly destroying it. I could still picture her half-dressed, sitting in the hallway, legs bent, and the white boy shorts that peeked out from behind them.

"War isn't fair, Mr. Holt," she deadpanned.

I could imagine how wild she would fuck, her face smashed into a pillow as I took her from behind.

Mandy's face peeked out from behind a file cabinet. Her hand reached out, offering me a bright pink gun. "Psst. You're going to need this," she whispered.

My eyes glanced back to Lexa, still standing on the top of her desk. Was that a challenge? Yanking off my jacket, I tossed it onto a chair. I pulled at my tie, rolled up my sleeves, and grabbed for the gun. Meanwhile, she'd shot me four more times.

Storming her desk, I aimed the barrel of the toy gun at her and emptied the chamber, pelting her everywhere.

"You shoot like a girl," she laughed smoothly, then lifted her gun and shot me right between the eyes.

There was nothing left to do but tackle her.

So I did.

Lunging at her, I grabbed her around the thighs and flung her yelping over my shoulder. I spun her around, ass facing everyone, and screamed, "Light her up, guys." Neon colored cylinders catapulted through the office, slamming her dozens of times in the ass. When the bullets cleared, everyone cheered and high-fived each other. My hands gripped her tightly, and I was wishing there wasn't the material of her pants in the way of touching her skin.

Frank smacked her on the ass. "Well, Mr. Holt, if you fire us it would be worth it. She never loses. Even when she loses, she refuses to lose."

I slowly slid Lexa down to the floor, the front of her body gliding like soft silk over mine, until our faces were an inch apart, her front flush to mine. "Hey," I whispered. She smelled like caramel and chocolate, and I could feel the heaviness of her breasts against my chest and her warm hands around my neck.

"Hey," she answered with a ghost of a smile.

"I just came down to check over some information if you have a minute." My hands gripped her waist. Damn, could she tell how much I wanted her?

"Yeah, sure," she said, stepping out of my arms. "Just, um, can you give me a minute?" Her hand touched the hair that had escaped from her bun and fell in wild waves against the long expanse of her neck.

"Don't worry about how you look. You're perfect, right now, like this..." I said in a quiet voice.

Her hand dropped against her chest; her breathing faltered. That's the moment it happened. My mind took over, brain flooding with thoughts of her back arched, hair falling over her bare tits, riding me as I dug my fingers into her ass, pushing her faster. Lips wrapped around me, biting, scratching. Legs flung over my shoulders. I moved in closer, reached up, and touched a curled strand of hair.

A throat cleared. Shit.

And the rest of the room came into focus. Mandy, Frank, and three other people stood holding an array of neon colored machine guns, watching us closely. Shit. I completely forgot where I was. This place was a gossip mill. And standing in front of Lexa was confusing. Would she get into the casual friends-with-benefits thing I always go after? Or would anything happening between us ignite an unwanted fire?

Lexa stumbled and walked past me, grabbing Mandy by the arm, dragging her straight into the bathroom. Her eyes looked down, intent at watching her feet stumble away from me. Damn, I didn't mean to embarrass her. The rest of the army dispersed back into their cubicles, pretending to get back to work. I stared at the bathroom door, wondering what the hell she and Mandy could be talking about in there.

"Ah...Mr. Holt, sir, would you like a cup of coffee while you wait? Water? We have a little...a little kitchen area in the back," Frank stammered.

"Water would be great, thank you."

I watched him walk off, only to return a second later with an icy cold water bottle. He nodded to the bathroom door. "I have no idea why girls do that, do you?"

"Do what?" I questioned.

"Go into the bathroom in packs," he said.

"Well, Frank. They are in there talking about me right now," I smirked.

"That's very conceited of you to say," Lexa's voice rang out behind me.

"So, you weren't just in there talking about me?" I questioned with a wink.

"You haven't done anything worthy of talking about, Mr. Holt." She tucked her lips between her teeth to stop herself from laughing.

"Challenge accepted," I said. Her sudden terrified smile was heart stopping.

She blinked. Then she laughed and rolled her eyes. "What do you need me to check for you?"

I handed her the crumpled folder. "And I need to know if maybe...Kevin Trager might be Alex Kavon," I blurted out.

"What? Why?" she asked, looking up at me with wide eyes.

"That's why Sophia..."

"Oh, I see.” She did her best to smile, but it was easy to see it was forced. “Well, as far as I know Kevin Trager can't string a sentence together let alone create a news aggregator-slash-blog. He can't even make toast without starting a fire. But then again, there seems to be a lot things in his life that I didn't know about, so I might be wrong." Her smile faded into a frown.

"I didn't mean to upset you," I whispered.

"I'm not upset." Again, her eyes went to the floor, and I reached my hand to her chin and lifted her gaze back up to mine.

Three throats cleared. Our audience shifted uncomfortably by the door. "Hey, we're just going to go get some lunch or something. Lex, you want anything?"

"BLT," she answered, never breaking eye contact with me.

I watched them rush out the door as if they couldn't get out fast enough. My eyes drifted back to hers.

"So tell me what's going on." I caught her lightly on the elbow and gently led her to her seat.

"With what?"

"You," I said.

"Let's see, I won't be getting married, yet I am paying for a wedding. I've been trying to donate it to a charity, but Kevin is fighting me. My mother on the other hand, has registered me for at least half a dozen online dating sites, hoping I could meet someone to marry in the next few days."

My chest did something funny, like it tightened for a minute, and then pumped harder. "You really aren't marrying him?"

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "God, please, not you too. Why do people think it's okay for him to have done what he did and still get to have me?"

"I didn't think it was okay. I don't think you should marry that dipshit. He doesn't deserve you," I said. My heart continued its strange drumming, beating faster and faster until it became almost painful.

She looked at me stunned, lips parted, eyes wide. My thoughts rushed into erotic overdrive again. This thing between us, it felt…it felt like I was standing on the edge of a volcano about to erupt. It had to be something chemical, something beyond my control. Does she have any idea—even a tinge of a notion of the effect she has over me? Couldn’t she see me slowly hanging over her desk, edging closer to her?

She cleared her throat and leaned forward. "Kevin Trager isn't Alex Kavon. I can guarantee that. It's just another case of unfairness. The caterpillar does all the work and the butterfly gets all the glory."

"Run the fuck away with me," I whispered, my voice coming out strange and breathless. "Any woman who can quote George Carlin is the perfect girl for me.” I ran my thumb along her chin. She didn't react, she didn't move back. I was more shocked at touching her than anything and she was letting me.

"What?" She gave me a nervous chuckle.

"Exactly. What? Ever notice when we look at each other sometimes we don't notice what's going on around us?" I asked.

"James, you make my head spin. I need a triple dose of Xanax after I talk to you," she whispered.

"You're beautiful," I whispered, pulse throbbing. A small smile tugged at her lips, eyes questioning. She might have been blushing; it was hard to tell in the low light by her desk, but I knew she looked surprised by my words, maybe a bit embarrassed. "Do you even realize how stunningly beautiful you are, Lex?"

She stared at me through narrowed eyes. Then she stood up, flattened down her pants, and leaned her trembling hands against her desk. Her eyes locked on mine.

Mandy's voice echoed in the hallway. Frank's laugh followed.

She pushed off the desk slowly and took a hesitant step closer to me. "Um. James?"

"Yes," I said, stepping closer to her.

"I seem to have lost a pair of panties the night you took me home." Her eyes were so blue—so clear this close.

"White lace trimmed satin? A little pink bow on the front?"

"Yeah," she breathed.

"Haven't seen them."

Her lips spread into a smile. I wanted her. More than I'd ever wanted anyone.

The door opened. We stumbled apart, not realizing until then just how close I came to tasting her lips. "BLT," Mandy mumbled.

I nodded my head and smiled. "Would it be possible to have that file finished and on my desk first thing tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, sure," she smiled.

"Good, I'll see you then. First thing. Tomorrow. My office."

"Yes, sir." She smirked and saluted me.