Caleb.
Prince Charming my left butt cheek. I need to know what happened to her. It had to be a guy. But females can be vicious with each other, too. I’ve never had to work this hard to earn anyone’s trust. I sit on the edge of Everest’s bed and wait for Faith. I know now is not the time or place to talk to her about her issues, but this talk needs to happen soon. How else will I know where the sidelines are so I don’t run out of bounds?
Sometimes she acts like a feral animal, one that’s been kicked too many times by anyone in striking distance. Maybe that’s the draw for me? Am I trying to prove to this particular girl not every guy acts like that? Or is it my fucking ego? Can’t stand anyone thinking poorly of me, so I work overtime to earn her trust?
The bedroom door opens, and I glance over my shoulder to see who is bold enough to cross into Everest’s domain without permission, unless it’s the man himself.
I know the intruder. Intimately. The mask doesn’t hide her cheating lips, and her costume serves to accentuate her voluptuous body. She’s dressed as Catwoman. Despite her disguise, I’d recognize Dana anywhere.
I loved her once.
Adrenaline wheels through my system, and I grind my teeth to center myself. I don’t know who she manipulated to get the party details, but now I have to deal with her. “What are you doing here?”
She walks to the bed and sits next to me. “Caleb, I never got a chance to explain.”
“Difficult to talk around my dad’s dick, but that scene was self-explanatory.”
“That’s not fair.” She turns to me, and her mercurial-green eyes are shiny with tears. Back to emotional blackmail. My blood pressure soars. When we were together and a discussion didn’t go her way, she used tears to manipulate me into comforting her instead.
I’ve become immune to her tricks.
“That day with your dad was a huge mistake. First time. The only time,” she pleads. “It wasn’t planned, I swear.” She wrings her hands. When she makes eye contact, a single tear tracks down her face. “Come on, Caleb. I’m begging you. Give me a second chance.”
She places her hand on my leg, leans in, and I know what she’ll do next. Stomach acid hits the back of my throat. The taste sums up our relationship. I do not want those lips to touch mine. I stand to force space between us. I can’t stop thinking about the fact the last time we were in the same room she was face down in Dad’s lap.
“Whatever you’ve planned or imagined will never happen. Plain and simple. There’s no more us.”
“Let me make it up to you.” She bites her lip. “You can’t deny we had good times. I miss you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me—”
“Do I need to point out that you killed whatever we had the second you had sex with my dad?”
“Oh my God, we didn’t have sex!” Her expression is set to incredulous. “You have to listen. I worked for him.”
“Are you trying to say that sucking him off was just part of your job? Are you even serious right now?”
“Yes. No, he didn’t. I mean…” She licks her lips. “I’m not doing this right. Let me explain.”
I clench my jaw. She destroyed my mom and my family. “You really believe that oral sex isn’t sex? I’m curious. What do you call it—French kissing a dick?”
“Look, it’s not like that.” She whispers, “He’s a good listener. And he’s mature; he understands things. This is really hard for me to articulate. He was so sad, and I tried to connect with him.”
Unbelievable. How the fuck did I waste nearly a year of my life with someone this selfish and manipulative? “That’s enough. I don’t know what universe you live in, but in mine, no comeback exists for what you did.”
Tears slide artfully down her cheeks. “Please, Caleb. I’ll make it up to you. You’re the only one who gets me.”
Selfish. Twisted. “You just said my dad understood you. Which is it? You’re such a liar. Your parents used you in their never-ending battle against each other, and I put up with the crap you dished out because I wanted to help. Our relationship could have been a safe place for you.” I’m loud. I don’t care. “But I never mattered to you. You enable the tug-of-war between your parents. And when you grew bored with that, you came after mine.”
“Leave my parents out of this.” Her tone sounds full of menace.
Dana scrubs her cheeks and wipes her hands on her costume leaving wet streaks down the leggings of her cat suit. “Why would I come after your parents? It makes no sense,” she asks more reasonably, as if I’m a kid in meltdown mode.
“Enough. I can’t see inside your head. I tried. Maybe you craved the attention? Why doesn’t matter. It happened, and your motivation means nothing to me. You’re history. My date doesn’t deserve to be a part of your last-ditch effort to save something that’s been dead since school started.”
Her face pales. “You’re with someone?” Her voice becomes a whisper. “You’re supposed to love me.”
The bathroom door opens, and Faith steps out. I can’t read her expression, but her face appears flushed. “Am I interrupting?”
Dana’s intake of breath seems loud in the otherwise quiet room. “Oh my God. I didn’t realize we weren’t alone.”
I reach for Faith’s hand and tell her, “I have nothing more to say to Dana. We’re done.”
“No, seriously. I can give you two privacy.” Faith squeezes, and then drops my hand.
Dana’s turns from us and chokes, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be here.”
There’s a knock at the door that makes Faith jump. Baloo sticks his head in. He’s wearing a coconut shell bikini top, a plastic flower lei circles his neck, and a grass skirt covers a pair of black boxer briefs. “Everest wants to know what’s taking so long?”
“We’re on our way out.” The faster Dana leaves the easier I’ll breathe.
Baloo glances at the two women, and winks at me. “CW, you’re one lucky bastard.”
“Catwoman wasn’t invited.”
Baloo tsk-tsks. “Maybe, I’m the lucky dude. Wanna stay and hang out with me?”
Before Dana responds. I shake my head. “No.”
Baloo turns to Dana. “Too bad. Those claws gave me some ideas.” He grins. “Hey, I’m playing.” He glances at me and his face clears. “I’ll walk you out.”
Dana’s face reflects her misery. The knowledge she’s hurting doesn’t stir the need in me to protect or defend her. A first for me, but those days are long gone.
“No need. I’ll go.” She nods to me, sneaks a peek at Faith. “Excuse me.”
Baloo opens the door wide to allow her to pass.
She whispers as she crosses the threshold, “Thank you. I didn’t mean to ruin the party.”
When Baloo steps out too, I turn to Faith. “I’m sorry.”
She shakes her head. “I’m fine.”
“Dana has been texting me from different phones. I block the new number each time, but she just borrows another. Today she chose to make contact. We broke up right before school started.”
Faith wipes all expression from her face. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”
This is so fucked up. I hate the fact she’s been exposed to my bullshit up close and personal. I want to clear the awkwardness that’s fallen between us. “She doesn’t matter to me anymore. Can we please forget the past ten minutes?”
“Sure.” She nods. “What happened again?”
I lean in and press my lips against hers. Take a nibble on that full bottom lip. “You’re remarkably understanding. But, if I don’t bring you back, Everest will probably send out a search party.”
“Extreme. Even for Everest.”
Everest yells from somewhere inside the house. “Lola, get out here.”
“Or not.” Her grin spreads.
We find Everest surrounded by a group of people. He summons us to his side using the two-fingered come-ahead motion. When we reach him, he drops his arm around Faith’s shoulders.
Everest hands me his cell. “Take a pic of Lola and me.”
I suppose I’m lucky they’ve adopted each other. I’d be toast otherwise. He leans down so their faces are side by side. They both smile wide. I snap the pic and hand him back his phone. She didn’t hide her face.
“Will you take one of us?”
He looks at his phone, nods his approval. “After I get a few of Lola on her own.” He turns to her. “Okay, princess. Show me what you got.”
Faith shakes her head. “Um. Everest. Have you lost your freaking mind?”
“Come on, Lola. Give me a smile. Ooh, wait. I like that look. Irritated princess.”
When she laughs, he takes another pic. I’m attracted. Faith draws me in on some elemental level. I pass my phone to Everest. “My turn.”
“Fine.”
We pose and my right shoulder touches her left; basically we stand in a backward V-shape. Both costumes remain in full view. It’s a great shot of our costumes, but Faith turned her face away from the camera. Figures.
Everest shouts, “Pause the music. I’m going to announce this year’s winners.”
People start wandering in from other rooms to hear the results. He has a kind of Pied Piper effect on people. He may rule the world someday. He rules ours.
“As you all know, and even if you don’t, I’ll enlighten you. Three categories. Best costume ladies’ category, best gent’s, and our best couple’s costumes.”
Chatter fills the back of the room. Everest frowns and stares toward the sound, which cuts off immediately. “Winners get bragging rights. Losers? Bitching gets you party banned. Whiners kill my party muse.”
Groans from the crowd ripple through the room until Everest lifts his index finger and points. Silence ensues. “We’ll start with couples. I need Heidi and Chrysler, front and center.”
The pair steps forward. They wear four leaves for Adam and Eve. I make eye contact with Faith and raise my eyebrows. Unlike Faith, I can’t manage the single eyebrow lift.
She grins back at me, palms up. “Who knew four leaves would win it?”
“Me,” I grumble.
Faith laughs into her closed fist, then leans toward me to whisper in my ear. “They actually have six leaves, if you count their backsides.”
Everest taps her nose playfully but gives me his death stare. “Shut up, CW.”
He shouts out to the crowd, “I’d ask these two to take a bow, but we might have a couple of costume failures.”
Catcalls and whistles sound off as Heidi curtsies. “Gents next. I’d nominate myself, but since I’m host and emcee, I’m not allowed to compete.”
There were some boos. Everest smiles in the direction of his admirers. “Make some room people. I need Gabe front and center.”
I nearly choke on my beer.
Movement and roaring laughter fill the house as people part to allow Gabe to make his way toward us. He’s wearing a homemade outhouse costume. It’s a clever design and appears as though he’s taking a leisurely crap with the swinging door open. He has today’s paper in his hands as he smiles and nods his way through the crowd. Hilarious.
He moves next to me, and the door swings open to slap against my shoulder. “Thanks for the invite. Hot women and beer. Who could ask for more?”
I point at the contraption he’s wearing. “Excellent costume.”
Gabe nods. “Hey, Faith.”
“Hey, yourself.”
Everest whistles to get the crowd’s attention. “This year we have something new. The ladies now have two categories.”
He pauses to glance around the room. “My contest. My rules.” His declaration serves to shut up the wave of chirping that follows his announcement. “Contestants will win under the sub-categories Beauty or Beast.”
The squad of angels and kittens push their way into the room again, vying for his attention. I can almost hear the pick me chant of their collective thoughts. This nest of girls is synonymous with beauty.
Everest calls out, “Nancy Chambers, where are you? Come on out and take your bow.”
A girl dressed as a dead doll makes her way cautiously through the crowd. She’s flawless, with white makeup and black stitching. Her blue-green eyes stand out amid the wine-colored makeup she used to color her lids. Beautiful, yet creepy. She stays in character as she makes her way forward without a change of expression. She reaches Everest and uses sign language to show her love. She takes a bow and melts into the background once again.
“Nancy Chambers, you’re perfect!” Everest claps.
The chant goes up. Some guy close to the kittens starts it. “Beauty, beauty.”
Everest smiles. “The clear choice—”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mikaela, one of the kittens, step forward smug in the knowledge of her win. Flat-out gorgeous, she’s Everest’s date for the evening. Mikaela stands two yards from Everest when he calls out, “—Princess Lola is the fairest of them all.”
Mikaela stalks into another room.
Shock colors Faith’s expression as her cheeks bloom pink. Her reaction is odd, interesting.
Faith asks Everest, “Why?”
He tilts his head. “Because it’s true.”
People clear out of the room, probably heading toward the alcohol.
In an obvious change of subject, Everest tells Gabe, “Let’s introduce you to some of the ladies here tonight. Stick by me. Watch and learn.”
Faith whispers, “He can’t just expect Gabe to learn by example. Everest looks like Jamie Fraser from Outlander. It’s a given women fall for him. Plus, Gabe’s dressed as a toilet. An epic fail might really hurt his ego.”
Faith doesn’t understand the phenomenon called Everest so I explain. “Normally, you’d have a point. But in this case, an intro by Everest is like the social equivalent to a platinum credit card without a spending limit. Gabe might not have to hit up the ATM to get a girl’s number after this.”
We leave the party just after midnight. It’s cold outside. I take off my jacket. “Put this on.”
“Thanks, Sinjin.”
I help her into the jacket and drape my arm around her shoulders as we walk back to my car. I’m wondering if it’s too soon to ask her back to my place. Plus, school tomorrow. And I’m jumping the gun because we haven’t had a conversation about sex. If I don’t bring it up, she might throw me in the friend category. No fucking way I want to go there.
“I know it’s late, but would you like to go back to my place?”
A hitch in her stride shows she’s startled by my question. Faith asks, “Is that guy code for sex?”
Shit. Here it comes. I like you, but as friends. I meet her gaze. “Maybe yes, or maybe no.” I glance somewhere else and focus on a sign I see in the distance just over her head. “I guess I wanted to let you know that I’m physically attracted to you. I’d very much like to have sex with you…”
My brain clicks off. This is not how I meant to broach this subject, but I already fumbled the ball. Better to chase it on the roll and fall on it than to orchestrate the turnover. “I mean. You know, I want to put it out there.”
God. I’m awkward. I’ve never had to approach a girl about sex. I don’t know how to start these kinds of conversations. My first time, Victoria showed me the ropes. I slept with two girls in high school before Dana grabbed me at a party one night at her house and led me back to her bedroom. Told me exactly what to do to make her come. She kept showing and telling me until I learned. A year later I hit expert level on Dana.
I still hear crickets, and my face feels hot. Fuck! I glance at Faith. She’s biting her bottom lip and her shoulders shake. It takes me a millisecond to understand she’s trying not to laugh out loud. I’m a fucking joke.
“Sinjin.” She gasps, giggles some more, then takes a deep breath and straightens. “What exactly do you want to put out there?”
Then it hits me. What I said. And I laugh, too. We cling to each other laughing like drunks. I straighten and try to find my dignity. Say in a mock-stern voice: “I didn’t mean this second, Lacerna.”
“Right?” She erupts again. “I’m sorry. I’m nervous, and I need more time.” Hic. “But, I’m attracted, too.” Hic.
I pull her along toward the car. Hiccups again. Perfect. She places her hand on my chest, covering my rapidly beating heart, while she holds her breath and smiles at me. My cock grows hard, unaware she blew the whistle and stopped the clock for a timeout.