Cougars (23 page)

“You know, Millie. It's very interesting that you brought that up. I've asked Travis about his past relationships, but he hasn't really had any.”

“What are you talking about? The guy is going to be twenty-nine years old. There had to be at least one serious relationship in his life.”

“I'm telling you, he says that he hasn't. I find that to be rather odd myself. So I asked him who he'd been dating and he says, ‘Babe, I did some things in my past that I'm not exactly proud of. I did what needed to be done to move forward with my life and that's all you really need to know.'”

“I don't think I like that answer,” Millie said suspiciously. “Are you sure he isn't some ex-con who's murdered people?”

“Girl, you and I think just alike. That's what I thought, too, so one night when he was sleeping over, I got his driver's license number and had Lauren run a check on him to see if anything came up. She told me that he was clean and he had no criminal record. So I figured that he probably never had a real romantic relationship because he was so driven by his work. I want to be his first true love affair. I want him to really love me. What's so wrong with that?”

“There is nothing wrong with being in love. I mean, I believe that a person should take love wherever and whenever it comes into their lives, regardless of age.”

“I do, too, but still, I'm at a very tricky crossroads,” Jasmine admitted.

“I think everything will work out. Just take your time and communicate how you feel to Travis.”

“Do you think I'm being foolish here? Honestly? Am I some old desperate woman trying to snag—”

“Jasmine, stop it!” Millie cut her off. “Don't do that to yourself. Do what you feel needs to be done and go from there. Don't apologize for a damn thing. You're not doing anything wrong.”

“Thanks, Millie, I really needed to hear that.” Millie and Jasmine talked a little more and then ended their call.

What the fuck do you mean the plug has been pulled on the aphrodisiac project?” Travis was sitting in Jasmine's office. She'd just told him the news about Helen's decision to stop wasting time and resources on the project.

“Will you lower your voice!” Jasmine spoke to Travis in a loud whisper as she rose up from behind her desk and moved swiftly across the floor to close her door.

“We were making real progress, Jasmine. Why would she pull the plug on this? I thought this was the project that she was really behind.” Travis picked up an ink pen from Jasmine's desk and began tapping the ballpoint on her desk rapidly and noisily.

“First of all, you need to calm down.” Jasmine's demeanor suddenly turned authoritative, but Travis no longer viewed her as his boss as much as he did the woman he was fucking.

“Why should I calm down, Jasmine! I've been blindsided and the rug has been pulled from under my feet! What's really going on? Is there some kind of problem? Are they giving the project to someone else? I don't understand what the problem is.”

Travis made numerous gestures with his hands. Jasmine leaned back in her seat and brushed the tip of her nose a few times with her index finger.

“Travis, projects get pulled all of the time. I can understand how important this particular one was to you, but there are other
things that require your attention and mine as well. There is a chance that we'll revisit this later, but for right now, we have to put a hold on this. The side effects of the drug can lead to death. We both know this to be a fact.”

“I can fix it, though, Jasmine. I just need more time in the lab. I need this. I've invested too much time and energy into this project. It's all that I think about.”

Jasmine tried to look sympathetic. “Travis, listen to me,” Jasmine spoke in a calmer tone. “It's not—”

“I'm going to schedule an appointment with Helen to get to the bottom of this.” Travis cut Jasmine off.

“You will do no such thing, Travis Adams!” Jasmine snapped. She had no idea just how deeply rooted the obsessive side of his personality was. He spoke like a madman whose lab had just been destroyed by an explosion.

“Why not!” Travis barked at Jasmine as he rose to his feet. She didn't like it one bit.

“Don't you use that tone of voice with me!”

Jasmine stood, too. On the outside she was stern and direct, but on the inside she worried about him transforming into the Hulk and going on a destruction rampage.

“Look, Jasmine. Listen to me.” Travis approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Go talk to Helen for me. Tell her that I need more time on this.”

“Travis,” Jasmine said, as a look of perplexity formed in the wrinkles in her forehead and the slight turn of her mouth.

“Please,” Travis begged.

“Why does this one project mean so much to you?” Jasmine had asked the question she really wanted the answer to.

“If I can create the formula—scratch that; if we, as in you and I, baby, can come up with the right recipe, we'll get prestige, fame,
and perhaps win the Nobel Peace Prize for our discovery. Don't you want that? Don't you have the same dream? Isn't that what our profession is all about, making a difference?”

“Travis.” Jasmine paused and looked into his blazing brown eyes. “Baby, I want you. I don't want some medal or prestige. Those things are nice, but they don't define who I am. And you shouldn't let it define who you are. You're brilliant without those accolades, don't you know that?”

“You don't understand, Jasmine. I thought you truly understood me.” Travis looked as her as if she were a traitor. He had a bewildered gaze in his eyes and felt as if he'd just been shot with a double-barreled shotgun.

“I do understand you. I know you better than you think I do. Travis, you're walking with blinders on. You're so caught up that you barely have time to stop and enjoy life, togetherness, and how to appreciate someone who cares deeply for you. Don't you see me, Travis? Don't you see the beauty of us? Don't you see how this project was getting in the way of giving you one of the best gifts in life? The chemical interaction between a man and a woman, called love?”

“Wait a minute here, Jasmine. What are you saying? I thought we weren't going to go here.” Travis didn't like what he was hearing.

“You mean to tell me that you don't feel what we have?” Jasmine whispered out of concern that others would hear them. “I'm trying to reach your tortured soul, baby, and love it like no one ever has.” Jasmine placed her hand over her heart and reached for him.

“Look.” Travis paused, meeting Jasmine's gaze with his own. “I'm taking the rest of the day off. I need to get out of here.”

“Let me go with you then?” Jasmine said.

“No. You don't want to be with me right now. Trust me on that one,” Travis growled and walked out the door.

TRAVIS WAS FURIOUS ABOUT THE NEWS Jasmine had shared with him as he drove away from the lab. All of his hard work and efforts were all pointless and even worse, he didn't like that other people could interrupt his work.

“Damn it!” Travis shouted as he punched the dashboard of his car several times with hammer fists. “I hate this shit!”

Travis didn't feel like going home, so he decided to give Alex a ring to see if he was home.

“Hey Travis, what's going on?” Alex answered the phone.

“Where are you, man?” he asked.

“I'm at home right now.”

“I'm heading in your direction. Mind if I stop over?” Travis asked.

“No man. Come on through,” Alex said with a welcoming voice.

“All right. I'll see you in about twenty minutes.”

WHEN TRAVIS ARRIVED, Alex could tell immediately that something was bothering him.

“Wow. Why do you look so crazy? What's the matter with you?” Alex asked as he let him in.

“Fucking bullshit-ass people at work are jerking me around,” Travis griped as he plopped down on the sofa.

“Do you want a beer?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, I could use one.”

When Alex came back with the beer, Travis took several long gulps and then set the bottle on a glass table in front of him. Travis glanced around the room and noticed that most of the furniture was gone with the exception of the sofa and a chair. All of the art work that adorned the walls was gone.

“What happened to all of your stuff?” Travis asked.

“Sold it,” Alex said.

“What for?” Travis asked confused.

“I got fired. When they gave me my severance package, I went to the riverboat casino hoping to change my luck, but instead I lost all of my money. So in order to cover my mortgage I had to have a fire sale.”

“Damn, Alex. So I guess getting my money back anytime soon is out of the question,” Travis said.

“Why do you want to bring up old shit? I'm going to get you the money, Travis. Besides, you know my situation, man. I've got to get out of this bullshit I'm involved with somehow.” Alex shook his head. “Didn't I tell you that I got fired from my job?” Alex sat down in a chair which faced the sofa.

“Aww man. I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?” Although Alex had just told him that he'd been fired, Travis didn't want to be perceived as being apathetic.

“Hatcher is what fucking happened. Flying him all over the place has cost me my job. I don't know what my next move is going to be. It's going to be hard for me to fly for another airline when I got fired for not showing up to transport passengers. When my unemployment runs out, I might have to shack up with one of my Cougars until I can get my shit in order, but even that won't be easy, especially since Hatcher has me flying shipments around for free.”

“Why don't you just stop, just go into hiding or something?”

“And do what, man? Live with the fucking wolves?”

“Hey, if things get that bad, you can stay with me,” Travis offered.

“Thanks for the offer, but I'm going to try to stay with a lonely woman before I come live with you,” Alex said as he leaned back in his seat. “So what's your drama?”

“My issues pale in comparison to what you're going through,” Travis said.

“How is your drug coming along? Have you worked out the kinks yet?” Alex asked.

“No, man. They pulled the plug on it. All of my hard work and effort has just gone down the drain.”

“Whoa! They can't do that to you, man. You've got to go back there and work that shit out!” Travis noticed that Alex seemed just as upset as he was.

“As far as they're concerned it's pretty much a done deal.”

“Then you need to work on that drug on your own. Then once you get the formula tight, they'll be begging you for it and would probably pay through the nose to get it.”

“I wish it were that simple. I'd need a lab, equipment, and start-up money, not to mention everything involved with starting a pharmaceutical operation,” Travis said.

“What kind of equipment?” Alex asked.

“Why?”

“There are all kinds of labs around this city. Residential houses that have been chopped up for let's say, chemistry purposes. I know of some old warehouses as well.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. That's not the way I want to go. However, you did have a good point about continuing my experiments…” Travis's words trailed off and sank to a whisper. Some- thing in his subconscious mind had inexplicably begun speaking to him. It was an ominous and evil voice he heard telling him to keep the project going in secrecy. The more he tuned into the frequency of his darker side, the easier it was to be seduced by the unthinkable. Travis allowed this other side of him to take over. He gave himself permission to soar on the wings of madness.

This is your project,
the dark voice said to Travis.
You're the one who truly created the formula. All you need to do is perfect it and then try it out on a human subject. Jasmine would make a perfect test subject.
You know it'll work. Just slip the liquid formula in her drink. Once she experiences the mind-blowing pleasure, you'll have the satisfaction of telling her you've solved the mystery of female sexual arousal. She, along with everyone else, will worship the ground you walk on. You are the most brilliant chemist in the world. The world needs to see you as the next Albert Einstein. You are a supreme intellect and you are a genius. Go make the formula and unleash it on the world. No one can stop you. Don't let those bastards control you!

“Yo man, are you all right?” Alex snapped his fingers in front of Travis' eyes, but got no response. “Travis. What the fuck?” Alex placed his hands on his shoulders and shook him out of his trance. Travis focused on Alex as if he didn't recognize who he was.

“Travis?” Alex's voice was filled with uncertainty. He understood that something strange and off the mark was going on with his best friend.

“What?” Travis's voice was low and heavy like that of a demon. Alex had never heard him sound so wicked.

“What the hell is wrong with you, man?” Alex was clearly freaked out by what he'd just witnessed.

“Nothing. What's the problem?” Travis asked in a monotone voice.

“Shit, you're the problem, motherfucker. You blanked out on me. You just started staring at the fucking wall, man, like you were in some type of otherworldly trance. You had a different look in your eyes. You weren't here just a moment ago. I'm no psychiatrist but I know bizarre when I see it. Are you on something?”

“I'm not on anything, Alex,” Travis answered as if he were about to commit homicide.

“Okay, you've officially freaked me the hell out. Stop acting like some weird psychopath,” Alex said, not wanting to turn his back on Travis.

“I've always hated that word, Alex. You shouldn't use it in my presence.” Travis still spoke with in a monotone as if he were reprogramming himself.