Authors: Eve Kaye
He looked at me for a moment, to see if I was serious.
“I’m not joking,” I said. “It’s all open space and tops of heads for you.”
I held my hand up to his height.
“For me, it’s all inches and armpits,” I said and held my hand flat over my head.
He laughed.
“You aren’t that short,” he said.
He stepped closer to me. I leaned forward and my nose landed in his armpit. I looked up.
“Point taken,” he said with a smile.
He parted the crowd and dragged me along in his wake. We wove through tables and people until we made it to the back. He had his hand on the bathroom door, about to push it open for me, when he stopped.
I followed his gaze.
To the table where Annika and the mysterious Charles sat. She sat there, deep-throat, French-kissing, and getting felt up the whole time.
“What the fuck,” Jake said in a quiet voice that didn’t want an answer.
He cut over to their table like a scythe through wheat. I followed, pleased. Scared too. He stopped at the table.
Annika and Charles didn’t notice. Their eyes closed. Oblivious to the humiliation about to befall them.
Jake coughed.
Annika opened her eyes and froze. Her eyes wider and whiter than the plates on the table. Charles finally opened his eyes and pulled back. He looked up at Jake and must have thought he was just some ogling jerk.
He stood and leaned toward Jake.
“Is there something I can help you with, or are you going to fuck off already?”
They stood eye to eye. Two bulls ready to battle.
The muscles in Jake’s jaw flinched and rippled under the tight skin. He ignored Charles and turned to Annika.
“Why exactly were you in my bed this morning,” he said.
Charles flinched and whirled on Annika.
“What,” he said.
She looked like a defanged cobra thrown into a cage with two furious mongooses. It wasn’t a question of winning. It was a question of surviving.
“Hi honey,” she said, “nice to see you.”
She couldn’t have sounded more fake, more uncomfortable, more lost.
Jake turned to Charles and extended his hand.
“Hello, my name is Jacob MacCormack,” Jake said. “And this,” he pointed at Annika, “this is my ex, who was in my bed this very morning.”
Charles blanched and practically spat at Annika.
“So this is the famous Jake,” he said. “You said you two were finished. Why the fuck were you in his bed this morning?”
Charles leaned over the table and yanked Annika to her feet.
“Why don’t you fucking explain that to me,” he said in a bellow.
“Not that I care overly much,” Jake said, “but can you let go of her?”
Charles pivoted back to Jake, fury colored his face.
“Why don’t you fuck off asshole,” he said. His words flew out in a rage.
More words were about to spill out but Jake reared back and hammered a right cross directly into his chin.
It landed with a sickening crunch.
The impact snapped his head around and his eyes rolled up in his head. He crashed down into the chair behind him.
He would have somersaulted over the back but the wall caught him with a resounding thump on the head.
Annika watched his body go limp with such concern in her eyes. She turned to Jake. All fire and venom.
“Jacob, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she said. “Charles is a work colleague.”
Jake looked at her with frozen blue eyes.
“Looked like he is a helluva lot more than that,” Jake said. “We’re over. We’ve been over. What you do with your life from this point is your business. But no asshole is going to talk to me like that.”
Annika looked at me and snarled.
“Jacob,”
she said. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“Fuck off, Annika,” he said. “Come on, Julia.”
I grabbed a handful of her fries and waved goodbye. I didn’t hate her. I was pretty happy with her actually. She didn’t love Jake anyway. That was clear.
Certainly not like I loved him.
Jake tugged me through the crowd and back out onto the cobblestone street. We walked back down to Rue du Temple and met Antonio waiting on the corner.
“Jake,” I said.
“Not now, Julia,” he said. “Not right now.”
We skipped dinner and went straight back to the hotel. Jake was a dark mix of anger and disgust. We walked into our hotel room, down the lush cream carpeted entry hall. Before I could say a word, say anything, he patted my cheek.
“Order room service,” he said. “Whatever you want. Let’s talk in the morning.”
Not what I wanted to hear. I could comfort him. If he would just let
me. I’d do whatever he needed.
But he wanted to send me to my room. Like I was the bad girl. Like I was his baby sister he could boss around.
Totally not fair.
Sometimes you swallow your frustration though, because spitting it out wouldn’t be a smart move. The glint in Jake’s eyes hinted at a fury I didn’t want to test.
“I love you, Jake,” I said and retreated to my room.
Just before I walked through the door, I heard a whisper.
“You too,” he said.
I order a cheese sandwich and fries and then flopped down on my bed. Stared out at the Eiffel Tower. Remembered the magic of my very first time. My body felt like it had known his body my entire life.
That was our connection. Despite all the confusing circumstances surrounding it, that was the core.
I knew him.
I knew what his cum tasted like. I knew the feel of his balls slapping against my mound as he buried himself in me. I knew the sting of his huge cock stretching my walls. I imagined the bliss of his hot seed flooding into my silky glove.
Room service showed up and I inhaled the sandwich and fries. My belly finally stopped grumbling and I fell back into bed. My body was more tired than I realized.
The Louvre adventure took a bigger toll than I thought. I floated in a dreamy daze, my thoughts coming and going like waves on the beach. A thought crashed to shore when I snapped to attention.
“Unlock the door, Jacob,” Annika shouted. Her muffled voice echoed in from the front hallway.
Would Jake let her in? What could she say that mattered now?
I had to find out.
I waited behind my bedroom door. Wondering if he would let her in. Wondering if I could sneak out unobserved from the living room.
A murmur of voices drifted in. Hard words passed back and forth, just quiet enough so I couldn’t understand them. A minute later the front door slammed shut.
Was she gone? Was it finally, forever, over? It couldn’t just boil away back to calm, could it? That seemed impossible. Jake radiated rage all the way home. It was hard to imagine that boiling off to anything that resembled calm.
But what if it did?
That bitch was tricky. Conniving and cunning. She had long claws and was determined to keep them sunk into Jake. She’d manipulate him into makeup sex and she’d try to wriggle her way back into his life. Their relationship was doomed. Surely she saw that.
I saw it. I thought Jake saw it.
I had to be sure.
I tiptoed out into the hall, through the living room, and down to his closed bedroom door. I didn’t have to lean in or use a cup or anything. The yelling-talking came through loud and clear, even through the thick wood door.
“Why should I care,” Jake said.
“Because it’s the truth,” Annika said.
“The truth,” he said. “You’re telling me that you’ve been seeing that asshole for the last year, and yet, somehow, you were just tonight about to break it off with him?”
“I’m telling you that because it’s true,” she said.
“Bullshit,” he said. “Why should I believe you? Why should I care? You fucked me over. Cheated on me the entire time we were together. You’re a lying, worthless bitch.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” she said.
“Me,” he yelled. “Me the asshole? Where do you get off, you faithless whore!”
“Nice, Jacob,” she said. “So mature.”
“I saw you Annika,” he said, “with my own eyes. You weren’t about to end it with anybody. You sucked face like a high school virgin on prom night. He had his paws all over your tits and you sure as hell didn’t seem to mind.”
“I just didn’t want to make him angry,” she said.
“Oh heavens no,” he said. “Don’t make the bastard angry. Don’t upset the dickhead who’s cheating on his wife and fucked my girlfriend from before the first night we met.”
“I’m sorry, Jacob,” she said. “Believe me.”
“Annika, your mouth spews lies like a horse’s ass spews shit,” he said.
“Fuck you,” she said, “I’m trying to apologize here.”
“Oh,” he said, “and you’re doing such a great job of that.”
Something crashed and shattered. Thousands of tiny pieces tinkled to stillness.
“Nice Jacob,” she said.
“You disgust me, Annika,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Why did you do it,” he said, “Why?”
“Does it matter,” she said. “It happened. I wished it hadn’t.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “You wish you hadn’t gotten caught. He’d be balls-deep in your traitorous cunt right now if I hadn’t seen you. And that’s the crazy part. I don’t fucking care. I’ve moved on.”
“Jacob,” she said, “you still love me. I know it.”
“You? No. I don’t love
you
. You don’t hold a flicker of a candle…”
He trailed off. Did my name come next? The secret his heart didn’t want to tell.
“What are you saying, Jacob,” she said.
“You know what I’m saying, Annika,” he said. Her name spewed out like hot vomit.
“Are you having an affair,” she said.
“Are you insane? We aren’t together anymore. It’s logically not possible to cheat on you,” he said.
“Don’t avoid the question,” she said. “Are you fucking around on me you asshole?”
“Hold the fucking phone,” he said, “now I’m the asshole. Shove your face in a shattered mirror for one second.”
“Who is she, Jacob,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter to you,” he said.
“Yes, it fucking matters,” she said. “Who?”
Was he going to tell her? Was he going to say my name? Was it time to pull back the curtain? For everyone to see.
It was. It had to be now.
I had to make it easier for Jake. I had to save him.
I slipped out of my sunshine yellow dress. My nipples perked up as the sheer cloth slid across them. My full breasts heaved as I tried to calm my nerves. Fear and doubt clawed at my belly. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and palms.
I was about to take off my matching sheer yellow panties, but I froze. I didn’t have the courage to be totally naked. Not in front of the she-demon.
“Who is she,” Annika said, her voice a shriek.
My tongue was fat and numb. My heart raced in my chest. My legs were rubbery and unstable. I took a deep breath and exhaled in choppy, strained pauses.
This was it.
I opened the door and stepped in.
“Me,” I said. “I’m the one.”
Annika almost fainted. Her face went gray and she slumped back into the cream divan by the large window. Paris, and the Eiffel Tower, stretched out into the distance. A glittering rainbow of lights and cars.
I stood there naked, exposed before them, but for the slim yellow panties. My tight, little lips hinted at through the sheer cotton. Feeling totally awkward, I crossed one knee to cover myself. I dug my toes into the plush cream carpet to keep myself grounded. To keep the dizzy world from tipping over.
Why did everything have to be cream colored? It was so perfectly bland and manicured, it was just begging for a stain. For some life spilled onto it.
We all stood there for a moment in total, excruciating silence. I didn’t know what more I should say.
Jake’s eyes were on my curvy hips, on my bare breasts, on the cascade of long brown hair around my shoulders.
Annika recovered first.
“She’ a child, Jacob,” she said. “You fucking pedophile.”
She marched over and stood inches from my face.
“And you,” she said, “I warned you. You ignorant, idiot child.”
I lowered my gaze. I couldn’t stand the waves of fury emanating from her.
“Annika, I’m sorry,” I said, “but I love Jake. More than you could ever understand.”
“Leave her alone,” Jake said.
I could barely get the words out. My frayed nerves and the lump in my throat made talking nearly impossible.
“I love him like a woman,” I said. “He was my first and I want to give him everything.”
Her jaw dropped. Her words slithered out in a hiss.
“You little slut,” she said. “How dare you?”
SMACK.
I didn’t see it coming. My head snapped to the side. A white light shot through the world as my cheek blazed.
Before I could recover, react, do anything, her hands clutched around my neck.
She squeezed with a furious strength you wouldn’t think her stringbean arms had in them. Her fingernails bit into my skin. My blood and air struggled at the tight noose cinched around my neck.
Jake leaped at her and wrapped his powerful arms around her. He yanked her back and her fingernails dug red furrows through my neck.
I staggered back and fell onto the bed. I looked up at the ceiling as the sting of a hundred bees crawled across my face and neck.
I coughed and sputtered as air clawed back down my burning throat.
“Annika,” Jake yelled,
“you fucking lunatic. You’re not going to lay another finger on her.”
Tears streamed down Annika’s face. Her head shook and her eyes were wild.
“You little bitch,” she screamed. “You stupid slut. You fucked my Jacob. I’m going to kill you.”
She screamed an incoherent babble of animal rage. Spit flew from her lips and dripped off her chin. She shook within the steel prison of Jake’s arms. Her hands strained for me.