Seven
November Twenty-th
Fade
“Please stop wearing red lipstick.”
He bit his french fry across from her.
“No.”
She stared out the dark diner window at her reflection.
“Can you at least take it off? I had to wash my face multiple times before it came off.”
Whitney looked back at him, nibbling into a chicken tender. “We will see.”
The waitress stepped up to the table. “Is everything tasting okay?”
“Yes thank you.”
He responded.
She smiled down at them. “Great, how long have you two been together?”
“Uh,”
His eyes darted to Whitney. “We’re not, uh, together.”
“Oh! You two just seem so compatible. Sorry about that. Let me know if there’s anything I can get you.”
She stumbled over her words before skittering off.
He sighed. “I also would like to talk to you about that.”
Fade grabbed a napkin, wiping his hands.
She looked caught off guard after taking a bite. “Hm?”
“Can we be some sort of friends with benefits?”
“Oh,”
She swallowed. “So you like having me around or something?”
“Yeah, I guess. But I did not like how I acted today or how I felt on Tuesday and I would like some sort of agreement.”
He picked up his water glass to give her a moment to answer.
“Well, do you like me? I kind of spilt a lot today, can I know where you’re at?”
“Can you remind me of what you said?”
His mouth twitched with amusement.
She laughed behind her napkin. “No, I don’t need you getting big headed.”
Fade chuckled. “Yes Whitney, I’m starting to like you.”
He looked up from his plate at her.
“What’s stopping us from actually being together?”
She shoved a whole fry in her mouth and found his leg with her foot, running it along his knee.
He cleared his throat and responded. “I don’t want a relationship. The last girl I committed to ended up banging some guy after being together with me for three years.”
“That’s not nice to compare me to an ex. Do you remember the first time we met? I wanted you on that airplane. You denied me and it took you over three months to finally convince me to sleep with you. Are you sure you want to make that mistake again?”
He sighed, pushing his hair behind his ear. “That’s not fair.”
“You’re right, it was unfair of you to deny me in the first place.”
Whitney’s eyes locked onto his, “Who says we have to get married? What if in six months or a year we go our separate ways? I do get bored easily.”
She pressed her lips into a smile at him, “I just want full commitment with this agreement, none of these games.”
“Can I think about it?”
She placed her elbows on the table to rest her chin on her interlocked fingers. “No. Who else are you thinking about fucking?”
Her toes pressed into his crotch.
He exhaled heavily. “God, you’re killing me.”
He grabbed her foot that hadn't budged and removed it. “We are in public.”
“The place is dead, who cares?”
She took a slow drink.
He hated having to choose right now, if he said yes they could have fun sex for the unpredictable future, Whitney was hot, fun as hell and kept him on his toes. If he said no, who knew how long it would be until she came around or if she ever would again.
“This might help,”
She put the tip of her fingers on the table, circling them until her palms flattened to help her explain. “I won’t play these games of ‘I’ll come over when I want to’ every two weeks. I’m one hundred percent yours, but I expect the same in return.”
Yours rang in his head. The final nail in the coffin. Whitney, whenever he wanted, “What’s ‘the same in return’?”
He asked carefully. Fade needed to know his part in this before driving that nail in.
“For starters, be nice to me and act like you like me. Other than that, the typical boyfriend role, nothing too crazy.”
He looked her in the eyes, “Alright.”
he solidified it and watched her grin with her fist balled in excitement.
“Okay, I’m letting you know now, I will always be straight with you. I don’t want to see you assume something about me and if you’re so worried about community events, fucking show up. I won’t put up with a jealous guy.”
Fade watched her expression soften slightly, “But for now, I am all yours, until you say no.”
“You got it babe.”
He sent her a smile after paying for their meal.
December Ninth
Whitney
Whitney laid across Fade’s bed and on his arm, with the soft red blanket over her. She had spent a few nights there last week and spent the night once over the weekend, “How many times do you think we ran into each other before we came here?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like crossed paths. You lived in Boulder City right? I lived off Stephanie and Sunset in Henderson, near Whitney Ranch.”
He laid there with his eyes closed and shirt still off. After a moment of silence, he smiled. “Is that where you came up with your name?”
“Ya, it was the first thing that came to my mind, where did Fade come from?”
“It's my middle name.”
He caressed her arm with his finger tips. “Or was.”
“Oh okay. So back to what I was saying, we lived, I don't know, twenty minutes from each other?”
“Did you grow up there?”
Whitney adjusted her hand on his chest, staring at the tattoo on his skin just under her eyes. “No I grew up in Summerlin. Were you in Boulder City your whole life?”
“Pretty much.”
She changed the subject. “When did you go to prison? Well how old were you when all that happened?”
His eyes still closed, he cleared his throat. “I was twenty two when she and I met and at twenty five I beat the shit out of that guy. Actually not too bad, I knew if I did, I would get over ten years and wasn't looking for that. So off I went to the Clark County Detention Center for just over two years. I kept my head down for a while and that brought me here. Now, tell me your stripper story.”
“Well, I left home at seventeen. Couch hopped at friends for a few months, until I was eighteen, met this guy and moved in with him. Then I went to school for three years and things didn’t work out with him, so I left and moved into the last place I lived at. Then I took a one year break from school and worked for a few years as a cocktail waitress and at twenty four began stripping.”
“Hmm, what was your stage name?”
“Lilith.”
Fade looked down at her hair. “It's a good thing I didn't see you as a stripper, probably would have been thrown out for touching.”
“You were in prison while I was in that occupation.”
She laughed and then paused. “What if we knew each other's family members? Oh shit, or if we’re related?”
“That would be awkward, well what's your family's last name?”
He took in the color of her hair and the shape of her nose as she talked.
“My last name was Davis, and my mom was a Clark.”
“Oh, so you’re from Vegas.”
“Pretty far back yeah.”
She looked up at him, seeing his brown eyes gaze down at her.
“My dad’s last name was Harris, my mom was a Johnson.”
“Harris, is that your step dads name?”
“No, my biological dad. My step dad is a Leavitt.”
Whitney propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him. She knew there was a small chance but the guy she knew from Boulder City was a Leavitt. He was older but there was no way, she had to be sure. “What’s his first name?”
“Shawn.”
He looked over his chest at her, noticing the surprise grow in her eyes. “What? Do you know him?”
“Brown hair? Grim reaper tattoo?”
She pointed to the location on her arm.
“Yep, that’s him.”
She sunk her chin into his chest. “I’m going to give you a hard truth right now.”
“Shit, what did he do?”
His whole body shifted, rolling towards her. Causing Whitney to sit up showing off her body as the blanket dropped.
The material bundled in her lap, she hoped that showing some skin may ease the blow. “Well, desperate times called for desperate measures.”
Whitney sighed. “I was having a bad week at work, bills were piling up and he came in. He got a few lap dances from me and then asked to go further after my shift for a good price. I took him up on it.”
She watched him take in the information.
“You slept with my step dad?”
Fade gathered both hands behind his head, almost amused. “Lucky fucking bastard got to you first?”
A glimpse of defeat grew across his face. “While I was in prison too.”
Whitney blinked at him worried. Although someone with a temper, this was a better reaction. “That’s not all, I got pregnant,”
She blurted.
He raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Yeah, but I got a hold of him and he paid for the abortion at the clinic of his choosing. That was the mistake since he was done with me, I bled forever and ended up with an infection. I had to go to my own doctor and get antibiotics.”
“Fucking prick.”
Fade grabbed her, wrapping his arms around Whitney and pulled her back to him.
Holding the emotions in just enough to hide it, she sighed with a smirk. “You could have had a step sibling.”
He curled his arm around her. “That would be a weird way to meet you.”
Whitney didn’t know how to feel, she was not happy with herself, more and more she was finding herself in Fade’s bed. She said she would play the girlfriend role and come when he called, but so did her feelings. She wondered if he felt the same or if he was physical and no emotion. She reminded herself this was just for fun, don’t get attached. She also knew it was too late, but pushed it back down.
Fade
Air pushed through her nose, “Are you upset about it at all?”
“Well I don't like being eskimo brothers with my step dad, but I couldn't blame anyone for wanting a piece of you. You also didn't bat an eye when I told you about prison.”
He sharply exhaled, “The guy’s been wrecking lives for years. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised yours crossed with his.”
The only person she could have slept with that would have changed his entire mind about her would be the same bastard who slept with his ex and he didn't want to know if she knew him or had history with him, so he didn’t ask. It didn’t help that he only knew his first name anyway.
He was really enjoying having her come to him so easily. He almost missed the bantering and the chase. The more he learned about her when they hung out, the more he liked her. He was afraid one of these days soon, she would drop him. Fade had never had anybody match his energy so well in and out of the bedroom.
She was as aggressive as hell, it surprised him. His ex would almost cry if he accidentally touched her hair too hard, she was pure vanilla, so this was a change for the better. Whitney was the complete opposite of her. Tall, thin, dark hair, fiery and for being as slim as she is, he was worried she could throw him around, she sure put up a fight.
Whitney broke the silence again. “Do you believe in God?”
“I-”
He swallowed, “I don’t know. If there’s a God, why did he make me this way?”
“What do you mean?”
“Aggressive. Mad all the time. I don’t even feel sorry for my past. I think back to what happened that day and would do it all the same. Sometimes I wonder how it would have felt to actually kill him with my bare hands.”
He felt her shift. “Wow, was your ex really worth it?”
“No. I guess maybe at the time I thought that, but that just shows how fucked up I am.”
“I don’t think so. I think you have unresolved issues and you should maybe get therapy. There’s no shame in trying to better yourself and manage your emotions.”
“I’ve got therapy, the gym.”
She reached her head up and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. “Whatever you say.”