16. Chapter 16
Chapter 16
“She lives!” Jules practically shouted, as she approached the booth where Paige was sitting in their favorite Italian restaurant, Macaroni’s.
“For God’s sake,” Paige groaned, as a few people at nearby tables glanced over.
Jules shrugged out of her jacket and tossed it on the leather bench, before sitting across from Paige. “What?” she asked, adjusting the collar of her red shirt; the color should’ve clashed like crazy with her burnished, copper-colored hair, but it didn’t, probably because she wouldn’t allow it to. “Ever since you and David started seeing each other, I hardly ever get to spend time with you. It sucks.”
“Have you forgotten you’re the one who bugged the shit out of me to start seeing him in the first place? If so, let me remind you.”
“I wasn’t bugging the shit out of you.”
“Are you kidding?” Paige gave her exaggerated, crazy eyes. “Do you want me to show you all the harassing texts you sent me? Or, I can play all the harassing voicemails if you prefer.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that since you bugged the shit out of me to see him, you’re not allowed to complain that I’m actually seeing him.”
“I just didn’t think you’d be seeing him for this long,” Jules said, drawing out the last word. “I mean, what’s it been? Like, two months?”
“More like one. But we’ve worked out a schedule for another month, so—”
“So, basically, I won’t be spending any time with you during the next month, as well? Is that what you’re saying?”
With an annoyed sigh, Paige picked up one of the menus on the table, flipping through it without really looking at anything, before setting it down again. “Maybe. Especially since you’re being such a pain in the ass right now.”
“I have every right to be a pain in the ass, especially since I’ve given up a lot of quality time with you so you can engage in sexual activity, and I’ve just found out I’ll be giving up even more quality time with you because you haven’t gotten around to engaging in sexual activity, yet.” She held up a hand. “And no, getting fingered in the bathtub and jerking him off in the shower doesn’t count.”
Paige schooled her features into an innocent mask. “What about oral sex? Does that count?”
“Oral …” Jules tilted her head at that. “Are you asking me because you want to know in the event you and David ever get around to having it, or because you’ve already had oral sex?”
“Because I’ve had it, of course.”
Jules steepled her hands together. “And when was this?”
“Well …” Paige pretended to think hard, before saying, “David went down on me this past Friday, and then …”
“And then … what?”
“And then I gave him a stellar blow job last night,” Paige finished with a grin, her voice rising with pride and satisfaction.
Jules’s eyes widened and for a moment, Paige thought it was in response to what she’d revealed, but that thought died when Jules glanced up and to the left. Feeling slightly uneasy, Paige turned her head to see a waiter standing there, his expression a blend of surprise and amusement as he glanced between the two women, obviously having caught the last part of the conversation.
“Good evening ladies,” he said, wading into the slightly awkward waters.
“Good evening,” Jules answered with a bright smile.
“Good evening,” Paige repeated. She then offered up a smile of her own, and even though it lacked the wattage of Jules’s, Paige hoped it would at least camouflage her embarrassment.
“My name is Anthony, and I’ll be taking care of you tonight,” he continued smoothly. “Can I get you started with something to drink?”
Jules leaned forward. “We’ll both have a glass of red wine, please.”
After the waiter left, Paige gave Jules a look of reprimand. “Jesus. You could’ve warned me that we had company.”
“I didn’t have time,” Jules protested. “He came out of nowhere.”
Paige had a hard time believing either one of those claims, especially given the direction the waiter had come from. “Whatever. But from now on, your job is to warn me when he’s near.”
“I will. I promise. Now I want to hear all about you and David trading oral sex, starting with him going down on you.”
With Jules looking at her expectantly, Paige relented, mainly because she was excited to share good news, so she decided to lead off with the best news of all. “I came.”
As if not wanting to appear too excited, Jules pursed her lips for a moment. “What are we talking about here? Like a 2.0 on the Richter scale, or—”
“It was a solid 8.0 earthquake.”
“Really,” Jules mused. “So the man has some skills.”
Paige thought back to that moment of utter bliss and a smile overtook her face. “Yes. Yes, he does. And fortunately, we were at my place so I didn’t have to drive home afterward, because my legs were like jelly.”
Jules chuckled, then leaned forward and asked, “Did you scream his name?”
“No.” Paige infused the word with a combination of reproach and amusement, then couldn’t resist switching gears and saying, “But I did pull on his hair pretty damn hard.”
“Here’s your wine, ladies,” Anthony said, appearing next to their table. “And some complimentary parmesan bread sticks, fresh out of the oven.”
Paige inwardly groaned at the waiter’s second ill-timed arrival, but kept her expression somewhat pleasant as he set the glasses of wine on the table, along with the basket of fragrant bread sticks.
“Thank you,” Jules told him, after giving Paige an Oops look.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, then asked, “Have you two had a chance to look over the menu, or do you need some more time to decide what you want?”
They hadn’t even looked at the menu, but since they normally ate the same thing every time they came to Macaroni’s, Jules ordered eggplant Parmesan and Paige went with fettucine Alfredo.
As soon as Anthony was gone again, Paige grabbed a breadstick and hissed, “Seriously? You were supposed to warn me when he was near.”
“I’m sorry. I was caught up in hearing about your intense orgasm,” Jules said, attempting to look contrite but falling short, because it was difficult to look like you felt bad when you were trying not to laugh. “And anyway, there are plenty of scenarios where pulling on someone’s hair isn’t sexual, so chill.”
“Well, considering that he also overheard me less than five minutes ago bragging about giving someone a blow job last night, I doubt his mind went to one of those non-sexual scenarios. But thanks for trying to make me feel better, if that’s what you were trying to do.”
Jules picked up her glass of wine and took a drink. “Speaking of that blow job …”
Paige shook her head. “If you think I’m going to tell you anything about it with Anthony on the prowl, you’re crazy.”
“We’re not going to see him until he brings our dinners out, which won’t be for at least fifteen minutes. So start talking.”
Paige broke off a piece of bread and popped it in her mouth before giving in. “All right. Well—”
“Wait. Was the blow job your idea, or David’s?”
“All mine. In fact, I pretty much ripped his pants off.”
Jules released a low chuckle. “I don’t want this to come across as creepy in any way, but I wish I could’ve seen the expression on his face when that happened.”
“Let’s just say that he was a little surprised at my enthusiasm.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Although, I think he was more surprised when I swallowed.”
Jules took another sip of wine and digested that unexpected tidbit of information for a moment, which subsequently led to a few follow-up questions she didn’t hesitate to ask. “Did you enjoy it?”
Paige nodded.
“So … no triggers?”
“Nope. It was trigger-free, and went off without a hitch. Well, for the most part.”
“For the most part?”
“He sort of came more than I was expecting, and there was a little bit of a mess, so I had to lick him off. Which, I think he kind of liked, so maybe that wasn’t really a ‘hitch’ after all.”
“Sounds like you crushed it.”
Paige shrugged, as if overcome by modesty.
“This calls for a toast,” Jules announced and raised her wine glass. “Here’s to crushing it.”
Feeling slightly ridiculous at toasting to a successful blow job, Paige nonetheless raised her own glass and repeated, “Here’s to crushing it.”
After they both drank, Jules asked, “So … what’s next?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean, I don’t know. When we get together for a date, whatever happens, happens.” Jules was frowning, and Paige knew that look well. “When I told you we were going to be ‘sort of’ dating you said it was ‘considerate’ of him and ‘smart’. Remember?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think it was going to drag on forever.”
“It’s not going to drag on forever.”
Jules took a breath, as if needing to regroup after a serious setback. “Okay, so whatever happens, happens … which translates to actual sex happening … who knows when?”
“No. Well, maybe. I mean, it’s going to happen, but it’s not penciled in on our schedule.” Paige looked at the ceiling for a moment, then back at Jules. “That’s part of what’s making this work. The not knowing.”
“So, the next time you get together, he could end up going down on you again.”
“Yes.”
“Or he could decide to take you to the malt shop for a soda—” she broke off when Paige gave her a dirty look. “Sorry. I meant to say that he might decide to push you up against a wall and fuck you.”
Paige took a moment to actually picture that, and found herself liking it very much.
“You’re picturing that, aren’t you?” Jules asked.
“What? No.”
“Shit, you are. You totally want David to push you up against a wall and fuck you—”
“How are we doing, ladies?” Anthony asked, startling both women. “Can I get you another glass of wine, or more bread sticks?”
Paige leveled Jules with a glare before turning to Anthony with a forced smile. “I’m fine, but thank you.”
“I’m fine, too,” Jules said, her smile more natural, because the last time she’d been embarrassed was in the ninth grade.
“Okay. Your meals should be out shortly,” he told them, then headed over to another table.
Jules waited until he was almost out of earshot before saying, “Relax. He overheard me that time.”
“Yeah. Talking about me wanting David to push me up against a wall and fuck me,” Paige said, as she picked up her glass of wine, slid out of the booth, and then stood next to Jules.
“What are you doing?” Jules asked.
“I’m switching places with you.”
“Why?”
“Because you clearly can’t keep an eye out for Anthony, so I’m going to do it.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Now, move it.”
Sighing, as if Paige was being completely immature and unreasonable, Jules picked up her own glass, then slowly slid out of her side of the booth so they could trade seats. When they were both situated again, she played with her wine glass and said, “I’m sorry for … pushing. It’s just really hard waiting for you to have sex. It’s killing me.”
Paige gave her a look full of exaggerated sympathy and reached over to take her hand, squeezing it. “You’ll get through it.”
Jules flipped their hands, so that she was now holding Paige’s. “I just want you to see what it can be like,” she said, mostly serious in the wake of being teased. “To experience some sweaty, needy, mind-blowing sex. There’s nothing like it.”
“It does sound pretty good. I’ll make sure David gives it to me.”
“Make him do it soon. Then, after you’ve been to the Promised Land, send him home and call me immediately to tell me about it. I don’t care how tempted you are to cuddle afterwards—do not let him stay the night, no matter what. I know you two are ‘sort of’ dating, but his staying the night takes that too far.”
Paige, in the process of taking a drink of wine, almost choked and ended up having a coughing fit.
Jules narrowed her eyes. “Oh, God, no. Please tell me he hasn’t already stayed over.”
“He’s already stayed over,” Paige admitted when she was able to speak. “The night he fingered me in the bathtub.”
Her expression turning calculating, Jules said, “And the next morning … that’s when you jerked him off in the shower.”
“Yes.”
“Jesus. How did it get past me that he spent the night?”
“I don’t know. People usually take showers in the morning, so …”
Jules took a deep breath. “Please tell me that was the only time he’s stayed over.”
“It’s been a couple of times, actually,” Paige reluctantly told her. Then, attempting to alleviate some of Jules’s anxiety, she added, “But it’s really not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?”
“No.”
“Are you fucking crazy? You can’t let him do that anymore. It’s too intimate.”
“Too intimate? I’ll be having sex with him—”
“Sex isn’t always intimate. And it wasn’t supposed to be in this situation. In and out, remember? Smash and grab?” Jules took several deep breaths while Paige watched, surprised at her friend’s response. “Have you stayed over at his place? Correction ... what used to be yours and his place when you were first married?”
“No. He asked me to last night, but I told him no.”
“Thank God. You don’t need to be doing that.”
“Look, I’m not going to lie. I briefly thought about it, but I kept picturing all the things he’d probably done with Ashley on his bed. Like getting morning blow jobs, going down on her, having all kinds of sex. Ugh. And I just couldn’t ignore that big of an elephant.”
“What do you mean? What elephant?”
“That’s another one of our rules. To ignore the elephant in the room—the elephant being his past relationship with Ashley,” Paige explained. “To not let it get in the way of what he and I are doing.”
Jules narrowed her eyes. “Is this a new rule? You were supposed to call me before agreeing to any new bullshit rules.”
“It’s not new.”
“No? So, when did this rule come about?”
Paige hesitated.
“When?” Jules demanded.
“Um, the night the first rules came about.”
“You didn’t mention it when you told me about those rules.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want to. I knew you’d be … upset.”
“Upset? I’m not upset. I’m ready to flip a table, but I’m not upset.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re not upset.”
Jules went to grab her wine glass, only to realize it was empty. “Damn it,” she muttered, looking around for Anthony, who was nowhere in sight. After a few moments, she gave up and turned back to Paige. “So, tell me about this stupid elephant rule.”
With a sigh, Paige briefly explained David’s reasoning behind it—that the two of them focus on going forward, as the people they were in the present, and leave the past in the past, which included Ashley.
“That does make sense,” Jules said slowly. “But at the same time it pisses me off that you’re the only one who has an elephant to ignore.”
“I know. But that’s the way it is. I don’t have an elephant. Well, my abuse, but that doesn’t really count.”
“So, have you been able to ignore his elephant?”
“For the most part, yes,” Paige answered. “There have been a few struggles, but I’ve always been able to overcome them. Until last night. That was the first time I just flat-out couldn’t ignore it. When he asked me to stay … the ghost of Ashley in his bed was just too much, and I told him I wasn’t willing to spend any time on the bed he’d shared with Ashley.”
“Amen to that.”
“Honest to God, just looking at the bed where he and that bitch had probably gotten into all kinds of fuckery made me want to barf—”
“Ladies, here are your meals,” Anthony announced, appearing with their dinner plates in his hands. For a second, he was confused by their having switched places but quickly adapted, and after setting the plates down on the table, he warned, “These are a little hot, so be careful.”
“Thank you,” Jules said, giving him a quick smile. “This looks great.”
“Yes, it does,” Paige chimed in.
“Enjoy,” he told them. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
The second the waiter was gone again Paige rubbed her face with both hands. “Oh, for God’s sake,” she groaned, her words slightly muffled.
Jules picked up her fork and started to dig into her eggplant Parmesan. “Looks like you’re no better at keeping an eye out for Anthony than I am.”