Lacey
3.
Ialmost start crying the second I wrap myself in Briana’s arms. She hugs me back, holding me together, because we are in a bar full of people and she knows crying around drinks would embarrass the heck out of me.
“Lace, what the hell happened?”
“You have no idea. I’m so over him, it’s not even funny.”
I push my hair out of my face, trying to regain control before I tell the story. She takes my chin in her hand, examining my cheek.
“That fucking bastard, Lacey. I am going to murder him, is he really this stupid?” she asks, still inspecting my cheek.
I don’t even know what I have there that shows I got hit in the face, but the cop a minute ago saw it too. Hell… just thinking about him has me clenching my thighs together. He looked like every wet dream I ever had about a man. And then the things he and his hot partner were talking about when I bumped into them.
Shit, I can’t handle another cop let alone two…
“Tell me you punched him in the nuts?” Bri asks, her blue eyes furious.
“I did not. I left the apartment a second later without a word.”
“Tell me everything.”
I fill her in on the whole evening. She runs her hand through her shoulder-length, red hair multiple times, stopping me every twenty seconds to tell me that he is a fucking bastard and doesn’t deserve me.
“I couldn’t agree with you more on everything, but I love him,” I tell her, about to tear up again.
“Do you really?” she starts, wiping away a stray tear that escaped. “I think you love the idea of him. He has treated you like shit for at least the past six months of your relationship, he hates everything you do and vice versa. You haven’t been intimate for quite a while, how long has it been a month? That is not normal, not even for a married couple with six thousand kids.”
I could really use a damn drink right now. Is she right? We really don’t have anything in common, and he has been so mean. Why am I even with him?
“I think it’s been five weeks. The last time, he told me again that I should get myself checked out because I can’t come.”
“I’m gonna kill him, Lace.”
“I don’t fucking know, Bri. I have no idea what I’m doing. I still have a semester left of beauty school and I just got fired from Timothy’s. That was my first relationship, my first time. I’ve never been with anyone but Adrian.”
“I know girl, and you have no idea what you’ve missed. I know you’re not like me and that for whatever reason, you don’t feel sexy all the time, but you are smoking hot Lace! If you look to your right you see guys looking at you and if you look to your left there is also someone looking at you. And I’m sure there’s a sea of guys on the dance floor who would love for you to fuck them and who wouldn’t dare say something about your weight. Whatever that bastard planted in your head, let me tell you: you’re not fat. You wouldn’t even apply to fucking curvy sized because you’re small!”
I blush, looking in both directions and seeing men looking at us. One of them winks at me and waves his beer in my direction. I quickly avert my eyes and look back to Bri.
“I’m not one of those women who think they are ugly and fat. It’s just that most of the time I don’t feel comfortable in the way my ass looks in jeans, or how I have a roll on my tummy when I sit, or how on some places of my body my stretch marks are still very dark. I just haven’t looked left or right in the past nine months,” I gasp, remembering what happened when I got here, and look right into my best friend’s eyes. “Well not really…”
My face gets warm. Briana almost chokes mid sip on her Bacardi Coke.
“First of all, you’re damn crazy, nothing you just said makes any sense to me, or a normal person, for that matter. Second of all, spill the beans, woman.”
I put my hands over my eyes.
“I might’ve just bumped into a frigging porn scene in front of the bar. I swear to god. It was two cops, one hotter than the other, and they were talking about licking a woman, sharing a woman, and their big dicks. And I don’t know about the other one, but the bigger one clearly checked out my girls and I felt the tingle everywhere… But I swear, I’ve never cheated on Adrian. I never looked at another guy twice before tonight. But I’m so over his bullshit and done with his ass. Goodbye.”
When I let my hands fall away from my face, I see Briana’s eyes almost falling out of their sockets.
“Shut the fuck up,” she says, sipping away at her drink, her blue eyes still on me.
“I swear on your tits.”
“OK… OK. So big dicks, fuck yes. Licking, sharing? Erm hello, hell yes. But cops? Honey no times five thousand. Hell to the no!”
I groan. “I know Bri, I’m not stupid. And I don’t want anything. I just wanted to tell you. I don’t want a man. I haven’t even broken up with Adrian, I need time. Time to heal, to process, and then to get fucking up again and do my own thing.”
“Wait, what? You haven’t broken up with that pig? Lacey, are you serious?”I look away and follow a drop of condensed water that’s slowly drifting down my glass.
“I just left the apartment. I don’t know if I was scared, or just over this damn evening, but I just left. He didn’t even try to follow me. He told me to apologize when I’m done being jealous. But I didn’t break up with him…”“Lace, no. You have to tell his ass goodbye. And you have to do it for real and not be one of those women who go back to their abusers. He hit you in the face. That should be the final nail on his coffin. He called you ugly, he called you fat, he made you small. And let’s not forget that I don’t like him and you know I like everyone,” she ends with a grin, and I give her a look.
I take a sip of my drink and feel the alcohol burn in my throat.
“I know. I will do it. But not tonight. I don’t want to see his fucking face,” I tell her.
“Girl it is 2023. You don’t have to see his face to break up with him. You send him a fucking text. Tell him you’ll get your shit from his apartment in like a week or two and that he can fucking live out his fantasies with the blonde bimbo he’s texting.”
I feel myself getting angry again thinking about the photo he showed me. The time I caught him jerking off to porn. That one time he clearly made a move on a girl right in front of my eyes. He brushed it off as if it was nothing. God, am I this fucking stupid?
“You know I could never just text him. And I don’t fucking know what he’s going to do. That’s not the first time he has pushed me around, or physically hurt me. He never hit me in the face but he did other things…”
“Lacey Juliette! Why didn’t you tell me? And why the fuck didn’t you leave him sooner?”
“I can’t answer that question with a plausible reason. I love him… at least I think I do. And he is always so sweet after he says or does something mean. He apologizes and treats me really special. I know it sounds stupid, but we have good times, you know?”
Briana’s eyes blaze with fire as she drinks the last drops of Bacardi from her glass, looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind before waving her hand to the bartender to order another. The drink comes in less than a minute, even though the bar is packed, because Bri is smoking hot. She has this main character energy, vibrant red hair that she likes to color every three weeks. I know because I always have to assist her, being her personal stylist. She has big, blue eyes, beautiful bone structure, and a body I would die for. I know she does a lot of sports and weight lifting but I would kill her if I could exchange bodies with her.
Briana and I have been best friends in forever.
“Lacey, I know you’ve been together for a while but shut yourself off from the good memories. He’s toxic. He’s so damn bad. Even though he looks good, I can see the evil shine through him. I swear to you, that man would fuck you over every day and still have sunshine coming out of his ass!
I know she’s right and I have to get him out of my system. Have to say goodbye to him for good.
“I’ll do it, Bri, I swear. I’ll break up with him. I’m done. But let’s have some fun tonight, OK? God knows I haven’t had fun in ages. Help me forget this evening. Please?” I ask, putting my hands together in prayer.
She laughs, hugging me tight. “Of course, honey. You know fun is my middle name.”
We have two more drinks and I start feeling a little tipsy. I usually don’t drink, because I’m not even twenty-one, but I feel bold tonight and Bri is handing them over in my direction. She’s twenty-two, but has been slipping me alcohol since I was sixteen, because she always had a fake ID. I was never bold enough for that. I was always so scared to get caught.
“Let’s play a game. I saw this trend on TikTok and I bet you it’s fun.”
I laugh, feeling a little lighter and funnier than an hour ago.
Briana gets out her phone and switches on her front camera. I scoot over so I sit directly next to her and both of our faces are visible in the camera.
I know this will end up on some sort of social media platform because Briana likes to share her life with a bunch of people. I have about 340 followers on Instagram and I probably only know twelve of them personally. I’ve never been as bold as her. The followers I have are from Bri tagging me in some of her posts. But I only have five pictures on my profile and only one of them is with my face. Well, one is a near shot of one of my eyes, but that doesn’t count.
She pushes the red recording button on and directs me through the play rules.
“So it’s like he’s a ten, but he has bad breath, then he’s only a four. Or he’s a two, but drives a Lambo, so eight, you get it?”
I nod, giggling away. She grins at me through her screen.
“So I start. He’s a ten, but he sends dick pics.”
I scrunch my nose up, wrinkling it in disgust as I remember that time I went on Instagram and opened a random, blurry picture someone sent me and it was a deformed, dirty cock.
“Eww, a zero. Goodbye.”
Briana laughs. “Girl, you’ve clearly never gotten a proper dick pic, or sent nudes with someone. I would say a nine. Just depending on whether it was asked for, or totally out of context. But asked for, or while dirty talking, hell yes I want to see your cock, Andrew,” she says loud enough for multiple people to look in our direction.
One of them tells her he will send her one in a second from the bathroom. I almost cry from laughing before I calm down enough to say something myself.
“OK, OK, OK,” I start, still coughing from laughing my ass off. “So he’s a six, but he likes to tie you up.”
Briana puts her hand on her chest. “A twelve, fuck yeah!”
I laugh my ass off again, knowing she’s kinky. “I say an eight. Could be hot, but I’ve never been tied up.”
“That fucker is so stupid, I don’t know where to start. Poor other girls, who come after you. I hope his dick falls off and he can’t fuck at all!”
I snicker, imagining his cock falling off and for Adrian to never disrespect someone ever again.
“So how is this? He’s a ten, but he still lives at home at thirty.”
“Goodbye, a two.”
“I’d say zeroooo,” she bellows, a hand on her mouth like a microphone.
I snicker, the alcohol still keeping me warm, as I think over what to ask next. “So he’s a seven, but he likes to work out six times a week.”
Briana’s eyes light up, loving to work out herself. “Ten, clear as day bitch.”
I laugh. “Still a seven for me.”
Briana dances on her seat and takes another a sip of Bacardi Coke before asking her next question. “So, this one is mean, so be prepared. He’s a ten, but he’s a cop.”
I groan, letting my head fall forward into my hands, while Bri laughs away.
“I’d say two, because hell no, your fucking boyfriend ruined any cop fantasy I ever had, but I know you feel different about uniforms, you kinky little bitch.”
I look up again, feeling my cheeks flame in embarrassment and see Briana giving me the look. She just loves to embarrass me like that.
I giggle, making the mistake of not looking around before answering her.
“I know how you feel, but I would still say ten, because hell yes, give me another cop.”
And then I feel it, a big presence behind me. When I look up, I see the hot cop, Koa Maverick, from outside in Briana’s phone display. Oh fuck… did he hear that?
“A two, really?” his partner, Ledger Hyde, asks Bri, eye fucking her on the spot.
Her camera is still on when she replies. “Well if I would’ve known you were behind me I would’ve said zero, just so you could fucking arrest me, Officer Handsome.”
He snickers, leaning against the bar beside her and looking down her dress. She pushes out her chest and grabs her phone to turn off the recording.
The big, looming, fuckable officer behind me slides his big arm around me, his chest touching my back. I can’t help but close my eyes because the electricity buzzing around me is frying my nerves.
He takes my drink and sniffs it. When I look up into his gorgeous, dark eyes, he does not look amused.
“There’s alcohol in this, Ms. Monroe,” he says, the deep tone of his voice making me shiver.
“That’s my drink,” Briana says, taking it out of his hand.
“Can I see your ID, miss?” the other officer asks my friend.
She looks him in the eyes innocently, fishing the card out of her bra and handing it over to him. While he holds the card, his eyes come back to her tits multiple times.
“Briana Bloom. Twenty-two. You’re legal,” he states, handing her ID back.
“I am, officer,” she replies, pushing it back into her bra while he watches it disappear.
“But you’re not.”
His voice vibrates behind me.
“Bartender, do you have a break room, or some kind of back room nearby?”
The bartender immediately points behind him, holding his hands up afterward, looking as if he’s about to be arrested. Officer Maverick just gives him a dirty look.
“Would you please come with me, miss?” he asks me, touching the naked skin on my back.
“OK,” I squeak out, standing up and following him.
Bri and the other officer follow close behind us.
When we arrive in the break room and he closes the door behind us, it instantly feels less crowded and not so loud. I look at Officer Koa Maverick and push against the wall on the other side of the room. I eye him as he looks in my face with an intensity I feel down to my knees.
“You’ve been drinking,” he states more than he asks, and I just nod because I’ve never been good at lying.
He raises his brows and comes to me. I try to shrink more into the wall, but I’m already pressed against it.
“It’s my fault, officer. I handed her the drinks. But if it makes you feel better, she definitely needed them tonight,” Bri says from behind him, coming to my rescue like she usually does.
Koa looks back to her, a feral growl coming out of his throat. His partner just laughs and urges Briana to the door.
“Come on, sweetheart, let’s wait outside.”
Briana looks into my eyes, debating if she can leave me alone with this massive man, and I just nod my head for an OK. I don’t think he would hurt me, even though he seems kind of scary. I feel a protectiveness radiating from him that lets me settle enough against the wall, telling my best friend with my expression that I’m OK to be alone in a back room with him. Or it’s the alcohol flowing through my veins, making me even crazier than I already am…
“She’s safe with me. Don’t worry,” he assures her, looking in my eyes.
I feel his gaze down to my soul. His beautiful, unique, dark-brown eyes almost bring me to my knees.
I look up as Officer Ledger opens the door, and Briana slips through it under his arm, his eyes move leisurely over my body before he winks at me. A blush forms on my cheeks because of his cockiness and good looks.
But before the door fully closes behind them, Bri lets out a few crazy words, making me feel even more embarrassed.
“I don’t know if she wants to feel safe with you!”
And then the door shuts with a loud thud, and we’re alone, facing each other with the bass of the music thumping behind the walls.
I was serious when I said I haven’t looked at other men when I was with Adrian. But this guy, he is different. It is like I’ve seen him before. As if I know him, even though I know I don’t. And he looks crazy good. Not even just the cop thing. But he’s probably around 6’6” and broad. So much wider than Adrian. His skin is tanned and his face looks so good. His lips are big and soft, his nose isn’t too wide, and his eyes are magic. His hair is buzz cut and I dig it so bad.
He looks me up and down, lingering on my lips and boobs longer than what would be appropriate, but it shoots lighting down to my core.
“So you have been drinking, Ms. Monroe,” he states again.
I just nod my head, my gaze coming back to his lips before reverting back down to the floor. He steps directly in front of me, until his boots appear in my line of sight.
“I need you to blow.”
This time my knees really do buckle. I close my mouth before some embarrassing sound can slip through. The tension in my lower abdomen is unbelievable, and the feeling in my chest indescribable.
When I look up I see that his eyes are back on my face, their color even darker than before. And I can’t help but think about sucking his dick. I didn’t know that I liked it before, but I love that he gives me orders.
I look down to his pants, but then I see he has a little pipe that is attached to a breathalyzer in his hand. That I should blow, so he can measure the alcohol in my system.
When and why did my mind go from nice schoolgirl to naughty porn star? I think I definitely had one drink too many.
He holds the pipe in front of my face. When I come a little forward and pull it into my mouth, he puts one of his hands on the wall next to me as his eyes linger on my lips, which are wrapped around the device.
“Blow,” he commands in a tone that has my clit syncing to the beat of my heart.
And I do. His eyes move from the pipe to the little machine attached to it. He pulls it out from between my lips, watching as they slide over it.
“0.02 permille.”
I look down his hard body until my gaze lands on his cuffs and I think back to the conversation I just had with Bri about getting tied up. Just thinking about him tying me up makes me so wet.
“Are you going to arrest me?” I ask, innocently, not really knowing if he will.
He follows my eyes to his cuffs and gets them from his belt, the metal of them touching the silver of my stomach between my top and jeans, before he slides them up further to my chest. My nipple pebbles hard against my top, as my lady parts scream for his hands instead of the cold material touching my body.
“Do you want me to?” he asks, one hand on the wall, his body coming closer.
Every cell of my body knows the correct answer is no. But I’ve been way too lonely, for way too long, in a relationship with a man who cared about nothing but himself, and all I want to be right now is to be selfish. To give in to my feelings and not give a shit about Adrian. Fuck him.
“I don’t know,” I reply, looking back up at his uniform. Hoping that for the first time ever, a man can make me feel good about myself.