Chapter 46 Reed
REED
Georgie, the most beautiful girl in the world, is naked and floating silently in my moonlit swimming pool, while I stand next to her, looking down on her.
Feeling like I’m staring at an angel sent straight from heaven.
A batshit psycho angel, apparently. She hasn’t told me the story yet.
We had some champagne while sitting on the pool ledge together.
And then peeled off our clothes. Made out a bit.
And now, she’s floating and in some sort of meditation, while I stand next to her, lightly supporting her naked, horizontal frame, thinking two things on repeat.
One, I’ll never let anybody hurt you again.
And, two, I’ve never seen anything so fucking beautiful in my life.
Finally, Georgie opens her eyes and stands. Without saying a word, she wraps her arms and legs around my neck and torso, like a monkey clinging to a tree, and nuzzles her nose into mine. “I feel better now.”
“Good. That’s all I want for you. I want you to feel good and nothing else.”
“Thank you. I feel good when I’m with you.”
My heart skips a beat. “I feel good when I’m with you.”
“Good. Now, walk me around the pool, while I lay my cheek on your shoulder and tell you about the time I went batshit psycho on my cheating ex.”
“I can’t wait to hear the story.”
I begin walking a loop around the shallow end of my pool, as Georgina tells me about the time she awakened one fateful morning and discovered a string of texts and photos on her then-boyfriend’s phone that confirmed her long-simmering suspicions: he was cheating on her like she didn’t exist.
“Actually,” she says, “confirming Shawn was cheating on me was a huge relief. Twice before that morning, I’d told Shawn he was acting really weird and suspicious and secretive, but both times he said I was crazy and paranoid.
So, I was kind of thrilled in a weird way to finally know I wasn’t insane—that he was cheating on me.
And not just cheating on me. The dude had four side chicks. ”
“Four? Oh my God. No wonder you went batshit psycho on him.”
“Right? Who could blame me!”
“So, what’d you do to the guy?”
She laughs. “I’m scared to tell you. I don’t want you to be scared of me and send me packing.”
Oh, God. She’s so fucking adorable. “No worries about that. Your invitation to stay here for the whole summer is irrevocable.”
She lifts her cheek from my shoulder and beams a radiant smile at me.
“Come on baby,” I coo. “A little psycho won’t scare me off. To be honest, I get turned on by a little bit of crazy. It keeps things from getting boring for me.”
“Yeah, well, this wasn’t a little bit of crazy, sweetie. It was a shit-ton of batshit psycho.”
I wince. “Okay, I admit you’re starting to scare me a tiny bit.”
She giggles uproariously. “One more glass of champagne and then I’ll tell you everything,” she says with gusto, clearly savoring the fact that I’m on the edge of my proverbial seat, waiting to hear this story from her.
But, of course, since her wish is my command, I carry her to the ledge, where I fill our empty flutes from a bottle of Cristal we brought down to the pool with us.
“Aah, that’s good,” she says after taking a long sip. “Best champagne I’ve ever had.”
“I should hope so. This stuff ain’t cheap. It’s liquid gold. Now, come on. Tell me what you did to the guy. No more stalling. I know you’re enjoying torturing me. But enough is enough.”
She looks at me flirtatiously. “Okay, but in my defense, keep in mind that my dad was in treatment at this point. So I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown, as it was. And, like I said, I was more enraged at the betrayal of my trust, in my time of need, than about the cheating itself.”
“Just tell me the story already. I’ll consider all mitigating factors once I know the extent of your batshit psychosis.”
She returns her empty flute to the ledge and leans her shoulder against the side of the pool.
We’re both standing now. Facing each other.
Her hair is wet and slicked back. Her breasts just above the water line.
And I can honestly say whatever’s about to come out of her mouth won’t scare me off in the slightest.
“Okay, so, I saw all those texts on Shawn’s phone while he was taking a shower, and I—”
“Hold up. Sorry. How, exactly, did you see those texts and photos? Wasn’t Shawn’s phone passcode protected? If not, he’s the world’s stupidest serial cheater.”
Georgina snickers. “Yeah, he had it passcode protected. And, trust me, he never punched in the code at an angle where I could peek over his shoulder. But where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“Oh, shit. His passcode was all zeroes, wasn’t it? Or something like 1-2-3-4?”
She giggles. “Nope. It wasn’t an obvious code. I’m just a brilliant, devious hacker.”
I pause to let her elaborate, and when she doesn’t I say, “Come on. Give it up. What’d you do?”
She giggles happily, sounding very much like a woman with an abundance of beer, tequila, and champagne in her bloodstream. “If I tell you, then I won’t be able to hack into your phone, when you start acting weird and suspicious on me.”
Oh, Georgie. I put my palms on her cheeks and her lips part in surprise.
“Sweetheart, I’m a lot of things, some of them not so admirable, but a cheater isn’t one of them. I promise.”
She swoons in my palms, so I lean down and kiss her bee-stung lips. And, for a moment, fireworks are going off so violently and deliciously inside me, I feel physically dizzy. When our lips break apart, I nuzzle her nose and whisper, “Also, I use facial recognition.”
She bursts out laughing, and throws her arms around my neck again. And, just like that, she’s clinging to me again... which I don’t need to be told means she wants me to walk laps around the shallow end again.
“Okay, so here’s how I hacked Shawn’s phone,” she says.
“The night before, when he fell asleep, I cleaned his phone screen immaculately, until there wasn’t a single smudge on it.
And then, after he’d logged in several times the next morning, I peeked at the new smudges when he was in the shower.
” She shrugs. “Once I had the pool of numbers to work with, I was able to figure out his code on the third try.”
“You’re a genius.”
She runs her fingers through my wet hair. “Are you scared of me now?”
“Not at all. Just impressed.”
“So, anyway, I saw those texts and photos, and lost my shit. I went straight to his closet and grabbed all of his jerseys. Shawn played basketball for UCLA, so he had—”
“Hold the fuck up. ‘Shawn’ is Shawn Gordon? This whole time we’ve been talking about motherfucking Shawn Gordon?”
“Oh, God. Not you, too.”
“Georgie, he’s been UCLA’s top scorer the past two years. He’s a freak. A beast.”
“Yeah, well, he’s also a dickheaded cheater. If you’re so in love with him, then you date him and see what kind of boyfriend he is to you.”
I chuckle heartily. “Sorry. Josh, Henn, and I still follow UCLA sports religiously. Shawn Gordon is one of our favorites.”
She glares at me.
“But not anymore. Now, I hate him.”
She laughs.
“Continue. Please. You took all of his jerseys out of his closet, and...”
“I went outside to the barbeque set up at the back of Shawn’s apartment complex... and I burned them all!”
“Oooh. What a psycho,” I say sarcastically.
“Reed. I burned all his jerseys.”
“Yes. I heard you the first time. But I hate to tell you, that’s not batshit psycho. That’s just run-of-the-mill anger.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t told you the rest. Wait until you hear what else I did.”
“Can’t wait to find out.”
She bites her lower lip, relishing whatever she’s about to say.
“There was a screwdriver sitting next to the barbeque, for some reason. And I picked it up, and marched straight to the parking structure, where Shawn’s beloved Jeep was parked.
He was so proud of that thing. It was his version of a Bugatti.
” She pauses for dramatic effect. “And I took that screwdriver and I punctured all four tires on his car! One puncture for each side chick!” She opens her mouth wide.
As wide as it will go. As if to say, Can you believe it?
But I’m not the least bit impressed, and I’m sure my face shows it. “That’s it?” I say.
“What do you mean, ‘That’s it’? Reed, I gave his beloved car four flat tires! Do you know how expensive tires are? And I made it so he’d have to replace the entire set, all at once!”
I can’t help laughing uproariously at her beautiful innocence in this moment. Her stunning beauty. I kiss her cheek, still laughing. “Oh my God, Georgie girl. I thought you were going to say you keyed the fucker’s car. Maybe scratched ‘liar’ onto his car doors.”
She looks utterly shocked at the suggestion. “Well, first of all, his Jeep didn’t really have doors. But, second of all, why would I do that? I could have gone to jail for a very long time if I did something as serious as that. I think that would be a felony!”
I laugh again. “And here I thought you were such a badass.”
“I am.” She pouts. “I gave him four flat tires and burned three jerseys. I was proud of myself for that.”
I laugh. “Well, yeah. I’m glad you did something to the guy.
He cheated on you with four women. I’m just saying that was your chance to go full-on ‘Left Eye’ Lopes on the guy, and be perfectly justified.
I’m just saying you didn’t really seize the opportunity as fully as you could have. That’s all.”
She looks up from her pouting. “Full-on ‘Left Eye’ Lopes? I’m sure it won’t shock you to learn I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I throw my head back. “No!”
She giggles. “Sorry.”
I return to her. “Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes. She was in TLC—the female R&B trio from the ‘90s.”
She grimaces. “Nope. Sorry.”
I drag my palm over my face. “Please, at least tell me you’ve heard of TLC?”
She shakes her head, so I sing the chorus of “Scrubs.” And when that elicits nothing, I switch to the chorus of “Waterfalls,” which, thankfully, she instantly recognizes.
“I love that song,” she declares.
“Okay, well, the rap in the middle of that one was performed by Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes.”
“Ooooh. Quick question. What’s the point of that song? When they say you shouldn’t chase waterfalls, are they saying you shouldn’t follow your dreams?”
“No, they’re saying you shouldn’t engage in self-destructive behaviors.”
“Aaaaah. Okay.”
“So, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes. You need to learn this.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes had a boyfriend named Andre Rison. He was a pro football player. And one night, after they’d had a huge fight, Left Eye burned Andre’s very large house in Atlanta completely to the ground.”
Georgina gasps.
“She claimed she’d only intended to burn a pair of sneakers in a bathtub, but that the fire had spread and burned out of control.”
“Holy crap.”
“Guess how long she went to prison for felony arson?” I raise my eyebrow. “Not a single day.”
“What?”
“Andre knew he deserved it, apparently. He supported her in court.”
“What the hell did Andre do to her?”
“She said he’d beaten her. He denied it.”
Georgina’s jaw sets. “Well, if he did, he got off easy, if you ask me.”
In a flash, I’m thinking about that fucker Mr. Gates again.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I say, my jaw tightening.
I set Georgina down onto her feet, and put my fingertip underneath her chin.
“Listen to me, Georgie girl. Listen close. Nobody is allowed to hurt you, ever again. You got that? If any man ever dares lay so much as a pinky on you, that you don’t want on you, or if someone you trusted hurts you in any way, then I want you to go full-on ‘Left Eye’ Lopes on his fucking ass.
Or, if you’re too scared to do that. If you just want to get away, then you do that.
But then, I want you to promise me, no matter how far in the future this scenario might come to pass, you’ll come to me.
Straight to me. No matter where I am in the world.
And you’ll tell me what happened, so I can go full-on Reed Rivers on the motherfucker’s ass. ”
She’s shaking against my fingertip. She nods, her hazel eyes flashing.
“Nobody—nobody—is allowed to hurt you, Georgina Ricci. Never, ever again. Do you understand me? Never.”
She nods again, just before lunging at me and crushing her gorgeous lips to mine.