Beautiful Illusion (11 page)

O
ver the next two weeks
, Angel and I fell into what I can only call a relationship. We never put a label on it, but she was my girl. There was no question about it that she was my girl. We’d text throughout the day, and after she got off work—if both of us had enough time—she would come over to my place and we’d spend the night together.

I loved having her around, and the sex was incredible. Each and every time was better than the last. It was the first time that I had gotten so close to someone and completely lost my desire to go out and meet other women.

The day after our first weekend together, I logged into the pickup community forums to find that Rick Jackson had created an account and posted his version of the night I pulled Angel away from him, in an attempt to further ruin my reputation.

The first time I read it, it pissed me off, and I even wrote a long post detailing my version of the events, how he drugged and manipulated Angel… before I backspaced and deleted it all. I didn’t want to get in an internet war with another pickup artist, and no one had been signing up for my classes since that night at McMillan anyway. Not to mention the string of angry replies calling me out for breaking the man code and lacking game. If the other guys wanted to follow Rick and turn to the Dark Side, then so be it.

I still had my magic, and I still had Angel.

I sat on my living room couch, looking down at a model skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles via a 3D imaging program on my laptop, studying its tiny windows and surroundings, trying to figure out a way that I could make an illusion of falling off work. Since the idea entered my brain it had been festering, and I wanted… no I
needed
to make it happen. Holding your breath for 15 minutes is an awesome feat, but falling off of a skyscraper would take things to a whole another level.

But it was dangerous. All the ways that I thought I could make it happen involved putting my life at risk again, only this time any number of scarier things could go wrong, and there wouldn’t be any time for someone save me if it did.

My phone rang. It was Ziv.

“Hello?”

“Enigma! You’ve gone silent man.”

“I’ve been busy training for my next show, and you can call me Nick now if you want.”

“Nick? I don’t know how I feel about that. You’ve always been Enigma to me.”

“It’s my pickup artist name, and I’m pretty much out of the game.”

Ziv sighed into the phone. “Look, man. These guys need you. If you leave them to people like Rick, you’re just letting them turn into a bunch of nasty monsters.”

“You and Cobra are great pickup artists now. You can teach people without me.”

Ziv laughed. “We’re good, but we aren’t you. They call you Enigma for a reason, and Cobra and I will never have the same influence that you have in the pickup community. We can’t teach people the way you do either.”

“I’m seeing Angel now.”

“I know. Cobra told me… And I hope it works out for you. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to help guys like me out.”

“Angel will never approve of me—“

“You saved my life,” Ziv interrupted. “Do you understand that?”

He got my attention with that, but I didn’t respond. I just sat there processing what he had just said.

“Before you took me under my wing and taught me how to work with women, I had nothing. I was a loser, sitting around at home doing nothing but watching too much porn and playing too many video games. I didn’t even have hope that I’d ever meet someone. I would have died a sad and lonely man.

“You saved my life. I have an amazing life now, a future.”

His words cut through me like a knife, and I was reminded of why I started teaching game to men to begin with—because I wanted to help them, not just because of the money involved.

“Don’t give up on everyone in need, just because you’ve already found happiness.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said. “Just give me some time figure everything out.”

“And since you’ve been silent on the forums, Cobra and I have been giving people the real spiel about what happened that night at Lobster House. Most people seem to believe us, but it would be nice if you chimed in.”

“Alright, let me think about it.”

We ended the call and I went back staring at the model of the skyscraper. But it was hard to focus because there was so much on my mind. I had an illusion to solve, a reputation to fix, and Angel…. She was a new part of my life, and I somehow needed to figure out how to fit her into the puzzle without my whole house of cards crumbling down.

I
was
on top of the world.

My relationship with Nick took off from the first night we spent together, and everything was going great. I loved talking to him, spending time with him, and he was slowly but surely becoming my best friend. Not that I’d ever drop Kim from my life, but my time with Nick was on a totally different level.

Flutterfly was on fire. After Nick’s show, people were lining up to buy preorder tickets even when they didn’t know the date of the next show. The money that people had sent in for deposits would more than cover venue costs just about anywhere once he decided a time and date for the show.

I was looking at the company accounting when the door to my office creaked open and Kim stepped inside. “Don’t forget we have a meeting with Facebook in 30 minutes.”

I looked at my watch and rolled my eyes. “Shit, I totally forgot.”

We were supposed to open discussions with the social media platform about ways we could lower our advertising costs and simultaneously buy more slots.

“Head lost on that new boyfriend of yours?” Kim grinned.

“Probably,” I admitted with my biggest smile.

“I’m happy for you Angel. You’ve been glowing lately, like I’ve never seen you before.”

“Thanks Bae,” I teased. “When you are going get yourself a steady guy?”

Kim smirked. “I get nothing but playboys and assholes like that Rick guy you talked to. I’m still waiting to luck out like you did with Nick.”

“You’ll find someone. Just give it time.”

Kim nodded. “Anyway, I need to go get the presentation ready for the FB guys.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in 30 minutes,” I said.

Kim stepped out of the room and closed the door quietly.

For some reason, the mention of Rick piqued my curiosity. Since I had been with Nick the last couple of weeks, the thought of the charade with fake Dante hadn’t really returned to my mind, but I remembered Nick saying that Rick was some sort of pickup artist, and I was intrigued by that a little bit. I opened up my web browser and typed his name into the Google search bar.

I saw his disgusting book for sale on Amazon along with several other stores, him standing on the cover with his arms crossed and his Cadillac behind him. He had several reviews from other men that were surprisingly positive, despite the nature and content of the book.

But what really caught my eye was one of the few negative reviews he had from someone who had left him only a single star.

For a moment, I thought I was seeing things or that maybe since I had been thinking about Nick so much that his nickname was haunting me. Or maybe it was a coincidence that some pickup artist guy had the same pseudonym as Nick. But then I typed “Enigma pickup artist” into Google, and my heart sank.

There was Nick/Enigma in photos, articles and blog posts talking about how to pick up women. He had a website where he was advertising pickup classes to men, and there were even videos of him getting women’s numbers and kissing a girl in the club.

As I scrolled and continued to see more and more trash about the man I had been falling for, my breathing picked up, and my face grew hot. My vision started to blur, and I could feel a salty taste forming in my mouth.

The real kicker was when I clicked a forum link and a cell phone video of him at McMillan the night we met appeared. People in the comments were arguing and calling me a ‘cockblock,’ saying that no one, not even the all-powerful Enigma, would be able to court someone like me.

I slammed my laptop shut and bolted out of my office, through the halls, and into the bathroom. As soon as I was inside, I ran into one of the stalls and barely managed to rear my head over the toilet in time that the Caesar salad that I had for lunch launched down into the bowl. I heaved and heaved again until there was nothing left, then sat there on the floor basking in my own misery.

I felt like an idiot.

I had been wrong. Or rather I had been right from the beginning. Enigma was the player that I figured he was that night that I met him at the club, yet I still fell for his little tricks just like all the other girls. He might not have drugged me, but he was no different than that asshole Rick. I had just been a challenge for him, and after he failed that night and McMillan, he decided to pull me from Rick and fuck me so that he could earn his redemption.

The tears flowed, and I wished there was a place that I could bury my head in the sand. When Kim and everyone else found out who Nick really was, I would look like a total fool.

“Is that you Angel?” came a voice outside of the stalls. It sounded like Cassandra, one of the new hires that had been brought on board over the last couple of weeks to help with Nick’s magic show promotion. “Are you okay?”

I sniffled and tried to make my voice and presentable as possible. “Yeah, it’s me. And I’m fine… Just ate something bad is all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah!” I snapped and kicked my feet against the floor, making myself sound much ruder than I should have. I knew I shouldn’t take my frustration out on her, but I was so hurt that I wanted to wail at anything.

“Okay…” she said gently, and I heard her open the door and leave.

I grabbed a wad of tissue from the toilet paper dispenser and started wiping the tears from my eyes and any other liquid that may have found its way on my face. I pulled myself up off the floor and brushed off my skirt suit.

You’re strong, Angel. You can handle this,
I told myself and took a few deep breaths. I did one final maintenance check of myself in the mirror and straightened my shoulders.

Maybe I just wasn’t destined to have a good boyfriend. Maybe I was just such a bad judge of guys that I was destined to wind up with nothing but jerks and assholes for the rest of my life. No matter what, I wasn’t going to be one of those girls who spent all their time dwelling over failed relationships. I made a mistake with Nick, but I still had my business, Flutterfly, to take care of.

I turned and headed out the door towards my meeting with Facebook, a lump of sadness and disappointment still lodged in my throat no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

I made it about 10 steps down the hall before I went flying back to the bathroom to puke again.

Fucking Nick.

“
K
im
?” I asked into the phone.

“Yes, Nick?” Kim replied.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on with Angel? She hasn’t answered my calls for two days now, and she isn’t replying to any of my texts.”

Kim sighed. “Angel is okay.”

“What the hell does that mean? If she is okay, why isn’t she talking to me?”

“She asked me not to talk to you about your personal relationship with her, and Lee and I will be handling all the promo interaction in regards to your next and future magic shows.”

“What? Is this some sort of joke?”

“Look Nick. I can’t really say much more. All I know is that Angel sort of wants to be left alone right now.”

“This is some fucking bullshit, and you know it, Kim. Tell me what the fuck is going on!” I growled into the phone.

“Ugh, sorry Nick. I really can’t say... I… I’m going to go.” Kim clicked her phone off without giving me time to reply.

What the fuck?

Nothing at all was making sense. Everything had been going perfectly between Angel and I the last couple weeks, but then she all of a sudden cuts me off? We hadn’t had any fights or arguments, and the last time we talked we left off with a simple ‘talk later’. It made no sense at all.

But if she needed time, I would give it to her. We had been dating for only two weeks, so it would’ve been foolish to think that I knew everything about her. Maybe there were some emotional issues or demons she had to deal with that I didn’t know about? Whatever the case, I’d give her time if that’s what she needed.

* * *

A
nother week went by
, and Angel still hadn’t called. I sent her the occasional text and I called her at least once every other day, but she didn’t offer any response.

No matter how easily it was for me to pick up women, I guess I would never understand them. And I’d be lying if it didn’t hurt me that we’d shared so much time together, yet she tossed me to the side without offering any explanation at all.

I decided to follow Ziv’s encouragement, and put up slots for another pickup class. Lee and Kim were getting everything together for another magic show in a few weeks, so with Angel falling out of the picture, I had plenty of time to take on a few students. The extra cash wouldn’t hurt as well.

It turned out that Cobra and Ziv’s handiwork in the pickup community was able to dissipate most of the negative energy towards me and turned it into a positive message, especially when people realized that Angel and I, the girl who had blown me off in the cell phone video, had got together. It all ended up making Rick look like sort of an ass and me looking like an even better pickup artist than before. In less than 24 hours, I had 10 signups for a full class.

In a way, I was excited to get another group of guys out on the field and get back in the routine with Cobra and Ziv, but another part of me felt empty, like I was taking two steps back from the man I had become and right back into the guy I was before. Not that my life was particularly bad before, but the time I spent with Angel had made me feel more whole.

The first day of the class arrived, and the guys all piled into my living room. Usually, I kept my groups at a limit of 8 guys at once, so having a group of 10 nerds, losers, and social misfits all in one room made it my biggest class ever.

I touched Cobra on the shoulder and we both laughed at a funny joke I made, and Cobra slipped a fake piece of hair behind his ear and sipped on his fake girly drink.

I turned my head back to the class, removed my hand from Cobra’s shoulder, then lightly touched him again. “This is how you develop an initial physical relationship with a girl you’ve just met. You want to get them used to your touch, give them a chance to pull away, but you don’t want to come across as a creep.”

Ziv and Cobra got into position and pretended to be two girls standing over a fake table, and I pointed towards a tall, slender guy with glasses the thickness of coke bottles.

“You,” I said. “Get over here, approach the ladies, and give me a build up of physical contact.”

The man stood anxiously and walked over to the two fake women. He approached casually from the side and turned his head to look at Ziv, then lightly touched him on the shoulder. “Hey did you see that fight in the back of the club?”

“No, no, no,” I said as I stopped him. “Good job with the approach and the opener wasn’t bad either, but you never want to touch a lady who isn’t warmed up to you. Imagine if you’re walking alone by yourself and someone you haven’t even talked to all of a sudden touches you. It’s shocking right?”

The class nodded.

“Make sure that she’s sufficiently warmed up before you initiate any physical contact, then escalate from there.”

“We going to do field tonight?” Ziv suddenly asked. “I should go reserve a table if we’re going to head out.”

“You guys feel ready do some live pickups?” I asked towards the class.

They all looked at each other anxiously, some of them nodding and some not making a move.

The tall, slender guy guy who was still standing asked, “Are you guys going to give us some demonstrations?”

I groaned a little. “I’m sure Cobra and Ziv will do a few pickups, but I’ll be coming along for support and instruction only.”

“Oh come on,” one guy in the group said. “We want to see the renowned Enigma in action.”

I turned to Ziv and Cobra who just stared at me. “I’m sure you guys know I’ve been seeing someone, and I’m not sure right now how she’d feel about me picking up other women, even if just for show.”

“I read that you hit it off with that girl, but I didn’t know you had a girlfriend,” the slender guy explained.

“Well, we haven’t really said that we’re officially together, but it’s sort of one of those things that’s assumed.” The whole time I was talking, I was wondering if I was fooling the class or fooling myself even. Angel wasn’t answering my calls, and for all I knew she was seeing someone else. “And,“ I added as I pulled out my phone and began sliding my hand across the screen. “If you ask me, she’s a perfect 10.”

I held a picture that I had taken of Angel while we were standing outside of café on Ventura boulevard. She hadn’t put any makeup on that morning, and it was my go-to picture whenever I needed a reminder of how adorable she was.

“Yeah, she’s hot…” one guy said.

“Wow…” another guy muttered.

A few other guys furrowed their brows and were looking at each other in confusion or amusement or maybe a little bit of both.

Suddenly, Cobra grabbed my arm and was pulling me across the living room and into the master bedroom. As soon as we passed through the doorway, he slammed the door shut and looked me dead in the eye.

“What are you doing, man?” he barked.

“What do you mean, ‘What am I doing?’ I’m teaching a class.”

“You’re teaching a
pickup
class, yet you’re showing off pictures of fucking Angel? Didn’t you tell me that she hasn’t talked to you in like a week and a half?”

“Yeah but—”

“Yeah, but you’re acting fucking weird, like you’re some schmuck who’s totally in love and can’t get over some chick.”

His words were like a hard punch to my heart. I had kept the word ‘love’ out of my conscious since I had met Angel, but deep down I knew that my feelings for her were way beyond anything that I had ever felt for another girl. It was more than a simple lust, more than simple attraction.

“Maybe I am…”

Cobra shoved my chest with enough force that my back banged against the wall, and he smirked as he lifted his hand to his forehead. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I think I—“

“Stop,” Cobra said and lifted his hand up. “Just stop now.” He lowered his hands and placed one on his hip. “Maybe you don’t understand, since you’re so used to every girl falling on their knees and practically begging you to fuck them, but women don’t just stop answering your calls for weeks if they’re still interested in you. You’re my best friend, Enigma, and I hate to see you get hurt. But that’s just the way it is.”

My heart thumped in my chest, and I felt my throat closing up. I didn’t know what to say and probably wouldn’t have been able to talk even if I did.

Cobra stepped forward and put his hands on my shoulders. “Maybe it was fun while it lasted, but it’s over. It’s time for you to move on.”