Authors: Jennifer Riley
Lorrain
inhaled deeply, taking a meaningful pause and preparing to deliver the crucial sentence.
“Cathy, do you want that man or not, yes or no?”
“Yes,” Cathy answered without a blink, which was a bit of surprise for herself.
“So, go for it. Enjoy him, beguile him, and treat yourself. ”
“What about the girlfriend part?”
“Sex takes two, so I’d say
if he’ll let himself to be seduced - he doesn’t care about that girlfriend as much as he thinks.”
“You know, she’s
right,” agreed Maggie. “Once he left you for another woman, for sex, so now you have a chance to be that other women, to sabotage his relationship. Show him what he has lost. Have your revenge.”
“It’s a win-w
in situation,” complemented Lorrain. “You have sex with a man you desire and take a revenge on him at the same time. Make him regret loosing you.”
There was no need to say
anything else. The decision made. All the anger, jealousy and rage, Cathy burned with, turned into burning desire. She was going to be indecent this time and have her delightful revenge.
***
Cathy was happy about her new revenge plan; it made her feel much better. Yet, next morning she was not so sure anymore if she could do that. She dropped the idea few times and came back to it. Nonetheless, it was completely clear for her she wanted to see David again. She saw the returning addiction to that man, felt the danger of it, but he attracted her as the fire attracts butterfly.
Even though Cathy kept on re
thinking her outfit for the dinner all over again, she was not entirely sure she would go there. Finally, when the time came, it was the last minute decision to go or at least Cathy told herself so.
She was glad to see David at the restaurant waiting for her
. Providing some silly explanation about her phone’s battery down the other day, she started some small talk. Cathy was barely listening to David, distracted and confused. He was quick to notice that and asked her if she wants to talk about something. Cathy was going to ask him about the girlfriend, but all out of sudden, the revelation came out, unexpected even to her.
“David, that’s me – Cat
hy.”
He leaned back in his chair, taking a long look at her. His face expression was unreadable.
“Cathy Brown... Watts High School...” Cathy felt like she needed to provide more explanation.
There was no move from David.
He sat there frozen, starring at her.
“You kissed me after “Star Wars” movie...
,” whispered Cathy.
“I know... I remember... I’ve recognised you straight away when I saw you at the party.”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“It seemed like you didn’t
want to see me, you were running away from the party. Later it looked like you do not remember me. However, after the breakup we had, I was not sure I wanted you to remember me. I accept I was a jerk back then.”
“Why then did you invited to take a walk after the party and sent the flowers?”
“I wanted to know how you are. Common, as if you never thought about me as well. We were so good back then; the thing we had was the real one, I think. As well, I felt bad about the breakup, the reason of it. I was a jerk. I admit it now, sorry for that. I suppose, I wanted to make up for you somehow.”
Some flashbacks of the breakup surfaced from the deep and hidden corners of her memory and Cathy felt the suppressed anger crawling out of the most shadowy places of her soul.
She instantly suppressed it, still trying to comprehend how two people, who were so close once, can avoid the acceptance they knew each other? Cathy realised, the world was still complicated and still a place to explore.
“Anyway,” David interrupted her awakening self-pity. “How have you been for the last ten years?”
“I think, I’ve told you pretty much during our last meetings.”
“You know I’m asking you more personal question. I suppose,
you have already figured out that I am seeing someone. Soon it will be couple of months. What about you?”
“I’m not seeing anyone
,” she revealed and was not happy about it. She was supposed to wave her perfect life just in front of his nose and that was not working out.
“My last few relationships were a disaster, but I saw that coming from the very beginning. I
do not know why I am wasting my time on things that have no future. Well, anyway, I’ve learned few good lessons.” Cathy supplied an honest answer and was surprised to realise she felt OK to be so open with her ex.
“Anythin
g in the horizon now?” pried David.
“No,
but I expect the next relationship to be a serious one," smiled Cathy. "Life is too short to waist it on the things that won’t last.”
The answer came out before Cathy even considered allowing hersel
f more openness and for a second she regretted it, until she saw the admiring look in David’s eyes.
“I’m not exactly happy in my present
relationship,” he said sincerely, which immediately lifted Cathy’s mood few levels up. She could bet his girlfriend is not aware of that.
“Isn’t it interesting how our life consists of random events, sequencing one another and later we see how those events became the turning points of our lives
,” started David after a short pause.
Cathy sat in front of him, all shrugged into the coat, peeking at David with unconcealed curiosity in her eyes.
“Have you ever wondered where we would be now and what we would be doing, if some of the particular events would turn out to end differently?”
“No, I’ve never thought about
it,” said Cathy straight forward, meanwhile puzzling her head what did he mean by all this. Was “we” standing for two of them as a couple or each one separately? Has “what we would be doing” a general meaning or particular action of two of them in a particular place, aka bed?
The rest of their dinner went on engaging more obvious flirt. While telling some funny story, he put his hand to rest just above her knee and felt her body trembled at his touch.
When his hand crept a little higher more shivers of excitement ran through her back. She noticed, David breathed in her scent as she leaned for some salt. He overwhelmed her with compliments, flattering her vanity and she listened to his stories, delicately and tenderly touching his hand. The further it went, the more she thought about getting him laid. Her skin was burning with the desire. Even a though of his touch left her melting for it.
“Do you still write?” asked Cathy
eventually.
“Yeah...” smiled David with a slight irony, more addressed to himself. “Shorter phrases, but more effective, those usually go on posters, banners or leaflets
.”
“I’m sorry,” said Cathy, not
sure what to say. “That is a loss, I think.”
“That’s fine. It pays the bills
.”
“
No, that’s not fine. You were good at it, you wrote interesting, appealing stories, so that is not fine. That’s a loss to all humanity...” she was going to say more, but stopped as she saw David’s sad face expression.
“
Well, the good news, we are young, brave and still have lots to explore,” she said cheerfully, touching her dress near the shoulder and running her fingers down through the edge of lacy décolletage, lifting the hem a tiny bit, as if was too hot, not in a vulgar or slutty way, but revealing herself to be seductive and alluring.
“Are you brave?” she asked flirtatious, highlighting the importance of question with cunning tone.
“Want to bet?” raised the challenge David.
A quick blush ran through her cheeks,
which he found very appealing.
After
they have finished the dinner, David invited her to visit his place, if she wished to. Cathy expected nothing less.
***
Entering David’s apartment was a very pleasant surprise. It surpassed all expectations Cathy could possibly have. It was not messy and sloppy bachelor’s nest as she presumed to herself. Instead, Cathy was welcomed by the modern ivory, cream and white apartment with an obvious touch of professional designer. Matching furniture, few ridiculously expensive vintage items on the shelves and cosy pillows on the couch merged into harmonic unit, complemented by an amazing view of the nocturnal multi-storey buildings’ lights, shimmering on the other side of the enormous balcony.
“Please, make yourself comfortable”, said David while helping her to hang up the coat. “Some wine, perhaps?”
Cathy nodded. David went to the kitchen. The kitchen was the furthest part of living room, consisting of few cupboards and shelves, probably never used oven and a bar, separating it from the rest of the room. The high gloss finished long flowing lines and sweeping curves of contemporary design, handle-free drawers and fluorescent illumination of the shelves compiled into magical, although modern setting. Cathy left her high heels at the front door and walked on the amazingly soft carpet with her bare feet.
“Once I’ve rented an apartment with a similar bar like
this,” said Cathy. “I really loved it.”
“So, you don’t have it now?” asked David, while pouring the wine into the glasses.
“No, present landlady is kind of old fashioned” explained Cathy, hiding the fact that the house she lived in is too old to make any alliterations and required lots of paperwork on safety issues. Adequately, cheap rent redeemed all possible discomfort.
“You rent?” he asked casually.
“Yes, don’t you?”
“No, I own the
place,” said David bringing the wine.
There was no expression on his face, at least Cathy
could not tell. No pride, no malevolent joy, not even compassion or surprise – as if it did not matter to him at all. Cathy was surprised of it, considering they were the same age and she was long way from owning any property at all. David was obviously winning the unannounced competition of who is doing better – even if he did not know about it.
“Oh my, how much do you earn?” Cathy said
aloud impulsively, yet straight away realising her non-tactic behaviour. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it. You just seem doing so well, achieving everything one can possibly think of. That is so great. I’m truly impressed.”
“No, not everything” said David with a sad note in his voice. “You’ve just reminded me, I’ve lost one of the biggest passions in my life – writing. I don’t write anymore.”
“Yet, everything else in your life seems thrilling. Look at this couch only – that thing must have cost a fortune.”
“We think about money, while we don’t have
them,” said David.
“And when we have them - could it ever be enough?” Cathy asked rhetorically.
“I think so. Having or not having money depend on ones priorities where to spend them. You can spend millions on nothing or you can focus on your goals with every little. I knew what I wanted and concentrated on it, putting everything else aside. Little step after step and I’ve achieved what I aimed for.”
“I’m happy for
you,” said Cathy, wondering to herself where did that come from. This uncontrollable honesty was becoming annoying.
“Yet, I shouldn’t give up everything else from my life – my passions, my hobbies, the things that fascinated me.
I have lost my essence on the way. Meeting you was a gift from fate. You reminded me things.”
“Are you sure it’s a gift from fate, not a revenge?” asked Cathy playfully.
He looked at her with lots of questions in his eyes and she realised it was just about the time to shut up and sip the wine.
“Is there a couple having sex in the balcony?” he asked suddenly, his eyes narrowed at some particular point behind her.
Out of curiosity, Cathy turned back to have a look, quickly scanning all the balconies behind.
“I can’t see
anything,” she said, turning her face back to David.
That was
when he kissed her. All of a sudden, his face was next to Cathy’s and a deep, passionate kiss invaded her lips.
Few questions ran through
her head in an eye blink. What was next? What should she say about the girlfriend? Did he plan it before we get here? However, that was all – just an eye blink. “Don’t think! Do not think! Just float!” her alter ego was screaming to her and Cathy was gradually surrendering to temptation.
She dived into the enchanting sedation of the kiss, savouring the pleasure of his warm, soft lips adjoining hers. The memories of their first kiss under the cherry
tree surfaced from her memory once again. It was thrilling, exciting and next to innocent then, but this, the kiss right here right now, was so much better. His tongue was dancing tango inside her mouth, as if it was announcing a victory.