Romance: Playing With Fire - Contemporary Romance (Chasing Happiness Series, Romance, Contemporary Romance Book 1)
Authors: Nancy Adams
Chasing Love Series
PLAYING WITH FIRE
by Nancy Adams
Published 2015 by Watchtower Publishing
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Stories, characters, and entities are fictional. Any likeness to actual persons, either living or dead, is strictly coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright © 2015 Watchtower Publishing
“Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.”
―Candace Bushnell
Chapter One
The house was warm and bright. Tina had the curtains drawn with the afternoon sunlight streaming in through the glass. It was a complete betrayal to her current mood. She could hear birds chirping, calling to each other and children playing outside on their block.
It was an incredible Saturday afternoon. No matter how much she wanted the day to be gloomy, it was destined to be great right from the start. Even though she would have rather sat in the dark, the world around her had other plans.
Instead, she sat alone, at a table in her house with her breath shaking between her lips and her stomach knotting.
He’s never been gone this long
, she thought to herself, her lips tightening as they pursed. She squeezed a puzzle piece in between her fingers.
She loved putting puzzles together, and had totally been at the front of the bandwagon when 3D kits hit the market. After snatching up as many as she could, she put them together twice. Once for speed then again to glue and put on display. At some point, her love of puzzles drifted from a fun pastime to a necessary commodity to ease her tension and anxiety.
She stopped buying new puzzles, content with mixing them and putting two together at a time. That was difficult at first, but she adapted and became pretty good at picking the pieces apart, even when mixed in a box or bag together.
I might need to move up to three at a time
.
It was a random, half thought. Searching for the next puzzle piece and sorting them internally in her head meant she wasn’t thinking about the present.
A high-pitched melodic tuned broke through her thoughts. Without thought, she reached for her phone, before recognizing the sound.
It’s not him
. She hesitated now, eyes drifting slowly from the puzzle to her cellphone’s slightly cracked screen. Before she could keep her body from moving, her thumb switched down and swiped out of habit, answering the phone.
Tina heard her caller’s voice before the phone was even to her ear. “Tina? Tiinnnnnaaaa!”
Her friend’s yell caused her face to crack into a smile. “I’m right here, Beth. There’s no need to scream. Why are you always so crazy?” She chuckled, feeling the knots begin to unwind within her.
“Because you’re so stuck up!” Her friend replied curtly. “Sue and I are about to get our nails done. I’ll pay and I’ll pick you up in ten so you can come join us.”
There were days where she really admired her friend’s bluntness, and other days, like today, where the thought of resisting her only made her want to vomit. “John and I had plans,” Tina said smoothly, her voice betraying her true feelings. There was silence on the other line. “You know I’d love to but we’re really trying to build our relationship back up.”
There was more silence. When her friend spoke, her voice was calm. “Why are you lying to me? Or is it to yourself?”
Tina’s heart froze. Her head snapped quickly to the phone, as if to double check who she was really speaking to. Beth was still on the line, but she said no more. Unsure of what to say, Tina set the puzzle piece down slowly, biting loose skin on her lips. She started to say her friend’s name, but was immediately interrupted.
“If you want to sit around your house waiting for that jerk to show up, go right ahead. Hannah already told me he didn’t come home last night, or call. I want to be there for you, girl. But I can’t if you won’t let me. I’ll see you around.”
Beth ended the phone call. Insides rattling, Tina sat the phone down, her brows furrowing as she looked over the large table in the spare room littered with two half-finished puzzles and many small puzzle pieces grouped by color. Setting down the puzzle piece in her hand, Tina stopped suddenly as she heard a distant familiar sound. John was home.
Chapter Two
She stood so quickly that she knocked her chair over. Ignoring it, Tina rushed into the hallway bathroom and reached for her deep maroon lipstick behind the glass. She only needed a little to plump her lips up. It might be another two or three minutes before he actually made it into the house. That was more than enough time for her to look uninterested, but still classy at the same time.
She dabbed concealer on her face and two strokes of blush. By the time she started washing her hands, she heard the garage door open and close. John never used the front door. Standing quickly, she began to move even faster. She let her hair loose from its messy pony tail and fanned it wildly, shaking and raking loosely with her fingers.
He had once told her he loved her wild look. She was banking on that for tonight. With a reservation at a upscale restaurant club in town, she was determined to enjoy this evening with him, even if she was mad.
“Babe?” John began to call from her from another location in the house.
Shaking her hair one last time, Tina stood and looked herself over in the mirror. She wore a tight tank with no bra and shorts meant to purposefully give away the fact that she also wore a thong. Hopefully he’d pick up on her hints.
“Be out in a sec,” she pumped her girls up and turned her head to the side in the mirror. Blowing herself a kiss, she allowed a thin smile. What man wouldn’t want her? She was gorgeous. Complete with the medium heels she had been wearing all day, just in case, she knew her get up had to get some sort of response from John.
Pulling the bathroom door open, Tina stuck her head out, glancing quickly to both sides. She couldn’t see John in the living room from where she was but she still heard him. Straightening herself, she began to lazily move towards the front room, surprised when she didn’t see him in either of the recliners.
“Where are you?” She called out, perplexed.
He took a moment to respond, but when he did, she could tell he had been eating something. She started towards the kitchen, her beautiful lazy stride lost in the process. “What are you,” she stopped when she saw John hovering over the morning paper, a quick bowl of cereal in hand. He glanced up at her once, then looked again, giving her a closer look before he returned his attention to the paper. He stuffed another spoon in his mouth.
Her face began to glow with heat. “Cereal? At this hour?” Tina immediately tried chuckling to cover her irritation, missed by John as he turned the page of the newspaper quickly.
“I know, I know,” he stopped, and turned completely to her then. “You didn’t call me last night.”
Offering another smile, Tina sighed and shrugged her shoulders, breaking her eyes away from his. She fought hard to keep herself together. “Was I supposed to?” She briefly met his eyes when she glanced towards him but didn’t hold contact for long. “Usually the one who stays out late without letting their wife know what’s going on is supposed to call.”
John swallowed a bite, and then returned to the newspaper. “You know where I was.”
“Oh, with Tim and the guys? What about this morning too? Scratch that, this afternoon?” Her friendly tone had disappeared.
John turned back to her, slowly pacing a spoonful into his mouth. He waited until most of it was swallowed before speaking, “I was wasted. They didn’t want me driving home. So I crashed on their couch. I made sure one of them would tell you if you called but you never did.” He shrugged. “I thought you wouldn’t care.”
Taking a deep breath, Tina swallowed back lumps in her throat. Clearly he didn’t know what day it was. Smirking, Tina turned her back to him this time and walked towards the sink. She preoccupied herself with a glass cup on the counter. “I have dinner plans for us tonight.” She stopped abruptly when she heard John sigh. The sound caused her to whirl towards him. “Something wrong?” Her voice was hard again.
John glanced at her, shaking his head. “No. But I’ll be honest, I’m not interested if we have to go out. I’ve been out all night, I’d like to just chill today, babe. Maybe catch the game,” he offered a thin grin.
“Not interested?” Tina took the words like a gunshot wound to the heart. He didn’t see the impact he had on her, turning back to the paper as he finished the last bit of cereal in his bowl. He drank the milk afterwards and smacked his lips with a satisfying “ahhh”.
“I’m gonna take a shower and be down, alright? Something easy tonight is fine for me,” he sat the bowl down atop the kitchen island and turned, slipping his belt out from his belt loops with one hand while he took his shirt off in one fluid motion with the other.
Tina remained in the kitchen, taking deep breaths to hold back the tears bursting against her self-control. She refused to cry.
Chapter Three
“O-M-G, what a jerk!” Hannah exclaimed. She reached out quickly to take Tina’s hand. “I am so sorry. But look at the bright side, you got a no-chip mani-pedi and facial for free! It’s like a birthday present when it’s not even your birthday,” the girls laughed with Hannah, agreeing with her earnestly.
“He really is a jerk,” Sue muttered underneath her breath. They sat at a round table, empty glasses and plates before them.
“Well, let’s not make her feel more terrible about it than she already does,” Beth cut in, her loud voice carrying over the smooth voices in the background. “Let’s just give a toast.” The women perked up before scrambling to find their shot glasses among the table cluttered with their after dinner debris. Once they each had their glasses, they lifted them high and faced Beth.
“To Tina, the best woman her husband will ever know,” she paused and made eye contact with her friend. Her face was wet from tears released earlier, but at that moment, she wore a genuine smile. “Let him regret the day he clocked out of their relationship.”
“Hear hear!” Hannah spat, eager to clink her glass before finishing off her shot. The others joined in with various banter, laughter, and giggling.
Tina held her glass high, letting her friends rack their glasses into hers, some twice. She brought it down, staring into the amber liquid.
He did clock out, didn’t he?
Lifting the glass to her lips, she tossed the liquid into her mouth. She squinted as the fire scorched her throat.
“Group hug!”
Tina wasn’t sure which one called it out, but before she could look up, her three friends had her surrounded, smoothing her head in their shoulders, hair, and breasts. They rubbed and patted her back, wooing her and confronting her. She couldn’t help but laugh before playfully pushing them away.
“Okay, okay. I’m not here to throw a pity party, but to have fun,” she pushed her hair back, flicking her dirty blonde locks over her shoulders effortlessly.
Beth smiled at her, a twinkle in her eye. “You’re so beautiful, Tina. You deserve so much better.” Sue and Hannah nodded in agreement.
Her small posse of friends were an impossible bunch. They were tall and beautiful, just like her. Not twigs, but real women with hips, curves, and breasts. They each had their own career they pursued. As far as their luck with men, both Hannah and Sue were involved in serious, committed relationships with men that made hers look like sleaze ball.
She knew they were great women, but then again, wasn’t she? Didn’t she deserve a man like the catch both of them received?
Beth was a wildly flirtatious woman, and was proud of it—too sane to get tamed was her motto; and for her, it worked.
Not quite the
Sex and the City
type, she was still as daring and open about love and sex as Samantha Jones, unafraid of her sexuality or her loud mouth. “Get us another round,” Beth called out, quickly gaining the support of Sue and Hannah.
Tina didn’t bother putting up a fight. She lifted her hands to quiet down the women. They weren’t at a bar, a private club was more like it, but still, they had received looks from other parties on more than one occasion. Beth’s catcalling mimicked the calls of drunken college students when they were well past that age. The side glances were a little unnerving.