Sweet Downfall (17 page)

Not once did she glance his way. Her face was frozen in its stoic expression, her features rarely moving. It was Jordan’s stare that he met across the ballroom.

It was a highly-charged collision.

As if reading his thoughts, Jordan smirked at him. Then the gloating bastard transferred his hand around Angie’s waist and pulled her closer to his body.

Jordan blatantly staking his territory. One that Jaq should concede to if he were in his right mind. But he couldn’t.The alpha in him won’t let Jordan have the last word in this clash.

I took your fiancée’s cherry when she was eighteen.
He wanted to mock Jordan with that fact, rub it in like a macho badge against his mightiest rival. Just last week he banged her again and despite her initial protests, she’d come hard around his dick. What the hell was Jordan smirking about? Idiot!

Obeying his immediate instinct, he stepped forward.

Somebody put an arm around his shoulder.

“Jaq, join us. We all missed you.”

Kit steered him almost forcibly towards the table their common friends occupied, thwarting his intention.

“Jaq, my man!” Alexis greeted him in a booming voice. “Sit beside me, bro!” He tapped the vacant chair to his left.

There was a collective murmur of happy greetings from his other friends.

“Come on, Jaq, let’s eat,” Rydon said.

He sighed and occupied the chair decorated with a golden silk sash beside Alexis. “Thanks. I’m not hungry.”

Kit sat beside him. “So, how’s your movie shaping up?”

“Doing good. A bit behind schedule but nothing I can’t handle,” he answered, his eyes following Jordan and Angie as they occupied a table reserved for them on the other side of the ballroom.

Kit waved at someone. “Sunshine!”

Jaq tried to focus on his friends. Bettina walked towards them, very beautiful in her wedding dress. His throat constricted, recalling a time in the past when he wanted to see the woman he loved in a wedding dress...

Shit! Why would everything remind him of that little slice of heaven he’d had with Angie in the past? It was inconsequential after the hellish events that followed.

He stole a glance at Angie again. She was eating now with Jordan, her head gracefully bowed. She seemed oblivious to everything and everyone around her.

“Ina, meet my buddy from my college days, Jaq Montero. Jaq, my wife, Bettina.”

He forced his attention back to the newlyweds. He shook hands with Bettina.

“I’m glad you could come, Jaq,” Bettina said in a soft, serene voice, her beautiful eyes somewhat...impassive.

Something was weird about Kit’s bride, he thought. While she was regally composed in a remote way, Kit looked flushed, excited like a kid. Ah well, who was he to judge people’s behavior when he was behaving like an idiot himself at the moment?

He exchanged a pleasant conversation with Kit and Bettina until the couple had to move around to greet other guests.

For the next hour, Jaq spent his time with his friends,
reminiscing their good ol’ days while his eyes followed Jordan and Angie across the ballroom. It was hard to listen to the conversation around the table and focus his attention on something else at the same time.

Alexis was in his typical element, cracking everyone up with his trademark wry sense of humor. Rydon and Tommy were giving X a run for his money. As usual, the topic centered on creatures with two legs, two tits and two pairs of lips.

X turned to Jonty who was quietly minding his own business with whatever shit in his glass. Jonty had been detached and surly the whole time. “Jon, your babies at the club miss you. You’re acting weirder everyday. What’s eating you up, man?”

“Nothing,” Jonty answered curtly. “Same ol’ shit.”

“You still have a problem getting it up?” Alexis whispered the last part.

Jonty bristled. “I told you, I got cured already.”

“Seems not to me. You haven’t nailed any geisha–”

“Drop it, X. I’m not in the mood for your freakin’ jokes,” Jonty cut Alexis and took a huge gulp from his glass. Jonty was downing pure whiskey while everyone was guzzling Diamond Martini, the official drink of the wedding. It was too early in the night for anyone to get seriously drunk.

“Guys, what’s the cure for uhh...dwindling libido?” Drew asked in a hushed voice.

Alexis’ brows drew together. “Why, you also have a problem with your equipment, man?”

Drew sighed heavily. “Not really. I’m fine. It’s just that...” Drew looked embarrassed now.

Almost everyone in the table leaned closer, curious.

“I just don’t like nailing other chicks lately. I’m hung up on one particular babe,” Drew admitted in a worried tone. “No matter what I do, I just can’t bring myself to get in the mood with other girls. Imagine, craving for one pussy alone? I feel really weird.”

“Oh shit, not again!” Alexis groaned and leaned back in his seat with a thud.

Jaq couldn’t help but join the discussion. He and Drew seemed to share the same predicament. “Then nail her ‘til you get your fill of her.”

“I do, but the more I screw her, the more I want her. She’s like dope, man. It’s driving me nuts,”

“That’s bullshit!” Alexis protested and leaned back in again. “You can only want a pussy so much. After that, on to the next. Come on! I can’t believe I’m hearing this all over again!”

“This is different, bro. She’s different,” Drew insisted.

“Why don’t you just marry her, man,” Russel suggested.

“Aw, shut it, Russ,” Alexis grumbled. “Don’t try to recruit these guys to your pussy-whipped club with Lucky.”

Russel smirked. “You can’t stop them from giving up their suites at Lothario, X. Not even a hundred beautiful geishas can stop them from going exclusive with a special woman if they’ve found one already. Accept it.”

Russel turned to Drew. “I’m speaking from experience, Drew. I used to be just like you, until Ally.” Russel beamed proudly at the mention of his wife’s name.

Russel got Drew’s full attention now. “Really, man? It’s not like a weird disease or something?”

Russel chuckled. “Nah, you’re normal, just evolving. But it can be a horrifying transition. Ask Marc.” He elbowed Marco beside him who was busy annihilating a plate of Angus steak.

Marco barely lifted his head from his food and mumbled, “Huh? Uh-huh.” He gave a thumbs up sign of agreement and continued eating.

Alexis downed all the contents of his glass. “Whatever!” He stood up. “Excuse me, my date is missing me. Carry on with the lecture, Russ but I don’t need to hear a lame word of it.” He rejoined his date, the ravishing heiress, Renee Montenegro at a nearby table.

Jaq shook his head. Alexis would probably end up a bachelor all his life with his warped beyond repair notions on relationships. Unlike Alexis, he wasn’t a commitment-phobe. He played the field like the typical free-wheeling bachelor but he was not averse to the idea of having a wife and a family someday. He just hadn’t found anybody who could make him give up his freedom and settle down exclusively. It was only Angie who–

Dammit! He looked in her direction again.

She was no longer at her table.

Angie went to the ballroom’s powder room
.
How long could she endure this before her barely holding mask of indifference would crack? Mingle, make stupid, small talk, laugh at jokes she didn’t understand.

She knew all the people in that ballroom had seen the video. They were just too polite and decent that no one ever mentioned anything remotely connected to it. But their eyes told her a different story. They were looking at her in a different light now.

Her super It Girl status plummeted to the super skank category.

What were they thinking of her, of Jaq and Jordan, all three of them, in one huge party? The selected media people invited to cover the affair were probably writing about her dirt in their anonymous society gossip blogs instead of this grand wedding.

Quickly finishing her make-up, she went out of the powder room. She was in the hallway going back to the ballroom when somebody grabbed her arm. Instinct told her who it was in an instant.

He dragged her to a little corner, away from the other guests in that area.

“Let me go!” she hissed, struggling to get past him but she was trapped between a wall and his solid body. She prayed that Jordan won’t come looking for her!

“Relax, your boyfriend’s busy.”

She met his eyes defiantly. “What do you want?”

“Impressive. You two seem fine. Not affected by the scandal at all?”

“Why? Did you expect us to die in shame and commit suicide?”

His eyes softened. He actually looked guilty. That was strange when he had practically admitted leaking the video without an ounce of remorse. “No. I just didn’t expect you to be attending a party so soon.”

She shrugged, mustering an air of nonchalance. If he only knew, she was inches from cracking. “Life must go on. Are you happy now, Jaq? You have embarrassed us in front of the entire nation. You had your revenge. Are we even now?”

His eyes turned dark. “No. We will never be even, Angie. You and your family still owe me a lot.”

“Ah, so you’re not done yet?”

He only smiled mysteriously and digressed. “About what happened…”

Her cheeks flushed with heat. She evaded his eyes. “I don’t wanna talk about it. Forget it ever happened. Let me pass, Jaq.”

He didn’t budge. “I want to know something.”

“What?!” Her composure was slipping.

“Why did you bleed?”

Her face cheeks flamed in embarrassment. “Stop it.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” she snapped in a harsh but stifled voice. She wanted to scream at him but couldn’t.

“Why did you bleed?” he repeated, intent on getting a straight answer.

She will never give him a new weapon to ridicule and hurt her with even more. “I don’t know!”

“I admit I was not very gentle, but you were very wet. You were ready. You weren’t supposed to bleed.”

“Can’t you just drop it?! It won’t happen again!”

“Are you so sure about that?”

What he said angered her all the more. She itched to punch the arrogance off of his face. “It was a mistake and it will never happen again.”

“Yeah? Did you tell your boyfriend about it?”

“God, you’re such a bastard!”

He smiled without mirth. “I know.”

She felt a small guilt at calling him so when it had been his stigma all his life. “I didn’t mean it that way, damn you, Jaq!”

“Are you and Jordan actively intimate?”

“None of your business!” she said between gritted teeth, both furious and mortified at his blatantly irreverent questions.

“Are you on the pill?”

“Oh, God, you have no shame! Let me pass!”

“I didn’t use a rubber.”

That made her freeze.

Their eyes clashed heatedly.

At last, she spoke. “I’m on the pill. And yes, Jordan and I are actively intimate. I bled because you practically raped me, you beast!”

This time, he paled visibly. “Angie...I didn’t mean to…I…” His voice trailed off.

“Don’t ever come near me again!”

She managed to squeeze past him and ran to the rest room again, entered a cubicle and locked it. She dropped the water closet lid and sat on it, chasing her breath.

She wanted to cry but she suppressed her emotions, making her head pound in a building headache.

It took her awhile to get back to the ballroom.

“Where have you been?” Jordan asked her.

“At the rest room.”

“It took you thirty minutes?”

She hated the suspicion in his eyes, her own guilt mocking her. “You left me all alone at our table. I got bored,” she replied frostily.

His face softened a bit. “Dance with me.”

He lead her to the dance area where couples were already gently swaying to the tune of the saxophone. She spotted Duero Leon DeLeste and his wife Monique, Dylan Anderson and his new bride Issabella. Gorgeous, happy couples.

Jordan wrapped one arm around her waist possessively, his other hand clasping her hand firmly.

She saw Jaq over Jordan’s shoulder, watching her like a hawk. He broke their visual duel first and walked out of the ballroom.

“Angie?”

She looked up at her fiancé.

“Look at me like you really love me.” It was an austere command that had nothing to do with love. “Embrace me.”

She wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her cheek on his chest. She used to find joy and comfort doing this, showing the world how much she cared for him. She did love him. But she found out that love could grow and thrive in different places inside her at the same time, one fed by the acrid taste of betrayal and the other nourished by all her sweetest hopes for the future.

Jaq was her pain. Jordan was her hope.