I made it through the flight, which was one of my worst fears, and called my husband to let him know I arrived safely. But arriving in a brand new country alone was a little overwhelming for me. I went to my hotel and changed out of my shabby travel clothes and into something more appropriate for meeting a friend I’ve known for over a decade.
I had two outfits to choose from for our initial meeting and I ended up choosing the distressed red denim skirt, a sleeveless black shirt with strategic slashes down the back, going just about from the neck to my waist, and more slashes along the neck, down to about where my boobs were, with a graphic of Freddy Krueger’s glove coming up from the bottom hem with blood splatters all over it, a pair of black thigh high stockings, boots, and a white button up top, which wasn’t buttoned but tied at the front. I did my makeup and hair, ensuring my long, blood red curls with black roots were all in their appropriate places and not a wild mane like it normally was, and topped the look off with a dusty old brown fedora.
It was a look that was sure to grab attention but, mostly, it was a look that would draw my friend’s eye in immediately if I happened to pass him before actually letting him know I was here and arranging a meeting. It caught the attention of a lot of guys who took it upon themselves to test my knowledge of all things Nightmare on Elm Street.
Now, with some franchises I would get caught up on details from time to time as I didn’t care enough to memorize things. But I’d seen the entirety of the Nightmare series so many times that I couldn’t help but retain the information.
One of the guys ended up taking me out to dinner after I successfully proved myself a true fan and not a pretty girl posing to get attention. Now, I stressed to this guy a few times as he was quizzing me that I was married, but he just brushed it off and that should have been a clue to not take him up on the dinner offer. But he was charming and a dinner invitation from a local seemed really welcoming.
Things came to a head at the little pub he took me to. This guy would just not take no for an answer, he kept trying to get me to drink with him, but there was no way I was taking any kind of drink besides water from someone in a country where I was, currently, very much alone. He tried to scoot closer to me in the booth and kept trying to run his hand up my thigh and under my skirt. I pushed his hand away repeatedly.
Then he crossed the line and grabbed my wrists, holding them down by my waist while trying to force a kiss on me. I got my hand free and slapped him, hard. He didn’t take kindly to being embarrassed in a place where he seemed to be a frequent customer. He grabbed me by the throat and pulled me closer to him. A bartender, server, and another patron came over to the table and pulled me out of the booth and stood the guy down, a female server came over and brought me to the bar where she poured me a drink, which I saw her pour, and handed it to me, “Here,” was all she said.
I pulled out some cash to pay for my dinner and the drink, but she pushed it back at me, “We’ve got you.”
Not going to lie, it was nice to feel protected in a place you barely knew, absolute strangers came to my rescue with nothing to gain for themselves. Back home, the people would have shifted uncomfortably and tried not to make eye contact. One of them might have called the cops, and the restaurant might have kicked him out once the cops got there, but no one would have intervened personally and immediately like that, at least from my experience they wouldn’t.
My hands were trembling and I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder, “I thought I was seeing things,” a gentle voice said as he walked around in front of me.
My forehead crinkled and I looked him over, “I didn’t expect to run into you yet,” I said.
“Want to tell me what that was all about?” He asked as he looked at the table where the guy was currently being manhandled and kicked out.
I pointed to my outfit, “He quizzed me, I aced it and he offered me dinner as a prize. I stupidly took him up on it,” I said with a smirk.
“Naively, not stupidly. Many of the people here would have taken you to dinner without incident. Some are assholes. Did he hurt you?” He asked.
I shook my head, “He just got a little more insistent on a kiss than I would have liked,” I said.
Brendan smiled and grabbed the hat off of my head, “This does not suit you, ‘Ven.”
I laughed, “It goes with the outfit,” I said as I stood up and twirled around to show him our fandom display.
He grabbed my hand and put one hand on my waist to guide me back to the bar stool as he smiled at me, “Maybe it does suit you then.”
My friend lifted my chin and looked at the red marks on my neck from where the guy grabbed me, “Even in another country you have a knack for bringing trouble in your wake,” he said, his fingertips trailing along the marks.
I smiled, “My screen name was apt right?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I’d have taken time off work to show you around proper,” He said.
“Sorry, I wasn’t even sure I was going to tell you I was here. Traveling alone has been a fear of mine for a long time. I mastered the local train and subway system where I lived, so my therapist thought it was time for me branch out and do a big gesture trip. This was the only place I could think of that I actually wanted to see.”
The waitress came over as my friend sat down on the seat next to me. He held my glass with just ice in it against the darkest marks on my neck.
“Are you okay?” she asked, eying my friend suspiciously.
I nodded and took the glass from his hand, “He’s an old friend, I’m good now, thank you.”
She smiled and nodded, but gave my friend the stink eye as she started to walk away. He smiled at her, “Can we get some ice for her neck?” He asked.
The waitress nodded and disappeared into a back room for a bit before coming out with a bar rag wrapped around some ice. He held it to my throat gently and ordered us both another drink. We sat and talked for a while and the ice began to melt on my skin, soaking into the top of my t-shirt.
He seemed reluctant to pull the ice away and I was hesitant to ask him to. His fingertips kept rubbing my neck as he adjusted the melting ice pack and I kind of liked the way his hand felt on my skin. I started shivering and he finally relented and pulled the ice from my skin then rubbed the cold reddened area of my neck. He scooted a little closer to me then seemed to think better of whatever crossed his mind as his phone made a noise and snapped him out of whatever daydream he had been in.
Brendan pulled his hands away from me and opened up his phone, looking it over before he looked back up to me, a clear disappointment on his face.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“The wife’s annoyed that I’m not home yet. I suppose that’s my cue to close up and head home. Are you staying nearby?” he asked as he paid his bill and started to pay mine, but I pushed his money back and paid for both of us myself.
He glared at me and I smirked, “For not warning you an ‘AngelicNightmare’ was on the way,” I said.
Reluctantly, he relented, “And are you going to answer my question about where you’re staying?” he asked as he put his money back in his wallet.
I smiled, “No. I can walk back from here though, B,” I said.
His eyes darted back to the table where the guy nearly assaulted me and shook his head, “Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. It’s dark and unless it’s upstairs, I will be either walking or driving you back. You’re way too much of a target ‘Ven.”
“I can take care of myself,” I shot back.
He nodded, “I’ve no doubts about that. What I’m worried about is a religious nut trying to convert you along the way and you falling prey to our alluring accent.”
I smiled, “I’m not done for the night yet. It’s like what, 9?” I asked.
He nodded, “You drop me off at my hotel and I’m just going to go out around there and walk around until I stumble across some trouble,” I said.
Brendan pouted at me, “That’s not fair,” he said, “that guy you were here with might be waiting out there for you and I don’t think I can leave knowing that.”
“Then don’t leave. Take me somewhere interesting for half an hour, and then I will let you drive me to my hotel,” I said.
He looked at his phone and quickly typed something out then said, “Alright, come on.”
Brendan drove for a while and I kept catching him glancing over at me as I looked around at the scenery we were passing. It went from city-esque to village, to pure countryside. Then he pulled up a trail and parked his car. It was a remote area and I could hear waves crashing from somewhere but all I saw was a large open space of grass and trees off to our side.
“Where are we?” I asked.
He turned off the headlights and we were plunged into darkness save for the soft glow of a waxing crescent moon, “Remember when I told you I had this place I liked to write not long after we first met? This is that place.”
I smiled and got out of the car, he hurriedly followed me out, “Don’t go out very far, we’re on a cliffside and it ends abruptly,” he warned me.
I looked over to him, “I have faith you’d catch me if I fell,” I said with a mocking grin.
He shook his head, “No, I’d fall trying to catch you if you fell, let’s not make this a suicide meeting, please,” he pleaded with me.
Admittedly, I was being a jerk and kept inching my way backwards as I watched him following me, “Raven…” he said, “please stop before you fall? There’s a specific area I wanted to show you.”
I stopped backing up walked towards him instead. He took my hand and led me over towards the cliff’s edge, “Kneel down,” he directed to me.
I arched my eyebrow and he blushed, which was barely visible in the pale light from the moon, “Must you make everything dirty?” He asked.
My lower lip caught beneath upper teeth as I knelt down in front of him. I looked up at him, “What am I supposed to think?” I asked.
He knelt down with me and smirked, “That we’re both married and that hasn’t been on the table for at least five years now,” he said.
He leaned over and put his hands on the ground, facing away from me, and looked over his shoulder, “Follow just behind me.”
We crawled about sixty feet over towards the sound of the crashing waves and he felt around the edge of where he was then took my hand and guided me up on the cliff beside him. His arm went over me as I trembled. We were at least a hundred feet above a rocky cove. He pulled me closer to himself and looked at me as I peered down into the water.
“I can’t be here,” I said softly and started backing away from the edge.
He smirked at me, “Have I finally found something the fearless Raven can’t handle?” he mocked.
After a few feet I got up and ran back towards the car, completely ignoring his taunting of me. He seemed taken aback and quickly followed me away from the cliff’s edge. I sat on a rock near where he parked the car, my hands were safely beneath me.
He knelt down in front of me and wiped the tears from my eyes, “I didn’t know you were that afraid of heights,” he said softly.
I shook my head slightly, “I don’t really have a problem with heights. I mean, I don’t like them, but they also don’t really bother me.”
“Then what was it that freaked you out?” he asked.
I bit my lip and avoided his question, smiling slightly, “How about we look at the stars instead?” I asked, my voice trembled almost as much as my hands would be if I weren’t sitting on them.
He moved closer to me and lifted my chin slightly, “What’s wrong? What did I do?” he asked.
“Just showed me a stunning sight that I should have quietly admired and soaked in to my mind,” I said.
“Why didn’t you?” He asked.
I half-smiled and looked him in the eye, “Because everything in me told me to jump.”
“That’s not a good idea,” he said softly.
I laughed and shook my head, “No, there are a lot of things that go through my head that aren’t good ideas. I can usually keep myself from acting on them, but…there are times when that pull is very strong and even the risks don’t deter me,” I said.
My head tilted slightly as I looked at him. I brought my hands out from under me and glanced up to the sky, pointing towards a series of stars, “See those stars?” I asked as he looked up and followed my fingertips with his gaze, “That’s the constellation Draco.”
My eyes were back on him as he looked intently towards the sky. Now everything in my head was telling me to lean over and kiss him and I almost did, but his eyes lowered from the sky, settling on my face as I backed off, “It’s one of the easier constellations to see,” I said softly.
“I just see a lot of stars scattered about, Raven,” he said.
“You’ve never been one to see what was right in front of your nose, B,” I said, “ready to take me home?”
He reached his hand out to me and I took it. We headed back to his car and I relented, giving him the name of my hotel. He drove slowly, looking over at me from time to time as I looked out the windows at the scenery. I fell asleep in the car and he woke me by pushing my hair back behind my ear. I opened my eyes and looked at him, “Call me when you get home?” I asked.
“What’s your room number?”
“213.”
“I’ll call. I’m going to see about getting some time off of work this week,” he said.
“I’d like that,” I said as I got out of his car to go inside. I forgot my fedora on the backseat of his car and didn’t even notice it missing until I went to the bathroom to wipe the makeup off of my face.
I examined the marks on my neck, they were faded but still red, then I turned on the shower before I pulled off my clothes. I figured I had about half an hour before he got home and got settled enough to call so I tied up my hair and took a quick shower to wash the yuck of the day away. I called my husband and told him how the day went. He was proud of me for not freaking out for running into my friend randomly, but I left out the guy that bought me dinner. It didn’t seem important enough to mention.
Roughly five minutes after I got off of the video call with my husband, my room phone rang and I picked it up, “Hello?”
“I am safely back home and getting ready for bed. I can’t see you tomorrow, prior plans with the family. However, Monday I will swing by and pick you up around nine, you game?” He asked.
“Isn’t nine a bit late?” I asked.
“In the morning. I reached my boss tonight and I’m playing ill for the day and we are going to marathon the movies we always wanted to watch together but couldn’t,” he said.
“Sounds like a plan, for now I’m just gonna crash in bed. It was a longer day than I anticipated,” I said as I yawned at the end.
“You should know, I’m in trouble for staying that little bit later. The wife thinks I was out with work mates. If she knew I was out with you she would think something happened,” he said.
“Something did happen though, you kept me from jumping off of a very beautiful cliff in the moonlight,” I said, a bit of whimsy to my pronunciation.
“Yeah, I’m going to be watching you closely from here on out, if you do something stupid I’m going to be right there with you,” he said softly.
“So what you’re saying is I need get all of the stupid out of my system on Sunday?” I asked.
He stifled a laugh and went quiet for a moment, “Don’t make me worry about you all day,” he tried to scold.
I laughed, “Are you hiding from your wife to talk to me?” I asked.
He hesitated a moment before answering, “Yes, now go to bed before I get in more trouble because of you.”
“Wait,” I said quickly, “I just have one more question…”
“What is it?” He asked.
“Does your wife even know I exist?”
“Does your husband know I do?” He replied.
“Yes, he knows all about you and our friendship and that visiting you was my reason for coming here. I’m not lying to him to be here,” I said.
He was quiet but eventually I heard a knock and a muffled female voice then him answering “Just a minute,” before turning on the sink.
“She knows of you, that you’re an old friend. She doesn’t know we’re still in contact at all,” he whispered.
“I’ll see you Monday, Brendan,” I said as I hung up.
I logged into my various social media apps and fucked around on them a little, updating people about where I was and getting reamed by relatives for going to a foreign country alone. My husband got a little reamed on that as well. I’m only twenty-four. I can’t possibly survive on my own without an adult to hold my hand along the way. I got snippy in my replies to them.
At some point I got fed up and blocked them all. That shit is why I never did anything. The crushing pressure of a familial unit that aims to keep the younger generation children whether it hinders them in personal growth or not.
B texted me in the morning with a picture of him wearing my fedora. I smiled as I looked at it, ‘No fair looking so put together first thing in the morning,’ I replied.
‘Had to tell the wife it was a gift, so I suppose I owe you a hat before you leave,’ he said.
‘Nah, it looks better on you, consider it a gift for not freaking out about what I told you last night. Most friends don’t handle me being so honest very well. They prefer me smiling and pretending everything is perfect,’ I replied.
‘I prefer you exactly as you are: unfiltered, raw, and kind of a bitch.’
‘I’m going back to bed, have a fun day!’ I said before putting my phone down on the bedside table.
I ended up spending the day around the hotel. A comfy pair of jeans and being hit on at the bar downstairs was enough fun for me. I found myself back in bed earlier than I expected and had a series of texts and messages from B that I’d missed as I’d forgotten my phone in my room.
I responded to the last one with ‘Sorry, didn’t have my phone, decided to explore around the hotel.’
‘Do me a favor and keep your phone on you so I don’t have a damn heart attack worrying about you encountering the wrong group of people around here. You attract danger, you always have, Raven.’
‘Yes, Dad,’ I responded.
I scrolled back up to the picture of him wearing my fedora. He looked way too serious for a twenty-eight year old. I maybe did a dumb thing and got some chocolate syrup from room service and staged a death scene for myself, snapped a picture, made it black and white, then sent it to him.
The phone in my room rang and I picked it up, “That’s not funny,” he said harshly before I even said anything.
“When did you get so uptight? A few years ago you would’ve laughed.”
“A few years ago you weren’t a tourist in an area that has had some militia starting shit up again. Anyone finds out you’re an American atheist and I can think of four groups off hand that would have a target on your back. Add feminist to the list and there’s even more that would want to make an example of you. I live in a beautiful country that is amazing the majority of the time but, like I said, you have a way of attracting trouble to you ‘Ven. I know the area, so trust me, please?” He sounded genuinely upset and I wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Sorry,” I said, “I didn’t know.”
“I know, and I don’t want you to know, so heed what I say and be safe while you’re here. Phone on you at all times, please?”
“Okay.”
“What’d you use for the blood?” He asked, sounding just a little more lighthearted and like himself.
“Chocolate syrup. Tastes good, too,” I said with a laugh.
“I bet it does,” he replied.
He quickly cleared his throat, and said, “I’ll see you the morning, Raven,” then hung up before I could say anything.
I cleaned up the syrup and went to bed. I slept a bit fitfully and woke around five in the morning to get breakfast and get dressed. B showed up half an hour early and I was still finishing my makeup, but I let him in the room. He watched me applying my lipstick and it was making me nervous to be honest.
“Why are you bothering with the makeup?” He asked, “You’re just coming home with me today.”
“Have you seen me without makeup?” I asked.
He shook his head and I smiled, “And that’s how I’d like to keep it. No makeup me is for the guy I wake up next to every morning, not friends.”
Brendan drove me back to his house and we went inside, settling in a room towards the back of the house with all of his gaming and movie equipment in it. He set up the Nightmare on Elm Street series and we sat back to watch them while we talked. We had a blast for hours, absolutely nothing illicit went on beyond me leaning on his shoulder at one point then him laying his head on my lap while I ran my fingers through his hair.
Our excellent day together ended abruptly when we heard the front door open and he looked at his watch, “Shit, that’s my wife…”
“And?” I said quietly, “We just watched movies all day, we didn’t do anything…”
He cut me off and motioned behind the couch, “Hide, please?”
I climbed down behind the couch on the opposite side of the door. He sounded so fucking nervous and I suddenly felt bad, but I had zero ways out of the room. There wasn’t so much as a window in here. I think it was converted from a storage space.
I tucked myself into the corner as tightly as I could as I heard his wife become more and more suspicious that something was going on. Her voice was getting louder, which meant she was getting closer to the room I was hiding in. I felt like we’d been caught cheating, but again, we hadn’t done anything but talk and watch movies all day.
I didn’t know how to explain who I was and what I was doing in her house alone with her husband. I got a reprieve when the doorbell rang, diverting their attention from the room I was in. A very loud male voice boomed from the front of the house. I knew that voice, he’d taunted me and B when we were younger, it was his older brother, Grady.
I got an idea at that as I heard his wife run up the stairs, I ran out to the room with Brendan and Grady. Grady grabbed onto me as soon as he saw me, he appeared to be very drunk at the moment, so I used that. Brendan’s wife came back down into the main room and looked me over, “Who’s this?” She asked.
“Angelica,” I said, “I’m a friend of Grady’s and he told me this was his house while I was driving him home, didn’t realize it wasn’t until I saw you two come to the door. So sorry, if someone could just tell me how to get him home I’ll get him out of your hair,” I said while trying to keep Grady’s hands in check as he drunkenly groped me.
Brendan’s wife laughed, “He’s about three houses up, sweetheart, we can walk you all home.”
“That would be amazing,” I said.
I held Grady up on one side and Brendan grabbed him on the other, trying his best to prevent his brother from feeling me up. While I tried to not laugh as I heard him whispering about me to Brendan. B’s wife got Grady’s keys out of his pocket and opened the door and B and I got him into the living room and onto the couch.
“How is it you’re friends and don’t know where he lives?” Ceri asked
I laughed as Grady pulled me down onto his lap, I was trying very fucking hard not to blush and scream at the drunken lout. “I’m American, this is my first time actually visiting him and he went and got drunk off his ass on me.”
He put his hand under my shirt and I dug my fingernails into his wrist and pulled it away, “Grady!” I yelled at him for that one.
“Is this a brewing romance for him then?” Ceri asked.
I shook my head, “Maybe that’s why he got so drunk,” I held up my hand, “I’m married and I’m just visiting as a friend and, Jesus Christ, Grady, you aren’t drinking for the rest of my trip if you don’t keep your hands to yourself,” I snapped.
Ceri laughed and my cheeks were flushed brightly as I pulled myself out of his grip. Brendan looked visibly disturbed, if not outright angry as he balled his hands into fists, “Thank you for helping me get him home, but now I have to figure out how to get back to my hotel. I’m not too keen on driving his car again, I may have ended up on the wrong side of the road once or twice,” I said.
Ceri looked to Brendan, “He has a guest room, I can set you up in there if you’d like, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
I arched my eyebrow and looked at her, “Does the door have a lock on it?”
She laughed again, she had a really nice laugh, “Yeah, it does. Grady can drive you back to your hotel in the morning, I’ll go find one of his shirts for you to sleep in for tonight if that’s alright with you?”
I nodded, “That sounds like a plan,” I said.
She disappeared down the hall and Brendan grabbed my hand, “What the hell, Raven?”
“I got myself out of your house without your wife finding out about me and I gave you an out as far as me needing to be driven back to the hotel. It’s one night, I can handle your brother,” I said.
I sat down near Grady as Ceri came back out with an old t-shirt and held it up. Brendan got mad and grabbed it, “That’s not Grady’s it’s mine. I’ve been looking for it for a few years now,” he scowled. It was a shirt I’d sent him for his birthday.
Ceri grumbled a bit, “Her wearing it for one night isn’t going to ruin your shirt, you can get it back from Grady tomorrow.”
He handed it back to his wife who handed it off to me and I couldn’t help but notice a slight smirk on his face as he looked away from me. I think he liked the idea of me wearing his shirt to bed. I smiled at his wife, “Thank you, it’ll be fine for tonight.”
I didn’t really know how to confess to normally sleeping in the nude without coming across as rather crass and, well, whorish.
Ceri grabbed Brendan’s hand and I followed them to the front door, “Thank you for helping me get him home. He’s a lot harder to handle drunk than sober,” I said with a laugh.
Ceri smiled, “We’re just down the road if you need anything and he passes out. Just give us a call.”
I shook my head, “You’ve both done more than enough, have a nice night and thanks again.”
Brendan looked absolutely crushed as I closed the front door on him and his wife. I wasn’t certain if it was because I’d be sleeping at his brother’s house or because I let his brother grope me more than a fair bit as a way to get myself out of his house without his wife discovering he’d spent the day with a female friend. It ultimately didn’t matter.
I sat down next to Grady and he smiled at me, “No one has to know…,” he said as he reached for me again.
I easily dodged him and shook my head, “I would know, Grady. Go to bed before I hurt you.”
“My bed’s better, you should sleep in it,” he said.
I patted his hand, “Oh Grady, I’m not going to sleep in your bed.”
He shook his head, “By yourself,” he clarified, “Brendan’d disown me otherwise.”
“I’m good in the guest room,” I said.
He shook his head and grabbed my hand, “No you’re not. You can’t sleep in the guest room,” he insisted.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Cameras…” he said, “all around the room. Sleep in my room. I’ll sleep in the guest room,” he said.
“Alright,” I said.
I helped him into the guest room and helped him get ready for bed, I thought he was on the verge of drunkenly passing out, then he sat up and asked for a beer from the fridge as I got his feet up on the bed. He wasn’t unsteady or slurring, he looked fine, completely sober. “Were you faking being drunk?” I asked.
He nodded and smiled, “I saw him come home with you this morning, never saw him leave though. Then I saw Ceri come home and knew he’d get caught with you if I didn’t create a distraction of some sort.”
“Hey, Grady?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“Did B ever talk to anyone about me? I can’t help but feel like I was this forbidden secret in his life,” I said.
“I’m the only one that knew about you and that was just because I walked in on him…” he trailed off and grabbed my hand, “it broke his heart, you know?”
“He’s the one that called it off,” I said.
Grady nodded, “I know. It still broke his heart. He thought he’d have another chance when you got a little older but you got married before you even graduated high school,” he said.
“I had to,” I replied.
“Were you pregnant or something?”
I shook my head, “The only way I got to leave home was to get married and I *had* to leave home. Getting married kept me alive, Grady.”
“Do you love your husband as much as you loved Brendan?”
I pursed my lips, “Does it matter? I’m alive because of my husband.”
“Do you even love your husband?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Are you in love with your husband, Raven?” He asked.
I got up to leave and Grady pulled me back to him, “Answer me and I’ll show him the tape after you leave,” he said.
“I love a lot of people, but I’ve only been in love once. Knowing he’s never really told anyone about me…kind of makes me regret coming here. I told everyone about him. I wasn’t ashamed of being in love with your brother, but there’s something about me that makes him refrain from telling people about me. I can’t help but think it’s shame and that I was just never good enough for him,” I said.
Grady hugged me, “He loves you, Raven. He doesn’t tell people about you because he doesn’t want to share you, not because he’s ashamed of you.”
“Put the t-shirt on then come to my room and lay down in my bed with me,” he said.
I glared but he held his hands up, “I won’t touch you except to get a picture of you lying with me to send to him. I guarantee he’ll sneak out of the house and come over here to kick my ass.”
“That feels manipulative,” I said.
“It is, but he’s too chicken shit to outright tell you he’s still in love with you, so I’m gonna make him,” he said with a smile.
I went to the bathroom and washed my face then changed into the t-shirt and went down to his bedroom, where he was lying down. I climbed into the bed with him and he leaned down to me as he pulled me over to his shoulder, “Pretend to be asleep,” he said.
I closed my eyes and ignored the feel of his hand on my hip, under the shirt, as he pushed it up to uncover my body a bit. He rubbed my hip, “Okay, you can open your eyes again,” he said.
He showed me the picture and the message he sent with it, ‘She had a few drinks with me after you left,’ was all it said.
My eyes went up to Grady’s, “I didn’t drink anything,” I said.
“And he’ll find that out when he gets here,” he replied.
“That’s extremely manipulative, Grady.”
“I’m his brother, I’m allowed to manipulate him,” he was smiling as he said it.
I reached over to grab my phone and he took it away from me, “Nuh uh. No spoiling my fun, I let you use me to get out of his house, now I get to use you for a little bit of fun at his expense.”
“I preferred you being off your ass drunk,” I said.
He nodded, “You’re not the first girl in my bed to say that.”
We heard a door slam downstairs and Grady quickly grabbed me and pulled me to him in a deep kiss, that I most definitely did not return.
I was breathing heavily when he let go, my hand balled into a fist and I was about to slug him for that when he looked towards the doorway, “She tastes like cinnamon,” he said, taunting his younger brother as Brendan came into the room and pulled me out of the bed.
“I’m taking you back to your hotel, come on,” he said as he pulled me towards the door.
I pulled my hand free, “I’m not a little girl,” I yelled at him, “I don’t need you to protect me from my choices, B.”
His eyes were glossy when he looked at me, “You want to cheat on your husband with my brother?” he asked, a pained look on his face.
“I didn’t say that,” I said.
He lifted his phone and showed me the photo Grady had taken, “This is cheating on your husband, Raven. I thought you loved him?”
“I do,” I said.
“Then why are you in bed with my brother?”
Grady got up and looked at his brother, “I wanted to prove something to her,” he said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards him.
“What does sending me a picture of you in bed with her prove?” he asked.
“That you still love her,” he said.
“Of course I still love her. We’re friends, we always will be.”
Grady shook his head, “No, Brendan, that you’re still in love with her. Don’t deny it, man, I know you’ve been dying to touch her. Just kiss her already so you two can get this tension out of the way.”
Brendan looked up at Grady, “We’re both married and we both love our spouses.”
I lifted myself up on my tip-toes and kissed him as I pushed him back against the wall of his brother’s bedroom. It was a passionate kiss that he did not return. I pulled away from him and looked at him as his cheeks went red and he stormed off out of the house. I sat down on the floor by the door with my back to the wall and Grady shook his head.
“He’s being cowardly, Raven,” Grady said as he sat down next to me and held my hand.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and sobbed. That was a choice, and, as usual, I made the wrong one.
Source: reddit.com/r/Erotica/comments/im9iuj/reopening_old_wounds_part_one_no_sex_setting_up