chapter 5
Izzy
I came back from my run to an empty house. I took my shower, changed and came downstairs to make something to eat. I loved how big and equipped the kitchen was and I wondered if any of my new roommates cook. That was one thing I missed. I loved to cook, but of course, I haven’t cooked for two years because I had people making meals for me. It’ll be nice to cook meals again, I thought as I sat by myself at the kitchen island eating my sandwich.
Everyone was still out and I assumed they were still dealing with the Z situation. I had such a nice run that I thought I should go out for a walk and maybe window shop.
I left the townhouse and turned toward Allure to shop. After about an hour of shopping, I turned back toward the townhouse. I had this eerie feeling that someone was following me, but every time I looked around no one odd stuck out. I think it was just my nerves still on alert. There was no way HE knew where I was.
I headed back with my purchases and walked into the living room where everyone was sitting on the couch watching football.
“Hey! Where ya been?” Mel called out.
“I went shopping after my run. What about you guys?” I asked.
Mel got up and came to me to see what I bought. “We were at Z’s. He walked in last night on that skank of his with some jerk. So, he was a pretty upset, as you can probably imagine.”
“Wow! That’s pretty messed up. Is he okay?” I remembered Flynn’s phone call last night, but still tried to sound surprised.
“Too bad you weren’t there Izzy, it could have been a three-way cat fight!” Clark yelled from the couch.
Flynn was glaring at him holding his head and said, “Dude, keep your voice down, my head is still pounding!”
I looked at Melanie and asked, “What’s he talking about?” but kind of knew from our days in college. If you messed with her friends, she was out for blood!
“She was being a bitch, saying it was Z’s fault she was taking it from another guy, so I was pretty pissed,” Melanie said raising her voice. I noticed Flynn cringing and closing his eyes.
“What’s wrong with Flynn?” I asked looking over at him.
Melanie answered, “Oh, he went to help Z forget the bitch last night. Beer and Jack Daniels.” She changed the subject. “So, we were thinking about heading out to a bar and watching some football, are you in?”
“Yeah, that sounds great,” I replied. Clark stood up, “I’m in too! Come on Flynn, let’s head out. I need a wingman.”
“Uhhh, no I can’t. I’m just going to hang back and crash. You guys go on ahead.” Flynn was really cringing with pain.
“Okay, let’s go. Feel better Flynn!” Melanie waved as we went to the door.
Clark threw his arms around both of us and said, “Oh yeah, two hot chicks! This will be a great night!” We just shook our heads and giggled. He’s too much!
Clark, Melanie and I walked a couple of blocks to a small sports bar. It was nice – old dark wood and the walls were exposed brick. TVs were lined all over the walls and different sports were playing on each of them. We took seats at the bar and ordered beer. I took a swig of my favorite beer – Amberbock. Mmm…I must have looked like I was in heaven because I couldn’t stop smiling as I drank.
Melanie noticed. “You okay? You look like you’re about to come!” She teased me.
Clark perked up. “That’s all it takes?” He asked leaning in front of Melanie to get a better look at me.
I laughed, “I haven’t had one in two years! Leave me alone!”
Melanie gave me a weird look and chuckled. “What, you haven’t ordered your favorite beer in two years?”
“No,” I blurted out the rest laughing at the same time, “I haven’t had ANY beer in two years!”
“That doesn’t make sense. You love beer. What have you had to drink? Wine? Rich COCKtails?” Melanie said jokingly, (enunciating the “cock” in cocktails) but also with her eyes scrunched up and a bit serious.
I took another long drink from my beer. “Mmmmm.” I moaned again and exhaled. “Yeah. HE never allowed me to have any beer and any wine I had HE limited to make sure it didn’t mess with my calorie count.” I exclaimed while laughing not thinking that was weird to anyone else. I think the beer put me in a dreamy state and I felt like I couldn’t stop talking. “Of course, one time at a party, I went into the kitchen to get away for a minute and found a beer on the counter. I downed it and HE smelled it on my breath and boy, there was punishment for that!” I blurted out giggling while I said it, but then stopped, realizing that Clark and Melanie were staring at me like I was nuts. And …I am. Oh my God. Why did I just tell them all that?
“Punishment how?” Melanie asked, eyeing me like I was a crazy person and of course I am a crazy person because who gets punished for drinking a beer?
I took another swig and waved her off. “Just ignore me; I’m just babbling.” I was hoping that might stop her questioning me.
Melanie eyed me and whispered, “We’re not done with this conversation!”
“I know, I know.” I exhaled.
“No, we’re not done! I want to hear this shit! Like what kind of punishment? Was he like spanking and whipping you and shit?” Clark was animated as he said that and smiling huge.
I swallowed and whispered, “I need to use the bathroom.” I got up and practically ran to the bathroom.
I spent about five minutes in there before Melanie came in. She knocked on the stall and called out “Iz?”
“Yeah,” I reluctantly responded.
I peeked my head out. Melanie looked at me with such compassion in her eyes. I didn’t know what to say.
So she began, “What kind of punishments are we talking here?”
I swallowed, eyeing her to gauge her expression, when I blurted, “Sexual.”
Melanie gasped. “Like rape?” She asked me furiously with tears in her eyes.
“No, not like that.” I corrected her. I looked her in the eyes and blanched, “BDSM type of stuff.”
“Holy mother f*cking of all shit!” Melanie screamed out blinking several times. Then she glanced away. “Why…would you stay that long with him?” After a long pause it suddenly dawned on her, “Oh my God! You were hoping he’d fall in love with you, weren’t you?”
I swallowed hard and my tears started to fall. “HE made sure to get his point across that HE would never love me. That’s why I left.” It felt good to finally tell her something. At some point I would tell her the whole story. But for now, this would have to do. “Can we not do this right now? I...I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Melanie blinked. “Okay, but eventually we’re going to talk about this.” I nodded in agreement. I wiped my eyes and we went back out to Clark who was hitting on a girl at the bar.
We ordered another round and watched the game for a while. Before we knew it, Clark stood up, and winked at us. “I’ll see you guys later.” He followed the girl with his hand on the small of her back, as he walked her through the door. I was amazed at how quickly he was able to pick up a girl, on a Sunday, no less. That boy has game! Melanie started giggling about it.
“I can’t believe he was that quick getting her!” I was still laughing and in shock.
Melanie laughed, “Must be that Clark Kent thing he’s got going on!”
“I wonder if he’s really ‘Faster than a speeding bullet’!” I said, laughing hysterically.
Melanie was about to cry, laughing so hard. “He leaps tall blondes in a single bound!”
We were laughing pretty hard when two guys, pretty good looking actually, came up in between us. “What are you two ladies laughing about?” One asked as he gave a sly smile. He was really cute. Tall, dark and handsome type.
Melanie eyed me with that question in her eyes, like we used to do in college, trying to signal each other if guys were cute enough to talk to. I smirked and nodded my head yes. They were definitely adorable. Melanie turned back to the guy closest to her and brushed her hair off her shoulder, smiling her best smile. “We were just laughing about our friend who can get a chick in the sack faster than Superman.”
Both guys blinked for a second, shocked by what she said, then one near me put his arm behind me onto the bar and said, “Well, he must not respect a woman very much if he does that. Most women, women like you two, probably require a bit more finesse.” Oh God. That was his line? Couldn’t he do any better? I just giggled and looked at Melanie.
“I’d like to see what your version of finesse is.” Melanie said tugging on “her” guy’s shirt. They turned to each other and started talking.
“My” guy looked at me with a shy smile and asked what I was drinking. I told him and we started to have a nice chat while he ordered another beer for me. I wasn’t really feeling like flirting at first, but we were really having a nice conversation and I felt my fun side coming back.
After chatting for a little while, I glanced over his shoulder and something caught my eye. “Oh shit,” I whispered.
I must have looked like I saw a ghost because Melanie immediately noticed my look and asked, “What’s wrong Izzy?”
I leaned over and whispered to Melanie, “That guy, the one in the corner over there, I swear I saw him earlier on my walk today.”
Melanie inconspicuously glanced over her shoulder and asked, “Do you think he’s following you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I responded, feeling a little worried.
“We better get out of here. We’ll see if he follows us.” She stood up and turned back towards the guys. “I’m sorry guys, we have to get going, but it was great chatting with you.” “Her” guy whipped out his business card and handed it to her. She reached into her purse and handed one of her business cards to him.
Mine handed me his, but of course I didn’t have a card, nor was I really in the mood for trying to remember my new number. “Thanks. I’ll call you soon.” I said, but wasn’t sure if I really was going to. I was too flustered to care.
We practically ran out of the bar and headed toward home. We kept glancing back, but no one was following us. I must have just imagined it…again. “I’m sorry,” I said to Melanie feeling silly. “I must have just been freaking out or something.”
“It’s all right. I get it. He messed with your head for too long,” Melanie said. “So, besides feeling like someone’s following you, how are you doing?”
I took a deep breath. “I’m fine, I guess. I think I just needed to get back into something normal. Bartending is really helping. I missed that atmosphere of being around tons of people and watching them interact with each other.
When I was with HIM, I mostly worked out or was in different social situation with boring snobs. The only normal thing I really did was play pool daily at HIS penthouse.” I didn’t feel like adding in what my nights consisted of.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Melanie said as she hugged me. “Because I really love having you back in my life.”
“Me, too.” I smiled, hugging her back thinking to myself how much I’ve missed her and especially our ‘girl’ time. For two years I basically didn’t have anyone to talk to, except HIM.
We continued walking towards the townhouse and I decided to ask about her relationship with Flynn. “So, what’s really going on with you and Flynn?”
“What do you mean?” Melanie scrunched up her eyebrows but a smirk crept over her mouth.
“Oh, come on! You can’t hide that from me! You are so into him!” I raised my voice while giggling.
She groaned and threw her head back dramatically. “Alright. So, uh, we’ve always had this crazy flirtation thing going on. Well, a couple weeks ago, we were at the bar and he was sitting and I was in between his legs and we were, well, getting pretty close to kissing. We were doing that whole teasing thing and touching each other. Then I ran to the bathroom. I didn’t think I was gone too long, but when I came back there were two girls hanging all over him.” She paused and shook her head. “So, I didn’t get mad, or tried not to appear mad, I mean we weren’t together or anything. Sandy gave me a drink and then I felt this guy’s arm across my shoulder. I looked up and it was Bill, my boss.” She paused, giving a small eye roll and a small smile. “We, ugh, we had slept together after the holiday party; it was months ago. We never talked about it and at work we’re always professional.” Then she took a deep breath. “Well, at the bar he started whispering in my ear sweet things and we were joking around about things at work, but he always had his hand on me somehow, like, either around my shoulders or on the small of my back.”
“Wow!” I exclaimed, slightly shocked about her boss. “But what about Flynn? Or were you trying to make him jealous?”
“No! I really wasn’t trying to do that. But I did glance over and the girls were all over him and he gave me a couple of looks like he was pissed, but he didn’t do anything to come over or get rid of the girls. So I just figured that’s what he wants and he doesn’t want me.” She took a deep sad breath. “Anyway, it was getting late and Bill asked if he could walk me home…and…I let him.”
“Ohhhh, so, Flynn saw you leaving the bar with him and now thinks you guys are together?”
“Probably, I mean, I tried to make sure he knew nothing happened that night. Bill walked me to the door and leaned in for a kiss, but I turned my head and let him kiss my cheek. That’s about all that happened. I went in and fixed a drink for myself waiting for Flynn. I was in the kitchen…by myself,” she stressed, “and…he and Clark came home. He kept glancing around, so I told him Bill went home. He shook his head, but gave me this weird pissed off look. My phone chimed a text. He glanced over at it, made some weird grunting noise, and then went up to bed. He seemed pretty ticked off.”
“What did the text say?” I asked slowly.
“Umm. It said ‘I can’t stop thinking about the Christmas party and you.’”
“Does Flynn know you slept with him?”
She took a deep breath and cringed. “Yeah…we were drunk one night and we were talking about one night stands. It was a huge mistake telling him. We had a nice flirtation going on, but ever since then it’s like every time something happens to remind him of Bill, he becomes an ass. I don’t know how to change it or if I even can.”
“You should just throw yourself at him one night!” I was teasing her – but kind of serious when I said that.
“Oh, I can’t do that! What if he pushes me away like Brad did to you?” She asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.
Shocked that she could possibly know about that, I tried to keep my face calm. “What are you talking about?”
Melanie smirked and waved her arm at me dismissively. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about! I know all about you making a pass at Brad and he turned you down.”
“How did you know about that?” I asked her worriedly.
I had never told her about that night after I had hustled a guy playing pool. Most guys took a look at Brad standing in the corner and would leave the table and deal with their loss. Some weren’t so willing to walk away from their money or being beaten by a girl.
One night in particular, I hustled a considerably large sized guy. Brad watched from the corner drinking his beer like he usually did. The guy began to yell at me when I tried to shrug off his accusations. He grabbed me by my neck and bent me backwards onto the table, saying he would like to take his payment another way. Then he reached his hand down my thigh, squeezing hard while kissing me roughly.
Brad had come to my rescue, as always, and grabbed the guy. This started a huge big brawl that had to be broken up by the police. Brad wasn’t arrested and I didn’t press charges on the guy. Later, walking home that night, I thanked him with several hugs and then attempted to kiss him. He had pulled back and told me that he’s always thought of me as a sister, nothing more. Our relationship was pretty strained after that. Not too long after making a pass at him, he met Missy and we grew further apart.
Melanie watched me with a sad expression, knowing she interrupted the replay of that in my head. “Brad told me one drunken night.” She paused for a second looking up to the sky trying to remember. “I think it was that night you were puking your guts out and we were worried we’d have to take you to the hospital. You know, the night we decided it would be fun to see how many Alabama Slammers we could do? Nasty sticky crap. Mack was taking his turn holding your hair and Brad and I were talking outside the door. He was pretty worried about you. Hmm, I really have no idea how you kissing him came up.” She was thinking pretty hard to recall it.
“You guys were talking about me kissing him and him turning me down when I was puking my guts out?” I asked incredulously, just as we started up the stairs to the townhouse.
“Yeah,” She stated plainly, as we walked in the door.
“How embarrassing that he would even talk about it to…anyone!” I heaved a heavy sigh.
“Well, now you can understand why I wouldn’t try the same thing.” She glared at me, whispering as she said it, because now we were inside and Flynn was nearby in the kitchen.
“Fine. I get it. Point made.” I huffed and walked into the kitchen.
Flynn was in the kitchen making a sandwich when we walked in. He smiled at both of us and asked, “How was Spike’s?”
We both replied at the same time. “Fine.” Flynn eyed us both as if we were fighting and said, “That good, huh? Where’s Clark?”
Melanie rolled her eyes. “What do you think? He picked up a blonde within the first five minutes of walking in there!”
“Wow, he is getting faster…faster than a speeding bullet!” He laughed at his own joke. We rolled our eyes at the fact we already made that same joke.
“I’m gonna head up to bed, guys. Have a good night.” I turned and went up the stairs. They both replied “Night.”
I overheard them chat about Z and about the “situation” and I was sure they didn’t know I could hear them. They talked about some block party in two weeks and that Clark wasn’t going. They joked about Clark not wanting to be around babies or holding them or something along those lines. Oddly enough, I fell asleep thinking about Superman and how he would rescue a baby if he were afraid of one.
******
The next day was Monday and everyone went to work, except me since the bar was closed Sundays and Mondays. I went for another long run and then decided I would cook dinner for everyone.
I picked out a nice roast and a few other things. I thought maybe a nice home cooked meal was something everyone might enjoy. I turned on some great music, grabbed a beer and began to cook, peel potatoes, steam veggies and make a yummy torte for dessert.
One by one they came home from work, enjoying the smell from my cooking. Clark added that it was going to be great having a woman in the kitchen and joked, “just make sure you don’t get pregnant!” Great. Thanks.
Melanie tried to call Z to see if he wanted to join us for a home cooked meal, but he said he’d rather stay home and hang out. I guess he wanted to wallow some more. Poor guy. I couldn’t blame him – knowing it had to feel horrible to walk in on Sheila with some guy.
We sat down and enjoyed dinner. It really did taste pretty good, if I may say so myself. We had great conversation talking about Flynn, Z and Clark’s college days. It turns out that’s where Flynn and Z met Clark.
Everyone thanked me and complimented my cooking. We all cleaned up together, laughing and joking. I was glad I decided to cook. I think they were too. I really think I’m going to enjoy living here in my new life.