Deep Down Inside Ch. 29-36

Chapter 29: Just Once

"Another one just showed up. And shit, boys, the other net is still free."

Jimmy was pressing his hand to the huge glass window, visoring out the afternoon sun for a better look at six girls playing volleyball. The latest girl to join their game was a tall, dark-skinned beauty with a great ass in a nothing bikini.

Javier shook his head at me from across the table, and I shrugged my shoulders, unable to excuse my friend's behavior.

"I have a ball in the car but it's a little flat," Noel jumped in, in an apparent seconding of Jimmy's idea to cut our celebratory cocktails short for a game of beach volleyball. We were seated on the windowed patio with a view of the pier to the southeast and to the southwest was the ocean and the six twenty-somethings in bikinis occupying a volleyball court and causing our big bowl of ceviche and wonton chips to go untouched.

"You in?" Jimmy asked, quickly getting to the bottom of his second pint.

"Even if I wanted to, Penelope's on her way," I looked back at Javier, who'd showed up to Sandy's Beach Shack wearing a button down and cargo shorts.

"This place is dead, we can get our table back easily."

A waitress stopped by as Jimmy was standing. She had a grass skirt and a tied-off shirt that showed off a flat belly to be proud of. "Can I get anybody anything? I don't see any Mai Tais, guys. That's gonna break our bartender's heart."

"Rum can suck my balls," Kadin told the poor girl, who giggled with daggers in her eyes. I'd have to tip extra. "I'm setting us up with another shot. Tell your broken-hearted bartender we'll be needing Patron's all around." He tapped the table in front of Jimmy. "Stick around for this, Jimmy boy." Kadin had been at the bar when I'd arrived, one shot glass and a margarita in front of him. He'd then had another shot at the table and was nearly done with his second margarita—the B.A. margaritas consisting of two full shots of some high proof tequila, so I know he felt it. "I'll buy this round, Alex, and Jimmy's gonna drink it."

"No, no, I got it. I've been a cheap sonuvabitch with all the work drying up, but I'm flush now, and it feels good to spend it." I reached my beer across the table to toast Javier on our success.

"It's two in the afternoon, I gotta pace myself," Jimmy told the table, trying not to answer Kadin directly.

I told Jimmy and Noel they were free to go play volleyball. I'd already delivered all my good news, all the reasons for celebrating, and didn't have anything more to add. They asked Javier if he played, but he declined. Like me, he felt obliged to wait on Penelope, our third design partner.

I'd scored our design studio its biggest project yet. After pushing hard to continue working for the game company in Mission Viejo only to have them inform me they were going in a different direction, I'd read a bit of news on an industry forum that EA had actually shut them down. I had the sneaking suspicion Benny had already known about the closure but had kept quiet and blamed my work for not hiring me on. I'd known EA had another studio in Santa Monica, and on a hunch I'd sent an email to one of the producers with all the designs I'd thrown together for Scorched Raven. My hunch had been correct—the EA-owned company in Santa Monica had absorbed the other studio's projects. He'd responded almost instantly and hired me to work with their marketing team. Not only that, they had three projects being worked on simultaneously and he'd wanted me to work something up for those as well. I'd brought Javier into the fold and offered work to Penelope, but she was already swamped. Our studio was suddenly booming!

I looked across the table at Javier, the only one seated on that side now, and said, "I think we're gonna have to hire some help." It could only be considered a good thing and he raised his glass to toast ourselves once again. With his glass in the air his phone buzzed and a text appeared. Penelope was asking where Sandy's Beach Shack was, so Javier called and discovered she'd been dropped off half a mile up the coast. He offered to go pick her up and downed the last of his pint.

Suddenly it was just Kadin and I and a fresh round of shots. I had plans that night and really didn't want to get that drunk, so I slid mine back to Kadin.

He started fishing through the wonton chips for the largest one. Crunching on it he said, "First time I've seen you in a month." The devil in his eye filled in everything he didn't say. Last time I saw Kadin was the afternoon following the night of the bachelor party—the same night he'd showed up uninvited to fuck my wife. Camille and I had been avoiding him and I thought meeting up with him in a group setting would be the best way for us to start hanging out again—avoid messy talk about that night and ease our friendship back to normal.

"So what are these plans of yours for later?"

"You mean taking Camille out?"

"Yeah, is it a couple's dinner type thing or are you open to a fun place I know down in CDM."

I assumed he meant he'd be joining us and stopped him. "She got us a reservation at the Italian place on Beach. Staff knows us there, kind of our go to."

"Oh, cool, cool." He chomped another chip, crumbs sticking to the corner of his mouth.

I decided to share Camille's good news with him, hoping that maybe it would help him understand what our night was really about. "Look, don't say anything, but it looks like Camille might be getting that partial funding for a studio. That Ben Halverson guy signed off on it, I guess."

"Oh yeah, I remember her saying something about that."

I assumed he referred to the conversation they'd had the day after the bachelor party.

"Maybe after your dinner we could meet up for drinks. It'll gimme a chance to congratulate her. I'm keeping things low-key tonight with Calvin's wedding coming up tomorrow."

"Thanks man, but nothing is official yet. It's why we haven't said anything. And she'll be at the wedding tomorrow, you can congratulate her then."

He grabbed my fit shoulder. "Alex, Alex, Alex, I miss hanging out with you guys. Remember our trip to the wine country together?" He leaned in close enough for me to breathe in his last shot. "Speaking of that trip, I found out Jane is getting married."

"It's only been like two months, right?"

"Correct! It's some guy she dated before me. I dodged the shit out of that bullet, bro."

I suddenly understood all the tequila shots. "You OK, man?"

"Am I OK? I've never been better, bro. Spoiled rich girls never appreciate what they have, you know what I mean?"

"Like they don't respect their toys kind of thing?"

"Or we're all just their toys. I mean, we dated for how long—like several months—and she still never really got me."

I shook my head.

"I mean, even Camille gets me and she fucking hates me. By the way, did she ever get over her problem with me?"

"Which problem is that?"

"You know, that night we..." He finished his thought with a lewd smirk.

This had been the first chance I'd had to look at Kadin since he'd slept with my wife, and his face wasn't exactly as I'd remembered. His nose had always had a bump, the type that gives a handsome man character, but not a perfect nose, and the longer I stared at it the more it bothered me and distracted me from his eyes.

He eased backwards and let go of my shoulders. "I know she still thinks I'm an asshole." he said proudly, as if it were a good thing. "I admit I like to screw with her head, but she knows I'm just fucking with her, right?" He tossed back the shot I'd passed on, and shook his head like a lion clearing dust from its mane.

He may have tiptoed around saying it but his dick was on target for a repeat of that night. Once again I needed to be direct with him. I just hated having that conversation. It was personal and embarrassing.

"You know we can't party like that again, right?"

"Alex... the genie is out of the bottle, bro."

My phone buzzed and I pulled it out. "It's Camille, I gotta take this."

I left the table and walked over to a space near the entrance of Sandy's Beach Shack where I wouldn't be overheard. "Babe, what's up?"

"Not much. Having fun there? Did Penelope make it?"

Penelope was directionally challenged and Camille knew it, so we had a laugh about the Uber dropping her off up the road. And then there was a long pause at her end and that's when I knew something wasn't right.

"Babe?"

"OK, so something weird happened. I'm still kinda processing it."

Usually when I hear statements like that I can predict where it's headed, but this time I was completely in the dark.

"The guy who's been assisting in the studio stuff, he got let go."

I stayed quiet, running the pad of my thumb over the edge of a plastic leaf and watching the hostess seat people as Camille explained the situation. She'd called this Sweet-jimi-bears guy but someone else had answered his office line. The woman had then explained he'd been stealing money. His replacement was the woman on the phone and she'd be handling whatever relationship Sweet-jimi-bears had established.

Camille's no idiot and neither am I. We both knew the guy had a thing for my wife and the proposed funding was him doing a personal favor to impress her. And with him going adios that money would likely dry up.

"That fucking sucks, but for what it's worth I should pull in a lot this year. We should be able to make up the money and Ben's actual interests in you had nothing to do with Sweet-jimi-bears."

"I know, I know, and that's why I'm not nearly as upset as I should be. But the funding... That's just business. You don't get to where Ben is by throwing money away and Setjunkar never asked me for much of a business plan." Her voice then jumped up with enthusiasm, "Oh yeah, hey, there's something else, too. Would you be OK if someone joined us for dinner?"

"Ha, I just got through telling Kadin it was a romantic night out and he couldn't come."

"He did not try to invite himself!"

"Totally did. He found out Jane's getting married and he thinks you get him."

"He thinks I get him?"

"His exact words."

"I guess I do. I get that he barged into my home, lied that he had your consent, and then..." She exhaled, hunting for a tactful way to go on only to bluntly state in anger, "He fucks me in our bed and I'm supposed to just get over it?"

"You gonna be OK at the wedding tomorrow?"

"Do I have to play nice? Can I just ignore him?"

"Of course."

It had been such a turbulent month with our careers booming, and we'd been so preoccupied we hadn't talked much about that night he "fucked her in our bed". We'd had sex several times but The Beast had stayed wrapped up in her end table drawer and the sex had been tender and fairly vanilla. And while I'd told myself doubling down on our love and intimacy was better than talking it through, I also found myself... OK, I'm not going to say I was less attracted to her, but I was starting to realize how much the troubled, angsty part of her personality that loved to tease me fueled my inability to keep my hands off her. I'd never been more infatuated with her than the night she banged Kadin and it almost felt like she was deliberately hiding that side of her out of shame ever since. I'll even admit that a part of me wouldn't mind doing it all over again to get a resurgence of her angsty fire.

Getting back to her initial reason for calling I asked, "So who's the lucky one getting a seat at our dinner table on this special night—Abi?"

"It's not a special night anymore." Disappointment soured her voice but only for an instant—just enough to know her optimistic outlook in the wake of the shitty news was mostly forced. "And no, it's not Abi."

"Alright, who?"

"It's actually someone who wants to meet you."

"Are you teasing me on purpose?"

"A little."

"Who wants to meet me?"

"It's Faron."

I swallowed a golf ball as Camille then insisted it would be fun.

"Are you two good friends now?"

"We're friends. He's been cheering me up."

"Is he there?"

"No. He just called out of the blue. I'll cancel the reservations and the three of us can just get sushi."

Did I want to meet the guy who'd had steady sex with her a few years before we'd met? As I posed the question a wave of horniness left me with a strong urge to get my hands on her ass. My nervous excitement caused me to pull a leaf off the plastic fern standing in the small lobby area.

"I'll tell him to meet us there at eight, OK? It'll be fun. You'll like him."

"Can we do that next week?"

"You're going to your mom's next week."

"Then lets do it in two weeks. We have Calvin's wedding tomorrow, this is the only night we have to be alone."

"OK, I guess I can put it off. But is that really why? Like, do you not want to meet him?"

"I dunno. But it seems kinda obvious he wants to be the next guy to fuck you and he's hoping I'll invite him into some kind of swinging threeway or something. Or is that what you want too?"

She laughed, "Alex, you do not get to play the jealous husband after everything you put me through. But I'll make sure Faron knows where we stand. And I'll put it off for a few weeks if it makes you feel better, OK?"

"Sorry. You're totally right. It's just I've spent all afternoon sitting beside a guy trying to weasel his way into my wife's pants again. And I'm not jealous, or at least not angry-jealous. I love you too much for that, Camille."

"I love you too, babe."

I felt a bit woozy as I headed back to find Kadin, who was still alone and watching out the big window where Noel and Jimmy were playing volleyball in the court beside the group of bikini clad girls. I sat down and told him about the Sweet-jimi-bears guy getting the axe.

"So does that mean her teacher crush is still going to chip in on the studio?" Kadin asked.

"Doubtful, and this is precisely why we weren't telling anyone," I said, as I flagged the waitress for a tequila shot, and then changed my order to a Mai Tai just to make her happy.

"Bummer! She say anything else?"

"Like what?" I asked, a little curious about what else he expected her to say.

"Like does she need help taking her mind off of things?"

"I think I got it covered."

"Yeah, but maybe she wants something more than plastic." He then laughed loud enough to turn heads.

I couldn't help myself, it was funny, and I was suddenly laughing just as loud.

Chapter 30: An Icy Reception

"I can't believe that Ashtanga douche," Kadin announced, as he hung his maroon suit jacket over the chair back. He was a groomsman in Calvin's wedding and the maroon was definitely not Kadin's choice. "So he promised to front a studio and then just shut it all down?"

"It wasn't Ben, it was his assistant who promised all that. But now he's gone," Camille said, very matter-of-fact-like, hinting she didn't want to pursue the topic.

He cleared the table setting and leaned an elbow on the big round table so he could see both of us. "Fuck, so his assistant is the douche?"

"Yes, Ben won't be funding a studio, but his fired assistant caused this mess."

Camille wore a three-hundred-dollar A.L.C. halter top dress, which the sales girl had lied about not being too revealing and I wasn't about to correct the lady. It was silver and short with flowing pleats, but from the waist up it clung to her skin, and the deep V halter top held her full, smooth breasts with two strips of fabric, so a bra was not an option and both abundant cleavage and ample side boob were visible. She put her hand over the bare skin of her cleavage as if to touch her heart. "To be fair, I don't know the full story with Setjunker, either."

"Be fair all you want, the fucker's a douche for blowing your funding." He tapped a big finger in front of me. "Am I right, Alex, or am I right?"

"Total douche," I agreed.

She turned partly away from me to speak to Kadin on that side but set her hand on my knee, informing me she had this. Her hair was up in a bun and I stared at the fluid curve from her slender neck down along her smooth, exposed back. Kadin's eyes had repeatedly drifted toward her chest and so she pushed out her tits in a pronounced fashion, a move that called out how obvious he was being. To anyone else, this would've caused embarrassment, but Kadin only savored the swelling cleavage being shoved in his face.

"I know it's his fault," she continued in her business voice, "I'm just having a hard time believing Setjunkar could steal anything from Ben, which is what he's being accused of. And he supported me in every way, that part hasn't changed. Meanwhile, everyone else is more interested in undermining me."

She wasn't just reacting to Kadin's rude glances, Camille had been in tears earlier and almost skipped the wedding. It was hard for her to talk about her dream slipping away due to the actions of some idiot.

She eked out a smile, "But I'll survive. I always do."

"Still that's gotta suck, right? I mean that studio was all you talked about." His eyes wandered from her face again and this time he even licked his lips.

Fully annoyed, Camille went for the jugular. "I hear Jane is getting married."

"Alex told you, huh?"

"So she's gone for good, you really let her slip away."

"Yeah, well who knows, I've been around marriages as flexible as a yoga instructor."

At this point, she gave up and announced she'd get herself a drink. Kadin stood, but she pushed his big shoulders back down. "I don't need any company, and Alex has something he'd like to say."

As soon as she left, Kadin asked, "Wow! Testy! So what's up?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Nothing! She just said that to get away from you."

"Is this all because of that one night?"

"What do you think?"

"Didn't I apologize already? And it's been a fucking month."

The guy had no volume control, and I glanced around the room making sure no one heard. "I don't believe you did apologize, and it wouldn't make a difference if you had."

He shook his head and grinned. "I was at least respectful. I thought we'd smoothed the tide."

The guy just couldn't let it go.

"She really doesn't like you, man. And there's nothing you can do to change that."

"Damn, she is crazy. Crazy, wild, angry—you got a grab bag of emotions on your hands. I don't know how you do it."

Calvin's brother came up behind the empty chair between us. There were only a handful of people from Calvin's bachelor party present at the wedding and reception, his brother being one of them.

"So Alex, what happened to you at the bachelor party? You missed some crazy shit."

"So I've been hearing."

"Did you hook up like Kadin?"

"Is that true, Kadin? You're telling people you hooked up that night?" I asked, needing to know how much he revealed to our friends.

Kadin pursed his lips, poorly hiding his amusement, and then bragged, "I got the call, and you should've seen this chick, Alex. Total smoke show. Put any stripper to shame, bro. And she couldn't get enough—rode me so hard I thought my dick would catch fire." He stood up and grabbed his jacket from the chair, smirking as if he did me a favor for not saying Camille's name. He slipped on the maroon coat, which matched Calvin's brother's, the best man, and he proclaimed loudly, "Your idiot brother just got married, let's get the mother-fucker another drink."

Rose was Calvin's second cousin and Camille stood with her on the empty, checkered dance floor clutching cranberry cocktails. From thirty feet away I guessed her to be an inch taller than Camille, a little thinner, and maybe a few years out of high school.

Rose was very pretty and Camille was more beautiful than ever in her glamorous dress, so it wasn't long before two handsome guys who knew how to wear a suit joined their conversation. The older of the two had Josh Halloway's smile, which might've granted him a shot with Camille if she weren't already taken, and I became immediately jealous when they all began laughing at something he said. Camille put her hand over her eyes, acting comically indignant, her canned response to sexually inappropriate jokes. But within a few minutes the guys were all but forgotten about as Camille clutched Rose's shoulder and returned to whatever conversation they'd been having before the men showed up, forcing the guys to wander off.