Getting Even Pt. 03

I didn't know the answer to the first question. The second was a no-brainer, though. I was going to stay friends with Millie, and the least I could do was clear the air with Anita.

"I'll set it up, then." she said. Millie kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks again for saving me, hero. Now I'll try to do the same for you."

***

"Thursday night." said Millie. "She's agreed to a neutral site, and I got her to meet us in a public place, so she won't go ballistic."

- "You're scaring me, Millie."

- "Nah, I'm just messing with you. She suggested the Blind Friar."

That was an upscale pub, part of a big hotel. A pint of Guinness to go with the drama couldn't hurt. Millie was also going to come along, to show Anita the camera footage. She'd promised to stick around if I felt at all uncomfortable.

- "I really appreciate this." I told her.

- "After what you did for me? Don't be silly."

We found a quiet table, and waited for Anita. For five minutes. And then ten.

Millie's phone chirped.

- "She's in the hotel. Room 925."

- "I thought she was going to meet us here."

- "I thought so, too. I have no idea why she would be in a hotel room. What do you want to do?"

I don't care for people who play games. I was starting to care less and less about Anita's feelings - but I just wanted to get this over with. At least Millie would know that I'd let Anita have her say.

- "Let's go."

It was a pretty fancy hotel. I had no idea if Anita had rented a room here, or if she had connections of some kind. I'm sure they went for a small fortune.

We could hear the music the moment we got off the elevator. It was really loud. Who would blast Carly Simon's 'You're so Vain' at concert level?

Yes, it was Room 925. Millie and I looked at each other, but neither of us knew what to say. The door was slightly ajar. We knocked, twice, but there was no way Anita was going to hear us. Plus, she'd probably left the door open for a reason.

So Millie and I walked in.

Anita was in the entrance hallway, on her hands and knees. On the carpet. Naked.

Duncan Cockburn was kneeling behind her, slamming his dick into her, and grinning like a madman.

- "Hey, Benny!" he shouted.

***

I fucking hate Duncan fucking Cockburn.

He was a first class prick, from my hometown. He was a year ahead of me, in school, trying to get into my sister's pants. He failed completely, of course - because he was a first class prick, and because my sister wasn't an idiot.

He was pissed off at her, but re-directed his anger to me, and tried to bully me. Everybody knew why, so when I kicked the shit out of him behind the gym, even Duncan's few friends had no complaint.

- "He kinda had it coming." was the general verdict.

He spread rumours after that, about my sister, my mother, and me. I had to tell him that if he continued, I was going to put him in the ground.

His parents had money, though, and connections. They shipped him to a University out west, where no one knew him. I imagine they also helped him get a job in the big city.

How was I supposed to know that I'd accepted a position at the same place where Duncan fucking Cockburn worked? It's not like you can ask in the interview: 'Excuse me, but does Duncan fucking Cockburn work here?'

It was not a pleasant feeling to discover that Duncan fucking Cockburn was employed in the same building. No - in case you were wondering - he hadn't forgotten me.

He told my supervisor that I had a drug habit. He told every one of my peers that I was well-known for stealing work, and then claiming the credit. He also told every eligible female on my floor that I was gay, and/or that I had a micro-dick.

Luke and Marco knew who he was, and they didn't believe a word of what he said, but they were in the minority in our division.

Duncan fucking Cockburn was a weasel. A rich, entitled weasel - but a back-stabbing rodent, nonetheless. He frequently dropped by, after hours, to unplug my computer, to pour noxious substances in my keyboard, or to slip illicit substances into my filing cabinet.

He also slashed the tires on my car. Twice.

No, I had no proof. But do you honestly believe that I was the victim of two random, un-connected tire-slashings?

I considered a fresh beating, behind the gym, but he was too paranoid to ever let me catch him alone. I applied for several other jobs - I just didn't have much pull, yet. And as long as Duncan fucking Cockburn was poisoning the well, I wasn't going to get any, either.

Anita couldn't possibly have picked someone more despicable, more loathsome, or more repulsive than Duncan fucking Cockburn to fuck - if she wanted to get at me. And I couldn't believe for a moment that that wasn't her entire intention.

Anita hated Carla. I'd fucked Carla (she thought). Therefore, she was going to fuck the person I most hated in the entire universe - Duncan fucking Cockburn - and make sure that I saw it. Front row seats. Unobstructed view. But how had she found him?

Millie and I stood there for several seconds, completely stunned. Trust me: there was nothing erotic or arousing about it. By common accord, we retreated a few steps, and I went to close the door, to shut off that awful view.

- "Wait." said Millie. She pulled out her phone, and went back into Room 925. She came back out a few moments later, and slammed the door behind her.

We walked to the elevator in complete silence. Millie reached out, and took hold of my hand.

- "I don't believe it." she said.

- "The Friar okay with you?" I asked. There were several pints in that pub that had my name on them.

- "Yes."

We got a seat, and a couple of drinks. Millie was flushed. She was almost hyper-ventilating.

"Do you know who that was?" she asked.

- "Oh, yes." I said. "Duncan fucking Cockburn. Duncan fucking bane of my existence Cockburn."

- "You know him?"

- "Got an hour?"

- "I've got all night." said Millie.

I told her the entire history of my family with Duncan fucking Cockburn, from beginning to end. I didn't spare any details.

"Holy shit." she said. "Then you are going to love this."

Guess whose fiancé was involved in a business deal with the uncle of Duncan fucking Cockburn? Guess who - on that basis of that relationship - was invited to Millie's engagement party?

Duncan fucking Cockburn?

Good guess.

One more guess: who do you think would be such a pond-scum lowlife that he would use Rohypnol on the hostess of the party / fiancée of his uncle's business partner?

Good guess.

Within the week, Duncan fucking Cockburn ended up in the hospital. He'd been badly beaten. I mean, badly. There was severe damage to his face, his kidneys, and his testicles (One of which had been ruptured - that even sounds painful). The unknown assailants had also sodomized Duncan fucking Cockburn with a broomstick - which had to have hurt. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.

No, it wasn't me. I did celebrate the news with a few beverages, though.

I was truly curious when Anita began calling and texting me again.

- "We have to talk." she typed.

***

Kira wasn't able to make it home for Thanksgiving. She expressed her regrets. I understood. Pressures of the new job, lack of holidays. Christmas, she promised.

- "I'd love to see you." I told her. "I'm working on a reason to come out to Winnipeg, myself."

***

I could have simply told Anita to go fuck herself. I was beginning to think that there was nothing to be gained by giving her the time of day.

But Millie and I were still friends, and Anita might still be her friend. Equally important, though, I was still mildly curious about just what had happened to me since Millie had introduced me to Anita and Kira. I had some questions.

Anita agreed to meet me at a restaurant bar. I wasn't going to feed her, but a couple of drinks wouldn't hurt. In Vino Veritas (There is truth in wine).

- "Hey, Ben." She started with a shy smile. Anita had been very clever. Tight jeans and a clingy top - nothing overstated, nothing too fancy, but she looked damn good.

- "How about you start at the beginning, Anita." I suggested.

- "From the beginning? Ah - Okay. I guess I knew the moment we met that there was a special connection there. We just... hit it off. Right? You can't deny that, Ben."

- "No. I felt it, too."

Anita smiled. "Exactly. I know that some people don't believe in love at first sight, but... I was smitten. Right away."

- "So you called Luke over, and fucked him."

Anita pouted.

- "Well... yes. But I had good reason. You'd already hooked up with Millie. I had to make us even."

I just sat there with my mouth open.

- "Are you fucking serious?"

Anita was trying to read my face. It couldn't have been that hard: I was furious.

- "You'd been with Millie." said Anita. "Every time I saw her, I was going to be reminded that you two had... been together. That's not an easy thing to accept, you know."

I shook my head, trying to clear it.

- "Wait. This was all about getting even? That's what this was?"

I swear - she started to say 'Duh' - but she saw the look on my face, and kept her mouth shut.

"Anita: Millie and I hooked up once. Before I even met you. She immediately tried to set me up with you, because she thought that we might be a better match."

- "I know. We are a better match."

- "So you decided to even things up by fucking my friend."

She pouted again. "You could've asked me out. You make it sound..."

- "Stupid. Because that's what it was. When Millie and I got together, I didn't even know you existed. It had nothing to do with you. But from the moment we met, I thought that you were amazing. The same day, after the party, I went and bought tickets to a Marlies game because I thought that you might enjoy it - that we might enjoy it together. I was going to call you Sunday... but I decided to wait until Monday. Can you imagine my surprise when Luke told me that you'd invited him over for a fuck?"

Anita looked surprised.

- "I didn't know -"

- "That Luke would tell me? Jesus, Anita. I wondered how I could have been so wrong about you. So I offered the ticket to Marco, but he couldn't go. I finally decided to ask Kira if she wanted to go with me."

- "She doesn't even like hockey."

- "She doesn't like any sports. But she was willing to go, because she liked me. Whereas you showed your affection for me by banging my friend."

- "You're... misrepresenting it."

- "Am I?" I asked. "Am I really? At MiIlie's birthday, you steered the conversation to topics that you knew we had in common - to exclude Kira. But when I stayed with her, you started dating Marco."

- "To stay even!" she said. "You were dating my friend, so I had to date yours."

- "Can you even hear yourself? You broke his heart, Anita." I said. "You used Marco. I wasn't doing that to Kira."

- "Ben..." she said. "You can't deny that you and I have a lot in common."

- "So what? Imagine us together. We couldn't go anywhere with my two best friends, because you fucked and then cold-shouldered one of them, and then broke the other one's heart. And what about Kira? You had to convince me that you and I were a better match, so you invited me to the cottage... well, you know what you did there."

- "She wasn't right for you."

- "Kira cared about me. She wanted to make me happy. Is that why you and Marco banged the headboard so loudly? To make me happy? And then you dumped him the moment you knew that Kira was going to Winnipeg."

- "To be with you!"

I took a deep breath, and let it out. "Jeez, Anita. You completely destroyed whatever friendship you had with Kira, and you wrecked any future possibility of friendship with Luke and Marco. Are you picturing you and me getting married? With Luke and Marco as groomsmen, and Kira as a bridesmaid?"

She pursed her lips tightly, but Anita didn't have a ready reply to that.

"And then we come to Carla." I said. Anita's nostrils flared, and her eyes blazed fire, for the briefest of moments.

"By now, you must know the truth. Did Millie show you the video?"

- "Yes."

- "So you know that I didn't have sex with Carla."

- "Pretty darn close." said Anita, between clenched teeth.

- "Wow." I said. "You still feel like the person who was wronged, in all of this?"

- "You know that I hate Carla."

- "And how did that make you feel, Anita? To see her grinding on me."

- "You know how it felt."

- "I'm not sure. Know what's more important, though? You knew how it felt. So you turned around and deliberately tried to inflict the same hurt on me. You set out to cause me pain, Anita. Is that love? Thank God we're not together; I'd have to worry that if you ever had an accident, and broke your leg, that I'd have to break my leg, too - so that we'd be even."

- "You're making it sound childish."

- "Because it was." I snarled. "Look, Anita - you're very intelligent. Your plan may have sounded reasonable, at the outset, and it may have seemed to have been all about me - but it was really all about hurting me. It bothered you that I'd already been with Millie, so you wanted to cause me the same pain. I was dating a friend of yours - because you seemed to be uninterested - so you dated a friend of mine. To get even."

- "Relationships have to be 50-50." she protested. "Otherwise they don't work."

- "What are you talking about?"

- "There's a power dynamic in every relationship, Ben. If one partner holds the upper hand, the other person will resent it, even if they try not to show it. If there's a serious imbalance, the relationship is doomed."

I could only shake my head. "That's a hump we'll never get over. Not the fact that we've both been with other people - but that you deliberately set out to cause me pain. I hope that you can repair your friendship with Millie, but I don't see any hope for us. Not even as friends."

- "Ben..."

- "I may never get the image of you fucking Duncan fucking Cockburn out of my head. I'm afraid that it might be permanently burned into my retinas. How did you even find him, Anita?"

- "I... I asked Marco."

- "You do know that I never pursued Carla - right? She came onto me. Meanwhile you went looking for my worst enemy in the entire world. Do you not even begin to see how wrong that was?"

It may seem to you that I was wasting my time with her. I didn't see it that way. I was seeking closure. She talked some more, and finally realized that she was talking to a wall. I put her in a cab, and sent her home.

In the months to come, Millie did try her best to salvage her friendship with Anita. It was hard sledding, but it had nothing to do with me.

Meanwhile, this bizarre turn of events rebounded in my favour, in a completely unexpected way.

Millie now hated Duncan fucking Cockburn as much as I did. The beating and his subsequent hospitalization weren't quite enough for her. She wasn't about to embarrass Anita by putting the photos she'd taken online. But Millie did a little research, and made an interesting contact.

***

"Just go." said Millie.

- "But who is she?"

- "Ben - I'm trying to make up for introducing you to Anita. Please... just go, and enjoy yourself. It's all paid for. How can you lose?"

- "Not even a little hint?"

- "Fine. You have something in common. Okay: two things. Free meal, free drinks. Wait - three things -"

- "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition." I said.

- "What? Ben - this isn't about the Hobbit."

Millie wouldn't get a Monty Python reference. Anita might have - but that was why we were here in the first place.

"Just be patient, okay? It'll all become clear soon enough. And I promise that you won't regret this."

I trusted Millie. That was how I came to be sitting at a table at the Chase, in the Financial District. Boy, was I out of place. The Strawberry Appetizer (whatever that was) went for $48. The Diamond Platter (one of the mains) included oysters, crab legs and lobster, for a mere $225. I shit you not.

If Millie's fiancé hadn't been paying, I would've probably laughed myself to death. Then my 'blind date' arrived, and I forgot all about the prices.

She was wearing red and black, just as I'd been told to expect. I stood up to greet her.

Black hair. Blue eyes. Red lipstick. Red shirt (braless), showcasing a pair of high, full, firm breasts. The skirt was black, and short, and her legs were out of this world.

- "Ben? You're Millie's friend, right?" she said. "My name is Brynn."

- "Yes - I'm Millie's friend. Pleased to meet you."

Two waiters appeared almost instantaneously, jockeying for position. I wondered if Brynn had ever had to wait for service in her life.

She ordered a Lemon Drop martini.

I had no fucking clue what that was. But then I remembered that Millie's guy was paying, so I named a cocktail that I'd only ever heard of - the first one that sprang to mind.

- "I'll have a Rob Roy."

- "Maraschino cherry or lemon twist?" asked the waiter.

I hadn't been expecting that. I had no idea what I was doing, but Brynn didn't need to know that. "Lemon." I said. The waiter didn't smirk, so I guessed that my choice was okay.

- "You don't look quite like what I expected." said Brynn, blatantly checking me out. "Millie said that you were a little rough around the edges, but... still, good-looking. That part seems to be true, anyway."

- "Thank you. Millie neglected to mention that you were so... attractive. I wonder if she was a little... jealous."

Brynn smiled. "Flattery? Well... I don't mind." If her smile was any indication, Brynn liked being complimented, and coming out ahead in a comparison. "Did she tell about what we have in common?"

- "She didn't, as a matter of fact."

Two more waiters were fighting for position. The winner appeared next to our table, a little out of breath. "May I take your order?" he asked Brynn. It was like I didn't exist.

I managed not to laugh aloud when she ordered the Strawberry Appetizer. Then she asked for the Carpaccio as an entree.

- "Have to watch my figure." she said, glancing down at her breasts. Naturally, I had to follow suit. Wow. I completely forgot what I'd planned to order. Fuck it.

- "I'll have the Diamond Platter." I said. I looked to Brynn. "Hope you'll share a bit of it with me."

- "Maybe." she said. "If you'll share mine."

Our drinks arrived. I tasted the first (and last) Rob Roy of my life. It didn't matter; I wasn't here to get a buzz on - I was here to listen.

- "To new friendships." I toasted.

- "I think that Millie and I will get along wonderfully." said Brynn. "I hope that you and I will, too. She really didn't tell you what we have in common?"

- "She didn't. I think she wanted me to be surprised."

- "I was dating Duncan Cockburn." she said.

My smile froze on my face. Duncan fucking Cockburn. Wait - did she say 'was'?

"I see that name rings a bell." she continued. "Yes, I know that he fucked your girlfriend. Millie showed me the pictures. She also showed me the video of him slipping something into her drink. A date-rape drug, right?"

Duncan fucking Cockburn. I probably didn't do a very good job of keeping the look of disgust off my face. Never mind that DFC hadn't known that Anita wasn't my girlfriend. She'd probably told him some story, and he'd banged her just to hammer a spike into me. There was no mistaking the vindictiveness in his expression when he'd called out 'Hey Benny'.

"Ah." said Brynn. "I recognize that look."

- "You do?"

- "Yes. I've seen it in the mirror, the past few weeks." she said. "Would it surprise you to learn that I'd already heard your name? Duncan used to complain about you three or four times a week. He made you sound like the second coming of Satan. But I'd love to hear your side of the story."