Wicked Ch. 04

Like I promised, less than a year.

So first, thanks to my very patient editor:

Rexbrookdale

A good editor is like deodorant – Pretty much invisible and you stink if you don't use it. Unless it's Axe deodorant then it also gets you tons of hot babes (seen it on TV with my own eyes).

Wicked Chapter Seven

Saturday, Crete.

Greeks live in another time dimension than do Israelis.

She despaired as she looked at the four people waiting patiently in front of her in line. Probably Europeans. Israeli pushiness and stress didn't mix well with the Cretans' lethargic sleepiness.

The mall's air conditioning had died, or was gasping its last breath according to the sounds it was emitting. Ana could feel the sweat soaking through, making a dark blotch up and down the back of her clothes, and knew it was getting bigger. Her leg started dancing an impatience jig of its own accord.

The young girl behind the counter chatted happily with a customer.

Come on already. Ana forced her leg to stop fidgeting. She doesn't want extra milk. No, don't offer to heat her cake. Gods! Fifteen minutes in line for a fucking cup of coffee. Give her the fucking coffee already, it's just a coffee machine not a PhD in astrophysics.

A stranger, tall and dark, eyeballed her as he walked by, She gave him a flirting smile. His blond girlfriend or wife caught him in the act, and slapped away the loving arm he had around her waist and said something in an incomprehensible foreign language. Based on her tone and the look she gave him she wasn't congratulating his keen eye for beauty. Ana smiled on the inside.

She had begun noticing things that had probably been there all her life: men looked at her, turned their heads, when she walked by. She hadn't been oblivious to it before her new-found sexuality, but now she was aware of every lecherous stare. She caught her image in a display window and smiled again. Six feet tall, with a smashing figure, wearing a low-cut white blouse, and khaki shorts that revealed her perfect long legs. Natural lips designed by Leonardo de Vinci himself, and a straight Greek nose sculptured by Michelangelo. Japanese doll hair that never needed conditioner to keep it smooth, flowed like a red river down to her shoulders. From her Moroccan mom she got bronze skin and from her Ukrainian dad's side of the bargain, a set of cat-like green eyes to complete the lovely picture.

"Excuse me, miss," a respectable-looking man behind her, said. His forehead was sweaty; he probably regretted the suit he was wearing. "That lady over there is waving at you."

From across the hall, Ayelet waved a blue passport like a flag.

"Thank god," Ana let out air in relief and stepped out of the line. Her head was sending her painful messages and coffee might have eased that, but she wasn't staying here a second more than she had to.

"Did it in a record time." Ayelet had a crooked smile. "You're soooo lucky I was here, these things take forever on weekends."

Ana didn't want to dwell on that thought. She already wasted a day of her dream vacation with Nadav.

"It's only a temporary passport," Ayelet said. "When you're back in Israel you still need to report the stolen passport to the police."

"I know." Why was Ayelet being so nice? As Ana recalled there was little love lost between them during their IDF mandatory service, almost an undercurrent of competition. Ayelet had been the hottest girl on the air force base until Ana came and booted her off her unofficial title.

"Is Amiram here with you?"

"My boss?" Ana said.

"No, not Amiram," Ayelet slapped her forehead. "I was at your wedding. Fuck, but that makes me feel senile; Dan, your husband, Dan."

"He's.... He went to the hotel with the kids."

For some reason Ayelt looked very pleased with the answer. "Let's go sit somewhere," she said.

"It's late and I need to be heading back."

"Come on, I'll buy you coffee." Ayelet held onto the passport.

"I really should go."

"Twenty minutes, come on, I'll tell my driver to take you back to your hotel."

"You have a personal driver?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" she faked nonchalant surprise. "I married Theo Mistakidis."

Ana had no idea who Mistakidis was. Probably loaded, by the smug smile Ayelet was trying to tone down. So that's it. She wants to wave her good fortune in front of the girl from the old country. I can live through twenty minutes of that for a free ride. I sure need that coffee anyway. Me and the Honey Bee of Hatzerim base, on a coffee date. Life is weird.

@@@@@@@

It had started out really well. She and Nadav had driven to the airport together in the morning, after sleeping the night, snuggled in her bed. She called her boss and told him about the unexpected vacation, sparing the details. He was more than understandable. It helped that Ana hasn't taken a vacation in the past two years.

They asked for different seats and boarded the plane separately because Nadav was a high profile persona and paparazzi were prowling. They set it up to rejoin once they exited the terminal in Crete.

Ana had been waiting for Nadav to pick her up, when things started going downhill. Crete is a sleepy island with little crime. The Greek economic collapse was changing even that. As she waited by the cab station, two teenagers on a motorbike snatched her bag and with it her passport, purse, money, and mobile.

It turned out that the Israeli embassy branch in Crete was at the other side of the Island, away from Heraklion's airport. Nadav, in a very Nadav-like manner gave her the money to get there and proceeded solo on to the villa. The only point of light was that the Israeli consulate member on duty turned out to be an old army acquaintance, Ayelet.

"Yes, very fortunate," Ana echoed Ayelet, hoping her conversation partner wouldn't notice Ana didn't have a clue as to what was very fortunate or what Ayelet had been blabbering about during the past fifteen minutes. If I go now, I'll be in the villa by sunset. Nadav can take me on a nice stroll around the beach.

"It's just that life sometimes gets tiring," Ayelet said.

Their restaurant bordered a water park, alive with happily screaming children. They had walked past a few appealing restaurants full of tourists, but Ayelet chose to sit in a deserted-looking coffee shop.

"I think that's what God made Crete for," Ayelet said.

"Sure."We can make love in the golden sand. I wanna try anal again, it was so intense. She smiled happily as she imagined their naked bodies lying along the waterline. She could almost feel his powerful thrusts from behind. His cock invading her anus, and the hot sexy feeling as it erupted like a sticky fountain inside her bowels.

"So we took off, Theo has a private jet, you know."

A private jet? Hell! Honey Bee nailed a loaded fish. Ana nodded her head, again hoping it was the correct gesture.Hmm, they know how to make lattes in here; almost as well as Dan makes it. She tried to push her husband away from her thoughts. He kept popping up. Poor Dan. She regretted sending him the picture of her and Nadav. That had been cruel and unnecessary. He had rubbed in her face those hickey marks he'd gotten from the mysterious Irit, but still.

"We're expected to throw those events, comes with the title." Ayelet said. "The British and the Italian ambassadors coming."

"Aha." He's still my husband, technically. But are we still a husband and wife? Do I still love him? People who love each other are never so cruel.

"The security cost for the evening alone is horrific."

"Aha," Ana said. What if Dan decides that he's had enough and wants to divorce me no matter what? The thought caused her stomach to twist. Why am I holding onto him so tight anyway? Was Alice right and I just can't let go? Goddamn that floozy, Irit. She hadn't expected Dan to find someone so soon. She hadn't expected him to find anyone. After all, if he needed sex she had always been available and eager, before their big fight.

"You'll never guess who else is coming."

What on earth is she blubbering about? When I get back home I'm gonna tone this thing down. Keep Nadav on the side, maybe stray from time to time just to keep it fresh, but I'll be more discreet. I'll call off the no-sex curfew and keep Dan on a tighter leash.

"David Ben Abir," Ayelet was practically glowing.

I'll find out where Irit is living. Once I'm done with her she won't dream of going near my husband.

"Didn't you hear me, Ana? I said David Ben Abir is coming."

The name sounded familiar. "Who?"

"What do you mean, who?" Ayelet said. "David Ben Abir, the one and only David. Davidlicious."

"From Squadron 206?"

"David Ben Abir the hot F-16 pilot you had a total crush on."

"I never did," Ana was surprised. What was Ayelet trying to push here? "Maybe I did, I don't remember."

"You totally did. You used to kiss his picture on the war games board. "

"I was what, eighteen, nineteen? That was ages ago."

"You said he'll be the one to pop your cherry," Ayelet smiled.

"Wow, I was one childish ..."

"Don't you wanna see him again? I mean, aren't you a bit curious?"

"Not really. And why did you bring him up anyway?"

Ayelet looked annoyed; obviously the conversation didn't take the course she expected. "I said he was coming."

"Coming where?"

"To the fundraising event my husband is throwing on Sunday, hellooo, planet Earth to Ana."

"Oh." So that was what she'd been blabbering about for twenty minutes now. A party for rich old scarecrows. I wonder what they're raising money for? Probably funding another nose job for Ayelet, looks like she's done quite a few over the years.

"You got to come."

"I don't know...."

"Oh, come on it would be like old times. I won't take no for an answer!"

Old times, you mean when you hated me and pretended to be my friend and I pretended that I didn't know you hated me? "Okay. I'll come." I'd rather cover myself in tar and set it on fire.

"Great. The invitation extends to your husband too, goes without saying."

"Of course." Of course not, I have a date with Nadav Fine planned for Sunday night, we'll be screwing like rabbits. Enjoy your stupid fundraising.



@@@@@@@@@

Sunday noon, Israel

"Airplane. Bzzzzzzzzzzz."

"Stop that."

"All righty, train, choo, choo, choo, choo," Dan moved a spoon full of yogurt to Alice's luscious lips.

"It's humiliating enough without the sound effects," she took the spoon from his hand and tried to move it to her lips. When flexibility betrayed her she tried moving her lips to the spoon, and winced in pain.

"That's funny, do that again," Dan said.

Alice propelled the spoon with her fingers. The yogurt arched through space and splatted on his cheek. "Now, that's funny, let's do that again." She wasn't angry. In fact, it was the first time since Saturday that Dan hadn't looked set on jumping off a cliff.

Dan's mobile rang. She saw a gleam of hope sparkling to life in his eyes as he scrambled to pick it up, only to watch that gleam die when it wasn't Ana. She felt her own heart squeeze a little more.

Since Saturday they had been doing their best to ignore the elephant in the room. Ana. Or more precisely, her absence. Each time Dan left Alice had frantically tried to call her, each time receiving a 'non-active subscriber' message for her efforts. She sent numerous pleading messages; none were answered.

"Dan, take a note, I wanna send an official complaint!"

"So now I'm your personal maid and secretary."

"Don't soil your pants, you suck at both. Mail it to hospital management. I want to know if the breakfast Jell-O was a Fukushima import, because that's the only explanation to why it glows in the dark. Also I would like to inquire where the meatballs came from and if we're depriving the local animal shelter of its much-needed cat food." Come on Dan, a little smile won't kill you. Please.

"You two crazy kids having fun?" Dr. Dominick entered the isolated room, dragging behind him an ominous machine that looked like it came from the toolset of a snuff film. "Fukushima, huh? I was wondering about that third eye all morning."

"Oh my god, it's the blond hot hunk I dreamed about last night."

"Doctor." Dan nodded.

"You can see him too?"

"Can you," Dan started, "can you like, tone it down for ten seconds; be, you know, less yourself, Alice?"

"I pooped in a potty today, Dan, in fact I believe you cleaned it. I look like Yul Brynner's twin sister and feel sexy like Charlize Theron."

"She's super-hot," Dr. Dom said.

"Playing that prostitute in the Monster movie, I earned every right to be me. If it's okay with you, Dan and with you, Doctor."

"Now let's all just bow our heads for two minutes. That was an excellent speech, missus. Very moving," Dom said.

"Be kind, Doctor. I'm an injured woman."

"And I was sure it's the overcooked lunch chicken that's been keeping you with us." Dom switched on the machine, which gave a happy hum. "Mrs. White, time for your debridement treatment."

"Nope, time for my sponge bath treatment – thing. Help me take everything off, Doctor McDreamy."

"Are you hitting on me, missus?"

"You think?"

"Just," Dr. Dom brought his thumb and forefinger together, leaving an invisible space between them.

"And that bothers you, purple eyes?" Alice said.

"Wait till you get the restraining order. Kidding, kidding, I'm totally cool with it." Dom raised his hand way out of reach of Alice's cast. "High five."

"Very funny, Doctor."

"No high five, no sponge bath. Debridement treatment, Mrs. White."

Dan sighed. He checked for messages on his new mobile. The Smartphone with Ana's picture had mercifully ceased to function after its rendezvouswith the floor. An unfamiliar number blinked on the screen.

"Dan, it's me."

"Irit?"

"Can you come over quickly?"

"I'm in Jerusalem, what's wrong?"

"There's a man outside the door in the hall, he's waiting for me to come out."

"What? Some pervert? Call the cops!"

"It's Michail the Georgian, I know he's waiting for me to get out."

"What? Why? What sort of mess are you in, Irit?"

"Can you come over?"

"What do you expect me to do?"

"Just escort me out of the flat, he won't do anything when he sees me with you."

"Okay."

"Hurry!"

"What was that? Where to, Dan?" Alice stopped flirting with the young doctor and squinted her eyes.

She's got sharp instincts. Dan panicked, then remembered that if Ana had a lover then it wasn't Alice's damn business if he had one too, albeit imaginary. "I need to go."

"Oh."

Her green eyes sought his. He was certain he'd find accusation there, but he saw something entirely different. Fear. Alice, the toughest girl in the Middle East was scared to death. Too proud to beg yet in those green stars lurked fear of being left alone. A few days ago he had been so frightened, and she had looked so smug about it; at the top of her game. A vindictive thought flashed inside his head: Let her taste that pill. See how she likes it. But all that came out was, "Don't worry. I'll be back tonight, okay?"

"You don't have to," she said in a weak voice.

"I know."

@@@@@@@@@

Sunday late morning, Crete

"Dan, stop moving," Ana growled. The last wisps of her dream were leaving her. It was a nice dream. She and Dan were on a luxury cruise in the Caribbean. Dan was slim and trim as he hadn't been in years. He wore a James-Bond-style tuxedo, and she had worn her red evening gown she'd gotten from Alice after one of her a modeling tours. A swing band played on shiny brass instruments under a gazebo and a bunch of men, who all looked like Nadav Fine's identical twins, stood patiently in line and waited for her to dance with them. She tried desperately to sink back into that dream when her bed started vibrating.

"Dan, stop moving," she growled again and then opened her eyes abruptly.

White curtains, cheap bed sheets, unfamiliar room. I'm in Crete.The bed was indeed vibrating.

"Fuck!" she said.

Her bed partner wagged his tail and Ana jumped off.

"Who are you?"

The Labrador started scratching its head vigorously with its hind leg, sending the bed into another vibration seizure.

"Yuck. Shoo, go away!"

Round innocent eyes surrounded by white fur looked at her. It yawned.

"Okay, stay there, but I'm not getting in that bed ever again before it goes a complete sterilization."

Barefoot, wearing red underwear and a green tank top, she went downstairs into the kitchen and fired up the coffee machine. The hour was half-past eleven. "Nadav?" she called.

No answer.

Maybe he's on the beach?

Last night she had arrived at eight to an empty villa. Nadav's suitcase and her own stood in the hallway, open but unpacked, and a scribbled note attached to the door said, "Out for a beer, key in the balcony under a rug, see ya." She had waited till eleven, her pink hopes for a romantic evening slowly fading into a gray cloud of bitterness. At last, exhausted, she had fallen asleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

In the kitchen she poured herself a cup of coffee. She didn't recognize the brand but it tasted excellent which improved her mood immediately. Yesterday stunk, but that was yesterday. After all, today was yesterday's tomorrow and another day. First she needed to find her Rhett Butler.

"Nadav?"

He must be at the beach. I'll change into nothing and give him a morning blowjob surprise. She smiled as she thought of Nadav sunbathing on the beach. She could almost taste that long pole of his on her taste buds. Yummy.

Ana opened a window to a stream of warm air. Deep sea and fish on the grill smells swum into the room and tickled her senses. Cloudless sky, a sunny beach and a flat Mediterranean stretched like a promise. Yep, definitely going to be a marvelous day.

She thought she heard a voice from the master bedroom. "Nadav?"

No answer. Then laughter, a female voice.

She went over to the closed oak door. "Nadav?"

A muffled moan.

God damn it!

A huge pavilioned double bed occupied most of the room. A naked, tanned blond nymphet, her eyes a little dazed, sat on the bed, her head tilted back. The girl wasn't alarmed at Ana's abrupt entrance, if she noticed her at all. She moaned and sank back between the sheets. A human-sized bulge moved suspiciously under the covers in the geographic region of the nymphet's love cave.

"Who are you?" Ana said.

The girl smiled at her, exposing white teeth and the nubile beauty of Spring.

"Nadav?"

The girl closed her eyes and mumbled something in Russian.

Ana flipped the covers, expecting to find Nadav and was surprised to find another nymphet, this one a brunette, her head buried in blondie's snatch. Exposed to the light, the girl tried to raise her head but the blond would have none of it. She pushed the brown head back between her legs. The scene was ethereally erotic, and Ana pinched herself to make sure this was not just part of her dream.

The dream ended when someone flushed a toilet and Nadav entered the room through a bathroom side door. He was wearing his million dollar commercial smile and the clothes God gave him. Ahead of him marched a morning erection that in case he fell down could knock up everyone in China (including the men).

"Hey, sleepy-head," He scratched his naked butt.

Gross. "When did you come back?"

"You were snoring last night and I didn't want to wake you."

Ana felt the blood rushing to her face. "Snoring?" she said in the sweetest voice she could master.

"Like a hog."