The Girl Player

The Girl Player 

Introduction

Wow, she thought, my bed sure is comfy. Something didn’t seem right with the sleeping situation. She bolted up. Hmm, contacts still in, sleeping clothes on, what time is it? The room was dark and the pillow seemed very different. Fluffy slippers still on….wait a minute. And then, she realized that she was not at home but at her friend’s house. They were having a sexy lingerie party and, being herself, Halle showed up in sweat pants and a tee-shirt. When asked about her peculiar preference of clothing she said, “this is what I sleep in.”

So, the party must be going on downstairs. She creped down the stairs to find that she was having a party with Mama and Bell, Sandy’s pet cats. What time is it? She looked at the clock, 2 am. Where is everyone? At that exact moment the front door unlocked and three people stumbled in.

“Halle, you’re awake….HEEEY!” Sandy and Monica chorused as they entered the front entrance. Behind them was the very handsome James, a.k.a. “Muffy.” The three giggled in laughter as they witnessed the confusion on her face. “you don’t remember what happened.”

“Seriously guys, I remember coming to the party, people were here. I remember getting cold and lying on the couch. That’s about it.”

“Well,” Sandy took the liberty of filling in the blanks, “you came in drunk as a sunk. Apparently you started way before you got here. Then you got tired and went straight to bed. It was like you lived here.”

“Strange, I don’t remember any of that.”

“Excessive drinking does that.” Monica explained for her.

“Great, where had I been drinking. Oh whatever, my brain hurts. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Um, excuse me, where do you think you are going?” Sandy wondered out loud.

“Home, why?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, its just that, how do you think you are going to get there.”

“With my car.” Halle said annoyed.

“And just where is your car?”

“In your driveway.” Halle seemed more aggravated.

“No it isn’t sweetie.”

“So, how did I get here then?”

Sandy sighed before laughing. “If you don’t know then I really don’t know what to tell you. Whatever you were drinking I sure wish I had some.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One:

Once Upon a Night Out

 

“…..so I said, Tommy, why are we running? The cop was in front of us!” A small roar of laughter emerged from the group of about ten people. Halle was telling the tale of her and one of her friends quest of dodging a cop to save themselves from a DUI. After running through a wooded forest for about five minutes Halle realized that the cop they were dodging was driving in front of them, rather than the opposite. It was a story she loved to tell.

“Even still, he was gaining on us from in front. He started going like 40 and then he got way down to right in front of us.” Tommy tried to explain.

“What was he going to do, flip his lights on and reverse?” Halle asked. She was sitting among her usual crowd of friends. There was Tommy, someone he brought with him named Brad, which she didn’t know that much, sea boat captain Johnny, Big Doug, Sandy and Monica, and her very best friend Mya and her husband Tim. Halle admired Mya and Tim and their relationship. Mya was just as crazy as she was, except she found a husband that loved her enough to accept some of the crazy situations that she got herself into.

The crowd dissolved itself to Mya, Tim, and Halle. “So, I noticed that Brad guy checking you out over there today.” Mya mentioned casually to Halle when Tim went to the bathroom.

“Oh please, he barely even said two words. He seems like a bore.”

“A cute bore, he’s pretty handsome. Doesn’t he look like that hot guy from one of your soaps.”

“kinda, but I’m sure someone like him wouldn’t be interested in someone like me.”

“And what’s wrong with, ‘someone like you.’”

“Oh you know, there’s me, I’m struggling to survive on writing assignments. He’s some kinda doctor or lawyer or something.”

“He’s and architect.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Halle, just because you’re having a hard time working on this book doesn’t mean that he cant be interested in you. You both are good at what you do. It is so much easier for someone that is an architect to go out there and find a job. You have to have an audience for the stuff that you do and that isn’t easy. But you never give up so that’s a plus.”

“I guess.” she said quietly to herself. “Anyway, he seems completely stuck on himself. Why does Tommy bring him around anyway.”

“He’s a good designated driver I think.”

“ah, that makes sense, we need one of those.”

“So what’s going on with the book thing?”

“Its still in the editing phase, we will see. The sky is the limit on this one.” Halle seemed less than enthused.

“Well don’t forget my cut.” Mya softly reminded her.

“how can I, you’re in half of the book.”

The friends went their separate ways. Halle went her way to her condo, a condo that she rented from Mya and Tim. It was the perfect size, two bedrooms, one that she used for an office and the other for her to sleep in. Jesus, my fish are dead again! She thought as she entered her house. Halle was not the, “happy homemaker,” type. She tried to get a dog once and her mother was firmly against it.

“You have to be home to take care of a dog, it would get lonely by itself. And it might starve to death if it has to wait on you.” she remembered her mother saying.

She was not someone that stayed home much if she didn’t have to. Since she worked at home she tried to spend her free time away from it. She was good at maintaining her house clean but she had a hard time maintaining an actual household. One of those things that she lacked was cooking. Where food would be in a refrigerator Halle’s housed to go boxes and beer bottles instead.

Working from home as a freelance writer was trying on her because sometimes it was hard for her to get motivated. But working on her book and trying to get it published was a dream of hers that she struggled for. So she took what life had dealt to her and worked steadily at her writing, which she thought was good, better than some of the stuff she had read in her lifetime.

She plopped down on her couch and was a little bored. She refused to get cable TV as she thought it was sinful for someone who worked from home to have that type of leisure time. She was a big fan of Netflix so she put a DVD on. Even though she had spent the entire night drinking with her friends she walked over to her bar and poured herself another drink.

About an hour later she got a text from someone named Jay. “I’m by your house, can I stop by?”

“Yes.” she replied, although she was not looking forward to his company.

Days keep moving on to weeks for Halle, or so it seemed. It was difficult for her; she came for a very wealthy successful family. Unfortunately, the passion that she found herself most intrigued with was writing. To sit down and write away at something that she created an entire world from was ingenious to her. It was something that could never be taken from her. The written word held a power for her that she could not hold over anything on the earth. Writing was like air to her. It was, however, cheap air, as she did not get paid a lot for the writing that she did. She learned from an early age that she would never be an amazing historical fiction writer like John Jakes, or a great Christian fiction writer like her hero, Gilbert Morris. But she did know that she had a passion for writing in a way that she could not describe. It was the only thing that she did that made sense in a crazy world sometimes. There she was, during a historic, national, financial crisis, jobless, only depending on the things that she could write. Sure, she was good at it, but when would it pay? No one became anything overnight but it seemed ridiculous that she had been writing for so long without any type of results to speak of financially. I guess that’s why they are called struggling writers. She thought cynically to herself.

Days always seemed the same. She rolled over in bed at around 5am. She logged onto her computer, which, after her neighbors realized that she had been stealing internet from them for months, she used her cell phone internet access. That always seemed like a miracle to her. Then she’d work. She would spend hours bidding on small writing assignments that did not pay much. Maybe, at around 10, she would get up, go to the gym and work out for a bit and come back home and work on her book. Her book had been picked up by a publisher. It was exciting for the moment but then it got annoying as the edits came back. It broke her heart whenever something that she loved and thought was amazing was constantly getting sent back to her with a small note saying, “do better.” It took some of the zeal of writing away from her.

She kicked the text message stranger named Jay out of her home around 3:30 am. There was something about having a man sleep over her house that didn’t quite sit well with her. Jay was one of the few that did actually get to spend the night at her home. Any other men that had spent the night normally slept in her bed alone, as they were a friend and she generally gave up her bed to her guests and opted to sleep on the couch.

After Jay left in an angry manner after being awoken at an unholy hour she began to work. She often found that some of her most creative moments were at times that did not make sense to the world. As a history major in high school it comforted her to know that Benjamin Franklin was a thinker into the very wee hours of the morning and did not require much sleep in his life. Samuel Adams also gave her hope in knowing that he had been a failure throughout most of his adult life before the fire of the rebels spurred him into a passionate cause that he was famous for leading.

Many times she would be lost for words. In these instances, since she didn’t believe in having cable, she watched, “Alias,” re-runs. She thought Jennifer Garner was just the best female bad ass in the planet. It was even more amazing that she was still glamorous at the same time. I wonder how the hell she does that. Damn TV people. Eventually, a shower was in play. Now, of course, she was a clean individual and showered after a sweaty gym session. But she was a shower freak. She had to shower again, it made her feel like a human being that was about to face the world rather than a human being that was about to face her computer and television set. Human interaction was something that she longed for during the work day. Having virtual colleagues rather than real life colleagues was a great challenge for her. It didn’t help that she wasn’t finding great success at the end of her tunnel in her solitary day job.

 

Text message from Mya: So, how did your night end last night?Response: Italian Jay came over.Mya: OMG, you fucked him again? WTF is wrong with you? You don’t even like him.Response: I don’t know, wanna meet for a drinkie?Mya: Let’s do it!Halle did not need much time to get ready to go anywhere. She normally needed twenty minutes, tops. Her hair always seemed to work for some reason. There was no real fuss over it. She pulled on her normal comfy pants, which could be jeans or khakis, whatever was comfortable, a tank top, and flip flops. Being able to dress this way all year round was one of her joys of living in Florida. She threw on some makeup and was ready to go. Halle was not an ugly girl, not by any means, just very simple. She didn’t care for the glam, she envied it but didn’t care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was not tall, a little on the short side to be exact. She had long, dark hair, and brown eyes. She had great features, good nose, chin, and smile. She was just not the girl that everyone stopped and starred at, more of the girl next door type of look, although she was very pretty. She shocked a lot of people whenever she took the time to get dressed up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that often.

This evening they decided to go to the same place they always went, a small bar called, “The Grill.” They had gone to the Grill so many times that they were fixtures in the place. It was a Thursday night, which translated into a lot of trouble for the two women. While Mya had been married for five years and loved her husband dearly, she seemed to sometimes long for the single life, normally once a week. She never crossed any lines, just hung out with her single friends on the two nights of the week that her husband worked late. Typically, her partner in crime was Halle. There were others that came and went but the two were a solid commodity on a weekly basis.

The pair sat at the bar, pondering as to where their night would take them. “I think I’m going to get a boyfriend and not hang out with you so much.” Halle said randomly.

“What the fuck are you talking about Halle?” Mya asked nervously. There was nothing in the world that ever wanted her to give up her girlfriends.

“Well, I think sometimes we get you in too much trouble with your husband.”

“Girl, let me worry about my husband, and don’t make me force you into a relationship with anyone, not even yourself. Look I know you, you don’t want a boyfriend. Just do what you‘re doing, you‘re happy right?”

“I guess, but just think on it some. I can have a boyfriend and we can get away once a month and go nuts together.”

“Hmm, it’s a good idea. it’s the you having a boyfriend part that’s a bad idea.”

“And why is that?”

“Because, you don’t like anyone. And the ones you do like are complete assholes. Take my advice and stay single for as long as you can.” Mya spoke with much enthusiasm on the subject.

Halle pondered that thought for a moment. “I guess. So what are the big plans for tonight.”

“Help me deliver a car to EC and his brothers and then we will go from there.”

“EC, the hot Greek EC? I get to meet him in real life?”

“Yep, lets do it.”

 

The night started simple enough. Halle had agreed to have dinner with Mya and her brother from out of town. Mya felt that it was important for Halle to meet every member of her family so she agreed. Well, at least the night started off that simple…..

After a quiet dinner with Mya’s family, the girls set off for a quick drink before heading home. Mya had clients to meet at the local beer/wing establishment who happened to be a group of good looking, flirtatious men. This did not help Halle’s situation at all.

“This is EC.” Halle all to well knew about one of Mya’s most profitable clients, EC. EC, of course was just his code name that the women had created, not his actual name. While EC was one of the best looking men she had ever seen in her life, she was not prepared for PC, EC’s brother who was sitting next to him. His killer smile won her over in a heartbeat. And then her night was a little more complicated……

After sucking down a handful of drinks like air at the first establishment, the crowd gathered into a hummer stretch limo. The limo driver, a certified Rastafarian man, had to be the most amazing limo driver on the planet. He was kind, considerate, and took them to about a billion establishments in one night. First the crowd congregated at Dirty Martini, which proved to be a breeding ground for gross old men, who at one time may have been good looking, but have long since been. Since they were the “Mack,” at one point and time in their lives they felt that they had never really lost their touch and proceeded to hit on any young, good looking girl that breathed in their direction. After a few martini’s there the crowd moved to a place called the slug where the crowd went inside to have a few more drinks. Halle was interrupted at this point to answer a frantic friend phone call.

“What do you mean she’s stalking you?” was the one line that Mya heard before she realized that Halle would probably not be coming in and was dealing with yet another one of her crazy friends and their messed up situations. Mya made the call to move to another bar in an attempt to get Halle from, “helping,” her friend on the phone. This was something that irritated Mya greatly for Halle had many, “friends.” These “friends” however always seemed to need Halle a lot more than she needed them, or asked for their help with anything.

After forcing a reluctant Halle off the phone, with a promise that she would call the friend as soon as she had a free moment, the group loaded into the limo yet again to head to a little more upscale bar/club called Blue Martini located in Tampa. Tampa was a little ways away from them in Clearwater so it was a blessing that they had a limo driver. This group did not need a dui to get in the way of their drinking goals. The last place that they went to was a strip club. Halle was never the most comfortable person at a strip club. She had no problem with women taking their clothes off in front of her but firmly believed that the women that were taking their clothes off in front of her were women who probably had some type of disease that she did not want anywhere near her. This meant saying no to lap dances, sticking money in their g-strings and private dance sessions. This generally irrigated any man that took her to a strip club. On the other hand, Mya was having the time of her life. The group had been sitting in the VIP section of the strip club and Mya had about four private dances already. She was extremely drunk and normally she was the first man out when it got late but this night she was feeling ambitious. She didn’t have the same feelings about the strippers like Halle; she was the complete opposite. They touched her, she touched them back, to her it was good, clean(?), fun. And boy was she having some fun.

The night turned into the wee hours of the morning. As the group was headed to one more destination, Rico’s house to watch a movie, time did not exactly catch up to the girls. “Oh my god, “ Mya began, “do you guys remember that movie, the Wish Master, where the guy wishes his lawyer will fuck himself in the ass and the lawyer’s body turns around and fucks himself in the ass?”

“There seriously is a movie like that?” Halle was very surprised. She had not heard of anything like that before.

“Oh totally, we will have to watch it sometime.” And as if Mya was some sort of profit, when the group got to Rico’s house and assorted themselves on various couches to watch a movie, “The Wish Master, “ was on.

“Holy fuck!” Mya yelled. “I do not believe this shit!”

“That’s seriously the movie?” Halle asked.

“Oh my god, this is great. Yeah, this is totally the movie!” Mya was in great spirits although as the movie progressed Halle came to find it rather disturbing. After about a half an hour of good sobering up Mya realized that daylight was setting in. Halle had lost interest in the movie and had quickly fallen asleep within the huge pile of her guy friends on the couch. Mya jumped up and began to shake Halle.

“Halle, wake up! Halle, I have to go home! Halle, wake up, I have a husband remember?’

“What?” Halle said sleepily. “Good lord, I just fell asleep. What time is it?”

“Seven! Tim is going to kill me. I’m probably divorced already and I don’t even know it. Is there a website you can check that shit on?”

“no dear, its not like, who’s in jail.com or something. You’re not divorced. You didn’t do anything bad, we just stayed out too late. Come on, lets go home.” Halle searched all over for the glass of water that contained her contacts, or her, “eyes” as she liked to call them. Without them she was completely blind.

The two proceeded to the door before they realized that neither of them drove themselves there. Halle’s car was left at the first place they gathered. Mya was in panic mode.

“Oh my god, how the fuck do we get home now?”

“Relax, we’ll just ask Rico for a ride.”

“We cant, he doesn’t drive, he got a dui.”

“Ah, that explains the Rastafarian driver.” Halle didn’t really have too much to worry about because there wasn’t anyone for her to get in trouble with. But she was concerned for Mya. It was these moments when Halle thought it would do them both good if she did have a boyfriend. They went back into the house to find a stranger walking around making coffee. “uh, hi.” Halle said quickly.

“Hey,” the stranger said, “you’re kind of cute.”

Halle couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I guess you’re use to strange girls wandering around your house?” Halle placed the glass with her eyes down. The stranger picked up the glass and was about to drink out of it. “WAIT! Don’t! those are my eyes!”

“Halle, seriously how many people have almost drank your contacts already? Sorry Brad, she’s blind without them. I totally forgot that Rico was your cousin and that you have been staying here with him. There isn’t a possible way that you would be willing to take us up to our car would you?”

Brad, Halle thought. Great. This obnoxious asshole told me I was cute because I look horrible in the morning, nice. Rather than being her normal nasty self to Brad, she knew that they needed a ride. “We would really appreciate it. And thanks for not drinking my contacts.”

 

  
 

Wow, he seems rather pleasant in the mornings. 
 

  
“I guess we’ll see you around sometime.” Halle said as she was walking away.
“Defiantly. And Halle, you are pretty cute, by the way.” Brad said and then blazed off.

“I told you he thought you were cute.”

“Oh whatever, you have bigger problems. I guess you can tell Tim you slept at my house. Its not like we actually slept.”

“That’s true, although I don’t know which would be worse. Ah, I’m just going to tell him the truth. He loves me. And really the truth isn’t all that bad. We hung out with a bunch of our guy friends and stayed up way too late and while watching a movie. Then we fell asleep when we were trying to watch it.”

“Right, right,” Halle agreed. “after you tell him about the four stripers giving you lap dances.”

“What!” Mya cried.

“Good lord, you probably are divorced and signed the papers and you just cant remember.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two:

Dating Don’ts and Don’ts

 

After a few weeks of staying in on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Tim was not upset about Mya hanging out with her friends again. One thing about Tim that was very admirable was that he loved Mya very much. He also knew that she loved him very much. When then had first started dating years ago he put her through a lot of grief. Because of that, Tim knew what Mya was capable of handling and what she was capable of doing. He saw a strength in her that he had failed to see in other women, which was one of the reasons he loved her so much. Through it all he had complete faith and trust in her to never deceive him. It was a faith that made their love for each other grow over the years.

Now that Mya had a, “I can hang out with my friends again, ‘hall pass’” she managed to make it home a little after 4 a.m. one night out with her friends. Being thoroughly exhausted she threw herself into bed with her clothing on and cuddled next to her husband who was waiting with open arms.

The next morning, Mya could hear her husband getting dressed for work. Tim and Mya had a role reversal marriage. Tim owned a hair salon and was a hair dresser and Mya was a car salesman. It didn’t really make much sense but at this point in their relationship anything was a given. She crawled out of bed, crawled because she was a little hung over. She blinked herself awake as she entered the entrance to their master bathroom. Tim stopped shaving to look at the person that shadowed the doorway. The person standing their had hair that was mated into a solid lump on the side of her head. It looked like the 80s hairstyles threw up on her head. At one point during the course of her evening she had been wearing a short, strapped brown dress. It was a beautiful dress; something of her Baby Phat collection. The lower portion of her dress was somehow tucked into the portion that should have been covering her breasts. Should have been. The breast portion of her dress somehow managed to be underneath her breasts with the rest of the dress tucked into it. She was wearing no underwear, although she knew she came home with them. As a Mya rule she always removed her underwear as soon as she entered her doorway when she was drunk. Since her breasts were in her husband’s full view Tim could see Halle’s notary stamp in what looked like a drunken attempt to cover her breasts. The icing on the cake was the “I love Bud” marker tattoo on her butt.

“So, do you love all 500 lbs of Bud or just maybe 250?” Tim said while he was shaving. Bud was the largest man any of them had ever known and Tim was pretty sure that he had hand crafted the marker tattoo himself. Mya didn’t have a comeback for that remark.

“I did find your underwear, in case you were wondering. Who brought you home last night?”

Mya still had the dazed and confused look written on her face. She thought for a moment and said, “Stripper Joey.”

************************************************************************

Although Mya and Halle had a discussion about her not needing or getting a boyfriend, Halle still made a futile attempt at dating. Her dating was completely mindless. She met a random guy, agreed to have dinner with him, and felt nothing. She was a little worried that her horrible relationship with her ex boyfriend had taken away her ability to have feelings for another man. She liked a lot of them but that was about as far as her feelings went with any guy she had met in her four years of being single.

Her past relationship had lasted for three years, plus an entire year of playing with the idea of getting back together. Of those years, Halle could account for one year that was actually good and happy. She had met her ex boyfriend at a young age and was still a little green behind the ears. She had a great love for him; he was probably the only great love that she ever had in her life. These deep feelings that she had for him, however, were not reciprocated.

While Rod, her ex, was the love of her life, he did not feel the same for her. He was much older than she was and at some point in their relationship he turned from loving her like a girlfriend to loving her like a daughter. They didn’t have sex for the last two years of their relationship. This affected Halle greatly.

She constantly wondered, what was wrong with her. Was she not good in bed? Did she not fulfill Rod’s desires? How did he go from caring for her in one way to another? Mentally, the entire ordeal affected her in a way she never was able to quite shake off. She wore the relationship on her shoulder in a way, whenever any man broke her heart after Rod, she blamed that on herself and the damaged person Rod had left her after their relationship.

Not only was Rod confusing her feelings emotionally, he was beating her down mentally. Rod liked to take control of everything. It was a quality that made him successful. He also took control of Halle and her life. Things like, picking out clothing or make up was something that Rod had taken over. He constantly badgered her mentally by making her feel like she was not good enough to be with someone of his stature. She also was not allowed to have friends or even relations with her family. Rod had mentally brainwashed her into thinking that he was the only person that was on her side and everyone else in the world was against her and didn’t do anything positive for her. It took her a while to get over these things but she did, so that was the most important part.

Prior to that she had a two year relationship that led to an engagement that never translated to marriage. Bobby was her first “love” so to speak. She didn’t really truly love him but she thought that if he loved her enough that it would be enough to make their marriage last. Bobby was head over heals in love with her. When her wedding date neared closer Halle started getting the feeling that marrying Bobby was something that she could not do. She asked him for a while to think about her feelings. While they were separated Bobby managed to meet someone new, fall in love, and move in with her, in a matter of three months. Bobby managed to get over his “head over heals” feelings for her rather quickly. She knew that Bobby did eventually marry that girl and had children with her. She found it very interesting that he had the sudden ability to move on with his life in such a hurried fashion.

She had been through a lot in her life when it came to her emotional dealings with men. For her, it seemed that love was not something that she was capable of having. Nothing seemed to work out well for her. All the other men that she had dated tried to use her for something at some point. They mainly tried to use her for sex, which was why she was cautious about it. One man she dated was married but he told her that he had been separated from his wife for a year and they would be getting officially divorced in a few months. He even had divorce papers to prove it. When Halle made a random stop at his home she found out that he was still very much married. She also found that he had been married prior to his current wife and fathered two other children that he never told her about from two other women. Things like that just seemed to follow Halle, mostly because she believed people.

Halle liked to live drama free so she didn’t exactly have relationships. Relationships are complicated enough to actually have, or so she felt. For her to make a venture and have a boyfriend seemed like a ridiculous idea. She had been happy single for four years, well, at least she thought she was.

One thing that she didn’t like was sleeping with several men. While she dated a lot she didn’t actually make it home with a very low percentage. She believed in having feelings when having sex. So when she wanted to having, “feeling-less” sex, she turned to Jay, her consistent fuck buddy. They both had the same mentality about relationships so there would never be any hurt feelings between them. The arrangement worked out well, accept a lot of times Halle didn’t really feel like having sex.

On one particular date, however, the man she went to dinner with did. When he was dropping her off she used every excuse known to man to avoid having him come into her house.

When the man finally gave up he said, “you know, you dated a couple of my friends a couple of times.”

Halle was shocked, but not greatly, “really? Who are your friends?”

“Wow, you don’t remember? It doesn’t matter, when I told them that I was going out with you they laughed at me. They told me that there was no way that I would ever be able to get into your pants.” now it seemed like the man didn’t care where the date went.

Halle could feel that a future date was not on the drawing board. “So you came out with me to get in my pants.”

The man laughed, “no I came out with you because I think you’re fun, but you just don’t want to complete the full deal. I get it, its fine by me. But what are you exactly? Some kind of girl player?”

Halle was a little confused by this. No man had ever called her something like that.” excuse me?”

“You know, you go out with a bunch of guys and lead them on but never fuck them. What’s that about?”

“I—I don’t know. I just think that you shouldn’t rush into sex.”

“When was the last time you had a boyfriend? A real one?”

“Four years.”

“Don’t you think there’s something wrong with that? Don’t you think that maybe your methods aren’t working?”

“Well, your methods right now are not working and what I think is that I’ll go inside now. Thanks.”

Halle was use to a date going south like that, especially when it was that time to invite someone in or not. But she was disturbed by what he said to her. The term, “girl player,’ lingered in her head for a while. She couldn’t understand why everyone was in such a hurry for sex. And if you’re not feeling anything at all on a first date, sex would just make things worse. She wondered if was the only person on the planet that felt that way because it seemed like every man she ever dated was in some sort of hurry to get to the finish line. She understood that sex was an important part of dating, and very important for men, but it was so disheartening to see when she didn’t have sex with a man what they would do or say to her to lash out.

“The girl player,” she thought over and over. Was that really her? Did she really lead men on like that? I don’t think so. But why did it disturb her so much? Just another stupid guy. She decided she should speak to Mya about it.

“He called you a girl player. Hmm….what’s that suppose to mean?” Mya asked curiously. She wondered why she had never had that nickname during her days as a single gal.

“I guess I lead men on, use them for dinner, and don’t fuck them after. I mean, I don’t do that, I cant help it if they aren’t good dates.” Halle said confused.

“Well, I mean, it makes sense. Remember that time we went to that wine tasting and you decided to invite two guys you were dating at the same time?”

Halle giggled, “yeah, that one guy that swears he didn’t do blow and that really hot guy.”

“I still can’t believe that you managed to work two guys at once. Who does that really?

“I guess I see your point. I just never really thought of myself like that.” Halle seemed even more disturbed.

“Dude, don’t act like it’s a bad thing. You’re a girl player, who can say that?”

“Who wants to say that?”

“Its not a wan thing. Is it really your fault that men want to take you out and you haven’t found one that you actually like. I wish you wouldn’t date so much though just because I think you’re creating yourself a pattern of not liking them. I think its almost like a habit for you.”

“Okay Dr. Phil, I see what you’re saying. Damn, I feel like I’m trapped in a really bad episode of Sex and the City.”

“Yeah but your episode would be called something like, ‘No Sex and its Shitty.’” Mya joked.

“Really I thought you would have said Sex and your Itty Bitty Titty.”

“Hey, that’s a good one, write that shit down.” and the two women said cheers to themselves.

While she was at the bookstore one day Halle found a man in the travel section reading a book about Istanbul. The book was intriguing so she asked him about it. The conversation led to a number exchange, which led to a dinner. The guy seemed nice enough but he was slightly older than what she was use to and a little boring. Actually, a lot boring. When she found out that he had a twenty year old daughter she had to pull the plug on the date.

“What are you talking about?” the date asked suddenly. Halle was taken off guard. She had let him down gently, as she had learned how to do over the course of the years, but he didn’t take it all that well.

“I just think its time for this date to be over.” She tried to be nice but clearly this person wasn’t getting the picture.

“But I’m perfect for you.” he said in a rather angry tone.

“Excuse me?” Halle was a little taken aback by his remark.

“I’m perfect for you.” he repeated in the same angry manner.

“I’m sorry but I don’t really know you that well. Maybe–”

“I’m everything you are looking for in a guy. I’m smart and fun and I like to travel.”

“Right but–”

“I’m a great guy for you!” he was getting more and more aggressive.

“Look, this isn’t really something that we are negotiating here…. I just am not interested in seeing you again. That’s just how I feel about it.” she was really trying to be as nice as possible.

“Don’t you understand? I’m perfect for you. You’re not going to find anyone that is better than you for me. I’m the guy.”

Halle was getting nervous now because they were alone in the parking lot and he was becoming scary. She was very confused as to why he felt this way after one meeting.

“Okay, I don’t understand. I’ve been trying really hard to be nice to you about this but it looks like that isn’t going to happen anymore. I’m not interested in dating you. That’s all. You’re not perfect for me, you’re not the guy for me and quite frankly you’re getting a little psychotic with the things that you’re saying to me. I’m sorry but this just isn’t happening anymore. There is nothing to bargain with, nothing that’s going to change my mind. This conversation is over.” Halle finally lost her cool.

“What? Are you blind? How can you not see that I’m perfect for you?” now he was outraged.

“Seriously, this is over.” She hurried to her car quickly and locked the doors and rove away as fast as she could. That was really strange. Note to self, no more dates from the bookstore.“So wait a minute, the guy went all crazy on you because you didn’t want to go out with him again?” Halle was sitting in Mya’s bathroom watching her get ready as she gave her the details of her date the night before.

“I know how to pick ‘em.” Halle said less than enthused.

“Are you going to like change your number or something?” Mya asked concerned

“Nah, all the crazy people already have my number so really things cant get any worse.” Halle explained.

“That’s true, have you heard from the crazy stalker guy again?” Mya was applying her makeup in the mirror as she spoke.

“No, he died remember?” Halle was referring to her ex boyfriend’s best friend that was in love with her for years. After she broke up with her ex, Psycho Steve, as they called him, assumed that the two of them would start dating. Halle was no way near interested in dating him but looked at him as a good friend. He became obsessive with her and started stalking her and hacking into her private email and phone records to find out who she as dating. She wrote him off as a friend but he would try to make some sort of presence in her life every once in a while. One day he sent her an email detailing a job that he thought was perfect for her. After she wrote him back a less than friendly email she got a phone call a few days later from someone asking if she knew how to contact Psycho Steve’s parents. He apparently swallowed 60 Tylenol and put himself in a coma. Halle was able to track down his father who made it to the hospital to see him before he died. Halle called this incident, “a killer headache.”

“That’s right, I remember that now, that sucks. Hey do you like this shirt?” Mya was getting dressed for a night out with her husband. She typically wore black or blue so she was skeptical about wearing green that night.

“That’s cute, where are you guys going?” Halle seemed a little depressed that she was going to have to stay home that night.

“I don’t know, Tim’s surprising me.” Mya said as she decided to wear a black shirt instead.

“Mya, do you like being married?” It was something that Halle always wondered. She knew Mya loved her husband but sometimes it seemed to Halle that marriage was strangling her.

Mya paused what she was doing at the moment to answer her question. “I love my husband. I love being with my husband. I just guess when you love someone that much that’s what you do”

“So then, you don’t like being married?” Halle was confused by her answer.

“Its not that.” Mya came over to sit on the settee that Halle was sitting on. “Tim is my high school sweetheart. Those few years that we weren’t together were fun. I had a blast being single. But I missed him. As much as I loved being single I missed him. I love Tim more than I love being single, I think is what I’m getting at. I didn’t want to loose him again so I married him. Marriage has its ups and downs but I don’t want to be with anyone else. I want to have fun with my girls but I never, ever cheat on him.. I’m just a wild card that’s hard to tame. But I’ve become very tame. I put him through a lot and he puts up with a lot but in the end we both know that with each other is where we want to be. So we accept each other exactly the way that we are and we deal with it. I am not the perfect wife by any means but I think we love each other enough to over come that.”

“Mya, that was deep.” Halle tried to sound serious

“Ah, shut up, what are you doing tonight?”

“Probably go somewhere and get drunk.”

“Hmmm…. Why am I not surprised?”

 

 

Chapter Three:

One Too Many!

Tim looked at the clock, 6:30. He knew Mya had made it home somewhere around 3 because he heard her commotion when she was entering the house but she was not asleep next to him. Maybe she slept in the guest bedroom. He wondered. Mya did that sometimes but only when they were arguing over something. Since her last all night escapade the couple did not have any current issues to speak of. He got up to check. When he got up what he saw was a path that led to the gym. It started with her panties, then one shoe, another shoe, the skirt that she wore, and finally her top. Tim pushed open the gym door. On the floor by the treadmill was her bra. Lying face down and naked on the treadmill was his wife. Tim rapped on the door until she picked up her head. She looked up at him through mangled hair. “Wow, that looks comfy, need a pillow?”

“Oh fuck you.” Mya said before she put her head back down on the treadmill.

************************************************************************ Tim, Mya, and a couple of other friends had gathered together for drinks and then dinner. Brad’s contract work was over and he was moving back to Boston over the weekend. After the morning that Brad had given her a ride, Mya made an extra effort to get to know him better. He was a very nice person, just a little on the quiet side so it took a while for him to warm up to a new crowd of people. Halle had little time to worry about making him a new friend since she knew that he was moving soon. While she was grateful for the help he had given them that fateful morning Halle wasn’t about to become his new buddy.

Mya was pleased at the turnout of the crowd as there were about twenty people there. “I hope Halle shows up,” Mya whispered to Tim. She was nervous that Halle wouldn’t show at all and Mya had a hunch that Brad had a slight crush on her.

“I’m sure she’ll be here, she’s probably just running late.” Tim reassured her.

“Halle’s always on time, I’m the one that’s always late.” Mya reminded him.

“True but I’m sure she will make it.”

Halle was online checking her sports scores. She was a sports nut, although basketball and tennis were the two sports that she really kept her eyes on. She was a huge New York Knicks fan so it killed her to see them loose so much. It made her loose interest in the sport but she still kept checking. She had been working on small writing projects all morning and decided that it was time to check the mail. She was terrible at checking her mail and only checked it when she knew she would be receiving a DVD from Netflix.

Her mailbox was jam packed full when she got there. She began the weeding process of what was junk and what mattered. She found an envelope in there from the editor she had been working with on getting her book published. Could this be the dream advance that she had been waiting for? Excited she ripped the letter open on her front porch and scanned the document. All of her other mal fell to the floor.

Dear Miss Wilson……….we regret to inform you…….complications with editing your book……needs to be re-written with a stronger subject……….Halle couldn’t believe what she was reading. Her publisher had decided to not publish her book. This isn’t happening. Her dream felt like it was crashing around her. She began to panic. She decided not to tell Mya. Not yet anyway. She would be overly dramatic and Halle wasn’t sure if she wanted to deal with that at the moment. Her head ached. She sat on the couch and began rub her temples. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Everything she had worked towards for the last couple of months was gone. They simply thought that her book concept was not strong enough so they wanted a re-vamped version of the book. This could take months! she thought. More than anything her feelings were hurt. This was her life long dream and it seemed to be crashing down on her. It was bad enough that the rest of her life was mediocre but this was just too much for her. There really was only one thing that she could think of doing at this point.

“Halle, we’re over here!” Mya waved enthusiastically at her as she saw her standing at the entrance. Halle spotted her and walked over to the table.

“Hey everyone, what’s going on?” Halle said as she took her seat next to Brad. It was the only chair that was vacant. Mya must have done this. She thought as she took her seat.

“I was wondering when you would get here.” Brad said pleasantly to her. He was taken aback at how stunning she looked when she was dressed up. She work a black dress that fit her curves nicely. She was wearing a tad bit more makeup than she normally did and took great care in straightening her hair. “You look amazing.” he whispered to her.

“Thanks.” she said simply. Her goal of the evening was to try to forget what she read in the letter and just have a good time. In her moment of crisis she just wanted to forget what happened for the moment and think of a new game plan in the morning. So for now she was going to put on her smile and sit through this dinner for a person that she did not really care for.

She could see Mya giving her the “eye” about Brad. Halle looked at her with widened eyes as if to say, “I got it.” She could tell that everything about this day was going to be trying. She quickly ordered herself a drink. One drink turned to several. Mya noticed that she didn’t eat much and took her into the bathroom.

“Halle, is something wrong? You hardly touched your dinner.” Mya said as she inspected her makeup in the mirror.

“No I’m fine, just not feeling all that well today. I had a late lunch. Why did you sit me next to Brad?”

“Oh my gosh, doesn’t he look hot? Halle, he likes you. At least I think he does. He’s a good guy, he’s not like those stupid library guys you go out with.”

“Bookstore. Look, I just don’t think I’m interested in someone like him. He seems so snobbish.”

“He comes off that way but honestly I think he’s just shy. Besides he’s completely out of his element out here. Boston is totally different. Haven’t you noticed how rude those people are on subway there? Just try being nice to him tonight, its his last night.”

“Fine.” she said reluctantly. When Halle went back out there she made an effort to talk to Brad. “So, what did you think of Florida?”

“I like it here a lot actually. I’m thinking of moving here for good. This weather is too great. I mean its pretty bad in the summer but this fall weather is amazing. I can only imagine what winter is like.”

“its gray but it isn’t cold. I’m a baby when it comes to the cold. I don’t know how I lived all those years in Utah but I don’t think that I can ever go back to it.” she stated.

“You’re from Utah? I didn’t know that. I haven’t really met a lot of people from Utah.” Brad commented.

“That’s because no one wants to leave there. Its so beautiful and the people are kind and the streets are clean. People aren’t smoking nasty cigarettes everywhere you turn. The mountains are amazing there. I really miss it there.”

“It sounds like it. Why did you leave?”

“My dad’s job brought us here.” she explained.

“Oh, is all your family here?” Brad asked. Halle went on to explain that her parents relocated to Orlando from Utah 20 years ago. About eight years ago she moved herself from Orlando to Tampa. She was heavily into water sports so the beach and ocean convinced her that it would be a good move. Her older brother still lived with her parents while her younger sister moved to New York to enter a convent. Her parents were very strict Catholic, as her brother was a minister as well. She felt out of place when it came to her family and religion. She was not deeply religious and she heard complaints from her parents every time she visited. Her brother was very open and rarely lectured Halle on religion or anything in her life. He did that for a living so sometimes it was just nice to not preach to certain people.

Brad found her family history interesting as his family was Irish Catholic. He could relate to Halle on not feeling the same way about religion as her family did. He had the same type of situation with his parents as well. Halle learned that he came from a large family of four brothers and three sisters. She found it ironic that his original major when he entered Boston University was theology but switched to architecture his junior year.

“It just made more sense to me to build things up then people.” he explained. He had been working for a large architect company for years before he branched out on his own. It was easy for him to find jobs because it seemed like there was a building boom. Halle found out that he helped design a lot of important structures up North.

“Talking about architecture probably sounds really boring. What about your writing?” he asked.

“What about it? There’s nothing to tell really. I got a letter from my editor today stating that they weren’t going to publish the book until I had added more life to the story. So I’m pretty screwed on that end.” she blurted out. No one heard but Brad.

“I’m really sorry to hear that Halle. I have read some of the articles that you write for websites and I think you are a pretty good writer. I thought your date rape story was excellent.”

She was shocked to hear that he actually read articles that she wrote, “wow, thanks. I’m sure it takes everyone time to get published but its just frustrating to keep throwing your dream out there all the time and getting hurt every time that it comes back.

“I can understand that, must be difficult for you. I’m sure you’ll have your book up and published in no time though. You’re a smart girl, I can see that you have to potential to get it done.”

She found it odd that he was pumping her up so much. “thanks.” was all she said. The reminder of the situation made Halle’s need for alcohol consumption rise. She knew that she was an alcoholic and while it bothered her it never really spurred her to stop drinking. She proceeded to drink heavily for the rest of the night.

The crowd dwindled down slowly. Mya and Tim were the last of the crew with Halle and Brad. Brad offered to ensure Halle’s safe arrival home.

“Mya, Tim, thank you so much for everything you did tonight. It was wonderful getting to know you and all of your friends for the time that I’ve been here. I really do appreciate all that you did.”

“Oh Brad, it was my pleasure.” Mya replied graciously. “I am so glad that you enjoyed yourself. Don’t be a stranger, stay in contact!”

“No goodbyes, I’m sure we’ll see each other before I head out.”

“Will do goodnight guys.”

Since Halle was already drunk and Brad seemed like he was making his way there as well they decided to hit up another bar. In this bar they decided to let loose a little. They started to shot challenge each other. One shot led to one too many shots and they were not able to play a proper game of darts. Eventually they got cut off at the bar and it was time for them to go home.

Halle was in no condition to drive anywhere so Brad offered to take her home with the promise that he would take her to her car in the morning. She agreed to these terms but as she was too drunk to drive she was also to drunk to remember where she lived. After driving around aimlessly for about ten minutes Brad decided that she should sleep over his house and he would take her to her car in the morning.

“You know, Brad,” Halle said as he was helping her out of the car.

“What’s that Halle?” Brad asked after she didn’t respond. She seemed to be struggling with her thoughts.

“I always thought you were hot. You look like one of my soap opera man.” She was slurring her words badly and needed him to guide her into the house.

“Well, I always thought you were hot too but you’re always such a bitch to me, what’s up with that?” Brad was probably not the best person to be helping Halle as he was slurring and stumbling himself.

“I don’t know, you were new I guess. I’ve been friends with these guys for so long that I just don’t like change in my circle.” she stated.

“Oh so now that I’m leaving I’m in with you?” he asked.

“Yes! I approve now.” she said as if it mattered.

“Well, I feel very special now, I’m going to have to tell all of my friends. Maybe I’ll send a mass email out.” he was joking with her now.

“You should, subject: Halle’s New Friend.” she giggled as he attempted to open the lock. It was a poor attempt as he couldn’t get his keys to work, or something.

“I think I’ll just kick the door in.” he announced finally.

“Kick the door in? Why would you do that?” she wondered aloud.

“Because I cant figure out another way in and we’re drunk!” he exclaimed. Halle lost herself in laughter because for some reason that seemed like the funniest thing she had ever heard. “Stand back.” he said to her as he propped her against the house. With two swift kicks the door slammed open.

“Holy crap!” Halle said as she did not really believe that he was going to kick the door in.

“Open sesame!” he said in his most masculine voice possible.

“That’s freaking awesome. You’re a foot genius!” she said as they stumbled over the threshold together.

Rather than going to bed the two sat up on the couch and proceeded to drink even more alcohol, if that was actually possible. The more she drank, the more she liked Brad. She was actually kicking herself in the ass for not getting to know him better earlier. Well, at least she knew him now and he did say that he would like to move to Florida some day. She never realized how attractive he was. She always knew he was attractive but didn’t really think it. He was definitely a nice guy as well. She couldn’t believe how kind he had been to her all evening. She also couldn’t believe that he had a wonder sense of humor. He seemed so serious to her all the time so for him to see this lighter side of him helped to take down all the walls that she had built around him since they met.

“You can sleep in my room.” he said as he led her to it after they had reached the point of no return with their drinking. “its right over here.”

“Thanks. That’s rightly kind of you.”

“I’m a rightly kind kinda guy.” he smiled at her. She sat on the edge of the bed as he got her a tee shirt and he could see her making a poor attempt to take the buttons off the back of her dress. “let me help you with that.”

“No, no its fine I got it, really its fine.” she was saying as he started helping her get undressed. He was so close to her and he smelled really good. She finally lost her self control and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter: 4

The Morning After

She had to work at opening her eyelids the next morning. She felt like they were glued shut and it took a while for her to focus. A familiar scene ran through her head. “contacts still in” she thought. Her eyes burned as she rubbed them in hopes that the halos would lift from her view and she would be able to see again. Each painful blink brought her sights clearer. She turned her head right, the alarm clock said 8:13. The sun seemed to illuminate the room brighter than she was use to. wait a minute….this is not my night table…..where am I? she bolted upright in her bed, where are my clothes she thought as she frantically ran her hands over her naked body. “looking for something?” a male voice to her left said deeply. oh no….. she thought. With a sinking heart she ever so slowly turned to her left. She kept her eyes closed until she turned fully and what her eyes revealed was less than appealing at the moment. Brad Compton had the, “we had sex last night” look on his face as he grinned at her. Oh…..My…….God! She thought to herself. It showed on her face but Brad didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, care. What happened? WHAT HAPPENED!!!!” Halle was less than pleased

“you don’t remember?” he teased as he saw the look of confusion and shock wash over her features. “we had sex last night.”

“Yeah, I got that.” she said finally. Her breathe stunk of tequila. Dammit she thought, that damn tequila makes me do stupid shit all the time. “How did….how did this happen exactly.”

“Well I would have taken you home but you couldn’t remember where you lived.” he bounced out of bed and threw on some shorts, “the rest just kinda fell in place.”

“I see,” she muttered under her breathe. Forgetting where she lived was not something new for her. He walked out of the room, leaving the door open as he talked to her.

“Are you hungry? Want breakfast or something?” he asked. She could hear the refrigerator door open and close shut. “Orange juice maybe?”

“I’m fine.” She got out of the bed and like a mad women searched desperately for her clothing. She looked behind the pillows, under the sheets and all over the floor before she said, “umm…y-you wouldn’t happen to know where my clothes went do you?” She was so embarrassed asking that question. She had nothing to cover her as she searched for her clothing so when he popped his head back in the room she quickly grabbed a sheet for a poor attempt to cover herself.

“I washed them for you. You spilled your drink all over yourself. I guess you don’t remember that.” he looked oddly at her. “There really isn’t a reason to get all shy here. You were less than formal with me last night.”

“Yeah well this is this morning. So, do you think I can have those clothes back? I really do need to get going” she asked impatiently.

“There still drying. Would you like to borrow something of mine? I mean it wont really fit you but it will be good enough for a ride home.” he offered politely.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Do you mind?” she seemed completely awkward with the entire situation.

“No problem, I grab you some shorts and a tee shirt.: he went to gather the articles for her as she went into the bathroom to wash her face.

“Oh my god,” she whispered to herself. “I slept with Brad last night. Where’s my phone!” she hurried out of the bathroom to find her purse. She had several missed text messages from Mya. She opened one and hit reply.

I slept with Brad she typed then hit send. Almost immediate after her phone started ringing. She quickly hit ignore and typed back. I’m still at his house. Will call you and explain soon. Mya wrote back. OMG. “Yeah, no shit.’ she whispered under her breath.

“here are your clothes and I’m not looking, okay?” Brad had his hand over his eyes as he dropped the clothing by the door.

“Thanks.” she called out to him. She dressed quickly and headed into the other room. “I really appreciate you taking care of ….. Everything last night. I probably would have been in jail this morning, so thank you.”

She was walking towards the door and opened it. Brad looked at her oddly as he saw her walk towards the driveway. He waited a few moments for her to come back inside.

She smiled sheepishly as she asked, “I hate to ask you, but do you know where my car is?”

Brad laughed as he said, “we left it at the restaurant last night. I’ll take you to it.” he grabbed his keys and followed her out the door.

She felt ridiculous as she walked to the car in his boxers and tee shirt. After an awkward silence passed for a moment Brad spoke. “I’m really sorry you’re upset about this entire incident. I do want you to know that I had a really good time with you last night. All night, not just the sex part.”

She really didn’t know how to respond to that so she said, “its okay. I can’t tell you how many times I think that I shouldn’t have been that much but it happens. I know I’ve been less than gracious this morning, its just that….I don’t really do that a whole lot so it was just a little hard for everything to sink in. And quite honestly, I’m sorry that I don’t remember everything. I wish I could. But I did have a nice time too.”

“Well I’ll defiantly give you a call sometime when get home. I’ll be sure to visit you next time I’m down here.” he offered.

“That sounds like a plan,” she said. Although she made her grand statement to him she was still in shock from the evenings events. Brad Compton was just not someone that she thought she would have wound up in bed with. She had gone on dates with good looking, successful men just like him but didn’t wind up with the same results. She wondered what had come over her that night that made her bold enough to sleep with him. It was something that she would never be able to know.

He dropped her off at her car and after an little wave they parted ways. As soon as she got in her car she called Mya.

“Oh my God,” Mya started, “what happened to you last night?”

“Holy shit, I don’t know. One minute we’re playing darts at a dive bar and the next I’m waking up in his bed. Everything is kind of fuzzy after that.”

“Oh my God, so you don’t even know if it was good? That blows.”

“I haven’t had sex in weeks and the one time I do with a total hot guy I cant even remember it. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Whatever he is so into you. He paid attention to you all night long and then he wanted to hang out with you after.”

“And the result was us having sex, he knew that would happen.”

“When you didn’t get back to me last night I got worried. I thought you were in jail or something so I checked for you at whosinjail.com and you weren’t there. So after that, I figured you were at his house. Damn girl, leave it to you to sleep with the hottest guy in the planet and have no recollection of it.”

“Tell me about it. This really sucks. I’m seriously never drinking like that again.”

“Halle, honey, you say that every time you drink a lot. Its okay, we all do it and we all still love you just the way you are. Some people do drugs, we drink. Its our thing, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, what if I had wound up with someone that isn’t half as nice as he was?”

“Good point, but right now I’m more interested in what you said about him being nice to you. See? I told you he likes you.”

“Maybe he does but he’s moving this weekend so its not like it matters anymore.”

“You need to start listening to me. I have a knack for these things. Dammit, I gotta go, Tim just got home and he’ll flip out if he sees me sitting on the couch.” Mya’s husband didn’t really like anyone sitting on their couch for some reason. Mya often wondered why they had it in the first place.

“Well call me later then.” Halle said as she hung up the phone. She couldn’t go through this crisis of sleeping with Brad without Mya.

When Brad got back home his cousin Rico was up and sitting on the couch. “hey,” he said as he plopped down on the opposite end.

“So you banged Halle Wilson last night huh?” Rico said without taking his eyes off the sports program that he was watching.

Brad looked at him bewildered. He had no idea how he knew about it. “How did you know?”

“Jesus Christ you kicked the door in when you came home. You guys were really fucking loud. I came down and I checked to see what the hell was happening. I’ve been trying to bang that girl for two years but she wont do it. How the hell did you do it?” Rico asked in wonderment.

“You know, I don’t want to talk about her like that. She’s a really nice girl and I like her so no disrespect. I had a great time with her and let’s leave it at that.” Brad said firmly.

“Well, she’s a hottie. She’s even hotter than your hot doctor wife.” Rico said.

“Soon to be ex wife. The lawyer is sending out the papers to her in Africa next week when I get home. After that, I am married no more.” Brad sounded relieved as he said the words.

“You guys have been separated for a really long time now right?” Rico questioned.

Brad was uncomfortable talking about his estranged wife. “Almost two years. She’s been in Africa for so long that it’s like she doesn’t even exist sometimes. God, she was a bitch.”

“No kidding. That’s what you get for falling for that chick so fast. Don’t do it again. Especially don’t do it with Halle. She’s the girl player man, she’s not into boyfriends and all that drama.” Rico advised.

“Really?” Brad asked, “you think she’s like that?”

“No buddy, I know she’s like that. She’s an okay chick, fun to talk to, I mean she’s really into sports and everything, but she’s like one of the guys you hang out with, not one of the girls you date. She’s great, she’s just more into guys for friendships rather than boyfriends.”

“Gay?”

“No, we all thought that for a while. She had a real jack-ass boyfriend a while back. So now she’s like the dude of chicks. I don’t really know all the details but she is a friend of mine and I do know her well. It’s just my advice.” Rico said as he changed the channel.

Brad thought on that some. He had been hurt badly in his marriage and wasn’t interested in getting to know a girl for silly dating. He had watched Halle for months and he was defiantly interested in knowing her better. But he didn’t want to get hurt again. He took the matchbook she had written her number on for him at the bar and tossed it in the trash.

“So why did you kick the door in anyway?” Rico asked.

“Couldn’t figure out how my keys worked. I guess I knew how my feet worked better.”

“You dumb ass. Did you know that the door was unlocked?”

“Good God.” Brad said as he rolled his eyes thinking how foolish he had been about the door and Halle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Five:

 

One day, Tim and Mya got into a very heated argument. Tim was firmly against Mya going to fantasy fest in Key West with her entire lot of male friends and Halle. Normally he would accompany her but this year he was more than swamped at the salon and couldn’t get away. Mya always liked to get her way so this was a subject that was leading to her divorce.

“If you don’t trust me anymore Tim I just don’t know what to say. After everything that we have gone through over the years, I’m shocked!” Mya yelled loudly.

“I keep quiet about a lot of stuff but this time I think you’re going to far!” Tim shouted right back.

“I will go far, far away from here!” she grabbed her purse and marched outside, not forgetting to slam the front door good and hard. She was about to get into her car when she saw one of her neighbors outside. It was around nine pm and the October weather was nice enough that everyone wanted to stay outside.

“Problems in paradise?’ her neighbor Fran called from across the street. Fran was not Mya’s favorite neighbor. When she first moved into the neighborhood the women invited her over for tea, which she replied that it would have to be a long island tea if she was going. They laughed it off and while she was there Fran made a horrid comment to her.

“We decided that we are just like the desperate housewives. And since we are we picked you to be the one that whores around.”

Mya looked directly into her eyes and said, “I’m honored. Did you decide this because your husband wants to fuck me?” The two women had not gotten along since.

Fran was not at her house this night though. She was at Becky‘s house, their other neighbor that Mya actually liked. “Oh you know, we’re just having one of those blow outs.”

“Why don’t you stop over for a drink? We can chat about it.” Becky insisted.

“I was just heading home myself but I’ll catch up with you girls another time.” Fran said.

After this discovery Mya accepted the invitation and walked across the street to her neighbor’s house. Becky and Robert were very nice people. They had a tiki bar by their pool and decided to go back there for a few. A few for Mya turned into more than two and before you know it they invited a few more people over and everyone was jumping into the pool. After a few hours of this Mya had decided that she had tortured her husband enough. She drunkenly put her clothing back on walked across the street home. When she got home undressed and hopped into bed with her husband.

Tim cuddled up to her and said, “I’m sorry for being so angry earlier. I don’t know what got into me. If you want to go to Key West with your friends its fine by me. I love you sweetie.”

“Thank you dear, I love you too.” Mya said as she wrapped her arms around him. She knew that all he needed was some time to cool off and think about things.

“Honey,” Tim asked innocently, “why is your hair wet?”

************************************************************************

For the past few months Halle had devoted her time into her work. She threw herself into her book again, hoping that the re-vamped version would be more appealing to her publisher. She had been doing better working on some online magazines and other web-writing. The constant work flow was helping her out greatly. She had also cut back tremendously on her drinking. She did not want another one night stand incident to ever happen like that again. She wasn’t surprised to not hear from Brad Compton in the least bit. She had told Mya time and time again that he looked at that night as a mere one night stand and it really didn’t matter to him much since he had moved away. Mya still thought that there was something more between them although Halle firmly disagreed.

Halle also stopped dating. The girl player comment had really made her stop and realize what she had been doing for the past few years. She used these men that she casually saw as a way to fill a void of loneliness in her heart. So, since she was not interested in any of the men that she met, she spent more time at home. Even though she never worked up to cooking for herself, it was nice for her to stay home and focus on her writing. The more she concentrated on her writing the more money she made and the happier she felt about things. She finally felt that her life was falling into the right place for once. She couldn’t have been happier.

She also did something that was rather shocking. She started going to church again. It wasn’t an every week type of thing but when she got into the mood she would take a drive out to her parents on a Sunday and listen to her brother preach. She loved her brother and thought that he was an extraordinary minister. A lot of the things that he preached about were things that she was dealing with in her own life. She loved the way he got eccentric when he spoke of things like the government and health insurance companies. When he got angry like that she sometimes wondered if he had dipped into the sacramental wine too much.

Seeing her parents more often was something that she should have been doing anyway. She never stopped seeing them it was more than when her life was a little unstable she felt embarrassed by her situation as she always liked to impress her parents. She came from a very strict home so it wasn’t shocking to know that she moved out early on to live her own life. Her father was very particular about where she went, who she was going with, and so on. She did not feel that she had to answer to him much as an adult. This had caused a strain on their relationship but time heals all wounds. Her father had grown into an old softie and they understood each other more now that she was older a slightly wiser.

She loved going to her parent’s house because her mother was a fabulous cook. One thing that she did notice from going there more often was that she was starting to gain weigh in a way that she really didn’t wanted to. Because of this she started going to the gym more frequently then what she had in the past, which also made her happier. Working out a lot more had caused her body to change in different ways. She could feel her mood changing also.

As a child, Halle had been constantly sick. Her parents thought it was a nightmare to try to take her on car rides. If she drove, she became motion sick and was guaranteed to throw up. She outgrew her motion sickness but she was still immune to being sick often. If she ate anything that was not well done she would find herself upchucking it all up again the next day. Surprisingly, alcohol never gave her this affect. This time she thought she had some type of stomach flu. She knew one had been going around and she had been throwing up for a few days in a row.

“Oh my God, you’re pregnant.” Mya was saying to her over the phone after she explained that she had been getting sick for a few days.

“What? No, you have to have sex to get pregnant. I always get like this.” Halle said, unconcerned.

“Dude, you’re fucking pregnant. Its not normal to be a constant visitor to your toilet bowl, no matter what end its coming out of.” Mya declared.

“You’re crazy, you just—”

Mya interrupted, “when was the last time you had your period?”

Halle had to stop and think for a second. She honestly had not even thought about it. “Oh, I don’t know, I guess…I guess it has been a while.” She began to wonder.

“You totally slept with that Brad guy before he moved remember? Did you use a condom?” Mya panicked.

“I–I can’t remember. I would hope that Brad would use a condom. He’s a pretty responsible guy.”

“Have you had sex since then?”

“No, that was the last time. I’ve been keeping to myself these days.” Halle informed her.

“Well that’s good, at least you’ll know who the father is.”

“Mya, I’m not pregnant, just a little sick. My body goes through phases where I skip, its really nothing to worry about.”

“Well, do me a favor then, will you PLEASE take a pregnancy test.”

“What? Fine, I’ll take four of them if you’d like. There is no way God is giving someone like me a kid. I kill fish for Christ’s sake.”

“That would be a tragedy indeed.”

“If I’m pregnant my baby is suffering from alcohol poisoning.”

“God help us.” Mya thought as she grabbed her purse to find some pregnancy tests to take to her friend.

She picked up four different brands, just to be absolutely sure. While she was in the store she heard a voice behind her.

“Hey Mya, I didn’t know you and Tim were trying for a baby, that’s great!” Mya turned to see Rico standing there.

Before she thought about it she laughed as she blurted, “oh hell no, these aren’t for me.” After Mya said it she closed her eyes. Rico would know who they would be for.

He didn’t make a comment, just looked at her carefully and said, “well you take care, tell Halle I said hey too.”

“Will do,” Mya said as she walked away.

Rico went up the isle of the store and quickly dialed a number on his phone. Brad picked up the other end.

“You’re not going to believe who I saw buying a pregnancy test…..” he began.

Mya did not inform Halle of seeing Rico in the store. Instead she had Halle take every single test by urinating in a plastic cup and dipping each test in. To not build up anxiety they locked the tests in the bathroom and waited in Halle’s bedroom for two minutes. Mya decided that she would be the person to read the results. Halle really seemed less than worried and Mya couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t taking it more seriously.

“Because I’m not pregnant, this is seriously normal for me.” Halle defended herself.

“Oh my God, YOU’RE PREGNANT!” Mya yelled from the bathroom. Halle ran into the bathroom in disbelieve.

“This isn’t happening,” she muttered. Halle looked at Mya’s horrified face. All the test results came back positive.

“See,” Mya explained, “this one shows two lines if your pregnant. This one either shows pink or white, this one shows a different dot in a different place and this one actually says yes or no.”

“Yeah, thanks for home pregnancy test 1.0.1.” Halle was in shock. “I cant be pregnant. Mya, I cant be pregnant, I cant have a baby. I cant even have a dog. My mom thinks I’d starve a dog. My mom, holy shit, my parents will flip. If I‘m pregnant then my kid is already dying of alcohol poisioning” Halle’s head hurt. It all still didn’t seem to make sense with her. “One night of unprotected sex and a baby with some guy that I don’t even know where he lives.”

“Well, its not like you’re going to keep the varmint.” Mya said matter of fact tone. “Just go get it taken cared of. There is no way someone like you can have a kid on this planet. That just doesn’t make sense. Tim and I both don’t want kids, I know you don’t want kids. You kill your fish after all.” Mya reminded her.

“Yeah, yeah I guess you’re right. But you know, sometimes those tests aren’t always right—-“Halle began.

“Halle, you’re pregnant. These tests are wrong by saying you’re not pregnant, not by saying you are.” Mya confirmed.

“I am not trusting my fate on some stick in my bathroom made out of plastic that I pissed on. I need confirmation. I need proof.”

“What kind of proof?” Mya asked, “the kid kicking you from within? They do that after they grow bigger.”

“No, I’m going to the doctor. He will be able to tell me if I’m actually pregnant.” Halle decided.

“Oh, okay, lets go have the doctor tell you what you already know. You’re pregnant.” Mya insisted.

“I am not pregnant okay? You’ll see, its just a misunder-pissing. I am not pregnant.”

“Congratulations!” The doctor said after he returned into the room with Halle’s test results in his hand. “You’re pregnant!” The old, balding doctor had a cheery smile on his face that quickly vanished after he saw the look of disbelief on Halle’s.

Halle closed her eyes in horror. Mya was sitting on the waiting chair in the room with her. Everything about the room irked Halle. The table, the robe, the extra happy doctor, and none of it was making sense to her there was no way that she could have possibly been pregnant. “Are you 100% sure about this doctor? Like, is there any margin for error here.”

The doctor had been Halle’s doctor for years and he knew that she was always ultra paranoid over things that she didn’t have any control over. In this situation however, he knew that Halle had control over the outcome. He couldn’t figure out why she would not have been smarter if she was this upset about being pregnant. “There is margin for error in everything that we do but I think that in this situation I can guarantee that you are in fact pregnant.”

Halle looked as though her head hurt her. She kept rubbing the middle of her forehead as if that somehow was going to make the news erase from her mind. “I’m pregnant. Doctor, do you think my baby is dying of alcohol poisoning?“ She said finally.

The doctor looked at her a little bewildered, “I think as long as you take it easy for the rest of your pregnancy you should be fine.”

“Well doctor, thank you, I need to go home and sort this out in my head but I will be back to see you soon.”

She slipped off the table and began to dress herself after the doctor left the room. She really was in shock. Mya said nothing because she knew that Halle was very confused at this point and needed a moment to think.

Halle took a deep breathe. “Mya, Mya, I’m pregnant.”

“Oh sweetie, its okay. These things happen.” Mya said as she wrapped her arms around her and held her tight Halle knew that she would never be able to make it through this if it wasn’t for the friendship that she shared with Mya.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered into Mya’s hair.

“Let’s get out of here, we will talk about it in the car.” Mya said. When they got to the car they spoke little about the subject. Halle seemed very distant and just looked out the window as Mya drove. “Let’s stop and get you something to eat. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

“I’m fine.’ Halle said softly. She was not teary eyed but she looked like she would be at some point. Mya didn’t want to push her.

“Mya, I think I just need a minute to be alone. I’ll call you later. Thank you so much for bringing me home and everything that you’ve done. Just….I need a minute.” Halle seemed dazed.

“Don’t explain, I get it, call me later.” Mya said and gave Halle a big hug before she walked back to her car.

Halle came into her house and sat on the couch. The couch sunk in around her cozily. She put her feet up and closed her eyes. Mya was Halle’s best friend, closest confidante, she knew that she could tell her anything and they had always been there for each other through the years. One very big difference between them was as much as Halle did not want to have children she did not think that having an abortion was an option for her. Abortions were something that Halle, on a personal level, didn’t agree with. When Halle’s mother was carrying her the doctors suggested that she be aborted as she was a health risk to her mother. Her mother didn’t, however, and the product of that abortion not happening was her life. She just couldn’t bear the thought of not giving her child a chance in life because she wasn’t responsible enough to take care of it. That didn’t seem like a good enough excuse to her. She knew that whatever decision she made she would have to make it on her own.

After two days of Halle, “thinking on her own,” Mya decided that it was time for her to break Halle free of her solitude. In all the years that they had been friends they had not gone this long without talking to each other. It was a little off-balancing for Mya because, she really did not have any other friends that she could relate to as much as Halle.

It was an awkward meeting so Mya decided to take them to have a drink. It always seemed to work in the past.

“I’ll have a lemonade.” Halle asked the bartender when they were seated. The bartender, John, who knew Halle well, and Mya both looked a little stunned at Halle.

“I guess you’re going to drive you to your parent’s house today?” John asked. This was the only perfectly good reason he could think of as to why Halle would order something so light.

“Yeah, something like that.” Halle said in an attempt to shrug him off. Mya still looked a little confused at her.

“You’re thinking about keeping this baby?” Mya asked after she saw her friend refuse a drink.

Halle looked down for a moment. “I–I don’t know what I’m going to do. What I do know at this point is that if I do keep this baby it is probably dying from alcohol poisoning.”

Mya considered this truth. “So, what is the problem?
Halle answered a little on the annoyed side. “The problem is Brad. We both got into this together and we will get out of it together or work it out together or whatever. This is his choice too.” Mya could not believe what was coming out of Halle’s mouth. “I know you don’t agree with me on this Mya but it is our decision. What if he has been dreaming of having children and feels very strongly against abortion. What if…what if this is exactly what I need in my life to turn it around?”

“What’s wrong with your life?” Mya asked, She seemed to be missing the entire concept.

“My life is lonely. As much as I like to think that dating every guy I ever meet is exciting, it’s not. When I come home at the end of the day I am greeted by dead fish because I am not capable of staying home and taking care of anything, mainly myself. Maybe if I’m forced to take care of this person, to love this person, things will change for me.”

“So you’re not getting an abortion?” Mya was still conflicted by what her friend was saying to her.

“I’m saying, I’m going to ask Brad what he thinks of all of this before I do anything.” Halle stated.

Mya wanted to argue here but she knew that her friend was in a delicate state of mind. “I have his number if you need it.”

Halle paused for a moment. “I don’t think that I want to call him.”

Mya thought for a moment then said, “Halle, email would suck at this point. Even I think that it would be harsh.”

Halle couldn’t believe Mya at this point, “I want to go to Boston Mya, I want to tell him face to face.”

Mya couldn’t bear it anymore, “What? Okay, I’ve been biting my tongue for a minute here but now I have to say it. This is insane. You thinking you might want to keep this thing, and now you want to fly to Boston to talk to some guy that you don’t even know about how he feels about having a baby with you after having one night of drunken sex. Does any of this sound logical.”

“Baby!” Halle declared, “it’s not a thing, it’s a baby, its my baby Mya, don’t you understand? This child has been growing inside me for months now, I cant forget that. I see fathers all the time forced into paying child support for kids they didn’t intend on having. There are also fathers that never get to see their kids or even know that they had the opportunity to have one. All I’m saying right now is that I want him to know and I want his input. I want to see his face when I tell him that I’m pregnant. This is my decision and its final.”

Mya felt horrible but couldn’t help but telling her friend exactly what she thought. “Are you sure about this really? This is really what you want to do? This might hurt you more than help you.”

“I know, I know but I think maybe I need to be hurt a little bit by this. I just…I think it’s best. I have never imagined having a child so this whole thing is so weird to me. Now I’ve got it and I need to figure out what to do, what I want, what’s best for all of us.” Halle had gone over this scenario in so many ways in her head that she could answer Mya’s doubts in no time.

Being the good friend that she was Mya’s heart softened a tad. “If this is what you want then let’s get you ready to head to Boston. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can decide what you want to do. I wish I could come with you but I can’t, I’m really busy with work. But, you text and call me every step of the way.”

“Done.” Halle said. She felt like she finally got her friend back after the days she spent being confused without her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Six:

Good Morning Boston!

Brad Compton was an early riser. He liked to get an early start on his business day so that he could end his work at around four o’clock. He worked out of his home, except if he was meeting a client somewhere. This particular morning he decided to work out early, grab a quick shower, and work from his home office in gym clothes. It was something that he typically did. This morning was no different than any other morning that he had when he worked out of his Bostonian home. Being a large construction architect placed him in several large cities for long periods of time. He typically spent three or four months of the year in his home, and the rest of the time he spent staying in hotels across the country. It wasn’t something that he particulary liked considering that it was one of the many reasons that his marriage failed.

Brad was a work aholic. He loved to work. It was something that was calming to him in a way that he couldn’t describe. All he knew was that he was in the profession that he loved. He made his home office as office friendly as possible, so that he did not feel that he was at home. He had a great view of……….

He had been working for a few hours before he noticed that it was noon. He decided that a protein shake would be the easiest route for a lunch for him as for today he did not have a lunch meeting. It greatly surprised him to have his doorbell ring in the middle of the day, as he normally did not get unannounced house calls.

He went downstairs curious to know who would be meeting him mid-day. He rushed down and unlocked the door and was completely shocked to see Halle Wilson standing right in front of him.

“Hi Brad, I know that this seems odd….” Halle began. Brad had never seen her look so stunning. She had make-up on and was dressed in a very simple, flowered patterned dress. It seemed out of character for her, know who she was, but it was very attractive.

“Halle, wow, hey, how are you?” Brad was completely shocked. She was the last person in the world that he thought that would have randomly appeared on his porch. He had thought of her often in the days that he had left Florida and couldn’t believe that he was actually talking to her.

“I know this is out of left field…” she began.

“Oh my gosh, where are my manners, please, Halle come in.” he led her into his house and was more confused than she every was.

He led her to his living room. She observed his home and thought it was amazing, although she was not surprised. Brad seemed like he was always a very well kept man and she assumed that tradition would carry on into his home. All of the furniture in the living room was dark brown leather along with modern dark tables. She liked the room, it seemed very cosy.

“So, can I get you anything?” he seemed nervous.

“Well, I’d love a water, thanks.” He left the room to get her a bottled water. Halle rose from her chair to look out the window and take in the view. She had been to Boston before and thought it was an amazing city. She did not seem that she would have any problem living in a city like Boston, although she did not like cold weather.

“Here you are.” he said when he returned with the water. She unscrewed the top and took a swig as he sat down.

“I guess you’re in town visiting, how did you find out where I lived?” Brad wondered.

“I looked you up online.” she said absently. She still was looking out the window when she blurted out, “I came here to tell you I’m pregnant.”

Brad looked a little confused as she turned to face him. “Well congratulations Halle, I’m sure you will make a great mom.”

He didn’t realize what she was saying to him until she faced him. Her face was nervous as she gave him a weak smile. “Congratulations to you too I guess. You’re the father.”

Brad could not comprehend what she was saying to him. There just was no way on earth that he could think that he was the father of her baby. “Are you serious? Are you sure?”

Halle was a little annoyed but she could understand where he was coming from. “I know what you’re thinking and believe me I would be thinking the exact same thing as you would. But yes, I’m sure. You’re the father.”

Brad rose from his chair and took a deep breath. Since he began pacing nervously Halle decided that maybe she needed to sit down. He ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to find an answer. Finally he said, :”so what are your plans then? What are your intentions coming here.”

Halle had gone through ever scenario in her head as to how this was going to turn out but none if them prepared her for the nervous feeling she was getting in her stomach. “Well, that’s why I came here. I wanted to talk to you about it. Brad, we were not a couple and I barely know your first name. Sure you have been around me for a few years but I have no idea who you are and what you want out of life. I came here because I want to know what you want. I want this to be a decision that we both make considering that whatever way this turns out it affects both of us.”

Brad sat down again. It seemed like he had a sudden headache. He rubbed his hand across his forehead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The car ride was awkward. Mya, thankfully, sat in the front seat. The fact that she recalled where they parked the car was a good sign. Brad didn’t say much although he seemed rather humored over the even. They thanked him politely as they got out of the car. Halle was confused by this man. He normally did not say much to her in general and had never been nice to her. She came to the conclusion that he was doing a favor for Mya, since he did always seem friendly to her.“I’m sorry I didn’t notice that there was anything in there. And I have to run out and get some creamer anyway so I’d be happy to take you back to your car.”