She looked up and we stared at each other. I felt like I was going to fucking cry too, and I blinked away the tears angrily.
“There you go, there’s a good girl,” I muttered, and she sighed.
It was those two words, and they worked like magic. She loved being a good girl.
She was still breathing heavily, but slowly calming down; slowly coming down from it.
“You’re such a good girl,” I told her sweetly. “Look at me, Sapphire. Do you want to know a secret?”
She looked up and her chest rose and fell as she nodded, whimpering those delicious sounds that made me want to fuck her, even if she thought she was a mess.
“Sapphire,” I breathed. “My name is Felix.”
She let out a sob and clung to me and I kept repeating it, stripping away the only shred of anonymity I had left.
“My name is Felix…”Thirty-SevenPetOne week later
It felt weird, sitting in a bar with him and Maria. It felt like a new chapter when I hadn’t even closed the last book yet.
I tried to come to terms with it and pretend it didn’t feel weird, but I think all three of us knew it was awkward, though none of us said it out loud.
“Let’s get another round,” Maria said, jumping up and heading to the bar without asking what we wanted. Not like I could get what I wanted, anyway. The only reason I’d gotten into the bar was she’d begged the bouncer until he grudgingly let us drink, and told me I’d be flat out on my butt if he saw me with an alcoholic drink. So, Coke it was, while the two of them chugged down their drinks.
She left me sitting there with him… I couldn’t get used to calling him by his name. Yes, I’d used it a couple of times, but it felt so strange, really like we were completely different, new people.
And I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a new person just yet. I liked being Pet… a lot.
Neither of them had called me by that nickname in a week, and I figured it meant they were trying to make me move on. But it felt scary.
I hadn’t been feeling great. It had been two weeks since I’d left that apartment, since King had decided he wanted nothing else to do with me.
The memory of what happened was still fresh in my mind, even though I tried to remember the good things, not the bad things. But I couldn’t forget completely, and I couldn’t bring myself to forgive him, either. What he’d done was terrible. The doctor told me I was lucky as hell Felix was there as I could’ve gotten hurt much worse. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to admit how badly I’d let King hurt me.
Truth be told, he’d been pushing me from the start. I just didn’t realize how far he was willing to take the whole thing.
“Hey, Earth to Sapphire.”
I looked up into his eyes.
I wasn’t the only one staring.
He was one of those guys that just made girls stare. I knew several of them had noticed him when we walked in, and I felt a prick of jealousy when it happened. But he only had eyes for me, and it almost made me feel a little guilty. Almost.
“I’m here,” I smiled, and he grinned at me as he downed his drink.
“Doesn’t feel like it,” he said. “Come on, try and have some fun with us. It’s good that you’re finally out of the apartment, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I guess. It’s nice seeing Maria.”
“She’s happy to see you,” he nodded. “Try to enjoy tonight. There’s another day tomorrow when you can feel as fucking miserable as you want.”
I laughed out loud just as Maria returned with our drinks.
“She lives!” she grinned. “A laugh! What did you do, drug her?”
I giggled as she set down my Coke, spilling some over the edge. She was definitely a little tipsy, and for some reason, it put me in a better mood. I liked Maria a lot, and I was so happy it looked like she wasn’t about to sever our friendship because I’d broken up with King.
I guess that’s what it really was… A breakup. As non-traditional as our relationship had been, it was now firmly over.
He hadn’t called once, and I didn’t dare ask Felix if he’d contacted him. I saw the way he reacted every time I brought King up. He hated talking about him.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “Let’s have some fun tonight. I’m sick of sitting at home and worrying.”
A look of disbelief passed between Felix and Maria and I glared at them.
“How about a little confidence in what I say?” I asked them in mock embarrassment, and they both laughed. “You know I can still have some fun, right? It’s not like somebody died.”