“Hey, I warned you to the best of my ability. I even let you know about the picture she sent me.”
His face fell at my mention of the picture. “That picture of her sucking cock? It wasn’t a picture of my cock. I don’t know what she sent you, but it wasn’t a picture of her and me. I did not let her anywhere near my dick even though she offered. Several times.” He grimaced. “I really wish you hadn’t deleted it so I could take a look.”
When we’d met for lunch a few weeks ago James had been adamant about no sex with Janice that night. I’d deleted the picture mere minutes after Janice sent it, so there was no way to verify whatever twisted plotting she was up to. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t think it through in the heat of the moment. I just wanted to cut ties with her, and then warn you before I got rid of the evidence. Maybe it wasn’t you in the picture. Maybe I just assumed it was because I knew she was with you when she sent it to me. I didn’t analyze the fucking thing.”
“You know what they say about assuming things, Caleb?”
“Yeah. I made an ass out of you and me. Sorry about that. My heart was in the right place though—I thought of your dad and didn’t want it to blow up on you . . .” I let that ominous cloud of paternal doom descend for a moment before deflecting. “How wasted were you?”
His eyes narrowed at the mention of his father. The judge. James’s relationship with his dad was about as warm and cozy as mine was with my mother. “On my fucking ass, apparently, because I don’t remember much about the preliminary activities that led to her showing up at my place,” he said bitterly.
“I broke up with her after we came back from the American Cancer Society benefit and she went ballistic. By the time she left the penthouse, she’d given me the black eye and trashed my bathroom like something out of fucking Fatal Attraction.”
James dropped his head and shook it back and forth. “She told me about that, I remember now. She went to town on the bathroom, thinking of things to do to mess with your head. Like toothpaste on the walls, and towels in the toilet, and destroying a whole box of condoms. Which sucks, because the good ones are expensive.”
Destroyed condoms? “Janice didn’t mess with the condoms. I checked the cupboard where I keep them and the box hadn’t been touched.”
“Well, that’s good then . . .” He trailed off and tilted his head as if he was trying to remember. James had a really good memory, too, even while under the influence, so I tended to believe him when he said something important. And this was fucking important.
“James, what did Janice say?”
“She said she hated you, and that you would be sorry you ever fucked her over. Then she told me about trashing your bathroom and all the shit she did in there, and how much fun she had doing it. She said she wished she could see your face when you found out what she did to ruin your life.”
“She said that? Janice said she was ruining my life?” Something wasn’t right here with this story. “James, bro, you have to remember for me. A minute ago—why did you say she destroyed a box of condoms?”
James rubbed his head with the tips of his fingers. “Because—she said she did, Caleb. She told me about using a pin or a brooch from her dress and how she poked holes in them—”
Oh, my God. That is exactly the kind of psycho shit Janice would do, too. The bitch put them back in the box all neat and tidy so I wouldn’t suspect.
I jumped up from the chair in his office and grabbed the copies. “Bro, I’m glad I stopped in here today, but I gotta go. Thanks for the intel on Patten so far. Keep digging.” I nodded to the file on his desk and left him sitting there still rubbing his head looking disturbed.
As I waved good-bye to Mrs. Kennedy, I remembered the wisdom in keeping up to date with one’s friends.
You never know what important news they might have to share with you.
Jesus. Christ.
I had Isaac drive me straight from my meeting with James back to the penthouse. Ann had already cleaned the bedroom, and the trash was long gone down into the bowels of the building’s incinerator most likely, so I couldn’t check the condoms I’d used last night. I went for the box and emptied it out onto the counter. The packages were black so it wasn’t easily noticeable, but when held to the light, there were holes dead center in about three-quarters of them. Not ev
ery condom had been pierced, but a lot of them had.
I started opening condoms and filling them with water from the sink. Drip, drip, drip, right through the tips of the ones that had been poked. Janice, you fiendish cunt.
Well, fuck.
This was not good news.
I should probably tell Brooke, and I was fucking livid at my freak of an ex-girlfriend.
The more I thought about it, though, the more certain I was about not telling Brooke. It was a sordid tale of the twisted person I’d been with right before I met her, as well as the sleazy life I’d been living. I knew Brooke would be repulsed by all of it. But most of all, I was ashamed for Brooke to see me in such a horrible light. She always thanked me for being a gentleman, and I loved that she thought well of me. I was afraid to lose that earned respect in her eyes.
I rationalized the facts. I’d used five of the condoms from this box—four last night and one this morning. If I went with the seventy percent rule, three point five of them were damaged when I used them. But my selection had been totally random when they were spilled around the bathroom and later returned to the box, so it could have been more like two damaged condoms out of the five. Without the actual ones to inspect, I couldn’t be sure. What were the odds Brooke was even in the fertile time of her cycle? She might already be on birth control for all I knew. We hadn’t discussed it yet.
So, if there was some leakage, it still wasn’t like I’d come inside her bare. A few drops max. I hadn’t noticed any leaks when I removed them, but then I didn’t pay too close attention, either, because sex is always messy, and you just want to get the damn thing off your cock as quickly as possible.
I hate this.
But I loved Brooke.