This time my tears are of joy.
Chapter Eight
I pour
myself a scotch neat. Any day now it will end, is what I’m telling myself when it comes my attraction to Holly Messina. It has to. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m in my right mind. I’ve never gone out of my way to be cruel to a woman. Yet, I am to Holly, for no other reason than I resented the fuck out of my attraction to her. An attraction she knew nothing about and wasn’t trying to entice. At this point, I’m pretty sure if I came near her she’d answer me with violence, which is what I fucking deserve. None of what I’m putting her through is her fault. I need to get my shit together and stop. Hurting her isn’t just wrong, it’s having a crazy fucking effect on me and I don’t like it.
The word ambivalent doesn’t fit how I feel about Holly more. She cleans and cooks better than any other woman I’ve had in my home. She isn’t afraid to tell me to fuck off and has made her disdain of me more than a little obvious. Why it makes her appealing, I have no fucking idea. What I do know is she doesn’t deserve the shit I’ve said. If I don’t want to lose her as a housekeeper, and my sister’s respect, I need to check myself. Because, as crazy as she’s making me, my skin fucking tightens at the thought of her walking away.
I finish my scotch with a painful swallow. While I’m considering a repeat, the pounding on my door startles me. Amelia is calling my name, clearly distraught. I’m at the door in seconds. She nearly falls into my arms. “You have to help her! You have to, Ethan. Right now, go get her out of that horrible place. Please, whatever you want me to do I’ll do, if you just get her out of there.”
Picking her, up I take her back to sofa. I have no doubt who she is talking about. “Amelia, sweetheart, calm down. In plain English I need you tell me what the matter is, and how you expect me to fix it.”
“I took Holly shopping tonight, that’s where I was when you called me. Since there were more bags than she could handle herself, I took them up to her apartment and, oh, my god! I could hear two men and a woman having sex—all the way down the hall!
“Her roommate is some sort of sex addict who brings random people into their apartment and has sex with them everywhere. It’s clear she hates living there. Please, let her live here. You have an empty room. Don’t let her spend another night there.”
Fuck! I had been figuring out how to get out of it as I carried Amelia to the couch. Now I’m reaching for my phone to call Ricky, letting him know I need him back at my place. The idea of Holly living in a situation like that is stomach turning. There was a hint of sensuality to her that made me sure she was no virgin. Yet, she carried an innocence, almost ignorance, of her sexual appeal that also made it clear she didn’t have much experience. I do not doubt Holly is extremely uncomfortable with her living situation, not only that, but it wasn’t safe in the slightest.
Still, the idea of having her here, only twenty feet away from my bed has me worried. Except, my spare room is the only place to put her. Amelia lives in a one bedroom with a tiny study she uses as a library and reading spot. I can’t think of a good reason not to bring Holly home with me. My cock jumps happily at the idea of her close, the scent of her cherry skin filling my home.
“What’s the address?” When she gives it to me, I key it in and send it to Ricky. “Go air out the room. It hasn’t been used since you stayed last month.” Many of our Sundays are spent making popcorn, eating pizza, candy, and watching movie after movie until the early hours of the morning. Sometimes, Amelia slept in the guest room instead of going home.
My phone goes off, Ricky is downstairs.
****
Going down the hall, fucking hell, they are still fucking—over an hour later? It takes me pounding on the door twice before the door is answered by a tiny long-haired woman who it completely naked and covered in come over various parts of her body.
“Yeah?”
“Where is Holly’s room?” I’m grossed out by the young woman, unable to even look at her.
“Second door on the left.” Without another word she goes back to one of the men laying on the floor and begins fucking him.
Now I understand Amelia’s near hysteria. I pound on Holly’s door. “It’s Ethan. Get packed up, let’s go.”
Holly opens the door, in new jeans that cling, and a dark green emerald top showing her breasts off and making my cock ache. Her surprise is clear. “What?”
“Get packed, you’re coming home with me. You’ll be in the spare bedroom as long as you want.” She blinks wide. “Unless you want to spend another night here?”
The words get her moving. There isn’t much in the room, thank god. She opens her closet and there are five suitcases and two duffle bags. Opening the second largest suitcase, she opens a drawer filled with jeans and begins packing the suitcase. Then she moves to the second drawer containing tee shirts and fills the suitcase. With the suitcase full, she moves on to smallest suitcase. I pretend I don’t see the drawer is filled with her bras and panties and holy shit, is that a vibrator? No, it wasn’t, I tell myself. The third suitcase is opened and she goes to her closet again, and fills it with her hung clothes, brightly colored dresses and a few suits still on their hangers, then zips it closed. Unzipping the first duffel bag, she starts dumping all her personal items from a small bedside table and on top of the dresser, before closing it. The other duffel bag is unzipped and taken with her into the bathroom next to her room. I hear her tossing things into the bag.
When she comes back into the room, she looks around. “I’m done.”
“You don’t want your bedding and pillows?”
“God, no, I’m sure she’s been in here with who knows how many people. I’ll use the ones you have on the bed and buy new ones later. Can you please take the two largest suitcases?”
“Sure, what are they filled with?” Fuck, they’re heavy.
“Books.” She takes two rolling suitcases and sets the duffel bags on them as she rolls them out of the room, looking firmly ahead. I connect the third small suitcase to one of the large suitcases. I’m impressed, as I check my watch. It’s only been about twenty minutes since I left the car downstairs.
I follow her out, not looking toward the threesome. The elevator is opening as I come toward Holly. When the elevator opens, we get in and she leans back against wall, looking down. Watching her, I fight not to curse, she’s crying. “Thank you so much. I didn’t think I could take it anymore. I’m sorry you had to see that. I promise I won’t stay with you long.”
“Take as much time as you need. I have to admit, I thought Amelia was being overly dramatic, but she wasn’t. I can’t believe you put up with that for three months.”
“I did it by basically only going home to sleep. After work I’d go to the bookstore a few stops down, read until they closed, and then go to bed. She seemed normal when I first met her. For one, she was wearing clothes. I thought she was cool. She seemed really laid back about chores and cleaning up after ourselves. I’ve had roommates who freaked if a pan wasn’t cleaned before it even had a chance to cool down.