My Five Night Fling by Maci Dillon

 

 

JARETT

 

What the actual fuck is she doing here?

Did she know I was planning to bring her here tonight?

No way, it’s impossible.

Pushing through the crowd, I make my way to Kassidy, who’s speaking with Tessa, a woman I only know from coming here, but she has listened to me pour my heart out over a few whiskeys more than once.

My eyes connect with Kassidy as she glances back at me, and I don’t like what I see. Her gaze is filled with sadness, and my heart plummets to the floor.

Kassidy escapes down the hall as I quickly explain myself to Tessa, who waits for me to catch up. Her arms are folded tight across her chest, and she wears a stern expression which screams, ‘you’ll have to go through me to get to her.’

Sympathetically, she touches my arm and nods to where Kassidy has disappeared. On fast legs, I rush down the hall just in time to catch a glimpse of her walking into a viewing room.

The fuck?

Without thinking, I barge into the small room and instantly wish I hadn’t. An older guy sits at one end of the row of chairs, tucking himself back into his pants before he politely and shamelessly excuses himself from the room.

Leaving us alone.

After fixing the sign on the door to show it’s occupied, I glare at Kassidy. Her eyes are transfixed on the couple in the adjacent room as if I hadn’t just barged in on her sitting near a guy flogging his dick in front of her.

“Seriously, Kassidy?” I implode. Her head whips to me, but her eyes don’t meet mine. “You lie to me about being too tired and needing to stay in bed, then show up at a fucking sex club and hide out with a stranger while he jerks off to this?” My arms fly out in the direction of the woman gagged, blindfolded, and tied up while getting whipped in the next room.

“This?” she blurts out, pointing at the couple. “Isn’t this the same as what we were both just watching outside? And that poor bastard probably wasn’t happy that I barged in here to get away from you either.”

“Why did you lie?” I ask through gritted teeth.

My ego hurt, admittedly, but this unsettled feeling isn’t a result of a bruised ego. It stems from a world of hurt caused by a lying woman.

My wife.

Emotions I never expected to feel again wash over me as I glare at Kassidy, only an arm’s length away.

“Why did you?” she snaps, tears lining her eyes. 

Her response flattens me. “I never lied to you, sweetheart. You never asked me if I was married, and I never mentioned it because technically, I’m fucking not. My wife is dead.”

The words fly out of my mouth before I can sensor them, and I fall to the chair at my side, my face in my hands.

“Jarett, fuck,” Kassidy whispered. “How did you know that’s what I was talking about?”

I sigh miserably. “When I called Sophia a second time concerned about you, she mentioned your conversation at lunch today. I just assumed.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to act once I found out.”

“How to act?” I look up at her and lounge back in the chair. She plops into the seat beside me. “Does the fact I had a wife who’s now gone change anything between us? For fuck’s sake, you’ll be back on a flight to Australia in a few days, anyway.”

“Exactly, Jarett. A fling with a chick who’s visiting your city for a few days may seem like the best way to get back on the horse, so to speak, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable being that woman.”

Kassidy stands, she’s ready to leave.

I grab her hand. “Please, Kassidy. Can we talk about this?”

She looks over her shoulder to the room next door where the guy is now fucking his partner. “Think we can talk someplace else?”

I nod, and a few minutes later, we walk out of the club in search of some place quiet to have a conversation I never thought I’d be having.

“I like you. Fuck, I respect you, Kassidy. This isn’t some dirty fling where I hope never-to-speak-to- you-once-you-leave kind of situation. Not for me, anyway.” I silently plead with her to give me a chance.

In a quiet twenty-four-hour coffee shop a few doors up from Kassidy’s hotel, we sit in a booth, unable to look at each other.

“I’m sorry I lied to you about staying in,” Kassidy whispers. “I wasn’t sure how to handle the news about Helena, and I needed time to think.”

I nod silently. “Why did it bother you so much?”

She contemplates this for a few moments. “Honestly, I don’t know. My heart hurt for you when Sophia told me. She mentioned you hadn’t really seen anybody since and... well, I’m leaving soon, and I didn’t want that to be a thing, I guess.”

“You were concerned I’d be broken by you leaving? Or is this your way of creating distance between us, so you don’t get hurt when you leave?”

Does Kassidy have feelings for me?

“Don’t be a grade-A pompous jerk. I didn’t mean it like that. We don’t need to be having these sorts of conversations just because we have spent a few great nights together. Why not leave it as it is and go our separate ways now?”

I frown into my coffee. “That’s what you want? To walk away and forget this happened?” I glance at her, where she sits picking at the label on her latte.

“I never said I wanted to forget. But leaving is inevitable. Why draw it out longer than necessary when it means you now feel the need to explain your tragic past?”

The tragic past that’s faded into the background of my life since meeting Kassidy. Yeah, right.

“Here’s what I know, sweetheart,” I offer, leaning forward. “I don’t feel the need to explain shit about me or my life. Everything I have told you is because I feel so fucking comfortable with you. I never spoke of Helena because I’ve never really spoken to anyone about her, and I didn’t want to bring down your mood. You’re on holiday, remember?”

Kassidy smiles weakly, and her eyes glisten.

“As I said, when you leave, I hope we can stay in touch. Who knows, life may have a way of us seeing each other again one day. Either way, I know Helena is a part of my life I’d discuss with you when I was ready. And honestly, you’re the one I’ll want to discuss her with out of all the people I know. There’s something about you… I can’t put my finger on it, and I don’t understand it, but I believe you entered my life at this time for a specific reason.”

I take a breath and sit back. “There, I said it. I only hope that doesn’t freak you out.”

Word vomit at its finest. Why can’t I speak like I think? In drips and drabs.

“I’m sorry, Jarett.” She places her hand on mine from across the table, and I capture her fingers in mine. “I’m not pressuring you to talk about her. I don’t need to know anything at all. And who the fuck am I to feel even the slightest bit used when I’m openly using you as my tour guide, travel companion, drinking buddy, dance partner, and after-dark sex pal?”

“Ouch.” I clutch my chest and make stabbing actions with my hands. We both laugh, and it’s about fucking time. “You know how to knock a guy when he’s down, huh?”

She smiles sadly, and for the first time, I’m unable to get a clear reading of her thoughts. There’s a distance between us which wasn’t there before. Even when we first laid eyes on each other, there was something familiar and warm that has since dissipated.

“I’m really tired. Can we maybe meet for coffee or breakfast tomorrow?”

My heart sinks. Kassidy isn’t planning on us spending tonight together. For all I know, last night could’ve been our last.

“Sure,” I reply, forcing out the biggest smile I can muster the energy for.

“I’d love you to come by the gallery if you can. I have something I wanted to show you tonight before we went out.”

“Of course, I’m sorry the night didn’t plan out as it should have.”

“Me, too.” I sigh, getting ready to leave.

“Where had you planned for us to go anyway?” she asks as we step outside.

I laugh. How fucking ironic.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I joke.

And she didn’t, at first.

Feeling more comfortable about the evening’s events after she told me how she had come to be at the club, I share something with her that I’ve never mentioned to anybody.

“My history with the club itself is short, though I’ve always been interested in, what would you say, light bondage? Since Helena, the club has been my escape… a safe place to get out of my head and keep me from falling into the arms of a woman who could break my heart again.”

The pity in her eyes isn’t something I want to see and probably why I avoid talking about Helena or my grief at all.

I pull her close and kiss her cheek.

“Until you came along, that is,” I whisper into her hair.

I’m unsure if she heard me, but I don’t care. It’s the truth.

I watch Kassidy walk away, following her until she turns into her hotel building. Knowing she’s safe, I saunter off in the opposite direction.

Alone.

And missing her already.

Maybe she was right.

Why prolong the inevitable?