Twisted Love by Summer Cooper

15

Keily

“What have you decided?” Rosa asked, lying next to Keily on a sun lounger on a quiet Sunday afternoon. It was June, the sun was hot, and the pool was the only place either of the women wanted to be.

“About?” Keily hedged, hoping Rosa wasn’t asking about Logan.

“About your mom,” Rosa said bluntly, her sunglasses and wide-brimmed hat hiding her face.

“Oh, that.” The question about her mom wasn’t any easier than talking about Logan.

“Yes, that. So?” Rosa turned her head to look at Keily, but Keily had her own hat and sunglasses on.

“I haven’t decided anything yet.” Keily squinted to see her friend but even with the shade of the hat and her sunglasses, the sunlight directly behind Rosa glared down and hid the woman’s features.

“It’s a tough situation, my friend. I don’t know what I’d do either. No pressure, just wondering if you’d decided anything.” Rosa turned to the table to her left and picked up her bottle of water.

“I can’t believe everything she took. Stole from me, really. I didn’t know about most of it. I thought it was just the stuff I found in her drawer back when I was in high school, but it wasn’t. She even sold trips if the tickets weren’t issued in my name. That’s all I got, some of the money to buy the things I’d need for the pageants, dresses, makeup, that sort of thing, and the things that were issued in my name that were non-transferable. That’s it, after all those years.”

“And the scholarships.” Rose pointed out and for once, Keily smiled.

“Yeah, it’s a relief that I can use those. I wish I’d known about them before I split up with Joe.”

“What are you going to study?” Rosa asked and turned onto her stomach to tan her back.

Both women wore identical tiny black bikinis, barely clothing at all, because they’d both loved the style and ordered them online. Keily thought Rosa looked much better in hers, and for once, wasn’t jealous of another woman looking better than her. Rosa was her friend, a beautiful woman, and Keily could admit that without a qualm.

“Oh, I’ve already started classes. I’m focusing on a business degree. That should be fairly universal, shouldn’t it?” Keily turned over too, her head on her arm beneath her face.

“Should be. You were good at what you did when you worked with Logan and you’re a smart lady, I think you’d do great in the business world. And you already know how to make sure people understand you won’t take any prisoners, so you’ve got that going for you too.”

“Thanks.” Keily smiled, not sure it was a compliment, but since it came from Rosa, it must be.

“And what about you?” Keily asked to get the conversation away from her life and problems.

Violet still hadn’t returned any of her calls and texts, and she’d stopped trying while she was on that vacation with Logan. Maybe it was time to give up on repairing that relationship. She hadn’t spoken to her mom or dad, either, but didn’t really want to talk to them. Her dad went along with whatever her mom wanted, and her mom was basically a thief who’d stolen from her own daughter. Keily was still fuming about that and probably always would. How could you forgive something like that? Knowing her mom had used the money for drugs made it even worse.

“I’m good. Work is fine, although Logan’s still in dick-mode most of the time. He leaves me alone, at least. My family is good, and I’m having fun going out with this couple I met while you guys were on that dream island.” Rosa let that slip like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb in Keily’s lap.

Keily’s head whipped around and her mouth dropped open. She closed it before she spoke. “Wait, you mean going out, going out, or just going out?”

“Going out as in we don’t actually go out a lot.” Rosa’s face was turned towards Keily now, and despite the glare, she could see the smug satisfaction on the other woman’s face.

“I want details, woman, now! How could you keep this from me?” Keily sat up on the sun lounger and grabbed her own bottle of water.

“I wasn’t sure where it was going and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if nothing happened.” Rosa sat up, too, her knees almost touching Keily’s. “I wasn’t actually looking for a couple, but I met them at one of the, uh, more adult places in Spartanburg.”

“Adult places?” Keily asked before the penny dropped. She leaned forward even more and pushed her sunglasses up. “You went to a strip club?”

“I might have.” Rosa laughed at the shock on Keily’s face and how far her jaw had dropped. Again. “I’m brave since I got divorced, what can I say?”

“How did that work, was the woman working there or something?” Keily wanted to know everything. Ever since Logan had taken her to that club her brain was hungry for knowledge about all things sexual and sensual. Living vicariously through her friend wasn’t a bad thing either.

“I was sitting at the bar, watching the women dance, fending off scuzzy guys that automatically think a woman in a place like that is either working there or looking for a quick fuck. This cute little woman with long black hair and the most dazzling blue eyes came up next to me and told this really gross asshole to leave me alone, that I was there with her. I wasn’t going to deny it and once the guy left, she sat with me and we had a few drinks together. She’s so cute, Keily.” Rosa turned, snapped up her phone, and showed Keily a picture of a woman that wasn’t just cute, she was beautiful. And she had the most delightful tilt at the end of her nose that made her smiling face even cuter.

“Wow, she is cute, Rosa. Tell me more.” Keily waited while Rosa swiped through the pictures.

“This is Jake, her husband.” Rosa held the phone out again.

A man with a charming grin and lots of curly brown hair stared back at Keily with gray eyes and a body that was used to a gym. He wasn’t wearing a shirt because he was standing in a pool, obviously at their home, judging by the privacy fence and the brick house in the background.

“Wow, hottie.” Keily grinned wider and demanded to know more. “So, what happened next?”

“Well, don’t get mad, I know it was stupid, but we went to Waffle House and I met her husband there.”

“What’s so stupid about that? Other than it was a Waffle House.” Keily shrugged.

“Because instead of going home that night, I went home with them.” Rosa pulled her lips in and waited for Keily to fuss at her.

“Um. Okay. Not wise, but you didn’t die, so something must have gone right?” Keily didn’t see the point in fussing at her friend. The woman was an adult and knew the precautions she should take to protect herself.

This was all new territory for Keily, being a supportive friend had never come naturally to her. She’d been taught that other females were her competition her entire childhood, but she liked not thinking that way anymore. It was…freeing.

“No, I didn’t, thank goodness. I know it was stupid, but you’ll see it when you meet them. They’re just so…wonderful. We hit it off right away, all three of us, and nothing happened that night. We just talked until the sun came up. I slept in their spare room, and I went home after breakfast the next morning. I’ve seen them a few more times since then, well a lot more times, and every time it just feels like I’m, I don’t know, home? I think I feel like I’m home when I’m with them. Don’t laugh.” Rosa held out a warning finger but Keily shook her head.

“No, I think that’s great. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Keily sat back on her lounger, her thoughts now on her own life. “Joe never felt like home. I don’t think I actually loved him, either. I said it, thought I meant it, but I don’t think that was love.”

“And Logan?” Rosa pushed lightly, her left eyebrow arched over her sunglasses.

“I don’t know. He’s been weird lately.” Ever since that day when they pushed their luck and had sex in, and on, the car, he’d been…angry?

That didn’t seem right. Not angry. Distant definitely. Resentful felt like the right word.

He’d looked at her that day like he wanted to consume her, but also like he hated her for it. Emotions had swept through her the entire time he fucked her on the hood of his car; fear that this was the last time, excitement that she’d conquered him, sorrow that she still felt that way. Worry that he almost looked like he hated her.

“How weird.” Rosa finally prompted her when she didn’t go on.

“He’s just, I don’t know how to say this. He comes in, he goes home. He hasn’t stayed the night in a long time. I think he might…” She stopped, unable to say the words because her chest had suddenly become too tight to speak, to breathe almost.

“Oh, no, honey. I’ve seen how he looks at you. He’s not done. Maybe he’s just got a lot on his mind with work?” Rosa comforted her or tried to.

Keily stared off into space, ignoring the reflections of the water from the pool, as dread overwhelmed her. Pain fluctuated with that dread, pain in her chest, in her heart, that stole her breath away as she thought about life without Logan.

Would she be able to cope with that? She’d known all along that this wouldn’t last forever, but she’d started to have the tiniest bit of hope that maybe…

“I don’t know.” Keily shook herself out of the stupor and took a deep breath. “I just know something is up.”

“Women always know.” Rosa agreed, no longer trying to comfort Keily. “What can you do?”

“Nothing, I guess.” Keily waited until Rosa had sat back on her own lounger to continue. “What can you do and still have some pride left?”

“Sometimes we have to swallow our pride, my friend,” Rosa answered immediately, her head nodding. “That was part of the problem with my ex, he could never admit to how he felt. I know things are strange with Logan, but maybe talking to him would help?”

“I don’t know. This all started after he actually started to open up to me. Maybe that’s the problem, he feels like he has to back off from me now. He’s opened up and that probably scares him.”

“Maybe so. Men like Logan, they want to be in control, all the time.” Rosa nodded again and jumped because her hair came loose from its bun. “Stupid hair, never wants to stay up where it’s supposed to.”

“Mine doesn’t either. That’s why I use two hair ties most of the time.” Keily laughed, but the pleasure trailed off into a sad smile. “If it’s done, it’s done, I’m afraid.”

“I hope not. You’ve been so happy with him.”

“I have. It’s strange. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.” Even with the uncertainty of what she was to Logan, of knowing deep down that she was just his mistress, even with her plans for the future and her ideas of what she’d do when he grew tired of her a few months ago, this hurt. But even with the hurt, she was happy, because maybe it wasn’t done yet.

“Then we’ll just have to figure out how to make this all okay.” Rosa didn’t say anything else and Keily went quiet too, lost in her thoughts.

Two hours later, after Rosa had gone back to her own place, Keily sat in front of her computer screen, staring at a discussion question for class she needed to answer. She couldn’t think of where to even start because all she could think about was Logan.

Was he about to leave her?

The screen faded in front of her as her thoughts took over.

She’d started this whole thing with one intention…to be a trophy wife again. She wanted bigger and better than Joe had ever given her, and Logan gave her all of that. The problem was…she’d become bored with being a trophy wife. Well, not a wife but a mistress definitely.

At first, she’d preened and been the perfect companion for dinner dates, glad to be able to eat food from restaurants that didn’t put the prices on the menus. She’d loved the expensive gifts, the way he always thought of the perfect things to get her. She’d loved the sex even more, and still did.

What bored her was the uncertainty, the empty days, the nights alone. The awkwardness of not knowing what she was. Was she just a plaything that he was about to throw away? Had he already found a new toy to play with?

In the past, she hadn’t cared about Joe’s little drunken forays into infidelity. She’d pretended she didn’t know; he’d pretended they never happened, and they got on with life. Public humiliation had been the final straw with him. Their old friends, people she’d known since high school, stopped calling her. They ignored her on the streets downtown or in the supermarkets. She couldn’t handle that, and she’d left him.

Logan wasn’t like that. He did things that showed he cared, even if he didn’t know it. He took her places, helped her explore life, and gave her new experiences. Life was fun with him, it had meaning, but only when she was with him. Of course, she felt alive with Rosa too, but even Rosa didn’t make her feel as alive as Logan did.

Was that love? Feeling alive? Feeling like you were at home when you were with someone? Did being happy mean love?

She wasn’t sure about any of it and she had work to do, she reminded herself. Logan would be there later, maybe she’d talk with him about it all, finally. Or maybe not. Maybe now wasn’t the time to go rocking the boat. He’d been moody lately, though he didn’t take it out on her at all. He was distant too, and that bothered her, but maybe it really was just work. Maybe it was a phase of some kind, something he needed to work through, and things would go back to normal.

It was best to just wait and see, for now. That was all she could really do anyway.