Serenade me, p.15
Serenade Me, page 15
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wyatt
“Thank you for meeting me,” Jessica says. I slide into her car, and she heads towards the diner, telling me it’s best to talk about this over coffee.
It’s close to three o’clock in the morning, and Shane is sleeping soundly in my bed. I left him clutching the pillow, his chest rising and falling like the tide. Though I wanted to wake him and kiss him, I know better than to do so. He’ll then ask why I’m leaving so late, and he’ll wonder why I’m heading off with Jessica.
The text arrived a few hours earlier when Shane and I were eating breakfast for dinner. He’d cooked me up an omelet and made fresh orange juice, a celebratory dinner of sorts, because I was safe and out of the hospital. We’d just sat down to eat when my phone started buzzing like crazy.
“I need to talk to you.” Then, “Wyatt????”
“What?” I texted back.
“We need to talk.”
“Later. Shane’s still here.”
I’d survived through the rest of dinner, but it hadn’t been easy. All I wanted to do was take my phone out again and text Jessica, ask her what in the hell was going on. I was confident it had something to do with Alex.
Shane asked me multiple times if something was wrong, but every time, I told him no. “Everything’s fine,” I said, smiling at him. “I’m just feeling a bit out of it from being in the hospital all night. Feels strange to be eating solid food again.”
He’d accepted my explanation, and dinner went on as usual. But I was ready to climb up the walls come midnight, and waiting till three was the hardest thing I’ve done in a while.
Jessica and I settle into the booth, trying to ignore the fact that waitresses are ogling all over us. They’re probably wondering if we’ve suddenly turned straight or some bullshit like that.
Our main waitress seems to have taken a liking to Jessica, bringing her coffee with whipped cream sprayed on top. Jessica gives her one of her dazzling grins, thanking her for her kindness. I almost wonder if they’re going to sleep together before I remember that Jessica and Lisa are an item. Oh well.
“So, what is it that’s so damn important you needed to drag me out of bed?” I ask. “And why couldn’t you have told me earlier?”
“Because I didn’t want you to get upset,” she says. There are worry lines all over her face. This can’t be good.
“Is it about Shane?” I ask, my heart dropping all the way to my stomach.
She nods slowly. “It’s about everyone.”
“What?”
Jessica takes a shaky breath and begins her story.
Apparently, the other day, when I got into a car accident, Shane was hanging out with Alex in a hotel room. When I ask Lisa what happened between them, she bites her lower lip.
“Did they sleep together?” I ask, gripping my coffee mug so tightly that I think it will crack between my fingertips.
“No,” Jessica says at last, and I exhale all the breath I’ve been holding in for the last minute.
She tells me that Alex tried to kiss Shane again, but that Shane put a stop to it.
“I think I can live with that,” I mumble.
“He’s also sleeping with Lisa.”
“What?” I ask, almost knocking my mug over. “How do you know? Did you catch them? Are you—are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine, I think,” Jessica says, but I don’t believe her.
“How did you find out?” I ask again, this time more serious.
“I heard them…and sort of saw them through the crack in the door. But I didn’t do anything about it because, to be honest with you, I had no idea what to do or say.”
“You’re going to have to do something about that. You know that, right?” I say.
She doesn’t respond, instead turning her attention to the attractive blond waitress. “Is there any way you could bring me out a slice of the fudge cake with my order?” Jessica asks, batting her eyes at the waitress.
“Oh, of course, coming right up,” the waitress says. She squeezes Jessica’s shoulder before walking back to the kitchen.
“Wow, she really has the hots for you,” I say.
Jessica smiles. “Well, at least somebody does.”
“I always knew Lisa was still into Alex. Or maybe I always knew that Alex was bad news. It’s kind of screwed up that he’s sleeping with his ex—who just so happens to be in a relationship with you.”
Suddenly Jessica’s face opens up, and she starts crying. She places her hands on her head and starts mumbling things. “I just can’t believe I trusted her,” she says in-between sobs.
“I know,” I say, reaching out to grab her hand. “You’re going to get through this. You need to talk to her, though.”
“I bet they’re together right now, getting it on,” she snarls. “I can’t believe I ever thought I could trust her.”
“We all make mistakes,” I start.
Wow, I think to myself. I thought Jessica was more the love-em and leave-em type. She must have really fallen hard for Lisa.
She sniffles and grabs one of the brown napkins to blow her nose on. Our waitress walks back over, notices Jessica is crying, and instantly becomes more doe-eyed and sweet.
“You don’t have to pay for the cake, honey, it’s on the house,” she says.
“Thank you,” Jessica says sadly.
I think it’s adorable that Jessica gets her cake for free, and it’s even sweeter that she’s probably going to leave the waitress a big tip. She always tips over thirty percent, due to the fact that before she got into music, she was bussing tables every night.
The diner is painted a mixture of bubblegum pink and aquamarine. The lights are nice and dim, so they don’t hurt my eyes. Since receiving the concussion, I’ve been a little bit overly sensitive to light.
Outside, the night is jet-black, save for a few streetlamps. They cast enormous puddles of blacktop, making everything look like a shimmering mirage. I bet if I dove into the pavement, I’d be able to cross through to an alternate universe, one where everyone is good and healthy and never cheats on each other.
I don’t even know what to say to Jessica because we’ve had our own fair share of being dirty people. She’s cheated on her exes, and I haven’t exactly been the most stable person in relationships.
And, I’d never cheat on Shane. And I can tell she’s especially heartbroken because she was thinking she’d never cheat on Lisa. And how to confront Lisa in this scenario? I wonder if Jessica will do something devious, perhaps bring it up at the worst possible time.
“I’m going to have a dinner this week to celebrate the competition. And I want you and Shane to be there.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me,” I nag.
“That’s because it’s a great idea,” she says. “Think about it. We’re going to have a dinner with everyone we know, and you can bring your managers, and I’ll bring mine. And then we’ll out Lisa and Alex, right then and there.”
“Jessica,” I begin to say, but she silences me.
“You’re either going to the dinner party, or you’re going to be eating a frozen pizza all alone in your mansion. Which is it going to be?”
I take a deep sigh and look down into my coffee mug. She’s right. I probably would spend the night alone, wondering why Shane went to the dinner party without me.
“I’m going,” I say begrudgingly. “But you need to be careful. I don’t want you to do anything hazardous to your health.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to be the one getting hurt,” she says, a smug smile on her face.
“Just be careful, okay?” I say. “Promise me that no matter what happens, you’ll be safe.”
“I promise,” she groans. “Though you might have to hide the steak knives,” she says, flashing me one of her characteristic grins.
I guess revenge helps her to cope. I kind of get it, though. I’d be doing the same thing if I were in her position.
The waitress arrives a few minutes later, placing a zero-dollar check on the table. Though we don’t have to pay anything, Jessica and I still tip her fifty bucks. It’s the least we could do, mainly because she didn’t bombard us with questions about autographs.
We walk out into the night, now turned chilly from the clouds, and I hug Jessica goodbye.
“Text me more about your revenge plan tomorrow,” I instruct her.
“You got it, lover boy,” she says. With that, she’s gone, flouncing off towards the driver’s side of her car, probably dreaming of all the ways she’s going to publicly humiliate Lisa.
Jessica takes the long way back to my house, and I don’t protest. I know she needs to clear her head, and the only way to do so is by listening to loud music under the guise of night. She hates talking on rides like this, and even if I wanted to get any more information out of her on the way home, I’d be unable to.
Finally, we arrive back at my wrought iron gates.
“Now what?” she asks, staring at the steering wheel. “Why does this keep happening to us?”
“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “But I do know that you should confront her about it. Who knows? Maybe she has a reason for sleeping with him.”
“What reason does anyone ever have for cheating?”
I don’t argue against her, merely hold my arm out to rub her shoulder sympathetically. There’s nothing I can say that will make her feel better, though I attempt to give her as much empathy as possible. But all I can think about is Shane and the situation with Alex. I’m sure they burnt Lisa somehow, and her cheating on Jessica is the result of that.
“You’re going to get through this, and you need to talk to her,” I say before ducking out of the car.
“Are you going to talk to Shane?” she asks.
I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I want to say yes, convince Jessica that it’s me and her against the world. But I can’t do that. It was just a kiss, that’s all he’s ever done. There’s no reason for me to abandon the first positive thing in my life over a little emotional ruckus. If the time comes and I need to talk to him, then I will. Until that day, I’m just going to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself.
There is, however, the matter of Lisa. I’m definitely going to need to talk to Shane about that.
“Goodnight, Jessica. Try not to overthink the situation. We’re all supposed to play in the competition so try to keep yourself together before it begins.”
Jessica doesn’t say anything, just nods to me. She’s probably working out some sort of evil plan in her head.
I walk up the long path to my house, noticing it’s still jet black from the inside. The sun has barely started to come up over the horizon, and I know Shane is still asleep. I walk in through the back door, not wanting to wake him up in the process. I can hear him snoring softly from the other side of the door to my master bedroom, signaling that he’s off in dreamland. Instead of opening the door and interrupting him, I pass out on the couch.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Shane
“Time to rise and shine, sleepyhead,” I say, nudging Wyatt in the foot.
“Mm,” he stirs, rolling back over, so he’s facing the couch cushions.
“You sure got in late last night.”
This gets his attention.
“I was talking to Jessica,” he says, instantly forming a kernel of doubt in my heart.
What on earth could he have been talking to Jessica about? Then, I realize…I told her about Alex and me at the hotel the other day. What if she didn’t believe me?
“About anything interesting?” I ask.
He shrugs his shoulders and doesn’t respond for a few minutes. Then, he says, “Lisa is cheating on Jessica. With Alex.”
I freeze. Alex is sleeping with Lisa. Lisa is Alex’s ex-girlfriend. Why in the hell are they still touching each other when Alex isn’t even straight? Or is he bi?
I guess it doesn’t matter because he’s not my boyfriend anymore. However, that doesn’t stop me from feeling quite peculiar about the situation.
“That’s awful,” I say.
“Is it?” Wyatt asks.
“Well, of course, it is,” I say, this time angrier. “He’s supposed to be gay, and she’s supposed to be in a relationship with Jessica. It’s unfair that she gets treated like this just because he decides to blow back into town without alerting anyone.”
Wyatt rises from the couch, stretches, and brushes past me.
“Where are you going?” I ask. “Did I say something wrong?”
“I’m going to take a shower,” he says. “What could you have possibly said wrong? Unless there’s something you aren’t telling me.” I watch as Wyatt cranes his neck to see me, a curious look on his face.
“No,” I say numbly. “I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. Or I mean, I’m not—I’m not trying to.”
“Well, good,” he says. “I’m going to take a shower, and then we can talk about our plans for the competition.”
With that, he turns on his heel and heads towards the bathroom. I sink onto the couch and place my head in my hands. What’s going on?
I figure the only person to get information out of is Lisa herself, so I text her and ask what the hell her deal is. She doesn’t respond right away, in typical Lisa fashion. When she does, she tells me she’s not really sure, but why am I so angry about it?
I frown and text back, “I’m not angry. Just curious why you would cheat on Jessica.”
“Why do you care?” she texts back, and I can tell she’s angry. “It’s not like you have a moral compass, to begin with.”
“Whatever,” I say. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Fine,” she says.
I toss my phone across the living room and slam my fists into the couch. Why the hell won’t anyone tell me what’s going on? Just because Lisa’s still miffed about me beginning a relationship with her ex doesn’t mean I deserve to be let out of the loop. Unless she doesn’t believe nothing happened between Alex and me at the hotel and is screwing him out of revenge.
Oh, God. If Lisa thinks that, then that means Wyatt knows. It’s official: I’m in the shithouse.
***
We head over to Jessica’s around four, deciding to drive so we’ll have a car of our own to take to the competition, which is going to be filmed tonight but broadcast tomorrow morning on Morning Madison. The competition is supposed to start at eight, and I feel so ill-prepared that I’m drumming on everything. After the day I had with Wyatt, I’m not quite sure how our big show is going to go.
We’ve been talking all day, but barely. When he smiles at me, he smiles like he’s sad or disappointed in me. There are dozens of ways I could beach this topic, the kiss, the hotel. But I’m not entirely sure how to bring it up. I already kissed Alex once before, and Wyatt forgave me. Is he going to forgive me again, or is this the beginning of the end?
I wind up blurting it out on the way to Jessica’s dinner.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Why?” he asks.
“Because of what happened.”
Wyatt sighs and grips the steering wheel. “You know that if I were in your position, I would have done the exact same thing. That being said, it’s not exactly okay what you did.”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t want to keep making that mistake. I want to start over so that I can be with you and only you.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes,” I say. “More than anything. I love you.”
“You also love Alex.”
He doesn’t say it spitefully; he doesn’t yell at me afterward. He doesn’t even sound sad. It’s merely an affirmation of the truth.
“I know,” I whisper. “And I’m sorry. I’m trying to get over it, really, I am. I promise I won’t wind up alone in a room with him again, let alone a hotel room.”
Wyatt doesn’t speak for a very long time, and I can feel a light sweat forming on my body. Is this the end of our relationship? Then, he speaks.
“Thank you,” he says. “I just don’t want to wind up like Lisa and Jessica, dancing around each other with all these lies and complicated bullshit. I want to be open and honest with you. And if the time ever comes where I make a decision like this, I hope that you’ll be able to forgive me.”
I smile and chuckle to myself. Wyatt really is the most incredible man I have ever been with. I can’t believe how easily he’s willing to forgive me. And it wasn’t just a kiss—it was so much more than that. He knows it, too. But he’s chosen to forgive me.
“I always feel better when I talk to you,” I tell him.
“Same,” he says, turning to smile at me.
Wyatt then leans over in the passenger seat and kisses me. His lips taste so sweet, and I feel like we haven’t kissed in days. I feel myself instantly getting hard. Suddenly, my hands are all over him, dragging him towards me like I’ve been in a drought that I’m finally able to quench.
We’re parked on a side street, and not a soul is in sight, and I’m thankful that Wyatt’s car has tinted windows.
He climbs over the gearshift and mounts me, pushing my seat back in the process. Our tongues are dancing wildly together as our arms are thrashing about, making a feeble attempt to take off our jeans.
Wyatt then sits up, quickly opening the snaps of his cowboy shirt, exposing his luscious, rock hard chest. I waste no time reaching for his zipper, flinging it down in a hurried rush while he unsnaps the top. His cock is raging hard, and I can’t wait to get my hands around the shaft to begin stroking it.
God, I missed having sex with Wyatt. The rush is intense as my hand grips his iron rod, and our lips lock again.
I quickly get out of my jeans, pulling my underwear down in the process, but leaving my t-shirt on.
“My God… you are irresistible,” Wyatt whispers to me in my ear, as he puts some spit on his hand, then grabbing my dick in his palm to begin stroking.
But, before you know it, he hoists his body forward and upward, pressing his cock into my face. The faint smell of his body wash, and his natural, manly scent stirs me inside even more. As he squeezes the head of his cock, I lower my head to wrap my mouth around his smooth balls. I can hear a moan emitting from Wyatt from up above, while he moves his left arm around and reaches for my dick again.
