Abduct

After a night of heavy drinking, Ashley, wakes up in the bed of a man. But it's not the man she was drinking with - it's the one who abducted her from the bathroom.

ABDUCT

 

 

 

            “Whoa, she’s drunk as hell.” Colt said it, and the other guys sharing his table at the local bar laughed. All of them except Aaron. He pinched at the base of his nose where it was beginning to hurt, and lowered his head. His dark eyes, however, remained on the same thing everyone else’s was on. Her.

            He’d been watching her all night. She’d come in around 10:00 with a couple of her girlfriends and they’d had a few civilized drinks. By 11:00 they’d been joined by a few guys and had drunk a few not so civilized drinks. By midnight her friends had split and she’d taken to shooting shots with some man, twice her age, at his table.

            She was getting a little rowdy. Boisterous too. Saying everything so loudly that the whole place could hear. Laughing at every word the guy she was sitting with said, funny or not. And, now, she was crawling, on her hands and knees, across the table top toward him.

            Her bent position made her jeans sculpt perfectly, like a layer of paint, around her smooth, tight a*s and thighs. And the tank top she wore was falling off. One of the straps was down around the middle of her arm and the entire right cup of her lacy black bra was on display.

            The bra was damn sexy, but not doing its job of holding her in. Her plump, soft breast was on the verge of escaping, and every guy in the place was waiting for the second when it did.

            She stalked across the table top, growling like a wild animal on the prowl, toward the man. About halfway to her destination, she staggered, and her movement to catch herself dislodged a thick strand of her long sandy-blonde hair. It fell over her shoulder, blocking Aaron’s view of her b**b, but he kept right on watching.

            The man she approached chuckled then leaned forward and shoved his wedding ring clad hand down her shirt, groping at her tit. She threw her head back and moaned deep in her throat as if an orgasm was already pending.

            Then he kissed her. Grabbed her by the back of the head and thrust his tongue in her mouth. She groaned again and tried to get closer to him without breaking his hold.

            “Guess we know who’s going to be doing her tonight.” Colt’s words had a way of making Aaron’s man part pulsate and while overly aware of the ache, he focused in on the girl with more purpose.

            She inched her way forward, still lip locked with the man, and he tightened his grip on her b**b. Grabbing until it appeared to hurt, but she didn’t scream, instead she continued to lean forward. Pushing herself until she was so far off balance that she fell. She landed on her chest on the table, breaking the kiss and knocking several shot glasses to the floor with a clatter. Then she laughed hysterically.

            “Hey, Ashley, get off the table,” the bar tender called out. He didn’t wait for her to obey on her own; he rounded the bar and hurried across the room to make her.

            “Awe, Brandon, you’re a party pooper,” Ashley pouted as he slid her off of the table and back into her seat.

            “Get up there again and you’re outa here for the night, you hear me?” he said, picking up the glasses from the floor.

            “Bring us another round,” the man with Ashley said.

            Brandon flashed the stranger a not so happy look. “Don’t you think she’s had enough?”

            “Give her one more, let’s see what happens,” he laughed.

            “Ashley,” Brandon turned his gaze to her. “I think you’ve had plenty for one night.”

            “I’m fine. Bring me another,” she giggled.

            “Make it a bottle,” the man grinned.

            Brandon gave him a harsh eye, but didn’t speak. He wasn’t the one that brought more booze, either.

            When it arrived, the man poured Ashley another shot and she drank it down like it was water.

            “Oh, s**t, I’d hate to be her head in the morning,” Colt laughed and then he slapped the table top in front of his three friends. “Well, I think I’m done with the bar scene for this Friday night. I’m gonna head over to Lisa’s party. You guys coming?”

            “I am,” Jake said.

            “Me too,” Calvin agreed, and both guys rose to their feet and moved toward the bar to settle their debt.

            “How ‘bout you, Aaron?” Colt remained a little longer.

            “Na,” Aaron shook his head. “I’m gonna have another drink.”

            “Another? You haven’t even finished the first one you ordered hours ago.”

            Making direct eye contact with Colt, Aaron picked up his glass and tipped it back. He drank until it was empty then motioned for Brandon to bring him another.

            Colt shrugged. “Whatever, man, but there will be plenty to drink at Lisa’s, and I’ve had several girls begging me to bring you. I guarantee you could take home whichever one of them you like best. Hell, with your good looks, you could bag all three at once.” He grinned and slapped Aaron in the chest.

            “I might be along later.”

            “Alright.”

            The second Colt moved away from the table, Aaron’s eyes was back on Ashley and they remained there for the next twenty minutes. He watched her drink down another shot. Watched her kick off one of her high heeled shoes and stretch her foot out under the table to rub the man’s leg. He watched the man lift her foot higher until it was pressed between his legs, and he watched Ashley laugh. He watched every move she made, and the only time his dark eyes wavered was when hers started to lift in his direction.

            He was texting then, or pretending to be. Focused completely on his phone. And only when he heard her talking to the man she was sitting with, did Aaron find her with his gaze again.

            By the time last call rolled around Ashley wasn’t laughing anymore. She was looking pretty peaked and she shook her head when the man across from her offered her another drink. He insisted, and eventually she gave in. The drink, along with the many others, did not agree with her and after drinking it she sat, silent and still, arms wrapped around her abdomen while he finished his.

            “You coming with me, Darling?” he asked.

            It took her a moment to register what it was he’d asked, but when she had, she nodded slightly.

            “Great. I’ve got a room at the Hilton. We’re gonna have a lot of fun. I’ll go pull my car around front for you.” He rose and before he even reached the bar to pay up, Ashley laid her head down on the table.

            She remained there, unmoving, until after he’d left the building. Then her upper lip curled repugnantly and she let out an extremely uncomfortable groan. A few seconds later she did it again, then got to her feet. Leaving her belongings �" purse, cell phone and jacket at the table, she staggered, very haphazardly, toward the ladies restroom.

            That was when Aaron rose, settled up with Brandon, then entered the narrow hall that led to the bathrooms. He eased open the women’s door a crack and listened.

            She was sick. He waited, back pressed against the wall, until the sound of her vomiting stopped. Then looking around to find no one watching, he entered the women’s restroom, found her all but passed out on the floor, picked her up and left the bar with her through the back door.

 

 

            Aaron stabbed the sheer panel of yellow fabric to the wall with a thumbtack �" one on either side of the window. He then turned to examine the deep golden hue it had given to everything in his bedroom with the early afternoon sun shining through it.

            Perfect!

            He picked up his camera, aimed it at his bed and lowered the lens until he found Ashley’s sleeping body. She was laying face down, arms resting on the pillow with her head, and he zoomed in on a strand of her hair that lay across her bare back. The lock was streaked with threads of brown and blonde and they corkscrewed around one another. It was beautiful against her skin which now looked even more bronze in color.

            He focused the pricey lens, then activated the shutter. Click.

            Moving the camera away from his face, he studied her body, then settled his lens on the curvy line where her ribs became the side of her breast. Click.

            He shifted to the lowest part of her back. That gorgeous dip that then rose to form her fine a*s �" most of which was covered with the crisp white bed sheet she was tangled in. Click.

            Her fingers and the way they were intermingled with her hair. Click.

            The pedicure of her right foot that had been kicked out from under the top sheet. Click.

            Her thigh, just above her slender knee cap. Click.

            “Mmmm,” she groaned in her sleep and shifted positions, pulling her right arm down to her side, away from her face.

            Incredible!

            He approached the bed, crouched down on his haunches to be more at face level with her and focused on her closed eye lid and long lashes �" still dark with yesterday’s mascara. Click.

            The lobe of her ear, adorned with a longer piece of jewelry that lay against her pulse point. Click.

            Her lips were next �" soft pink and natural. Click.

            She moaned again and Aaron straightened himself into a standing position.

            “Ohhh, my head.” She rolled over onto her back, eyes still closed and laid there as if she might fade back to sleep. But slowly her breathing changed and her lashes began to flutter until, finally, they opened.

            Her eyes were hazy and she blankly stared at the wooden beams that held up Aaron’s lofted ceiling. Then she blinked and some of the haze cleared and her eyes traced the length of one of the pieces of wood. She blinked again and confusion settled in. It only stayed a short moment, though, before recognition took over and she cried out in annoyance, “Aaron!”

            “What?”

            Her head snapped to the left at the sound of his voice and she flinched when she found him standing just a few feet away. “Ugh, you scared the s**t out of me!”

            “Sorry.”

            After pulling the top sheet up to cover her nakedness, her eyes scanned the camera in his hands and then they narrowed quickly. “What the hell? Have you been taking pictures of me?”

            “I took a few.”

            “No. Delete them. I don’t want pictures of me naked out there for everyone to see.”

            “They’re close ups; no one can tell they’re of you.”

            “So? Delete them. Now.”

            “Nah, I like them. The lighting was fantastic and your skin has this amazing glow to it.”

            “I don’t care. You can’t just go around taking pictures of me without my permission. Give me the camera; I’ll delete them myself.”

            “The hell you will.”

            “Let me see the pictures, Aaron.” She held out her hand for the camera and he moved to the edge of the bed with it. That was when she snapped it from his grip.

            “Hey, watch it. You know how much that thing cost me.”

            She ignored him and started scrolling through the images. “Just because you’re a photographer doesn’t give you the right to take pictures of whatever you . . .” Her voice dropped off at the same time that her hard expression gave hints of flattery. “This is me?”

            “I told you, you looked damn good.”

            “No you didn’t. You said my skin had an amazing glow.”

            “Well, doesn’t it? I mean, look at the saturation levels.” He excitedly leaned in closer to point it out.

            “I don’t know anything about that stuff,” she muttered and thrust the camera back at him.

            “But you know a great photo when you see it and you just saw several.” Aaron straightened himself. “So �" am I keeping them?”

            “Whatever,” she muttered and rolled her eyes.

            Pleased with the permission she’d just gifted him; he hid his smile and shut off his camera. He replaced the lens cover, put it in the camera bag and sat it on top of his dresser.

            “Aaron, what am I doing at your house?” She rolled over onto her side to get a better look at him.

            “My house? Wasn’t so long ago that you called it our house.”

            “Well, it’s all yours now. So what am I doing here?”

            “You got a little messed up at the bar last night. Oh, wait . . . you got a LOT messed up.”

            “So? What I do is none of your business anymore.”

            “Yeah, I know. And I kept telling myself that, but you were five seconds away from getting your pretty little a*s raped. Someone had to save you.”

            “You can’t rape the willing.”

            “Is that so?” His voice was wooden and he folded his arms across his chest as his jaw line firmed.

            “Yep.”

            “He was too old for you.”

            “I like older guys. After all, I was with you for five years, wasn’t I?”  

            “You’re twenty-five, I’m twenty-seven. He was at least forty-five.”

            “I liked him.”

            “You didn’t even know his name.”

            “Yes I did.”

            “Cool. What was it?”

            “You’re just jealous, Aaron,” her voice sharpened.

            “Yeah, that’s it. I’m jealous. Oh, how I secretly wish I was a forty-five year old man who was groping the tits of some hot little number like you while I was away on business. I wish I could invite her back to my hotel room and plan to screw her, all without showing an ounce of remorse about stepping out on my wife.”

            Wife? Ashley flinched and after swallowing hard, her lips stiffened. “He wasn’t married.”

            “Well, honey, the ring around his finger says he was.”

            “I hate you.”

            “Why? ‘Cause I stopped you from making the biggest mistake of your life, or because I’m embarrassing you by pointing it out?”

            “He wasn’t married.”

            “Okay, keep right on living in your world of make-believe, Ashley. I don’t care. But, damn,” Aaron laughed suddenly. “I wish I could have seen the look on his pathetic face when he came back into the bar for you and you were gone.”

            “You’re being a jerk. I haven’t been your girlfriend for two months, Aaron. I have the right to do whatever I want with whoever it is I want to do it with. I broke up with you for a reason, you know?”

            “Yeah? Let’s hear that reason, because I never really could figure it out.”

            “You’re too overprotective, and last night proves it.”

            “Oh, okay. Well, you know what, Ash, you go find true love and I’ll see what I can do about finding some I’m-happy-for-you. But I have a real hard time coming up with even a hint of it when you’re about to run off with a two-timing pervert you barely met.” He pushed away from the dresser once that was said and moved for the door. He was two steps out when she called out to him.

            “Aaron, did you and I sleep together last night?”

            “We didn’t have a spare bed when you lived here. I didn’t get one after you left, and you know how I feel about the couch. So yes, we slept together.”

            “You know what I mean,” she cried out loudly, then softened her voice before asking, “Did we have sex?”

            He turned to face her and his gaze tenderly caressed her beautiful body. Then, while looking into her eyes, years’ worth of passion they’d created together came rushing back for recall. And it hurt like hell because he still loved her.

            “You were beyond drunk, Ash, and it’s never been in my nature to take advantage of you in that way. You know that.”

            “Then why am I naked?” she asked without ever breaking eye contact.

            “I carried you into the house, got to the kitchen with you and you threw-up again. Got all over both of us, but mostly you. It was down your shirt and in your lap. I took you into the bathroom, held back your hair while you finished, then helped you out of your clothes and into bed.”

            Her expression humbled, responding appropriately to the tenderness in his voice, but her words came out with a bit of a stutter. “Tha. . . thanks.”

            “Sure. I rinsed off your jeans and top, but I just left them in the bottom of the tub to drain. They’ll need washed.”

            “You wallowed in my puke?” she asked, a bit of a smile dancing across her lips.

            Aaron shrugged, “Wasn’t like it was the first time. Remember how sick you were before you miscarried?”

            That word �" that one word �" stabbed them both with indescribable pain.

            Ashley bit at her lower lip as instant moisture filled her pretty eyes.

            “I . . . I’m sorry,” Aaron found his voice a mere whisper. “I didn’t mean to bring that up. I know how badly we both wanted that child. How hard we tried to make it happen and . . . I just wish it would have . . .”

            “Aaron, please.” Ashley’s lip trembled and a tear dropped, one from each of her eyes, and rolled down the sides of her face.

            He wanted to hold her. Wanted to bury his face in her hair and cry with her. Wanted to give and gain comfort by sharing the pain of that crushing loss with her. But he didn’t. She wasn’t his to hold anymore. And the pain wasn’t theirs anymore. It was hers, and it was his, but it was no longer theirs together.

            “Right. I’m shutting up. Again, I’m sorry.” He swallowed the lump in his throat, moved further down the hall, then took the stairs to ground level, two at a time.

 

 

            He was in the kitchen when she entered, some twenty minutes later, looking and feeling particularly haggard from the night before. She was wearing one of his business shirts, the dark blue one. It was a little baggy on her slender frame and it hung to the middle of her upper thighs. She’d left the top few buttons unfastened and on certain angles, Aaron could see a tantalizing amount of breast peeking out. Tempting him to press his chest against hers and kiss her mouth. Irritating him that he couldn’t.

            She took a couple steps deeper into the room and then stopped. “Awe, Aaron, you kept the cat.” Her eyes danced as Skipper came skipping in from the open living room and let out a meow, before rubbing against her bare legs.

            When Ashley bent to dote on the animal, Aaron had to squeeze his eyes closed tightly �" unable to handle, without a proper outlet, what the exposed flesh of her lower a*s was causing to happen inside his pants.

            “Yeah, I kept her. What did you think I was going to do with her? Kick her to the curb?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “You left, but she seemed to want to stay, so I let her.” He opened his eyes again and Ashley was facing him, holding the white and black long haired cat in her arms and against her chest.

            “Can I find you something else to put on? I just got that shirt back from the cleaners.” His voice reflected the edge he was now on.

            “It wasn’t in a dry cleaning bag.”

            “But it was on one of their hangers.”

            “So? You have a million of those things in the closet. You use them for everything. You even hang your socks on them.”

            “I do not.”

            “Practically.”

            “I don’t want cat fur on that shirt, Ash.”

            Looking down at Skipper, Ashley cooed, “And his overprotectiveness raises its ugly head again, this time over his shirt.”

            “I’m not being overprotective,” Aaron said with insult. “I just have to wear that shirt on Monday when I meet with Hayden. I cannot �" will not �" go into his office looking like I was attacked by a giant fuzz ball.”

            “Okay.”

            “Well, I’m not being overprotective.”

            “Okay.”

            “Look, it’s already getting wrinkled,” he pointed out the creases in the fabric.

            “Okay!” Dropping Skipper to her feet on the floor, Ashley tugged roughly at the buttons and then stripped off his shirt. Stark naked underneath, she made a point of laying the shirt, perfectly straight and pristine, over the back of the couch that separated the kitchen from the living room. Then she picked off a few pieces of fur with the very tips of her fingers, as if they were filthy and disgusting.

            When she finally turned back to face him, his hands were on his hips and his head was cocked to the left. “Why do you have to be like that?” he asked, unamused.

            “What?” she shrugged. “You wanted me to take it off, I took it off.”

            “You know what I mean, Ashley. The production. The show. Why can’t you just see that keeping the shirt clean is important to me and be like, ‘okay, I’m sorry,’ and go change it?” He moved for the laundry room just off of the kitchen and she followed him.

            “I don’t know, maybe the same reason you weren’t just like, ‘I better mind my own business,’ while you were at the bar last night.”

            “Wow, you really wanted to hook up with that d********g, didn’t you?”

            “I just don’t like the fact that you kidnaped me and dragged me into your bed.”

            “Yeah? Well, having nothing to go off of except the FIVE years in which I got to know you so well, I just had this crazy notion that you were going to be a lot less happy waking up in his bed than you would in mine.”

            “I wouldn’t have really slept with him.”

            “Ashley,” Aaron changed his tone to a very serious and sensitive one. “You’d led him on to the point that he only had one thing on his mind. And trust me; you were far too wasted to stop him from getting it. You would have passed out in his hotel room and he’d have done God knows what to you.”

            Her eyebrows furrowed with the discomforting thought and she stood in silence, studying his face.

            He pulled a white business style shirt off of a hanger on the back of the door and held it out for her to slip into, which she did.

            “At least you can trust that I won’t rape you, or get mad and beat you up when you puke on me.”

            “This shirt smells like you. Is it dirty?”

            “Not necessarily. I only wore it for about an hour yesterday.”

            “Well, it smells like you.”

            “Is that a bad thing?”

            “Didn’t use to be.”

            “Is it now?”

            She turned her head and took in a long whiff of the shirt that covered her shoulder, then shrugged. “No.”

            This brought a smile to Aaron’s inside that showed up on his outside as well. He pulled open the drier door and extracted a pair of his boxers. “Here, put these on.”

            With a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look wrinkling her features; she looked at them, then him, then them again.

            “Okay, I know you could make about twenty-three and a half pairs of those skimpy panties you were wearing last night out of the amount of fabric that’s here, but, please, for my sake.” He didn’t know how much more of her a*s he could look at without blowing a fuse. He pushed the boxers a little closer, urging her to take them, and she did.

            “You didn’t like my panties?” She asked stepping into the boxers.

            Aaron whistled low. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, baby, I loved them, but . . . Ugh! You know?”

            Ashley smiled and pulled his underwear up over her hips then let go. “Little big,” she said when they slid right back down. She caught them from falling to her ankles by spreading her legs awkwardly apart.

            Trying not to laugh, Aaron shook his head.

            “I can fix them,” she said. She pulled them back up, made a fold in the waistband and then rolled it down a few times until it stayed put around the widest part of her hips.

            “Always were inventive and smart.” He moved passed her and back out into the kitchen.

            “Are you being sarcastic?” She followed, taking a seat on a stool at the breakfast bar. She rested her folded arms on the counter top and laid her head down on them.

            “No, I wasn’t being sarcastic. Why would you think that?”

            “Because you get that way sometimes and maybe you’re still mad about the whole shirt thing.”

            “I never was mad about the shirt.”

            “Whatever, Aaron, I could hear it in your voice.”

            “I was a little annoyed, is all. You’re not feeling so well, are you?”

            “My head hurts so bad I feel like I’m gonna hurl.”

            “I’m sure all the bickering we’ve been doing isn’t helping.”

            “Not at all.”

            Aaron opened the cabinet above the sink and drew out a few bottles of vitamins and one of Ibuprofen. When he was finished mixing and matching them, he laid them, and a glass of water, in front of Ashley. “We never use to bicker like this when we were together, why are we doing it now?”

            One pill at a time, Ashley swallowed all six, then returned her head to the counter top and shrugged. “I guess because we’re not together anymore.” Her voice was a little melancholy and Aaron studied her, wondering if it was due to the hangover or sorrow for their breakup.

            “Oh, I guess we had our moments,” Aaron said turning to open the fridge. “Like the time you chased me through the house with that shoe, threatening to beat the stupid out of me.”

            “And think how much better off you’d have been if I’d actually caught you.”

            Aaron chuckled and glanced over his shoulder at her. Without picking up her head, she smiled back, then took in another long whiff of his shirt and closed her eyes.

            In the blender, Aaron mixed a wild concoction of fresh fruits, O.J., soy milk, water, salt and cayenne pepper and poured it into a glass. He sat it down in front of Ashley then checked his watch.

            “I’ve got a shoot at two,” he said. “Drink that slowly.”

            “Two today?” She lifted her head.

            “Yup,” he said and sat to work returning the items he’d gotten out to their proper places.

            “But it’s Saturday.”

            “Photographers do work on weekends, Ash. I just never used to because you didn’t work on weekends and I wanted to spend that time with you. But . . .” He rinsed out the blender and stuck it in the dishwasher. “I wasn’t expecting to have company today when I made the appointment. I’ve gotta go get cleaned up.” He was jogging up the stairs a few seconds later.

 

            “So what are you shooting this time?” Her voice in the bathroom with him made him crack open the shower curtain to peek out. She was sitting on the counter top, knees close to her chest and leaning against the wall, the way she always used to when they were having a conversation and he had to shower. She took a sip of the fruity mixture she’d brought with her, then continued. “Is it the barely dressed, uber beautiful models who flirt with you and give you their phone numbers because you’re one of the uber pretty people too?”

            Back to washing the suds out of his hair, he said, “No. This is one of those 364 other days of the year where I photograph things like dogs taking a hud on the lawn, and eagerly await the day when my patent for scratch-n-sniff photos is approved.”

            “Eww, that’s sick!”

            “Yes it is.”

            “Why did you say that?”

            “I have no idea.”

            “Don’t say it again.”

            “I won’t.”

            “So, what is it really? I mean, I saw some of your work on display at Millagun’s Fine Arts a few weeks ago, but they were photo’s you’d already shown me �" the bridges. What are you working on now?”

            “Well, I met this uber rich dude the other day that just happened to have some uber rare horses. I talked him into letting me photograph them. I’m going to pitch the pictures to some equestrian magazines that Hayden thinks will kill for them.” He shut off the water, pulled open the curtain and grabbed for a towel. That was when he caught her checking out his package.

            Wrapping the towel around his waist, he frowned.

            “What? You got to see me naked today,” she said.

            “And fair is fair.”

            “Exactly.”

            “It shouldn’t work that way. Not in this situation, anyway.” Aaron removed a second towel from the bar and more fully dried his body and hair. He brushed his teeth, applied some deodorant, a light spritz of cologne and then he moved into his attached bedroom.

            Ashley climbed down from the counter and trailed after him. She placed her glass on the night stand next to the bed and then carefully lay down.

            “Feeling any better, yet?” Aaron asked stepping into the walk-in closet in search of something to wear.

            “The drink is helping to settle my stomach some, but my head is still throbbing.”

            “You sure drank a hell of a lot. I was surprised you lasted until last call.”

            Ashley didn’t respond, but Aaron could feel her watching him, just as she had in the bathroom. Lying on her side, her eyes moved with him as he exited the closet, tossed a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt onto the edge of the bed and then fished a pair of boxers out of the dresser drawer.

            With his back toward her, Aaron dropped his towel to the floor and stepped into his underwear. When he returned to the bedside for the rest of his clothing, Ashley was studying his body.

            “Have you slept with anyone since we broke up?” she asked quietly.

            “Yeah. Rosie Palm and her five friends.” Grinning, Aaron held up his right hand and wiggled his fingers. “They do me every morning and sometimes at night.”

            Ashley smiled. “That’s all you’ve done, masturbate?”

            Averting his eyes by reaching for his jeans, Aaron spoke in a much more sober tone. “I tried having sex. Made-out with some chick, one night, got her fully undressed but . . . She wasn’t you under the clothing and . . . It just didn’t feel right so I left.”

            “To lose a man as sexy as you, right in the heat of battle �" ouch. Bet that pissed her off.” Ashley spoke with a slight grin.

            “She was pretty fired up. Said some not-so-nice things to me. Said guys like me should be castrated on the spot.” He laughed about it for a second, not that he found it all that funny, then asked, “How about you?”

            “D****e Bag was my first attempt, and thanks to you, it was an epic fail as well.”

            “You were gonna replace me with him? Where’s the gun, I think I want to kill myself.”

            “I was drunk,” she gave an embarrassed smile.

            “And that, my dear, is the only thing that is keeping me alive and sane.”

            The room fell silent while Aaron put on his shirt, hung up his towel to dry, and combed his hair. But when he sat down on the edge of the bed in front of Ashley to pull on his socks and shoes, she spoke.

            “Do you miss me?”

            The question stung severely and he wasn’t able to answer right away. He finished with his shoes and then leaned over his knees and rubbed his face. “Yes, I miss you. It hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before when you left, Ash, and ninety-five percent of the pain is still there. But I don’t want you to be with me if I’m not making you happy, so I’m trying to cope. I will say that I’ve come to realize I don’t sleep much without you in the bed next to me.” He paused before adding. “Then again, I didn’t get much sleep last night with you here, either.”

            “You didn’t? Why not?”

            With his back still toward her, he answered, “Because I brought you up here, laid you down in your old spot and got into mine, but I couldn’t quit looking at you. I spent most of the night touching your hair and crying.”

            “That’s really sad.”

            “Tell me about it.” Rising from the bed Aaron gathered up his camera bag from the dresser and added it to the case with the rest of his gear. He threw the strap over his shoulder, then paused to study Ashley for a long moment. He wished he didn’t have to go. Wished, also, that he could lean over her and kiss her goodbye, the way he always used to.

            “Well,” he said swallowing yet another lump. “I’ll be gone until evening, I’m sure. Stay as long as you need to. I hope you get feeling better. And you should try to finish your drink.”

            She nodded. Smiled weakly then lifted a hand up off of the bed to wave at him.

            “Bye.” And he was gone. He couldn’t stay and look at her any longer, it was killing him.

           

            The sky was darkening by the time Aaron arrived home. He shut off the engine of his car, collapsed back against his seat and stared at his house. She’d left. The proof was in the fact that no inner light shone from any of the windows. The place was dark. Ironically he’d felt the same way inside without her.

            Should he call her? Use the excuse that he was just checking up to make sure she’d gotten home alright? Or should he go back to honoring her request that he leave her alone?

            Damn, this sucks.

            Climbing out of the car Aaron gathered his gear and headed for the house. He’d left the front door unlocked, but it was locked now. Another sign she’d gone. He dug out his key, fitted it to the lock and then pushed open the door. Stepping inside he was surrounded by loneliness and he couldn’t stop the recall of Ashley’s words, ‘what am I doing at your house?’ It had always felt like their house to him.

            Maybe tonight would be a good night to hit the bar again. This time he’d drink enough to forget.

            Making his way from the entry into the livingroom, Aaron clicked on the lamp. The bulb was low wattage and it cast a dim yellow hue across the walls. He turned toward the stairs, intent on taking his camera to his room where it belonged. But as he turned, his eyes caught hold of the human figure lying on the couch �" cuddled up with Skipper.

            “You’re still here,” he said, an easy smile spreading across his face.

            “Don’t have a car to get home in,” Ashley said. “And since I don’t have my purse, I have no money to pay a cab. I thought about stealing some of yours from that secret stash you keep in the pocket of the jacket you never wear . . .”

            “You know about that?” Aaron grinned, entering the room to stand by the couch.

            Ashley nodded. “But then I realized it wouldn’t do me any good, because I have no key to get into my house once I’m there. Can’t even call a friend to come get me because you took your phone, and mine is . . . where exactly is mine?”

            “I’m sure Brandon picked it up from your table, along with your purse and jacket. Or at least I hope he did. I can give you a ride home �" stop by the bar on the way and see if we can locate your stuff.”

            “Umm, I haven’t washed my clothes, yet. Can’t go out dressed like this, now can I?”

            “No. I wouldn’t recommend it. Want me to throw them in the washer for you?”

            “I don’t know, you probably want to find something to eat first, don’t you?”

            Uber rich dude and his wife had fed him already, but Aaron knew he’d be an idiot to say so. “Yes, food first, for sure. How about you, you hungry? Can I make you something?”

            “Yeah, I could eat. I’ll help.” She nudged Skipper, who jumped down from the couch, and then Ashley rose to her feet. She moved until she was only a few inches away from him, and she lifted her gaze to meet his.

            She was so close, and the height difference so familiar, that Aaron had to jam his hands into his pockets to keep from touching her.

            “Thanks for saving me from D********g,” she said. “I guess I was just too drunk to notice his ring. I really wouldn’t have been happy with myself when I woke and realized it.”

            “Ahh, don’t mention it. We all mess up sometimes.”

            “Yeah, I guess. But really �" thanks.”

            “You’re welcome. So, Ash, am I . . . am I really too overprotective?”

            She smiled at him. “Sometimes, yes.”

            “What can I do to fix it? I mean, so I can avoid it being an issue with whoever I end up with in the future.”

            “Well, you can start by sitting your gear down just any-ol’ where. No one is going to touch it, you know? It doesn’t have to be in its proper place at all times. Nothing does.”

            “Humm.” Sliding the strap off of his shoulder, Aaron swung the bag forward and let it land easily on the coffee table before releasing it.

            Ashley watched it settle then looked back up at him. “Maybe what you need most is a woman who’s a little more understanding and not so critical of you because of it.”

            “Do you know any? ‘Cause I’m really willing to work on it so I don’t drive her crazy, and . . . well, I could really use a woman. I’ve been pretty lonely.”

            “I know a woman. She’s really sorry and she’d need some forgiveness, but . . . if you were willing to grant her that, she might be a good match for you.”

            “I don’t know, I’m kind of picky, anymore. I only want a really beautiful woman that turns me inside out, and her name has to be Ashley. It’s this weird fetish I have, sorry.”

            “I think I know just the woman.”

            “How does she kiss? She has to have a kiss that really knocks me off my feet.”

            “Oh my gosh, Aaron, you wouldn’t believe how awesome she can kiss. She kisses like no one’s business, and she makes love that way, too.”

            “Really? Think she’d prove it?”

            With a sassy smile, Ashley released the few buttons that held the shirt she wore together and nodded, “Oh, yeah, she’ll prove it.”

            Groaning low in his throat, Aaron smiled back and stepped in to reclaim the best thing that had ever been his. He kissed her perfectly hot mouth with his, whispered, “I love you, Ash,” then scooped her up into his arms and took her upstairs.

Author's Note

I don't typically write short stories, but would love to know what you think of this attempt.