FicWad

The first kiss was nice and gentle. Dave lightly brushed his lips on top of mine. It felt like the caress of the wings of a butterfly. I was really shocked by Dave's kiss. It wasn't something I had at all been expecting, but then again, what had I been expecting? To my surprise, I also found that I was enjoying Dave's kiss. It felt really nice to have someone pay attention to me and touch my body after so many days of sudden, unexplainable neglect from James.

Once Dave realized what he was doing, he quickly broke away from me and turned bright red, "Sorry, I just hate to hear about your problems with James and-" I cut off his sentence and pressed a finger against his full lips, "Seriously, you don't have to apologize. That felt good." With a little bit of the seductiveness I usually reserved for James, I gave Dave a flirtatious smile and then initiated the second kiss. This kiss was longer and a bit harder than the first. After that kiss, the two of us still couldn't get enough. Somehow, I ended up on Dave's lap, pressing hard against his lips and popping my tongue into his mouth. Dave kissed me back just as passionately, resting his tongue against mine.

We kissed for probably around five minutes until we heard a loud cough behind us. We guilty broke apart and I sat back into my own chair, feeling a bit flustered and reckless. Luckily, it was only Ron who had coughed. He was looking at us with an unreadable expression and was shaking his head slowly, "Olivia, aren't you with James? You really need to stop messing around with everyone, okay? If you get into another fight with James, I'm the one who's gonna have to listen to him cuss about it all night long."

Ron made me feel instantly guilty and I nodded with shame, "Yeah, I know. I'll go see what James is up to and save him before he gets too drunk to make his way out of here." Turning to Dave one last time, I ran my fingertips along his jawline and said, "'Night, Dave. I'll probably see you again sooner or later. Great job tonight."

Without a look backwards, I stood up from my chair and clunked across the floor in my stilettos. When I found James, he was no longer talking with the blonde, but was standing in the corner of the room with a brooding expression on his face. his eyes were narrowed slightly and I could tell that he obviously had something on his mind. Wondering what that something might be, I stepped forward and tentatively tapped James on the shoulder to get his attention.

James jerked out of the reverie he was having and blinked slightly as he looked over at me. Suddenly, he peered down at his watch and said, "It's gotten pretty late. We should probably go, don't you think?" I supposed that James was probably right. If we stuck around the club any longer, I would probably just find myself getting into more trouble with Dave or something.

"Yeah, I guess so," I replied. James dumped his empty beer bottle into a nearby trash can, tucked a loose blonde curl behind one ear, and then picked up his guitar case. The two of us filed silently through the talking and laughing people until we reached the door and stepped out into the cool night air. It was almost refreshing to be outside after feeling so smothered in the club. It seemed so peaceful and quiet outside with no sound but the lazy chirping of crickets.

James and I got into the red truck and James pulled out of the parking lot in silence. There was something wrong with the silence. It was like one of those really tense silences where there are things that need to be said, but nobody has the guts to say them. It was odd because James hadn't even bothered to turn his crappy country music radio station on. Finally needing to break the silence, I said, "Nice job today with the band. I think you did a great job."

"Thanks," James said and then lapsed into silence once more. I had hoped that James would've been a little happier or relieved about the show, but apparently his mood had not changed at all from earlier. Trying to think of something else to say, I said, "You know how I don't have a job anymore? I was thinking that I should probably start looking for one. That way we don't have to worry about being so short on money all the time. Anyways, I really like the Whiskey A Go Go. Maybe I'll see if I can get a job there."

"No!" James replied a little too suddenly, unconsciously slamming down on the brakes of the car as he did so. Wondering what the hell was wrong with my suggestion, I looked at James rather skeptically, thinking that he had probably had a few too many beers tonight. James blushed as he returned the car to normal speed and said, "Um, I just don't like the thought of you working at clubs. Especially that club. We'll find you a different job okay?"

Thinking there was more a reason than that to why James didn't want me working at the Whiskey, I nodded dubiously and rode along back to the apartment with James in silence.

~ ~ ~ ~

Two hours later, I was sitting in bed with my skimpiest nightie on and a pound of makeup on my face. I didn't care what it took; I was going to do everything in my power to make James notice me tonight. He had promised to make love to me tonight and I was definitely going to hold him to that promise. Unfortunately, James seemed to be putting off the prospect of going to bed. He had told me that he needed to do something in the living room before he went to bed.

Well, it was an hour and a half later, and James still wasn't in the bedroom. I sighed to myself, thinking that this was getting kind of ridiculous. I started debating whether or not to go into the living room and see if James was actually doing something in there or not. If he had made up the whole store about having things to do and was just lounging around, he was going to have to do a lot of explaining to me. Feeling kind of pissed off, I was just about to get out of bed when the bedroom door opened.

James stepped inside, looking very sleepy. He seemed to drag his feet across the floor and he seemed like he could topple over at any second from exhaustion. Not looking at me, he climbed into the bed and stretched out onto his side, unintentionally exposing that gorgeous chest of his to me. He was too beautiful to resist. I slid over to his side of the bed and started planting kisses down his neck. James didn't push me away, put he didn't really respond to my presence either. I was starting to wonder if I had become invisible to him or something. Maybe he was too drunk to notice me or something.

Undeterred, I started sucking down on the sides of his neck and let my hands travel down to the button of his pants. As I undid the button and the zipper, I could feel James' cock press hard against my thumb. Apparently he wasn't so oblivious to me after all. But just as I was about to take another move, James slapped my hands away from him and pushed me roughly across the bed. Totally confused, I stared at him in hurt and shock. I had thought he had wanted me. I mean, he had always wanted me before. What was wrong? Had I done something to hurt him? Was he still mad about the whole thing with Dave? I had no clue.

Looking a little guilty at seeing the hurt expression on my face, James sighed, "Sorry, Olive. I'm too tired tonight. Let's just go to bed." James had tried that excuse on me before. It wasn't going to work this time. I knew way better than that. James may think that I was naive enough to believe his pathetic excuse, but this time it wasn't going to work.

Sitting up in bed, I frowned over at him and stated, "Look, James, you said that the last three nights. I know something is going on with you. Are you going to tell me what it is? I mean, if you don't like me anymore or whatever, just say so! You've been acting so weird towards me lately. You don't want anything to do with me and you won't even look at me."

Even now, James was avoiding my eye and was looking at some invisible spot on the sheets. Finally, he said still without looking at me, "Maybe it would be easier for me not to tell you." I thought about that answer for a moment or two before I replied, "Okay, sure, maybe it would be easier for you if you didn't tell me. Guess what though? It's a lot harder on me this way. You keep neglecting me and you act like I don't even exist. If you wanna break up with me, just nod your head or something. That way you don't have to say it aloud or whatever. So, do you want to break up with me?"

I held my breath as I waited for James' response. If he said he wanted to break up with me, I swear that I would go and jump out the window and try to kill myself. Life without James wasn't worth living. But instead of nodding his head like I had expected him to, James shook his head and stated fervently, "No, that's not it at all. I don't want to break up with you."

"For god's sake, what the hell is it then?" I asked in a voice much louder than I had planned to use. From outside the bedroom, we could hear a loud, disgruntled sigh. The two of us were obviously keeping Ron up. Lowering my voice, I added, "James, we can't be together unless you tell me what's going on. I told you what went on with me and Dave. I'm sure what you did wasn't nearly as bad as that. So really, once you put everything into perspective, I don't think it should be that hard for you to tell me what's going on."

That's when James started breaking down. He sat up cross-legged on the bed next to me and looked at me with eyes that told of misery and regret, "But you see, Olive, it is just as bad as what you do. Actually, it's worse. I wanted to tell you...but...when you look at me like that, I just couldn't. You trusted me and I didn't want to break your trust..."

Oh god, this was definitely not something I had expected at all. I didn't think that there was any crime better than the one I had committed with Dave. Either James was being paranoid, or he had done something really bad. Not sure if I really wanted to hear this bad news or not, I took a calming deep breath and said, "It's okay. I'll still trust you after this no matter how bad whatever you did is. So now please just tell me and let's get it over with. I'm not good at dealing with suspense."

James nodded and when he spoke again, his voice was shaking slightly, "You know that night you spent with Dave? How I didn't come home that night and stuff?" Uh oh, I didn't like where this was going. However, I needed to remain cool and keep my composure for now. When James was done with his story, then I could scream and yell at him all I wanted. Nodding, I said, "Yeah, I remember that night. You said you had spent the night at Lars' place."

For some odd reason, the tips of James' ears turned bright red. Not able to meet my gaze, he said all in a rush, "Well, you see the thing is, I didn't spent that night at Lars' house. I went to the Whiskey instead." Not seeing what was so bad about that, I raised an eyebrow and shrugged at him. I mean, why should I care if James spent his night at the Whiskey? True, I didn't want to see him getting drunk or anything, but that certainly wasn't as bad as what Dave and I had done.

Looking very nervous and jumpy now, James continued on, "I met a dancer there." I immediately froze and looked over at him with wide eyes. Not feeling at all like myself, I asked in a hollow voice, "What do you mean by 'dancer' exactly? Was she a stripper or a prostitute or something?" There were unfortunately a lot of pretty strippers at the clubs. I had seen that for myself tonight.

"Um, yeah, she was a stripper," James said in a soft, barely audible voice. "Anyways, like I was saying, I had been drinking for quite a while before she found me. She came over, got my attention, and started talking to me. She seemed like a nice girl from what I could tell. When the club shut down for the night, she invited me back to her house." I was really starting to think that I had heard enough at this point. Maybe if I closed my eyes, I would wake up and find that all this was a dream.

Finally daring to meet my gaze, James added, "I ended up sleeping with her." I had kind of figured that all along, but actually hearing James say it aloud was a thousand times worse. It had just never occurred to me that James hadn't spent the other night at Lars'. I had always trusted him and it was just really out of his character to do something like this. I could feel hot, angry tears pushing their way out of my eyes, but I forced them back.

"Did you have sex or did you just sleep with her?" I asked him, hoping that maybe there was a small chance that James had slept in her bed but not fucked her. Something deep inside already knew the answer to my question though. James, looking even more guilty than before, said weakly, "I had sex with her."