“Really?” Sam’s mind is running wild. “To change her face?”
“Boob and nose job.”
“Oh wow.” Sam can never understand people who do that. Sure, she’s as insecure about her ability to attract men as the next woman (though her insecurities have gotten a lot less since she started sleeping with Brian). “Why do you think?”
“I’m only able to produce hard facts, Ms. Fox, not the reasons behind it, unless she has visited a therapist.”
“Has she?”
“Not yet.”
“Interesting.” Sam flips to the next page. “She works for an upstart pharmaceutical company which specializes in new, cutting-edge technology.”
The PI stabs his thumb on a dossier. “I thought you would find this interesting.”
Sam takes it. The file is on an experimental drug called CKZ2486 which is hailed as the new Ambien. She reads quickly and arrives at what the PI has circled in red ink: OVERDOSE MAY CAUSE SERUM SODIUM AND POTASSIUM ABNORMALITIES, AS WELL AS ELEVATED BLOOD UREA AND SERUM CREATININE.
*
Sam stares at the walls of her new apartment. She hasn’t even fully unpacked yet. There are not yet any pictures on the walls of her lounge, which is half the size of Brian’s bedroom. The lovely new white sofa is a vision amongst the red-and-white striped armchairs.
Unless she gets a new job at the same salary, she’s going to have to give all this up after her retrenchment package runs out.
Her computer is alight in front of her, her browser latched to Jobstreet.com. Why isn’t anyone hiring these days? But of course, the economy hasn’t recovered, and people are firing instead of the other way around. She can try suing Rutgard for falsely leading her on, but she doubts the courts are going to award anything in her favor.
Besides, she can’t afford to hire a lawyer.
The doorbell rings. It’s about the time. She called for pizza delivery an hour ago.
“Come in,” she calls. “And I hope you remembered the olives this time.”
The door whines open. “I hope you like olives with wonton.”
“Brian!”
She can’t help smiling as he strides in, his arms full. He juggles her pizza with several takeaway bags littered with Chinese characters. He puts them down on her coffee table.
“I thought we’d celebrate being unemployed,” he announces. He’s dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of ragged jeans.
“That’s a cause for celebration,” she remarks.
“What’s not to celebrate? Waking up at noon to birdsong and sunshine. A leisurely hour sipping coffee at a sidewalk café, watching all the poor schmucks spilling their lattes as they rush down South Michigan Avenue to get back to their respective ball and chains.”
He plunks himself down on the sofa and puts his legs up. He’s attempting a grin, but underneath it all, she knows he is hurting as much as she is.
She seizes a carton and holds a pair of chopsticks up to him. “So here we are, celebrating our first day of freedom.”
Only it feels so empty.
He takes the carton and chopsticks from her. “I’m going to try tweezing a pizza with these. I’m going to have all the time in the world to learn new tricks.” He glimpses her computer screen. “Sending out resumes?”
“Yeah.” She sighs. “Only there are probably a thousand applicants for each one.”
“Maybe now is the time to follow that dream.” He waves a prawn ball with his chopsticks. She notes that he wields them like a pro. Probably spends his entire life eating take-out dinners.
“What dream?”
“The gym dream.”
“Brian, I don’t even have the money to keep this apartment, let alone start a gym.”
“I’ll give you the money.” He observes her face. “OK, I’ll lend you the money as a partner. It will be our gym. You can run it, since I know f**k all about running gyms, and I can do the marketing and advertising.”
She stares at him as if he has suddenly grown a third eye. “Are you serious?”
“If I were any more serious, I’d be dead.”
“I thought you were unemployed.”
“Doesn’t mean I’ve lost all my money overnight. I’ll still get profits from Vanguard, provided it hasn’t fallen into the red by my very public misdemeanors. I’ll have more than enough to pump something into our gym, pardon the pun.”
He sounds so earnest that she wants to believe him.
“Wow,” she says, “you really are serious about this.”
“Want to nail my coffin shut?”
She’s not going to tell him about Adele Jankovic. At least, not until she has time to check it out.
She’s not going to tell him how much she loves him either.
*
When they have finished dinner, they fall into bed. Her bed.
He tears off his T-shirt and whispers, “I’m going to make it up to you for the other night.”
She lies there, never taking her eyes off him. How can she? He’s so beautiful, with his large eyes lighted up like that, and his sleek, well-toned body gleaming in her lamplight.
He climbs on top of her. She’s fully dressed, but not for long. He begins to teasingly grope her br**sts beneath her top until her ni**les are all perky and flushed. Then he bends his head down to kiss her.
And oh, what a kiss. Compared to the other night, he seems to have shed most of his burdens. His lips are hungry, ravenous, imbued with a need she hasn’t felt from him in a long time. He scrunches her T-shirt as his mouth devours hers, and after a while – with the hardening apparent between his legs – he seizes its hem and rips it over her tousled head.
They shack their clothes systematically. His jeans drop to the floor beside hers. Underwear off, followed by her pretty red bra. When they are both naked, he clasps her hand and guides it to his erection – now magnificent and as solid as his determination.
“Feel it,” he says.
Her hand grabs the thick shaft of his penis and lovingly runs back and forth. She massages his glistening knob, feeling it grow harder – if possible – under her expert rub.
“Oh wow, baby’s back,” she breathes.
“For many more sequels . . . in the same night.”
He tongues her neck, her chin, the depression between her collar bones. She shivers in anticipation, her entire body quivering and primed to his delicate touch. He moves his tongue in a line between her br**sts, and buries his face there, licking and tasting her. His fingers flip her ni**les back and forth. Then his mouth closes on her right nipple, and he begins an intense sucking that makes her toes curl.