Page 20 of The Bride
“She’s freaking upstairs. What if she comes downstairs for some damn water?”
Her face got hard then. “Oh sorry. Wouldn’t want to upset yourwife.”
And there it was. Fun drunk Janet was gone. Apparently that last shot had finally kicked in. I, however, still wanted to salvage the night.
Translated, I wanted to fuck someone. And my girlfriend was Janet.
“Look, let’s just go to the bunk house. We’ll have all the privacy we want.”
“The bunk house? We can’t even have sex in the house where you now live because you’re afraid of what…? Ellie is going to find out that you have sex?”
“She knows I have sex,” I muttered. Not really even comfortable with that.
“I got it. Sam was old fashioned, so you wouldn’t let me spend the night. But get real, Jake. Ellie is a big girl who I’m sure can handle me being here.”
“Actually she asked that I not let you stay overnight in the house.”
That was probably the wrong thing to say. I literally watched my chance to get laid evaporate in front of me.
Janet’s arms were crossed over her chest, her face was hard. Not the image of a woman who still wanted to give me head.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Look, it’s her house. She knows we date, yes. But it’s not like she knows you that well. How would you feel if you woke up and some stranger was making coffee in your kitchen?”
“I’m not some fucking stranger, Jake. I’m your girlfriend of two fucking years. And I’m not going to hide out in the bunk house like I’m… I’m… your fucking mistress!”
I really hated it when she cursed. She didn’t do it often. But when she started, she couldn’t stop herself.
I lowered my voice in an attempt to get her to do the same. I did this so I wouldn’t have to tell her to be quiet, which whenever I did that with difficult drunk Janet, she invariably got louder.
“I don’t get what the big deal is. You’ve always been fine with the bunk house. It’s nice in there with the fireplace going.”
She stood, wobbled on her feet a little, but steadied herself.
“Take me home.”
“Janet…” I sighed. I really wanted to get laid.
“Now.”
“Yeah. Okay.” The night was over. I could see it in her face.
I drove her home without a word between us. There was no point. She was too drunk to really listen or understand anything I might have said. I thought about the hand job I would give myself when I got home as a way to distract myself.
The reality was that by the time I took her back to her place, then drove all the way back to Long Valley, I was too tired to do anything but crash. A rancher worked seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, and I needed to be up at dawn.
I made a mental note to talk to Ellie about always locking the door before I fell asleep.
Six
Ellie
February
“This is weird. Do you think everyone will be staring at us?” I asked Jake as I sat in the passenger seat of his truck while I looked across the parking lot of Nash’s Grocery Store.
“Why would people be staring at us?”
