That 90's Gap In-Between Ch. 04

For a moment she thought it was possible he just really wanted to go a great job at the university but then she realized from time to time she noticed him smiling to himself at his cell phone, something she hadn't seen in months. Alex was something she never really saw before, Alex was happy and since his relocation to Atlanta this was a first, she had no idea what was making him so happy or even why. All she knew for sure was it wasn't her and she wasn't happy about that.

Vicki turned to follow him down the narrow hall and stopped him again by calling his name. When he stopped she knew that the next few questions were none of her business but she had to get to the bottom of why he was avoiding her. Why he hadn't called since his first day and why he left in the middle of the night and never returned her calls.

"Alex!" She called, swiftly walking to catch him.

"Yeah, Vic?" he said, stopping and turning towards her.

"Can I ask you something? She said, walking to stand next to him.

"Yeah sure anything. You know that." He said, gesturing for her to follow him.

"Will you come over tonight? I need you to help me with..." she looked him up and down. "something."

"I have plans tonight; can we do it another day?" He said, pushing back his sleeve to glance at his watch to check the current time.

"Actually, it's more of an itch that needs to be scratched, if you know what I mean." She said reaching for his shoulder trying to keep to his pace.

"Oh." he said, stopping again wide eyed and slightly nervous.

"Look, Vicki... I really don't think that since we work together we should be sleeping together too," he said more quietly, as they walked passed a group of undergrads on the trek to his car.

It was around two in the afternoon and the students on campus were scarce but still roaming around, Alex wanted to make it Harlee before the complex where she was staying was filled with more undergraduates than needed. When Alex began to slow his pace to turn to her she began to talk again.

"But... I don't see... "She said, as her eyes had widened and that black hole returned into the pit of her stomach.

"I know. I feel like a douche for saying it like this and here of all places, but even though we had been fooling around prior to you getting me the job here." For a brief moment, he stopped and took a deep breath and turned towards the beautiful woman in front of him, searching for a response."

"I don't think now is entirely appropriate, I am the new guy on the chopping block and being involved intimately with someone I work with and not married to can become an issue if it was to get out. Ya know?" He said, slightly shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head in shame.

"I mean what if this does get out and your daughter found out? That would be hard to explain why her uncle Alex is screwing her mom. Or even Jerry your ex-husband, do you think he would be okay with you sleeping with me?" He said, trying to reason with her.

"He doesn't control us, we are adults! And besides with spilt weekends, Kayla would never find out anyway." She returned in defense raising her voice an octave.

"Vic," he said, cautioning his next words to her carefully. "It's more to it than just Kayla and your ex. I don't want you." He stopped as the expression on her face turned from soft and concerning to enraged and hurt.

"I mean, uh I said that wrong ugh.. look... I don't want us to pretend to be something we aren't. You and your ex-husband, have been friends with me for years, I'm little Kayla's uncle Alex. She looks up to me and I adore her. Over the years your family has been very supportive and great when my dad got sick Jerry and you paid for his hospital bills and I can never repay that debt and I know this... you and me.. are nowhere on the list of things to pay someone back. I never want to betray him or you by jeopardizing it with my dick." Alex said as he placed a soft supportive hand on her shoulder.

"But your dick is worth jeopardizing for," Vicki said sweetly looking down at him.

"I know and that...this.." he started signaling to his crotch. "... is the fucking problem. I shouldn't have let this happen in the first place, I was drunk you were crying over him and my dick kinda steered us down a wicked road you and I shouldn't really be on. Ever. I still want to be there for you in any way you need me as a friend but, strictly professional" He said. 'Fuck I sound like a dick' he thought to himself, he just did something he never thought he would ever need to do.

"Alex, I am not some young 25-year-old trying to play some sick twisted game of hide the pickle with you. You're making it sound like your dick has the power of some fucking God and I don't know how to handle my emotions" Vicki said through gritted teeth. Within a span of moments, she had become upset by what Alex was telling her. The more he kept talking the more her sadness grew into anger. The black hole in her gut became the depths of hell and she was trying to conceal whatever words that were about to blurt out of her.

"Whoa, I never said you were." He said in defense, dropping his hand from her shoulder and taking a step back away from her.

"You are talking to me like I am fucking teenager with a fragile emotional state. Hurting me? You must think because I want you to come over and fuck I am in love with you or something. Jeopardize? Jeopardize what? Besides if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have this fucking job so" She said, a little louder this time.

Alex's eyes grew in saucers and he began to regret everything in the last 10 minutes and months. "We really shouldn't be having this conversation here." He said, in a more hush tone leaning his body into her trying to conceal her anger.

"I'll have this conversation wherever I damn well feel like it Mr. Hill. I am not one of your impressional photography students. I am way past your senior, and you will show me respect.

At this point, Alex went from guilty to confused faster than the speed of light. In his mind, he was just sliding out of her bed with Vicki and it shouldn't have been such a big deal. He couldn't comprehend what she was saying her theatrics confused him more than the left field conversation, The Vicki he has always known was a mature level headed woman. She didn't cry when Jerry asked for a divorce. In fact, the only time he had ever seen her emotional was when they were both fucked up at Christmas and ended up screwing away the pain, or so they thought. The woman standing in front of him right then wasn't calm, resilient or emotionally tough as nails right then she was full blown irrational crazy bitch.

"Whoa, Vicki. I am not going to have this conversation with you right now, You need to calm down first." Alex said, placing his hand back on her shoulder.

Vicki shook it off this time and continued to dish out her emotional state right there in the middle of campus in front of any number of people trekking across the university. Her face turned red which matched quite well with what she was seeing.

"I don't need you, I don't need any fucking man to fucking touch me. Since all of a sudden, you want to come to my aide. You think I am a fucking lunatic and now you want to touch me. What happened on your strictly professional standpoint you just took five minutes ago? She screamed at him.

Alex's eyes widen and his embarrassment level increased and more bystanders started to turn their attention towards them. Alex wasn't entirely sure if she was having a bad day or he really did have more of an emotional effect on her than he would have preferred. All the memories flooded back to him on all the times his dick usually all got him into trouble he never wanted.

"Vicki, calm down." He said again, trying to plead with her.

"You had no problem fucking touching me a few weeks ago in my house, did you? Now here we are at your precious little job and you are too good to fuck me. Just like him, just like my stupid fucking ex-husband who was too fucking good to touch me and cheated on me with a 25-year-old yoga instructor like this is fucking 'Days of Our Lives'. That's just fucking great Alex, you are no better than that pathetic sack of shit I married. Seems like you too got what you wanted from me. Used me just to get this sad little job here. Yet when it's time to pay the fucking pipper you are running away from me because I repulse you. That's fine, I don't need you, Jerry or any fucking person for that matter. Don't bother trying to hold my hair back while I drink my fucking youth away. I am fine alone!"

As soon as the last words left her lips every piece of adrenaline that fueled Vicki's hate fire for so long had gushed out of her and her face flooded the quad with tears and she fell to her shaky knees only to be caught by Alex before she smacked the ground.

Everything had happened so fast that all Alex could do was to escort the very distraught weeping Vicki to her car and follow her home. After all, she had said and all the events that occurred something inside of him couldn't leave her alone, not like that anyway, not alone in her home where she would begin to drink away her sorrows as she did most nights. He knew she there was no way after all that she had been through that she was just 'okay' when he opened her car door to her brand new pearly white Audi.

Alex followed her home and sat with her while she continued to pour out her soul along with her third Pinot Noir. She sobbed shoeless in the middle of her living room on the white rug that seemed to have no real beginning or end surrounded by the perfectly staged furniture that never saw guest; accompanying the expensive but classy art that covered the walls like paint.

As Alex stroked her long thin ashy blonde hair, while she cried between sips and words into his shoulder she revealed the trigger to her emotional spiral into insanity out on him. Like a shotgun shell to the heart she oozed all over him, Jerry and Vicki finalized their divorce last week and the memories of their young romance overwhelmed her as she signed the last document. Even though he was a liar and a cheater he was her everything, he provided and protected her. Their daughter Kayla was the best thing that came from their difficult marriage and at first, when he demanded full custody of her she knew that deep down inside that even still she could never hate that man. It wasn't until this morning, 5 days after the finalization her daughter called to tell her some news; 'Daddy is getting married to Tiffany and I get to be the flower girl, isn't that exciting mommy?' Alex unknowingly placed the thick icing on this very tall tiered cake.

Alex felt his gut sink into the deepest parts of his body pooling out of his shoes. He knew for sure they could no longer sleep together that was the given, he also knew that there was no way he could leave his friend in her deepest time of need. She was hurting, broken and burned by the man she devoted and loved. For all that was happening, it was truly heartbreaking to even listen to let alone go through all alone. There was no way he could let her sorrows consume her alive.

In the levels of intoxication, Vicki was feeling, it began to water board her thoughts with cheap thrill of fucking a recently completed grad student. He could make her feel things without even trying. He was erasing her issues that were at one point etch in her brain at every turn. When she looked in the mirror she came face to face with her slight dark circles and her aged skin but with Alex she felt timeless.

Alex, an aged bourbon that for a little while hid reality. He postponed what she knew was obvious, in her mind, she was no longer desirable. She knew from the beginning of their twisted fantasy that there was no way them as a couple in society would ever work. She was 18 years his senior and importantly could never love him in the way she needed. He was a tumbleweed searching for love in reality and her expectation was littered with the trouble of chaos and no matter how many drinks she downed there was no easy way of unhooking him from the fence of her insecurities.

All in all, Vicki knew what Alex had been saying was true. The day to end their affair had come and gone months ago. Vicki knew Alex was just that guy. The guy who sticks around for your benefit rather than his own. Even though she stumbled into blindly day after day into this mangled web of fucked up, her conscious knew that one day it would be over and there was no amount of fantasy that could mask it.

"I'm sorry Alex." She said between weeps. "I really am so sorry" blinking up at him from his broad wet shoulder. Alex said nothing as he looked down upon her mascara-filled tears and gently wiped them away. As Vicki's sobs let up he quietly placed his chin on the top of her head, embraced her body and said the only thing he could think of that was appropriate for her pain, "It's okay."

Time ticked on and the room slowly fell silent, In a room filled with expensive tasteful art that had a million stories to tell Alex sat patiently awaiting something to happen. The grandfather clock kept time until Vicki eventually cried herself to sleep. Slowly he removed her clenched fingers from her third bottle of aged wine and removed it away from her smeared blood-red lips. He carried her up the grand stairs turning left to the familiar bedroom he spent many of times in and laid her down onto her California King, She stirred as he wiped the remaining droplets from each one of her eyelids. As he stood he placed the deepest kiss on her forehead gently securing the fate of their affair's end.

Walking out of her deluxe master suite he traveled back down the stairs eyeing her palace, turning light after light off in each room. When he reached the front door he felt more relief than guilt stepping out into the porch closing the door behind him he was careful to not wake her and for the final time he got in his restored mustang looked back at the clean house, where he had left a worn out woman. Started his car and left.

Alex's life was simple, he took photos, taught his class, and lived his life without woman driven drama. With the events of this afternoon being the extreme sides of random and unnecessary his body called for about 6 beers. Revving the engine and speeding up he turned up the volume on his updated radio blasting Preach by Papa Roach trying somehow to unwind the yarn wrapped around his head. Signaling his way onto the interstate he set his sights the farthest way from Vicki's drama.

'Maybe I should have. No, I can't believe. What the fuck?' He repeated over and over to himself. 'Was sleeping with her...nah. Can't it be? But fuck I just did the same shit. Left her too, does that make me a douche?' As much as he tried to forget about it his thoughts continued for the duration of his drive.

It wasn't until just minutes before reaching his condo his mind came back from its dramatic detour. 'Fuck!' he had forgotten all about meeting Harlee at her place. Alex veered four lanes without signaling, causing a minivan and a Charger to sleep on their horns to immediately hop off the next highway exit to detour back towards the university. He swerved in and out of traffic to her apartment three hours later than expected.

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"Your legs are fine, now stop moving! You look perfect just like that." Alex said playfully as he continued to take more snapshots of Harlee on his cell phone.

They sat alone in her tiny two-bedroom apartment's living room. A box of half eaten Krispy Creme Donuts sat in the center of the faux wood coffee table. The apartment was still messy and things were not organized. Harlee had no real time to prepare for her house guest. As they cozied up on the sectional they greeted one another with a kiss and chatted for a minute before Alex was inspired by the beauty of the booty.

"Okay, I feel dumb. Can we stop now." She said shyly, moving from the pose he had put her in. Alex placed her into a position that someone would see a pin-up girl doing, appearing to be covering up her boobs as if she was caught topless on the beach. Alex took a few more variations of her photos while she motioned towards him and his camera trying to snag it away from him.

"You are beautiful Harlee stop stay there." He said playfully as he started to move himself and the camera away from her again. "In fact, you look sexy... just... like... that." He continued to snap the pictures as she pouted in front of him.

"We've talked about this, I hate having my picture taken, I always come out goofier than anticipated! So can you stop?" She said, finally catching him and reaching the camera. Harlee took this chance to toss his phone across the room where it slid under his belongings. With the phone finally away from his clutches she took her arms and wrapped them snug around his neck pulling him on top of her.

"...Now you were late, and I've been waiting for you. Now where or where... " she said kissing up his neck. "...have you been?" She said, into a full planted kiss on his lips.

Between the two of them, there were moments when nothing in the world felt more real than the moments when Harlee was in Alex's arms. He found himself hypnotized by her every move. He knew he wasn't supposed to think of her as his girlfriend it was just too soon for her. He knew that when he looked deep into her eyes he couldn't help but fall deeply into her hazel mazes getting lost and found on the journey of being in love with her. She had him wrapped around her petite fingers, those soft fingers that stroked the back of his neck as she kissed his lips.

A part of him was aware that if he ever let it slip and he admitted to her that he had already fallen so deeply under her spell that he could lose her for good. It would cause so many more problems for them than good. A few weeks was all he needed, just a few more weeks until the end of the semester and he didn't have the obligations of being her teacher. He didn't have the same fears of being caught with their pants down and their reputations equally ruined. Then maybe, just maybe they could be together happily.

It seemed like a lifetime ago since they had sat in that little corner café and reconnected after spending four lonely months apart. Time seemed to be racing away from them, but in the way that it never seemed like a day passed. It had been four magical weeks. Four weeks since they reconnected under electric candlelight. Within those four very short weeks, it was jammed packed with fun and fucking.

Harlee was on this magical journey; this whole affair had scratched the itch that had been like chicken pox all over her skin. It was casual, fun, and erotic. The time ticked slow enough to be lost in paradise with him that she needed nothing else. Taking it slow was the lie. Harlee knew a man of Alex's stature would never just go for casual sex. She liked him, he was the solution to a complex mathematical equation but everything about him was too good to be true. He was too perfect and on top of all his God-like attributes, she was nowhere near ready for a serious relationship at this time in her life.

As brilliant as she was, she was stupid to think they were on the same page. Harlee told herself that she knew what she was doing. 'If I proclaim a mundane pace of creating a foundation of intimacy between us. Alex won't rush anything between us. So when this is all over and he is ready to go on to his next chick I will have depleted this urge she, her pussy, has. This whole thing was like the extended scenes from her favorite movie on loop. His dick was tranquility and her pussy finally achieved peace and neither of them complained about the addiction.

Alex felt that he was just an ordinary man who craved after this extraordinary woman in all the right places. She lost herself in him, he could tell. Not only did she surrender to him, she was free from every form of restraint. Her every desire was encrypted by the government and he was going to hack through every firewall that they enlisted. He would take the path through Death Valley for this woman without water, just to see her smile. She was brilliant and he knew it, but he knew there were some things you couldn't fake and that's the way she responded to him. How her curves cradled into his, how her body opened up for him to come inside. He was a vigilante to her crimes of passion and he could be arrested by her lips like a virus covering his entire body, invading his blood stream and intoxicating his bones.