The Dark Side of the Romantic Comedy Ch. 02

In the end, he couldn't hold out for long and he found himself sheepishly apologizing, hoarsely whispering into her ear as his breathing gradually eased. She laughed quietly and murmured reassurances and they exchanged small talk and kisses, holding each other until his erection returned.

The second time was a long, luxurious, sweaty coupling that left them both with a sense of mellow satisfaction and, with legs and arms entwined, they drifted off to sleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Jason woke up and he became aware that, for the first time in years, he wasn't alone in his bed. His eyes fluttered open and, in the dim illumination cast by a light in the outside hallway, Jason made out the smiling face of Gail who, laying on her side with her head propped in her left hand, traced lazy, chaotic patterns with the fingers of her right hand across his chest.

"Hey there." She said simply.

"Hey there yourself. Can't sleep?"

"No. I just woke up a little while ago and I've just been doing some thinking."

"Thinking?" Jason stoked her smooth naked back with his hand. "Thinking about what?"

"Thinking that..." She stopped stoking his chest, moving her hand to the side of his neck as she leaned into Jason more closely, looking at his face intently, slightly chewing on her bottom lip.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure I should say. A girl shouldn't always give away her plans."

"Plans? What plans?"

A mysterious smile played across her lips and she began rocking her head from side to side as if the physical motion would help her decide what, if anything to say. The smile faded and was replaced by a look of determination as she looked Jason directly in his eyes.

"I'm going to make you mine." She said as if speaking an unalterable fact, a truth that could not be resisted or denied. Jason became slack jawed, his eyebrows raised in surprise, while Gail waited for his reply, adopting a look of amused anticipation.

"You're off to a really good start." He finally said softly, gazing at her face.

*****

And the really good start became a high energy love affair, a courtship that was nothing less than sensational. Everything, from the places they went to eat to the vacations that they took to the sex they experienced was natural and enjoyable; experiences that made life itself seem new and exciting. Their romance was of such strength and intensity that it extinguished any doubts or misgivings that might have slowed their relationship, and so they became engaged, to be married as soon as practical in order to plan the wedding.

And, as with everything else in their relationship, the plans and events leading up to the wedding had gone flawlessly, without concern or rancor, and any worries or nervousness Jason might have had was relegated to that part of the mind that was set aside for the impossible. Everything seemed perfect, that is, right up to the time that Gail offhandedly announced that Trevor had gotten in touch and wanted to attend, not only the wedding but some of the activities leading up to it and that she had encouraged him to come.

Jason felt a lump develop in his chest when she said that, but, in an effort to seem reasonable and confident, took in the information as casually as possible, hoping that Gail was just trying to be polite, to be the bigger woman, as it were, and allow an old ex that wanted to be a friend to attend an important event. But it became apparent to Jason, within minutes of Trevor's arrival, that he thought of himself as something much more than a friend to Gail and he made little effort to be discrete about his feelings.

From the beginning he began carving Gail away from the group to have private conversations, intimate little talks in which he smiled endlessly and leaned in closely to exchange whispers with her, unconcerned with the rest of the group. And when he couldn't do that, he was always next to her, touching her, putting his hand on her shoulder or her back, draping his arm around her casually, smirking to Jason as though she was still his girl. The worst part, though, was that while Gail did make an occasional effort to push him away, she never asked him to leave or to back off, never read him the riot act that would end all his borderline behavior.

And so, less than 10 months after they first met, Jason found himself at a second wedding rehearsal dinner with his second fiancé and for the second time in his life was experiencing a feeling of impending doom.

Because now, at the dinner, things seemed worse, most decidedly worse, than he had imagined. There, half a table away sat Trevor, a confident, handsomely tanned man with salt and pepper hair and a searchlight bright smile, making conversation with half a dozen highly interested ladies, the very picture of charm and tact, the center of gravity for all the eyes in the room, especially Gail, who seemed fully incapable of breaking her gaze for more than a few moments at a time.

And with each furtive glance, each sly smile the lump that Gail had planted in his chest, grew until it had become a sort of emotional cancer that was blackening his mood and consuming his composure. He pushed the food around his plate haphazardly, barely making conversation with any of the guests, all of who seemed to be more aware of his discomfort than Gail.

Finally, with a resigned sigh, he pushed his plate away and swore softly to himself, placing his elbows on the table and massaging his temples with the knuckles of his hands.

Gail finally took notice. "God...are you ok? You look a little sick."

Jason gave her a blank, almost menacing look while, trying to decide what to say and then leaned over and hissed in her ear, the tone of his voice, so angry and alien that it struck her like a fist.

"Fuck, Gail, if you're going to shaft me, why don't you just use a knife."

Gail's eyes opened in wild, frightened disbelief. "What...what's wrong Jason? What are you talking about?"

Jason snorted out a mocking half-laugh. "Oh, come on Gail. I've been here before." He said, nodding slightly toward Trevor. "You essentially invite your ex to our rehearsal without asking me first. You're suddenly keeping secrets, talking calls privately, clearly arranging for some sort of meeting or something. And now, at the dinner you can't keep your eyes off him, smiling to yourself, probably about some personal fantasy. And you're jumpy nervous. I know how this ends, I've been here before. Should we just move him over here, trade places? Would that make it easier for you?"

Gail started shaking her head emphatically and leaned closer to Jason, trying, evidently, to keep from being heard.

"Oh...no...no...no Jason...you don't...I didn't invite him. He sort of invited himself. He said he wanted to attend, that he wanted to see me. And I...well I had something I wanted to do, and that's why I was being secretive...I knew that you...that you 'd be mad so I just didn't tell you. I..."

"Mad about what? Some sort of last minute tryst? What the hell could I possibly be upset with my fiancé doing before her wedding with her ex that doesn't involve me getting fucked over?"

"No...Jason...no. Just...just stop." Her voice was suddenly low and insistent, the panic from a moment ago being replaced by firm determination. "It's... not... what... you... think. "

Jason raised his eyebrows expectantly as Gail took a slow, deliberate breath through her nose before beginning again.

"Look if you just hold on for a minute, just a couple of minutes I think you'll see..."

Just then, a few chairs away, one of the women that Trevor had been charming suddenly asked, rather loudly "What...what is that on your...on your teeth? Is that some sort of juice..."

Without making any effort to see what the woman was talking about, Gail smiled widely at Jason and raised her eyebrows. "Or maybe you won't have to wait at all."

Jason's angry face dissolved to one of puzzlement as he turned to the new commotion. What he witnessed seemed so bizarre that for a moment he had trouble making sense of it. There was Trevor, still smiling, still sitting in a casually elegant way, but now with a puzzled, worried look about him as he brought a hand to his mouth. His bright, white teeth had somehow become a hideous dark blue, as were his lips and a small drip mark down the right side of his chin.

"What the hell is that?" Jason said absentmindedly, his eyes wide open as he took. "What...what have you done?"

"Oh...we aren't quite done yet." Gail casually commented after turning to look. "Not done at all."

Jason watched in frozen fascination as Trevor said something briefly to the women on either side of him and then reached for his water glass, dipping his napkin in it and wiping his mouth before taking a drink. As he drank, though, water started dribbling uncontrollably out of the glass and down his chin and the blue dye that had been incompletely removed spread further, down his neck and onto his white shirt.

Putting the glass down roughly, Trevor raised his eyebrows in an expression of increasing exasperation, plastered on a disingenuous smile and briefly examined his shirt before reaching for another glass that had appeared to his right. Again, he dipped his napkin in the water and dabbed at his shirt for a few futile moments and then touched the napkin to his lips and teeth, rubbing discretely.

But a moment after touching his lips with the napkin, his expression rapidly changed from one of irritation to puzzled concern and then on to mild distress. In an act that demonstrated he wasn't thinking clearly, Trevor picked up the glass and took a drink and his look of distress instantly deepened to one of panic, his face turning a robust color of red while his eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets. His appearance further deteriorated when he thoughtlessly rubbed his hand across his scalp, inadvertently transforming his perfectly oiled hair into a poorly formed haystack of black spikes.

The final indignity occurred while, in a desperate attempt to find relief, Trevor began to stand in order to escape to a restroom, only to find that, somehow, he'd become stuck to the chair. Unable to extricate himself, he grabbed the closest knife and desperately sawed away at a spot on his pants that had evidently become glued to the seat, all the while the polite titters from his fellow diners increased in intensity to become not-so-polite laughter. In the end Trevor stood with a ripping sound and paused briefly before bolting to the restroom, wild haired, wild eyed, blue lipped and red faced.

To Jason, in the space of a few moments, Trevor had been transformed from a confident, handsome, life-of-the-party into some sort of a corporate clown. A well dressed, highly powered circus act, the image of which would cut an indelible image into memories of Jason and all of the guests present for years to come.

"Oh...oh my God. That's just really mean. And...and incredibly funny." Jason pronounced as he turned back to Penny who was taking in the scene with a look of self-satisfied bemusement.

"Oh yes. Yes it was." She replied with a practiced casualness. "Especially that last part. I didn't expect that."

Jason's voice became a conspiratorial half -whisper. "What do you mean you didn't expect that? I mean, this was your doing wasn't it?"

"Oh...it wasn't all me. In fact, it was mostly my partner in crime."

"Partner?"

"Well, yes. I had to have help to pull this off and I found the perfect person. A full blown adult with the heart of a 12 year old boy." Gail gave a barely perceptible nod toward the end of the table where Jason caught the eye of his father, smiling like a Cheshire cat. His smile broadened even more when he saw the couple looking at him and he raised his wineglass in a toast.

"Oh God." Jason said laughing. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"I don't know." Gail answered, batting her eyes and wrapping her arm around his. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

".Paradise. Paradise I think."

******

Penny parked the pickup truck under a shade tree, wiping the sweat from her forehead and cursing the broken air conditioner before getting out of the cab. She ambled slowly up the walkway of dirty concrete and weed rich cracks to the duplex door, passing the tiny lawn of crisped browning grass with the ever present broken sprinkler that sat as a sort of monument to summer time futility.

She opened the screen and walked through the otherwise open front door to enter the living room. A fan sitting on a box by the couch was going at high speed, the air blowing over the supine, sleeping form of her husband. She purposely let the screen door slam, making enough noise to cause Kenny to stir and open his eyes.

"Hey Babe." He said in a hoarse, groggy voice as he rubbed a hand through his uncombed hair. "What time is it?"

Penny stood with her hands on her hips taking in the cluttered living room, the empty pizza box and a half eaten bowl of cereal on the coffee table, the console for a video game on the floor by the couch along with a pair of socks and few balled up pieces of paper. The TV was on; looping the introduction to a video game and a radio in the kitchen was blaring country music.

"It's 4:30 Kenny." She said pointedly and then stepped toward the fan, bending over to catch the breeze across her face. "Did you interview for any jobs today?"

Kenny sat upright, stretching his arms lazily. "How was I supposed to interview for jobs when you have the truck?"

Penny stood up again and replaced her hands to her hips, her eyebrows raised. "I don't know...you might have looked on the internet, filled out some forms, made a few calls. I mean it's been 7 months now and we're really running on fumes here financially. Did you get anything done? Anything?"

Kenny sucked in his breath with an exasperated hiss. "Yeah I got some stuff done. I checked the net for open jobs, but there wasn't anything but crap."

"Maybe taking a crap job for a while wouldn't kill you."

"Maybe not being a nagging bitch wouldn't kill you either."

Penny's face immediately clouded over and she brought her hands up to cover her mouth, her eyes blinking rapidly. Kenny's expression softened and he quickly stood up and moved to Penny, taking her in his arms and whispering in her ear.

"Sorry Penny. Sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just that...that I don't want to take some menial job that won't pay much." He pulled a little away from her and looked into her eyes. "Just stick with me babe. You know that a new dealership is going to open up on the west side of town and I've got my eye on a position there. We'll be ok, just give me some space and some time."

Penny sniffed and nodded. "Ok, Kenny, OK. It's just that I'm getting stressed out. My accounting job doesn't pay worth shit anymore and we've got no savings at all. We really need a second income again."

"I know Pen, I know, and I'll be getting that soon, don't worry babe. Don't worry."

They gave each other a half smile and Penny kissed him on the cheek before walking to a small alcove between the kitchen and the living room that had a desk with a computer and some filing cabinets.

She sat down with a thud and moved the mouse to wake up the computer, shuffled some papers around and pulled out her credit card to start paying some bills. After a few minutes of punching in numbers she pushed the papers away and arched her back briefly in a deep yawn before returning to the computer to check the history. She noted with a simultaneous sense of frustration and satisfaction that there was a single search result for available jobs intermixed with sports pages and YouTube videos.

She glanced over to her husband, who was salvaging a piece of room temperature pizza from the box on the coffee table.

"You want one?" He asked, holding a second, drooping slice as an offering.

She shook her head. "No. No thanks. I was...I was planning on going out with the girls tonight. Remember?"

"Oh...yeah...yeah." He said, nodding and chewing. "Hey...don't spend too much money." He added after he swallowed.

"I won't." She gave Kenny a warm, half smile and he gave her a toothy grin in return before returning in earnest to the important task of devouring the pizza.

She watched her husband for a minute and couldn't help see him as a boy in a man's body with his tousled dirty yellow hair, his disheveled clothing and his enthusiastic approach to the pizza. For a moment, he seemed to be the same boy she'd met in junior high school, over 20 years before.

Absentmindedly she reached for a wooden box resting on the back of a shelf above the desk and opened it up, blindly reaching in for her familiar opal pendant. She fingered the pendant briefly while she watched her husband for a moment more and then leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes as a dreamy, wistful expression spread over her face. But the smile faded when she heard cursing, and she slowly opened one eye to see Kenny struggling with the console controller to the video game on the TV.

Wrinkling her nose in mild disgust she frowned for a moment and then bit her lip before looking back to the box. In a slow, hesitant, guilty motion, she moved her free hand to the box and gently lifted a piece of felt covered cardboard, retrieving a beautiful gold ring with a radiant, sparkling diamond. She held the ring in the palm of her hand, debating something in her mind, before slipping it on her finger, surreptitiously admiring it as it flashed under the overhead light.

After glancing a moment to the living room, she returned to the computer and, with a long, sentimental sigh, began working her fingers against the keyboard, quickly brining up a series of images that she was very familiar with, pages and pages of material she'd gathered and saved over nearly a decade. Images gleaned from social media pages, company announcements and news stories. Images of Jason. Of him surrounded by a group of blue-suited businessmen announcing a promotion, of him and his pretty wife splashing in waves and laying on the beach on their Hawaiian honeymoon, a family picture in front of a beautiful home with his wife, his smiling father John and an adorable little toddler with a crooked little smile. The perfect home, the perfect family, the perfect life.

The sound of the phone ringing shocked Penny out of her day dream and she scrambled awkwardly to pick up the receiver, immediately encountering the endlessly cheerful voice of Betsy Palmer.

"Hey...how's the Birthday girl two days late? Are you ready for girl's night out? "

Penny thought a moment before answering, her voice hesitant and distracted. "Yeah, Betsy, I don't know. I've been thinking, our budget is tight and..."

"Oh no you don't, this is your birthday present from all the girls. You aren't paying a thing, so no excuses, ok? We'll all be there, the whole gang, except Theresa of course."

"Wait, Theresa can't come? Why not?"

Betsy's enthusiasm momentarily waned.

"Uh...I guess you didn't hear. She...well, she took a second job and can't come tonight. Tim is back in rehab and she has to do some extra to make ends meet, so..."

"Oh...shit. I had no idea."

Betsy brightened again. "Yeah it sucks. But, listen, we'll do something with her some other time. Tonight we are going to have a blast and you better not be late or we will miss the start of the show."

"Show?"

"Yeah, remember we talked about seeing a movie and that new romantic comedy with Jennifer Lawrence is playing. It's supposed to be really cute. But it starts at 7:00 so we need to get eating."

There was a pause as Penny bit her lip in contemplation before replying in a reluctant, worried tone.

"Is...is that all that's playing?"

"Well, there's a Tarentino Western, but that's about the only other option." Betsy drew out the words 'Tarentino Western', in a long sarcastic smear that made her disapproval clear.