Winner Take Nothing

Real-Alice was beginning to reveal herself now. It was a disconcertingly powerful almost alien intelligence. She hissed, "I did!! Of course!!"

She laughed dismissively and said, "I got the silly bitch's backstory as soon as she arrived on campus. It's funny what a sister will tell a sister if she is on the right wavelength about men."

She focused on me and said, "So I knew EXACTLY what would happen if it looked like you had betrayed her."

She grinned outright as she said, "Piccardi is the dumbest shit I know. He had a huge cock. But that must have been where all the blood was - it was certainly not in his brain."

I said with wonder in my voice, "So we are sitting here at this particular point-in-time because you put us here. Why did you do it Alice? What did you possibly hope to gain?"

She said with a little laugh, "Why YOU - silly!! You will be the perfect husband, smart, good provider, hard-working, great in bed. And I want children - lots of them. And I think you would make the world's best dad."

All very carefully plotted. I felt like the proverbial puppy in the window. Alice had seen me, thought I was cute and bought me. What kind of fool was I???!!

Did you ever feel like you had dodged a bullet?

I realized that Real-Alice was as close to a genuine succubus as anybody I had ever met. Her superiority was now plastered on those plump kissable lips.

It stirred something deep in my Lizard Brain. And if we were not sitting in a four-star restaurant I would have probably slammed her down on the table, and fucked her right there.

Thinking about what I had planned to ask her that night sent shivers down my spine. I was going to propose that she come to DC with me. That was the whole point of the evening

Of course that was when I thought she was a brood mare, not Cardinal Richelieu's granddaughter.

Fact was that Alice was beautiful, remarkably sexy, and eager to please - perhaps a little untrustworthy in the faithfulness department - and clearly a total sociopath. But she also offered a lot of advantages to a man.

I knew that she would ensure that every sexual need would be utterly sated. Plus, NOW I knew that she could dispose of any inconvenient people in my life without leaving finger-prints. More important, I had always wanted children. So the concept of Alice and me and a house full of kids was very attractive.

The problem was that she was such a scary-dangerous manipulator that I was afraid that I might end up in Guantanamo if I disagreed with her about something trivial like the color of the dining room drapes.

So - there was a slight adjustment to the plan.

When we got back to her place I made a big show of turning her around to face me. I took both of her hands in mine, looked lovingly into her eyes. From the flare of excitement, I think she thought I was going to propose.

Instead I said, "I know that I burned all of my bridges at this university. It was worth it to get Piccardi. But I am done here. So I have taken a new position in DC. I'll be leaving at the end of next week."

She squirmed with excitement. I said, drawing out the punch line, "You have made my life very happy these past several months. I just want you to know that."

She could hear wedding bells. So I said with boy-scout sincerity, "And I will always be grateful to you for the way that you propped me up after the devastating loss of the love of my life. I will never forget you."

Then I quickly kissed her on the forehead, turned and walked out the door. I heard an agonized gasp behind me. All I could think as I walked back to my car was, "I hope that gives you the happy ending that you so painstakingly connived you duplicitous Bitch!!"

Epilog

Zoe was sitting on the portside bench drinking a cold Yuengling. I was navigated our way out into the Potomac. She was her usual pretty vibrant funny self, full of joy and energy. It was a classic sunny DC Sunday. And in the words of Robert Browning, "God was in his heaven and all was right with the world."

I had appeared on Zoe's doorstep the next morning - contrite. She was overjoyed. That was a pleasant surprise.

Given that I had more-or-less completely blown her off. And then spent the next two months fucking her arch-rival. I would have gotten out the dueling pistols if it were me.

But Zoe is a better person than I am. I explained everything sitting over breakfast coffee. She didn't seem shocked. But she is also a lot more perceptive than I am.

No shit??!! The faces chiseled on Mount Rushmore are more perceptive than I am.

She said that Alice had gone out of her way to "befriend" her the moment it became obvious that the two of us were a couple. And that behavior just didn't seem right.

Zoe had thought that Alice was a little over the top when it came to her warnings about me - and the number of hearts that I had broken on campus. Still, Alice had been at the University for a long time and as far as Zoe knew I might just be putting up a front.

So when Alice came to her after that fateful weekend with the, "I told you so", pitch. It just reinforced the months she had spent whispering into Zoe's ear. And predictably, all Zoe could see was the second coming of the arch-traitor Charlie Riley.

So she snapped.

She had loved Charlie to a fault. And he had betrayed her by marrying another woman. Then against her better judgement she had fallen even more deeply in love with me. And I had committed an even more grievous sin in her eyes.

It was the sin of familiarity.

At least in Charlie's case Zoe didn't know the other woman. But she knew Alice. And she knew what kind of a person she was. So besides the pain of loss, Zoe also had the humiliation of having a well-known slut like Alice gloat about her imaginary weekend with me.

Which put her in an absolute state of frenzy.

It was really quite understandable. That was because I had personal acquaintance with that exact same emotion. It was the kind of all-consuming rage that had motivated me to go off with Alice in the first place.

And likewise, Zoe had marched over and given a very surprised Piccardi the fucking of his life.

She realized right away that was the dumbest possible thing that she could have done. But Zoe is a strong willed woman, with a lot of pride. And she couldn't let a grievous insult like she thought I had just given her sit without an appropriate response.

Like I said, she's a feisty little bitch.

So two allegedly intelligent people had managed to cram a lifetime of miscommunication and bad choices into a single half year. And we had each suffered a lot of self-inflicted pain.

In view of that, we both made a solemn vow. The cycle would stop - permanently - now and forever. And we would agree to love each other - and only each other - for the rest of our lives.

I didn't ask what she had been doing in the four months since that fateful day. It was really none of my business. It wasn't like we were married - or even solidly committed when we parted company.

In fact, in all the time we had known each other we had only been an officially committed couple for about 36 hours.

Nonetheless - no matter how objective I knew I had to be about our situation. I still can't tell you how relieved I was to discover that Zoe wasn't entertaining Piccardi when I showed up on her doorstep.

And it didn't take long for the old spark to flare back into an all-consuming fire. Which led me to invite her to try out living arrangements in DC.

I had sold my house and bought a very comfortable condo up on Massachusetts Avenue - up toward the National Cathedral. The place was willing to accept Buster and I could walk to campus most days.

Zoe still had her position in Farmingdale. But it would not be difficult for her to find a place in DC. And her not being tenured would make the switch easy.

She was going to make a couple of campus visits the following week to see what she could line up. It was very late in the hiring season but any place that still had openings would jump at the chance to get a research star like her.

If not, there was always next year and she could stay in DC and write. We were never going to be apart.

We had talked about what it would take for the two of us to make it work. And we both agreed that the only nonnegotiable condition was that we communicate - for better, or worse, under all circumstances.

That meant that if we heard, or saw anything that raised a question; we would get it out on the table right away and resolve it. There would be no, "just assuming" and there would be no secrets kept for the other person's "own good."

Miscommunication had been the lever that had pried us apart. And both of us were determined to not let any type of misunderstanding lead us down the road to perdition again.

Both of us had been guilty of that crime. We had both suffered from the consequences and we were both smart enough to not let it happen again.

We had immediately fallen into our same close bond. But if you will recall, with the lone exception of the Sunday night before the great upheaval we had never actually slept together. So there were a few wedding night jitters when we went to bed that night.

We had lived together for months. But this was unexplored territory, since we were planning to sleep in the same bed. And this time permanently.

It was the usual nasty hot and humid DC July. We had done dinner at Clyde's in Georgetown and driven back past the Naval Observatory to my place.

She came out of the bathroom in a long t-shirt. That was what she slept in. I knew that there was nothing underneath. I was wearing my usual boxers. She slid in next to me looking excited. I think we both considered this our official "moving in together" night.

The wedding would be some time in the indeterminate future. But I was never going to lose her.

She was looking at me intently. Most guys would call it a "fuck me" stare. But it was more than that with Zoe. It was like she was psychically merging herself with me.

I kissed her and those incredible lips started to work their magic. I have never been with a woman who is so energetic - so constantly active during sex. Every part of her seems to be in motion.

But it is the complex way that she works on your mouth with those amazing lips that is so characteristic and remarkable. When you kiss her whole mouth comes alive. She is continuously chewing on your lips with hers, she even nips in between. It is an electrifyingly energetic giving of one of her secret places.

She moaned loudly when I kissed her. I guess those initial inhibitions were just a passing fancy. I worked my way down her neck - doing a little nipping of my own.

In response, she writhed and sank her bright red painted nails into my back. I got to the perfect little nipples on her pert breasts and took one of those red-hot things between my lips and did the same kind of chewing and nibbling thing that she had done to me earlier.

Zoe arched her back, yelled, "OH MY GAWD." And hyperventilated. She said in very strained tones, "Get up here and fuck me!!"

But I considered this a milestone. We had done it before. But this was the first time we were going to do it as a permanently committed couple. And I wanted to savor it.

Zoe had arranged herself so that I was kneeling between her widely spread legs. She had her back propped up on a pillow and was breathing like she had just finished the 100-yard dash.

I looked in those gorgeous eyes. They were wide open and staring back at me with challenge. And overwhelming need. Her eyes went wide as I entered her and she gave a little gasp. But she didn't break the stare.

As I slid up into her we were communicating that we understood. Mistakes had been made and pain had been caused. Neither of us would venture down that road again.

Her eyes clouded and lust took over. She let out a loud groan and wrapped those sturdy legs of hers around my butt and literally pulled me in to her cervix. Then she shot them straight up in the air like she was riding a horse.

And as the age old motion began she traded the horse for a bicycle. Her legs were making frantic circular kicking motions. It was uncanny. She was lying underneath me moaning and yowling while her legs were going wild in the air behind me.

Like I said, every part of Zoe moves during sex.

That didn't last long of course. She started a constant chant of "Yes-oh yes-yeah-yeah-yeah." That got louder until it culminated in, "YES!! OH FUCK YES!!"

Her legs slammed down on the bed and her passage went nuts. She lay under me moaning and writhing to my own exciting climax.

When we had gotten our breath back I looked into those beautiful eyes. I was supporting myself on my arms still buried deep inside of her. She was looking at me with true devotion.

I said, "That was extraordinary. I'm just a very ordinary guy. But I'm Superman with you."

She put her arms around my neck and gave me the same "fuck-me" stare that she had been giving me when this all got started. But I really understood what she was saying this time.

I smiled and said, "You and me as a couple are infinitely more than what we are as individuals. And I need you to promise me that you will be mine forever - will you do that?"

She put on a fake look of puzzlement and said with a mirthful little chuckle, "Why sir! I don't' know? What are you asking me?"

I grinned and said, "Marry me you twit!! Let's do it now. Both of us are kind of stupid when it comes to each other. So I want to put a ring on your finger to prevent any future misunderstandings."

And the following week I married the one person in this world whose love made me special.