Page 159 of Don Caselli

The bluest water, and boats docked at the shoreline with hotels and businesses tucked into the cliff side. I leaned up, my head pounding and my body aching. My knees were scraped up, and I winced when I felt the scrapes.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at the view for a little bit more, then felt someone moving in the bed beside me. I closed my eyes, praying that I didn’t hook up with someone. Rubbing my vagina, I smelled my fingers, and it didn’t smell like sex, so I was in the clear.

“Morning,” Don grumbled, as he stood up.

He wore a pair of briefs, but his morning wood was the star of the show. “Don, what the fuck?” I yelled, realizing that I was naked in his bed, and he had only underwear on.

I snatched the sheets and blanket and covered my body. “I saw all your shit last night when I had to carry you to my room.”

“Why wouldn’t you let me stay in my room? Don, this cannot happen… God, why?” I panicked.

“Cause that weird bitch you kept trying to leave with knew your room. Beans took Greene to his room because we couldn’t chance his ass coming back. As for your clothes, you snatched them off and were running around naked. Lucky that the fucking cops didn’t arrest you.” He went to the bathroom, while I quickly gathered my clothes.

“God, I have to stop partying so hard.”

“We didn’t fuck if that’s what you over there mumbling about. I don’t take shit that don’t belong to me.” He came out, brushing his teeth.

“This never happened. We can never happen, and you need to understand that. Please don’t mention this to anyone,” I begged him, as if he was the type that would run his mouth.

The expression on his face told me that I hurt his feelings. “You good.”

“Uhm, yeah, fuck… I needed this,” Alex grunted as he released himself inside of me and then left me bent over the dresser. My thoughts about Don were so vivid. I could smell him when I thought about him long enough. I knew there was no chance in hell that he was going to ever speak to me again.

Even with Menace. He had no words for me, and Jeffie kept telling me to give him time. I don’t think time had anything to do with it. The Caselli’s had been family to me, welcoming me in, and I spit in their faces because I was scared.

I stayed leaned against the dresser, my eyes closed, and shame covered me like a blanket. I couldn’t shake the feeling, couldn’t put it in the back of my mind. How the fuck did I end up here?

How did this become my life?

“You’re not my client anymore, Alex,” I whispered, trying to avoid my voice cracking in the process. “I’m your wife. You can’t just… fuck me whenever it’s convenient.”

I finally opened my eyes and watched him buckle his pants; a smug grin graced his face like he didn’t give a damn what I was talking about.

And he didn’t.

He had done this so many times before. Unbuckled his pants, dropping them to the floor, and having me whenever he wanted. This time, something in me shifted. Maybe it was the way the room’s lighting painted across his skin. Or the way he adjusted his tie like nothing happened between us. Like he hadn’t just fucked me on the dresser and didn’t care if I was aroused.

“Kennedy,” he stated, eyes meeting mine in the mirror. “You know how stressed I have been. Everything is fixed now.” He clapped his hands, way too excited.

I flinched.

What was fixed?

“Fixed?” I laughed bitterly, finally removing myself from the dresser. “You really think this is fixed because you fucked me and released yourself inside of me?”

He adjusted his cufflinks like I wasn’t standing here, losing it piece by piece. Wanting to fall apart like a dress when you pulled a loose hem. My chest heaved up and down, and heat scorched my body like I had stepped into a stove.

We were in the South of France at the Case House gala, and I felt stupid. “Don’t start that tantrum shit, Kennedy. It was cute when we first started dating, now you’re looking weak.”

“Why are we here? You’re not supposed to be a client anymore, but you still mess with the girls there… Maxi, really?”

“She ain’t much of a friend, huh?” He snickered.

I shouldn’t have cared about what Alex did, because I was here for the money. My feelings shouldn’t have been involved, and they were. I was at a gala, as his fiancée, and he was still messing around with women.

He would leave me back in our room while he galivanted around shore with one of the Case House girls. “You’re not my fucking client anymore!” I screamed, and he looked around.

“Shut the fuck up with all that hollering, Kennedy.” He came over toward me, and I thought he was going to hug me.

---