Confection
Confession
Presley waited until the room was emptied other than her and Cruz and then she turned to him.
What is the secret? What is it you’ve been hiding from me which is making Anderson give me strange side–eyes and hissing at you constantly?”
“Can we sit?” He motioned to the patio, “preferably away from the mess in here.”
She led the way to the patio table and sat on the chair facing the beach. Couples walked hand in hand the way she and Cruz did earlier in the day, and she realized it felt an entire lifetime ago.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he sat down opposite her, his hands flattening and fisting atop the table as if
nervous.
“What do you think Cruz? Somewhere in this resort there is a mobster who is expecting to take me as a payment because my insane brother thought it would be a clever way to settle his debts and get rid of me.” She gave an upset huff, “no, I’m not okay.” She blinked angry tears away, “do you think this guy really killed
his last two lovers?”
“I don’t know. All I know is he’s a confrontational man who didn’t mind in the least going toe–to–toe with the government over his casino. You don’t need to worry about it though. I’ll figure it out. Even if it means we triple, quadruple or more the amount Odin owes him, I’ll make it happen you don’t have to go with him. I won’t let you go, Presley.”
“Because you love me?” she asked shooting him a curious glance.
“Yes.”
“For a long time?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t even know what to say. I haven’t seen you in years. How can you say you love me if you were going to marry Ramona?”
He swallowed and nodded, “let me explain.”
“I really need you to, please.”
“Okay,” he took a deep breath. “Some of this I haven’t told another soul. I’ve kept this as my secret, Presley.
You have to understand first where I’m coming from. I’m seven years older than you. You’re the younger sister of my childhood best friend. Regardless of who he is today, he was my best friend, and guys don’t f**k
around with their best friend’s little sister. Then there was the entire thing with your father being a far better
mentor to me than my own father ever was while I was in university and learning how to be a man.”
Presley twisted her lips as she faced the water unable to look at him.
“Your graduation from high school.”
“High school?” she felt her eyes popping and she shot him a sideways glance. Like her, he was staring ahead
as if unable to look at her directly.
“Nobody knows this, okay. I’m telling you and what you do with this information is up to you. If you leave me tonight, I know it’s on me. I will respect your choice.”
|||
O
1/4
Contorsion
Explain, Cruz She was nervously twitching in her seat.
You were seventeen, Odin, Anderson and I, were going to f**k with your cap and gown,
What?” she shot him an annoyed look.
Odin was complaining about your father and the way Odin was being made to work his way up through the ranks of the company. He found out you were getting a new car for graduation while he was getting reamed over expenses. He was moping and whining, and Anderson and I actually shared a full conversation on whether he needed medication. We decided we were going to prank you to cheer him up. I went to your room at the house while the guys were chatting with your parents, and I was supposed to put itching powder in your cap and gown. Then we were going with your parents and were going to draw attention to the way you would have been squirming on the stage by waving our posterboards and being the loud bastards we were.”
“Nice, Cruz.“.
“No. It wasn’t. It wasn’t nice at all. I snuck into your room and um,” he rubbed his forehead, “you were in your bathroom getting ready. You were putting make–up on for your ceremony. The bathroom door was open, and you were wearing only your bra and panties.”
She turned her head to glare at him and his face was red as he avoided her gaze.
“I quickly backed out of the room, but the image was burned into my brain. You were no longer seven–year–old Presley Brookmore. I was twenty–four and you were seventeen and I shouldn’t have even seen you naked, let
alone,” he stretched his neck sideways, “gotten f*****g hard from it.”
“Cruz!” she blinked incredulously.
“Presley, come on. Your body is all curves and you’re tiny in stature and you were in this little push up bra and a lacy thong panty and my d**k wasn’t thinking seventeen–year–old girl, it simply wasn’t thinking. My brain
however berated myself a lot. I didn’t put the itching powder but then I followed Odin and Anderson’s leads at
the ceremony.”
“I was humiliated.”
“I’m sorry, Ladybird. I’m so sorry. I doubled–down and made a bigger mockery of you because I was ashamed.
I popped a boner at you, Presley and instead of realizing it was me who was in the wrong, my ego punished
you for my reaction to your body. I went the extra mile shouting and carry.g on when you received your diploma. If I could go back in time, I would have left Odin on his own and went home to figure out my
thoughts.”
“I wish you would have.”
“Me too. We played a few tricks on you after this, but for the most part, I tried to avoid you. Every time I saw
you after, all I could see was you in your panties.”
She silently waited for the rest.
“Then Odin got it into his head your roommate wasn’t another girl. You were just starting your third year of university, and he heard you telling Sloane your parents didn’t realize you switched dorms to the coed dorm. You hadn’t even told them you were dating and then you were laughing about how the one time they saw your roommate, your father called them, her. Odin wanted to get evidence on you to take to your father to prove you weren’t the sweet innocent little flower. We went along.”
She rolled her eyes. “f**k he is an idiot.”
။
O
2/4
Confession
He thought we could get in the room, prove your roommate was a man and then rat you out to your father.
You never told.
“Oh, because we f****d up bad that night and we knew it.” He shook his head. “We got into the building, but the guys went one way, and I went the other. My strides were longer than theirs. I got to your room first and I picked the lock and pushed the door open.”
“They were right behind you.”
I was easily ten to twenty seconds ahead of them. I was gifted a hell of a view of you seconds off an
orgasm.”
Her face was beat red. “You watched?”
“Not long, Presley but long enough, when Odin yelled in my ear it startled me because I didn’t even hear him come up. You fell and dude fell, and you were both hurt but you were so mad. You were freaking out and you
chased us out of the building with your robe wide open.”
“I was pissed.”
“Rightly so. I came back a few days later to apologize. 1 wanted to apologize. I felt like such an asshole. Back then I was splitting time between Vancouver and Toronto. I was getting my PhD in Toronto and building my company, but it was such initial stages. I came over to apologize and saw you making out with him near his
car.”
“You came to apologize.”
“Yes. I felt bad and then you were kissing him, and” he whispered, “I wanted to punch his f*****g lights out.”
“You were jealous?”
“Yes. I was incredibly jealous. What was originally a case of me peeping on you when you were seventeen,
two and a half years later, I watched you f*****g someone and I was angry it wasn’t me. I left the college and immediately boarded a plane back to Toronto to put some distance between us. I couldn’t stay away.”
“What?”
“I came back eight times between the time we caught you f*****g and, ur graduation. I was there when you
graduated.”
“You were?”
“I was. I stood in the shadows, where you friends and parents wouldn’t see me. However, where I was hiding, I
overheard a conversation I wasn’t supposed to hear.” He took a breath, “f**k, I don’t want to do this.” He
covered his mouth and stared at the water as if fighting a demon.
“Spit it out Cruz.”
“You’ll leave me.”
“Cruz.” She wasn’t promising anything. This felt like it was going to be worse than Odin selling her to a mob
boss.
“Your boyfriend was talking to his mom before he was to take his seat on the stage. He told her you guys were going to go away the following weekend camping and while you were away, he was um,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “going to propose.”
III
O
3/4
Confession
He was going to propose?”
Yes, I panicked.”
“You panicked? Over what Cruz? You didn’t even tell me you liked me as a human being aside from lusting over me and stalking me from a distance!”
wanted you. I couldn’t get you out of my head. I watched the damn graduation ceremony, and he won a monetary award for his computer engineering. I had an acquaintance I’d met at a technology conference. We became rather good friends. He owed me a favor and I called it in.”
“What did you do?” her voice was lifeless as if she already knew.
“I got him to offer a job. I asked him to make the offer and make sure he understood it was for someone who was aware they were going to be expected to work a lot of hours. He dropped a few suggestions it wouldn’t be the most appropriate job for someone in a relationship because it was going to require, he earn every penny of his two–hundred grand a year salary. He gave him forty–eight hours to accept.”
“You got a friend to lure my boyfriend away from me because you were jealous, he was going to propose?”
“Yes. I told myself he didn’t have to accept it. He could refuse.”
“Two hundred grand!” she yelled at him. “He’d never seen such money in his life. I came from money. He came from an immigrant single–parent family. Of course he wasn’t going to refuse!” she was wondering if her breath was ever going to fully come back into her lungs as she rose and leaned over the rail gasping for
breath.
“I went to your house a couple weeks later to meet with your father to talk to him about my PhD program and
you were in the garden with your mom, and you were sobbing your heart out. I felt horrible. I realized I went
too far.”
