Chapter one.
It'd been eighteen months since Fox had moved on. Well, not entirely. He didn't know if he hated Michelle, or still loved her. A bit of both, probably. That's how it went.
But he hadn't kept in touch either, because, after all, she'd dumped him. Not that he would've if he'd dumped her. Not if he didn't want to be an ass, and he didn't want to be an ass. It was her who'd been the ass. All those years, all five of them, and she was out the door, just like that. No explanation either, he couldn't get one out of her.
The night was cool, slick with rain and he was hurrying down King Street to find somewhere for a quick one that he could extend until he was quite buzzed. He had a book; the rain wasn't letting up. He might run into Jeff, or Rachael. Mmmm, Rachael. Fox'd often jerk off while Rachael ground her dripping cunt on his face, in his imagination. One day, he'd make it real. There was something there--it had to happen. It was going to happen, yes.
Except, just not tonight. He had that feeling and didn't know why. He could use her more than he could use a drink but, Hell, he could use anyone more than he could use a drink. But there was nobody on the streets and nobody in the bar and that was that.
"Double Bushmills," he said, and took it to a table. The paperback sat in front of him. Battered, just like he'd felt since Michelle had said one evening that they "should split up."
She'd never given a reason. Totally refused. And that hurt and felt like a wound that'd never heal.
His eyes went down the page, but he didn't take any words in. He ended up reading the same damn lines ten times and was still none the wiser. Fox closed the book and pushed it aside, drained the whisky, decided that no, he wasn't going to get another. He'd just go home, think about Rachael, or maybe Michelle, and cum like a train.
The day after next, and he still hadn't seen Rachael, but he'd jerked off on her luscious tits after pounding her tight pussy for hours in his mind and she'd loved every second.
His phone rang.
"Hey."
"Hey." That was all he could say.
"Just wanted to say happy birthday."
"Thanks, but you're a bit early. It's on Friday."
"Oh, that's right," said Michelle. "Sorry. I forgot. So how old now?"
"Still fifteen."
"You've been fifteen for fifteen years already, Fox. So, you doing anything for it?"
"Ugh, you know I never do anything."
"Yeah, but it's a biggie, isn't it? Thirty already. Bet you thought you'd never make it.
"I haven't made it. Not yet."
"TouchΓ©. So how about we go out for dinner? Anywhere you wanna go. You name it."
Fox pulled the phone from his ear, looked at it to make sure it was the right number. Yeah, it was Michelle all right. It sounded like her, it was her. But why this after so much silence?
"Fox? You still there?"
"Sure," he said. "Anywhere you say? As long as it's cheap Thai, right?"
Michelle laughed. "If it's cheap Thai you want then cheap Thai it is. So...what do you say?"
"I say..." He was tempted to hang up on her, maybe even wanted to. But he couldn't, and he didn't know why. "Sure, why not. Sounds great."
"Awesome. Have a think about where you want to go and let me know so if I have to book a table, I can."
Book a table. Ha. Part of him'd be happy with cheap Thai but there was another part that wanted her to pony up for something pricey. Maybe somewhere where the mains were in the order of a hundred bucks minimum. Add some flash wine and she was gonna be breaking out the Visa. He wanted her to regret it, on the one hand, but then on the other, maybe this could be an in. He'd never really quit on her, of course he hadn't. How could he when she just up and fucked off without any explanation. You could be pissed about it, heartbroken, but the love won't stop, even if you wanted it to. Not ever. She didn't know any of that, but... she must have known, somehow, he was still single. Or did she expect him to just say to the new Mrs Fox that "Hey, I'm going out to dinner with my ex. Don't wait up."
In the end, he compromised and went mid-range. That Beritoli's Sicilian joint that everyone hammered on about. He didn't really want to break her bank account, even if she had broken his heart.
"Good choice," Michelle said. "I've actually been wanting to come here."
It was quiet...ish.... And the atmosphere didn't scream rich people. He'd decided that that would've put him off his meal.
"Anything off the drinks menu?" the waitress asked, and he picked the second most expensive bottle: a Terre Nere Montalto Bianca Cru of a couple years vintage. He didn't even particularly like wine but what the hell, right? Maybe it was expensive for a reason--because it was good. Seemed unlikely but you never knew. More like it was from Sicily. Anyway, he was driving, so he had to take it easy.
He didn't know what they were going to talk about. Five years and eighteen months after the first time he'd laid eyes on her, when she was a stranger, and here she was again, a stranger. He could barely live with it. All that time they'd spent together, all the nights when he slept with his cock inside her, not fucking, just in there, all the gasbagging that seemed to go on and on about any topic under the sun and here she was opposite him, still as striking as the night he'd met her, and she was more a stranger than she was then.
"So, did you just assume I was single when you made this invite?"
He had to ask straight out, had to know.
"Huh?" Michelle looked up from the menu. "We're still friends on Facebook, remember?"
"Are we? Oh, right."
"Don't tell me. You meant to unfriend me but couldn't do it, so you just unfollowed me?"
"Nice." Fox raised his glass. "Bitchy, but true. Look, I guess. Yeah. You tend to forget about people if you don't see their posts."
It wasn't completely true, though. He looked at her page sometimes. He'd downloaded a few recent snaps of her for a bit of "inspiration," though they couldn't compete with the nudes he had and still looked at as if they'd just been taken. He knew every detail of her body and it amazed him that, even after eighteen months, if she were to take everything off right then in front of him, she'd still look exactly the same. She'd grown her hair out, and it was lighter, but that was about it. Striking was the word. She always said guys never went for her, but he did, and that's what mattered.
In the end, the talk came pretty easy, like it had always done. They circled around the obvious hole in the middle of all of it, the break-up. Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe, after tonight, everything would be fine again. Would he go back, if she wanted him back? Or would he refuse, just out of spite? There it was, that love and hate uncertainty again. Truth be told, hell yeah, he'd run back in a second. Try and keep him away.