When Ashley finally did come back home, it was only for a night. She was cold, distant and Nathan knew without her saying anything that she was no longer his. When he tried to have a conversation with her about even the most mundane of subjects, her responses were monosyllabic and flat.
The next morning, after a night of staring at her sweat-shirted back, Nate asked her for the last time what her problem was.
"I'm moving out, Nate," she said simply without looking up from her cereal.
"Why?"
"I've realized a few things," she sighed and still did not meet his eyes.
"Like what?"
"My future is not serving fat businessmen their scotch in first class."
Nate let his guard down. It was just a career crisis. "Well, baby, we can figure out what's next. You know I'll support you in whatever else you decide to try out."
Finally, Ashley did meet his eyes. "Whatever the next step in my life is, I don't see you taking it with me."
The argument that followed was so bad, that Nate felt disassociated from the mouth that said the things it said. He accused her of having an affair and she studiously avoided the subject. He might've told of the skilled way in which both the single police officer and one of the town's EMTs had relieved him of his sexual tension while she was away but didn't. That would have burned that final bridge of hope.
In the end, Ashley stated she'd be taking everything she could with her and would get the rest of her things later. She added, "And I would appreciate it if you'd refrain from expressing your angst by burning the rest of my stuff."
The thought hadn't occurred to him, but now he wondered if there was a burning ban in this town.
He watched impotently as Ashley packed her suitcases and travel bags feeling his world collapse like a wet cracker. Again, he considered trying to wound her with stories of those handjobs from Amber and the one from her sister, Lynn but in the end, he didn't. If his suspicions were correct about her, she'd come back with graphic tales of sweaty fucking on far-off beaches. He didn't need that.
Her tail lights disappeared down the street an hour later leaving Nate feeling like a crumpled coffee cup. After a long debate, he decided to spend the night totally and completely shitfaced drunk.
He was barely back in the driveway after his trip to the liquor store before he cracked open the first bottle of Jack. Sometime after he'd started on the second and somewhere between the car and the front door, Nate passed out.
Nate awoke to a head thrumming like a struck bell. Even before he opened his eyes, he realized he wasn't at home. He was somewhere completely alien.
He lay on his side in a room that smelled vaguely of concrete and piss on something that felt like it might have been carpeting. Slowly, he willed his eyes open and saw a painted iron bar, then another.
"Oh, fuck," he groaned as he realized he was in a jail cell. When he tried to move, he found his hands were rigidly bound behind him with handcuffs. He also realized he was stark naked.
"Hey!" he cried out.
Footsteps echoed closer until the black shoes and pants he'd first seen as he hung stranded upside down in his garage moved into view.
"I see you're awake finally," Amber Bateman said looking down at him.
Nate swallowed and cleared his dry throat. "Okay, first: What am I doing in here? Second: What am I doing n--" As he tried to roll over on his back, he felt an uncomfortable tug below and looked down to see a gleaming chain running from between his legs. A cuff at the other end was looped and locked around a nearby bar. The other one, he saw, was locked around his testicles trapping them in place.
"What the FUCK?" he cried.
"Like the chains?" Amber smiled. "I couldn't resist seeing how you'd react to having your balls locked up too. Anyway, the reason you're here is you passed out drunk in your front yard. Public drunkenness."
"I was on my property," Nate groaned. "It's not like I was in the park."
Amber considered that a moment. "Mmm, hard to say. You were near the public right-of-way. I suppose if you want to be nit-picky about the legitimacy of your incarceration I can try to get the city surveyor out there in a few days. See where I found you. If I can remember exactly where."
"In your clutches once again, am I?" Nate sighed.
"And thus the reason you're naked," she purred. "Because I like you like that."
"Let's get it over with," Nate moaned. "Whatever you want me to do, I don't care. Ashley left me for good."
Amber's eyebrows shot up and she bit her lip. "Is that right? That explains the liquor bottles and the state I found you in."
Nate nodded, eyes closed and feeling washed out. At least the throbbing in his head was subsiding. He thought he might feel better if he stood up which was astoundingly difficult with his hands cuffed behind his back. Amber watched him with amusement as he rocked upright, tugged his bound balls painfully, and tried again.
"Why don't you take these damned things off of me," he muttered. "I'm in a jail cell after all." He managed to stand, the other end of the cuffs sliding up the iron bar.
Amber moved in front of him, eyeing him up and down and obviously enjoying what she saw. "You woke up enough for me to get you into the car and in here and passed out again. Slumped to the floor. Made it a bitch to get you undressed. Then I realized I'd violated policy by failing to handcuff you properly so I took care of that."
"I'll bet you did," Nate muttered as he took in his accommodations. Single steel bed with a pancake for a mattress, steel toilet with no seat, steel sink. The only softness was the bit of rug under his feet.
"Seeing you naked on your back like that, I just had to reach out. Seems you got quite the erection even passed out. Saw those two balls and remembered I had some leg chains in storage. Everything was nice and loose since it was so warm in here last night. Didn't have any trouble locking one end above your testicles. They got a little dark though and I had to loosen the cuff a couple of notches. Still tight enough so you can't slip them out. You might be able to if you had the use of your hands."
"Well it's not very comfortable," Nate remarked. "Besides, I've had a rough time. I shouldn't have gotten drunk in the car, though."
Amber nodded. "No, you shouldn't."
Nate waited and Amber gave him nothing.
"So what do I need to do? Pay a fine or what?"
She reached down and fingered the chain tethering his testicles to the bars. "'Or what?' is a good start," she purred and began pulling.
"Ow!" Nate cried and staggered toward the bars as the cuff stretched his trapped balls.
"Come on," Amber coaxed as she continued pulling. Nate had no choice but to obey and stepped forward until his body was pressed against the bars. Only when Nate's genitals were between the bars and protruding slightly into the corridor did Bateman stop pulling the chain.
"You've got to realize drinking is not the answer to lost loves," Amber said as she reached out and caressed Nate's bare chest.
