The Girl Next Door

“You look beat.” Jason observed from the top of his newspaper as Veronica walked in the door. Veronica and Jason had finally decided to give a relationship between the two of them a shot after they awoke from their night of passion. They had been dating for seven months now and they were both really happy. Jason had moved into the apartment with her and started working at a military recruiting office a couple of blocks away. Veronica had finished her internship and was an assistant designer for a fashion magazine named The Gallery.

“I feel like road kill.” she said, flopping down on the couch next to him. Jason folded up his newspaper and set it on the coffee table.
“Come here.” he said, grabbing Veronica’s shoulders and turning her away from him. He turned so that he was facing her back and began to firmly kneed her shoulders.
“Mmm. You don’t have to do that.” she groaned, closing her eyes.
“But it feels good, right?” he asked, already knowing her answer.
“Of course it does.”
“And you had a hard day today?”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Then hush and let me do this.”

Veronica quickly ended the conversation and let his hands relive her tensions as she unbuttoned her blouse and slid her heels off. After a few minutes though, she began to feel a little guilty. ‘Here he is, being as sweet as pie and I didn’t even ask about his day. He hasn’t even changed all the way out of his uniform.’ she thought, letting her hand slide down to rub the fabric of his pants.

“How was your day, sweetie?” she asked.
“Eh, nothing special.” he replied. “Talked to some kids, went to some schools. Went to our old high school. That was interesting, I guess.”
“Hmm.” Veronica replied, a little detattached. “What are we having for dinner?” she finally asked after opening her eyes enough to look at the VCR and see that it was almost 6.

“I was thinking we could go out to eat. If you’re not too tired.”
“Where would we go?”
“I dunno. Hunan’s is always good....unless...you don’t want Chinese?” Jason added the last part, feeling Veronica become tense under his touch. What he didn’t know about was an incident that had taken place a couple of weeks ago when she and some co-workers had went there for lunch.
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Veronica had gotten a funny feeling the minute she had come into the restaurant that afternoon, but decided to shake it off and chalk it up to hunger. Her and her three co-workers were seated quickly and their orders taken promptly.

“Uh oh” Dorothy, Veronica’s best friend at work, announced.
“What?” Veronica asked, a little unnerved by the elbow poking her in her arm. All eyes at the table were on Dorothy.
“Major hottie, at four o’clock.” she replied, and nodded her head in the direction she wanted everyone to look. Veronica turned her head, along with everyone else, to find out what her friend was talking about. Her eyes fell upon an intense and frightening stare. A stare from a person she had hoped to never see again, unless she was with Jason.

“Oh, no.” she mumbled and quickly averted her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Dorothy teased. “Mister heartthrob too hot for ya?”
“You know I have a boyfriend.” Veronica replied a little nervously. “Besides, he’s not my type.” At that comment, the whole table burst into laughter. She giggled slightly, trying to appear calm and normal. She stole one more glance at him and was happy to see he was talking to on of the men at his table.

‘He must be on his lunch break too.’ she thought, as she took in his slacks, shirt, and tie. The jacket was hanging on the back on his chair. Fortunately the food arrived not long after and everyone dug in quickly. Veronica forced herself to swallow her food, even though she had completely lost her appetite.

“I need to go to the washroom.” she excused herself once everyone was done eating. She walked in the direction of the washrooms but veered to the left at the last minute and headed out the door.

‘I just need some fresh air.’ She leaned against the side of the building and inhaled the crisp fall air. She watched a leaf blow past her and leaned her head back. She closed her eyes against the headache threatening to creep into her head, and let the cool wind blow against her face. She was completely caught off guard when a heavy hand came down over her mouth. Her eyes flew open and she tried to struggle, pushing herself off the wall of the building in the process. The owner of the hand was too strong, and forced himself behind her, hand still over her mouth. “Don’t be so feisty, my love.” came the familiar, arrogant voice.

“You’re not happy to see me? I’m happy to see you.”
“Meph me pho, Hayet.” she muffled into his hand.
“What was that?” he asked, removing his hand from her mouth.
“I said, let me go, Alex.” the stern tone in her voice came out clearly.
“But I love you Ronnie. Can’t you still tell? I can’t let you go. Not again.” Alex said running his fingers up and down her neck. There used to be a time when him doing that would cause her to shudder with delight. Now she shuddered out of disgust.

“I need to get back inside.” she said, through clenched teeth.
“Back to who? Those cackling hens in there?” he mused. “I saw the way they looked at me in there. They think I’m some sort of Greek god or something. I’m sure they’d understand, and probably be quite jealous, if you told them you were out here with me.”
“You are so full of yourself. Look, you’ve made your choice and I’ve made mine, so just leave me the hell alone.” she spat.
“That whore? I could care less about her. That’s why I always came back to you. She’s just a convenient fuck, who happened to end up with three of my kids.”

‘Three?’ Veronica thought. ‘My God, she was pregnant with his second the last time I saw her, she couldn’t have had that baby and now be pregnant again!’ The thought made Veronica’s stomach lurch violently.

“And if it’s my brother you’re talking about.” he continued, spinning her around to face him. “I don’t care where he’s traveled to. Marines or no Marines, he’s still a boy. I’m the man. Your man.” Veronica wanted to scream but couldn’t find any voice. She couldn’t move or make a sound. His face was inching closer to hers and she needed something, anything, to come and save her. He pressed his lips against hers, roughly and without passion. She could feel his hands tightening on her arms and his tongue rubbing her lips, trying to push past. He was hurting her arms but she refused to scream, knowing that as soon as she opened her mouth, his vile tongue would enter.

“Veronica?” came her name from somewhere not too far from her. Alex pulled her away from him and they both looked up to see her co-workers staring at them. ‘Thank God’ she thought. Alex looked back at her and said, in a voice just loud enough for her to hear.
“If you can’t be happy with me, then you just can’t be happy.” He released her arms and strolled cooly past her co-workers, flashing a grin and giving them a wink, before heading back into the restaurant.

“You little minx!” Dorothy exclaimed as they all came rushing toward her. “You could have at least told us you were . . . are you okay, hun?” she changed her tone, seeing Veronica’s watery eyes and pale face.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” she managed before turning away from them and hurling what little she had eaten back up.

“Eewwah. Are you pregnant hun?” Dorothy asked bluntly after someone fished out a tissue for Veronica to wipe her mouth.
“No, of course not. Just a little nauseous. Maybe it was the food.” she reassured them. ‘If they only knew...’ she thought.
“My purse!” she blurted out, suddenly realizing she had none of her things.
“We’ve got your purse, and your jacket.” one girl spoke up.
“Let’s get out of here.” Dorothy finally said after helping Veronica into her jacket. The four women headed for Dorothy’s car.
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“Um....maybe we can go to Tres Hombre instead?” she chocked out.
“That’s cool.” Jason replied, and pulled her back to lay on his tee-shirt clad chest. He let his hands wander down to her open blouse and softly began to tease her round breast, through her bra. He kissed the side of her forehead and she sighed, content to be in his arms and out of the rapidly changing weather outside.

The phone broke their serene atmosphere, followed by Jason’s cursing as he got up. “Hello?” Veronica laid back and stretched out on the couch before propping herself up on her side, using her elbow for support. She watched him standing, muscles flexing as he talked on the phone, and listened to his side of the conversation.

“Yes . . . yes, sir . . . what?....but....yes.....Are you sure?” Veronica frowned slightly, hearing the tone in his voice change and hopped everything was alright.
“But sir.....yes sir, but . . . Isn’t they’re anyone else . . . No, sir . . . I remember . . . yes, I know . . . Right away, sir.” Jason hung up the phone and let out a loud frustrated sigh, as he furiously scratched his head. ‘Something’s up.’ Veronica thought, knowing that was his sign for being nervous.

“What’s wrong, Jay?” she asked, worry all over her face. ‘Wow. She hasn’t called me that in years.’ he thought and let his eyes wander down her body. He could she her pink nipples straining against the almost see through material of her bra and her skirt was hiked up mid-thigh, due to the way she was stretched out on the couch. ‘Why now, of all times? When I finally have everything going for me. Why?’ He looked into Veronica’s eyes, seeing she was still waiting on an answer.

“There’s no easy way to put this baby.” Veronica knew he had a tendency to over dramatize things and waited to see what he thought was so wrong this time.
“I have to go back to Japan.”