The Game

Enjoy... Warning-Adult language and angsty-ness.
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“Heeelllooo…anybody home?” Diane called as she snapped her fingers in front of my face. I stared blankly at the ring I twisted on my finger. I slept badly the night before: I couldn’t get over Col’s reaction. His savage demand echoed in the back of my mind: “Who is the only man who can control a vicious bitch like you?” I still felt my hair being twisted in his fist. Me…vicious? I thought it was all a game but it didn’t end like one. Who was he really?

“HEY! Are you going to play or what?” yelled Red from his usual spot at the table. I snapped my head up and stared at Red, wide eyed. I fumbled for a cigarette and tried like hell to pull my head together.

“Jeez…what is up with you?” George asked from my right. He had the hots for Diane and jumped on any opportunity to partner with her. “You didn’t suck this bad, even when you were learning to play Spades.”

“Go…get…fucked.” I snarled through clenched teeth. I had to suppress the urge to rip out his throat with my teeth. Diane gasped as she slammed her cards down on the table.

“Pardon me for saying so…but, what the fuck crawled up your ass and died?” she demanded. “You have been acting weird since Wednesday. Are you pregnant or just PMS’ing really bad?”

I sighed, “Sorry…I have a lot on my mind. We have finals coming up and I’m not getting much sleep. All that crap is making me edgy and moody.” Not to mention my totally bizarre relationship with Col, I added silently.

“Why don’t you head home? Friday’s are your short day, right?” Diane reached over and grabbed my hand. I smiled wanly and patted the back of hers.

“Yeah…good idea. Maybe I can figure out what I need to do. Later ya’ll…”I mumbled as I gathered my things together. I wandered listlessly to my car and managed to get home in one piece. I let myself in, dropped my bags and entered the living room. I flopped on the floor and stared at the ceiling fan. I rolled my head to one side and saw dust bunnies under the couch. What a mess I had become… I sat up and crawled to the chaise; I sank deep into the cushions. I noticed, belatedly, that the front door wasn’t closed all the way. I pulled my boots off and hurled them at the door. Well, at least, the boots would make it harder for the door to open. My gaze continued to wander around the room until I closed them tightly to stop the information overload.

I must have drifted off because the phone rang and I flinched. My heart leapt into my throat and remained lodged there. I got up from the lounger and staggered to the door; I closed it my firmly. I kicked my boots across the room as the phone continued to ring. The machine finally picked up and I ignored the greeting. After the beep, Col’s warm voice filled the room. I shuddered but I didn’t pick up the phone.

“Hey baby…are you there? It’s me; please pick up.” He paused a moment. “The crew told me that you looked strange and that they sent you home. Are you okay? Do we need to talk? Come on, dammit, pick up the phone,” he said defensively. I heard the phone click as the machine cut him off. I shuffled back to the couch to lie down.

Time passed as I watched the sunlight fade from the backyard. The house had gotten dark but I didn’t feel like getting up to turn on a light. Even Alice couldn’t get me to pull out of the moody blues I suffered from. There was a gentle knock on my front door before it slowly opened. I recognized the darkened silhouette…the object of my depression.

“Babe? Are you in here? Your car is parked out front…I need to talk to you.” He blindly walked over to the light switch for the dining room and almost tripped over my boots. I hissed when the bright light shone from above the dining table. I swiped away the tears on my cheeks before he could see them. He moved quickly to the couch; I pulled my body into the farthest corner possible away from him. We stared at each other.

“How ya doin’…I missed you today,” he said as he looked down at his hands. “You don’t look so hot.”

I sniffed, “Well, what the hell did you expect? You scared the shit out of me last night…for a second there, I thought you were going to really hurt me. I’ve got finals next week, my mom wants me to settle down and start having grand kids and I’m so fucking confused!” I felt a tear roll down my cheek. He reached out and wiped the tear off with a single finger. He studied it, briefly, before he licked it off.

“Oh honey…” he started to say as he tried to scoot closer to me. I held up one hand and stopped him.

“Uh-uh…stay right there. What the hell are we doing??”

“It’s a game, sweetheart. That’s all…I promise. Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited to find a woman like you?”

“I don’t understand what you mean by that! What exactly were you expecting?”

He sat back and sighed; “I want a woman who is strong enough to stand by my side. There have been too many women who saw me as a means to an end. But, I soon discovered flaws that I just would not tolerate. So, I can up with the game. A show of dominance can break a lesser woman. I know about your past…I know how you have suffered.”

I stood and towered over him, “You don’t know shit!” I yelled. I turned my back on him and walked over to the patio door. I watched as his reflection stood and moved to stand behind me. I felt his hand touch my shoulder; I turned and lashed out at him with all my anger and frustration. He managed to avoid the wild swing towards his nose but my other fist connected with his jaw. His head snapped back and he staggered slightly. He reached out and managed to catch me by my shoulders. I punched and slapped at his chest while I sobbed. When I stopped hitting him, he pulled me closer to his body. I buried my face into his chest; my tears soon soaked his shirt through. As I cried, he made soft soothing noises and rubbed my back. My arms hung listlessly at my sides and I did not return his embrace. The tears soon tapered off and we stood quietly. I pulled away and turned to go out to the back patio.

I reached for my cigarettes on the patio table. I lit one and moved to the porch swing. My dad had helped with this project…it really meant a lot to me. I sat down and started to rock the swing slowly. Col stepped out, closed the door and took a seat by the table. He lifted my cigarettes in an unspoken request and I nodded. He lit one of his own and we smoked in silence. The only other noises on the patio came from the wind chimes and the fountain.

I broke the silence first. “How’s your jaw?” I asked; my voice was raspy from crying. He reached up and winced when he touched it.

“If it hurts this much from a wild swing, I’d really hate to feel one you threw on purpose.”

“I’m sorry…you were right when you said that I hated weakness in general. I honestly can’t remember the last time I truly cried.”

“Why now…pressure?”

“Anything’s possible…maybe I’m reacting to you. Nobody has gotten as close as you have in such a short period of time. I’m mostly a loner with some social skills.”

“Bullshit…you’ve been burned. You’ve closed yourself off on some level so that you won’t get hurt again. Hell, I’ve done it myself…that’s why I play my game. What else is on your mind?”

“The ‘vicious bitch’ comment. A couple of years ago, I dumped a guy I was with because I caught him fucking around, behind my back. What made it worse was that the chick used to go out of her way to drive me nuts. So, when I found out that he had fucked her and got her knocked up, I broke it off with him. His nose never did heal right after I finished with him.”

“Son of a bitch…is he still with her?”

“Nope…after the brat was born, he wondered why the kid didn’t look like him and he had a paternity test done. He wasn’t the father and he left her high and dry.”

“And then…” he asked.

“Sorry piece of shit wanted me back…I let him know exactly how I felt about that when I dislocated his shoulder. That’s when he called me a ‘vindictive, vicious bitch’ and said I’d be alone for the rest of my life. Being alone never bothered me but being called a bitch did.”

I looked down at my hands and started to play with the ring Col gave me. I pulled it off and tossed it on the table. He frowned, picked it up and joined me on the porch swing. I slid over and made some room for him. He took my hand and slid the ring back on to my finger.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he said as he tapped me on the nose. “If there is one thing I know first hand about you, it’s that you aren’t a coward.” He pulled me closer and we snuggled. My stomach rumbled…I had not eaten all day and I realized that I was hungry.

“What am I going to do with you, woman? Are you trying to make it easy for me to win?”

“No…but I was distracted, distraught and disinterested. Sue me…” I snapped back.

“I’ll do better than that…do it again and I’ll spank your ass. Let’s go see what you have in the fridge,” he declared. He pulled me out of the swing after he stood and together we headed for the house. Col started to turn on lights to chase away the gloom. I pulled myself up on to the kitchen counter while he rummaged in the fridge. “Don’t you ever eat?” he complained.

“Yeah…I just haven’t gone to the store in awhile.” I said defensively.

He started pulling items out of the fridge: a jar of pickle juice, empty condiment bottles, another bottle with a tiny bit of wine on the bottom, empty take-out containers and pizza boxes. He pulled the half-gallon milk jug out and checked the expiration date…he snorted in disgust. An empty butter tub, followed by a partially consumed meatloaf sandwich, joined the rest of the junk in the sink. He moved to the pantry and started digging around in there. Empty microwave popcorn boxes, almost empty cookie packages, stale boxes of cereal and bags of junk food came flying out. “Hey! These pork rinds are still okay!” I grumbled as I tried to sneak them off the counter. He snatched them out of my hands and dropped the bag into the trashcan, along with the other things he pulled out. He then turned on my other cabinets.

“It figures,” he said. “The only place you have anything decent is the liquor cabinet.” He shook his head and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in a number; after a short pause, he started speaking to the person on the other end. I didn’t understand anything he said…but I thought it sounded Chinese. He flipped his phone shut. “We will have something in twenty-five minutes…can you wait that long?”

“What’s wrong with the stuff you just threw out?”

“Well, for starters, you don’t need that crap. It’ll just drag you down. I’m surprised you make the grades you do…you can do better than that. I swear, you eat just like a few of my bachelor buddies.”

“Hey, I resent that…”

“No, you resemble that. Did you know the milk was expired a week ago?”

“Not really…but like I said, I haven’t been shopping in awhile.”

He moved to the sink and started cleaning it out. Bottles were rinsed out before they went into the trashcan and the few dirty glasses I had left in there went into the dishwasher. “Thank goodness you aren’t sloppy…that would drive me nuts.”

“And you aren’t nuts right now?” I asked sarcastically. He just ignored the comment. I slid off the counter to rummage around the fridge to see if he had overlooked anything. I grabbed a beer for the both of us before I bumped the door closed with my hip. I handed him one and went past him to go in the living room. I went to the DVD cabinet to grab a movie. Col had followed and he perused my collection over my shoulder. I reached for a shoot ‘em up action flick but he pulled out my copy of The King and I instead. I blushed…at least it wasn’t a porno.

I slid the movie into the DVD player and soon the opening orchestral theme poured out of the speakers. We plunked down on the couch and got lost in the story. Not long after that, the doorbell rang. I paused the movie to go to the kitchen and Col went to the front door.

“Hey! What did you order?” I called from the kitchen.

“Chinese…why?”

“So that I can pull out the right kind of dishes.”

“We can eat out of the containers…do you have any chopsticks?”

“Well duh…they were the first eating utensils I learned to eat with.”

I grabbed two pairs of rosewood chopsticks that my grandparents had sent from Japan. I went back into the living room. Col had unpacked the bags and sat the food on the table. Quarts of fried rice, beef lo mien, spicy orange chicken, beef and broccoli and fried green beans covered the oversized coffee table. He had opened other packages that contained dim sum, egg rolls and fried wontons. I also noticed two containers of egg drop soup. My stomach rumbled louder and Col laughed. He picked up the fried rice and the lo mien noodles. I picked up the remote to un-pause the movie.

“Any preference?” he asked as he extended the choices.

“I’ll take the lo mien…I hate cooked peas and carrots.”

“Glad to disappoint you; the fried rice doesn’t have either…I hate them cooked too.”

I smiled, “In that case, we can share.” I sat on the floor and started to eat. Col shook his head.

“I still can’t get over the fact that you can comfortably eat in front of man.”

I burped delicately, “Shhh…watching the movie and eating. Mmmm; this is pretty good stuff…”

“Eat…we’ll talk later.”