EDDY WASN'T JOKING

CONNOR

"Was that necessary?" I straightened my posture, turning to look at Eddy, my body stiff from anger I could not fully express - partly because it might end up stripping bare my secret feelings, Eddy could read through lines, and then, because I still wanted to respect my friend whose house I was in.

I watched him slowly pull his hands across his chest.

He was looking at me now, as if contemplating what to tell me first.

Or maybe, he was waiting for an explanation, so I went for it, regretting it after I had already started.

"There was nothing. Obviously, there was nothing," my tone faltered towards the end of the sentence.

It was a lie. For me, it was a lie.

My d*ck was still hard from that moment with Lola, and I was still shaking with anger at Eddy for causing it to end.

I felt the need to say something else, something else that was truer.

"I was helping her out on what she needed to do to lose weight. I'm sorry I kept her out of bed for too long, but for a good cause right?"

I swallowed against my laughable attempt at lightening the sour atmosphere.

Eddy who was silently looking at me with a dropped expression suddenly jerked up with interest.

"Right? She needs to lose weight, right? I tell her everyday and she thinks I'm the devil for reminding her to do the needful," his eyes widened to each word like they came from them.

Anger pricked at the corner of my heart, tearing through, painful and impatient.

I blinked rapidly, forcing my emotions down because giving Eddy a punch for body shaming his wife endlessly like a piece of cr*p would be considered extreme.

It was supposed to be none of my business.

Or at the ugly most, I was supposed to be on my best friend's side.

I forced myself to chuckle, but Eddy misunderstood it to be approval to continue.

"Did you also tell her to reduce her food intake?" his eyes widened in a questioning look.

Was he actually expecting an answer?

I swallowed.

"Uhm...what is it called again?" Eddy asked, tipping his eyes closed and ringing his index finger in the air dramatically.

"Well, Lola is basically a human pig that had refused to acknowledge her human nature," he said, looking at me again, his face lined with anger, hatred, frustration, like a man would look while talking about his greatest problem.

"Get lost, Eddy," I was tempted to say.

"Can you imagine Lola, in her size and predicament, wanting a midnight snack? You know, after eating herself to stupor at yesterday's event?"

A sigh escaped my throat, but Eddy wasn't taking it.

"Do you think you can help her?" he asked, moving closer to finally rest his arm on my shoulder.

I stared hard into his eyes.

I was looking for the slightest trace of a man that didn't mean to say all he had said in the way he had said it, a man that actually meant the question he had asked.

But all I saw was a man that didn't deserve the meal he had been served.

I dared to reply to him with the words that I meant to reply to him with.

"Lola is perfect in her body."

Eddy slowly relaxed back into his initial posture, his hands folded across his chest and his face expressionless.

I waited for him to say something.

"You think so?" the words finally fell off his tongue wrapped in a mocking tone.

"Lola is perfect in her body," I repeated, "You shouldn't make her feel insecure in her own skin like you always do," I added, my gaze fierce and serious.

I drew in a long breath as I watched Eddy unfold his arms to his sides, slowly, like a predator preparing to launch on a prey.

I knew that move, and I had already braced myself for it, but Eddy came hard, harder than I expected.

"Do you want her? You can have her," he said, plainly, like he was bargaining for a common commodity.

"Eddy!" I snapped, rebuking him, my voice hard against my throat, reverberating through every corner of the room.

"What?" he narrowed his gaze on mine, adjusting his stance to defensive.

"You should have her if you think she is perfect for you..."

"Eddy," I called out in an effort to stop him from completing his statement.

"... because she isn't perfect for me in any way."

Eddy finished his sentence, our voice clashing, together with the emotions our words held.

I shut my eyes briefly, swallowing the weight of the words Eddy just spoke, and the shamelessness with which he had spoken.

Strangely, I couldn't stand and then do nothing, not after hearing Lola's ego battered to a paste by the very man she was married to.

I inhaled a deep breath, then exhaled slowly as I began to walk away, towards the door.

Eddy was still standing there, but I did not bother to spare him any glance.

My fingers trembled with the anger of weakness, holding back, even when I had a good reason to teach Eddy how to respect a woman.

With my fingers wrapped around the handle of the door, Eddy's voice resounding in my ear, I felt the fresh cold of the metal greet my skin like an appeal to keep calm, like a warning before a storm.

Then, Eddy's voice came - rough, unexpected, brutal, shameless.

"Have her. For one week."

I paused in the weight of my own skin, my anger cracking through my patience.

But Eddy didn't stop there.

"If you can't have her for the rest of whatever life she had to live, have her for the period you are here for. One week. Full fun. I know you want it."

I turned to look at him. He was still in the position I had left him, his body turned away completely from where I now stood. 

Eddy wasn't joking. My anger broke loose.

"What do you take me for?" 

My entire body fumed with anger I could no longer contain.

"Why do you think I might want to have anything to do with your wife? No, wait, why do you think you have the right to do this to her?"

Eddy didn't shift in his posture.

From his back, I watched his head tilt to one side and I was sure his expression bore a mocking smile. It made me more irritated.

I grabbed the handle of the door and pressed it harder into my palm, wishing I could go back in time - I should have just sent a delegate for the Hargrove Gala, then I wouldn't have been too stiff, desiring an exercise before it was even morning.

Then, Lola wouldn't have met me and Eddy wouldn't have stood in front of me like this and made unbelievable demands.

" No te atrevas a mentir. Te gusta. Lo he visto en tus ojos - Don't dare to lie. You like her. I've seen it in your eyes"

I rushed towards him like a lion would an unfortunate prey.