Chapter ten

Chapter ten

Daniel

Two weeks go by and I’m still in a bad mood. After all, wherever I look, Julie - who should be mine - is with the “sweetheart”. Alan shows up at our condo almost every day. On the nights that they have a show, he holds her on stage, kisses and hugs her, making the audience sigh, leaving me further confused and in rage.

I’ve been spending most of the time locked in the office or home alone. On show nights, I sit at the bar and watch her singing. I don’t feel hungry nor like talking to anybody, in spite of Rafe and Zach’s insistence in trying to make me talk. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so unhappy.

I shouldn't feel this way, after all, I've always done everything I could to keep away from her. But every time I see Alan touch her body, I feel my blood boil. I can't stop thinking about what I call the incident . In the intense desire, in the way I made her feel pleasure and how it seemed so wrong and, at the same time, so right.

But it was last night that really knocked me down to the ground.

The two lovebirds spent the night like dogs in heat until I couldn't take it anymore and went to her apartment. I knocked hard on the door until the groans stopped. Julie opened the door. Her hair was messy and she had on the sexiest sweater I've ever seen in my life.

I stood there, open-mouthed, looking at her, with no reaction.

"Danny, what do you want?“ she had asked and her voice sounded slightly irritated.

"Julie, I... hmm...,” I must have looked like an idiot, but I couldn't organize my thoughts when I saw her so... seductive.

"This is not the time to knock on anyone's house, Daniel. Don't get me wrong, but I'm busy. Tomorrow we'll talk.”

"But... Jul... ", she slammed the door in my face and I was babbling like a fish in the aquarium.

Shit!

The moans started all over again and I just thought that idiot was with her when it should have been me. She should be shouting my name.

Oh, shit, I'm really screwed.

Now I'm sitting in my office, staring out the window without seeing anything, remembering the early morning episode when a knock on the door pulls me out of my rambling.

"Come in," I say, already grumpy. I really don't know what's happening to me. I've always been a playful, fun guy, but now I seem more like a rabid pit bull. Zach walks into the room and watches me with a strange face.

"Man, what's going on? You look awful. And..." He suddenly stops and starts sniffing the air. "Have you been bathing? This room smells like a wet dog. Look at your face. You’re unshaved and your hair is a mess,“ he frowns. "What about that crumpled shirt? Did you forget to iron it before you got dressed? Oh, my God, Danny, what's going on?”

I really don't have a clue if I showered or not.

"I... I don't know”, I reply and face him, embarrassed.

"You're going to get your ass out of that chair now, go home and take a shower, or you're going to end up scaring customers away with that stench. And you're going to shave and do something to sort yourself out, too. Fuck, Danny, if your problem is the new couple, you're going to have to sort it out!”

“I don't know what I can do...she... she...

“, I shake my hand, giving up talking. The discouragement was so great that I can't even put into words everything that pressed against my chest.

“Oh, damn it.” Zach comes closer and pulls me by the arm. “Let's go. I'm gonna help you. You're gonna get your girl back.”

"All right", I say as I accompany him, but without much confidence.

Zach drives me home and on the way we talk about random matters. We don’t talk, he does the talking and I just listen. I'm too tired to talk.

We arrive home and he pushes me into the bathroom despite my willingness to get under my red duvet. As I prepare to shower, Zach goes to the kitchen, probably to do something for lunch. He cooks very well and if we hadn't opened After Dark, he'd definitely be a chef or something.

I get in the shower and take a long hot one. I shave my beard which was really way long. I put on clean clothes, and when I come out, my friend is waiting for me with the table set and the food ready. The smell of tomato sauce on the pasta animates my stomach, and I realize I'm hungry for the first time after going through days without eating properly.

Only once I start eating does Zach start the hearing.

"What's going on?”

“I don't know. I think I'm... Feeling weird.”

I let go of a long sigh and tell him everything, from the moment I saw her singing in the video to the events of last night.

"Since I saw that video, my life has never been the same. I don't know what I'm feeling, whether it's built-up desire or something more than that. I just know that seeing Julie with him is killing me.

“I get that. But you need to act. Standing there, in the corners, won't solve it.”

"What am I going to do, Zach?" I run the hands through my hair, not knowing what step to take.”

"I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna do.”

***

Julie

Two weeks after the mission began, George and I went to lunch so I could provide the "reports" he demanded of me.

"How are things, darling? I wonder how you're dealing with the hard life of pretending to be Alan's girlfriend, getting kisses and licks from him... ouch...”

"George!” I rebuke him.

“What is it?" he asks me, with an innocent face. Cynical. "Tell Uncle George everything. I want to know everything!”

"The last few weeks have been...Weird. The false dating began and...”

“I'm aware of that. They don't talk about anything else at After Dark besides the kisses Alan gives you on stage. They say the fans are DE-VAS-TA-TED”, he says and I roll my eyes.

"Don’t go there. Before you say anything else, he respects me very much.”

"You swear? What a pity...”

I can't stop myself from laughing. That’s quite a picture, my God.

"Well, as for Danny... He doesn't look good. In fact, he's been down, unshaved, and he looks at me as if he’s lost his best friend.”

"Do you know the name of that, sweetheart? Jealousy. That's exactly what we wanted!” he says and claps.

Jo arrives at this moment, all dressed up, coming straight from the forum.

"Have you had lunch yet? I'm starving ", she assaults the toast basket that the waiter left as a starter.

"We've ordered, sweetheart," George speaks and calls the waiter.

George and I look at each other, surprised at how much food Jo asks for. Something seems wrong. She only eats like this when she has a problem or is anxious.

"Girlfriend, is everything okay with you? “, I ask, worried.

"Yes, why?”

"I've never seen you eat so much!”

“I'm just hungry. What were you talking about?” she changes the subject.

"We were talking about your brother," George replies, with a raised eyebrow.

"I spoke to my mother today," Jo reports. "She's worried about him “, I had to pretend I didn't know what was going on.

"Great,” George speaks while drinking his wine.

"Poor thing, George! Danny's never been like this.”

"Poor thing, nothing. I’m the poor thing as I have to come up with an outlandish plan for him to wake up and go after the girl he wants." George rolls his eyes and then turns his focus to me. "Now, I want to know everything about operation Harry & Sally, baby girl!”

Operation Harry & Sally was the name George gave to the plan we executed last night, which was named after the famous scene from the movie with Meg Ryan in which Sally fakes an orgasm without Harry even touching her. Just with groans. Just the memory of it, makes me laugh.

"I want to know about EVERY-THING! “, he exclaims.

"Oh, I've never been so nervous in my life!" I giggle with nervousness as I recall everything that happened.

I was very nervous when the bell rang.

"Hi, babe," Alan said as he came in and leaned over to kiss my face.

"Come in," I said, signaling with my hand and feeling my face heat up. I was sure it was red as a bell pepper.

"What’s the matter with you? Are you feeling nervous?”

"A lot.”

“Hey, don’t worry. Every thing’s gonna be fine,” he said, winking at me. God!, If it wasn’t for Daniel I would have jumped on him already. “I’ve been thinking...He may come here to kill me...You know that don’t you?”

"What? Kill? No!”

Daniel was a jealous guy but not an assassin.

“If I was in his shoes, I would come." Alan shrugged. "Then change your clothes and put on a nice lingerie.”

I raised an eyebrow to him, wary.

"Easy, kitty. With all due respect, if he knocks on the door, you can't go and answer fully clothed.”

I agreed, though a little unsure. What were the chances of that working? I've always been a terrible actress. God, how could I let myself be persuaded by George?

I went to the bedroom and opened the lingerie drawer. I looked at everything George had made me buy and I didn't feel comfortable wearing panties and a bra or a corset in front of Alan.

I put on a short silk sweater, with shaped bust with lace in a shade of purple that contrasted with my very light hair. Fortunately it wasn't transparent. But to be sure, I put a robe on top.

I arrived in the lounge and Alan was accommodated on my couch, looking very comfortable, shirtless, with his pants open and holding the remote control. It's going to be a rough night, I thought to myself.

Any woman in my place would feel lured if she had a sexy, stripped man on her couch. And I know that if I wanted to, Alan wouldn't turn down a night of pleasure. Except I wasn't the kind of girl who had casual sex. To me, sex was largely related to love, and he wasn't the guy I was in love with.

When Alan saw me, he smiled and signaled me to approach. I sat down and he surrounded me with his arms. As I settled in, we watched a Franz Ferdinand show on TV. We sing some songs together and, in the middle of the show, the embarrassment was finally gone.

By the time the show was over, it was past midnight. It was time for us to act.

“I've got an idea. “, Alan went towards the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"What are you going to do? " I saw him pick up a pot of Belgian chocolate ice cream that I was hiding for a special occasion.”

"As I know you won't moan about me, I'll give you a boost." I frowned, but he didn't seem to notice my expression. He came to me, held my hand and took me near the open window of the lounge, only still far enough away to not be seen. “I need a blindfold.”

“What?”

Oh my God! Who does he think he is? Christian Grey?

"A blindfold, babe. With the eyes covered, your other senses will be sharpened, and you will loosen up.

I went to the bedroom and took the black satin ribbon from a dress. Alan blindfolded me and put me sitting in a chair. We hadn't even started, and I was already feeling the cold in my belly.

A slow song was playing in the background. I recognized the voice of James Blunt, singing. You're beautiful. Alan really knew how to get me into the mood. Suddenly, I felt his warm hands on my shoulders. He started massaging and my body relaxed.

When I least expected it, Alan started singing in my ear. He was right: my senses were completely sharpened by the touch of his hands and the sound of his voice.

Soon after, he held my hair with one hand, and leaned my head back a little. I felt my lips get cold. Alan leaned the scoop with ice cream against my mouth.

I couldn't hold it and moaned when I tasted Belgian chocolate.

"Yes, babe, moan a little more. That's perfect.” "He gave me another spoonful of the ice cream, holding my hair hard, and kept speaking in my ear.

"Ohhhhhh... Alan... hhhmmmmmmmmm.”

My moaning and groaning kept growing as he pressed on with words of encouragement and scoops of ice cream. I always knew chocolate was an aphrodisiac, but not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine I could have an almost sexual experience just involving ice cream.

Until the sound of knocks on the door scare me.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

We both stopped and I pulled the blindfold. I was still a little dazed. I got up to open the door, but Alan stopped me on the way, untied my robe, shook my hair with his hands and pushed one of the straps off my shoulder. I didn't quite understand, still drunk on the chocolate seduction. Well, at least until I open the door and find Danny looking at me with his mouth open.

"Danny, what do you want?" I asked him, feeling irritated that he was so hard-headed. I wish it was him in there, giving me ice cream.

"Julie, I... Hmm... "He couldn't take his eyes off me, and I thought I'd slam the door before I pulled him into the house and forgot Alan was there.

"Daniel, this is not the time to knock on anyone's house. Don't get me wrong, but I'm busy. Tomorrow we'll talk.”

"But... Jul...

I slammed the door. Alan drew near, held me against the door and whispered in my ear:

"Close your eyes. Imagine that everything you're thinking this fool could do is really happening and moan a little louder for him to hear.”

"Ohhhhh... Alan…" I obey, not knowing if I was horrified that he knew what was going on in my head or if the situation itself excited me.

He walked away from me, put the lid on the ice cream and tucked it back in the freezer.

"What... What are you doing?" I asked, dazed.

"Putting away the ice cream. It's melting”, he answered and smiled at me, in an innocent way, while I remained there, still, with an open mouth and without reaction. "Babe?”

"Yes?”

"Can you get me a pillow?

“Pillow?

What for?” I asked, already wary. If he did what he did with an ice cream, God protect me from what he could do with the pillow.

"I'm going to sleep on the couch. If I leave now, he may be suspicious”, he explained by swinging his thumb toward the house in front.

" Ohh..." I muttered. “Right.”

He winked at me and went to the bathroom while I went to my room. On the way back, we met in the hallway and he held me on his arms against the wall.

"It's not because I stopped that I'm not in the mood, you know? I stopped because I really like you. If you weren't so special, you'd be in that bed, under me, moaning because of me, not the ice cream, you got that?”

He looked me in the eyes, his lips very close to mine.

"Hm-hm," I murmured, unable to form a word.

“Excellent. Good night, babe. "Alan smiled, with the sweetest expression in the world. Then he leaned towards me, brushed his lips on mine and walked away, taking the pillow from my hands and going to sleep directly on the couch.

“... And that's what happened” I say, when I finally finished telling the whole story.

George looks at me incredulously, after hearing quietly (a miracle!) everything I told.

"Wow... “, he starts talking, but suddenly stops and shakes his arms insistently to call the waiter. I look at Jo, who has the same shocked expression on her face. "Waiter, please, three shots of tequila. Quick, please. We have an emergency on the table.”

"Girlfriend, I'm shocked! “, Jo finally speaks. "You really love my brother, right? Because I, if I were in your shoes, would have grabbed Alan the moment he said he was going to blindfold me. I don't know how you managed to resist.”

"Yes, I love Danny. I love him so much. “ I lower my head, close my eyes and take a deep breath, before I look her in the eyes again and carry on talking. "He is the man I have always dreamed of. Ever since I was a kid, when we both played house, I pretended Danny was my husband. I never thought I'd live my life next to another man other than him.”

"You deserve to be everything to him, baby," George speaks, with a warm smile.

"I don't want to be everything to him. I just want to be the special person that will be next to him. The one he wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

“They both nod their heads in agreement. The table goes into absolute silence until George raises his tequila shot and toasts:

“To love!”