Chapter 3

The next morning, waking up to someone who is touching her in a sexy way-it is a state of mind in between wakefulness and dream; she experiences a kind of falling sensation when her soul goes back to her body.

Lewis is kneeling at the bedside, licking her legs to her lady parts. It feels so good that she can’t resist it. Christa used to love wake-up sex in the morning; Lewis has already finished the foreplay.

Suddenly she is aching all over and the pain rings a bell in her head. Christa knows she has to stop him, but her hot skin wants more. She hesitates for the merest fraction of a second; Lewis is inside her.

"Fuck me, Lewis." She moans in a low whisper.

Friction between moving parts in an awkward position, the pain is receding slightly. Who cared? If he would lead her to hell, why not let him take her to heaven first? 

She has lived a second life; she has done playing a good girl; it is late for her to obey any instructions to the letter. Lewis is working harder than usual; he rocks her world, and she becomes lost in the pleasure.

Oh, My Lord...

It is a feeling of complete and utter euphoria that peaks after a long road trip to the afterworlds and hours of highly strenuous psychotic activity. After Lewis has done his big finish, she can hear him panting next to her in the bed.

Lewis kisses her forehead. “Good morning to you too, Mrs. Morrie.” Christa irritates by what he said, goads beyond endurance; she gets up and goes to the bathroom.

As the thrill has worn off, she has the eerie sensation of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell enhanced somehow. She can hear Lewis’s signing on the bed; the bathroom smells awful, and some thin cracks appear in the wall. 

Something strange happened to her last night. She was shifting into an animal. It must be a wild dream, she smiles to herself sarcastically as she finds out her clothes are lying down on the floor, along with her pantie and shoes.

A rethink with an alternative approach starts to become apparent. An idea suddenly pops into Christa’s head.

Who would drug his new bride and leave the room on their wedding night? How could she not think of that? Lewis must go out for a reason and he was hiding something important from her.

The disappointment of love ignites the flames of hatred in her infinite disappointment; if she looks in the mirror, she may find out that her black eyes have changed to red. She punches the wall and cracks begin to appear in the wall; the pain rouses her from her wrath.

By the time she has devised a revenge plot, she typically has cooled off and come to her senses. The hardest thing about planning revenge is figuring out how far to go, but Christa is determined to chase down all potential clues.

The water is running down her skin; she is soaking in the temperature; her body feels reinvigorated after a rest, a shower, of course, the morning gift from Lewis.

When she comes out of the bathroom, Lewis plays a video game with his phone; she sits beside him and lay on his chest.

"Lewis, I woke up in the middle of the night; you weren’t in bed or the room; where are you going?"

"You smell so good; we can go for a second round; I feel quite rested already."

Christa stands up quickly before Lewis could pin her down; it seems Lewis is unwilling to answer the question; he is acting like that as a diversionary tactic.

The old Christa might let him get away with it, but now she is the Reborn Christa; she had no intention of letting him off the hook.

"Lewis, did something happen? Why did you leave the room on our wedding day?"

"Well, it’s a matter of life and death. Cornelius got an eye on one of your friends, but she refused him the hard way. So I went out to drink with him to cheer him up."

Liar, he is nothing but a cheater, a Fraud -Christa is shouting inside her mind.

Cornelius Longman was the best man and Lewis’ best friend, who would cover anything dirty for Lewis. He was a bit of a lad-always had an eye for women; all these years, Christa watched him make bold advances to women. 

Once she thought it was a good thing Lewis was not like him, it turned out she was the fool; they became best friends for a reason.

Christa is making a visible effort to control herself. It involves slow, steady breathing for self-control, which helps her stay calm and attentive. She covers her head with the wet towel; it feels like she could suffocate herself to death. She takes it out after calming down; Luckily, Lewis is not paying attention to her at the moment.

"Poor Cornelius. Is he all right? Oh, have you seen Louisa? I couldn’t find her anywhere after the ceremony. I wondered if she had met someone and gone out with him."

Christa observes every detail of his expression when mentioning her best friend; she observes the gentle movement of his chest as he talks. She feels that his voice and emotions are all the same as usual; it seems that Louisa has nothing to do with him.

"I saw her last night in the corridor; she didn’t have much drink. I think she went to Connie’s room."

Finding out whether Lewis and Louisa had intercourse with each other last night was now at the top of the agenda. Christa is dying to know if she could change another’s fate since her fate is doomed, sound him out gradually, and make sure it is what he meant. She decides to fly a kite.

"Lewis, what do you think of Louisa?"

"What about her?"

"Do you think she is attractive? If I died by accident someday, I would want her..."

Christa couldn’t finish her words under the eagle eye of her husband; she turns her face and sits at the bedside. It was her guilty blink that always gave her away. The more defensive she acted, the guiltier she looked.

"What’s up with you? Christa, you look almost the same, but you seem different."

She makes the mistake of trying to extract further information from Lewis. The poking around and asking lots of questions are unsuccessful and served only to alert Lewis. Being rich and almost kidnapped when he was a child, Lewis had an angry wren-like vigilance.

It is a dead end with Lewis, but Louisa is still on her side for now. It had occurred to Christa to wonder whether Louisa was trustworthy, not that she thought Louisa was in any way active about the wedding.

"It’s nearly noon. I am starving. Honey, do you want to have a shower? We can have some food in the cafeteria."

A ring at the door; Christa is a little freaked out because she is not expecting anyone. Lewis sprang out of bed and walks to the door, opening it quickly.

It is room service; he must order it when she was in the shower.

She almost forgot how sweet Lewis was, a very gentle, caring man who had looked after her since they were little.

While Lewis is in the bathroom, Christa calls Louisa to make an appointment to meet her for dinner tonight at the hotel.

Before the wedding, Christa had called off the honeymoon trip because Lewis had a busy schedule being an intern. Now she knows unprincipled accommodation would harm him.

Christa remembered it all too well that they would spend the whole day together at the hotel; she had to come on with something to get rid of him.

"Lewis, I left my flash drive at Louisa’s yesterday; she will bring it to me tonight. I asked her to have dinner with us together. Do you mind?"

As a careless person, Christa was just very absent-minded; for instance, she always bought a pig in a poke, left the window or garage door unlocked, and forgot to take the key out when locking the door. And Lewis was not getting annoyed with her about her carelessness; it was the perfect cover for her.

"Fine by me. But I’d rather be with you alone; you own me. You will have to make up for me later."

Lewis puts a piece of sausage into his mouth as speaking. With a merry wink, he smiles at her. Christa used to give up anything to stay around him, but now half an hour in his company is almost more than she could bear.

She suddenly realizes that she doesn’t know when she stops loving him, maybe the moment he didn't save her or some days earlier. Disrespecting his love for her by diminishing the worth he feels for her is a turnoff.

She has done nothing, and here was the afternoon slipping away.

Louisa arrives at the cafeteria early for dinner; Christa goes out safe in the knowledge that she looks fabulous. Christa has no idea what she is up against; no matter what it is, she has to try her best to deal with it.

The three of them haven’t been up together to have dinner in a long time; they often had meals and went on holidays together as a team back at college. Actually, it is their first reunion this year.

After graduation, Louisa opted for a career in nursing at the same hospital as Lewis, Christa went to grad school; there wasn’t even a convenient time for them to have dinner together.

Louisa sits glumly looking out at the sea at the table. She is all dressed up as if for a ball. Christa could sense the twinkle in Lewis’s eyes; he composes his features, takes Christa’s hand smoothly, and begins to usher her to the table.

There is someone else in the room, refreshing and different.