The Wrong Woman

“Maybe I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“What?” I responded when the silence grew too loud. “What did you say?”

Felicity refused to look at me as she turned to leave. I grabbed her by the arm to stop her and she made a futile attempt to pull away.

“What did you say?” I repeated.

“What, Harry…you mean to say you never think about what happened between us?”

I considered her words for a moment and then I considered my response. She must have mistaken my silence as disinterest because she managed to pull away from me.

“Hey.” I said, taking her by the hand. “Hold on.”

She bit her lip nervously and I could see she was clearly embarrassed by the turn in our conversation.

“Just forget about it.” She mumbled.

“I can’t forget about it.” I said softly. We stared at each other for a moment before I took a deep breath. “Yeah I think about you…”

“Sorry.” She said. “Just forget about it… please. I don’t know why I even said that.”

“Well you did… and it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” She twisted her hand away from me and I could sense her panic. “I didn’t even mean it that way.”

“So how did you mean it then?” I asked, starting to feel a bit irritated. I had just confessed to thinking about her and she was now backtracking on me.

“I don’t know Harry.” She shook her head. “I’m confused enough as it is.”

“Okay then.” I said dully and returned to my desk

“Okay?” Felicity echoed softly.

“Okay.” I snapped.

I could feel her eyes on me but I refused to look at her. I don’t know what she wanted from me, but I really didn’t want to play her game anymore.

X

Maddie had invited me over for a swim in her pool and there were a couple of reasons why I didn’t want to go. Firstly, I didn’t want to bump into Felicity or Campbell. Secondly, I didn’t want Campbell to see my tattoos. I had gotten a lot of shit about them over the years and I hated having to explain them.

But Maddie was persuasive and before I knew it, I was lying on a banana lounge in my T-shirt, board shorts and dark sunglasses.

“Aren’t you going to take your shirt off?” Maddie asked.

“Aren’t you?” I countered, crossing my arms. She was wearing a long flowing cover over her swimming costume. Maddie shrugged her shoulders and pulled it off to reveal a tiny blue frilly bikini. She looked pretty cute, especially with her long hair pulled up into a messy ponytail and I liked how she wasn’t shy to show off her body. She took out a tube of sunscreen and began to smooth it over her arms and then legs.

“Take your shirt off.” She said impatiently. “Aren’t you going to swim with me?”

I sighed as I took it off and right on cue, I looked up to see Campbell emerge from the house.

“Holy Mother of God.” He cried. “How many tattoos can one person have?”

“They seemed like a good idea at the time.” I mumbled uncomfortably. There were quite a few of my tattoos that I loved but there were a few I wished would disappear. To make things even worse, Felicity wandered outside in a revealing bright yellow bikini so I didn’t even know where to look. I quickly averted my eyes and focussed on Maddie instead. She slowly made her way into the pool, squealing about how cold the water was, when Campbell approached me with a bottle of beer in his hands.

“Want one?” He asked. I paused for a moment, wondering if it was a test of some kind. He had already witnessed me getting wasted, was he expecting me to turn him down? The problem was the temptation of an icy cold beer was too much for me to refuse.

“Thanks.” I said, accepting the bottle gratefully.

“I have a little job for you.” He said as he cracked open his beer. “I need you to make a couple of deliveries for me.”

“Okay.” I said.

“I’ll speak to you about it during the week.” He said looking distracted. I followed his gaze and saw him checking out Felicity’s ass as she bent over to grab her towel.

“I’ll speak to you about it in the office.” He said again and I just nodded as I caught Felicity watching us curiously. Campbell made a beeline for her and I couldn’t help but stare as his hand squeezed her ass and she jumped in response.

I realised I was wearing my sunglasses, so they couldn’t even see that I was watching them, not that they barely looked my way anyway. Campbell kissed her and I couldn’t help but watch with interest, remembering how I had enjoyed her curves, just as he was now.

I took a long swig of my beer and lay back in my chair until the sound of Maddie’s voice yelled.

“Harry!”

I looked up to see her waving and smiling at me.

“Jump in… the water’s beautiful!”

I reluctantly stood up and made my way over to the edge of the pool and lowered myself in to feel the cold water splash over my hot skin. I then waded over to Maddie who smiled broadly before throwing her arms around my neck. I awkwardly placed my hands on her waist and kept her at arm’s length as we bobbed up and down in the water.

“Your Dad’s here.” I whispered.

“He’s not even looking.” She whispered back. I quickly glanced over to see Campbell tanning face down on the lounge chair, looking dead to the world. Felicity was lying next to him and although she could probably see us, I didn’t really care. We had barely spoken since our confrontation in the office and it felt like all the progress we had made was all for nothing.

Maddie and I played in the water for a while, until we started to get a little silly and I tried to catch her. She was a better swimmer than I was and kept gliding out of my reach. When I finally caught her, it was only because she let me. She wrapped her legs around my waist and my hands easily slipped around her waist. Her lips pressed upon mine and I felt her tongue swirling against mine. It was such a weird feeling to be feeling up Maddie out in the open, under her Dad’s nose. As my hands slid across her wet skin I peeked over to where Felicity was sunbaking. Our eyes locked for a moment and I found myself pushing Maddie away.

“I might go lie down.” I said.

“Okay.” Maddie said breathlessly.I quickly made my way, making sure to grab my towel and wrap it around me, hiding my hard on. Maddie continued to wade around the pool while I relaxed in the sun. Felicity sat across from me and I couldn’t help but feel my eyes scan over her. I couldn’t help but notice her full breasts barely covered by the top of her yellow bikini, which filled my mind with memories of the way they felt in my hand and in my mouth. I shifted slightly in my chair and decided it was safer to just lie face down.The last thing I needed was Campbell catching me with a hard on for his daughter and his girlfriend.

I must have fallen asleep because although I felt someone nudging me, it took a while for my eyes to prise open. I turned my head to the side to see a flash of yellow.

“Harry.”

“Huh?

“Harry, you’re turning red.” Felicity told me. I turned over and squinted up at her as she sat on the edge of my lounge chair. “Put some sunscreen on… you’re already starting to burn up.”

“I fell asleep.”

“I know.” She smiled down at me before handing me a tube of cream.

“You gonna help me put it on?” I asked and she shook her head.

“You’re on your own with this one.”

“Well then… thanks for noticing.” I said and she rolled her eyes. I watched her walk away and turned to see Maddie emerge from the cabana.

“Feel like rubbing some cream on me?” I asked holding up the tube and laughed when her eyes lit up.

It was too late though. By the evening, my back was aching and a quick glance in the mirror confirmed I was badly burned. I stayed for dinner and soon Maddie and I were eating takeaway pizza in front of the television. We were talking about different things and somehow Maddie managed to mention Mr. Tomlinson a couple of times in her conversation.

“Can you stop talking about him?” I interrupted.

“Why?” Maddie asked and I looked up to see a sly smile on her face. “Are you jealous?”

“Yes, I’m jealous… why are you smiling at me like that?” I said irritated.

“Because.” Maddie said. “It’s kind of cute.”

“It’s not meant to be cute.” I grumbled.

She playfully swatted me on the back and I yelped in pain.

“For fuck’s sake.” I seethed.

“Why are you so angry?” Maddie asked.

“Do I really have to tell you?” I shot back.

Maddie abruptly stood up and flounced off, leaving me alone. I wasn’t used to her reacting this way so I sat there and waited for her to come back. An hour later I was still alone but not willing to run after her and too lazy to go home. So I sat there and watched the movie, when I noticed Felicity wander through the living room.

“Where’s Maddie?” She asked.

“Who knows?” I replied bitterly. “Probably calling her fucking teacher for advice.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“If I were you, I’d tell Campbell that his daughter is spending a lot of time with her teacher at school.”

“Um okay.” Felicity said looking a little confused. “How’s your back feeling?”

“It hurts.” I grumbled.

“You should put some aloe vera on it.”

“Aloe what?”

“Aloe vera gel. It’ll soothe the burn.” Felicity paused. “Wait here.”

She disappeared for a couple of minutes and returned with a bottle which she tossed in my direction. I examined the bottle before looking up at her.

“How am I supposed to do this on my own?” I asked pointedly. She sighed heavily and gestured to my shirt.

“Take of it off and lie down.”

“Where’s Campbell?” I asked.

“He’s upstairs, so hurry up.”

I knew I said I didn’t want to play games any more, but the temptation was too high. I knew it was risky, but I also knew that we could get away with it. My back was burned and I needed help. Maddie had pretty much abandoned me, so it was okay if Felicity helped me out.

Wasn’t it? I held my breath as I waited with anticipation. I felt the cool gel hit my sunburnt skin and then Felicity’s finger tips tentatively smooth it across my back and shoulders. Soon I felt her use the palm of her hand to rub it in and I couldn’t help but breathe in sharply at the sensation.

“How does it feel?” I heard Felicity say.

“It tingles.” I managed to respond.

I just wanted it to go on forever. Even though I felt a little pain because of the sunburn, her touch still felt amazing. When she moved to my shoulders, I couldn’t help but let out a tiny moan.

“Harry, you’re not meant to be enjoying this.”

“Are you kidding me?” I ground out. She abruptly stopped and I lazily turned my head toward her. “Why’d you stop?”

“What did you expect? A full body massage?”

“Yeah? You offering?” I raised my eyebrow suggestively and pouted when she shook her head.

“You’re too much… you know that?”

We smiled at each other and in that one moment it felt like the old times again. I had the insane urge to just throw her down on the couch and have my way with her. I could hear her breath quicken as though she could read my mind and it took every ounce of my strength not to follow through with my thoughts.

Instead, I lifted myself up from the couch and pulled on my t-shirt. She held my gaze for a moment as if she was deep in thought and I smiled up at her to try and snap her out of it.

“You said something about Maddie’s teacher before…” She said.

“Her Math teacher… Tomlinson,” I said, my voice grew hard at the thought of him. “He’s been tutoring her the last few months. I don’t trust the guy…”

“Tomlinson?” Felicity said with a frown.

“Yeah… Louis Tomlinson.”

Felicity’s eyes widened with recognition.

“Louis Tomlinson?” She repeated slowly. “I once dated someone by that name.”

Notes