The Crush: A Hotwife Novel Read online

  I looked closer and realized that I recognized this asshole. It was none other than the guy who’d hit on me earlier that night. Sean’s friend. What was he doing over here, and why did he look so pissed off?

  “Kyle? What on earth are you doing?” Sean asked.

  “What am I doing? I could ask you the same thing, you fucking traitor!” Kyle shouted. At least I assumed that’s what his name was. It wouldn’t make much sense for Sean to be calling him Kyle if that wasn’t his name, after all.

  “Traitor? What are you talking about Kyle?”

  “You know I had dibs on Madison. She’s mine! We agreed to it before we came here tonight!”

  I looked between the two of them and suddenly Sean running into me at that keg seemed a little different. Some of that was probably the booze doing the talking, but I was pissed off. Was that meeting really just a happy chance of fate, or was he over there on purpose because he had some competition going with his friend?

  I didn’t want to think that was the case. That he was just like every other asshole I’d ever run into at one of these parties. I thought he was supposed to be different, damn it.

  “Dibs? You can’t call dibs on a girl!” Sean said.

  “Well I can and I did! She’s mine!”

  “I didn’t see her wanting to talk to your lame ass earlier! She chose me and you can fuck off man,” Sean said.

  They were starting to gather a crowd. I looked through the sea of people staring in disbelief at the argument breaking out and saw Derek moving towards us. Damn it. That was the last thing I wanted. Derek seeing a couple of guys fighting over which one of them had a chance with me. Having any guys fighting over me wasn’t something I was in the mood with.

  In short, I was so over this night. I was so over guys preening and posturing and trying to get my attention. It seemed like Sean might be different, and it’s possible he was, but I couldn’t deal with him arguing with his friend like this. Not tonight. It was just too damn much.

  So I turned and left. I didn’t bother to look for Valerie. I didn’t tell Sean that I was leaving. I definitely didn’t wait around for Derek to show up and see what all the commotion was all about.

  I stepped into the cool air outside the party and took in a deep breath. After the smell of alcohol in there it was nice to breathe in nice clean. Well, except for the booze smell that was rising off of me. I frowned. I’d have to hope both of my parents were in bed for the evening. Sure I was eighteen and all, but they wouldn’t care about that when the drinking age was twenty-one.

  I was also going to have to be careful driving through town. It’s not like I had a lot to drink, but again, any cop who pulled me over smelling like this was going to toss me into the drunk tank and let my parents sort it out in the morning. That would have me right back at square one when it came to the whole trying to keep my parents from finding out I’d been drinking thing.

  Damn it. Why did the evening have to go so bad? Why couldn’t I listen to my instincts that told me not to go to the party tonight? Why did I even talk to that first creepy guy?

  It was a pity. That Sean guy was pretty hot. He seemed like a nice enough guy. I’d just reached my bullshit tolerance and enough was enough. Then again he was going to the same school I was. There was still a chance I might run into him again sometime in the future. Then again maybe not. It was a big school.

  5: Dibs

  “Do you want to take this outside?”

  I looked Kyle up and down. He was skinny. Wiry. He didn’t have an ounce of muscle on his body. I looked down at my arms. I lifted constantly. I swam constantly. I was in the best damn shape of my life.

  There wasn’t a chance in hell Kyle would ever be able to take me in a fair fight. There wasn’t much of a chance that he’d be able to take me in an unfair fight. My look seemed to communicate that all, as well. He looked around and blushed as though suddenly realizing how ridiculous he looked with that threat.

  A couple of drunks in the crowd were laughing at him now. I felt bad for him in some small back corner of my mind, but not much. He was the one who came over here and started acting like a complete asshat when I tried to be nice and introduce him to a different world for a change. He was the one who pissed off Madison and spilled booze all over her.

  Shit. Madison. I looked around in the crowd. Things had been going so well between us, far better than I ever would’ve imagined, and now it was all crashing down around me. Panic seized me as I realized Madison wasn’t anywhere to be seen in that crowd. Damn it. I was never going to forgive Kyle if he just destroyed the one chance I had with the single hottest girl to grace the halls of our school in years.

  “Are you serious Kyle? I’d break you in two,” I said.

  “Yeah? Well I’d make you work for it!”

  I sighed. I didn’t want to do this. What I wanted to do was figure out where Madison had disappeared to and try to sort things out. I glanced through the crowd, but people were so thick around us trying to get a good look at what probably looked like a brewing fight that I couldn’t see anything beyond the first couple of rows of people.

  I tried to move into the crowd but Kyle was right there in front of me. I blinked as I realized he had his hands up in fists and he was staring at me with murder in his eyes.

  “Are you really doing this? You didn’t have a chance with her,” I said.

  “Of course I didn’t when you moved in on her you asshole!”

  And he took a swing at me. The little prick actually took one of his balled up fists and took a swing at me! I didn’t even try to dodge it. His aim was terrible and when it landed on my chest, honestly who punches someone in the chest, it barely registered. It hurt more when I jumped in the water to get ready for a workout. I looked down at his fist connected to my chest and then back up at him.

  There must’ve been something in that look because he took a step back and everyone around us looking to witness a fight leaned forward as though they were about to get what they wanted. I reached up and grabbed Kyle’s fist which was still attached to my chest. I took it in my own grip and squeezed hard enough that my knuckles went white but not quite hard enough that it did any damage to him.

  At least I didn’t hear anything cracking or popping. I figured that was something. He let out a yelp and then went down to his knees as I pushed him there. I wanted him to know just how much he’d fucked up as all the frustration I’d felt all night, hell all the frustration I’d felt for years because I kept going to a stupid game night that I hadn’t really enjoyed in awhile because of him, came rushing out.

  “Kyle, we’ve been friends for a long time. That’s going to change after tonight, but in consideration of that long friendship I’m not going to beat the crap out of you,” I said.

  Kyle swallowed but didn’t say anything. I almost smiled. He’d been so fast to jump on me and interrupt things when he thought I was moving in on his territory. Territory he hadn’t even approached, let alone laid claim to. The asshole.

  “I never agreed to not go after any girl. Not to mention you would have to actually have a chance at getting with Madison if we were going to call dibs on a girl in the first place, and I think we all know you never had a chance,” I said.

  I was being an asshole, but I was that pissed off. One moment I’d been enjoying a conversation with Madison in a quiet corner of the party and the next she was gone. All because of Kyle and his stupid jealousy. Jealousy that wasn’t even justified since he didn’t have any claim on Madison.

  “And you think you did have a chance?” Kyle asked.

  “I had a better chance than you did. At least until you pulled that stupid move. Now you’re going to leave this party, and I never want to see you again. Go back to the game table with all the other assholes who don’t have a future. I’ll be off living my life.”

  I let go of Kyle’s hand and he fell back into the crowd. A couple of people moved to the side and he landed on the ground where he rubbed at his knuckles. I didn�
�t wait to see if he was going to get up and try to have round two. No, I needed to know where the hell Madison was. I dove into the crowd, looking around every which way, but there was no sign of her in the party.

  Finally I made it through the press of people and out onto the front porch of the party house. I looked around but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen out there either.

  I felt someone come up next to me. I turned to see Dan standing there with a serious look on his face. A moment later Mark came out to join him.

  “We saw everything that happened in there man,” Dan said.

  “You did?”

  “Well duh,” Mark continued. “Our guy was over there getting his game on with Madison. We had to watch.”

  “Yeah, you were just watching because you wanted to support me, right guys?” I said.

  “Well we might’ve had a bet going,” Dan said.

  “Yeah? What was the bet?”

  “We were seeing how long it would take for her to realize what she was doing and slap your ugly mug, but then it never happened,” Mark said. “And your asshole buddy running into you and ruining the moment doesn’t count. I’m not paying you Dan.”

  “Yeah we’ll talk about that later,” Dan replied, then turned back to me. “So what are you going to do?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know man. I just don’t know.”

  “We could always go get your ex-buddy in there and rough him up just a little bit. That’d make you feel better, right?” Mark asked.

  I laughed. The first laugh I had that evening, though the humor didn’t help much. No, I was too bummed about missing out on what had been a golden opportunity. A golden opportunity that was well and truly passed thanks to Kyle and his stupid meddling.

  “No, nothing like that,” I said. “I’ll just have to chalk this one up to fate getting in the way. Besides, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of girls just as hot as Madison when I get to college next fall.”

  I was saying the words, but I didn’t really believe them. No, I’d had a wonderful opportunity tonight and Kyle had blown it. I didn’t have her phone number and I didn’t know anyone who did have her phone number. At least they didn’t seem likely to give it up.

  “Yeah, you can say that all you want, but we know it’s bullshit. The only girl at your college as hot as Madison is gonna be Madison,” Dan said.

  I reached out and flicked his shoulder. He fell back like I’d punched him. “Thanks for making me feel better asshole,” I said.

  Dan grinned. “Any time man. Any time.”

  I sighed and peered out into the dark neighborhood. Missed opportunities. It looked like Kyle had well and truly ruined my opportunity with Madison, and I would never forgive him for that.

  Part 2: College

  Part 2: College

  6: Fast Forward

  I felt a tingle of anticipation as I walked up to the house party. It had taken a little bit of research to figure out exactly where the swim team had their parties, and it was made all the more difficult because they didn’t even have any meets going on yet. Just private practices that I couldn’t get into.

  Apparently they had a problem with people showing up to their practices and sitting in the stands just to ogle the pretty people. I’m sure some of the people on the team didn’t mind being objectified just a little, what was the point of swimming in college if not for the rocking bod that went along with it?

  Still, there’d been enough complaints that it ruined it for everyone.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Valerie asked. “This is all sort of out of character for you.”

  I took a deep breath and stared at the house party that was already going from the sound of music blasting out into the street. That music blended in with the music from every other party going on along this block. This was strictly a student ghetto. Anyone who wasn’t interested in studying hard through the week and partying hard over the weekend had long since moved out to the suburbs where the police actually responded to noise complaints.

  “We’re doing this Val. I need to do it,” I said.

  Truer words had never been spoken. I suppose I could’ve just looked Sean up in the student directory and given him a call. I could’ve gotten in touch with him on social media. I’d looked at him on both, but I’d never taken that extra step of getting in touch with him. I kept thinking back to that night when I bailed and figured he wouldn’t want to talk to me after pulling such a bitchy move.

  “Well lets go then,” Valerie said. “You’re not going to meet Mr. Right standing out here on the sidewalk.”

  “What if he’s still mad at me?” I asked.

  Sure I had no way of knowing if he was actually mad at me. You had to talk to someone to figure something like that out. I just had a feeling.

  Valerie looked me up and down and grinned.

  “Madison, have you ever known a guy who didn’t want to talk to you? Even if he was pissed off at you?”

  I blushed. “Well, no?”

  “Right. And that guy was all about you at that party. He’s going to jump for joy to see you again. Especially when he finds out about how you’ve been pining for him all this time and you’re coming out to this party just to see him,” she said.

  My blush deepened and I held a finger up to Valerie’s nose. She went cross eyed as she stared down at it. “You are not going to breathe a word of any of that to him. Do you understand me?”

  Val held up her hands. “Fine. I’m not breathing a word of any of that,” she said. Then she muttered. “This guy really should know how weird you’re acting about him though.”

  It was a good thing we were standing in the darkness. Otherwise it would’ve been pretty damn obvious that I was red from the top of my head down to my neck. Valerie was right. I didn’t act this way about guys. Usually I let them come to me. I was the one who was pursued, not the one doing the pursuing.

  And yet I couldn’t get Sean out of my head. I’d kicked myself the entire summer for letting him get away. I’d gone to more parties hoping he might show up, but he went right back to not making any appearances and I hated myself for blowing that one opportunity because I’d been a bit overwhelmed.

  “Come on Val. We’re on a mission. Besides, don’t tell me you’re not looking forward to hitting on some of those swimmers in there.”

  “Oh there’s totally something in this for me,” Val said. “I just want to make sure you’re ready. This isn’t like you to do the chasing.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Alcohol appeared as though by magic as soon as we walked through the door. Not that I was surprised. Guys at these parties usually seemed more than happy to provide us with a drink, though I always went with something I got straight from the keg rather than a drink that was offered to me. I’d seen enough videos during freshman orientation about the kinds of creeps that were out there to know that was asking for trouble.

  I looked around at all the guys on offer at this evening’s festivities. Most of them were pretty good looking. All of them were buff and ripped in only the way that someone who spends four hours of their day in the pool can be buff and ripped. But none of them were Sean. I’d been sure he would be at this party, it was a swim team party after all and he said he was on the swim team here, but I felt fear worming through me as I surveyed the crowd and didn’t find who I was looking for.

  What if he didn’t go to the parties here either? What if he decided not to join the team? Damn it.

  I suppose that at least Valerie would have the fun of getting to hang out with sexy swimmers all night long even if I didn’t get anything out of it. The guys were good looking, but they weren’t who I was looking for.

  “I’m not seeing your guy anywhere,” Valerie said.

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” I muttered. “Looks like this party is going to be a bust.”

  “Maybe a bust for you, but I’m seeing plenty of fun!” Valerie said. “You mind if I do a cruise around the room?”

  I l
aughed. “Go for it. I think I’m going to go get a drink direct from the source. You want one?”

  “Nah. I’ll find someone to get me a drink.”

  “Be careful and let me know if you’re leaving with someone,” I said.

  Valerie had decided to really live up the college life. Ever since we got here she was out from Thursday through Sunday partying and finding guys to have a little fun with. I didn’t mind it too much. Usually she didn’t bring them back to our dorm room, though there’d been a couple of annoying occasions when I came back to find our code word written on the dry erase board on our dorm door.

  I’d tried doing that on a couple of occasions, but the problem was I kept comparing all the guys I met with Sean. Sure I was probably looking back on that one night with rose and beer tinted glasses, but still. A couple of aborted attempts to have a little fun with a hot guy is what led me to this party tonight. One way or another I needed to get this Sean guy out of my head and out of my system.

  I made my way over to the keg and was about to get a cup that the guy monitoring the booze eagerly offered when I heard something that chilled me.

  “Madison?”

  I turned and stared, though I felt rooted to the spot. I’d found him. Or rather he’d found me. Sean stood right behind me with a bemused expression on his face and an empty beer cup in his hand. It looked like once more we were meeting over a keg. Maybe it was fate.

  If anything Sean was looking better now than he had back when we first met. It seemed like his shoulders were a little broader. He definitely had some bigger muscles, and everything about him was leaner at the same time. More cut. Spending all those hours in the pool for the college team had definitely done his body good!

  “Um. Hi Sean?” I said.

  Damn it. Why did that come out like a question? The problem was that I just wasn’t used to this. I wasn’t used to the on who did the pursuing. I wasn’t used to being the one who felt awkward around a guy because I wasn’t sure if he even wanted to talk to me. I was supposed to be the one that guys fell all over themselves to get with, damn it, and this was doing a number on me having the shoe on the other foot.