Hooked (A New Adult Romance) (5 page)

Ruby

“Oh my god,” Julie gushed as soon
as Jake and his friend were out of earshot. “I can’t believe what I just
witnessed!”

“Tell me about it,” I exhaled as
I watched them exit the bar.

We both sat silently for a minute
as our brains processed what had occurred only minutes ago.

“That was so fucking hot,” Julie
declared. “I thought fight scenes like that only happened in movies.”

“Yeah,” I replied absentmindedly.

Maybe I should fuck Jake Bishop—he would be all the rebound
I need, and then some.
 
I sighed, harkening back to my
grim situation with Dan—and with men in general.

But god is he hot.

And he’s only gotten hotter.

Julie is right. Saving my
virginity for a mystical Prince Charming is stupid. Why bother? Maybe I should
be a promiscuous little whore. Whores have more fun…

I could whore it up with Jake; an
experienced guy like him could certainly fuck a virgin the way she needed to be
fucked.

Then I started to feel depressed
again.

I knew I was just talking shit. I
was desperate.
But not for sex.

For love.

But there was no one to love me.

“Hello?
Earth
to Ruby?
Are you out there? Hello?”

I blinked and looked up. Julie
was dodging her head back and forth while waving both hands at me, trying to
get my attention.

“Where have you been?”

“Uh, oh nowhere,” I stammered,
falling back to Earth. “Sorry, lost in my thoughts, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess is right,” she
grinned sarcastically. “Daydreaming about Jake, huh? Yeah, he does that to
girls. Hell, he’s done it to me.”

“No,” I lied vehemently and
scowled. “I’m not thinking about Jake. I’m just thinking about how fucked up
guys are. Combative, promiscuous, lying, cheating, asshole players.”

Julie rolled her eyes.
“Whatever.”

“I’m serious. They’re all pricks.
They’re only charming when they want to get in your pants. After they’ve
conquered you and bragged about it to all their Facebook friends, you’re just
another vagina to them.”

“Oh Ruby,” Julie sighed sadly.
She scooted her chair close to mine, put her arm around me and took another sip
of her drink.

“
Ohmygosh
!
Look over there! Quick!” I said abruptly as soon as she placed her glass down
on the table.

“What?” she said, sharply jerking
her head in the direction I was pointing; I quickly slammed the rest of her
drink.
  

“I’ve decided one thing: I’m
going to walk into Dan’s office tomorrow and tell him it’s over.”

“Now that’s my girl! Glad to hear
it.
 
Finally you’re—hey
!—
where’s the rest of my drink?!”

Chapter 9

Jake

“Shit, dude, I can’t believe
that’s all you had in you. The old Jake Bishop would have at least asked her
out, probably banged her, too. I’m telling you, man, med school is changing
you. Two beautiful women without wedding rings, and you didn’t so much as make
a move on either.”

“Shut up, Zach,” I grinned. “Something
was wrong. She looked sad. It just didn’t feel right, that’s all.”

“What doesn’t feel more right
than having a pussy like hers bobbing and milking your cock?”

 
I smiled and shook my head. Zach and I
were seated on a park bench, not far from the bar. It was a warm, pleasant
evening, but I could tell by the silent flashes of light deep in the clouds
that it was about to storm.
 

“
Ooowee
!
And her friend! Damn! She was all about you. I was afraid I was going to have
to beat her off with a pool cue, the way she was eyeing you.”

Hm. Her friend; I totally forgot
to introduce myself.
Where have I seen
her before?

In any case, Zach was right: in
the past, I would’ve been all over those girls. But now…

“You know, Zach, I don’t think
med school is changing me that much. I’m simply more focused now, and I don’t
have time for fun and games like I used to.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you know as
well as I do that the ‘old you’ would have asked at least one of those girls
out. Hell man, I haven’t seen a girl latched onto your arm for ages. You going
gay on me or something?”

I actually had to stop and think
about when I last had a girlfriend. For sure the last girl I bagged was…Ginger—or
was her name Jen? I forget. Anyway, it was a girl from my intro to radiology
class, that’s for sure, and it was a while ago.

Looking back now, I should’ve had
sex with Amber the other night; it would’ve been really good for my mental
health.

“Oh shit. You
are
going gay,” Zach frowned, his voice
dropping low.

“Ha! No man, sorry, I was just
thinking. No I
ain’t
going gay, don’t worry. But yeah,
I haven’t had anything serious for awhile.”

“You know, come to think of it,
I’ve never known you to have a girlfriend. What gives?”

I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t
know. I guess it’s less complicated when you don’t have a significant other.
It’s easier being a player.”

Of course, the real truth was
that Ruby rejected me at a critical moment in my development. What I needed
from her back in high school was a little restraint; what I got instead was
unbridled freedom.

“Yeah, that may be true,” Zach
half-heartedly agreed, his voice growing pensive, “But I think as we get older
we need a stabilizing force in our lives, something to reign us in a bit. I
don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying married life. In some ways it’s simpler.
I go off to work in the morning, then return in the evening to my wife and kid.
I certainly don’t have the stress of a big fight weighing me down, the constant
worry of rupturing my spleen or a kidney or some—“

“OH FUCK!” I almost yelled,
slapping my forehead with my hand. I glanced at my watch: 9:30pm. “I totally
forgot I had an evening lecture on the spleen tonight with my favorite prof!
Fuck
fuck
fuck
fuck
!”

“Can you still make it?”

“Fuck no! It started at
eight—it’s finishing up right now.”

Ruby

I felt as if a gigantic weight
had been lifted from my shoulders.

The promise I made to myself last
night wasn’t an easy one, but it had to be done. No matter how difficult I
imagined it would be to call off the wedding and let everyone down, it would
have been even more difficult to go through with the ceremony and know in my
heart of hearts that I was a complete fraud, not only to myself, but also to my
friends and family.

I even took the day off of work
to prepare for the moment.

I got up early and went for a
long run, then followed it up with a light breakfast and a 9am Ashtanga yoga
class.
 
 

Now I was sitting in my car in the
medical center’s parking lot, where Dan works. On Tuesdays he isn’t very busy, so
I decided that today would be as good as any to drop the bomb.

I pulled down the visor and did a
quick once-over of my face: prim, proper and put-together.

Don’t cry, Ruby.

Be strong.

I unclipped my Saint Christopher
pin from my visor, squeezed it tightly in my right hand, and said a little
prayer: “Dear Lord, please give me the strength I need today. I don’t ask for
much, but please don’t let me cry in front of Dan. If you want to strike him
with a bolt of lightening, he deserves it, although I am by no means asking you
to do such a thing, just saying. Well, maybe in his penis. Thank you Lord. Give
me strength. Amen.”

I clipped Saint Christopher back
onto my visor, took a big drink of water, and stepped out of my car.

Twelve ‘o’clock sharp.
 

I adjusted my clothing and began walking
towards his building.

I stepped inside and took the
elevator to the eighth floor, where he has his office.

‘Breathe, Ruby. Breathe
’ I coached myself, watching the floor
indicators illuminate as the elevator ascended.
 
 

I marched down the long, brightly
lit hallway to his office.

A few corners away from his
office door I stopped to take another deep inhale.

Okay. Here we go.

Chapter 10

Jake

God did I feel stupid.

How could I have ever missed a
lecture?
Because of a girl?

That’s fucked up.

I can understand a car accident,
or a grave illness—but a girl
?!

I had to apologize to Dr. Hartley.
It was the least I could do.

I had never been to his office
before, but I knew it was on the eighth floor of the west wing of the medical
arts building. According to the course syllabus he held his office hours once a
week in W-806.

I looked at my watch: 12:02pm.

I stepped off the elevator and
glanced around for the first room number.

“Okay,” I spoke quietly to myself
as I made my way down the hall, “W-810, W-811…W-812.” Wrong way.

I turned around and went the
other direction; his office must be around the corner.

I hurried as fast as I could. I
had a lecture to attend at 12:30, and all I wanted to do was quickly bounce in
and tell him how sorry I was for missing his class last night, that I had no
intention of disrespecting him, and I wasn’t asking for any handouts, only that
I was truly sorry. It would suck if he had other visitors to attend to.

I came around the corner rather
quickly—and
who
in the fuck should I damn near
steamroll over? Ruby fucking Cain!

“Ruby
?!
”
I blurted out, maybe a little too enthusiastically.

“Jake
?!
”
She blinked up at me with jaw
ajar, as if I was a space alien who just slipped through a tear in the space-time
continuum.

“What are you doing here?” we
both asked in unison.

        
“Uh,
well I—“ I started to say, but was cut short by Dr. Hartley coming out of
his office.

“Jake. Ruby. I thought I
recognized your voices. What a pleasant surprise,” he smiled warmly. “My favorite
student, and my fiancé. Do you know each other?”

Ruby and I glanced awkwardly at
each other.

Fiancé?
Shit!

“Yeah…sort of,” I said. “We went
to the same high school together. A long time ago.”

Ruby, with a shocked expression
on her face, demanded, “You’re a student of Dan’s
?!
In
what?”

“Uh, I’m in my final year of
medical school; Dr. Hartley is one of my professors, and is helping me through
the process of applying for residency.”

“Yes, what other kind of students
do you think I have, dear,” Dr. Hartley chuckled, putting an arm around her.

You could tell she was blown out
of the water by the revelation. I smiled inwardly as I considered what was
going through her mind at that instant; I guess I amounted to more than she
thought I would after all.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you both,”
I said, shifting on my feet. “Dr. Hartley, I came by to apologize for missing
lecture last night. I had, ah, a personal problem to attend to, and the night
simply slipped away from me. I’m very sorry, I promise I’ll never let it happen
again.” I looked over at Ruby, then back at Dr. Hartley. “I should get going, I
have another class soon. Congratulations to you both, sorry again for
interrupting.”

With surprising bitterness in her
voice, Ruby interjected, “No need to apologize, Jake. You didn’t interrupt a thing.
I just came by to tell this two-timing son-of-a-bitch that the wedding is off!
I know you’ve been cheating on me!”

Now it was Dr. Hartley’s turn to
be stunned.

“Don’t you dare ever contact me
again, Dan. I don’t want to hear so much as a ‘goodbye’ from you.”

With tears welling in her eyes,
Ruby spun around on her heel and bolted.

We stood there, gaping after her.
I looked at Dr. Hartley, but he appeared to be too ashamed and lost in thought to
return my gaze. Silently he turned and retreated into his office, closing the
door behind him.
 
  
 

I stood in the hallway a moment
longer.

Call me an asshole, but the first
thing that flashed through my mind was the fact that Ruby was now single.

The second thing that flashed
through my mind was, ‘
I better claim her
before another guy does!’