Chapter 215: Jennifer IV

Chapter 215: Jennifer IV—Just as Bad

 

            Jennifer sat for a moment, her hands gripping the steering wheel before she started her car. She felt an enormous hole in her belly, an even larger one in her brain, where she should feel emotions. The sound of Mimi’s tears were clanging in that hole and all she could comprehend was that the world had been cracked and turned upside down above her.

            There was a vague feeling in her that perhaps someone was pulling an elaborate prank and that if she went home, turned off the lights, curled into bed, then it would all right itself out. Someone would call and laugh and she would be angry at them for a very long time. She knew this wasn’t the case however. Something terribly wrong, and evil and disgusting was snaring her by the ankles and dragging her in. Who was responsible?

            It was Patrick of course. Jennifer cringed, started the car, and felt her heart begin to clang in her breast as she began the drive home. He was everything she had told Cecile that he was, and then some. Mimi was trapped in his snare and who knows how many others were as well. Mimi had made reference to others, who were they? Were they on this team? If so, then that meant anyone amongst the wives and girlfriends… and all of this time they had been ostracizing and resenting Mimi.

            Who could she trust now?

            No one of course, no one. Can I trust myself? She thought. She had been forced in that bathroom, she had not wanted him to, she hadn’t considered it but she couldn’t deny the intense pleasure she had felt. It had been a matter of seconds before she was gasping and clawing at him in the throes of pleasure rather than fear, and she was fulfilled with everything she had been missing for months, a man’s affection.

            Does that make him any less of a predator? Is it my fault he knows how to touch a woman? It doesn’t change the fact I said no and I meant it! But why couldn’t I explain it to Mimi? And I didn’t call the police. Well, of course not! Jennifer thought, if I tried to explain it to the police they wouldn’t believe it, just like Mimi hadn’t.

            But what now?

            Jennifer gasped when he cell phone rung and she swerved on the road as she answered it, getting an angry honk from the driver behind her.

            “What?” she snapped.

            “I want to see you again, will you have some time by yourself today?”

            Jennifer’s eyes widened and her blood boiled. “You sick bastard!” she yelled into the phone, “What makes you think I would ever want to see you again!” There was a silence on the other end. “And I TOLD your wife! I told her everything so you can’t get away with doing it again!”

            She heard Patrick laugh. “You told her?”

            “YES!” Jennifer snarled. “Everything!”

            “Is not a problem,” Patrick replied. “Now I am heading to your house, is there a way you can get your nanny to take the children out… or would your nanny like to join us?”

            “Argh!” Jennifer howled. “You’re disgusting!” She hung up the phone. She swallowed and at the stop light she picked up her phone and dialed.

            “Hello?”

            “Hello, Jamie,” Jennifer said to her nanny. “Are the children already in the water?”

            “Yes,” Jamie replied. “They’re cute as bugs, little waterbabies. Why?”

            “Do you think you can just bring them home?” she asked.

            “Of course I could,” Jamie said in a confused voice. “But they’re having so much fun, it’s hard enough to get them out when their lesson’s over as it is.”

            Jennifer sighed; the water enrichment program for the children was mainly to tire them out for late afternoon naps. She could see it now, Jamie dragging them in cranky and disappointed, their screams waking Adam up and making him even more irritable. “Nevermind,” she said. “Let them have fun, forget I called Jamie.”

            As soon as Jennifer hung up the phone rang again. “Yes?” she answered.

            “Change your mind yet, Cherie?”

            “Damn you!” Jennifer snapped. “Adam will be home any minute and…”

            “Adam will not be home for a couple hours,” Patrick said coolly.

            “What?” Jennifer exclaimed. “He’ll be home of course, the game’s tonight!”

            “He went out to get some drinks with some of the guys; you know what that means of course?”

            Jennifer grimaced. A few drinks, Adam never had a few drinks. He played pool, drank, played more pool, ate and drank. He never really got drunk but he did kill hours with the guys, avoiding home at all costs. Already in the past weeks he had even had his afternoon naps at teammates’ houses. The kids don’t let him sleep was his excuse.

            “Is it another woman?” she asked and she felt a tear drop down her cheek.

            “No,” Patrick replied.

            Jennifer didn’t answer, stared at the road, at her white knuckles on the steering wheel. “I’m going home,” Jennifer answered. “Do what the hell you want.”

            She arrived home at the same time as Patrick. That arrogant bastard was smiling in a generous, friendly way as he approached her. He didn’t say anything as she fumbled with her keys; she wondered if there were any neighbors watching from their windows, there probably wasn’t. He followed her into the house and she barely removed her winter garments when he had her in his arms again, he pressed her against the door, kissed her softly, his hands sliding up and down her waist and breasts, squeezing, stroking.

            Jennifer felt the warmth in her blood immediately, her senses absorbing his lust, and she moaned. He laughed quietly and slid his hand down her arm, squeezed her hand in his own and he led her up their stairs, down the hall, into her bedroom. Jennifer was following his lead, obeying him, and again her mind screamed the obvious, that this was wrong, she didn’t want this, she was being just as bad as a whore.

            But this was what she wanted! She couldn’t fool herself the moment she sat on the bed, and he slid her sweater off her body, and she felt the cold air on her skin, the look of his eyes appreciating her. At the second, that she saw him smile, whisper something lovely in French and kiss her gently on the forehead, she erased the shame and the morals in her brain and she tugged at his clothes, tugged at his fly, allowed him to take the spot that Adam had seen fit to abandon.

            “Stop me if you’re scared, or if I hurt you,” he whispered into her ear.

            “Please!” Jennifer gasped, pressing her hands into his smooth, hard back when he slid into her, “Do everything! Don’t stop!”

            Mimi was right. There was pain even though she wasn’t forced. That was the first thing Jennifer noticed when they were done. She lay on her back and closed her eyes, he hadn’t hit her or handled her very roughly but she felt sore and raw, Adam had never left a feeling like that in her and she had to wonder if that were something symbolic, as if something inside her that Adam could not even graze, had been annihilated by this man. She sighed loudly with her eyes still closed and she felt his movement in the bed, and she felt his lips on her forehead.

            “I’m the horrible one,” she whispered.

            Patrick laughed. “No I do not think so, even for a woman so neglected.”

            Jennifer frowned and glared at him. “Mimi… I’ve… We’ve thought so many horrible things about her and now I’m just as bad as everything we’ve said! I left her at your home crying and heart broken and she… she even gave me permission to keep seeing you. Do you know what an evil person that makes me?”

            “It just makes you a woman,” he replied.

            “What?” Jennifer exclaimed. She sat up and looked at him. “What?”

            “Women are not as strong as they think they are,” Patrick said. “It’s proven to me over and over again. They covet what their friends have and harbor an enormous capacity for resentment and revenge. Women, no matter how close they can be, can always be turned against each other. You’re just one in a group.”

            Jennifer felt her throat tighten in anger, amazed that only minutes before she had been moaning and panting in pleasure. “That’s bullshit!” she snapped.

            “No,” Patrick said in a calm voice, “If it were then you would not be here in this bed with me now.”

            Jennifer crossed her arms over her body, felt cold and exposed, no longer blind to a world she never thought she could exist in. “But I don’t… I don’t have any reason to want revenge on Mimi… I…” She didn’t know what to say. “Mimi said there were others. Who? In this city?”

            “Yes,” Patrick said. “There are many others.”

            Jennifer thought of her friends, how they all took such an interest in sneering at Mimi, trading stories of her disgusting acts, giggling in horror. “Anyone I know?”

            “Yes,” Patrick replied and he sat up, reached onto the carpet for his clothes.

            “Who?” Jennifer exclaimed. “Who else?”

            Patrick began to get dressed and he smiled at her. “Gossip, it’s another feminine quality yes?”

            “Well I’d like to know, I mean I have a right I think,” Jennifer said.

            “Whatever for?” Patrick said smiling and running his fingers through his shaggy hair. “If only to fuel your seamy stories over coffee?”

            “I hate you!” Jennifer snapped. “I hate you!”

            “Au revoir,” Patrick said and he winked at her, left the bedroom. “Don’t wait for me to call.”

            “Oh yeah!” Jennifer yelled after him. “I don’t want you to ANYWAY!”

            She could hear his laughter fading away and she pressed her face into his hands. She was a mark on his list, a statistic, he had taken her integrity, her self respect, and what’s more she had barely put up a fight. And on top of it, he had just stripped all trust she had in anyone she had ever called friend and what it meant to be in the circle of wives. All in all, Jennifer decided that this was all Adam’s fault.