Entwine (25 page)

“I’m sensing something is stuffed up. What else did I do? Does your dad own a rifle?”

Sarah found it in herself to chuckle. He’d made her anger and anxiety blow up like a plume of steam. She was hoping she was the one who’d stuffed up, and didn’t believe him, not the other way around.

“Not your fault this time,” Sarah said. She bent down and introduced herself to Lucy. “Hi, I’m Sarah, your daddy’s friend.”

Lucy shook her hand, but didn’t smile. Too soon to be friendly with a stranger, Sarah supposed. She turned on the TV for Lucy and the little girl knelt on a cushion, flicking through channels to find something she wanted.

Malik and Sarah sat down at chairs from the main table, behind Lucy. Her dad joined them.

“Dad’s lost a chunk of cash and Alyssa is gone. She’s also stated in secret text messages she wants to run away with a guy.” Sarah explained the situation with her dad’s missing cash, the phone discovery, and then calling Alyssa in full.

“Do you know her parents well?” Sarah’s dad asked. “I can’t believe I haven’t met them yet. After all these years, after everything. I have their number, but …”

“Yep,” he said. “We used to get along well. I’ll give them a call.”

Malik rose and walked around the corner, his voice a whisper to Sarah’s ears.

“Do you really think so?”

Sarah nodded. She wanted to look away, but her dad needed her now. “I didn’t tell you what happened with Malik and her a month ago.”

“She didn’t see Malik,” her dad said, his tone slow, unsure. “I mean, she hasn’t been with him alone. Only when we all met at your mum’s.”

“No, trust me, it was definitely her tongue in his mouth and her hands and legs wrapped around him.”

Her dad’s mouth dropped open, and after seconds had passed, he didn’t look willing to offer words any more, or an expression. The man was weary, older on the outside than he actually was.

“A month ago Alyssa invited Malik and Lucy out for a family movie night. What did she tell you?”

“She’s been with girlfriends and these mother support groups and stuff. I would have remembered her mentioning her ex.”

Sarah sealed her lips, felt the growl vibrating in her throat. “She counted on us not talking and forgetting about it by the time we eventually did.” Sarah shook her head. “Back on topic, they went out for a movie, and Malik doesn’t remember drinking or getting blind drunk, but he did, and Alyssa was there to be all over him. She knew he was alcoholic after they broke up. He’s been clean for three years, and she suddenly pops up to see him and this happens.”

“I’ll kill him.” Her dad stood to find Malik, but Sarah put her hand over his.

“Dad, listen, I’m pissed; even Malik’s pissed. He hates her more than ever. He doesn’t have feelings for her. This could have only been her, don’t you see? Tricking him, spiking his drink or something.”

Her dad’s face morphed from unmoving and rigid to softer, to something like realisation.

“We had a big talk, Dad. It’s actually scary how much Malik reacts like you do. You both blame yourselves, thinking you were the ones to stuff up. Being on the outside, I’m seeing the similarities now, and it’s crazy. She will turn anything on the person she’s victimised to distract them and have a clean break.”

“I can’t believe this.”

Malik came back, tucking his mobile in his pocket. “She was at her parents’ this morning. That much was the truth.” He came up behind a chair and gripped the back. “She’s their daughter; they know what she’s like. Go have a chat. It sounds like she left the cash there with them when she went out for the day. Maybe to see this Robin bloke. She’ll be coming back to get it.”

Her dad got into action. He picked up his keys and put his wallet in his pocket.

Sarah told Lucy it was time to go, turned off the TV and held Lucy’s hand, pleased the girl was warming up to her.

“Malik, Dad?” The men turned to face her. “How about you guys go off to her parents’ place. I’ll take Lucy back to yours, Malik, and we’ll wait for you. Might be better and all, since Dad hasn’t met them.”

Her dad’s lips curled up at the sides, and Malik gave her a heart-warming smile. Her dad gave her a kiss on the cheek and went outside.

Malik rested his hands at her waist, and looked down to her. Sarah smiled against his lips, and kissed him, knowing everything was all right now without really being all right. Maybe the wrong could be turned into right, their pasts settled, and their futures set, too.

He kissed Lucy then rose to full height. “I’ll see you later, girls, ‘kay?”

Sarah and Lucy nodded, and watched the two men leave.

“Now, want to stop for an ice cream on the way home?”

Lucy broke out into a beam.

ENTWINED

NOW

The day had passed by the time Malik returned. She was in the kitchen, bowling up some two-minute noodles, when she heard him enter. Lucy had convinced Sarah it was all she ate, and Sarah figured making her comfortable at the sacrifice of one lousy meal was okay. She slid the bowl in front of Lucy. When she turned, Malik’s hands were already fisting her top, and though she was dazed and unprepared, he kissed her open mouth, then her favourite spot under her ear.

“Night, baby,” he said. “All okay today with my little munchkin?”

Sarah bobbed her head. Lucy, with half a mouth full of noodles, mumbled, “Dad, she’s a cool girlfriend!”

“Girlfriend?” he repeated, but his eyes focused on Sarah, not Lucy.

“Argh, Lucy! You’re not meant to say that. I told you I was just his
friend
.”

Malik leant forward and whispered, “I hope you don’t treat your friends the way you treat me.”

“Between you two, I’m about to lose it.” Sarah grinned, and sat at a seat on the table, shaking her head at no one in particular.

When Lucy got back to eating her noodles, Malik said, “She told her parents she went out with some girlfriends and won at the casino. It was Sunday, and she had to go out, and felt uncomfortable with all that cash on her.”

Sarah shook her head.

“Stupid, huh?” Malik said. “She can be as dumb as she can be deceptive. Anyway, your dad has his money back. He waited there for when she returned, texted me on my way home. I didn’t want to hang around for another family’s problems.”

He smirked at her, and she matched his. Malik was no one’s problem but hers, and if that were the case, she was more than happy to have these sorts of issues.

“He said—at least—he’s breaking up with her for good.”

“Just gonna watch some TV, Dad,” Lucy said, and ran into the living room.

Malik turned to Sarah. “She called me on my way home. Admitted that because I had a cough lozenge that had anaesthetic in it for my sore throat at the time, she slipped in some alcohol to my drinks because I couldn’t taste shit all anyway and apparently I needed to loosen the fuck up. And then she wanted to remind me what it was like kissing me. I knew I didn’t kiss her willingly.” He shuddered.

“She uses triple-distilled vodka, because with orange juice, it masks the taste of alcohol more so than most mixes. With a juice as sweet as orange juice, it’s smooth as, in the right quantities.”

“She actually spiked your drinks?”

“Yup.”

Malik lifted her chin with a finger. He studied her face with a crooked, sad smile. “You don’t believe me.”

“Nah, I do …” Sarah settled for shrugging as the end of that one. Partly due to shock, she was still processing it all.

“I used to love my drinks, even back when I was with her. So did she.” He shook his head, pulling his jeans legs down his thighs comfortably. “She knows how to mix everything off a cocktail menu, as well as she can be a bitch. I, too, could mix as well with my favourites, would mix anything to make the perfect drink.”

Sarah’s mind began thinking over his words. The sure tone to his voice made her believe what he said, but she couldn’t shake the feeling underlying his words was something more. “That was your drink of choice. When you drank. Orange juice and triple-distilled vodka.”

He didn’t meet her eyes when he nodded. His gaze was pinned to her hands, which gripped the edge of the bench. Malik, wordless, kept staring. Sarah should have been the one to reply but the shock rooted her. What type of person uses someone’s weakness against them?

In the same manner, she’d grown up with a dad who had an incurable addiction to women. He’d looked at her mum earnestly enough to make Sarah believe his feelings were true, but her dad couldn’t help himself. Girl, cheat. Girl, cheat. Girl, cheat. It was a cycle that went on, no matter the times Sarah would ignore his calls or talk back shortly to him, even though her dad would be unfocused, forgetful and stiff after he knew he’d fucked up, and Sarah was mad again.

Her dad’s addiction to breaking women’s hearts was as similar as it was different to Malik’s alcoholism. And Alyssa knew how easily she could have both of them in the palm of her hand if she cut them so close to their hearts.

“Yes,” Malik said eventually. “I got so good at it, I could hardly taste the vodka when I mixed it. I could drink three times faster, and have less of a hangover because of the vodka’s purity.”

Malik suddenly balled up his fists and banged them against his forehead. For some time, while Sarah’s heart beat loudly, lodged in her throat, he was motionless in that position.

“I do,” Sarah said. “Believe you, that is.”

It was like someone has slowed time. Malik moved the slightest, and then his fists drew down, and collapsed into a palm on the bench. He met her gaze when he was ready.

“I know what it’s like being entwined with an addiction so badly you feel it so deeply it replaces you. For years, I’d kiss a guy at a bar or club, maybe go on some dates and hook up, but I wasn’t into them. I just felt like I had to do it. It felt good and normal, just like my friends were doing. But I never wanted to take my clothes off, and didn’t care to see anyone ongoing, as I should have. They were okay. Good, even. I was wrapped up a routine. It’s what I did. Not something that made sense.”

Sarah sighed. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is that your past is entwined in you, but it doesn’t have to be who you are now. Our fears and weaknesses may still haunt us—it’s what makes us human, to err—but our intent and actions right now are what matter. And I can see the man who you are now—and you’re not who you were.”

“I’m still not right, Sarah.” Malik stroked her face. “You don’t have to try to accept what I’ve done.”

“Hey, now
you
don’t believe me?”

“Ha.” Malik broke into a grin, and that gorgeous jaw of his opened to show a set of white teeth. “I did. I just wanted to see if you were sure.”

“I am sure of you, stupid head.”

“Fine, stupid head.” Malik held Sarah on either side of her face and leant right in, so their lips skimmed each other’s. “I am too,” he said against her.

• • •

NOW

That night, Sarah dreamt about this and that, all mundane until the last one. The back of this person’s hands feathered along her cheek and ran down her neck. The hands twisted and the fingertips trailed over her breast, and the two forefingers pinched either side of her nipples from bottom to tip. Then, on either side of her body the fingers trailed, swaying at her waist, to trace the curve, and then come back up in a V shape.

It was when the hands veered under her panties like an arrow, that she started and opened her eyes. Her panties were slick, and that was
not
a dream. It was Malik’s hands, she saw, as she fluttered her eyes and focused on him in the dark. His lampshade was on and the light spilled behind him, lighting him up like a silhouette.

Sarah arched her back, her hips following the motion up, which encouraged his fingers south. Sarah decided she loved being woken in the middle of the night like this.

She spread her legs, and Malik crawled over her and settled between her. When he touched her, her eyes widened, and automatically, her gaze fell to where they were connected. He was hard, rock hard. Ready to take her now if she shifted her panties, in fact.

“You’re hard,” she said, needing to tell him.

“All for you. I had a dream about you and woke with a stiffy. Decided, since I can take advantage of you helpless next to me, I’d give it a go.” He kissed her neck. “You can’t resist me.” It wasn’t a question.

“You woke me and made me excited in, like, a second. That’s some feat, you should know.”

“I’m lucky to have you. I know how very, very lucky I am, Sarah.” He pushed harder on her, watching her eyelids flutter and close as she shuddered under him and pressed back up. “I love you, I really do. I’m not saying it because I’ve got you like this, and I didn’t say it at the station because I’d stuffed up. I think about how much I love you when you do your little quirks, and lie here next to me, and open your mouth to talk. I love everything about you, and all of you as one. It’s only been six weeks but my life has changed because of you, and I want you to know how important you are.”

“I love you, too.” Sarah brushed her fingers from his shoulders, down his hard pecs and his rock-solid abs. “And it’s not because you have the most incredible body, but how you know me inside out. Know what to say or do to make me laugh when I need to, to feel cared for when I need it, and everything else. I can’t imagine living without you.”

Malik did that grin again, one that meant for Sarah, right now, he was about to put her in absolute ecstasy. He drew back from her, then licked a trail down her chest to her tummy, which triggered her to jerk up just as his fingers shimmied off her panties and his tongue plunged down deep into her.

Sarah threw her arm over her mouth and cried into her skin. When he lapped her up and fingered her at the same time, she bit down on her wrist to stay under control. But she wasn’t kidding herself; Malik made her lose control, and by the fire pumping in her, and the tenseness climaxing inside, she was very close to losing it.

“With me,” she panted. “Please.”

Malik drew up to meet her at eye level, buried his mouth close to her ear and thrust himself inside. He made every noise climaxing, grunt and emotion, which rode Sarah higher, harder and faster.