Hunter
“Wow, Lei. You’ve changed. The Leila I know would never flip her good friend Hunter off.” I pretend to be hurt and she immediately stammers an apology. “You’re so easy,” I tease.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that about her,” Trey nods in agreement.
Leila graces each of us with our own finger in reply.
“Hey assholes, I’ll hurt you both,” Jack spits his normal threat when anyone of us, specifically Trey, bothers his wife. It’s become his expected response, giving us a green light to turn the insults on him.
Leila confirms she can handle us. She can. If there’s ever been proof of such, it’s her relationship with Trey. We all sat in awe as she wore him down and broke through the thick layer of ice that surrounded him. It was impressive to watch.
“Hunt, you wanna share why you fucked up practice so bad in Milan?” Jack asks, trying to no doubt rile me up.
“I wasn’t feeling well.”
Trey snickers and tries to cover it up with a cough. If I ever wanted to punch someone in the face, it pales in comparison to the desire I have at the moment. Thinking quickly, I ask if Shane will be playing with us during the Italian shows.
“Not sure yet. It depends on Paula,” Jack bites.
Feeling my wife’s eyes trained on my face, I turn to give her a smile. I’d like to say that she smiled in return, but it’s more like a sneer.
When the women all start complaining it’s too chilly out, we decide to pack it in. As rounds of good nights are exchanged, Trey leans closer and asks, “Did you find it?”
I throw him a sideways dirty, scathing, shut the fuck up kind of look.
“Hmm, I wonder which gossip site will break with it first?”
“Fuck off,” I mumble. He laughs at me as he walks off. His statement makes me feel sick to my stomach. My eyes fly over to my wife. She’ll never, ever let me indulge in my fetish ever again. She sees me watching and motions for us to leave. In the elevator, she sidles up to me and wraps her arms around my body while nuzzling my neck. This is out of the box for her. I quickly glance up at the camera she always points out when I try to get frisky in an elevator.
“I’m so cold,” she murmurs into my neck. Her lips are ice cold, so is her nose.
“You can take a warm bath in a few minutes.”
“How about…” she places a kiss on my neck, “we get naked…” another kiss is planted below my ear, “and watch that video?” Her last kiss is placed on my lips.
“Or make a new one?” I counter pathetically.
She swipes her thumb across my bottom lip, but doesn’t respond to my idea. It’s been days since we made that video. Normally, I would have forced her to watch it by now.
“You want to watch it? You never want to watch it.” She would never suggest we watch it on her own.
“Ok, I can’t deny that it is a turn on.”
Huh? Now she tells me.
She winks as we enter our suite to get ready for bed. I need to come clean. I might as well get it over with. Sweat dampens my armpits and the base of my spine. Am I afraid of my wife? Fuck, yeah. She securely holds my balls and their well being in the palm of her hand. That doesn’t make me a pussy. That makes me a very smart man.
When she climbs into bed beside me, she smells amazing and looks completely fuckable.
“No bath?”
“No. I’d rather cuddle with you and watch that video.”
I decide I need to fess up. “Um, Babe? I need to tell you something.”
She moves away to sit facing me. “Yes, Hunter?”
“Um…I love you. You know that?”
She nods, folding her arms in wait of my announcement.
“I would never do anything to hurt you, intentionally at least.”
She quirks up an eyebrow, watching silently as I run my palms over the comforter, swallowing audibly, and even grip the back of my neck trying to buy time. She just sits and waits, not helping me out at all.
“Um…”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Um…I kind of lost the SD card from the camera.”
Her face blanks of all emotion. My initial thought is she’s in shock, or she’s trying to figure out the easiest way to kill me. After several very long, torturous seconds, I decide to take her hand. Touching is good.
“Babe? Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.”
“I’m sorry.” She pulls her hand out of my grip. “I had it in our suite in Milan. It never left the suite,” I blurt out an excuse, and then another and another. When she continues to stare at me impassively, I plead, “Say something.”
“Do you now understand WHY I had my reservations with your stupid, kinky fetish?” I scrub a hand over my face, nodding like a child who is being scolded. “Especially while out in the real FOREIGN world and not in the privacy of our own home?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, Babe. I fucked up. It kills me to know this could hurt you. I never intended for it to hurt you. I am just so in love with you, so in love with us, I can’t get enough.”
Pity flashes in her eyes. Maybe she won’t kill me after all. I think if that were her plan, I would no doubt be on a stretcher by now. She quietly gets up off the bed and moves to the closet to grab her bag off the shelf. I watch as she digs in one of the pockets and produces an SD card.
“Wait, is that my card?”
“When you went in to take a shower, I noticed this sitting on the rug waiting for someone to snatch it up. You, Mr. Amatto, are very lucky it was me who found it. If this fell into the wrong hands, this conversation would be going a very different way right now.”
Relief floods through my veins. I was mostly concerned for her. Okay, I was also concerned for me. If she ended up hurt because of this, I’d never forgive myself. I open my arms, hoping she’ll fit into them.
She hesitates a beat before settling on my lap. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“I know. I’m also sorry.”
“Why?”
She shrugs as she blushes. “I could have told you I found it that night, but I wanted to teach you a lesson. It was a mean thing to do.”
“Mean?” I shake my head in disbelief. She is always more concerned about me.
“You’ve been really out of sorts these past few days. I’ve noticed, the guys have also. I feel bad.”
“Babe, I’m lucky you didn’t cut my dick off.” I kiss her chastely, adding an afterthought, “You may have if you hadn’t found it, though.”
“That is very possible.”
I hold her head in my hands, kissing her deeply. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Whoa…who says I forgive you?”
“Um…”
“You need to make this up to me, my way.”
A groan escapes. “This can only mean I have boring churches, naked statues of David, and god-awful museums in my future.”
She nods at the look on my face. “Yep, that’s right, hot shot. Starting tomorrow. Get some sleep.”
She kisses me and says, “Now, I’ll take that bath.” Disappearing into the bathroom, she leaves me thinking that being castrated would have been an easier fate.
I came clean to the guys. It was inevitable, and only a matter of time before one of Trey’s jokes centered around me anyway. It was easier to just come out with it. Besides, I had to explain why I couldn’t hang out with them and instead had to tour the sights with Mandi. I’d rather them think of me as a perv than a pussy-whipped geek.
I warned Mandi I would be telling them. She was smart not to question my motive and has come to terms with the fact that my behavior has, and most definitely will always manifest severe embarrassment at every turn. It’s who she married.
My wife was gracious enough to excuse me from my hell when she met up with the rest of the girls to go shopping. As I sit here now, being berated by these three assholes, I’m wondering if shopping with the girls would have been the better choice.
“You should have seen the look on his face when he asked me if I had it,” Trey shares. He lets out a low, menacing chuckle. “She had it the whole time. Fucking priceless.”
“Shut up, dickwad.”
“Here I thought you were truly going through something awful, Hunt.” Jack rolls his eyes, annoyed at my truth. “Christ, I kept thinking something terrible was happening to you or Mandi. The reality is a fucking sex tape? Really, dude?”
“Hey, when did you become so self-righteous?”
“Fuck off.”
“What the hell crawled up your ass?”
“I have a lot of shit on my mind, you included. Sorry if I find this whole thing trivial.”
I’ve dealt with him and his shit more than anyone. How soon he forgets some of the trivial crap he’s made me deal with. He doesn’t get it.
“I can’t help the fact my life has been fairly boring in comparison to yours,” I admit, clearly showing my frustrations in my tone. “I get that you equate bad things to pregnant ex-girlfriends or people trying to kill you. Because of it, you and Leila have very realistic expectations of the media and all that comes from being famous rock stars. Thank God my wife hasn’t been exposed to that yet. This is a big deal for the Amattos. Having my wife bared in her most vulnerable state would kill her.”
Jack’s facial expression morphs from one of anger to one of compassion after my statement. “I’m sorry.”
“Whatever. It’s over now. Lesson learned, and all that fucking crap.”
He scrubs a hand over his face and shrugs. “I have a lot on my mind. I lumped you into it all. Honestly Hunt, I get it. You’re right.”
“You’re forgiven.” I point to Trey and Scott. “You two hear that? Mark the date. Jack Lair said I was right.”
“And he’s back to being a jackass,” Scott mumbles under his breath.
“You two gonna kiss now?” Trey asks.
Jack throws his empty beer can at Trey’s head.
“What’s the update with Shane?” I ask Jack, trying to steer this conversation away from me.
“She wants us to think about it more. She is concerned we are jumping into things too quickly.”
“Are you?”
He immediately shakes his head. “No. We both feel the same way. Shane was meant to be in our lives. We can’t walk away from that, from him.”
“It’s a big decision, dude.”
He stares me straight in the eyes and says, “It is and we are confident it’s the right one.”
Jack fills us in on Paula’s plan to return back home to get Shane settled before things quickly get worse for her. He explains the reasons behind her decision. Fuck, that’s awful. The more he shares, the more his torment is evident in his mannerisms. Understandably he’s distraught over Paula’s situation. It’s affected each of us, yet he’s much closer to the circumstances than we are. He has a lot on his mind, traveling with his family on a world tour, and now desperately wanting to help a little boy who clearly stole his heart. No wonder he lost it on me.
Jack lets out a heavy sigh, “Fuck, I don’t know how to handle this. Lei and I do not want Paula to expose Shane to foster care, but it’s not our decision. So we try to convince her he’s better off with us. The alternative is to leave her son behind with strangers anyway? This is all so fucked up.”
He’s met with silence. It’s clear we have no idea how to respond. I know I don’t. Our friend doesn’t get angry at our lack of vocal empathy. I suspect he appreciates it. There’s really nothing we can say to make this right.