Chapter 1
Mallory
Sleeping didn’t come easy and the two pills in my hand felt like I was selling out. My friends thought it was a good idea for a much-needed vacation to someplace tropical. Boston was my home, but I needed some distance. Jamaica had the beauty to make anybody forget their troubles. I wasn’t sure anything could. I hadn’t asked any questions about where we were staying. They said they had it all figured out.
I should have known it was too easy to give them that kind of control. Those two pills were courtesy of Alexis. She was the wild one of the three of us. She was always dabbling in things that she shouldn’t for the sake of trying it. The girl was hitting her stride at 30 with ringlets of blond hair to attract any man. The curves she wore with pride were her best weapon.
She was already making time with an older businessman in first class. Her toes were in his lap and he was massaging them thinking that he was going to get somewhere. Everybody had the fantasy of flying the friendly skies to join the mile-high club. He was going to find his advances weren’t in vain.
“Mallory, take them before we take off and you’ll sleep like a baby. Alexis gave me one after a break in and I swear by them. I actually got myself a prescription for those times that I have a terrible case of insomnia.” Kayla had gone through a nasty divorce and she had reinvented herself into a seductress looking to play the field. Almost thirty and she was ready for a new chapter in her life.
I was the only one of the three of us that wasn’t living fancy-free. I didn’t even want to mention his name. Cutting him out of the photographs wasn’t the worst I had thought about doing. Lorena Bobbitt had the right idea. I was stunned into silence when I found him having relations with the next-door neighbor. She was young enough to be his daughter.
“I’ve never needed any kind of medication growing up. I pride myself on living healthy and relying on only those things found in nature. I can’t bring myself to give big pharmaceutical companies my money.” I had a bout of cancer, but I had beaten it by going down to Cuba for an experimental treatment. $14,000 was a lot of money, but it was worth it to have my life back again.
I didn’t have to go through chemotherapy. I couldn’t imagine the reason why the FDA hadn’t approved the same treatment in the United States. Their strict guidelines to introduce a new drug were an impossible task without millions of dollars of funding backing it up.
“Think of it as a free trial. You didn’t spend one single solitary dime. Sun and fun are waiting for you when you wake up. I have been sworn to secrecy by Alexis. I will make one comment about the place we are staying for the week. There will be available men and women with theme nights to keep you entertained the whole time we are visiting. She was able to get a room that we can share located on the beach.” I was getting the feeling that Kayla was trying to tell me something without saying anything at all.
“I do need this. Workplace romances never work. I thought that I was going to be the exception. I could fire him, but his work ethic is beyond reproach. His sales technique brings in clients. The lifeblood of any business is its sales force.” I owned an exclusive sports car dealership catering to the elite.
“You haven’t been sleeping well. I was very close to rocking you to sleep with a real rock. Nobody can function with the stress that you have been under. This is your chance to forget about Malcolm. We warned you two years ago, but you had to find out the hard way.” Kayla and Alexis were my best friends and I couldn’t ask for a better support system.
“He confessed he had an addiction to sex. I thought it was very brave of him to be vulnerable. I convinced myself that I could change him. I researched many different ways to keep things fresh in the bedroom. I did things that I can’t even put into words.” The toy chest under my bed was filled with different implements to make anybody cock an eyebrow.
I put my hand through my luxurious dark brown hair down to my shoulders. I had learned that my 5’2 and 115-pound body could do some amazing things encased in leather. 27 years old and I had the look of someone much younger. The squeals of submission I inflicted on Malcolm was a guilty pleasure. I had certainly left my brand burned into his skin.
“The one thing good coming out of that relationship is that you were able to think outside the box. I didn’t think you had it in you to go that far into the extreme. You surprised both of us with some of your stories. It was kinda cute to see you blush.” She was a consummate dating machine never keeping any relationship permanent for more than a month.
It was far more than I could say for Alexis. She didn’t know what the word commitment stood for. They were responsible for putting an idea in my head about an island vacation. I spent the last week going to a tanning salon and the results spoke for themselves. My bronze skin was ready for the harsh and unforgiving sun of Jamaica.
I was one of the fortunate ones not to burn. I still carried very strong sunscreen as a preventative measure. I could spend hours on the beach watching the surf rushing into shore.
“I don’t even recognize the girl I was. I was a homebody before I met him. He taught me many things about myself and gave me a reason to feel liberated. I broke from the mold of the convention for something more pleasurable.” My sex life was phenomenal with each night an exercise of marathon acrobatics in the bedroom.
“I’m trying to remember what made us all friends. That guy had no idea what he was getting himself into when he tried to mug Alexis. She fought with the fierceness of a lion protecting her cub.” It wasn’t a child she was protecting.
It was her expensive Gucci purse worth more than three months payment on one of the fancy sports cars in my showroom.
A glass of champagne was waiting at my fingertips. I hefted the pills in my hands and popped them into my mouth chased with the champagne for good measure. The bubbles tickled my nose. It wasn’t long before a sense of calm surrounded me in a warm blanket. They were stronger than I was led to believe.
“She did put up quite the fight. I don’t know what compelled me to intervene on her behalf. It was interesting to use the device in my purse to send 50,000 volts into his body. You came out of nowhere using your cowboy boots to kick him in the uprights. We were all a little wired and went to the bar looking to blow off some steam.” The bartender was Malcolm and he could sell an Eskimo a refrigerator with his dimples.
A few tequila shots had me dancing on top of the bar with my new friends shaking what our mama gave us. There was no way I didn’t notice how Malcolm was sneaking peeks underneath my skirt from where he was standing below us.
“You’re already feeling the effects of the pills. I imagine drinking makes them stronger.” Everything was a haze of disjointed images with everything around me moving in slow motion.
“Malcolm showed me what I was missing. That man could go all night without a breather in between rounds. I was a lost cause from the moment he smiled at me. His Latin good looks and sculpted body to match was a weakness that I easily succumbed to.” My eyelids were heavy and I was having a difficult time keeping them open.
I barely heard the stewardess going through her usual monologue of where the exits were located. Alexis was laughing and enjoying the attention of the older man. She looked younger than her 35 years and claimed to be drinking from the fountain of youth by being with younger men.
Her black leather skirt had risen a few inches to expose her inner thighs. From where I was sitting, I could tell she wasn’t wearing panties. She most likely gave the guy at the Airport a thrill when he frisked her.
“We didn’t know at the time that it was a departure from how you usually act in public.” I felt lightheaded and it was very difficult to concentrate on what Kayla was saying to me.
“It wasn’t long after we got to the bar that I was seeing things through rose-colored glasses. I don’t usually indulge, but that night I needed something to settle my nerves after the altercation with the mugger.” I was not known to be brazen and bold with my sexual overtures.
“We were all lit up like the fourth of July. I don’t remember how many men touched me that night inappropriately on the dance floor. The music was the old style with a real beat. The jukebox had all of my favorites and I couldn’t stop feeding it quarters all night.” Kayla was a professional lawyer and she wasn’t known to let down her hair for public consumption.
“There is nothing like old time rock and roll to make you feel alive. That night I rekindled the same enthusiasm that I had in my youth. I felt it in the morning waking up with a strange man. I had a headache and I could barely see straight. I was disgusted by my behavior. Malcolm made me understand I had nothing to be ashamed of. A morning tryst was exactly what was needed to rid me of the embarrassment of taking the walk of shame.” My words were slurred and I could barely string two sentences together without feeling cotton in my mouth.
I could feel the plane lifting off and my ears popping with the air pressure. I wasn’t a very good flyer, but the drugs running through my veins sedated me. I was in my happy place with my mind numbed to the worry of plummeting into the sea.
“It’s not going to be long until you are out like a light. I remember exactly what you are feeling. In these last couple of years, we have been there for each other during those milestones. Good or bad. It was met with all of us standing strong together weathering every storm. I forgot to mention there’s going to be a hot tub outside our room. I plan to make good use of the hedonistic lifestyle.” I was a little foggy and her voice drifted away on the ether of the drugs weighing down my consciousness.
I leaned back against the window and looked at the fluffy clouds floating by. They were waving at me, but I knew that it was a drug-induced hallucination.
I heard somebody talking, but the words didn’t coalesce in my mind. I glanced up and found the hand of Alexis on my shoulder. She was dragging her unsuspecting victim into the web of her depravity in the bathroom. This man wasn’t her usual young buck looking to be corrupted by an older woman. She had spoken often of wanting to join this particular club and wasn’t letting the age difference between them get in the way.
My head felt like a 10-pound bowling ball. I slumped back and closed my eyes to the pleasant vibration of the engine. My sense of touch was enhanced. The world around me was vibrant colors. I had this sensation of having one too many.
The darkness folded in around me and I fell into a blissful slumber for the duration of the flight.