Frozen Over Read online

  He’s been on edge for the past week, with the official launch. Working late and sometimes passing out in his office has been his thing lately. He still showers me with affection and checks in with me, but I miss him beside me in bed. I miss waking up to him, or him waking me in the middle of the night to play. He’s been so focused on work, that we haven’t had much chance to connect. I’ve been busy as well, with school. Luckily, with Tyson working his ass off, he’s not interfering with my classes or studying so I’ve been very productive so far this semester. Even though working the phone at night, during the school year was easy, it did take some concentration off of my studies. I’m actually happy that I quit that job.

  I’m rummaging through the fridge as I hear Tyson walk through the hallway swearing. I look over my shoulder as he halts at the entryway, with his phone in his palm, his focus is flicking back and forth between his phone and me with a mixed look on his face.

  “Hey.” He smiles, his entire demeanor changing as he walks up behind me.

  “Hey yourself. I feel like I haven’t seen you all week. You ready for this weekend?” I smile, standing and turning to face him to loop my arms around his neck.

  His arms go around my waist and he leans down to peck me on the lips.

  “I think so. Just want everything to be perfect.”

  “It’s going to be great.”

  “Well, the fact that the face of the campaign is my girl, helps.” He leans down and captures my lips softly. His tongue seeking entrance. He’s been disconnected lately, yet he remains physically attached. My insecurities come to head when we don’t talk but we do plenty of other things. Things that we excel at, talking not always, which is bothersome. I let it go for the moment, thinking it’s the stress of the launch and make a mental note to bring it up later.

  ***

  Tyson had one of the prettiest dresses from the summer date night line delivered to the house for me to wear for the party, with explicit instructions to not wear anything underneath. As I put the finishing touches on my make up, he approached while working on his cufflinks, the pair I got him for Christmas. He looks up and smiles.

  “You look edible.” He breathes out.

  “Thank you Mr. Maddox.” I smile as I brush some blush on my cheekbones.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to keep my hands off of you tonight, there may have to be breaks where we can go down to my office and fuck you.” He shakes his head, coming up behind me and grasping my hips as he pressing his erection into my ass. He moves his hand to my thigh and inches up toward my center, when he feels I followed his instructions, he slides one finger along my seam and pushes it inside and bites his lower lip. I slightly press back into him playfully as he lets out a groan and releases my hips to move to my side while licking his fingertips.

  He begins brushing his teeth, but keeps his eyes on me with a smirk and I notice a strain against his pants. As he retreats back into the bedroom, he returns from the walk in closet securing the tie around his neck.

  Great, now my mind will be all kinds of dirty all night!

  Soon we’re out the door and on our way to the city. I’m a mixture of feelings as our limo pulls into The front of the building, A red carpet and several paparazzi surround the limos as people get out of the vehicles. The door opens and Tyson steps out first, turning around to offer me his hand. With his arm around mine we begin walking; we pose for photos and eventually retreat into the building. He pulls me closer to him and kisses the top of my head as we enter the elevator and the doors close.

  Within moments we are deposited in the foyer of the massive penthouse apartment. It’s decorated beautifully, all furniture seems to have been removed and in place several belly tables stand with mood lighting all around. There are tall vases with flowers, sofas perfectly placed for seating and from the ceiling are a variety of types of hangers as décor. People are already mingling around, laughing and sampling the hor d’oeurves and drinks. We pass a table with gift bags with the company logo on it, a fashion magazine showcasing the new line with… Wait is that me on the cover?

  I gasp, cover my mouth and am wide eyed, looking between the bag and Tyson. He smirks.

  “Surprise?” He smiles.

  “Shut the front door! Is that….is that me?” I whisper shout at him, trying to remain calm.

  “Sure is. I wanted to surprise you.” He says pulling me closer.

  “Holy shit on a stick.” I have nothing intelligent to say.

  “I expect you to sign one for me later, and write a naughty message in it.” He says playfully kissing down my neck and moving us along as I playfully tug on his tie.

  We walk past several large images of some of the photo shoots that were done months ago. Some photos of the group and some solos of models, I see several official posters with my image on it, and I try to steer clear from those even though he leads me all around the space. We approach the runway, where throughout the evening runway models will come out and walk the line.

  “This place looks amazing.” I gush to Tyson as we settle on one of the seats by a belly bar as a waiter brings me a signature drink of the evening and Tyson his usual scotch.

  “Thanks, Beth and the marketing team had the main vision. I just signed off on it all.” He smirks.

  An hour into the party, Tyson had smoozed with a lot of folks who stopped us. He never left my side and always had his hand firmly around me. Some people even talked me up, noticing my face on the posters throughout the party. When it came to time for Tyson to speak, Beth took his place by my side, as if it was rehearsed. After his small formal speech and the runway models began their thing, Tyson was busy speaking to a few people on his way back to where I was when Beth and I were interrupted by a tap on my shoulder and a clearing of a throat.

  Beth’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. She composed herself as I began to turn around.

  “What are you doing here? You weren’t invited to this event.” Beth seethes her fist clenching at her side.

  “The partners extended an invitation to a select few of us. We’re vying for MD’s accounts, so they thought it would be wise to attend. Nice party Beth, looks like you’re doing well for yourself after college being Tyson’s assistant and all, I see that business school really took you places.” She practically spewed out the last word as an insult.

  “Now that you work for them, I seriously doubt Tyson would consider doing business with your company. So you being here is a waste of time, and breathing air.” Beth says ignoring the dig about school and her career.

  “Beth, aren’t you going to introduce me to your little friend? I see she’s one of the models.” She waves her hand dismissively in my direction.

  Watching the back forth between the two is like watching a tennis match. I needed no introduction, I recognize her from the elevator, as Tyson’s ex-girlfriend.

  “I’m sure you already know who she is, Pen. No need to act any stupider than you are, that’s just embarrassing on all accounts.” Beth throws back at Penny.

  “So you’re Tyson’s flavor of the week? Nice to meet you, I’m Tyson’s forever.” Penny holds out her hand for me to shake.

  I stare at it in shock, unable to comprehend what is happening right now.

  “Flavor of the week? Try girlfriend. And Penny, you are nothing to Tyson, especially not his forever. You should know that by now or are you that delusional?” Beth speaks for me.

  “Tyson and I had a misunderstanding, that’s all. You’ll see.” She smiles.

  “A misunderstanding? Like, oops, ‘I’m sorry that I fell on your friends dicks and wiggled around’ type of misunderstanding? I don’t think you understand what that word means.” I laugh, finally finding my voice.

  Penny’s shocked look tells me that she didn’t think I knew about their past.

  “And furthermore, flavor of the week doesn’t describe me, unless you’re talking about my lip gloss. Try live-in girlfriend, try his everything. You aren’t even a blip on t
he radar.” I smile proudly.

  “Excuse me, you don’t-.”

  “We’re done here. Come on Al.” Beth is pulling me by the arm as I sneer over my shoulder.

  We walk over and wait patiently for Tyson to finish his conversation with a couple. He notices the edge emanating off of Beth and I and finishes with a worried look. He grabs me by the elbow and kisses my lips softly.

  “Is everything okay?” He asks, looking between Beth and myself.

  “Your lady just gave Penny a fist full of fuck yous!” Beth smiled.

  “I’m sorry, what? Penny is here, actually here, at this party? How? Why?” He looks confused.

  “Her company was extended an invitation, as we normally do. They want your business, so they sent her and a few others from downstairs. I’m sorry, usually they never attend these functions.”

  “Waste of time for them, but whatever. What happened, are you guys okay?” His eyes are cold and bouncing around the room.

  “Well, first off Penny is crazy. She has some weird idea in her head about you and her. And home girl right here made her feel like a teeny tiny person. It was great!” Beth smiles proudly.

  “Are you okay?” He looks at me.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” I say holding my head high.

  I was anything but fine. His ex-girlfriend coming here, saying that she is his forever leads me to believe that she more than crazy, but confused about him. He told me that he’s made it clear to her that there is no ‘them’. Could she be certified nuts and think otherwise. Is it opposite day in her head twenty-four-seven?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  TYSON

  I had Beth call security and attempt to remove Penny from the event; however it would appear that she left immediately after the altercation between her and the girls. I’ll get the full story later, but for now I plan to stay beside Allison for the remainder of the evening. The rest of the night was great, the launch couldn’t have gone better. Everyone was impressed with the evening and congratulatory over all aspects. When asked about my relationship with Allison, as there has been a few times where we’ve been photographed and landed on page six, I was truthful.

  “She’s my everything.” I would say to whomever asked. In which she would blush and look away in embarrassment.

  The evening winded down and soon we were on our way home. My hand laid on her thigh with her hand covering mine. She looked out the window and seemed lost in thought. My blood was still boiling over the fact that Penny had basically crashed the party and then spoken to Allison in whatever way she did, to cause Allison to put her in her place.

  “You know you can talk to me, right?” I ask.

  “Of course.” She smiles looking at me and squeezing my hand.

  “Care to tell me what happened with Penny?”

  “She thinks that she’s your forever.” She says, her voice flat her head turning to me.

  I had a sudden surge of adrenaline and did everything that I could to punch the car window. My knuckles went white from gripping the seat and I took a deep breath.

  “You don’t believe that, do you?” I ask.

  “Of course not, but it sucks hearing someone else say that, especially someone that you have a past with, good or bad. She really believes it.”

  “You are my forever Al, not her.” I look her in the eyes with my hand on her jaw.

  “But at one point, you thought that she was your forever.” She point out. I wince at that, because it was the truth, but that seems like another lifetime, so I tell her just that.

  “That was then. It’s a time that no longer exists. You are my here, my now and my future. No one else compares.”

  “I know, I just wasn’t expecting that whole thing. I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you apologizing? There’s no reason to apologize.”

  “For a slight moment tonight, I believed her. She was convincing, she really believes that you and her are only on a break. She said it was a misunderstanding.” She half laughs.

  “Fuck that.” I swear.

  “That’s basically what I said. She didn’t seem so keen on my knowing the details of your break-up. But I have a feeling by knowing them and making it known that I do, she maybe understands that I’m not just a booty call. I mean really, who tells their booty calls about shit like that.” Allison rambles.

  “A misunderstanding is picking up a cake instead of cupcakes for a birthday party, fucking someone’s friend, not one but two is a little more than a misunderstanding.” I shake my head.

  “Are you over it?” She asks, suddenly serious.

  I mull over her question for a moment and decide to answer honestly. “I’m not sure if there’s a right or wrong answer to that. I hadn’t thought about the circumstances in years until recently.”

  “After you and her broke up, what did you do?” She asks.

  I hate discussing this part of my life, but I’m always honest with her, if I intend to maintain a relationship with her. Even if this is the past and where this business should lay, I know that I need to not hide anything from her.

  “I went to class. I acted no different than I did before, except I started sleeping around… a lot, until you.”

  “Did you and she ever talk?”

  “No. I had asked her to move out of the house before I came home from class. We didn’t have any classes that last year together, and were at opposite ends of the campus, so we never ran into each other afterwards. I may have seen her in passing, but we never spoke after that night, I had nothing to say to her.”

  “So you never actually discussed what happened?”

  “I know what happened, I walked into it and saw it with my own two eyes. There was nothing further to discuss and still isn’t.” I say a little too harshly.

  “Okay, Okay. Remember, I’m on your side.” She assures me, her hand on my forearm.

  “I’m over her.” I say through clenched teeth trying to focus on the road passing us outside the car.

  “I know you’re over her, but the situation… I think that would need some bit of closure.”

  “I fucking hate that word lately.”

  “Huh?”

  “Penny came into my office earlier this week. She wanted to talk and apologize or something, I was informed that she needed closure or something.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “About her coming to see me? Because there was no need to, nothing happened. I handled her. She said she was sorry and I kicked her out of my office.”

  “Is that the only time you’ve seen her?” She asks, fear in her voice.

  “She came in when Beth was sick. But she was kicked out immediately. She came back when I had my head stuck on my work and had my ear buds in and didn’t hear her come in. The temp had left for the day. I was clear that she wasn’t someone I needed to speak to, but she spoke anyways.” I say as the limo pulls up to the driveway. From my pocket I press a button on my keys and the gates open, allowing the vehicle to pull forward.

  “I don’t want to tell you what to do Ty. But she has some deranged thoughts that I’m just your hussy and she’s going to end up with you. You and her may need a pow-wow to put an end to her silly thoughts and maybe that will give you closure too. Or maybe it will just get her to stop following you around like a puppy and cornering you. Sometimes closure can be everything to someone. Maybe it’s also what you need to fully move on.”

  “I’ve moved on. Trust me.”

  “Yet, you hold this crazy hatred for her. And trust me, I get it. But maybe a little bit of that hatred is consuming you. Since your past has reared its head as of lately, it’s affecting your present. Put the past out of its misery, give you both closure, even if you don’t think you need it… I think a part of you really does.”

  She has a point, but I don’t care to speak to Penny. I’ve said what I needed to say to her, she means nothing and hasn’t for years. Although, with tonight’s revelations that she absurdly
thinks that she and I will have any sort of future together is bogus. And I do hold a lot of disgust for her. I run my palm down my face and turn to her.

  “Can we just not talk about my ex girlfriend from college for the rest of the night? Tonight was a great night despite that part, and I want to celebrate it with my best girl, my forever hussy.”

  She smiles.

  “Plus, you’re a cover model now and I want to do some kinky shit to you.” I wink as I open the door.

  She opens her door and steps out of the car with a smile on her face. Gone is the worry that she was holding during the car ride home. I reach her and she looks up at me.

  “Promise me that you will consider speaking to her and just fully close that chapter of your life?”

  “I will. Now c’mon. There are a lot of surfaces in this house that I feel a need to fuck you on before the end of the night.”

  ***

  I took what Allison asked of me into serious consideration. So much so, I was stepping out onto the floor where Penny worked on Monday, asking for her at the receptionist’s desk. Passerby’s were curiously watching and whispering, assuming that it could very well be possible that Mad Designs was switching their business over to them. Ha! Unlikely!

  Penny sauntered out from a hallway with confidence and a fake smile plastered on her face. Observing her walking towards me, I question what I saw in her. Now that I’m detached from her, her skin is leathery (which could just be due to aging), she packs on the makeup, her hair is like a helmet and she carries herself as if no one could touch her. She vaped, completely not like someone that I would be with, what was I thinking back them?

  “Tyson, what a surprise.”

  “Is there somewhere where we can talk privately?” I ask my voice even, as my eyes pierce hers.