The Carousel

Six

"Stop, stop, stop! Jare, dude! What is up with you?" Tommy asked curiously.

"Sorry, my timing is just way off...new song and all," Jared made up an excuse.

"You know what, let's take five before we start recording and waste precious dollar bills down the drain with Jared messing up the tempo," Tommy instructed.

Ondine excused herself to go to the ladies' room. Jared followed her with his eyes first and then got up, stating he needed to use the men's room. He trailed after Ondine and when she went inside the ladies room, he followed her in there and locked the door. She looked back at him in surprise and before she can utter a word, his lips were on hers, prying them open, her lips giving in to his request. He easily lifted her up and sat her on the sink counter, grasping her hips close to him, his hands roaming underneath her blouse, up and down her back.

"Stop! Jared, you can't keep doing this! You can't just kiss me like this anytime you feel like it!" she hissed out of breath.

"Babe, I missed you," he said without a hint of sarcasm.

"What?!" She pulled away from him, hopping off the counter.

"I missed you."

"You mean you missed having sex with me."

"No," Jared shook his head. "I missed you."

"You have a girlfriend."

"Why do you keep saying that?! I don't have a girlfriend!"

"Oh that's rich. Of course you don't. Men like you always lie about that," she rolled her eyes.

"What makes you think I have a girlfriend anyway?"

"Your phone woke me up the first night we slept together. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snoop, but the message from Clarisse was very clear. I had to get outta there as fast as I could. I messed around with someone's else boyfriend. And it happened twice!" she said with much frustration.

Jared groaned. So that's why Ondine hightailed it out of his life not only once, but twice.

"Babe, Clarisse is not my girlfriend," he said gently, taking her face in both of his hands.

"She said she loved you."

"She thinks she loves me. She's my go to girl, so to speak."

"Gah, you are so crass!" she angrily said and swatted his hands away from her face.

"What do you want me to say? It's the truth," he rubbed his chin with his hands.

"That poor girl is in love with you. If only she can hear how low you speak of her right now," she said, still in disbelief.

"Ames, it's not my fault if she's in love with me or whatever. I never gave her false hope. She was into this casual sex set up, too!"

"Newsflash, Jay," he smiled at the nickname that spilled out of her mouth. "Even if girls get into this whole casual sex thing, we all secretly wish it wasn't so, we just think we can handle it, to not be confused as clingy and too dependent, like that's such a bad thing. Women who sleep around are labeled sluts whereas men who do the same are simply called players. The double standard is ridiculous."

"Is that what you want?" he asked, trapping her against the door, his palms flat on the door on either side of her head. "Is that why you're with Ben?"

"I beg your pardon?" she questioned indignantly.

"Is that what you want? Because babe, I guarantee, you walk away from me because you want something more and you're gonna miss me in bed, you're gonna miss the unrestrained abandon I coax out of you, you're gonna miss the feel of my c..." he stopped because she slapped him hard on the cheek.