A Condo with Two Views (24 page)

Instead, it was from Holly:
‘Come get me now.
Seriously fucked up. 172 Weinner Drive. Now.”

I texted her back, asking for
clarification.
Was she in trouble? What does ‘seriously fucked up’
mean?
Was she
overdosing? Who was she with? She didn’t return any of my texts,
and the phone went straight to voice message when I tried to
call.
Fuck
Holly!!

I didn’t know what to do. Jack had the
car. Could I go there alone? What if it was some kind of crack
house? They wouldn’t let me in.
Should I call the cops?
I decided that was a mistake. If I got
Holly’s insane friends busted, they’d take it out on
her!

My mind was racing.
Jack was at his pitch, and his phone was
off. No matter how desperate she was, Holly never texted me like
this. I needed someone to help me immediately, as it sounded like
time was of the essence. If Holly was about to O.D., I’d never live
with myself if I didn’t try to save her.

Mike! That’s it. I’ll go ask
Mike the caretaker. I’ll find him down in the lobby area. Even
if
I have to
give him $200.
I grabbed
my purse, and flew down the hall toward the elevator. In my mind I
was cursing Holly, but I also realized how much I loved her. True
friends last forever.

In the lobby, I scurried here and there, but
Mike was nowhere to be found. Frantically, I knocked on his door
but to no avail. On the way back I glanced around the lobby again
in desperation. That’s when I saw Benito come walking through. He
saw me too and noticed something was going on. My hair was a mess,
and I was in panic mode. I explained the situation, and to his
credit, we were in his Mercedes-Benz in no time at all, plugging
the address into his GPS.

We didn’t talk about much, other than I told
him a little more about Holly. I warned him I didn’t know what we
were getting ourselves into. What kind of house would this be? We
wouldn’t exactly be welcomed there. Benito assured me that he was
one hundred percent with me, and if we had to barge our way into
that house to rescue Holly, that was totally okay. I must admit, in
that moment, I realized he maybe wasn’t as big a creep as I
thought. When push came to shove, he stepped up.

Benito was driving aggressively in an effort
to get us there more quickly. He would push it anytime we hit a
yellow light. According to the GPS, we were less than ten minutes
away.

I remember we passed a big high school on the
left hand side, because it made me think of my years in high school
when Holly and I were best friends.

I don’t remember anything after
that.

Chapter 18. Visitors

Jack’s View:

I sat for hours beside Chloe’s bedside in the
hospital.

I stared at her pretty sleeping face, then
out the window, then at the floor, then at her face, then out the
window again. Doctors had done all the necessary CT scans, and
thank God, she had only suffered a concussion. She was sleeping
peacefully, mostly from the pain medication.

Her right wrist was sprained, and her
right leg had bruising and lacerations. Her head had slammed into
the side passenger window as the car spun rendering her
unconscious. Benito was somewhere else in the hospital, and
apparently there were no life threatening injuries. He had suffered
broken and bruised ribs, but luckily, the airbag prevented any head
injuries. Both of them were okay.

As Chloe started to awaken, she was too
incoherent to speak. Then she fell asleep again until the middle of
the night. I sat there in a reclining chair. There was no use
attempting to sleep. I just wanted to be in the room with her, so
that when she opened her eyes again, I would be there for her.

In the middle of the night she awakened, but
this time she was well aware of her surroundings.

“What happened, oh fuck…did we get in an
accident?” she groggily mumbled.

“It’s okay honey. You are okay. You have a
concussion, but no internal injuries, nothing. Everything is okay,
Chloe.”

She smiled at me, “I was with Benito. Is he
alright?”

“He’s fine. I haven’t seen him, but the nurse
told me he’s complaining about the food. He has broken ribs, so
can’t walk yet.”

“Holly??” Chloe said, as if she suddenly
remembered something, “Jack, pass me my phone.”

“Chloe, forget Holly for now,” I said to her,
“we need to talk.”

But Chloe was persistent and frantically
checked her phone. From what I could gather, there were several
texts from Holly. I don’t know what the texts said, but Chloe was
clearly relieved.

“Darling,” I continued, “Listen, I don’t know
what you were doing with Benito, and I don’t care. All I know is I
love you. Let’s start over. We’ll sell this stupid condo, quit our
jobs, and we’ll move to New York, or Boston, or Chicago, or
wherever you want.”

“Jack, you don’t know why I was with
Benito?”

“I have no clue. I haven’t spoken to him. It
doesn’t matter. Let’s move away, and start over.”

“Jack, we were going to rescue Holly.”

Chloe could see by the look on my face that I
had no idea what she was talking about.

“Never mind, I’ll explain later. She’s okay
too. All you need to know is, I love you, and there’s no need for
us to move anywhere.”

Then my baby drifted to sleep again with a
smile on her face.

Chloe’s View:

It is so completely bizarre waking up in a
hospital bed. You’re thinking to yourself,
Where am I?
There’s a few minutes when you wonder if you’re in
a dream. Then alarmed, you look at your own body.
Am I all here? Does
everything work? What does my face look like?
It’s scary.

Jack was right with me which gave me
instant comfort. His warm, concerned, but smiling face looked down
at me, as he wiped away tears. He reassured me that I was banged
up, but nothing that wouldn’t heal. He then set me at ease
regarding Benito. Thank God, he was okay too!

Suddenly, I had a brain flash. We were
enroute to get Holly! Worriedly, I checked my phone. There were not
one, but four texts from her. I shook my head in disbelief. She had
sent me the original message in error, and then her phone died. It
was intended for her boyfriend of the minute. Just an innocent
mistake that ended up having big implications.

Jack had a serious look on his face and was
talking the entire time I was deciphering Holly’s messages. My
brain had cobwebs, and it wasn’t easy for me to do the parallel
processing necessary to fully comprehend him. Then it dawned on me:
he has no idea what the hell I was doing with Benito.

I wanted to hug Jack, but I couldn’t lean up
that far. Bless his soul, with no idea whatsoever what I was doing
with Benito, he was forgiving me unconditionally. For me, it was an
epiphany. Of course, I had done nothing wrong, but that wasn’t the
point. Jack had no way of knowing that. He was there for me, no
matter what.

I stayed in the hospital for two additional
days, but it was mostly a precaution. Of course my parents came to
see me, my aunts and uncles, and some of my close friends. The room
was filled with flowers in no time, and a smattering of other
gifts. Jack never left my side the entire time, and slept on the
reclining chair, right in my room.

Holly came to visit the first morning, with
news. First, she somehow got her hands on Jack’s gold necklace. She
had sold it to a pawn shop, who had sold it to a guy, who was about
to melt it down, when she managed to track him down. Secondly, she
told us that my accident was a wake-up call for her, especially
since her original text was what sent the whole thing off, and of
course, she was high as a kite when she sent that text.

“Chloe, I almost fucking killed you, the one
person who no matter what I did, never turned her back on me,”
Holly said, tears welling up in her eyes.

She then showed us the forms, to prove it
was legit. She was registered into the Skyelar Treatment Center.
Holly was finally checking herself into re-hab! Jack and I told her
we’d support her in any way needed.

The next surprise came when Lexi came to
visit. She was dressed very conservatively, and with her body
covered, no one would have guessed how festooned she was
underneath. We thought it was really sweet of her to come pay a
visit. She invited us to her 30
^th
birthday party, which was still a few weeks away. Jack and
I agreed to go, and in the subsequent discussion, Jack came up with
a fun idea.

Jack would be the bartender at her
30
^th
, and I
would be the hostess. Since we didn’t know any of Lexi’s other
friends, it would give us a purpose, and parties are always easier
when there’s someone dedicated to making drinks. Lexi loved the
idea as it made the birthday bash seem more special.

The final surprise was Benito himself. His
entire ribcage was wrapped, but he was okay. He actually apologized
to me for his carelessness, and I thanked him profusely for his
readiness to help that day. No one was hurt, including those in the
other car, so we chalked it up to good fortune. He then told us he
was leaving San Francisco for awhile to start on a project in San
Diego. I realized Benito was actually a man with a good heart, and
I squeezed his hand from my bedside.

“I wanted to give you this,” he said, handing
a thick 8” x 12” envelope to Jack.

Jack opened it, looking rather confused. It
was a deed and legal paperwork. Benito had transferred the title
and ownership of the one-bedroom condo next to ours to Jack and me
for the price of $1.00. We looked at each other with furrowed
brows, still in disbelief.

“Let’s pretend you won the bet that night,”
he said.

Jack tried to refuse the gift as graciously
as he could, but Benito was having none of that. Eventually, we
could do nothing other than express our genuine gratitude. We now
owned not one, but two condos. We wished Benito well, knowing it
would be several months before we saw him again.

When we got home that night, it felt so
nice to crawl back into our bed.
I’m home.
I kept thinking about Jack and our marriage, and
especially how he was ready to forgive me, before knowing why I was
in the car with Benito.

As I was falling asleep I whispered, “I wish
I could be your submissive again.”

Chapter 19. The Birthday Bash

Jack’s View:

We won the pitch! The decision was announced
on my first day back in the office after the week in the hospital
with Chloe. Our whole office erupted in celebration. It was a great
day. Meanwhile, Chloe returned to work as well, and they surprised
her in the boardroom with a welcome-back gathering, a testament to
how well-liked she was at her office.

The post-Benito tension was definitely
long behind us, but I resisted taking immediate ownership of Chloe
as my submissive. In some ways, it was perhaps better for the
security of our marriage to refrain from sexual complications
involving anyone other than the two of us.
Now, did we miss the really kinky stuff
involving outsiders? The truth was we did. The little episode with
the cabbie in Puerto Vallarta proved how much both of us missed
it.

Perhaps for the first time in my life, I was
gun shy as a Dom. All I had to do was close my eyes and remember
how defeated I felt when Chloe threw her eternity ring back at me.
I remembered her exact words, ‘Here’s your bullshit collar back.
You don’t own me anymore.’ Her words still haunted me. I needed
Chloe to fully trust me, and I couldn’t do that until I fully
trusted my own judgment.

I had to make certain we were both ready, but
Chloe had other plans.

“I want you to collar me again,” she said,
“or I’m going to be a slutty little tramp at Lexi’s birthday party.
Then you’ll have no choice but to take full control of me, to stop
my whorish nature.”

She was kidding of course, but I could also
tell she was in a playful mood and having fun with what could be
her last days of freedom. I think I knew deep down that I’d become
her Master again, but for the time being, I was happy to let this
wacky scenario play itself out. It could be interesting!

A couple of weeks passed, and Lexi’s party
was upon us. Chloe had volunteered our services at the party.
Apparently, I was to be the bartender, and my wife would be the
party cocktail waitress.

I had gone to her condo earlier in the day to
make sure we had everything that would be needed all set up.
Together, Lexi and I had set up a bar-area in the kitchen, with all
the essentials including spirits, liqueurs, wine, beer, ice, mix
and added touches like olives and limes. Lexi had arranged for a
variety of glassware to be delivered along with some catered hors
d’oeuvres. Chloe, being a decent cook herself, had prepared a few
additional appetizers. Last, but not least, I was in charge of the
music.

I dressed a little more smartly than usual
for a casual party, but only because I was the designated
bartender. Chloe looked stunning in a red, tight-fitting dress. The
first guests to arrive were Lexi’s family: her mom, aunt, and her
older sister and younger brother. They brought two big birthday
cakes, one vanilla, one black forest. Next to arrive were a whole
bunch of Lexi’s college friends, some with significant others, and
some were single. Before we knew it, the party was in full swing
with a room full of people.

Chloe approached each new arrival and asked
what kind of drink they would like, and then she’d come tell me.
While I made that round, she’d be asking others. We had a good
system going. Lexi’s sister helped serve the prepared hor
d’oeuvres. Chloe herself was drinking water only, and I was sipping
on a Manhattan. More guests arrived including a bunch of the girls
from Lexi’s strip club. The strippers had decided to break up the
evening into two shifts: about a dozen of them would stay at Lexi’s
until about midnight, and then go work, relieving a dozen or so who
could then come join the party.