The One That Got Away.

Shannon

Even after such satisfying sex with Kelly, Josh was dealing with another bout of insomnia. These bouts started while taking long trips out of town for work, being away from Kelly for so long. When he was out of town he would just work through the night. His employer loved that. Josh was on salary so it was many hours of free overtime for the company. When that wasn't an option he was in the habit of hopping on his laptop or phone to read the news until gone 4 AM. He silently retrieves his phone and dims the display so as not to bother Kelly. He knew she sometimes had trouble sleeping, too.

As he scrolls aimlessly through the current events, a text from Jared pops up. 

Hey, Josh. It's Jared.

They had exchanged phone numbers while Kelly was still getting herself together in the bathroom. Josh was pleasantly surprised to hear from Jared so soon. He glances over at Kelly; she was sleeping peacefully.

JR: Hey man.

JL: Hope I didn't wake you. (Or Kelly)

JR: Nah, I couldn't sleep. What's going on?

JL: Had fun with you tonight. That was incredible

JR: Thanks. Me too

JL: Can you call me?

By now Josh, who already had a man-crush on Jared to begin with, is now completely charmed by him. He glances over at Kelly again, still sleeping peacefully. She has not stirred even once. He slowly creeps out of bed. The only place to talk in private is in the backyard. Josh wishes they had a dog so he has a good excuse to be out there if Kelly catches him. Not that he felt he was betraying her in any way but something about the call feels clandestine.

He was fooling no one. Kelly had been awake the whole time. She knew Jared was texting Josh, and she knew Jared would ask him to call. She was expecting it, and she had a pretty good idea of what it was about.

"Hey, Josh, thanks for calling me," Jared says when he answers the phone. He suspects Josh has to sneak the call. 

"Sure, man, like I said, I couldn't really sleep anyway."

"I had an incredible time tonight, Josh."

Josh is pleased to hear this again, he takes it as a compliment coming from Jared. 

"But I want to be honest with you upfront. I'm sure you know Kelly used to work at a place called Pure Platinum."

"Oh, yeah, I know. She wasn't sure if you recognized her."

"Oh yeah, I recognized her. I used to watch her a lot at Pure Platinum. And I mean, a lot. I went back more times than she knows about. I wanted to see her over and over again. I just craved her. The way she moves," he takes a deep breath, "And how she is just sexy and cute at the same time. God damn, she's beautiful. You can understand why I was addicted."

Earlier they had bonded over music and now they were bonding over their love (and lust) for Kelly. Neither one of them could stop talking about her and Josh didn't think it was odd for Jared to be talking about someone else's wife like he was in love with her. 

Then Josh drops a bombshell in response to Jared casually mentioning Kelly's paranoia over fame.

"She has this ex, and he still kinda stalks her," Josh tells him. 

Josh tells him about the ex Dickhead. Dickhead was abusive while they were together and he was enraged when Kelly broke up with him. He tells Jared about the time the Dickhead found out where Kelly was living and cornered her with a knife. Josh, by some miracle, shows up at that moment, gets the knife away from him, and threatens to beat the guy's ass. Josh says he wishes he really would have beat the guy's ass, maybe it would have discouraged him from ever coming back but Kelly begged him not to; she didn't want Josh to end up in jail. He adds that she is concerned if she gets any kind of fame working for Jared it could be a direct line to her for Dickhead.