Sweet Pleasures ✔︎

[10] 𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅

Status : Unedited

❦︎

She was gone again. Josh knew it the instant he opened his eyes.

Except this time, the evidence of her presence was everywhere - in the sex-drenched smell of the sheets, the indention of her head on the pillow, the rumpled comforter, even the fact that the first thing he saw was the painting Jupiter had admired on the opposite wall. He could still feel her hands on his body, her cherry taste in his mouth, her scent on his skin.

He pushed up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Twin emotion rolled through him - a strange combination of satisfaction and disappointment, Satisfaction because the night he'd spent with Jupiter had been unlike any he'd ever spent with a woman - which he'd known it would be with her - and disappointment over the discovery that she was gone.

A note sat on the bedside table, written in her curly handwriting :

Called a cab, but will be in touch later about the van. Thanks for the lovely night and an amazing sleep.

P.S. I took some of those fruit gummies from the jar in the kitchen. Are they new? They're delicious!

A shaft of sunlight fell over the note. Josh lifted his hand to block it then realized with dawning shock what he was doing. He looked at the clock, blinking if the number 9:34 were somehow a visual lie.

What the...?

He shoved his legs into his pants, hitching them around his hips as he went downstairs in search of his cell phone - which he had left in his office. He never left his cell phone in his office at night. He always kept it on the nightstand.

Sure enough, the phone was filled with texts and voice mails. He called Kate, who sounded breathless with concern.

"Mr. King, everyone has been so worried," she said. "Are you alright? Were you in an accident? I've been checking traffic reports, but-"

"Kate," Josh interrupted. "I'm fine. I overslept."

She was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry, sir? You overslept?"

"It was a shock for me too," he admitted wryly. "But you can send out a flash news that I'm fine and will be into the office soon."

"Yes. sir. Would you like me to order you some breakfast or...er, brunch?"

"No, thanks. I'll see you within an hour."

He ended the call, answered a bunch of others, and checked in on the flooding situation in Venezuela. The relief organizations had gotten in and were distributing fresh water, food and medical supplies. His brother, Adam reported that the waters were receding and they had crews out to assess the damage.

There was no text from Jupiter, no matter how many times Josh scrolled through the messages in hopes that he'd missed one.

Seemed he was still an idiot, even in the light of day.

He walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to take out the eggs, seeing the pizza box sitting on the middle shelf. With a shrug, he took out a piece of cold pepperoni and ate it while walking around and opening the curtains.

The glass house afforded majestic views of the California shoreline - cypress trees dotting the rocky cliffs, white-capped ocean waters, soaring seagulls, and breaking waves, The scenery had sold Josh on the house, and he was further irritated that Jupiter had spent the night but hadn't seen the view.

Jupiter, all softness and light with the incongruity of her shy smile, who had worked him to an orgasm as if she'd known exactly what he liked.

Hell. She was what he liked. All of his good, protective intentions aside. He polished off the pizza and removed the lid from a jar of Puffles, multi-coloured gummy candies sprinkled with silver sugar crystals. He took a few out and popped them into his mouth, unaccountably pleased that Jupiter had liked them since they were a new product in the Candy King line of bite-sized treats.

His gaze landed on the macramé bag she had left on the counter. Deflecting a pang of guilt that he shouldn't do this, Josh opened the bag and pilled the contents onto the counter. Then he rifled through them as if were an archaeologist digging for clues.

There were the usual girl things - hairbrush, lipstick, tampons, mirror - and a little first-aid kit, Paper-back books, a romance novel, a "live your best life" self-help book, and one about using accounting software program. A half-knit scarf, chewing gum, incense, hard candies ( not Candy Kings' he noticed with displeasure), sunglasses, hand sanitizer, and a notebook filled with scrawled lists. At the bottom of the bag, was a silver elephant charm with a loop for a necklace.

As Josh studied the little charm, his cell phone buzzed again with a call from Kate.

"Mr. Wyatt from Godson and Wyatt called and asked if he could see you this afternoon instead of tomorrow," she said. "You have a one o'clock opening, but will you be there by then?"

"Of course I'll be there by one." He glanced down at his half-naked body. "I'm practically on my way right now."

"Very good, sir. I'll schedule the appointment then."

Josh put his phone down and headed upstairs to shower, still holding the elephant charm in his fist.

❦︎

After a day at work during which Josh had to keep pushing Jupiter out of his head and reminding himself to "focus dammit," he inputted the Rainbow Palace address into his GPS and headed towards Rainsville.

When he exited the interstate, he realized that was nowhere near down-town Rainsville - where he'd assumed the bakery was located. Instead he was on the outskirts of town, an area filled with old, clapboard building, overgrown lots, and junkyards.

He navigated a dead-end street, turned, and circled the block three times before finding himself in front of an abandoned warehouse. With a frown, he checked the address again and peered across the street at an old stucco building that had several boarded up windows, a ball bondsman's office, a closed auto parts stare, and...the Rainbow Palace.

Which was nothing that fitted the word Palace.

An old awning sat above the door with the name Rainbow Palace written in faded blue. The windows were decorated with flowers and peace signs that might have been bright and cheerful ages ago, but now just looked faded and sad. A closed sign hung crookedly on the door.

Shit. Jupiter had said she was trying to upgrade her bakery. She'd need a wrecking ball to upgrade this hole in the wall.

Josh shoved his car into gear and headed back to the interstate.

Don't get involved.

Since college, he'd been rigidly focused on Candy King, and never more so than over the past year. Though there had been a time when he'd fit marriage and kids into his well-organized life, he'd soon realized that was no room for that. He'd always been wary of people - aware they usually wanted something from him- but the lawsuit had made him downright suspicious of almost everyone.

He couldn't let his guard down with a cute bakery girl, even it he could still feel her hand circling his dick, still see the naked curved of her body shudder as she came. He'd meant it when he said he couldn't give her anything long-lasting, and it didn't matter that she'd hadn't seemed to mind.

From his experience, woman always eventually minded his lack of desire and ability to commit. So despite his determination to prevent Jupiter from hooking up with anyone else, he couldn't start an affair with her. He wouldn't.

Having come to that conclusion, he pulled through the gates of his mansion. Jupiter's old van still sat in the driveway. The painted peace signs and flowing Rainbow Palace Bakery logo looked incongruous against the backdrop if minimalist Scandinavian architecture. By contrast, Jupiter had fit both in his house and in his bed.

Josh suppressed that realization. He would get the van fixed and returned to her tomorrow. Then he'd walk away and get back to his real life.