Homewrecker (Novel Sample)

Poker Face

One week later

Cody shuffled the cards and shared them out for himself, Jackie, and his mother. The stakes were low, only a pile of Oreo cookies up for grabs, but he studied his hand as if he were playing for the Crown Jewels. He might be a failure in life, but he always gave it his all.

He was distracted tonight, though. He'd spent all day at the gym, determined to get his money's worth as he'd been doing for the last week, but today had gone a little differently. Today, he'd had an audience.

He'd recognized her by the faint trail of perfume she left behind in the air. In a gym full of sweaty bodies, her flowery, fruity aura was not something he could ignore. She'd watched him when he worked the punching bag: not intently, just a glance every now and then. She'd watched him work through mitt-training. She'd shadowed him through the gym as he moved through his strength routine and then his speed drills. And then, at the end, she'd joined in when he started on the skipping rope, impressing him with her ability to keep up.

Two children or not, he'd known she was fit. He'd been doing some watching of his own for the past week. Not stalking, because he was paying her thousands of dollars... Just a little harmless observation. The wife of his enemy was also his enemy, and as everyone was always saying, you really ought to know your enemy.

So, he'd watched her while she did her aerobics sessions and her aqua-aerobics classes in the pool in the back with the oldies. Her jiu jitsu classes with the children... The rest of her time was reserved for personal clients: actors, stuntwomen, rich housewives trying to get in shape and add some excitement to their lives... He'd watched her small, whiplike body as she moved about like a squirrel. Or a chipmunk.

Still, she'd shocked him when she started skipping next to him. And shocked him further when she kept up with his pace.

When they'd finished, she'd nodded at him, acknowledging his existence like a decent person. Keeping up his asshole act, he had bowed dramatically at the waist and told her that if she really wanted to impress him, she'd show him how she performed on her back.

And then he'd tacked on that he was, of course, talking about her submission skills as a BJJ practitioner...

And then, because he was a genuine jackass, he'd asked her how submissive Joshua was.

His phone beeped with an alert and he put his cards down to check.

She'd posted another photo. One of herself and her daughter with milk mustaches. He recognized the restaurant. An old place with cheap but good pizza and waiters on roller skates... Dixie's. Arabecka Wilder was chilling in Compton. Slumming it on a Friday night... She was only five minutes away from him.

As was becoming his habit, he casually scrolled through the older photos, going through his favorites for the umpteenth time. Normally, he wasn't a fan of influencers and internet models, but there was something different about Becka's page. There was nothing lewd. Nothing suggestive. No ass shots. Not even a bikini pic, and he had searched her entire album to find one of those... It was nice. Warm. Most of her photos—the ones where she wasn't with her daughter or one of the several fighters on her roster—were all in natural settings. She'd be wrapped up in Greek-style silks in a wheat field... Or on a porch at a log cabin, giant wicker furniture swallowing up her laughing form.

He reached his ultimate favorite photo: the one in the white linen dress, with her back exposed and a hibiscus in her open hair as she looked over her shoulder at the camera. Not teasing, not coquettish... No fake cuteness. Arabecka was simply real.

'This is me. Take it or leave it.'

"You gonna play sometime today, Cody?" Jackie prompted.