Desperate: I'll Do Anything for Love Read online

  Never had he mentioned her. Never would I have even guessed that another woman was in the picture, before the last few days of course. And for five years? We’d only been together for three years so he’d been involved with someone else the entire time! The whole damn time! Hell basically he had been cheating on her, with me!

  I yelled and used every curse word in my English and Spanish vocabulary.

  How could he do this to me?

  Elroy called my phone again, and I rolled down the window and tossed it out. I knew that I needed my phone for work, but I would go get a new one, and a new number.

  Yes I could get a new number and just erase him from my life and start over. I didn’t have to take this. I didn’t have to take this from him! I damn sure didn’t take any bull crap from anybody else, so Elroy was not exempt!

  You know what? Things weren’t as bad as there were for me years ago. I looked good. I was successful. Plenty of men would love to have a woman like me. I got approached all the time. I could just try again. Even though I didn’t want to, I didn’t have any other choice. I hadn’t deserved what Elroy had done, but I didn’t have to just roll over and take it either. And I wasn’t. It was his loss. He was the one missing out on a good thing, not me. And believe me, I was going to work overtime to find someone else and show him just how stupid he had been to mess up our good thing. Maybe I would find someone at his job, or that supervisor of his that he hated so much. He had better be glad that he didn’t have a brother because I would have been on my way to his house, right now!

  Though I was still crying, and still hurting, I tried to convince myself that everything was going to be okay. After all, I had gotten just what I’d asked for.

  The truth.

  Oh, but the truth surely didn’t always set you free; oh no. Sometimes it pissed you the hell off instead! And I wouldn’t rest until Elroy paid for hurting me! In every way that I could think of, Elroy was going to pay for what he’d done to me! And he was going to start paying right now too!

  I took a few more minutes to calm down and to finish pulling myself together. With a sudden idea, I got out of the car to get my phone, hoping that it hadn't shattered. It hadn't. It was a Sunday, and of course he was off and didn’t have to work. But after the phone call that I was about to make, I was going to make sure that he was going to be off…forever!

  I found Elroy’s work number, and though I knew that the office part would be closed, I pressed all of the right numbers to get me to the woman in charge of Human Resources, voicemail.

  “Hello, this message is for Gina Gore. Hi. This is Kimberly Stanton. I’m a little behind on calls, but I am Elroy Ross’s probation officer. I wanted to call and inform you that he failed his most recent drug test. There was marijuana and cocaine in his system,” I lied.

  I finished leaving the voicemail and I managed to smile as I hung up the phone. Messing with his money most definitely was going to get to him. But Elroy was now going to be broke and unemployed. And he was going to be a lot more than that once I was through with him. I was just getting started!

  Later on that night, after spending hours and hours crying and drinking, I used my key and I came through Elroy’s back door. I knew that he was probably drunk and passed out, just by the messed up text messages that he’d sent me and the ten voicemails of him apologizing, again, and again, with his words slurred.

  I went into his kitchen and grabbed a knife. It was dark and he’d fallen asleep on the couch with the TV on. I stared at him. I hated him. The more and more I thought about it, and though I was supposed to be trying to get even with him, my heart told me that getting even with him, just wasn’t enough. I wanted him dead.

  I wanted him to wake up burning in Hell or wherever it was that he was going. But still yet, and through the pain I loved him. I still freaking loved him! And that alone made me even more upset! But whatever love I still had for him was the only reason that I was still holding the knife and not stabbing him with it.

  So I just stood there. I stood over him. I stood over his lying, cheating ass with the knife high in the air. He’d had no right to do me like this. He had no right!

  I thought only for a second about the consequences of my actions. No one would suspect me. No one knew what was going on between us and I was sure that no one had seen me come in the back door. I could make it look like a break-in. Or maybe…You know what? Screw that! I was thinking too much. I was going to do eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and if it landed on “stab his ass”, then so be it. That’s what I was going to do and I would figure out everything else afterwards. But just as I started to say the rhyme in my head, he started to mumble in his sleep. I listened closely to him.

  “I’m sorry baby. I’m sorry Serenity,” Elroy mumbled.

  But sorry just wasn’t good enough. Sorry wouldn’t take away the hurt and the pain. Sorry wouldn’t erase the memory of what he’d said to me that day. But sorry was enough to save his life. That sorry was enough to make me drop the knife. Killing him was the easy way out. He needed to be alive so that I could show him just how sorry he was going to be.

  I left the knife on the floor beside him, to find the next morning. Rolling my eyes, I turned my back to him and headed back out of the back door. I left it wide open. Maybe I would get lucky and someone else really would wander in and finish what I couldn’t.

  Extremely frustrated and disappointed in myself, I drove home, in a hurry, so that I could get started on a list of things to do to Elroy and ways to ruin his life.

  Let the games begin!

  *****************************************

  CHAPTER IV

  I giggled from afar as I watched Elroy throw his hands up in the air, two seconds after he’d come outside to see that his precious car was sitting on the ground.

  I’d cashed in on one of those favors from Big Nate; the older fellow that I’d helped beat that life sentence in prison. He’d been accused of everything from robbery, to setting up murders, so the little thing that I wanted him to do was light work. He seemed to actually enjoy helping me get back at Elroy. I’d asked him to take Elroy’s tires and his rims off of his car overnight. And he had. See, I knew that helping him get off would come in handy one day and he said that he didn’t mind getting dirty if I needed him to. He said all I had to do was ask.

  I’d told him to keep the wheels and rims as a token of my appreciation and he’d said that he’d let his dogs play on them. He was lying low, and spending wisely, but I already knew that he probably had some big time money stashed away, and he surely probably didn’t need any handouts. He’d even pretended to have to put his house up just to pay me, but it was all an act, especially since he’d admitted a few of the crimes to me so that I knew what I was dealing with. But I also knew that he was going to make sure that nothing ever resurfaced so he was playing it smart.

  Elroy immediately got on the phone. His body language and the way that he paced back and forth, told me that he was upset. I laughed to myself and after another few minutes, Elroy turned around to go back into the house, and I drove off, heading for work.

  I laughed and talked to myself aloud about what I was going to do to him next.

  My phone started to ring, and without even looking at it, I knew that it was Elroy. It had been weeks since I’d spoken to him since that day that he’d ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. But for the first time, I answered it.

  “Hey,” he said, unaware that I was behind all of the crazy things that had been happening to him lately.

  Of course I knew that he’d lost his job because he was always home when usually he would have been at work. I didn’t know the details, but I was sure Human Resources got my message and made him do a drug test.

  Of course he wasn’t using cocaine, but he did occasionally smoke marijuana, so I knew that he would fail. I knew that getting him fired would definitely hit him where it hurt. He didn’t play about his money. But I was teaching him that he shouldn’t play with people’
s hearts either. By now, he was probably looking for a job non-stop and I was praying that it took him forever to find one. But losing his job wasn’t the only thing that I’d done.

  But getting him fired wasn’t all that I’d done. There were also some things that I’d done to him that were just down right wrong and disgusting! I was being so spiteful and malicious, and I liked it. I was doing things just so that I could get a good laugh off of them like putting some of my pee in the half-way gone apple juice that he had in his fridge. I was still going into his house with my key, sometimes, well only twice since that one night, and one day, while he wasn’t home, I’d gone in and messed with all kinds of stuff. He loved apples, so I knew that the pissy apple juice was good and gone by now. He probably drunk the hell out of it too!

  Sure, it was nasty, but who cares? Ole’ pee mouth-having ass bastard! I’d surely gotten a kick out of what I’d done and if for some strange reason we ever made up, I was taking that and some of the other things that I’d been doing to him, with me to my grave.

  I’d dipped his toothbrush in the toilet. Even lifted the toilet seat and traced the edges of the toilet bowl with it. I’d put vinegar in his eye contacts solution. Hell I’d even mixed flour with his baby powder. Elroy always put a little sprinkle of powder in his drawers. So I’d only left a little bit of the powder in the container, for the smell, and then filled the rest of it up with flour. Now, his dick could be fried like chicken. And I’d done so much more than that. Like sticking a nail through the sole at the bottom of his favorite shoes. I’d put his picture and phone number on a gay singles website. And oh, I couldn’t forget the male stripper that I’d sent to his house, dressed up like a policeman. I’d watched Elroy let him inside, thinking that he was a real officer. Only minutes later, Elroy was chasing the half-naked man out of the house! I laughed so much that day that I almost peed on myself. And still, I wasn’t done with him yet.

  I didn’t think that he suspected me or my involvement. And then again, with some of the more obvious stuff, maybe he did. But even if he did, I didn’t care. He’d started this, but I was going to finish it.

  “I know that you hate me and probably don’t want to talk to me. And I know that you are on your way to work, but I really need a favor. I don’t have anyone else to call. Terry is at work, and…”

  “What Elroy? What? You break my heart and then call to ask me for a favor?”

  “I’ve been trying to talk to you for weeks, you wouldn’t take my calls and you changed your locks,” he said. You damn right I had! But he hadn't changed his.

  “What do you want?”

  “I lost my job a while ago. They had a random drug test and I failed. I have an interview this morning, and I really need to get to it but somebody jacked me for my tires. They left the damn car and took the tires. I guess they wanted the rims or something. But I need to get to my interview and I was wondering…”

  “You were wondering what Elroy? If I would take you? Hell no, I won’t take you! Walk! Catch the bus! Or call your traveling, singing ass fiancée!” I screamed and hung up the phone.

  The nerve of him! Why would he even think that I would do anything for him? I wouldn’t do a damn thing for him, other than find something else to do to ruin in his life. But what I really wanted to do was to rat him out to whoever this other woman was.

  That’s who I was waiting to see. I still hadn't seen this “Kera” woman yet. I drove by and watched his house all the time, when I wasn’t working, and sometimes I even followed him, but I never saw her. I guess she was out of town or something. But I was dying to see what she looked like.

  Was she prettier than me?

  Was she sexier?

  Why did he love her?

  I needed to know! And then I was going to make sure that she knew that he had been lying to her too! Maybe she would want to join in on the fun. I might even try to make her a friend. Not a real friend of course. But close enough to make Elroy uneasy. I wonder what Elroy would do if I made his bitch my bitch. I didn’t swing that way, but that’s not the point.

  I arrived at work a few minutes late, and my father eyed me from a distance. None of them knew what was going on as of yet. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. I was walking around pretending like everything was fine. I knew that eventually I was going to have to tell them that Elroy played me, but I would do it on my own time and in my own way.

  Getting settled, I worked as much as I could, all the while thinking of other things that I could do to Elroy. I smiled as an idea popped into my head and as scandalous as his friend was, I knew that he was going to take me up on my offer.

  “Hey Terry, can we talk?”

  “Uh…sure Serenity, what’s up?”

  Of course I knew that Elroy had probably filled him in on what was going on between us, but I also knew his weakness…women. Terry was always with a different woman and though he and Elroy were friends, I’d caught him checking me out a few times.

  “I know that you know that I found out the truth about Elroy.”

  “Serenity, that’s none of my business.”

  “I know. But since you’re his friend, and well, because I don’t want to talk to him, I have some things that I want you to tell him for me, please,” I said to him. He was silent for a second and then he responded.

  “Okay, what is it Serenity?”

  “I want to talk to you about it in person if you don’t mind,” I said to him. “I can come by right after work. It won’t take long. I promise.”

  He hesitated but finally he agreed. I hung up the phone, grinning from ear to ear. I was going to go over there looking like an 8oz. ribeye steak, with loaded mashed potatoes on the side. I was going to seduce him, screw his brains out, and find a way to make sure that Elroy found out. That right there was going to break him. That would surely hurt him on the same level that he’d hurt me.

  I’ll admit, maybe it was too much, but screw Elroy and his feelings! He hadn't cared about mine. I guess some would say if I really loved him then I wouldn’t be trying to get even, but that wasn’t true. I did love him. The problem was that he hadn’t really loved me. He’d lied. About everything. If he did really have some kind of love for me, it wasn’t enough to make him stop loving another woman too!

  No one could have told me that he would have done this to me and no one could tell me that I didn’t still love him because I did. Even though I was making his life hell, and planning to screw his friend, I still loved him like crazy. I didn’t want to. But I did. But maybe what I was planning to do to and with his friend later on that day would change that. Maybe that would be my final act of revenge and after that hopefully I could just get over it and move on with my life, without Elroy in it.

  I managed to focus on my cases and once it came time to leave for the day, I stopped home to freshen up so that I could head over to Terry’s. Just as I stepped out of the shower, there was a knock on the door. I put on my robe and headed to answer it.

  Elroy. Immediately I’d tried to shut the door in his face but he stopped it and walked in.

  “Get out Elroy!”

  “No.”

  “Now! Or I’ll call the police!”

  “So,” he said and shut the door behind him.

  I walked away from him and headed to my bedroom to get my phone. I picked it up and he took it out of my hands.

  “It seems like since that day, that day that I told you the truth, everything has been going wrong. And I mean everything. I guess it’s my karma.”

  Nope. I wasn’t going to let karma take the credit for anything. That had been all me. But after burning his clothes, chasing him with a knife, throwing one at his head, and trying to hit him with my car, you would think that he would know by now that I had a side to me that I’d been hiding from him for all of those years. But then again, he probably just thought that it was only acting out because I was hurt. But he had no idea what level of crazy I really was. Hell sometimes I surprised my damn self.

  “
Look, I never meant to hurt you. I love you Serenity,” he said.

  “Yep. But you love her too. Whoever the hell she is. Could you leave? I have something to do.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out.”

  “I heard you loud and clear! You were with another woman the whole time Elroy! Our entire relationship! Trust me, I heard you.”

  Elroy sat on the edge of my bed.

  “What do you want me to do Serenity?”

  “I want you to leave.”

  Elroy just sat there. After a minute or two, he stood up, but he didn’t leave.

  “Move Elroy, get away from me,” I said as he walked closer to me. He tugged at my robe, and I struggled to hold it together to keep from exposing my naked frame. Elroy pushed me towards the wall.

  “Move Elroy. Get off of me,” I pushed him, as he continued to push me.

  “I love you Serenity. No matter what, I loved you. Tell me what you want me to do,” Elroy said as he tried to kiss my neck.

  “Leave! I told you that I want you to leave!”

  “I love you too much to leave. When I’m not around you, I can’t breathe. I miss you. I miss you,” Elroy said and managed to get ahold of my neck.

  Hungrily, his tongue moved swiftly as he sucked on my spot, just the way that I liked it. I tried to get him off of me. I cursed him out more than I’d ever cursed in my life, but still he didn’t move. He wouldn’t stop. His hands started to roam and though I felt nothing but anger in my head and in my heart, my body felt nothing but lust.

  I tried my best to stop him but I knew that he was going to win the battle. But no matter what, he wouldn’t win the war. As I allowed Elroy to spread my legs apart, I was so disappointed in myself, but even that wasn’t enough for me to stop Elroy from entering my deep, wet, domain.

  Ahhhh! This was the wrong penis, at the wrong time!

  My head screamed all kinds of things but my body started to rock to an unheard tune right along with Elroy’s.

  Damn! Damn! Damn! Well, this was not supposed to happen!