Title: Affection Multiplier App: The Boyfriend
By: BreaktheBar
Chapter 114
Heather looked like she wanted to spit, and Cattie had a stony expression that made it so I couldn’t tell if she was trying to hide what she was thinking and feeling from me or from her girlfriend.
“I- We need to talk about last night,” Heather said. “I know Cattie already talked to you and Cassidy, but I need to say something as well.”
“Alright,” I said and stepped back into the kitchen area.
Heather pursed her lips slightly in clear displeasure at the situation. “I owe you and Cassidy an… apology. For being aggressive and disrespectful. So I’m sorry—”
Now, if she’d stopped there, it would have been fine. But it was Heather, so of course she had to keep talking.
“—that you were offended by what I said. And that I put Cattie in the position that I did. But I also need you to hear me that what happened last night isn’t going to happen again. You and Cattie aren’t ever going to do that again. I won’t allow it, and you need to back off.”
The thing was, I could tell she was hurting. Heather wasn’t her usual self, sitting there on the couch like a ball of stress. Her body language was turned inward and defensive instead of aggressively open. And I couldn’t blame her—she was in a position that I hadn’t ever been in. She knew her girlfriend had been with someone else not even twelve hours ago and she’d manufactured the circumstance that it had happened. If anyone else had been telling me the story about this situation I would probably play Devil’s Advocate in my own head and empathize with her. And really, I did. Even if she’d done it to herself, I still felt terrible for her and her relationship.
But she was also such a fucking bitch.
“That’s not good enough,” I said, breaking my gut feeling of protocol and decency around even bad apologies. Someone apologizes, you’re supposed to accept it, that’s what I was taught growing up. But I couldn’t be truthful and accept this one.
“What?” Heather asked, a little stunned.
“Robbie—” Cattie whispered, though she sounded like she didn’t know if she wanted me to explain, or stop.
“That’s not good enough, Heather,” I repeated myself. “You can’t just apologize for me and Cassidy feeling offended. Cattie is Cass’s best friend, and you’ve made it pretty clear since the first hours of this trip that you not only didn’t give a flying fuck about mine and Cass’s relationship, but you also wanted to make this trip into a booze cruise for your own perverted gain.”
“What the fuck is your problem?” Heather demanded, starting to stand. “I never—”
“Heather, shut up and listen,” I said. “You started this week by trying to convince my fiancee and everyone else that they should get drunk and go topless so that you could be surrounded by hot, topless and tipsy women. You weren’t being subtle. Then you organized sexual games so that you could make out with people other than Cattie, and got pissed when things didn’t go your way. And then you bet your girlfriend’s body to try and force winning my fiancee’s. Don’t try to fucking talk your way out of it—if you had won, you were planning on having sex with Cassidy however you wanted. So yeah, I’m offended, Heather. I’m offended by you, and the way you treat other people. And I’m especially offended by the way you treat Cattie, because while you’ve been inexcusably aggressive to everyone else, you’ve been a raging cunt the way you’ve been acting towards her. So yeah, because she asked, Cassidy and I are going to keep our distance from her for as long as she wants us to. But she deserves better, Heather, and if you can’t manage that then Cass and I will be there for her.”
Heather looked shocked, and pissed, and devastated. She was standing but hadn’t moved towards the kitchen. Her hands were curled into fists and I couldn’t tell if she was about to burst into a scream at me or break out into tears. Maybe both. I wasn’t planning on sticking around to find out which.
I turned and hugged Cattie hard. “Sorry, but we love you too much. I couldn’t not say anything anymore,” I whispered to her. She didn’t hug me back, looking a little in shock herself by my outburst of frustration. “As soon as you need me or Cass, tell us and we’ll be there.”
And then I kissed her on the cheek and pulled away, leaving the situation by heading into the corridor and to my room. Neither of them said anything as I went.
I shut the door and sat on the bed, the adrenaline of the confrontation dropping and leaving me feeling jittery and a little sick. Looking down at my hands, I couldn’t help but think of holding Cattie last night. Of fucking her, right there in the room, while her girlfriend was next door.
And I couldn’t help but think of Cassidy, and how many sexual situations she’d been in when I was clueless nearby.
They weren’t the same thing, but my brain and my heart didn’t care. I flopped back on the bed, feeling the weight of Cassidy’s truth sitting on my chest again. The weight of her betrayals, and her hurt over it.
I cried again, not the bone-shaking feeling I’d had before but quiet and personal. Maybe that was a good thing, that I wasn’t losing control of myself so much, but the hurt was still there. What Cassidy did wasn’t fair. It wasn’t OK.
There was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” I asked, barely keeping my voice from croaking.
It opened and Terra slipped inside, closing the door behind her. She got up on the bed and sat with her legs crossed, pulling my head into her lap and starting to run her fingers through my hair.
“I was in my room with the door open and heard all of that,” she whispered softly. “I had to wait for them to move, or I would have come over sooner. I’m so sorry, Robbie.”
Her fingers on my scalp were soothing, and I closed my eyes for a moment. “For what? You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” I asked.
“Not like that,” she whispered with a soft smile. “Just… for what you are going through. Heather needed to hear that, but you aren’t that blunt of a guy. If you weren’t going through what you are, I’m sure you would have found a better way to say that. I could hear the pain in your voice when you were letting her have it.”
“I’m just tired of getting taken advantage of,” I whispered, my heart clenching a little to admit that. No one liked getting conned or screwed over, and that’s how I felt. Cassidy took advantage of my love all those years ago. Now Heather was taking advantage of Cattie, and was using me as a convenient scapegoat for all her own shit.
“I know,” Terra whispered. “I know.” She leaned down and kissed my temple.
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