A Place So Wicked Patrick Reuman (children's ebooks free online TXT) 📖

talked, for how long, he wasn’t really sure. And, at one point, when Jasmine was talking to one of Robbie’s friends, Robbie risked a glance back toward where the guy had been sitting in wait. He watched as the man stood, craning his neck around the room, searching for the woman that stood right next to him. The man took a step in one direction, still scanning for his date, then a step in another direction, before finally giving up, with obvious frustration on his face, and heading toward the exit.

Robbie feigned confusion when Jasmine finally remembered her male suitor and looked past him in the direction of her old seat. She wasn’t even sad when she noticed he had left. In fact, she never even mentioned having been there with someone. Robbie almost felt guilty. Almost.

He didn’t feel guilty at the end of the night when she invited him back to her place. And he definitely didn’t feel guilty when he had her legs wrapped around him as she grabbed the sheets, her eyes rolling back, loud, orgasmic moan after moan escaping from the pit of her throat.

The first few months were amazing, spectacular even. They lived hard and fucked harder, almost never leaving each other’s side except to go to work. It was the months after those when everything went to shit. She got jealous quickly and frequently. Her default mood seemed to be angry. He couldn’t pretend like he had been perfect. Constantly, his mind would wander to other women, to lust, a longing for others, for something new and exciting. He didn’t act on it, but he definitely wanted to. Maybe she knew that. Maybe she could see right into his mind. Maybe all women could.

The first few months had been awesome—the rest, hell. But those final handful of months, the months capping off their couple-year-long fiasco, were the seventh circle of hell. They were at each other’s throats every second of the day. It seemed like any action one did simply pissed off the other to the point that they hated each other’s mere existence.

In those first few months, he wondered often if maybe what he had said to Richard really was a load of bull. Maybe getting married was the way to go. He recalled a day when he had stopped at the mall to pick up some flowers, it was maybe two months in, and he had stopped at Kay Jewelers, just to look of course, and just because it happened to be right next to the flower shop. There was a ring, a big, fat, shiny diamond ring resting on a lavender pillow behind a glass case. It glowed, as if calling out to him in some magical way, whispering the truth that he needed to hear. He wanted to see it on Jasmine’s finger.

But he decided he would wait and see how things played out. He knew what it was like, that early lust, that fire that burns brightest right after you meet someone that you just seem to click perfectly with. It played out, all the way to the final quarter, and just as he had suspected, the flame burnt out almost as fast as it was lit.

He wouldn’t make that mistake again, approaching insanity so casually, daring to think that he may be in love. And if he ever did, it wasn’t going to be someone he met at the bar. He set the microwave down on the kitchen counter and plugged the power cord in just as he heard footfalls moving down the stairs.

Robbie turned as Richard walked in, still in his pajama pants and a grey t-shirt. He looked at Robbie for just a second with a confused expression before it morphed into understanding. “Takin’ care of some things for me?”

Robbie smiled. “That’s what it looks like.”

“Thanks. Means I can take care of some other things I wanted to get done,” Richard said.

Robbie was about to ask Richard about staying there for a while when Richard offered a smiling nod and turned away. Richard walked over to the doormat and slid his shoes on. He hadn’t been down in the basement since seeing the house for the first time with the real estate guy, but if he recalled correctly, the basement floor had been rather dirty.

He walked back down the hall, passing the kitchen and catching Robbie’s glance as he walked by. His little brother looked eager or maybe nervous, exactly the way Richard felt about needing to have a talk with his brother at some point that day.

As he opened the basement door, a wave of pungent odor wafted through the opening. It pushed him back a step. Richard immediately plugged his nose with his arm.

“What in the heck is that?” Robbie called out from the kitchen.

“Basement fuckin’ reeks!” Richard shouted. Now he remembered the basement having smelled a little funky during his visit but nothing compared to the vile odor bearing down on him now.

A memory flashed back to him of a time when his father had taken him and Robbie hunting years ago. They were trekking across the terrain of the Alleghany forest when they stumbled across a half-eaten deer carcass. Their father explained that it was probably killed by a bear and could have been sitting there for days, maybe even weeks. It was the smell of death after it had aged and rotted, having had plenty of time to erode and fester.

Richard closed the door and took in a deep breath. It was hardly better, a significant cloud having already escaped the confines of the basement, but it was something. After a few seconds, he finally felt like he could breathe again.

Robbie joined him in the hall. “Did that come from the basement?”

Richard lifted his head up. “Yeah.”

“Something must have died down there.”

Richard nodded. “Was thinking the same thing.”

“Well, let’s