But my smile falls when I see the tears streaming from Jessica’s eyes.
“What’s wrong honey?” Vance growls, his blue eyes sweeping over her sassy form. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
“No,” she says in a curt tone while wiping at the tears on her cheeks. “Get away from me, you assholes.”
That makes us draw up short, and Vance, Burke and I share confused looks.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” I ask again, ignoring her comment. “Seriously, please tell us. We can help.”
With that, Jessica whirls around to pin us with a furious glare.
“Have you slept with your secretaries in the past? Do you know two women named Ginny and Mary? Blonde bitches with poison for blood?”
I gape at her. That is not what I was expecting her to say.
“Yes, I know Mary,” I say in a low tone. “She was my secretary at Ryder Corp. before she quit last year. Why? What did she say?”
Jessica’s face goes mottled with rage.
“Oh yeah? Did you tell her the same things you told me? That there was a bet between the three of you guys about how attractive I am, and that you lost. And then it ended up in a filthy three-on-one pound session?”
“What the fuck?” Burke rasps, his eyes glowing with anger. “Where did you hear that?”
Jessica rubs her eyes but it only succeeds in smearing the tears already on her cheeks. She’s delectable in a simple sweatsuit, but shaking with rage too.
“I was at Happy Beans and Mary and Ginny fucking accosted me! They told me everything!” She looks at us with furious eyes. “Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me that this isn’t your M.O. and that you haven’t fucked a dozen different women using that fucked-up strategy.”
Burke, Vance and I share a look. Oh shit, this is going to be tricky.
“Honey, we can explain,” I begin in a low voice.
“Then do it!” Jessica screams. “What could possibly explain something like this?”
I hang my head.
“Yes, we have talked with other women in the past, and yes, we told them something similar to what we told you. But there weren’t dozens. There were only Ginny and Mary, and they just weren’t it for us. They were skinny and bitchy, and we gave up once or twice at most.”
The blood drains from Jessica’s face.
“OMG, so what they said was true,” she whispers. “Those women weren’t making it up.”
“I know you’re upset, and we’re really sorry,” Vance begins in an apologetic tone. “It sucks that you had to hear about this because we care about you. I’m sorry this happened in public too without any warning. It should have come at a better time with better delivery.”
Jessica swipes at her eyes a few more times like she’s trying to force herself to stop crying, but it doesn’t work, and her cheeks remain wet as she sniffles and sobs, her nose dripping.
“But still. It’s true? You regularly bang women three on one, after feeding them bullshit about your bet about how beautiful she is? This is how you roll?”
Goddamn, things are going off the rails and Burke steps in then.
“We’ve used that strategy before,” he acknowledges in a low voice, “but only twice. Once with Mary and once with Ginny.”
“And once with me!” Jessica screams as her fists clench. “How could you? How could I have been so dumb? OMG, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I knew this was too good to be true, and I’m such an idiot!”
I try to right the ship, although it seems almost impossible now.
“No baby girl,” I say in a firm tone. “Like I said, we have experience with foursomes. You’re not our first, but it’s not something that we do all the time either. Yes, we slept with Mary and Ginny, but only them in the last five years or so. Why, did they say there were a lot of women?”
“Yes!” Jessica shrieks. “They named at least five other women.”
“Then they’re lying,” I reply in a firm tone. “There’s been no one except the three of you for a while now.”
Jessica howls then. “Do you think that’s good news? Besides, why?” she cries out, her voice anguished. “Why would you use that stupid bet to get into our pants? Were you honing your technique or something?”
I share a look with my friends.
“No honey,” growls Burke. “I’m ashamed to say, but we just took the path of least resistance. We never had a bet per se, but I did tell Sam and Vance how beautiful you were, and they wanted to see for themselves. We had to start conversation somehow, and so we used the story of the bet to start talking with you.”
“But why couldn’t you just tell the truth?” she demands. “I goddamn work for you! It’s not like I could brush you off!”
Burke lets out a sigh, running one hand through his black hair.