I keep reading to learn all about the man who ruined me for all other men. It’s just his service records, those parts that weren’t classified. His personal life isn’t mentioned at all. Of course, it’s not. Nothing to put me out of my misery. I’ll just have to wait until he gets here.
one
Larissa
monday, july 20th, 2020
I still haven’t slept. I’m too nervous. I’m on my fourth cup of coffee and it’s not even nine in the morning. I pace the floor in my office, damn near wearing a hole it. I can’t help but feel like something… exciting is about to happen. Whether it will be good or bad remains to be seen. While I am nervous to see him again, I’m more anxious that he won’t remember me. I don’t know what will be worse, him remembering me or not being memorable enough.
"You're nine o'clock is here, ma'am," Marva, my assistant says after knocking on the door. For the next three weeks, I am still the governor of Maryland, after that, I will officially resign to focus on the campaign. The lieutenant governor, Larry Richardson, will take over until the election.
"Thanks. Send him in," I reply, smoothing my skirt. Is it too short, I wonder? I smooth my hair just as the door opens and he walks in. He’s wearing a suit and tie. Fuck. He’s hotter now than he was twenty years ago. I don’t know how I am going to get through this without jumping him.
“Ms. MacLaine?” he asks, his hand outstretched. I take it. Sparks of electricity shoot up my arm. Unbidden, my mind wanders back to that night. It was cold. So cold. The walk from the bar to his car was icy, but he was such a gentleman. Later on, I remember him, above me, having just thrust inside me. My pussy was on fire from the intrusion but I loved it so much. Then just as suddenly, he flips us over so that I am on top of him. I’ll never forget the words he said. Not as long as I live. “Ride me, my queen.”
“Mr. Reynolds. Please have a seat,” I say, gesturing to a chair. He clears his throat and takes a seat on the opposite side of my desk. I move to sit behind mine. I place my hands flat on the desk because I don’t want to wring them and appear as nervous as I am. “Thank you for coming in today,” I say, refusing to give away that I know him. Biblically. Epically.
“Is that how you want to play this, Larissa?” he says, angrily.
“Excuse me?” I ask, how dare he be angry.
“You really don’t remember me?”
“I…”
“I see you moved on,” he says gesturing to the picture of Chase and me at Six Flags Over New Jersey last year. I look from the picture to him and burst out laughing. “What’s so fucking funny, Larissa.”
“You can’t be serious, Malcolm. Of course, I remember you. I have a lasting reminder of you. It’s been twenty years since the last time I saw you. Are you really going to tell me that you haven’t moved on in all that time?”
“I never did. That night meant everything to me. It clearly meant nothing to you. You ghosted me and left me with a fake phone number, Larissa. What was I supposed to think?”
“I didn’t give you a fake phone number.”
“But you moved on? Your husband must be so proud of you,” he says gesturing to the picture again.
“That’s not my husband, Malcolm. That is my son, Chase.”
“God, you must have been a teenager when you had him.”
“I was. I was eighteen. He’s your son and you know that. You took my virginity, or do you not recall that part?”
“Excuse me? How the fuck would I know he’s my son? You never told me.”
“I wrote to you when your phone got disconnected. I told you I was pregnant but that I didn’t want anything from you.”
“I didn’t get that letter, Larissa and if you think I would abandon you like that then you don’t know me at all.”
“I wrote to you every week for twenty years. That’s over a thousand letters, and there was not one reply. Not one was returned undeliverable. I even had a copy of his birth certificate sent to you by FedEx. It was signed for by some woman. Joanne Reynolds. I thought she was your wife but I continued to write you. Updating you on the progress of your son. He drew you pictures. I sent every single school picture, his birthday parties. Everything.”
“I swear to you I had no idea. I thought you wanted nothing more to do with me when I tried to call but it wasn’t your number. I’m not married nor have I ever been. Joanne was my mother. She passed away two years ago. I would never have abandoned you or my son.”