Page 11 of Ravaged For You

“Okay…”

I plow through another glass of wine for some Dutch courage as Marie wrings out my past from me. Things I’ve not told anyone since I moved to Los Angeles.

I tell her about how I grew up. I tell her about my mother and the close bond we shared as I grew up. I recount how I moved to LA and found the assistant job at Focus.

Marie, in turn, tells me all about her life and how she ended up working in marketing and publicity. Hint: it’s to do with her love for celebrities. It seems like she got into this game for meeting famous people, and I got into it because I just wanted to get out of my hometown and get any job I could in LA. Focus was the first, and only place, to hire my sorry ass.

Marie’s side of the story is all something I’ve heard before. Where I’m the introvert of the office, Marie is the extrovert. She’s retold her life’s story enough times and at a loud enough volume around the watercooler that even I could probably write her autobiography.

But then the conversation moves on, and we get to the inevitable question that any introvert dreads…

“So, how’s your dating life?” Marie asks me. My cheeks immediately flush with red and I lower my half-empty glass of wine.

“Um… well…”

“Okay, I’ll rephrase that,” Marie continues. “How’s your sex life?”

“Hey, that’s a worse question.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Look…”

“Come on, you can tell me how things are going? I swear I won’t tell anyone else in the office.”

It’s only because I’ve drunk my way through a near entire bottle of wine that I even attempt to answer, and when I do, I almost instantly regret opening my mouth.

“It’s been, like, a year and a half since I’ve gotten any…”

Now it’s Marie’s turn to drop her jaw. “Your pussy must be full of cobwebs,” she remarks, and I shoot her a dirty look for her language. “You know what I mean. Come on, admit it.”

“It kinda is.”

“So what’s wrong, Maddie? I mean, look at you. You’re pretty. You’ve got lovely blue eyes and light brown hair to die for.”

“My skin’s paler than a zombie…”

“You are pretty, Maddie. Can’t you see that?”

I don’t usually receive compliments, even from other women. I’m very good at sort of fading away into the background. Not get noticed.

“I’m just not a confident person,” I explain. “I can’t get boys interested in me.”

“Well, you should be confident with a face like yours. You are a bit geeky, but you’re stunning.”

“Thank you, Marie.”

“So are you looking for a guy, or?”

I shake my head. “I just find it hard to trust men. My parents went through a messy divorce and it kinda scarred me ever since.”

“So,” Marie says. “What you’re really telling me is that the men of Ravaged wouldn’t have a chance of getting into your panties?”

“Definitely.”

We both laugh and chink our wine glasses together.

“Here’s to not having sex or to trusting rockstars,” Marie cheers.