Always Belle

"Are you nervous?"

"It's my first real job interview."

"You'll do great, Ken!" Belle warmly said. "That tailor did a great job with your suit. You already look the part."

It was Friday mid-morning and Belle was driving me to an office address, where I was set to interview for an entry-level analyst job for a small but growing data company called Clytch.

Quiet in the car, I figured Belle was probably giving me my space to get mentally prepared.

"Do you mind if I play some music?" I asked.

"Go for it, my phone's wirelessly connected to the car's speakers. You can grab it and play whatever you want."

I picked up her phone sitting in the center console. "Oh, it's locked."

"It's 0-1-4-5-6-8."

I typed the passcode, surprised that she had given it to me without hesitation. Instinctively, I kept repeating the sequence in my head so I wouldn't forget it.

With Belle's unlocked phone in hand, I was tempted to scour it, see if I could uncover something salacious. Either she had nothing to hide or I really did just have her trust. I couldn't betray it though, not in this moment, not on the way to a job interview. Instead, I pulled up the music app and just pressed play on some random playlist.

"So Belle, how was your shoot on Wednesday?" I asked.

"Fun! Crew was great as always. They loved the dinner afterward too. Rita and her husband were excellent hosts."

"I remember meeting Seb at Uncle Artie's party. I'd never had sushi like his before."

"It's good, right? His restaurant, Eden, is having its soft opening tonight. It'll be like a test run. So he's invited select people to dine in. I'll be there, actually."

"Now that I'm remembering, I think Seb had extended me an invite too, at Uncle Artie's party."

"He was probably just being polite."

Ouch

. Belle's response probably came out more savagely than she'd intended. I wasn't lying about my invite though...

I then picked up Belle's phone, wanting to see her reaction when I clicked play on "Late Night Dinner," the track Enzo had admitted to writing about Belle. When the song's instrumental kicked in, I glanced her way, expecting her to be uncomfortable. Instead, a tiny smile formed across her lips.

As the song continued playing, I remembered what Enzo had revealed about a certain lyric. So when the chorus arrived, I belted it out myself:

Tastes better than cherry pie,

I could eat it every night,

I couldn't stop if I tried,

I crave it all the tiiiiime.

To my surprise, Belle had joined me, singing along too. And for the remainder of the song, we shared what ended up being a fun bonding moment, bellowing our lungs out.

"Wow, someone suddenly seems relaxed for their interview!" Belle said. "Didn't peg you as much of a singer, Ken."

"My college friends and I loved to karaoke. Hey, you can hold a tune pretty well yourself. Do you karaoke much?"

"Can't remember the last time that I did," she casually replied.

I laughed inside, thinking that it was too early in the morning for Belle to start lying.

***

"Kenneth, apologies for the wait. He's ready for you. Follow me."

Belle had dropped me off almost an hour ago at a sleek-looking office building. Now I was following a female assistant down a corridor, basking in the possibility that these walls could be the place I spent my workdays in the near future.

I was led to a closed door that had a name etched into it: James Wilcox, CEO. The assistant led me inside, leaving me alone with a man that was calmly sitting behind his desk.

He was young-ish, maybe early to mid-thirties, dressed in fitted athleisure wear that confident tech executives seemed to prefer.

"Please, take a seat," he said.

I walked toward his desk with measured steps and settled into a chair across from him. He held a notepad tilted his way, a pen perched between the base of his fingers.

"Kenneth sounds too formal. I'm gonna call you Ken. You can call me Jim."

"That's perfect, Jim. Pleasure to meet you."

"First things first, please place your phone face up on my desk."

"My phone?" I replied, confused.

"Don't worry, it'll be right in front of you. I just want to make sure candidates are not secretly recording anything. We deal with a lot of confidential data here at Clytch."

"Gotcha, understood." I made sure my phone's ringer volume was muted and placed it face up on Jim's desk.

"Alright Ken, let's get the ball rolling here. For you personally, why Clytch?"

I took a deep breath and locked in. "First off, thank you for the opportunity. I've researched the company's various projects and they're all with socially-minded clients. I think that's really rare and I'd love to help uphold that ethos, making an impact in the right way."

"That's something we definitely pride ourselves in." Jim scribbled what seemed like a checkmark on his pad. "Tell me, what kind of skills do you bring to the table?"

"I'm proficient with spreadsheets, database software. I can run all sorts of analyses to identify trends. I'm an effective writer as well. My professors always praised my ability to synthesize data into concise briefs."

"I must say, the writing sample you provided was excellent." Jim made another note on his pad. "I'm curious, how do you see yourself advancing the company's mission?"

"I believe I can help expand Clytch's reach. With my technical and written skills, I can craft narratives that we can use to pitch to local governments and investors, which could bring in much needed services and infrastructure into struggling communities."

"Nice." Jim nodded his head. "Your resume's telling me you just graduated. I see here a stellar grade point average, impressive extracurriculars. Gotta admit, you seem like the perfect fit on paper. What do you like to do for fun?"

I smiled, trying to make myself more relatable. "Well, I got a bunch of hobbies. One of them is supporting my favorite soccer team, Real Madrid."

"Go figure! I'm a Barcelona guy myself. I don't know if I wanna hire a minion of the enemy." Jim smiled (thank god), letting me know he was just ribbing me. "Are you going to catch the match tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Excited to watch Madrid dominate Barça of course."

Jim laughed. "You're in for a long night, Ken. Madrid's been terrible lately."

"We'll see. The Clásicos are always close. Maybe next week, we can chat about it at the water cooler."

"Ah, I see what you did there, Ken. That was smooth, calculated. My kind of risk taker!" Jim stood up with a cheery grin and extended a handshake.

I assertively shook it, a firm grip on my end, feeling absolutely elated about my prospects.

"You know what, I might be going out on a limb here," Jim added. "HR hates when I do spur-of-the-moment stuff like this, but whatever. Ken, I'd like to officially give you the—"

Just then, my phone started loudly vibrating on the desk.

Shit!

I realized I had muted my ringer but didn't disable the vibration.

Jim looked down at my phone screen, confused. "A Belle Adelson is calling you."

"Sorry Jim, that's my ride. She's probably calling to see if I've finished." I grabbed my phone and placed it in my pocket, ignoring her call for now.

"Is that Belle Adelson the model?"

"Oh, you recognize her. Yeah, she's my uncle's fiancé. I'm living with them at the moment."

"I see," Jim said, a neutral expression now coloring his face. "Alright Ken, we'll let you know our decision. Have a good one."

"Um, thanks Jim. When can I expect to hear from you, or from someone?"

"Who knows. Maybe soon, maybe never. I've got a lot of candidates to interview today. Don't just assume you've already got the job, it's unbecoming," he said brashly.

"I'm sorry Jim, I wasn't assuming anything, I was just curious—"

"Look man, I don't think you're the right fit for my company. Feel free to close my door on your way out," Jim coldly said, promptly returning his attention to his computer screen.

***

After my interview, I walked out of the Clytch offices feeling downright baffled. I could've sworn Jim was about to offer me a job on the spot before he oddly went off the rails. What the fuck?

Did the mention of Belle somehow make him sour on me? But why though? What did a swimsuit model ever do to a random tech guy? And what, if anything, did that even matter in terms of my qualifications for the job?

I checked my phone, not only seeing Belle's missed call, but also a voicemail: "Hey Ken, by the time you hear this, your interview will have probably finished. I know I was supposed to drive you home, but I had to unexpectedly meet with my agent. I'm so sorry! Your Uncle Artie is stuck at work, but I texted your Uncle Frank. He said he can be free in an hour to get you. Sorry again! I can't wait to hear about how your interview went later!"

Welp, okay

... What was I supposed to do now? I guess with newfound time to kill, I decided to grab lunch at the gigantic indoor mall a few blocks away.

At its food court, a tray of Chinese fast food now in hand, I parked myself at a dining counter in the common seating area. With my confounding interview still top of mind, I relished the opaque partition in front of me, not in the mood for making eye contact with anyone.

"Oh my god, I'm so hungry!"

"Then why'd you just order a caesar salad? Honestly, I dunno how your tits got so big eating lettuce all the time."

The two female voices were coming from a booth table, literally on the other side of the partition in front of me.

"What are you talking about, you saw me down a double bacon cheeseburger and large fries at Bitchin' Buns."

"That's true," the second woman replied, chuckling. "Come to think of it, you ate more than Kenny boy did that day. How's he doing, by the way?"

Jesus, I couldn't believe Eva and Nina were literally feet away. I debated standing up, saying hi, surprising them out of nowhere. But they were about to talk about

me

. I was curious what they'd say...

"Hold up Nina, next time we hang out with Ken, you have to pretend that you know Colin through his school. That's what I told him."

"That's ridiculous, E! Colin goes to a community college. I go to the best university in the city, top 10 in the country."

"Please, can you just roll with it?"

"Why couldn't you just tell Ken the truth, that you gave me Colin's number after that barbecue?"

"I got nervous, sorry! Even though you were the one that'd invited Colin to the beach, Ken kept on asking me questions about it. I wasn't sure if he was happy to see his cousin crash our beach day. And I didn't want Ken to somehow blame me. So I dunno, I guess I panicked, and told Ken a harmless lie."

"Oh Eva, you sensitive little soul. Fine, I'll play along with it."

"Love you Neen!" Eva sounded relieved.

"Now it's juicy story time! Tell me what happened between you and Kenny boy, before we got to the burger place."

"Wait, last time I told you something confidential, you threw it in Ken's face with your little 'test' questions."

"I was just having your back, E! Holding his feet to the fire for ditching you after the Enzo concert. And sure, maybe I was a little jealous too, that Kenny boy had inherited my ticket."

"Why were you even jealous? You said I could give the ticket to anyone I wanted to."

"Yeah, but I pictured you taking a tall, sizzling slice of testosterone—someone that deserves you!" Nina said. "So are you gonna tell me what happened before burgers or not?"

"Just promise me you won't share what I'm about to tell you," Eva said.

"Pinky promise!"

"Alright, so before we got to Bitchin' Buns, Ken and I were making out in your car. He played with my, you know. And then I played with his, you know. Then we were about to do it. He had a condom ready and everything. But then there was a... malfunction."

"His little pecker couldn't stay hard?"

"No, he was definitely hard, I think. But he came before we even started, from my hand. After like a minute."

"You're fucking kidding me..."

"We were all baking in the sun that day. Maybe it was just really hot and he got overexcited. It happens I guess."

"You sure he's related to Colin? His cousin

definitely

doesn't have

that

problem."

"Oh god, go ahead then. I already know you're itching to share."

"You know me so well." Nina laughed. "So remember how I'd mentioned Colin and I would take the scenic route? Well, not just a euphemism. Literally, we were driving on the Seaside Highway, and I was giving him some serious road head. It must've been good because he swerved a couple of times. We could've flipped over the railing, driven over the cliff into the ocean. Could've died because of a blowjob, can you imagine?"

"You guys are insane..."

"Story's not done! So then we decided to just pull over onto the shoulder, overlooking the water. Colin took me into the backseat and fucked me from behind for a good while. Then when he was ready to come, he rushed out of the car, aimed his cock over the cliff. And I swear, E, he was like a fire hose, shooting endless gallons into the ocean!"

"Jesus Christ!" Eva reacted with astonishment. "Just happy you guys didn't drive to your death. Over road head!"

"Eva, of course you know I'm grateful that you gave me Colin's number." Nina's tone suddenly softened. "But I can't help but think you maybe chose the wrong cousin. You could've been enjoying Colin's cock instead of me and I would've been happy for you all the same. Doggy style felt

so good

with him. You need to experience it too! You shouldn't have to settle for someone who loses it after a sixty second handy."

"I like Ken," Eva plainly said, not offering a particularly strong defense for my case.

Nina sighed. "I guess the heart wants what it wants."

There was a pause in their conversation. I assumed Nina was content to let the topic die, but she eventually broke the silence, "One last thing, E... You were right..."

"About what?"

"Colin's cock, when it's fully hard."

"What are you talking about?" Eva sounded lost.

"It does, like you said, have a nice subtle curve to it. How'd it feel when you gave him that handjob?"

Wait, what the fuck!?

I leaned my ear closer to the partition, making sure I'd heard that correctly.

"That didn't count with Colin," Eva replied. "That was before I knew Ken really liked me, before Ken and I even went on our first date."

"E, a handjob's a handjob. Doesn't matter if it was before your dinner concert date with Kenny boy."

"It does matter! I wouldn't intentionally go behind Ken's back with his cousin."

"Sounds like semantics."

"It's not!"

"Enlighten me then."

Eva audibly sighed. "I told you that I met Colin at Ox's barbecue, right? Well after Ken had introduced us, he basically left me with him for a

really

long time. And this was after Ken and I had set up our Enzo date. So it made me question if Ken only wanted to go to dinner and the concert together as friends. And then on top of that, at the end of the barbecue, he and I were supposed to carpool together in Colin's car. But then Ken stayed behind, saying Ox would take him home instead."

"Okay, I guess I can see your point. It does sound like Kenny boy could've been trying to set you up with Colin."

"So obviously you know how the rest of the story went."

"I want to hear the dirty details. It gets me moist knowing we've kinda shared the same guy."

"You're so gross!" Eva laughed.

"Continue! So you were saying after the barbecue, serial ditcher Kenny boy left you alone with his cousin..."

"Okay fine, I'll share!" Eva relented, giggling. "So while Colin and I were driving in his car, we started getting to know each other more. He told me some charming stories, making me laugh. But then somehow we started talking about his parents' divorce, and the conversation got kinda serious. He told me how hard it was for him and his sister. And then I dunno, I guess we connected on some emotional level, in that moment."

"And then you two pulled into an empty parking lot..."

"We made out a little, did some petting in the backseat. I took off my bikini top for him, straddled his lap. And then Colin asked if he could tit fuck me..."

"You dirty slut, you never told me this part!" Nina laughed. "Keep going!"

"I said he could do so, but he looked hesitant. He asked me if Ken and I had a thing, and so I mentioned the dinner and concert date we had set up. But at the same time, based on how Ken had acted that day at the barbecue, I told Colin I wasn't totally sure if our date had anything romantic behind it."

"And what'd he say?"

"Naturally, I asked Colin to weigh in, them being cousins and all. He said he didn't know much about Ken's game, or his history with women, but that he'd follow my lead, whatever I wanted to do."

"Duh, well obviously you wanted Colin's cock between your melons."

"I mean, I'm a curious girl." Eva giggled. "And Colin's incredibly big, how could I say no? So yeah, I pushed my boobs together for him, letting him slide it in between. Seriously Neen, his thing poked way up through my cleavage, it was crazy. If I wanted to, I bet I could've bent my neck down and licked his tip."

"Be honest now, E... Is that all you did with him?"

"He wanted to have sex but he didn't have a condom. I told him I'd only give him a handjob then. So I did that for like ten minutes. And the rest is history."

"You swallowed?"

"No. Surprisingly, Colin aimed it off to the side and just came on the backseat of his car, a huge white puddle that he didn't even bother to clean, then and there."

"Hold on, wait a second! When Kenny boy shot his load prematurely with you in my car... Please don't tell me he jizzed on the fabric."

"Okay I won't tell you that..."

"Ugh, gross Eva! Now I gotta deep clean my poor baby!" Nina whined.

"I wiped it down really good. You can't even tell!"

"Please don't say you hooked up with the Smoothie Shack guy in my car too?"

"You mean Greg?" Eva asked. "That was way before Ken."

"You didn't answer the question, E!"

"The answer's no, not in your car. I gave Greg a handjob inside the Smoothie Shack. But you know what, we got our smoothie bowls so fast that day!"

"You're right, we did, didn't we!" Nina joined her in laughter, reminiscing.

Fuck man, I couldn't take any more of this shit! I was pissed off, feeling completely betrayed by my crush

and

my cousin. Fuck, if not for the lack of a condom, Colin would've probably fucked Eva. Probably better than I ever could. And then there was me, with my premature ejaculation on that beach day—the fucking salt on the wound!

I stood up and abandoned my basically uneaten lunch, marching away in the opposite direction, unsure how my day could get any worse.

Then I screamed expletives to myself, thinking that Nina would've also teased me if she knew I had even ditched a tray of food.

***

In his Jeep, Uncle Frank and I pulled up to the gravel driveway of the mansion.

"Thanks for driving me home." I opened my passenger-side door to exit.

"Hold on... You okay, Ken? You were silent the entire ride. You can be honest with me, free therapy... Did your interview not go well?"

I wanted to sarcastically say "no shit," but my uncle seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being. I should've been more grateful he was making an effort.

"It was strange, Uncle Frank," I said. "My interview seemed mostly good. But then toward the end, it took the weirdest nosedive. And I can't really figure out why."

"Hey, that's alright. You never know, maybe the interviewer saw you wearing this fine suit, then got jealous. Sometimes it can be as petty as that."

"Maybe." I appreciated my uncle's attempt to cheer me up.