Promises

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons is entirely coincidental. All characters depicted in sexual situations are at least eighteen years old.

As always, any political, social or religious views in this story are those of the characters and their circumstances, and don't necessarily reflect those of the author.

*****

PART NINE -- Transitions and their Benefits

"What's your game, Bethany?"

I suddenly catch on to why her phone had been sticking up out of the pocket of her purse while we were in the room, and why she'd placed it so carefully on the desk. Now it's playing a video of the sex we just had. And indeed, if she hadn't warned me that she'd already uploaded it into the cloud, I

would

have snatched it and erased the recording.

"Here's the deal," she says, her nervousness back with a vengeance. She's obviously not at all comfortable with whatever it is she's doing here. "I'm a little over a year away from getting my PhD in Women's and Gender Studies. That's one of those fields where you can't make any money without a doctorate and a teaching position, but my advisor, Suzanne, says she can get me into a position when I graduate. We have a professor retiring and there's going to be an opening."

It hits me from her inflection, and the fact that Bethany has referred to her by her first name, that this

Suzanne

may be more than just her advisor.

"It sounds like you've got the academic world by the tail, Bethany, but how exactly does this involve me and an illicit sex video?"

"I can't get any more student loans, I'm flat broke, tuition is due and I'm about to be evicted from my apartment," she says.

Ah, it starts to become clear. I dearly wish I hadn't mentioned anything about that "eight-figure" deal to her over the phone. She knows I've got money.

"But your folks live in a nice neighborhood," I protest. "They must be doing well. Can't you hit them up for just a little more money?"

"Yeah,

money

. That's really all they ever did for my older brother and me. We were such a drag on them. We never lived up to their expectations, so they just bought us off while they spent their precious

time

on everything else. Sure, I drove a BMW in high school, but that was just so they'd feel better about taking two weeks in the middle of July every year to go on some foreign vacation.

Without

us."

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that."

"I always took summer classes in college so I wouldn't have to wish them

bon voyage

when they left." She shrugs. "They died near the end of one of those vacations, before my senior year. They were in Japan, celebrating their silver anniversary, when-"

"-their tourist rickshaw was hit by a bus in Osaka," I finish for her.

Her eyes get big. "How did you... Wait, Teri

told

you that about me?"

"No, Kira said that's what happened to

her

parents."

Bethany thinks, then nods. "They willed the house and their investments to my brother and me. Graduate school has been expensive though, so I blew through my share and even had Spencer buy me out for my half of the house. Now I need fifty grand to make it to graduation."

"So it's blackmail. I pay you fifty grand or you send the video to Anna?"

She nods. She's obviously ashamed of herself, but she's just as obviously desperate.

"Why didn't you just take a year off and get a job?" I ask. Myself, I worked full time during college to supplement my scholarship. I hadn't had rich parents.

She just blinks.

"Bethany, you've never worked a day in your life, have you?"

"No one will pay me what I'm worth," she says defensively.

Argh! Another economic illiterate. "Bethany, your worth in the market

is

what someone is willing to pay you. No more, no less. If you wanted to get paid more, you should have picked a different degree or learned some skills that are

worth

more."

To my surprise, Bethany chokes back what I'm sure was going to be an angry, indignant response. Instead, she hangs her head. "Yeah, I know that now. I should have gotten a more practical degree, like my brother did, but men just make me so

mad!

"

Thus the degrees in Women's Studies...

"Also, if I delay, that open position will be gone. I

have

to graduate next year. I've run out of options."

I actually feel bad for her, but there's no way I'm going to be blackmailed, especially since I was going to tell Anna about this anyway.

I pull out my phone.

"What are you doing?" Bethany asks.

"I'm calling Anna to tell her what we just did."

Bethany's mouth is hanging open.

"Hi Big Guy," Anna says.

"Hi Beautiful. You're on speaker with Teri's friend, Bethany."

"Oh,

wow

. Hi Bethany. It's wonderful to get to talk to you."

"Uh, hi," Bethany says, obviously lost with where this conversation is going.

I jump in. "Bethany says she's willing to act as a go-between with Teri."

Anna gasps happily. "Now why didn't

I

think to get a hold of Bethany? This is exciting."

"There's a catch, though," I say sadly. "She told me she would only do it if I had sex with her."

"

What

!" Anna's happy tone is gone now. "You're not going to

do

that, are you?"

"Um, I already did. She wouldn't give me time to call you first, so I was going to call you as soon as we got done, but now she wants fifty grand or she'll send you the secret video she made of us."

There's a long pause. "Wait, this is another one of your ridiculously elaborate practical jokes,

isn't

it, Peter?"

I haven't

ever

played a practical joke on Anna, so I surmise that her words are a signal to me that she's playing a game of her own. I'll need to play along until I can figure out what it is.

"Um, no. This is no joke."

Anna laughs. "Oh no you don't, Peter. You're not getting me this time. And which of your old girlfriends is pretending to be Bethany? Teri described Bethany to me, so I

know

you wouldn't sleep with that skanky slob if your life depended on it."

Bethany turns bright red. "I have the recording that proves he did,

and

that he loved it."

"Really? I'm calling your bluff, Destinee. Or Allison, or Candice, or whichever one you are. If you've got that video,

I'll

give you fifty grand for it."

"I'm sending it to you right now." Bethany pulls up the number I'd stupidly given her earlier, attaches the file, and hits send.

Thirty seconds later, Anna gasps. "Oh my God, that's horrible."

"I

told

you he fucked me," Bethany says triumphantly.

"And it looks like he gave it to you good too, but that's not the horrible part."

"Huh?"

"It's your hair. That cut is

tragic

. Girl, you've

got

to find a better stylist."

"But your husband-"

"Bethany, listen. Peter and I have an open marriage. He can screw whomever he wants, though sometimes I wish he had better taste."

Bethany doesn't like that at all. I'm a bit surprised myself. I've never heard Anna be intentionally rude to anyone before.

"Look," Bethany sputters, "if I don't get my fifty grand, I'm going to-"

"No you're

not

," Anna interrupts, all humor gone from her voice now. "Blackmail is a

felony

. I've been recording this call since the first mention of coercion. If that video ever shows up

anywhere

, I'll see that you go to jail."

Bethany's face goes from anger to fear.

"Do we have an understanding?" Anna asks calmly.

Bethany is obviously trying desperately to think of a way to turn this back in her favor. It's time for me to jump back in and put any such ideas to rest.

"Now that we have a copy of the recording," I say to Bethany, "it wouldn't be difficult to show it to

Suzanne

."

Her face goes from fear to horror. "Oh my God,

no

! She'd kill me for being with someone else, especially a

man

. I'd

never

get that position." Then she clams up, realizing what she's just confirmed for me. She's a day late and a dollar short, though.

"Bethany," I say calmly, "just give me Teri's email address and we'll forget that any of this ever happened." I'll have to talk to Anna about whether we should risk using it to contact Teri.

Bethany nods slowly and pulls out a small pad and paper, writing the address down and handing it to me. "You don't want me to play that recording to her?"

"Not after this. As a matter of fact, I don't want you to communicate with her at

all

for a couple of weeks. What you say might be colored by what just happened here."

She's starting to get up, but then she eases back down. "Peter," she says, unable to meet my eyes, "I'm really sorry about all of this. Teri's an old friend and I know now that you really

do

want the best for her. What I did to you was totally shitty, and she deserves better than that from her friends."

She gets up and starts to walk away. I'm guessing that her words are sincere, but I can't know for sure at this point. "Bethany, hang on just a second," I say. "Would you mind waiting over there for just a moment while I speak privately with my wife?"

"Uh, sure." She heads over to another cluster of chairs at the far corner of the lobby.

I take my phone off speaker. "Anna, I am

so

sorry about all of this."

"Peter, it's okay. We

did

agree to an open marriage. And I know you did this out of the goodness of your heart, not because Bethany's hot." Sure, but I know her well enough to hear the pain in her voice. I've hurt her.

"I was still an idiot for not seeing this coming, Anna. Thanks to your quick thinking, though, we're not being blackmailed."

"She sounded really sorry about what she did. Do you suppose she's sincere in that?"

It sounds like Anna's thinking along the same lines as I am. "I'm not sure, but I think I know how to find out." I explain to her what I'd like to do.

"I like your thinking, Big Guy," she says. "Let me know what happens."

Bethany stands up as I approach. I hand her a small slip of paper.

She stares hard at it. "This is a check for fifty thousand dollars.

Why

?"

"It's a thank you for being Teri's friend. She means a lot to Anna and me, and if she's a friend of yours and you need help, well, it's the least we can do. There are no strings attached. It's yours."

Bethany's big brown eyes, one of her few attractive physical features, well up with tears. I'm worried that she's going to say thank you and walk away, but instead, she hands the check back to me.

"Peter, I can't take this. Sure, it would really help, but I'm never going to trade on Teri's friendship again. If you ever want me to do anything to help you help Teri, I'll do it."

I stoop so quickly that it startles her, but she's wrapped in my arms, two feet off the ground, before she can do anything about it. She's not the only one of us who's startled, though, because such impulsive acts are usually way beyond me. This is about

Kira

, though, so all bets are off.

"Thank you, Bethany," I murmur in her ear. "I

knew

you were better than that."

I feel wet tears against my neck. "I should have been better than that right from the

start

. Will you let me help you?"

"I'd love that."

"When?" she asks.

"Right now. We even have a room to use so you can make the call."

"That's right we do, but you're going to have to do something for me first."

"Not

that

again, I hope?"

"No, but it wasn't

that

bad was it?"

"No, all things considered, it was actually pretty good. So what

do

you need?"

"I need you to put me

down

."

"Oops. Sorry about that."

We go back into the room and I call Anna, on speaker, and explain what's happened.

"Good for you, Bethany," my lovely wife says, "and I'm sorry I came on so strong. I just don't like anyone messing with my man."

"No, it's all right. I deserved every bit of it. What I did was unconscionable."

"It's okay, and hey, it

does

look like you guys had a pretty good time. Did he tell you that I can't do those kinds of things for him?"

"Yeah, he told me about how it takes all three of you to tango."

"And we haven't tangoed in a while. He deserved a little relief."

"Then I'm glad I could help."

Bethany looks up at me. "So how do you want to do this, Peter?"

"Let me play the recording for you. I'd like to get your opinion."

"I'd like to see it too," Anna says.

"Of course," I say. I send a copy to Anna, then we click on the icon simultaneously.

Bethany watches intently. "What do you think?" I ask her when it finishes.

"Um, I've got a few questions. Like first, where in the hell did all that stuff come from? Did you have a camera crew following you around or something?"

So Anna and I explain the circumstances of how I'd come into the pictures and recordings.

"So there's more?"

"Yeah, let me show you. I end up showing her quite a few scenes, from the sweet and innocent, to some of the kinkier stuff. I narrate to Anna what Bethany is seeing.

"Holy shit," she murmurs at last. "But you just want me to show her that first video I hope?"

"Exactly."

"Good. Let's take a deeper dive into that one." Bethany quizzes us for about half an hour, trying to learn every little thing about the individual scenes. We run the video twice more, stopping multiple times along the way so that she can be clear about what was going on in every scene. At last she seems satisfied.

"It's perfect," she says. "Send me just that one video."

She pulls her phone out of her purse while I send the file to her. "Are we ready?" she asks when it arrives.

"Sure. Do you want me to step out while you make the call?"

"No, I want you guys in on

everything

. If you can pretend you're not on the line, I'll just conference call her. I make no promises about what either of us is likely to say, though."

"Cool," Anna says. "I'll be on mute."

"Me too," I say.

Bethany's finger darts around her screen.

"Hello," Teri says, in that one word sounding so much like Kira that it hurts.

"Hey Ter, it's Bethany. Whatcha' been up to?"

"Hey Bee, I'm finally working on the latest batch of Maya's stuff. She didn't write even a quarter of what she usually does, but it's

extra

juicy this time. I've been getting wet just reading some of it."

My eyes just about bulge out of my head, but I keep quiet.

"Do I get to see the raw version?" Bethany asks.

"As always."

"I can't wait."

"I've gotta tell you, the way she describes Maya's feelings of love is so passionate it makes me wish I could jump into the story. I would

love

to know what Maya was experiencing when she wrote this stuff."

"You

really

wanna know?"

There's a long moment of silence. "What do you mean?"

"Maya, or

Kira

, told Peter about me when they were in Mexico. He called me last night, and we got together earlier today."

"Peter Malakhov? You've actually

met

him?"

"In the flesh." I can't help but smile at that, and Bethany gives me a wink. "Teri, he had to do a lot of convincing, and I questioned him pretty hard, but I believe he's legit."

"My folks say he abducted me." I bite my lip to keep from jumping in to refute that.

"Teri, I don't claim to know the whole truth, but Peter has put together a video montage showing some of the stuff that happened when he and Kira were together. It differs from what you've been told. I have it right here. Peter didn't think it was something you should see, but I want to show it to you anyway. He doesn't have to know I called you about it."

I like that Bethany is at least providing me some plausible deniability in case Teri gets upset that I haven't stopped trying to contact her.

Another long pause. "Okay, send it to me. We can watch it together."

"Sending it now."

"So, what's he like?" Teri says while she's waiting. "He's so frickin'

huge

that he scared the living snot out of me."

"He's a gentle giant. He's not the kind of guy who would hurt you. But you'll see what I mean."

"Okay, here it is," Teri says. "You ready?"

"Yup. One, two, three..." Bethany taps the screen and the familiar video starts to play. Bethany's volume is way down, but I can hear the audio through the phone, about a second behind our video.

It starts with a picture of the Hidden Springs Resort, taken from their website, and an audio recording that I finagled from the archives of KIRA FM. In it, Roger says "Peter Malakhov, you've got 103 seconds to call in, starting right

now

!"

"Hey, that's

right

," Teri says. "I forgot about that. KIRA announced the winner that morning. I was listening on my earbuds when I went out to get the paper." Her voice darkens. "Then he ran up to me and said he needed to use my phone. It's the last thing I remember."

The three of us listen while Teri's voice tells Roger that her name is Kira. "Oh my God, Bethany," Teri exclaims, "it totally confused me when Peter called me 'Kira' when he came into my hospital room, but it sounds like

Maya

is the one who came up with that."

"Sure looks that way."

"Well, if that's what she wanted to be called, far be it for

me

to deny her that. I'm going to refer to her as Kira for this latest episode."

Then my voice on the radio describes "Kira" to Roger. "Who's this

blonde

he's talking about?" Teri asks.

"His girlfriend. A few hours after that, they had a fight and broke up when he told her that Kira's price for letting him use the phone was that he'd take

her

with him to Mexico."

"She

did

that to him?"

"Yup. He only found out later that Kira had assumed he knew she was kidding."

"But her joke cost him his

girlfriend

?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Oh man, that totally sucks."

Bethany's tablet switches to show nanny-cam video of Kira and me returning from our first breakfast together, engaged in casual chit chat and getting ready for our separate activities. "Bethany, you have no idea how insanely freakish this is," Teri says in wonder. "I'm watching myself do things I have no memory of."

"It looks like you were having a good time though."

"Yeah, and it sounds like I went on a tour of the Mayan ruins. I've always wanted to see those." Her voice is wistful.

"I think the

point

of this clip, Ter, is that you were there

voluntarily

, and evidently had a pretty good time. Do you see any signs here that Peter abducted you?"

"No, I guess not," she admits.

The scene shifts to our second morning together. It shows Kira snuggled up to my side in bed with her arm and leg over me and my hand cupping her butt. Teri watches the woman who shares her body cuddle and do pillow talk with me. Then she sees Kira hop up and start to pull her shirt off as she goes out of sight.

"Damn, that Kira's a tease," Teri mutters. I can almost

hear

her blush.

"Think so?" Bethany says simply. "Just watch this

next

bit."

What follows is the exchange where I ask Kira if she wants to join me for dinner. She says fine, as long as it's not a date, only to say "it's a date" as she goes out the door.

"Jesus, you weren't kidding, Bethany."

After that, there's a still shot of the two of us from behind, walking toward the surf and holding hands. "

Oh shit

," Teri exclaims, "we got

naked

? In

public

?"

"Apparently." Then she chuckles. "Peter got 'Naked with Kira'."

The next still is a long distance shot of us out at the buoy. She's in my arms, and from the looks on our faces we're obviously in serious conversation. That finally seems to make Teri think about the logistics.