Chapter 2
Sage had ended up going over to John's place, wearing a long black robe that had a black negligee underneath, having done her hair and makeup. John always left his front door unlocked, which Sage berated him for on several occasions because it was the city, and knew he was probably sleeping for work in the morning. So she crept in quietly and shut the door behind her, heading down the hallway toward his room with a big smile on her face.
John lived alone; he was a local firefighter and got paid well by the city, so he was on call twenty four hours a day. In a way, Sage felt guilty for sneaking in on him while he was getting rest, but at the same time she knew how badly he wanted to have sex with her again, having dropped several hints during the last few of their dates. Her hand reached up to push open the door and Sage suddenly stopped, hearing faint noises coming from behind it and the smile vanished from her face instantly, tears filling her eyes.
"Oh John!"
"Mmm god I love fuckin' your pussy, Kim."
The bed squeaking just confirmed what was going on behind that door and the burning curiosity got the better of Sage, pushing open the door just a hair further to witness John cheating on her. The white sheets were drawn over their bodies and John was on top, the muscles in his back rippling, grinding the woman into his mattress, hearing her crying out his name in ecstasy. Having no idea who this Kim was, Sage honestly didn't care and immediately walked out of the house in tears, running home feeling completely humiliated.
When John blew her phone up with countless text messages and voicemails, Sage finally answered and basically told him to go find someone else's heart to break. He demanded to know what she was talking about and Sage told him that she snuck into his house and caught him screwing some girl named Kim in his bed. He stammered over his words and finally called her a lowly sneaky bitch, which promptly ended their phone call because Sage hung up on him.
Marisol was livid at John and told Randy what happened, only for the drunk asshole to say that she should've given up the goods when she had the chance. That was just one of the many reasons why Sage hated him and it nearly destroyed her friendship with Marisol. Even after what John did to her, Marisol still refused to break up with Randy because, in Marisol's mind, it had nothing to do with their relationship. It was just a poor excuse, but Sage decided it wasn't worth ending their long friendship over. However, she did make Marisol promise never to mention John's name again as long as she lived, reaching an agreement.
After that, the dating went downhill for Sage, but she never ended up making the same mistake as she did with John, learning from that experience. Most of the guys she went on dates with never called her back or she didn't return their phone calls. Out of twenty dates, Sage had second and third ones with about five of them, but even those ended badly. Sage finally gave up the dating scene and hadn't been on one in over two months, spending her nights curled up in bed with a good book to escape her problems.
John wasn't the first man Sage slept with, but she always thought of him as her first real relationship. She had others, but not with as much intensity and passion as she had with John, even though they'd only had sex once. Sage often stayed up late at night wondering what went wrong between them and why did John feel the need to go to another woman for sex. All she wanted was a little time to get to know each other, to build a relationship that was based on more than getting in each other's pants, and apparently all he wanted was to get his dick wet.
Her cell phone ringing jolted Sage out of her thoughts as she finished taking her French braid out, making her hair even curlier. She walked over and looked at the caller ID, sighing heavily at the name that flashed across the screen. Part of her wanted to answer it and part of her didn't, though Sage wondered what else she had to lose at this point and flipped it open, putting it to her ear.
"Hey beautiful."
"What do you want, John?" She demanded quietly, not wanting Marisol to overhear her conversation with her ex-boyfriend. "I told you to stop calling me."
John chuckled while popping open a beer, downing it in a few gulps. "Come on Sage, don't be like that." He hadn't stopped calling since their falling out, wanting to make things right. "I thought we had a lot of fun together."
"Yeah until you decided to fuck someone else. I don't have time for this, I have to go to bed, John." Sage was tired from her interview and all the flashbacks, hating it when she had nights that she couldn't forget about what happened.
"It was just sex, I didn't even really like her, but I didn't know what else to do." He sighed heavily, taking a long swallow of his beer. "I mean we were dating, but I didn't know if we were serious because you never told me. You told me you wanted to wait to have sex again and I was fine with that, but that was it. I know you miss me." John could feel and sense it in her voice, hearing her suck in a sharp breath over the line. "And I miss you, Sage."
"You really hurt me. I was surprising you that night because I was finally ready to have sex with you, to take our relationship to the next level…" Sage couldn't believe she was letting him get to her like this and felt a headache coming on. "But apparently you didn't know we were in a relationship, even though I asked you point blank if we were boyfriend and girlfriend. That implies a relationship, Cena."
Rolling his eyes, John wondered if it was even worth making this phone call because Sage would never forgive him for ONE indiscretion. "I made a mistake, what else do you want me to say? I'm sorry, okay? I'm really sorry for what I did to you and I wanna make it up to you, if you'll let me. I deserve a second chance, everyone does. Just look at Marisol and Randy. She's given him countless chances and they're happy…"
"No, they're miserable acting like they're happy." Sage stiffly corrected, pulling her pants off and tossed them in the hamper, knowing she would definitely need to do laundry tomorrow. "And I'm not Marisol. I don't believe in second chances, especially to cheating lying pricks like you. And quite frankly, you're not worth my time or energy anymore, John. Now lose my digits and stay away from me." She clicked the phone shut and tossed it on her bed, burying her face in her hands as a few tears slid down her cheeks.
Maybe now he would finally take the hint.
When her cell went off again, Sage completely had enough and flipped it open, deciding to give John a piece of her mind. "Listen asshole, I don't want to see or hear from you ever again so get rid of my number or ELSE!" She snapped, not even looking at the caller ID and paled when a different voice came over the line.
"Is this Sage Evans?"
"Oh god…" Sage whispered, covering her mouth with her hand, hating it when she jumped the gun and let John get under her skin. "I'm so sorry, yes it is."
Clearly she wasn't referring to him, so Mark decided to let it slide, chuckling. "Sage, this is Mark Calaway calling about that job at my shop." He informed, trying not to sound amused by her colorful greeting. "Is this a bad time?"
Now she was even more mortified.
"No Mr. Calaway – I mean Mark." She quickly corrected, remembering what he said about not being formal and swallowed hard, wondering if she just completely destroyed her chance at this job offer. "I'm really sorry about that, I thought you were someone else and neglected to look at my caller ID before answering." John was going to pay for this, Sage vowed, if she didn't get this job because of his phone call.
"It's alright, darlin'." Mark hoped she didn't mind him calling her that, but it was a pet name he used for all women, even the ones who worked for him. "Hopefully your night is gonna get better because I'm callin' to offer you the secretarial position at CalJac's. I'm assumin' you're still interested?"
Her night just went from bad to amazing with those words and Sage grinned happily, taking a deep breath so she didn't squeal in her boss's ear. "Yes I am, Mark. Thank you so much!" John was the furthest from her mind at that moment and nothing could ruin it, blue eyes sparkling.
Mark couldn't help chuckling at the excitement in her voice, nodding. "Good to hear, you start on Monday at nine AM sharp. Mindy will be trainin' you on the job, you're her replacement." He would honestly miss Mindy and hoped Sage would be the perfect replacement, though Mindy was indeed one of a kind.
Given his earlier impression of Sage, Mark wondered just who had pissed her off that much to answer the phone in such a way. First impressions weren't always accurate and, in her case, definitely not. He had assumed she was mild mannered and maybe a bit meek, professional though. Now he had a new impression all together, the corner of his lip curving upward into a slight smirk.
"Are you free to come in tomorrow?" He asked, keeping his amusement hidden.
"Yes I am..." Sage chewed her bottom lip, rubbing the back of her neck. She would be checking her caller ID from now on, trying to push John to the far recesses of her mind. "Does this mean I have the job?" She was very brave to ask that, but Sage wasn't about to beat around the bush either. There was no time for it, knowing bills had to be paid and she'd given not the best second impression.
"Until Mindy leaves." He clarified. "Consider yourself on probation, with the likelihood -if all goes well- of being hired in permanently as her replacement once she's gone." Mark said, hearing the apprehension in her tone and knew she was recovering from the way their phone call had opened up, entirely her fault, but he found it funny. "We open at eight AM sharp, I want you here at seven thirty to fill the paperwork out so we can make out a time card for you. I'll give you the weekend to sort things out after the paperwork is filled out. I want it processed before you start on Monday."
"Thank you so much, Mark." Sage hadn't meant to squeal in her boss's ear, but the excitement had overtaken all other rational thought. John was now the furthest thing from her mind, sapphire eyes sparkling with happiness. "I will be there on time tomorrow in the proper attire to fill the paperwork out." Black dress pants and a nicer shirt, Sage already had her outfit in mind, even though she wasn't starting officially until Monday. "Do you need me to bring anything to make copies of?" Some places required birth certificates these days; she wanted to be absolutely prepared
"Social, state ID or valid driver's license and birth certificate." He already had some of this information, thanks to her job application and was currently running a criminal background check on her, but it would take a few days to come in. Or at least, he had told Mindy to do it, he made a mental note to remind her in the morning. "I will see you tomorrow Sage, and hopefully...you'll be having a better day." Mark couldn't resist that or keep the low chuckle from escaping. "Any questions?"
"No, I'll see you tomorrow morning at nine. Thank you again for the opportunity, Mark. Have a great night."
"You too Sage."
They hung up and Sage finally let out the squeal she'd been holding in, jumping up and down, not even caring when Marisol burst through her bedroom door with wide brown eyes.
"WHAT THE HELL?"
"I GOT THE JOB!" Sage screamed out, not caring if the neighbors heard her and pretty soon both girls were jumping up and down squealing excitedly.
"Oh my god, I'm so proud of you, Sage!" Marisol completely ignored Randy and hugged her friend tightly, knowing Sage had searched high and low for a job for the past few months, genuinely happy for her. "We have to celebrate!" It never occurred to her that Randy was extremely pissed off that she'd jumped off of him right in the middle of sex.
"Not tonight." Sage stated, stopping her excitement as soon as she noticed Randy in the doorway, though the smile never left her face. "I have to go in at seven thirty in the morning to sign papers so they can process everything. I start officially Monday." She couldn't help squealing out again, not expecting Mark Calaway to call her so quickly. "Maybe this weekend or something."
Randy could hear Sage screaming out about getting her job and Marisol joining her as well, his eyes crossed as he focused on breathing and not going into Sage's room to either strangle her or shut her up by stuffing his now painfully hard cock right into that pretty mouth of hers. When he had talked the erection away, or at least, down enough to hide it, he stepped back into his jeans, not bothering with any other articles of clothing and zipped them up, skipping the button. Plastering a smile on his face, he walked out of Marisol's room and to Sage's, leaning in the doorway.
"Congratulations."
Sage did what she did best and ignored Randy completely, he apparently had shown up while she was on the phone with both John and Mark.
"At least come out to the kitchen and let me whip up a quick batch of low-alcohol margaritas!" Marisol pleaded, keeping hold of Sage's hands as she jumped up and down, thrilled to death for her friend. "You won't have to go out and you won't even get buzzed, we have to do SOMETHING to celebrate!"
Randy just leaned in the doorway, the smile never leaving his face as his ice blue eyes took in the women jumping together. They could celebrate all night as far as he was concerned.
