Scene 2

The light from the bedroom felt like it was attacking his eyes like a marching army and if the way his head felt the attacking army already had forces attacking their main target. With an unpleasant groan Ramsey sat up, clutching his head as it throbbed in pain. “Ahhh, note to self drink more water.” He said slowly, opening his eyes and regretting it instantly as his hangover seemed to kick into a higher gear the more he woke up.

Sitting still for a good two minutes to collect himself, Ramsey slowly looked around the room to put the jumbled pieces of his memory together and fight through his discomfort. He found himself in the guest bedroom in his shared apartment. The room once belonged to him when he and Sasha were just roommates. He remembered coming home the night before, hearing the light snoring of his girlfriend and deciding to crash in here rather than wake her up, and he had felt a pang of guilt for what he had done with the girl the previous night. Ramsey hadn’t felt so bad when he was out with the girl, she hadn’t been much for conversation, but that wasn’t why he had been interested in her. She had gotten him off twice, once in the bathroom and again in his car with her head in his lap. It had done wonders for his self-confidence after being rejected time and time again by companies.

He had been practically walking on a cloud, or at least drunkenly stumbling on a cloud he had felt so good, till he had come home and some realities came crashing down on his **** mind but those were troubles for later. So he stripped down to his undershirt and boxers and crashed in the guest bedroom, not even bothering to pull the covers over himself. Now that he was awake and was looking around the room he took note that there was no glass of water and asprin on the nightstand and mentally cursed his past self for not being forward thinking. The other two big things of note was that the bedroom light was on, something he didn’t recall ever turning on at all and one of Sasha’s work outfits had been hung up on a post at the end of the bed and some of the accessories were on the end of the bed itself.

The outfit was made to look like it was in two parts, a green short sleeve vest that had triangle shaped strips hanging down from it with little cotton balls at their tips and a red short dress with white trim, all of it velvet. The accessories for it were a green Santa’s cap, the same forest green as on the dress and a pair of thigh high white stockings with red stripes. Despite his throbbing head Ramsey took the end of the dress between two fingers and rubbed the material, picturing his girlfriend wearing it. The outfit was for when she was working as one of Santa’s helpers, this year her restaurant, owls, was hosting the Santa photos at the local mall. He was already a fan of the wing restaurant, the food wasn’t great, but considering their current budget getting free or discounted food from there was a larger part of their diet than it used to be. Ramsey of course like any man that chose to eat at Owls went there because of the staff, the beautiful girls in tight orange shorts and low cut tops and they were bringing that same energy to the Christmas event.

Mall Santa’s already got a great deal of attention, parents lining up with their children to get a photo with the fake Saint Nick, far as Ramsey could tell the owner of Owls wanted in on that financial windfall and was trying to up the participation by making it a place fathers would want to be. Ramsey was also sure whoever they got to be the mall Santa wouldn’t mind the improved atmosphere either.

Ramsey still had his fingers on the dress Sasha walked into the bedroom, she glowered at the man briefly before clearing her throat. She had walked into the bedroom fifteen minutes ago, turning on the light as she hung up the outfit and her boyfriend hadn’t so much as twitched, but now that he was up she could see his condition could be described as a wreck. “GOOD MORNING!” She yelled a satisfied smirk coming to her face when she saw the blonde man flinch.

“Ahh… babe not so loud, I might have had one drink too many last night.” He had been adjusting to the light of the room, it hadn’t stopped his eyes from hurting or his head, but it was getting better, but as Sasha spoke it felt like someone drove an ice pick through his ear into is brain.

“Ahhh, I’m sorry baby, you must feel awesome. I guess this isn’t the best time for it with the way you are feeling, but I wanted to talk to you about last night.” Sasha said adding an extra layer of sweetness to her words that she didn’t feel.

With one hand over his face, partially covering his eyes Ramsey squinted at the raven haired girl standing just past the doorway to the room, seeing her already dressed for work in a white tank top and orange shorts. “It’s okay, my fault and I’m paying the price.”

“Yeah…” Sasha said, drawing out the word. “We all have to pay for our actions when we do wrong, don't we?” She crossed her arms as she spoke, the honey on her words now fallen away.

An unsettling feeling ran through Ramsey’s stomach, more than just its contents churning from the **** he had put in it the previous night. ‘Shit, does she know?’ he asked himself. “Yeah… sometimes.”

With a nod of her head Sasha walked over to the dresser in the bedroom and picked up a piece of paper she had printed early that morning, on it was the image her friend had sent her. It wasn’t a great picture, her friend had taken it in a rush and the printer she had in the apartment wasn’t made for printing photographs so it was just on normal paper. Holding it in hand she took the three steps needed to stand next to the bed and Ramsey. Sasha didn’t rush, instead she moved slowly as she put the paper with the image of her boyfriend cheating on her in the bathroom at a club on the bed. Ramsey had some great qualities, but the longer she was with him the more the qualities she didn’t like grated on her. Sasha had done her best to look past them, to grow with him, but he didn’t seem interested in growing with her. Her brown eyes looked down at the photo on the bed, she had looked at that image on her phone on and off again for hours as she cried, planned her ****, and cried some more. Shifting her gaze to the cheating man she gave him a hard look as she set her jaw. “Sometimes? Do you think you should pay for this type of action?”

“Sasha, I can explain!” Ramsey replied quickly, his mouth moving faster than his brain. He had no idea how to explain that he fucked a girl the night before in a way that wouldn’t leave her pissed. While at the same time his exclamation sent another wave of pain through his head.

“No wait, I think I can handle that for your Ram.” Sasha said with one hand on her hip and the other holding her index finger up in the air as she wagged it in his face. Clearing her throat she spoke in a faux higher pitched voice. “Sasha my love I was going out for a guys night but they didn’t want to go play pool like I told you we were going to do and they dragged me alone to a club and then I drank too much and then you wouldn’t believe it they abandoned me there. Then I met this girl, a total slut that was willing to give me a ride home but she **** me to have sex with her first.” When Sasha stopped talking she leaned closer, making good use of her height advantage over him, it was only an inch but the hangover man wasn’t exactly standing up straight. “Is that about right?!”

“I ahhh.” Ramsey started to say, stuttering as he took a step back from the girl who was in his face. “No… and I don’t have a high pitched voice.” Ramsey knew he didn’t have a deep voice, if he could sing, and he couldn’t he was sure he could sing the higher parts but despite what he had done he didn’t appreciate being mocked.

“Oh?” Sasha leaned her head back slightly acting as if she didn’t realize what he said was true. “Well, Ram, have you considered what your voice will sound like when I cut your fucking balls off?!”

The intensity of her words, not just the volume was playing havoc on Ramsey who tried backing up a little more, holding his hands up at chest level in front of him to both keep the crazy pissed off girl at bay and to show his surrender. He watched her start to stalk forward, her lean body moving in a way that made him think of a jungle cat about to eat its prey, causing him to take the last step backwards before his back hit the room's wall.

“There is just one thing I need to know…” Sasha came up into her boyfriend’s personal space, pressing her index finger into his chest, her words harsh. She wanted to show him that she was strong, but tears started to fill her eyes and she hated herself for allowing him to see how **** and hurt she was. What she was about to say fell away, the pain she had been feeling pressing its way to the surface. “Did… did you ever really love me?”

Swallowing hard Ramsey was feeling his fight or flight response kicking in and flight was the answer his instincts had come up with. The girl had always been a firecracker, passionate, the type of girl he loved having in his corner, but now she scared him. The threat of cutting off his balls didn’t feel like an idle threat. When Sasha was calm she was reasonable and he thought he needed to at least get out of her sight till that happened. Then when he heard her speak, the question she asked he could hear how she was on the verge of crying that guilt he felt grew tenfold. He had toyed with the idea of breaking up with her before, but had dismissed it for financial reasons, but right now he wanted nothing more than to keep her in his life. It felt like he had already lost her and broke her after what he had done and worse it wasn’t the first time he had done it.

All he had to do was get some clothes and leave, not that he had anywhere to go, his parents would let him move back home, but they didn’t live in the United States. Ramsey didn’t have enough money to afford a cheap motel, not after the cost of drinks the night before, but if he did then all he would have to do is leave and he and Sasha would be done. It wouldn’t be a clean break, but it would be over. The problem was now that he was losing her, lost her, he wanted nothing more than to keep this woman. It was akin to a man about to jump off a bridge realizing they actually wanted to live. “I did… I do. I love you Sasha Drakos, I fucked up. I’m sorry.”

“BULLSHIT!” Sasha yelled, tears now freely flowing down her face.

Taking the initiative Ramsey grabbed the girl by her forearms and looked into her brown sad eyes. “I love you, please what can I do to make things right?”

“Make things right!?” She asked, not confused but wondering where this asshole got the audacity to proclaim his love after cheating on him with some slut in a fucking bathroom while she was defending him to her mother.

“You said people have to pay for their actions, how can I pay for this and make things right? I admit it, I fucked up. I even slept in this other room because I was planning on telling you everything.” He lied, hoping it would earn him some points for being willing to tell her the truth, or a truth.

Balling her hands into fists Sasha pulled away from her the cheating piece of shit and turned her back on him. She didn’t run out of the room or even walk away, her muscles tightened, her body shaking with anger. Anger at him for cheating on him, for making her support him and angry at herself for wanting to believe he really did love her both before and now. Sniffling, she looked over at the work costume. What Ramsey didn’t know was that she had soaked all of his clothes that she could find in their shared dresser in the master bedroom and put them into trash bags. He could still get his clothes, they were down at the dumpster for the apartment, but she had planned on making him put on the sexualized Santa’s helper costume when she kicked him out of the apartment. Taking a deep breath she tried to still the maelstrom raging inside of her.

“Babe, just tell me what I can do, I will do anything.” Ramsey was earnest in wanting to make amends and felt like a heel for cheating on Sasha. The effects of the hangover hadn't gone away, and he thought he would have to throw up if his throbbing head didn’t settle down soon. Still his mind was full of the things the beautiful olive skinned girl had done for him and how he hadn’t appreciated it. While that was all true, he also couldn’t ignore the fact that Sasha’s name was the only one on the lease and with no money the best he could do was hope one of his friends would let him crash on the couch while he begged his father to send him some capital till he could get income of his own. Getting to stay at a friend’s place didn’t seem like a daunting task, but that would last for a night, maybe two and the prospect of asking for money wasn’t one he thought would go over well. There was a good chance his father would tell him a story about a time when he only had two quarters to his name and made a man of himself with it before saying he wouldn’t help. There was a small chance he would give something, but an even greater chance he would be sent a ticket to move in with them. It wasn’t a real option at all.

Hearing her boyfriend’s, her ex-boyfriend’s soft voice speaking behind her, Sasha looked hard at the work costume as an idea bubbled into her mind on how to really humiliate him. Wiping the tears from her face with her palms Sasha schooled her face before she turned to face the man that had used her. “I can think of something you can do to make things right, but you won’t do it. Because Ram, I don’t think you actually mean you will do anything.” Sasha stressed the last word.

“If I thought getting down on my hands and knees would help I would do it, I’m telling you I will do whatever it takes, and I’m begging you to give me another chance.” With his own emotions flying high he was ready to jump and reach for any lifeline she was willing to give him. In the past he had been able to smooth over just about anything, job interview he skipped because he didn’t feel it was right, forgetting to do the dishes and he did not want to go back to how she was acting when she had that fire inside of her. If she was a map it would list that area of her personality as ‘There be Dragons’

“Welllll.” Sasha let the word draw out before her voice trailed off, letting the silence hang between them, and feeling much more in control of herself. “I’m going to get you job, and you are going to take it and that is just for starters.”

Clapping his hands together and regretting it immediately Ramsey winced at his own actions. “Great.” He said, not sounding great at all. “I will take it, whatever it is.”

“You won’t like it, and you won’t do it.” Sasha said with confidence, hoping she could get him to dig a deeper hole for himself and wanting him to take her up on the offer, but also trying to prepare herself for the let down and having to accept the lesser prize of him digging through a dumpster in the outfit she had laid out.

“I promise you, whatever it is, I will do it.”

Turning around Sasha walked away from the dirtbag that she had given her heart to. Halfway across the room she spun around and met his eyes. “Then you are going to be the next worker at Owls, a holiday employee working the Santa photo area.”

Nodding Ramsey tried to keep a smile off his face, not that he was feeling particularly good, but picking up trash and dealing with some kids sounded like he was going to get off easy and he didn’t want to look like he understood that. “I can do that, whatever you want babe.” It wasn’t a job he would normally be willing to take, he wasn’t exactly that take care of kids type.

“I’m glad you agree, maybe we can work our way past this, but honestly I am really surprised you are so willing to wear that.” She said pointing to the Santa’s helper costume.

“I’m sorry, what do you mean?”

“Babe.” Sasha gave Ramsey a look of pity, adding a little pout to it as she used his favorite nickname for her. “Owls doesn’t hire boys.” She said purposely not using the word men. “They hire young women, so when you start working no one is going to call you Ramsey. No, but your middle name should work. Soon you, Aster, are going to be the newest Santa’s helper!”

Ramsey’s back was still to the wall, if it wasn’t he would have taken another step back away from the girl who was halfway across the room from him. “Sasha, I’m a guy, beard, no tits, dick and all. If you want me to show up wearing that dress, not that it would fit, I will do it for you. I just don’t think your boss is going to let a hairy guy walk around scaring kids.”

“I’m glad you said that, but don’t worry, other than that beard you aren’t really that hairy. A little shaving, some makeup I will have you looking pretty as a picture. Unless of course you were lying to me about being willing to do anything. If that is the case we will have to have a much harder conversation. So, you tell me. Are we about to have a hard conversation?” Sasha’s voice picked up in volume more and more through the word conversation, having an idea of what it would do to his hungover mind. “Or will Aster be getting ready for a holiday job?”