Maneater

Chapter Twenty-Five

    Who does this bitch think she is? Blackmailing a hustler? Does she really think that I'm just going to fall in line and do whatever she tells me to - just because she knows who I am?

    But a true hustler knows when to fall back, and when to strike. As livid as Crystal was, she knew that this wasn't the time to strike. This was the time to play nice. Play along with the crazy's game while sizing her up. So even though Crystal's knuckles were itching to pop Nicole in the face, they remained hidden in her lap. The successful makeup artist plastered a sweet smile on her face. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to do what I'm told."

    Nicole narrowed her eyes into slits. "I didn't expect for you to give in without a fight."

    "I don't make a habit of arguing with someone who wants to keep their money in my bank account," Crystal said, keeping the expression on her face neutral. "But if you expect me to continue scamming Justin, I need to know why you lied."

    Nicole's upper lip curled in the most unattractive ways, contorting into a sneer. "You're right. When I met with you, I wasn't completely honest. Justin never made fun of my weight. Throughout the majority of our relationship, he wasn't mean to me. Not really. But he was a jerk to me."

    "What did he do?"

    "He broke up with me."

    Crystal blinked, waiting for Nicole to finish. When Nicole didn't continue, Crystal prompted, "And?"

    "And what? He broke up with me over a text message. He didn't even give me a real reason, he just..."

    A tic was working Crystal's right eye. "Are you serious?"

    "Yes, I'm serious," Nicole hissed. "Our relationship was going great. Sex all the time, good sex. Hell. Amazing sex. Every day. Sometimes more than once a day. He took me out on these dates and he was always so creative. He always knew exactly what I needed and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he breaks up with me."

    "Well...can you blame him, though?"

    "What is that supposed to mean?"

    Nothing. It doesn't need to be anything. I'm supposed to be playing along with your game, not pointing out that you're a few sandwiches short of a picnic. "I'm just saying, considering the fact that you're batshit crazy and all, can you blame him for wanting to end things with you?"

    "You have the nerve to call me crazy, and you've made it your life's mission to go around scamming men and breaking their hearts on purpose?" Nicole demanded. "Which one of us is truly the crazy one?"

    Crystal didn't have a comeback for that. The woman was right.

    "I'm not an idiot," Nicole went on. "You probably want to tell me to just move on. Get over it and find someone else. But there is no one else for me. I loved him. I loved him with everything I have, everything I am. I did things with him that..." She stopped, looked Crystal in the eye, and gave a firm shake of her head. "I gave him all of me. So forgive me if I don't just want to accept the fact that he's broken up with me without giving me a valid reason."

    "Would you have rather him stayed and cheated on you instead?" Crystal asked. "Because that's the alternative."

    "Of course not."

    "Have you asked him why he broke up with you?"

    "Hundreds of times."

    Crystal's brows drew together. "You don't still...you don't still contact him, do you?"

    "Yes. I do."

    Crystal ran a hand across her forehead. "What do you expect to gain from any of this?"

    "I expect you to break his heart, as originally agreed, and I expect to feel great that someone has made him feel the way he made me feel," Nicole responded without hesitation. "I expect you to stop judging me and get back to doing what I paid you to do."

    "This is fucking crazy," Crystal muttered.

    "Maybe it is, but everything that could be said about me and what I'm doing, can be said about you and what you're doing," Nicole said, gathering her purse and standing. "You think I should move on? After you succeed in doing what I paid you to do, you should really consider moving on. Someone must have hurt you, and badly for you to do this shit. Move on from that. Move past that."

    Crystal pursed her lips shut.

    "Easier said than done, right?" Nicole asked. Her mouth formed into a tight, cold smile. "You have your reasons for doing what you do, for deliberately setting out to break men's hearts. I have my reasons for doing what I'm doing. He hurt me. So I want to hurt him. Plain and simple. So I would appreciate it if the next time you contact me, it's to inform me that you have done your job." With those words, she stalked away from the table.

    The waiter approached the table, pointedly looking at the empty seat across from Crystal.

    She arched a look up at him. "A bottle of your finest wine, please," she requested.

    With his eyes still focused on the empty chair, he asked, "An entire bottle?"

    "Don't worry, I'm good for it," she said, giving him a hard look. "Yes. An entire bottle."

    He gave a curt nod and disappeared.

    Crystal polished off the last of the drink in her glass, and looked off in the direction Nicole had walked off in.

~~~~~~

    This was the first time someone had ever attempted to blackmail Crystal. This was the first time, because usually Crystal was more on her game. Usually she was the one choosing her targets. When that was her modus operandi, it was easy to keep her side hobby under wraps - or so she'd thought. Nicole had somehow found out, and things had quickly gone downhill from there.

    So now, I need to think about how I get out of this, Crystal thought while standing near her living room window. I'm being blackmailed. So the first thing I need to do is consider the threat and the source of the threat. The threat is for her to blab about who I am and what I do. If I don't do what she wants, then she's going to put me on blast. I have to weigh that. Just how bad would that be? If people knew that I deliberately broke the hearts of jerks, would that be the end of the world? It would be the end of me being able to continue doing what I'm doing, since every jerk in the world would know what I look like. But how long was I planning on doing this? I have to give it up sometime. As far as the source of the threat, she's batshit crazy. She's completely off her rocker, and seems very unstable. She has snapped just because a man broke up with her. Sure, the text message breakup is a bit douchey, but considering just how crazy she is, I can understand not wanting to be in the same room with her while breaking up with her. He broke up with her instead of cheating and lying to her. I have to commend him for that. There are so many in this world who want to have their cake and eat it, too.

    She sighed. So what do I do? I don't want to break his heart, not when he's not even a viable target. He's not an asshole or a dick that needs to be punished. He's actually a good guy. Hurting good guys goes against what I stand for. That means that I can't do what she wants me to do. How do I put her in her place, then? How do I make this right?