TEST DRIVE: A Night of Forbidden Desire

Vonda woke up with pain in several places. It’s no wonder it took her quite a while to open her eyes. A beam of light hit Vonda’s retinas. Reflexively, she blinked her eyes again for a moment until she felt ready to take in the morning surroundings. And the first thing Vonda did when she opened her eyes again was to look sideways.

Empty. Vonda took a long breath. Her eyes blinked and she finally took a deep breath. Strange. But there was something that felt like a lump in her throat. As if something was pressing against her heart.

“He’s gone home.”

Vonda’s voice sounded weak as she said it. Another strange thing, wasn’t it? Why did she say that?

Vonda got up from her bed and sat quietly at the edge for a while. Maybe half thinking. Thinking about what had happened.

“Huh.”

Vonda rubbed her face briefly. Suddenly she had the feeling that her head was filled with various intangible things.

She got up and went to the bathroom, intending to wash her face before taking a shower.

Vonda stood at the sink and looked at her reflection in the mirror. But a moment later she found herself looking down instead. At the water flowing gently into the sink drain.

“Why am I like this? Even if he came back, that’s normal, right? Besides, he and I…”

Vonda did not finish her sentence.

“Well … even though we don’t have a relationship, we were both fully aware of what happened last night.”

Vonda’s hands caught the running water and splashed her face three times.

“What am I supposed to do when I see him at the office later?”

Unwillingly, many possibilities flooded Vonda’s mind. She was not sure she could act normal.

“Argh!” Vonda grumbled, tugging at her hair in frustration. “Why did I let myself go like that?”

The thought that she and Max didn’t have a real relationship, but still ended up doing something so intimate, made Vonda’s head pound. She felt dizzy with a single echoing question.

“I wonder if he thinks I’m an easy girl?”

Just thinking about that possibility was enough to make Vonda feel so frustrated. Unconsciously, she found herself sitting on the floor, her hands clutching the edge of the sink.

“Argh!”

All these thoughts echoed in Vonda’s mind, one after the other. Repeatedly, even as she showered and got ready for work.

“Oh my God. Should I just take a sudden vacation?”

But as Vonda dressed for work, it was clear that she wasn’t going to take the day off. What weighed on her was the memory of a meeting she had to attend. The meeting had to do with her and Max.

“Ugh!”

Vonda clutched her chest. Her heart seemed to rebel inside.

“Seriously. Just remembering his name makes me so nervous. Oh, my God. Can’t the meeting just be on Zoom?”

As Vonda mourned the potential fate of her day, she still tried to enjoy her breakfast. Whole wheat bread with a half-cooked fried egg and some vegetables on top.

The ringing of the phone interrupted Vonda’s breakfast, coming from a call that nearly caused her to choke on a slice of tomato.

“Mom.”

Just as Vonda had managed to calm her pounding heart from thoughts of Max, she found herself in a whirlwind over the guy’s mother.

“Hi, my future daughter-in-law.”

Vonda quickly grabbed her glass of water. Oh my God. It turned out that it was not the tomato that had made her choke, but a piece of lettuce.

“Did you go to work, Von?”

Satisfied that the lettuce had indeed found its way into her stomach, Vonda finally replied.

“I just finished breakfast, Mom. I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Oh,” Riley whispered on the other end. “In that case, can I speak directly?”

Vonda’s body tensed instantly and she felt a chill.

“Talk about what, Mom?”

“About your relationship with Max.”

Vonda blinked her eyes.

“Earlier Max told me. He said the two of you were together last night.”

What?!

Luckily, Vonda had already finished her whole wheat bread. Otherwise, she was sure she would not have just choked on tomato or lettuce at that moment. She would have choked on the whole bread, stuffing, and all!

“To-to-together?”

Vonda’s breath felt disconnected.

Doesn’t Max have a brain? How could he tell Mom that we were together last night? Oh, God. He-

“Yes. Max told me that you had a fight a few days ago. You just made-up last night. Did he call you or anything, Von?”

“Huh?”

Vonda blinked repeatedly. It was as if her brain needed more time to process Riley’s words.

“Ah,” Vonda murmured, trying not to scratch her head. “Max told you that we had a fight?”

“Tsk! So that means you had a fight. You argued, right?”

When Riley asked that, Vonda’s brain immediately conjured up the events of the previous night when she and Max had argued. To the point where they had both ended up battered and exhausted in bed.

“Ah. It wasn’t serious, Mom. Don’t worry.”

Riley’s sigh sounded over the phone. “Well, that’s a relief. And that’s why I called so early. To ask if maybe we could get together and talk, just the two of us, Vonda.”

“Talk about what, Ma?”

Riley’s answer made Vonda flinch.All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

“Well, your engagement date, of course. I don’t want to talk about your payday. You’re such a character. Hehehe.”

“Engagement date?”

At that moment, Vonda decided not to eat her breakfast of whole wheat bread with half-cooked fried eggs. She suddenly felt immensely nauseous.

Marry Max?

Vonda could not imagine it.

*

“He won’t think you’re cheap. Don’t worry about that. Max isn’t that kind of guy.”

It was like a mantra that Vonda repeated in her head as she walked to her workstation. She hoped it would calm her escalating nervousness and bring her heart rate back to normal. The excitement, which had become increasingly overwhelming, worried her. Her heart could explode. Shatter into pieces and she’d die instantly.

Oh my God!

Vonda walked in, letting the door close on its own as she walked forward. As she made her way to her desk, her gaze fell on Max’s office door.

Is he there or not? Because the meeting is at eight, right?

As Vonda wondered about his presence, a voice suddenly came from behind her.

“Good morning, Vonda.”

Vonda jumped in surprise, almost jumping, and yelling out loud.

“Oh my God!”

Vonda turned immediately to see Max greeting her with a smile. The door had closed, leaving just the two of them inside. Vonda swallowed nervously.

It’s just the two of us in here.

Vonda was completely nervous. Nervous, trembling and, you could even say, embarrassed. Max noticed immediately.

“What’s the matter with you?”

This question made Vonda even more nervous. She could not think clearly and rushed her decision, hoping to ease the situation between them.

“About last night…”

It was the first topic of the day that Max hadn’t expected. Inevitably, it made him struggle to catch his breath.

“Last night….”

Max could have said that last night was a perfect night. A night that almost blinded him. A night that made him feel like the luckiest man in the world. A night that…

“It didn’t mean anything, did it, Max?”

The order of words in Max’s head immediately collapsed. For a moment he was speechless. He could only stand there and watch as Vonda stumbled a bit as she spoke.

“W-we’re both adults. Having sex doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, right? I mean… we both know that sex is a biological need.”

Vonda bit her lower lip.

It doesn’t mean that I’m promiscuous. We could look at it as me fulfilling my own biological needs. Please don’t think I’m being inappropriate.

Max froze. He took a deep breath and once again… felt like something was squeezing his heart. But unlike yesterday, it was different. This squeeze brought a feeling he wanted to push far away. He tried to calm himself and forced a smile.

“Well… of course. Th-That could happen to anyone.”

*