Right Path, Wrong Turn

Sophie and Deryk drive to the club separately, and arrive that way too.
When you’ve got a thing going with a married man, especially one who is such a personality as Deryk is in Pitt, there are rules. Luckily, Sophie has only had to learn these from Deryk, not the hard way that could bring everybody down collectively.
It’s pretty full when she arrives, too packed to see who is who. She saunters to the bar, taking her rightful seat.
As the bartender meets her eye and starts fixing her regular drink, she gets her first chance to think.
The drive had been a hurried blur, her mind clouded with lust and other such desires, stirred by Deryk’s hard and pressing kisses. They seemed to always have that effect on her, but it was elevated tonight by his timing.
In all her twenty years so far, Sophie hadn’t stepped ‘outside of the lines’ often. That was more her sister’s forte. But since meeting Deryk, this thing they had cultivated allowed her to dip her foot into a different side of life.
The thought that anyone could have walked around that corner and caught them, tangled and pressed like that, had driven her crazy with adrenaline. It was becoming more and more clear to her that rather than the act, it is quite possibly the thought of getting caught that attracts the bad girls to do bad things.
She is smiling to herself with the memory as her drink is set on the bar in front of her, and another placed along side it.
“Thanks Mike, but I only want one,” she blushes to the bartender, knowing well that the amount of cash she has in her purse won’t facilitate a steady flow.
“From the gentleman at the other end,” Mike smiles in reply. “He insisted upon covering both.”
Sophie floats her eyes in the direction Mike gestured to, and sees a nice man, around her age, who waves his hand at her. She tips her drink and nods a thank you. It’s clear he was hoping the drink was a gateway to conversation or more, but he’s out of luck.
There’s only one man who is getting near her tonight, the one who enters at that exact moment with other players trailing behind him, and most unfortunately, Niskanen being one of them.

Sophie had never had anything against any of Deryk’s team mates, before tonight. She was a fan of the team, all players included.
It wasn’t new to her to need thick skin and ignore what people thought of her, but the way Matt had looked at her in the hallway had really crawled under her skin.
She could understand that he was obviously friends with Deryk and his wife, and therefore knew where he was coming from. But it was the first time in her whole life that someone had looked at her like she was a despicable and low-life piece of shit, and she had believed it.
It humours her now though, as she downs her first drink and picks up the second, just how off base Matt really is.
The way he talked with such distain, showing he thought she was at fault, luring Deryk astray from his perfect little marriage.
She smiles with the thought of Matt’s possible facial expressions if he knew the real story.
Like how Sophie had run in to him at a club, and he had asked for her number, talking himself up sweetly. But she hadn’t been a fool, knowing who he was and his marital status, and so, turning him down.
Then he had shown up at her work, inviting her to dinner, which she again politely declined. Smelling the hint of a challenge, he had then taken it upon himself to make weekly visits to her work place, begging to know when her break was.
After a few weeks, she had walked outside on her lunch break to see him waiting for her, flowers in hand.
She had gotten the distinct feeling that Deryk was a possessively determined man, and he had worn her down with his nice words and his forthright charm. It was at that point that the things stopping them, reasons and morals, had become blurred. In her situation, who was she to turn down gifts, compliments and somebody wanting her so badly?
‘Take everything you can from a man’ her father had always taught her, ‘They like to wine and dine and play games, so you have to play smarter. Take everything but don’t give your heart’.
It had been drilled into her, repeatedly, ever since her mother left them.
She figured, as she still does now, what is the harm of receiving the gifts and the attention? She doesn’t love Deryk, she will never want more from him, and he is already committed, he will never ask for more.
So what is the harm?
Unfortunately, ‘the harm’ walks into the club just after Sophie disappears outside to meet Deryk.

“Holy shit Deryk!” Sophie shrieks as a strong pair of arms grab her from behind. She feels his smirk at her ear.
“God Soph, you took your time. I’ve been waiting.” His words echo menacingly and Sophie’s whole body tingles.
“Waiting for what?” she replies.
His big hands roam all over her greedily and his breathing labours, like a child shaking presents on Christmas morning before their parents wake up. “For you, Sophie. I’ve fucking missed you. Talking scenarios on the phone is fucking no where near as good as the real thing.”
She turns to him, and works her mouth up his neck to his mouth with little kisses and nibbling as he backs them up against the wall of the dark and empty alley way. When her mouth meets his, he kisses her hard and hurried, but she slows it and runs her tongue over his top lip, and softly bites on the bottom one. He groans and snarls and she grins.
“If I recall correctly, you made a lot of promises during that phone call Deryk, are you going to keep them?”
His hands squeeze between them and work the button of her jeans open, and slide them, along with her panties, down her to her knees, before she returns the favour.
“I intend to keep every single one,” he entices as he slides into her.
“Oh god,” Sophie moans quietly as she lets herself slip away.

“Can we get a hotel room or go back to your place or fucking something?” Deryk begs afterward, wanting her again.
It’s cute, but Sophie knows he knows that going back to her place isn’t going to happen, and she’s made that very clear many times before.
While she may be willing to share her body with him, there are something’s that she would prefer to keep hidden away.
“Let’s go inside and get a drink,” she suggests, kissing his throat.
Matt’s words are still haunting her, his judgemental face appearing whenever she closes her eyes. She needs more alcohol, and the drinks aren’t going to buy themselves, and her bank account certainly isn’t going to be much of a contributor.
She fixes the buttons on her shirt as Deryk puts himself back together, and they, reluctantly, head back inside.

Sophie’s only ever seen glances of Lindsay, so she doesn’t understand the terror that plays over Deryk’s face as they walk back inside together.
He spots her, standing at the bar with Niskanen and Tanger, and if Tanger wasn’t there, Deryk feels sure he would knock Matt’s head right off his body.
He drops Sophie’s hand, fatefully just as Lindsay notices him and hurries over.
“Hey,” she smiles to her husband, wrapping him in a big hug. “I heard the change of plans about guys’ night and wanted to come help you celebrate.”
“That’s great baby,” he replies, trying to be sure that his voice sounds controlled.
It’s when Lindsay pulls away that she notices Sophie still standing beside him, too stunned by the encounter to move. “Hi, I’m Lindsay, Deryk’s wife. Are you a friend of one of the boys?”
With her mouth too depleted of any moisture to formulate a response, Deryk steps in.
“Uh, baby this is Sophie. I just met her and we were talking and I was bringing her over to ah,” he shoots his eyes around his surroundings and does something unthinkable. “To meet Nisky. She was saying how he is her favourite player on the team and I figured it’s about time he meets a nice girl.”
Lindsay’s face beams, buying every word of Deryk’s bullshit. “Oh that’s a wonderful idea! Sophie, you’re so pretty. Matty will love you!”
Before Sophie can scramble for an exit, Lindsay tugs on both Sophie and Deryk’s arms and pulls them to the bar, presenting them before Matt and Kris.
“Matty, this is Sophie, she was just telling Deryk how you are her favourite player on the team and how much she likes you.”
The tension in the air is so thick and intense that you could cut it with a knife, but it seems to roll right off Lindsay’s back.
“Kris, why don’t you come dance with us and leave Sophie and Matty to get to know each other?” She proposes, again not waiting for an answer before acting.
When she has dragged him and Deryk off, Sophie and Matt stand where they are left, sharing looks of mutual disgust for one another.
“Guess I’ve probably got you to thank for her showing up at the club huh?” Sophie accuses venomously.
Matt shrugs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s a friend; she’s allowed to ‘show up’ where ever she likes.”
“Oh and I bet you think that’s what your being to her right? A friend? Fuck, you’re even worse than us.”
Matt’s body flames. “Worse than you and Deryk? Are you FUCKING kidding me? You two are the ones hurting her!”
“She doesn’t know Matt. So no, we aren’t hurting her. You think her catching us out would be fair to her? That is what would hurt her.”
Thinking through her logic, he falters for a moment and Sophie takes the chance to really show her feelings.
“You know what? Fuck you. I don’t even care what you think. You don’t know anything about me!” Pumping with rage, she storms away.
Having witnessed the spectacle, Lindsay hurries over. “How’d it go Matt? Did she have to go? Are you going to see her again?”
Thoroughly disappointed with the evening’s events, Matt fails to control his anger. “Why the hell would you try to set me up like that?” he snaps.
“I’m sorry, I just…You know how happy Deryk and I are, and you’re such a good friend to him, you’re such a nice guy Matty. I just want you to be happy too.”
“Hey, dude,” Mike gently calls to Matt, interrupting. “Sophie forgot her purse; her address is in the wallet if you could please return it to her. I’d do it myself but I don’t finish for another few hours.”
Lindsay takes the purse from Mike and thrusts it to Matt. “Look Matty, it’s like Cinderella! This is your chance to see her again. It’s fate.”
Matt looks dumbfounded and wants to scream and punch something. But Lindsay’s sweet and earnest face watching him intently prevents him from the luxury of an outburst. She really does just want him to be happy.
Caught without an out, Matt takes the purse.
What can he really say? ‘Sorry I can’t go and take this to her because she has been screwing your husband’?
Unlikely.
“That’s it Matty,” Lindsay encourages, “Drop it off to her tomorrow and work your charms on her. She’ll be falling for you in no time.”