It's Me or Him

(Lyla's POV)

"You smell like you've been mauled in the perfume isle at the mall. Where were you earlier?" Mike asks with a slight eyebrow raised as I snuggle up next to him on the sofa. Shit, I was at Chester's place this morning for breakfast, he must smell his cologne on me still. Quickly thinking on my feet, I lie, as usual. "Oh, I was at the mall actually, with Tyler. She needed to get some supplies for the shop." He just nods his head slowly before continuing to sort through the movies on Netflix. He had asked me to come over today since he didn't need to be at the studio and just spend the entire afternoon watching movies. After he had sent me the beautiful flowers yesterday, I couldn't exactly just say no. Which is also what happened when Chester had asked me over for breakfast a few hours ago. Well, if you call three hours of sex, a quick power nap, and a bowl of ice cream really breakfast. I wanted to properly thank the both of them for going out of their way to get me gifts just to show me how much they really cared. Thankfully, I also kept them at the shop, so that way there was no chance of either of them finding out. "Well next time try to shower before you get here, you smell like a hormonal teenage boy."

I bite down on my cheek hard, fighting back the urge to just get up and leave. I was terrified of getting caught, but I also wasn't in the mood to be treated like a criminal either. I shift now, so I have my back pressed against him and I'm facing the TV. He settles on some documentary about the early 90's era and all the different rappers. Definitely not something I was in the mood for, that was for sure. I try my hardest not to say anything throughout the entire thing, but after the countless huffs and puffs, I'm sure he got the hint that I wasn't interested at all and turned it off. "I'm sorry, babe. I didn't mean to be such a dick about it. Can you forgive me?" His voice is softer this time as he leans down and presses a small kiss to my forehead. I sigh some, shaking my head. "It's okay. I'm not even worried about it anymore." I can tell by the way he takes in a deep breath, he's clearly got a lot more he still wants to talk about. "Is there something else on your mind, hun? Or are you finished?" He sits up now and I come beside him. He has this seriously troubling look on his face and I'm not sure what to even make of it.

"Have you talked to Chester at all?" And here we go, just what I was afraid of. Not wanting to draw any suspicion I quickly answer him without hesitation. "No, not at all. Why?" He scratches the back of his neck, keeping his gaze averted from mine. I'm growing more and more frustrated by the minute, where was he going with this? "I just wanted to know, that's all." Of course that's all you wanted to know, of course there was no point to this conversation. I put my hands to my face and rub over my temples slowly. All I came over for was to have some purely innocent fun, not an interrogation and a fucking headache. "You really don't trust me, do you? Are you going to assume every time that I'm not with you that I must be out with Chester? For fucks sake, this is getting really irritating. We can't even watch a simple fucking movie together without you thinking about him. Listen, I think I'm gonna go, Mike. I have to work tonight anyways, I should get an early start."

He doesn't say anything, not even a protest to try and get me to stay, he just stays completely silent and keeps his head down like a defeated dog. I gather my bag together and take out my keys before walking as quickly as I could out of there, making sure the door slammed shut behind me. Once in the car, I slam my hands onto the steering wheel and proceed to yell loudly for a good five minutes until I pull myself together long enough to dial Chester's number. He answers surprisingly on the first ring. "Hey baby, what are you doing?" The sound of his voice instantly seems to turn my entire mood around in a split second. "I'm just driving around aimlessly, to be honest with you babe. Listen, I have to work tonight, but if you're not busy, do you think I can come over for a little while? I know I saw you already this morning, so if you have other things to do, I totally understand. But I just wanted to spend more time with you." And with a few waves of my magic wand, aka my select choice in vocabulary, I'm pulling away from Mike's driveway and on my way back to Chester's house.

When I get there, he's already standing in the doorway waiting for me, still in his boxers just as I had seen him this morning. Only these ones were a different color, signaling he at least showered but still didn't bother getting dressed. He immediately wraps me in his arms in a tight hug and kisses me hard on the lips. I inhale the scent of him deeply, feeling goosebumps start to form all over my body. We somehow manage to make it upstairs to his bedroom without shedding off our clothes beforehand and I race into the bathroom to prepare myself for the shenanigans ahead of us. I strip down into my lace purple bra and thong to match, which coincidentally happened to be Mike's favorite outfit that I wore. "Hey babe, Dez texted you. She said she's so sorry about earlier and that she doesn't want to fight with you. Is everything okay?" Fuck. It was Mike, obviously trying to apologize about what had happened. Only I had saved his number under the name of one of the girls that I worked with at the shop named Deziree, so Chester clearly didn't suspect a thing. I practically sprint out of the restroom before gently taking my phone from his hands and responding.

Almost forgetting that I was pretty much naked, I shut off my phone and tossed it in my bag before climbing on top of Chester. "She's just upset over an argument we had earlier, nothing serious babe. Now come here, let me make you feel like the king that you are." I whisper huskily in his ear before nibbling on the side of his neck down to his waistline, leaving a trail of little hickeys all over the place. Another white lie to get me through another obstacle. I swear, if being a professional liar was an actual job, I would have been a fucking professor at it by now. He's moaning and groaning loudly by the time I make it down to his throbbing erection and I can't contain myself as I take it into my mouth for a brief second to tease him until he grabs me roughly by my hair and brings me back up to him. "Get the fuck over here so I can ravage you like the queen you are. Fuck, I love you so goddamn much, Lyla."

(Lyla's POV later that night at work, 7:00 pm)

By the time I leave Chester's place and make my way to the shop, my hair is a tangled mess and my entire body is aching from the continuous hours of hard sex once again. When I walk in the door, I'm instantly greeted by Tyler and favorite co worker, or so he says, Cory. "Jesus Christ Diego, what the hell happened to you? You look like you got your head stuck in a hairdryer." I laugh smugly before taking my seat at the front desk and burying my face in the appointment book. "Well I hate to interrupt your nap there doll face, but Mike's here." I shoot up from my seat, seeing that Tyler was indeed telling the truth, Mike was walking in. I beg for her to stall him for me while I rush off into the bathroom to check myself over and make sure I had hid any reminiscent of earlier's escapades. I ran a brush through my ratted hair and reapplied my eyeliner as best as I could until I hear a loud knock at the door. "D, Mike is here to see you!" I take in a few deep breaths before turning off the light and exiting. There standing at my desk with flowers, a teddy bear, and a bottle of red wine in his hands and a sympathetic look on his face, was the guy who had pissed me off hours ago.

"These are for you. Look, I'm really sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to accuse you or anything like that. I love you, Lyla and I do trust you. There's just a lot going on and I don't know how to make heads or tails of anything anymore. We're gonna go on tour soon, I just want to make sure everything is good between us." I take the gifts from his hands and pass them off to Cory who insisted on standing by us to listen in. "Can you put those in the back by my bag please? Since you like to be so nosy." He only grins innocently before heading off to do as I ask. I lean over to hug Mike, noticing that he had a slight tear in his eye, so I desperately wipe away at it with my thumb. "I love you too, I promise it's fine, we're not on bad terms, don't worry. I know you guys are leaving soon, I'm more than fine with that. I just hope things can stay good. I don't like fighting with you either, it's the last thing that I want to do. I'll be off late, probably about midnight or so, so I'll just call you in the morning." He gives me a quick peck on the lips before agreeing that he'll call me first thing when he wakes up because then he'll have to go into the studio for a few hours. Perfect, that means I would have a free morning to meet up with Chester for another breakfast in bed session.

"Have a good rest of the night at work, babe. I love you Lyla." I give him another swift hug and a smile as he starts to head for the door. "Love you too." I reply simply as he walks out, leaving me alone to finally be able to catch my breath. "I can't believe what I just witnessed, D. You really had the audacity to sit there and lie to the poor guy? You know damn well you'll be off at ten, that's more then enough time to call him afterwards and whatever. Why are you still telling him you love him if you don't? All you're doing is setting yourself up for disaster. He doesn't deserve to be with someone like you, he really deserves someone whose going to love him and only him. Not him and his fucking best friend." And cue to my daily lecture from Kierra, my other coworker who has always been more team Mike then team Chester. I look up at her blankly, pressing my lips together in an obvious not impressed expression. "For your information, I do love him. And I'm not setting myself up for anything, I know what I'm doing." She scoffs bitterly at me now, shaking her head with a loud snort. "Please! You couldn't of fooled me! Why don't you go try and hide that hickey you have on your neck a little better next time before you go saying that to him. I'm sure he enjoyed seeing that."

Once she walks away, I snatch a mirror from off of a nearby counter and look directly at my neck to see if she was in fact telling the truth. Sure enough, there was. Goddamn it. "Oh Mike, I love you, I promise but I'm also fucking your best friend and have the marks to prove it. You're pathetic, Lyla." She proceeds to mimic and mock me as she walks by, which only results in me staying quiet. "Knock it off, Kierra, before I send you home for the day without pay. Lyla, sweetie, you seriously need to stop it with the lies. I'll cover for you once more, but after that, if you don't figure this out before they leave on tour, I'm through covering for you." And now it was Tyler's turn to pretty much assure me that I was running out of friends and alibis pretty fucking quickly. Just my fucking dumb luck.