Candy and Gentlemen

Candy doesn't want to have anything doing with men in her life anymore. She thinks they are all scum bags, useful for nothing other than the trash bin. She has had a ton of them. Mason is the first. Tall, lanky, sweet to the eyes with soft angelic skin. His beards are reddish. He's got perfection superficially, but in there is a direct contrast. He's a choleric to the core. He is so touchy-gets fussy over everything. Makes it sensible the reason he doesn't have a friend when Candy met him. Candy has fallen neck deep in love with him before realising all these. She feels he will change... On a Monday morning, just a week after meeting him, Candy gets picked up by her childhood friend James. They work in offices close to each other. Mason catches sight of them. He gets enraged with jealousy. He trails them. "Candy, you sure don't want to tell me about your man," James says. "I sure wanna meet him some day. Do hangouts, eat out, catch fun, you know..." James leaves the wheel momentarily, turns his face towards Candy who sits just beside him in the car. The car is a Rolls Royce Mason has gotten by mortgage. He won't be offsetting the bill till five years. "He's not that man James," Candy says. "He's a home body. I'm sure he'll turn down your invitation." "You can't be sure of that," James chuckles. He produces a cigarette from his coat, gets it lit and stuffs one end in his round mouth. He sniffs and coughs. Candy resents the smell of cigarette. She doesn't want it close to her nostrils. She pinches her nose close briefly and then lets it out. "Buddy, you sure you don't want me outta here right now?" she says, not with a tone of seriousness though, but James gives a quick frown in reply and asked with a stern face, ""Why Candy?" "You know I don't do cigarettes. It makes me sick." Candy wipes off the beads of sweat on her forehead with the back of her right palm. She's gone red all over her face. Seems she's allergic to cigarette smokes or any kind of smoke at all. Luckily for her, her man doesn't smoke, or so she thinks. It's one grand reason she gets enamoured with him. "Coming by a man who doesn't smoke in Chicago seems like a hard job. More like a hard nut to c***k," says Candy to Tracy her best friend few days back. "Oh, please forgive me Candy, I'm not oblivion of this." James says candidly. He resonates his next action with the reaction of his face by squeezing the ashy part of the cigarette against the side mirror and let the stick fall off his hand. It takes a while for the smoke to diffuse off. "So... let's talk," James said. " 'bout your man," Candy smiles. Seems she's trying to imagine the figure of her man Mason all over again. James notices her blushes. He looks on, expecting her to speak. She's shut her eyes and her hands are raised in demonstration. "Nice, tall, handsome, clean. Doesn't do s**t. He's the perfect man for me," Candy speaks like she's rehearsed it over and over again. The blushes looks more obvious on her face now. Her tinted lips has pronounced every word coming out of them succinctly. "Hmm, I see," James says with a nod and gives a little cough. He swiftly strokes the top of his long nose. It is what he does whenever he's thinking about something. "So, does he love you as you do him?" James asks. "No one could have loved me more," Candy replies. She beams with smiles and looks into James' eyes to observe his reaction. She expects that James will get jealous but his body language doesn't give out enough evidence to ascertain this. "Okay, lovebirds," James says as he gets ready to pull over in front of Candy's office. He will have to drive few metres further to reach his own place. Candy alights. She dusts herself up. It's something she does anytime she's coming down from a vehicle. She sets her glasses over her face again and picks her handbag. She takes the hug James has prepared for her and they did the pecks. "Take good care of yourself duck," James says in the usual manner. "Yes I'll do, c**k," Candy replies casually. It's their thing. They have always been very close friends. Mason sees the hug, the peck and thinks there's more to it. He's filled with jealousy. "Godamnit!" he yells as he steps on the accelerator to catch up with James. He is going to follow him to his office. He will not let it slide. Mason shakes all over. He lights a cigarette to calm his nerves a bit. He has been a hypocrite, hiding his bad manners from Candy since the day they met. "He'll bite the dust soon," he whispers. His face now goes almost transparent and the blood colour beneath his skin looks pronounced. "Nobody mess around Candy and goes away." James pulls over in the parking space. Mason brings his car to a halt just about two inches close by the driver's seat, hampering James from alighting through that door. James screams, "Hey man! What are you doing?" Mason jumps down from his car, rushes to the other side of James' car and pulls at his tie through the window. The tie gets James suffocating and gasping for air. "Ah ah, that's what you get for flirting around my girl," Mason speaks vindictively James becomes perplexed. He hasn't been able to figure out what he is experiencing. "Who's your girl?" James managed to ask. "You just dropped her arse off, plonker!" Mason says furiously. Mason aims a punch at his face. It catches him on his lower jaw. James gets infuriated. He kicks and in a matter of seconds they are both on the soil slugging it out. Punches flow freely like the waves of the sea. They get dirty all over.