Cooper Adams x Fem!Reader
PART(3/5)
He was peculiarly clean— too clean to be at a hardware store past midnight. No dirt on his jeans, or janitor's name patch, or construction vest. He smelt like most men— Irish spring, sandalwood, musk, bergamot, etc. In daylight hours, you wouldn't have thought anything about his tight and fawning smile, the gallon of industrial cleaning solution, and the seven yards of vinyl tarp he slides across the counter at the end of the month. He always smiles when he pays. You smile back despite your intuition advising against it. Something about the interaction feels cold. God, you sound like your fucking father.
OR
You work the graveyard shift at a hardware store with extended hours to put you through pre-med. You meet a DILF who is definitely not The Butcher.
AN: Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I had a final, saw Trap again (I almost died), and then I kind of re-wrote like half of it lol, but here we are! Enjoy!
The last time you talked about your Father to anyone was when you discussed what his headstone would say with the Funeral home office lady. You hadn’t uttered a word about him since. Not to a therapist, not to a friend, not even your roommate. You used his life insurance policy to hire an estate clean-up company to empty the house, and you watched from the curb as men in hazmat suits brought out pile after pile of newspaper clippings, empty medication bottles, and old electronics. After that, the house was unrecognizable- an empty shell, save for the marks on the door of your childhood bedroom. Thin pencil lines climb toward the frame with your name, date, and height nestled next to each other. You threw the deed to the house and your keys in your car’s glove compartment, but you haven’t been inside since. If it was out of sight, it was out of mind. If you didn’t talk about it, it couldn’t hurt you.
A floodgate was opened that night the truth came flying out of your mouth. You were okay with never speaking about it again, but now you couldn’t stop. It was exhilarating to release even the tiniest fraction of what you had bottled up for two years, and Cooper's validation was intoxicating. It was so different than the suffocating sympathy and condolences from Dad’s neighbors, who watched from their porches as you struggled to talk him out of confronting the mailman about wiretapping his mailbox. You felt the stares in line at the grocery store. You heard the passing whispers about the suicide on Bleaker Ave. This town wouldn’t let you forget that you were tethered to tragedy.
Cooper was the first person to say something other than ‘Poor thing. What a shame’. A random man you barely knew was the first person to afford you the luxury of dignity. You weren’t aware you could be anything other than a victim until Cooper Adams started treating you like a normal person. Against your better judgment, you began to look forward to the smiles, corny jokes, and his tendency to overshare.
You knew it was weird and wrong to befriend a married man like this. You couldn’t help but think about his wife, how she would feel if she knew her husband was using his lunch breaks to bring you food and ask about your day. The thought of his family used to be a comforting reminder that he wasn’t dangerous, but now it makes your stomach hurt. You tell yourself you aren’t doing anything wrong. It was just an unlikely friendship- nothing more.
You get butterflies when he comes waltzing in with a muffin and a coffee.
Goddamit.
“Oat milk, three sugars, three creams. And somebody dropped these off for the guys today, so I snagged you one. It’s blueberry. Did you eat dinner today?” He sets down a steaming cup of coffee and a neatly saran-wrapped muffin. You meet his hazel eyes, and he stares back. For a moment, you’re not sure what to say. Cooper furrows his brow, a smirk curling his lips.
“What? Don’t tell me you don’t like blueberry.”
“You’re weird.” You scoff, unwrapping the confection and taking a bite.
“So you do like blueberry.” He mumbles pensively, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter.
“You know I’m at work, right? Like I’m supposed to be working?” You say through a mouthful of muffin. Cooper glances around the empty store before landing on you.
“Looks like I’m the only paying customer here, kid.” A sly smile spreads across his face, and your heart stutters like the engine of your shitty car.
And just like that, he lulls you into another conversation. Cooper speaks in a way that makes you forget you’re telling him details about your life you’ve never told anyone before. He knows that you have a roommate you barely speak to and that you moved out when you were twenty. He's aware of how you took care of your Father during those final years and how he secretly stopped taking his medication. He knows about the guilt that consumed you for never noticing, for being too busy trying to build a life outside his chaos. You even told him you sometimes visit the house to check the mail. You'd sit on the curb across the street just to stare and remember when it was just a house and not a landmark for your grief.
“Why don’t you just sell it and use the money to buy your own place? The property value has probably skyrocketed since.” At this point in the conversation, Cooper has a stool pulled up to the counter, brows knitted together in concentration. He’s always asking you questions nobody’s ever cared to ask.
“I don’t know. I guess… If I get rid of it, it feels like I’m getting rid of him. He accused me of that all the time. He was convinced I turned against him.” You shrug, swirling around the last bit of coffee in your cup.
“I get it. My independence was like an insult to my mother. She hated my wife—said that she was taking me away from her. I’ll never forget the look on her face when I told her we were getting married.” He looks off into the distance as if he’s watching the memory unfold in front of him.
You see an opportunity, so you take it.
“How did you two meet?” You say slowly, cautiously testing the waters.
“Me and Rachel? I did a fire safety demo for the kids at the school where she was working. God, that was—what? Fifteen years ago? Things were so different then.” He trails off. There was something different in the timber of his voice—regret? You hold in a breath as he continues.
“A lot changes when you have kids. Years can pass, and you won’t notice how much you’ve grown apart. And then pretty soon, the kids are the only thing you have in common.” He stares for a moment longer before suddenly snapping out of his daze.
“Sorry, am I oversharing?” He drags a big hand down his tired face, and you roll your eyes.
“I mean, I’m the one with the dead dad, so I think I have you one-upped on that.”
“You got me there.” He chuckles. You’re glad he’s not bothered by your inherent morbidity. It makes you feel normal.
There’s a thick pause. You glance upward to find Cooper staring at you, a strange expression on his face. No one’s ever looked at you like that before, and for a split second, you feel exposed. Like it was his first time really seeing you.
“What?”
“I just hope you know you’ll be okay.”
You’re gearing up to brush it off with something witty, but Cooper beats you to it.
“No, seriously. You made it to the other side of all this— you made it out. And you’re still good. You didn’t turn it into something worse. You’re incredible—and I mean that. It’s inspiring.”
There’s no charming smile or trace of playfulness in his voice. You feel frozen, unsure of what to say or how to proceed.
And then his gaze flickers to your mouth and lingers there for a moment too long. You watch him watch you, chest rising and falling, his expression tight. Like he’s holding something back. Your hands tingle with the desire to touch something. You feel the urge to reach out and grab something of his– his hand, the lapels of his jacket, the slope of his neck - and pull him into you. It still wouldn’t be close enough. If you could reach into his chest and hold his beating heart in your palm, you would.
And that terrifies you.
Cooper clears his throat, swiftly standing from the stool.
“Well, would you ook at that— lost track of time. I have to head back.” He mumbles, patting his jacket pockets to find his keys. Before you can even respond, he’s striding towards the door.
“Right. See you later, Cooper.” You busy yourself by throwing the empty coffee cup and the remains of the muffin in the trash.
He calls your name, snapping your attention to him again.
“You’ll be okay.” He repeats.
“I know.”
You smile, but it doesn’t reach your eyes.
You don’t see Cooper for an entire month after that. The entirety of October passes. You spend nights preparing for your midterm and ringing up PVC pipes, hammers, and plumbing snakes. You debate texting him, going back and forth between writing a paragraph apologizing for potentially crossing a line or a paragraph telling him off for disappearing. Both options never make it out of the notes app.
A definitive emotion hasn’t settled in your mind yet. Anger doesn’t feel justified. Rejection feels too assuming, and dejection hurts your pride. Every fleeting emotion feels blown out of proportion, so you try to feel nothing at all– because anything else would be fucking ridiculous.
Cooper was married. He had children. He had a life. And all you had were the moments of his spare time in between. You had nothing. You didn’t even have a reason to call him– until you did.
On the way home from the night shift, your car battery dies on a dark and empty backroad. Other than your roommate, you have only one other person to call.
Your finger hovers over the call button as you consider what you'll do if he doesn’t answer. Your racing heart makes your thumb shake.
It rings two times before he picks up.
After a month of radio silence, he pulls up in 30 minutes.
Seeing him exit the driver’s side door like nothing had changed is odd. The complicated feelings you’ve been fending off die in an instant and leave you feeling numb. He looked the same; maybe his hair was longer, just long enough for him to push behind his ears. When he walks toward you, you finally begin to feel something again– panic. Inside your mind, you’re frantically flipping through appropriate things to say. I missed you. Where the fuck have you been? Why?
He’s standing in front of you before you can decide.
“You alright?” He asks, his brow furrowed with concern. He looks to your old beat-up car, then to you.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s been stalling recently. I should have gotten it checked out sooner. Thanks for coming. I hate to bother you like this.” You can’t help but sound embarrassed. You had built this moment up in your imagination to be a staunch confrontation, but reality made you feel dumb. This was a grown man that had grown man shit to do other than play therapist with you. You felt small next to him like this. You regret not calling your roommate first.
“I’m happy to help. It’s cold—why don’t you wait in my car? It’s open.”
You wordlessly hand him your keys, grab your bag, and walk towards his car, leaning against the front hood instead. It was stupid, but the small act of defiance made you feel like you were still in control of the situation and, therefore, your feelings. Cooper takes a long look under the hood of your car before leaning into the driver's side and cranking the keys. The ignition clicks and whines but refuses to start. He sighs, trying a couple more times before shutting your car door and locking it.
“I brought jumping cables, but I don’t think I can do much to get it started. It could be more than your battery so It’s probably best to tow it. You’ll have to call your insurance and tell them to get it covered, but I can do the talking if you- ”
For a moment, you’re possessed by the most jaded version of yourself. The words tumble from your mouth before you can understand them.
“Where have you been?”
You regret it immediately.
Cooper sighs, closing his eyes and pushing his hair back. He pauses momentarily, thinking about how he'll handle the situation before returning to meet your gaze.
“I don’t think talking about that here is a good idea.” His tone is gentle but stern. It’s parentish and ignites the anger accumulating in you over the past month.
“That’s fucked up, Cooper. I’ve told you things I haven’t even said out loud, and now you get to decide when it is or isn’t a good idea for us to talk? It’s not fair—”
“I know.”
“—It wasn’t even my idea! You softened me up! You kept coming back—“
“I know.”
“—You made me think I could trust you! You gave me something, and then you fucking took it away—who fucking does that?!”
He’s saying your name now. You were too worked up to notice that your cheeks were wet or that Cooper’s thumbs were wiping the tears away. You hadn’t cried in a year.
“It was wrong. I was wrong. I thought I could manage, but it was getting too close. What was happening between us, and who I am outside of that can never touch. I’m sorry.”
Your breathing slows. Cooper’s voice sounds distant, the warmth of his hands being the only thing grounding you. He’s so close now; you can see the flecks of green and brown along his iris. Your gaze drops to his mouth, lingering in the same way his eye lingered about a month ago. You can see the words forming around his lips. He repeats himself.
“I’m sorry.”
You feel a familiar urge again– the pull. This time, you almost give in. But something stops you. Cooper resists your pull.
“Don’t. You’ll regret it.” He warns.
You come to your senses, noticing the stinging sensation from the back of your thighs pressing against the hood of his car. It’s not enough to stop you from being at your weakest.
“Please.” is all you can say. Your hands grip the collar of his sweater. He lets you, his resistance gradually softening until your mouth ghosts over his.
“You have no idea what you’re asking for.” His voice is barely above a whisper.
It all happens so fast, his lips finally covering yours, his hands lifting you by the thighs and setting you down on the hood of his truck, your legs wrapping around him. Everything is brand new and intoxicating. The feeling of his hair between your fingers. Your arms around his neck, the hardness of his body against yours. It doesn’t take much for you to get lost in it. You feel Cooper lift you off the hood and walk around the side of his car. He flings open the passenger door and sets you on the leather seat.
“Tell me to stop.” He says in between the feverish back and forth of your lips, his hands sliding under your sweater to rest on the curve of your stomach. Heat pools between your thighs. You say nothing.
Cooper pulls away, leaving his hand underneath your shirt.
“This is what you want?” He’s looking down at you, hair in his eyes and mouth red and wet. You feel ashamed, but you nod anyway. Cooper’s hand gently pushes against your belly, beckoning you to lie down. Your chest heaves up and down, and your eyes flutter close. Cooper’s hands push up the sides of your waist, bringing your shirt with it. They travel over your ribs, his thumbs brush over your nipples through your thin bra. His warm breath ghosts just under your navel, lips peppering kisses right above your waistband.
“I’ve been thinking about this. What you would look like under me. You look so pretty.” He smirks against your skin and uses a hand to undo a button on your jeans. Your eyes flutter back open.
The first thing you see is a splatter of dark red on the cloth ceiling of his car. You squint a bit, trying to pull your focus from what was going on below your waist. The little drops glisten in the dim glow of the interior cabin light. It looks wet.
Your blood runs cold. Your Father’s voice returns to you.
White picket fence motherfucker.
AO3
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Wildflowers (pt. xxii.ii)
a john paul jones x fem!oc fic (in progress)
summary: Julia Morgan knew nannying for three girls who had recently lost their mother would come with many challenges. But she never thought their father, the enigmatic musician John Paul Jones, would be causing her the most trouble. And while Julia is not in the business of saving broken men, her tenderness might be meant for more than little girls and wildflowers.
table of contents │ previous chapter
masterlist│ko-fi
notes: discussion of drug use, discussion of sa, general angst
a/n: it's going to get worse before it gets better 💔
pt. xxii.ii, jack-go-to-bed-at-noon
“I don't want to hurt you. But I can’t lose you, Julia, I can’t.”
I did not sleep. Why would I with a feral beast in the house?
I had no idea if John would wake again. Whether he would be stronger and more demonic than before. So I remained posted up outside the primary bedroom, almost unblinking.
That is until it was time for the girls to rouse for school. It was a miracle none of them questioned the thunderous snore of Peter Grant in the guest bedroom and even more remarkable they believed my fib that the strange car parked out front belonged to the new gardener. However, Tamara barely looked at me. At first I wondered if I had hurt her feelings by being short with her in the night, but then I overheard her whispering to Jacinda while they stood by the car waiting for me to come around.
“The ghost is back.”
It was urgent enough to cut right through the still air.
I wished I could believe in the ghost too. That the bumps in the night were angered spirits rather than their father, fecund with liquor and pills, a man they would not have recognized should they have met him.
I should not have been driving in my sleepless state. I almost jumped the curb and nearly clipped a mailbox.
I barely remembered the drive. Just realized I left Warren House only to end up there again. It wasn’t enough that my body sagged with the hours of sleep lost. There was a hundred some pounds of weight on me too. Pinned to my hips. Gripping my thighs.
I sat in the car far longer than I would have on a normal day. Trying to keep my stomach from flipping at the memory of the night. Mere hours before.
With a final breath, a final push, I forced myself out of the car. And upstairs. To the master bedroom. To see if the monster had returned to man again.
The door was cracked when I got there. Just an inch. Caused by one of those ghostly drafts.
I ticked the door open a few inches more and peered inside.
John had made it to the bed, curled into a lump under the bountiful bedclothes. Red and cream floral. I hadn’t noticed it the night before. His hair was draped over his face, obscuring the evidence of my defense.
I watched him breathing for far too long and wished to feel what I had in the past. To fawn over him, adore him as I once had. Instead, I just felt sad, watching the covers rise and fall with his deep breaths.
I wished to crawl in with him, forget it all, laugh when he woke to gritty dried blood spattered across his face.
But I couldn’t. It might have killed me.
I pulled myself away from the door, closed it as far as I could without the latch clicking shut, and continued down the hallway. The doors to the guest rooms were now opened. And when I peeked inside, the beds were mussed. I sighed, knowing Annie would give me guff for it. Add it onto the pile. I could hack it after the night I had had.
I checked myself in the mirror once more (fatigued, but resplendently so) before heading downstairs to meet my “guests”.
“They wanted fresh air,” Annie grumbled when I entered the kitchen to grab another cup of coffee. “They requested breakfast on the terrace.” She dropped a plate of toast points onto a tray.
I whisked the tray away from her before she could pick it up. “You needn’t bother with them.”
“You needn’t either,” she said, though she made no effort to stop me.
We exchanged a resigned smile. I had given her the barest of details before the girls had come down for breakfast. That the men had shown up in the middle of the night, an emergency. Warned her John was not himself. That was all. Nothing about his outburst, the confusion, the belligerence.
I stowed the bite mark away too. There wasn’t anything gleeful about this mark as opposed to the ones Jimmy gave me. Nothing giddily perverse about it.
With the tray and my coffee, I headed out onto the terrace.
Peter spotted me first through a cloud of cigarette smoke. He looked surprisingly well-rested for a man wearing the same clothes he’d had on the night before. “Julia! Morning, love.”
“Morning, gentlemen.” I placed the tray on the table beside the tea service, glimpsing Richard and BP who were both a little worse for wear, no doubt having been forced to bunk up together.
“Oh, thank you. It’s a perfect day for a meal on the terrace, don’t you think? Fresh air and all that…” Peter went on jovially.
I hesitated to agree when the cigarette negated the fresh air.
Luckily, he didn’t bother for my answer. “Sleep well?” Peter asked with a raised eyebrow.
I snagged my coffee off the tray before saying dryly, “Like a baby.”
“Aren’t you lucky, then?” Richard grumbled.
Peter leered at Richard briefly. “We’re…uh, what he means is, thanks for handling him.”
“Handling him,” I repeated. So that’s what I had been doing.
“He just needed a feminine touch, you know? A reminder,” Peter said, snagging a piece of toast off the tray and dipping a corner straight into a glob of jam. “Of what is rather than…”
I stared hard at him, causing him to lose his train of thought.
“Sit, Julia,” Richard said. “You’re making me nervous.”
“No, I’ve duties to get to, I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of –”
“No, Julia, sit, please let’s chat,” Peter said, waving his fingers toward me.
The truth was, if I sat, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay awake. However, a chat with Peter Grant never seemed negotiable. I took the free chair, pulling it out a foot from the table so as not to be too close to them. “I’d hate to make you feel antsy,” I echoed without affectation, though my blood was boiling.
BP stuck his tongue into the side of his cheek, keeping his mouth pressed tight together.
“I know I’ve thanked you before Julia, but really, really our boy was in a bad way before you showed up. You keep him in good spirits.”
My stomach turned. I keep him in good spirits. I couldn’t have been more foolish. Thinking any of it was love. I was something to do. A hobby. A woman’s body has been currency since the beginning of time. It was an exchange from the start. “I do what I can,” I said softly.
“And more, apparently,” Richard muttered.
I didn’t have the energy to glare. My humanity was seeping out.
“We’re hoping this will be a one time thing,” Peter went on. “We’ll keep an eye on him and what he’s…consuming. And when he’s back home, you know, you just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“I ought to be on the Zeppelin payroll at this point,” I said, watching the steam from my coffee.
“That could be arranged.”
That caught my attention. My eyes zipped to Peter.
He grinned wolfishly. “A joke, of course.”
“Of course,” I replied, unconvinced. I suddenly wondered if they kept a roster of vessels.
Peter jammed his inch of a cigarette into the ashtray and reached for another. “Between the two of us, I know we can make sure he’s in good shape for tour in January.”
The words rolled over me like storm clouds closing in. Slowly and then all at once. “Tour in January.”
“Yes, it’s not much time, but we can keep him on the straight and narrow.”
I did not have the energy to convey what I felt. Hell, I didn’t even know what I felt. Surprise. Dismay. Fury. Ache. A collision of all sorts of a terrible feelings. I glanced at BP who seemed to be the only one who could tell I didn’t know of a tour starting in January. He dipped his chin lower and looked away.
Hadn’t they just started recording the album? Surely it wasn’t enough time for them to set out in tour in a handful of months.
“Of course, we’ll have to make sure his spirits are up until then so he doesn’t get cold feet, but you do an excellent job of keeping him warm, Ms. Morgan.”
I opened my mouth, unsure what vitriol would emerge, only to be cut off by a low and gravelly, “The hell is going on?”
John was awake and he was standing barefoot on the terrace. The lower part of his face was streaked with dried blood and there was a splotch of a stain on the collar of his nightshirt. I couldn’t look directly at him more than a moment.
“Christ what happened to your face?” Richard asked with his lips contorted in bemusement.
“What are you talking about?” John trailed off, words mushy.
Peter glanced at me, then back at John. “You’ve got blood all over your face, mate.”
John smothered his face with his hand, his coordination massively strained by his hangover. “The hell…”
BP and Richard looked at me for explanation. I shook my head. “He wasn’t like that when I left him.”
A pitiful lie.
Peter reached for his napkin and dipped it in his water glass. “C’mere, I’ll take care of it,” Peter said, almost like a mother.
My knuckles whitened as I gripped my cup of coffee.
“How did I get here?” John asked in a small voice, stepping closer to us.
Every nerve in my body stood on end, my body sensing danger. The weight returned to my middle.
Now that he was within swiping distance, Peter got up, grabbed John by the arm, and swung him down into his own chair. “Just relax and I’ll explain.”
John, still dazed, looked at me, his eyes calling for some sort of help I couldn’t give him. Peter smeared his cloth napkin across John’s face to clear off the blood. John bristled, raising his hands to bat Peter away. “I can do it.”
“You got into a state last night. A really bad one,” Peter explained. I was shocked by his softness with John. I’d seen him threatening and I’d seen him trying to charm, but I’d never seen him quite like this. Cleaning up the messes.
“It’s sore, why’s it sore?” John complained softly.
“Had to bring you home so that you’d settle down,” Peter went on. Then, satisfied with his cleaning, gave John a pat on the back. “Felt better when you saw Julia, didn’t ya? Perked right up when you saw her.”
John’s blue eyes rolled toward me again and, this time, they caught.
And I remembered
Tour in January.
As if the chasm between us wasn’t already wide enough. It made sense why he would want the girls to know about us then. He could go away for tour, leaving behind his girls with not a nanny but…something more. I wondered how long he knew, how long he had been wondering how to tell me, how long he would have waited it Peter hadn’t sloughed the information on me.
It was too much for a Tuesday morning.
Though John’s forehead was pinched still with confusion, he managed a small smile. My stomach turned at the sight of it. I looked away before I could try and determine what memories lay behind that expression. Which pieces he still had to give him a picture of the night before.
“She took right good care of you,” Peter went on, unknowingly stabbing more daggers into my chest. “Didn’t she?”
“Other than whatever scrap you got into,” Richard said, his lip turned up in disgust.
Peter shot him a glare, as per usual. “Yes, you’re feeling better now. And looking better too. Right boys?”
“Much better,” BP offered quickly.
Richard sighed and shuffled a hand through his wispish hair. “I mean, it’s a start.”
I pressed myself up from my seat. “Peter, please sit. I ought to get on with things and you all can…talk.”
I didn’t wait for any replies. I needed to get inside, finish my coffee, and try and make myself serviceable for the day.
Though several voices called out after me, John’s stood apart. “Julia? Julia, wait –”
How dare he say my name like that? The lilting emphasis I’d come to love. Whether amidst bantering or the needy twirls between the sheets, it was his call to me.
And I would not let it soften me.
I stalked back into the house, into the kitchen, letting the door swing shut behind me. Annie was gone, off to another one of her tasks for today, which was less than ideal for me. Being alone meant the rip cord could be pulled on my emotions.
I grabbed the counter to steady myself and prepared to let out a sob.
But the kitchen door opened behind me, the sound of bare feet on the floor. Damn it all, I knew it was him just from the way he walked now. The softness of his breaths. That’s what Annie told me would happen all those months ago. I would learn the sounds of the house. It would become a part of me.
He would become a part of me.
“Julia, please, let me talk to you.”
I tipped my head back, resisting a curse as I steady the tears that so desperately wanted to escape. “What is it?” I said, placing my fist on my hip and pressing my fingernails into my palm to take my mind off the need to weep.
John didn’t respond.
I took a deep breath and turned to face him. Being alone together put me on edge immediately. I ran my hand around my neck, the phantom feeling of my collar tightening suffocating me. “What is it, John?”
“You’re upset with me,” he said plainly.
I pressed my hand to my chest and shook my head. “I’m not.”
I watched him take a step forward. My stomach dipped with nausea. “You don’t have to lie.”
Under the fabric of my dress, I could feel the wound his teeth made in my skin. At least that was easier to hide than the tears in my eyes. “You were in a bad way. That’s all.”
John’s skin was like paste. He needed a shower. And he needed a meal. Some more sleep probably. His jaw was prickling with stubble that needed to be shaved. His hair was more like a nest or a mop than the silky tresses I knew he cared for so well.
I didn’t look much better.
He took another step forward, pinching his fingers together at his sternum. “What happened, Julia?”
I moved back, hoping he didn’t notice. “Peter told you, it was just –”
“They’re appealing to my ego, they won’t tell me the truth.”
It saddened me that his want for the truth surprised me. The vision I had of John had slowly been replaced. From confident to cocksure, from humble to petulant.
The good parts were still there, weren’t they? My vision was simply clouded. Perhaps.
John strode forward quickly, quicker than I knew what to do with. His hand landed against my elbow, “Darling, please –”
Without thinking, I ripped myself away from him. My heart lodged itself in my throat and my whole body screamed for me to run from him. Danger. Destruciton. Ruination.
John’s hand lifted into the air, wide palmed and open. A surrender, though his eyes betrayed his confusion.
Every return of his was marked by the need to touch. More touching. More, more, more. Again, again, again. To him, the denial sent him down a different path at the forking of the road. Little did he know I was already miles ahead of him. Running. Away, so far away.
“Sorry,” I apologized meekly. “I don’t know why I did that.”
I did. Of course I did.
John moved the open hand to his nightshirt, fisting the fabric anxiously. “Tell me what happened,” he insisted, his voice low and clipped.
“It’s not –”
“Julia. Tell me.”
I glimpsed a flake of dried blood under his nose. I ran my hand back and forth along the benchtop nervously. “You had something. I have no idea what. But they brought you here in the middle of the night so I could help calm you down.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said more to himself than to me.
“Well, they all seem very aware of what’s been going on between the two of us. I suppose they thought you needed a woman’s touch.” I added the last bit through gritted teeth.
John sucked his lower lip into his mouth for a few moments of contemplation. “I don’t speak about it outright, but I suppose the phone calls aren’t necessarily…secretive.”
I clamped my hand around the bicep of my opposite arm. I was shrinking as we spoke, bit by bit. An open secret. Like mistresses and whores. “You wanted her,” I said softly. When John canted his head, I clarified, “Maureen. You were…distraught.”
His mouth fell open. “I wanted her?”
“You got it in your head she was…” I shook my head. “I don’t know, I only saw the tail end. Because when you realized it was me you were coming home to, you came back to your senses.”
John’s brow furrowed and his mouth grew very small as he considered the facts. “I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”
His quiet apology reinvigorated his pull on me. The inexplicable connection between us had not ceased to exist, but it was fraying, dangerously close to a single thread. “Do you remember talking to me on the phone last night?”
“I…don’t.”
Another thread snapped. “So you don’t remember what you said to me?”
“Did I say something hurtful? If I did, I’m so –“
I shook my head. “No, no. It’s not important.” I looked out the window at the expansive yard. It was turning gray out. Rain was imminent. Then, I smiled. Trying to smooth everything over. Except the tears I’d been holding back decided to betray me and fall. I swiped at them. “Fuck me.”
John clicked his tongue. “Julia, please, don’t be upset, I didn’t know I –”
“We shouldn’t keep doing this. It was too soon, too rash,” I say hurriedly.
“Please don’t say that.”
“You still think of her. It isn’t fair to any of us.” Any of us. Because whether he remembers or not he had implicated his children.
John’s forehead pinched. “I’ll always think of her.”
I winced. Stupid thing to say.
“That’s not something that will ever go away, Julia.”
“That’s not what I meant, I…” I swallowed, tears rolling down my cheeks. “I don’t think I’m strong enough for any of this.”
I turned away from him to try and cry with some kind of privacy. Because it was true. I wasn’t strong enough to be everything for him, always anticipating each and every feeling or worry he might have, trying to be good, oh so good because that’s what he needed.
And if I failed?
It was not just a human thing for me to fail.
I was paid to be here. Where did my job end and I begin?
I don’t see you being able to resist that kind of trouble. And we know how that turned out the first time, Nick’s voice played loudly in my head.
Oh, if he could see me now, he’d be laughing. I just knew it.
Again, a hand. This time to my shoulder. My body bristled even harder this time, an angry scrawl gurgling from the back of my throat. “Nnndon’t touch me,” I snapped, clutching at the place he touched me as if it burnt
I was a cornered animal. Teeth bared, tears streaming down my face. And this time instead of confusion, something else appeared on John’s face. An amalgam of disgust and fear. Good. That would make everything easier. “What happened?” he asked, his voice harsh.
“John –”
He stepped closer. “What happened last night?”
“I don’t want to do this, I don’t.” I gulped at every word, trying to steady myself.
“You won’t even look at me and I can’t –”
“I can’t.”
“I can’t even touch you without –”
“Fine! You want to know?” If I let him close in any further, I would suffocate. I grabbed the collar of my dress and pulled down, revealing the wound he’d made with his teeth the night before. “Here.”
John’s eyes landed on the purple impressions of his teeth on my chest. He had the gall to look confused.
“You bit me,” I said through clenched teeth. “You bit me and then you tried to fuck me.”
The words landed in his face, his expression flinching. The universe must have been laughing at the recurrence of these marks on me. Once from pleasure, once from pain. The pain inflicted by the wrong man.
“And I told you no and you wouldn’t stop.” My voice broke at the end because up until the night before, on the phone I loved him. And now here, in the kitchen I…still did.
But I knew I couldn’t.
John pinched his lips together. “Is that why…” He gestured toward his face. “The blood?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, but if I didn’t –“I stopped. Why couldn’t I just say the words? Say them aloud. He deserved to hear them. If I hadn’t hurt him, he would have hurt me. Raped me. And this conversation would be much different. Or would it? Is it any different if the intention was there? If he wasn’t in his right mind? “You wouldn’t stop,” I said once more, ashamed how meek I sounded.
John put both his hands over his face for a moment, then scrubbed them back through his hair, pulling his chin up with them. “Fuck.” Then he laughed, raw and humorless. It was a harrowing kind of laugh. One you acquire as an adult when you realize how richly awful the world can be. “Fuck,” he repeated. Quieter. More bruised. “I don’t remember doing that.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know why I –“
“I know.”
“I would never, ever –”
I blinked, releasing one more tear. “I know, John, I know.” But he nearly had.
His fingers of one hand ticked nervously and his breath was heavier than usual. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
I didn’t have to say the truth aloud for us both to hear it.
Too late.
“But I can’t lose you, Julia, I can’t.”
I found myself smiling despite myself, wicking away more tears. In the haze of love I had for him, I would cling to the meekest admission so I didn’t have to let him go.
“Give me a chance to…make it up to you. If I can.”
“I boxed you in the nose, perhaps we’re even,” I said in an effort to lighten the moment, looking at the tears glistening on my fingers.
The corner of his lips tipped up out of necessity and nothing more.
I dried my hands on the bodice of my dress. “I suppose you’ll be going back, then.”
John scratched the back of his head, eyes falling to the ground. “I’d rather not seeing as how we’re –”
I interrupted swiftly. “No, it’s good, I need to get used to it. What with your tour coming up.”
His reaction was delayed, but once it registered, his pallid cheeks lit up with embarrassment.
“Peter told me,” I said with a limp smile.
John sighed. “I was going to tell you when I came home.”
“Right, of course, I’m just a little surprised, is all.”
“Everything’s being rushed, once we’re done. We had stuff in the catalog anyway that we never –” he stopped short. “None of that matters really. You know. In the scheme…of things.”
I had no more fight in me. No more willingness to open my heart up and show the hurt. The want. If I was going to continue to love him, I’d have to lock it tightly away until the timing was more appropriate. A silly thought when it comes to such a quivering, untenable feeling.
Before either of us could say anything, I heard noise from the hall, the terrace door opening and heavy footsteps.
“Enough,” I said softly. “No more of this.”
John started to step forward and then remembered that his advancements were now threats. He glanced down at his hands as the door to the kitchen opened.
“Hate to interrupt –“ It was Peter. “But we really ought to get back to it.”
“Just a minute,” John said, barely tilting his head over his shoulder toward Peter.
Peter’s eyes found mine and where there had been a semblance of softness earlier, there was now edge.
Until I was notified further or until I changed the circumstances myself, I was under an obligation to make everyone’s lives easier. Every single life but my own.
Under Peter’s watchfulness, I did what last night I thought I’d never do again. I stepped closer to John. His eyes lit up, but kept himself at bay. I could hear my blood rushing in my ears as I took John’s hand. At first it burned and then my body seemed to remember every other moment before last night at once. I inhaled sharply and lifted my gaze into his. Blue I had been dreaming about for far longer than we had known each other’s mouths and bodies.
“You won’t lose me,” I whispered. A promise to him and to myself. Time apart would be good. For me to weight out all the good, remember him the way I had fallen in love with him, not the feral monster from the night before.
John left me with a touch to my cheek. Nothing more.
When I finally was able to sleep after almost forty hours of waking, he came to me in a nightmare.
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