Second Chance on St. Patrick's Day

by Mia Ford

  Chapter 31

  Jason

  My brain was completely wired, and all I could do when I walked in the house was drop my bag on the floor and plop down on the couch. I sat there drinking a beer and flipping through the channels, not actually focusing on anything. Instead, I was letting my mind simmer, forcing my unconscious to do the work my conscious mind was too tired to take on. After a few hours, I yawned and flipped off the television. I tossed my bottle into the trash and grabbed another out of the fridge. As the door shut, I heard a knock at the door. I groaned. Who the hell would be showing up at the house at night without letting me know first? I opened the door, and my gaze fell on Tiffany. She was shivering from the cold, and tears were running down her cheeks. I immediately pulled her inside and wrapped my arms around her, the look on her face shocking me back to reality. I pulled back and looked into her weepy eyes.

  “What happened?”

  She shook her head and walked into the house, taking her coat off and rubbing her arms up and down. She looked around and then turned back to me, still crying. I was completely at a loss and had no idea what could be wrong with her. We had just left work a few hours before.

  “Why are you so upset with me?” She was almost sobbing at that point, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I walked over and hugged her again, not even knowing what to say. “I called you several times.”

  I looked around the room searching for my phone, but I didn’t see it on any of the surfaces. I patted my pockets trying to find it until my eyes rested on my bag by the door. I hadn’t even thought about my phone when I got home, instead, I had walked in and dropped my bag, leaving everything from the day barely inside the house. I shook my head and chuckled at the ridiculous of the situation, quickly straightening my face as she looked up at me angry.

  “I came home and was so tapped, I just dropped my bag by the door,” I explained. “I went over and sat on the couch and channel surfed. My phone was inside my bag, and I didn’t hear it ring. It’s probably still on silent from work.”

  She turned and looked at the bag on the floor and then back at me, sniffling as she let the information process. She let out a deep breath and walked into the living room, plopped down on the couch, and pulled the throw around her shoulders. She was freezing cold, and I wondered why she was out so late. She should be tucked warmly in her bed by now, not knocking on my door in tears.

  “I just came from Jordan’s house,” she said. The words shot right into my chest, and I was almost afraid to ask why. There was plenty of time for her to go talk to Jordan. Why did she feel the need to go over there right after we had an argument about it? I could feel my jealousy start to bubble up in my chest, and I tried to push it down so I could hear her out.

  “Why?”

  “I needed to hash all of this crap out with him,” she explained. “For you and for the baby. I don’t want to bring this child into a family that can’t even be in the same room during holidays. I needed to explain to him what really happened. We never had that conversation after he left, and it's important. It kind of helps break that tie that is there when you’re married to someone.”

  “I understand all of that,” I said, sighing. “What I don’t understand is why it was so important that you had to rush over there tonight to do it. Jordan wasn’t going anywhere, regardless of whether he quit or not. I just don’t understand why he is so important to you.”

  She sat there for a minute, looking at me like I was crazy. I thought that was a pretty straightforward question, but apparently, it was the wrong one. I took in a deep breath and braced myself for her answer.

  “Because I wanted this shit figured out right now, not tomorrow, not six months from now, right now,” she said angrily.

  “I understand,” I said. “But it still bothers me.”

  “Look,” she said standing up and pulling on her jacket. “I don’t know what the hell you want. Would you rather sit around and let this go on and on forever? You know that isn’t going to work, and it's only going to continue to push us further apart.”

  “Tiffany, I only mean—”

  “I know what you mean,” she said interrupting me. “Think long and hard about us, your life, our family, and this baby. You need to understand what you want before you go getting angry at me for trying to fix this giant mess.”

  She stomped across the apartment, buttoning up her coat. She walked down the steps and out the front door, slamming it behind her. I walked over to the window and watched as she hailed a cab, climbing inside and taking off down the street. She was so angry, but I didn’t understand why. Everything was going to work itself out in the end. I knew it, but I didn’t need to picture the woman carrying my baby rushing over to her ex-husband's house to make things right with him when she left me sitting in the office reeling after she and I got into it. I felt like I was being chosen last for the game, and I didn’t like it at all.

  I walked over and sat down on the couch, left alone again, but stunned at what just happened. My mind was going crazy thinking about what she said before she left. I knew what I wanted. I had always known what I wanted, and it was her. I had spent years pining over Tiffany, even when I didn’t consciously realize I was doing it. Then, after all that time, I had finally gotten her in my arms and to make matters even more exciting, we were expecting a baby together. She was the girl of my dreams and always had been. I had just gotten her, and now I was sitting alone in my house terrified that I was about to lose her, and I really didn’t understand why. I knew it was important to her to hash all of this out, but it had only been a day since my brother and I had duked it out in the parking garage at work. Now, I was faced with the idea that I could lose her and my brother at the same time. This was not at all what I thought of when I pictured myself taking time to really let my mind rest tonight. I should be curled up in bed with Tiffany, not watching her run from my house, wondering if I’ll ever see her again. Either way, I loved that woman, and I wanted to be with her and my child, and I was not going to let anyone take that away.

  I walked over and pulled my phone from my bag, looking at the calls I had missed. They were all from Tiffany and all while she was probably on her way over to my house. I flipped through my phone and pressed call. I needed to talk to Jordan, really work this out if it were at all possible. I completely expected to get the voicemail, but was really surprised when he picked up after the first ring. The first few seconds of the conversation was awkward, so I cut through the bullshit and just started talking.

  “Look, man,” I said with a sigh. “I love you. You are my brother. I never meant to hurt you with this whole Tiffany business. I never planned to fall in love with her. I never planned to start a family with her. In the beginning, I was simply checking up on her because I knew what she was going through was probably fucking hard and painful, and we were the only family she knew. I didn’t even see it coming.”

  “Jason,” he said cutting in. “I know. Take a deep breath. Look, I’m not saying this is always going to be easy for me, especially at the beginning, but I don’t want to lose you or Tiffany in my life. Both of you are extremely important to me. I am not trying to get Tiffany back. I realized that we were definitely not meant to be. It was extremely obvious when neither one of us fought even in the slightest to save our marriage.”

  “Will you come back to work?”

  “Yeah,” he said chuckling. “I already called Dad. One day off was enough for me. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went through the apartment and started taking pictures down. I only got halfway through before giving in and calling Dad. I told him that we would be okay. To be honest, I didn’t really know if we would be, but now that we’ve talked, I’m looking forward to coming back and working with you. I just ask that when you guys want to go announcing huge life events, maybe you could pull me aside and tell me in private first, that way the shock value is lessened.”

  “That’s fair,” I replied. “And I just ask you try to ref
rain from cussing Tiffany out.”

  “I promise,” he chuckled. “Thanks for taking the step and calling brother.”

  “Absolutely,” I responded.

  “Oh, and Jason?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You hit like a girl.”

  I laughed loudly as we hung up the phone, sitting back on the couch and closing my eyes. I felt better knowing my brother and I didn’t have to be at odds anymore, at least over all this crap. Tiffany was right. It needed to be handled, and the longer we waited, the worse it got. I also was relieved knowing that this would help patch things up between Tiffany and me. I really hoped that she could see just how important she was to me. I felt a lot better thinking about the next course of action between us, and I was pretty sure that now I could feel comfortable knowing I wasn’t going to completely lose her. I needed to stop being so stubborn though because I was only hurting myself.

  I thought about texting Tiffany and asking her to come back or showing up at her place, but after the state she was in when she had left, I thought maybe it would be better to leave her alone with her thoughts. If I knew her like I thought I did, as soon as she got home, she probably passed out in her bed, exhausted from the day she had gone through. Her hormones were all crazy from the pregnancy, she was going through some seriously crazy stuff, and she had been all over the city in one day trying to fix everything in her life. I had to hand it to her, she knew how to solve a problem, and it wasn’t by sitting back and letting it take its own course. I was pretty sure if she hadn’t done that, it would have been a nightmare to work with Jordan when he came back, and I knew my father was not going to put up with any more bullshit like the other night. It was important to him that we work things out, but he was going to let us do that. Tiffany was the light that had brought us together.

  I may not be calling her tonight, but I was anxious to see her face in the morning, hoping that she had calmed down.

  Chapter 32

  Tiffany

  Sitting at my desk tapping my foot and waiting to understand what was going on was not going to cut it for the rest of the day. I could see Jason sitting at his desk across the hall, but we hadn’t even greeted each other yet. I watched him pass by Jordan when I first came in, tapping him on the shoulder and smiling. It looked like they had finally worked things out, which made me feel a lot better. Still, we hadn’t hashed anything out yet, and it left an empty feeling in my chest. What if he had decided that family was more important? What if I was sitting here like an idiot thinking we would work everything out between us, and he was sitting there completely done with us? I was overthinking things as usual, and my hormones were playing some serious games with my emotions. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself, but every time I looked across the hall at Jason, my nerves hit me all over again. I knew the best thing for me to do would be to focus on getting these files out, and then I could decide what my next course of action was. Maybe by then, he would look more interested in having a conversation with me.

  I opened the files and began to work, forcing myself to not look up, even when it felt like he was looking over at me. I stared relentlessly at the messenger and then down at my phone, wondering why he wasn’t even trying to start the conversation. I shook my head, trying to force myself to focus, wanting nothing more than to hear his voice in my doorway. When I was done with the files, I walked them down the hall to John’s office and placed them in the box on his secretary’s desk. I really didn’t want to face John today, knowing he knew what all the trouble was over, and I had been at the center of it. I could feel the eyes of the other people in the office burrowing into my neck as I walked. Instead of music playing from the speakers, I could hear the low whispers of my peers as I moved quickly back toward my office. I hated the fact that people were still talking about me like my life was some television show. I didn’t give a damn what they thought about me personally, but it was really starting to take a toll on me, constantly having people give me pity smiles or nasty looks. I felt like pulling up a chair and just screaming the story to everyone in the office so the stupid rumors could stop. I had heard everything from me having a secret lover and the child not being Jason’s or Jordan’s to the reason I got divorced was that I had always been secretly in love with his brother. It was insane that these people didn’t have anything better to do with their time.

  I looked across the hall, but Jason wasn’t in his office. I sat down in my chair wanting to wait for him to come back. I assumed he had some kind of meeting this morning, but I wasn’t sure of the schedule at that point. I grabbed my coffee mug and rounded the corner, needing my one cup of coffee allowance already. As I turned the corner, I faltered, seeing Jason standing next to the coffee pot. He looked just as charming as ever, and he looked up at me and smiled kindly as I approached. The other people standing around talking whispered as they passed me, and I put my head down and headed straight for the coffee. I poured a cup and faced the wall, waiting for the rumor mill to leave. Once they did, I let out a deep breath and turned toward Jason. He hadn’t moved an inch, and I found him standing and staring at me as I fixed my morning brew. My cheeks blushed a bit when I figured out he had been watching me the whole time. I still didn’t understand how he went through every day ignoring everyone’s stares. I guess when you aren’t being labeled the office whore, it didn’t really affect you that bad.

  I stared up at Jason, the butterflies in my stomach getting stronger. He tilted his head as he gazed into my eyes and reached up, pushing a piece of hair from my face. The feeling of his warm hands against my skin sent electricity barreling through me. He was so calm and sure of himself, and it felt oddly arousing. I opened my mouth to speak, but he pressed his finger against my lips and shook his head. I tilted my head confused as he took my coffee from my hand, set it on the counter, and grabbed my wrist, pulling me toward the door. Everything about him moved in a smooth fluid motion, and I couldn’t help but just follow him out of the lounge and toward the elevator. We stood waiting for the elevator to arrive, and it seemed to take forever. He stared down at me, and I nervously fidgeted with my hands, pulling my shirt down lower over my pants. I looked over as several people walked by, watching us and whispering. I rolled my eyes and sighed deeply, happy to hear the elevator doors finally slide open.

  We stepped inside and stood on opposite ends as he pushed a button. I looked up and watched as the mirrored doors of the elevator slid shut and the room shimmied before lowering us down. I turned toward Jason and watched as he took two large steps toward me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He looked deep in my eyes and pressed his lips hard against mine. Immediately, passion flew through my body, and I reached up to grab the front of his shirt and kiss him wildly. Our hands moved quickly over each other’s bodies, and I glanced over with a grin, seeing that he had pressed the seventh-floor key. As the elevator slowed down, we separated ourselves and watched the doors slide open. Several men in hard hats walked past and nodded, and I looked over at Jason.

  “Roof?” I thought it was a dumb idea, but it was the only one I had.

  “Perfect,” he said calmly, pulling out his key and putting it into the roof slot. Only the owners of the companies in the building got to have roof access. I wrapped my arms around myself as I prepared to step out onto the roof, knowing the wind would be hard and cold. Jason stepped close again and reached down, grabbing me around the waist and picking me up. His lips grazed over my neck, and I moaned softly in his ear. As the elevator reached the roof, the doors slid open, and he carried me out onto the dark surface. My hair whipped wildly around me but between the black surface and the heat in my arousal, I didn’t feel cold at all. We walked to the left corner and he sat me down, turning me toward him with force, and quickly unbuttoning my top. He didn’t waste any time pulling up my skirt and running his fingers through my pulsing wet mound. I reached forward and groped at his hard shaft, sticking out from his pants.

  He pulled his jacket off and laid it down o
n the ground, pulling me down on top of it. He dropped down on his knees and pushed my skirt all the way up to my hips, pulling my panties down and putting them in his pocket. He reached down and grabbed my thighs, lifting my ass in the air and pushing his lips into my pussy. He moved them in circles through my wetness, pushing me to moan loudly. My hormones weren’t just affecting my mood, they affected my arousal, too, and I could already feel myself getting ready to come. He lifted his head up and looked me in the eyes as he plunged two fingers inside of me. I leaned my head back and let out a whimper, feeling him deep inside.

  “You like that?”

  “Mmhmm,” I whined.

  “You going to come for me?”

  “Yes,” I groaned loudly, feeling the heat in my stomach increase.