by Lauren Wood
She looked at me like she didn't believe me, and the truth was that she shouldn't. This was my doing, all of it and I didn't regret it not one bit. I knew that I wanted to be a part of her life, and if that meant pissing her off a little bit, I was okay with that.
I took her bags from her, and she gave me a dirty look. I had a long way to go.
Bringing the car with me, I took her over to it and put her things in the trunk. I was hoping that a little bit of time together would soften her heart, but at the moment she wouldn't even look at me. She was still mad and I was going to have to figure out how to make it better for her. I didn't want her to be mad at me anymore. We only had a couple of weeks until we had to go back to the courts and she had to take a test. The clock was ticking.
I took the long way home, just because I knew that this was going to be the closest I was going to get to her for a while. In the house, she would most likely be hiding in her room, not wanting to come out. At least in the car, she was so close and I could feel her presence more.
When she finally said something about how long it was taking to get there, I just told her that I was just taking a different route.
“I thought you would like the ride better this way. It has more of the coastline and the ocean that you like so much. Would you like to stop for a swim? It is a perfect day for it.”
She told me that she didn't want to go, but I could see her eyes said she did. She was most likely turning it down so that she wasn't having any fun. That was the whole point of it, to push away all thoughts of us together. I wasn't going to let that happen though, I knew that I had to remind her why we had gotten together in the first place. We had many conversations over several months, and I remembered all of them. I knew Jeanine, better than I knew anyone else in my life.
“Well, you know that it's right there if you want to go. I will take you wherever you want to go, just let me know. There is still much of the island that you didn't get to see because you left early.”
She wasn't going for it. I had known that Jeanine wasn't going to. It was going to take more than a couple of minutes for her to get over all of this. She had sought the divorce, instead of going along with it like I promised her I would, instead I made it harder for. She was mad at me and she had many reasons to be.
“Fine, we will be at the house in a minute. I have set up the room next to mine, just like you like it. Although, you know you're more than welcome to stay with me. I think it would be better if we stayed together in the same room, like we are married, like the judge wants us to.”
“I don't really care what the judge wants. It is bad enough that I am down here. He is certainly not going to tell me whose bed I can sleep in. I've never in my life been so humiliated, so I don't really care what he wants. If you wanted to tell it to the judge, you go ahead. This is all ridiculous and you know it.”
“It is, but I didn't think it would turn out like this. I told you before that divorces are pretty much unheard of in my culture. Maybe now you know why. They want to save the union, as much as they can.”
“I could see that point of view being valid if the union was a legal one. If this was America, this wouldn’t even be a legal marriage to begin with. It was under false pretense, and you know it.”
I wasn't going to argue that point with her because there was no reason to. She was right, naturally, but it didn't mean that I wouldn’t do it all over again in a heartbeat. I knew that sounded horrible, especially how it all turned out, but I wasn't going to apologize for wanting her as badly as I do.
“But this isn’t America Jeanine.”
She gave me a look and I knew that this is going to take longer than I had hoped for. I didn't mind though, not really, I am very patient when I needed to be. This was one of those moments and I knew that I was going to have to do the best I could to delay the inevitable.
Jeanine did pretty much what I thought she would do. She holed herself up in the room for the first day, and then only came down for dinner time. And even then, I had to send Lisbeth up there to get her. I knew that they had something going on, that they didn't get along very well, but Lisbeth was up to date on what was going on. She was reminded well to keep her mouth shut.
When Jeanine finally came down, she wasn't too happy to see me. I could tell that she was mad to be here and again, I didn’t really blame her.
“Do you really expect me to just sit here and pretend like nothing happened?”
“Not at all. I know that you want to have it out with me. I can see it on your face. I am more than willing to.”
“You’re giving me permission?”
I agreed with a nod of my head and that seemed to enrage her even more.
“I don’t need permission!”
She was so lovely when she was angry. Her face was bright red, and I could tell that she was doing her best to try to control herself. But Jeanine wasn’t very good at that, not at all.
And I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that tad-bit. That was something I knew was better to keep to myself. She already thought that I was controlling the situation too much. I was really going to have to work on that.
23
Jeanine
I didn't stay down for dinner very long. It seemed like Craig was still playing games, even though I had figured out so many of them. It looked like the man had so many more to go.
Going to bed, I thought about Craig. It was something that I did almost every night anyways, and of course since I was here now, there was no way that I was going to think about anything else. It was like he knew that, and he was purposely trying to drive me crazy.
The worst part was, I was thinking about things I shouldn't be thinking about. I knew that me and her were not supposed to be together intimately, but then of course, that was all I could think about.
No matter that I was in this house, I was thinking about what he could do to me. What he did to my body and the pleasure that he brought, that no one else had given me before. It was all just too much and sleep was near impossible.
I went downstairs, thinking that I would get some water or maybe make some tea. Then I saw his bottle of whiskey and took a shot of that instead.
It didn’t help though. It just brought more things to my head that I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about. I couldn't get him out of my head. Was it because I knew that we couldn't?
“Why are you still up?”
His voice startled me for a moment and I didn't need to turn around to see who it was. Instead, I went for another shot and tried again before saying a word.
“I can't really sleep. I should be home right now, getting ready for work, not here with you. I don't think you realize what you have done. Maybe you don't care. I'm going to lose my job over this. There is no way that they're going to let me stay here and miss all this work. I hope you know that.”
“Are you really worried about your job? You have told me before that you sometimes wished you never had to go back. Now you don't have to.”
That wasn't the answer that I was looking for. He seemed to always think that he knew best, and it was just another reminder.
“If I lose this job, that just means that I have to get another one. It's not like I don't have to work. Everyone has to work.”
“You don't have to work Jeanine. You know that. Look around you. There is nothing that you could want for.”
He really just didn't get it and I didn't want to explain it to him. He really still thought that we were going to be together, and even though my body was calling to him, I knew better.
“I think I'm going to go back to bed now.”
“I want to talk about this Jeanine. I don't know how long you’re going to be here, so can we just talk for a minute?”
He was too close, and I could feel the heat rising out of him. It wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if I wasn't so turned on at the moment. We had literally said nothing about sex, but that was all that was going through my head. It was all that I could think
about, and that is why I was already wet. Just being around him was all that I needed.
“I don't think that be a good idea right now Craig. We can talk in the morning if you aren't busy.”
He told me that he had a couple of house calls to make in the morning and I did not ask one way or another if it was for the hospital or not. It wasn’t my business.
“Well when you get home, we will have that discussion.”
“I just want to know what happens if the tests are positive?”
It wasn't something that I really thought about and I wasn't sure what to say. I knew that it was a possibility, sure. But it didn't mean it was going to happen. I would've known by now, right?
“It won't be Craig. Don't worry about it.”
I told him goodnight and went back upstairs to the room. At first, the couple of shots didn't really help that much, but after a few moments, it started to sink in a little bit better and I was able to finally fall asleep. I didn't have to guess, to know who was going to be in my dreams. It was unavoidable apparently.
Craig was downstairs in the kitchen, reading the newspaper when I got up. I didn't feel so happy to be there, but the sunshine outside and the smell of the sea air, helped to revive me. No matter the reason that I was here, I have to admit how much I loved the place. It really was relaxing, and the beach was calling to me.
“I should be back in a little while, is there anything that you want me to get while I'm out?”
It was such a mundane question, something that he would really ask me if we lived together. It was scary how quickly we could fall into a routine. He had put cream and sugar in my coffee, while I buttered my toast. If nothing else, he did remember little things.
“I think I'm going to go to the beach. There isn't a lot to do on the island, and the ocean is really blue over here. I don't know if it's a thing, but it certainly feels like it.”
He had a frown that crossed his face for a moment and told me that he wished I would wait until he got back from his appointment.
“I will be fine, really. It is just two blocks away and I know how to get there.”
Craig wanted to argue about it, but I wasn’t going to hear it. The last thing I was going to negotiate was leaving the house alone.
“If you don’t have a good enough reason, I’m going to go. We both know that you don’t.”
“I don’t want all of those men looking at you.”
It was the simplest answer and for some reason, it made me smile a little bit. I wasn’t going to listen to it, not really. It wasn’t going to stop me from going, but I liked his reasoning, if nothing else.
“Well I am sure that they will, but it will be fine. It’s not like I don’t have men stare at me all the time. I just ignore it.”
Craig was surprised and told me that he thought I didn’t know.
“I know what I do to men, trust me.”
I grinned at him and his confusion. It was clear that he didn’t like the sentiment at all. If he only knew how I really felt about it.
“I will see you later Craig.”
“Maybe I will come by and see you afterwards.”
I shrugged like it didn’t matter either way. “It is a free country.”
24
Craig
All I could think about while I was doing the examination to Mrs. White, was what Jeanine was doing. I could see her running around with her little bikini on and I knew that all eyes were going to be on her. How could they not be? My patient asked me twice if I was okay because it must have been obvious that I was bothered by the whole situation. I knew that I should do a better job of hiding it, but I just wasn't very good at it. Not when it came to Jeanine anyways.
When I was done with Mrs. White, I went straight to the beach. I didn't even stop long enough to get swim trunks on because I had a feeling that I wasn't going to need them. I don't know why, but I was dreading going down to the beach.
I knew that there was going to be men around her. She didn't have her ring on and even though most people knew that she was my wife, they also probably heard about the divorce proceedings, because this was a small town. It just gave her no reason to turn down suitors.
When I got down to the beach, there wasn't a flock of men out there like I had imagined in my head but there were a couple that didn't look like they were from around here and they were giving her a lot of attention. I took my shoes off and started walking towards her. I must have looked silly with the suit on, but I wanted to make sure that I made my presence known as soon as possible.
“What a nice day huh?”
“I'm glad to see that you were still here wife. I was afraid that you would be done before I got down here.”
I made it sound like we had plans, which we did. I was hoping that the two idiots that were talking to her, would realize that they were walking into a situation that they needed to walk out of. They were both tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. I wasn’t going to let them get far with Jeanine. She was my wife after all.
“Hey Craig. Are you going to wear that?”
She was looking at my suit and I could imagine that I just looked ridiculous. I just hadn’t wanted to wait long enough to go get something to wear.
“No, I'm about to go change.”
I think I had something in the car that I could wear that would be simple enough. I didn’t usually spend so much time at the beach, but it looked like I was going to today. I was under no false assumptions at the moment. I had some competition here that I was going to have to fight back. It would be easier if Jeanine would put her ring on and cover up a bit, but I knew that neither thing was going to happen.
She smiled and said that she would be there waiting for me. She turned back to talk to one of the men, and I felt anger going through me that I had never experienced before. I wasn't usually the jealous type, but I had been before with Jeanine. And that was when people were just checking her out from afar. It was a whole other thing when they were face to face, touching her shoulder. All I wanted to do was break their fingers at the moment.
The more I thought about it, the more upset I became. I didn't know if Jeanine just didn't understand how I felt about her, or if she was doing this on purpose. It really didn't matter, because either way it was driving me insane. Last thing I wanted to see was anyone flirting or touching Jeanine. She was my life, no matter what was going on at the moment in court, at the moment she was still my wife.
The thoughts got me back to them a little bit sooner and when I saw Jeanine alone for a moment, I went back to her and set the ring on her finger. I pushed it up to the knuckle so that she knew to keep it on.
“What are you doing?”
“We are still married at the moment. I think that you need to stop advertising like you are single, you’re not.”
“Are you jealous?”
She was smiling and that irked my nerves even more. Of course, she knew what she was doing to me and Jeanine looked to be enjoying herself quite thoroughly.
“I'm not usually a jealous type of person, but if you keep acting this way, I have no problem showing out as well. It will become quite the scene, I promise you that.”
Jeanine seemed to smile a little bit bigger and that worried me. It felt like she was getting me back for the marriage and the lies. Even though I was raring to go, I couldn't blame her for it. That was probably what pissed me off the most.
The two guys were walking back from the water and I could tell that they weren’t happy to see me. There was now three of us and only one Jeanine. The problem was, I knew that Jeanine was coming home with me. They were just a pawn in her little game. I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
There was another side of me that just wanted to punch them both in the face. That would have ended it a lot quicker and I could've got her back home faster, but I had to play the game as well, no matter how much I hated it.
“Who are your new friends wife?”
“You're married Jeanine?”
I looked over at Tom and shook my head that she was. It was just easier to say it and get it over with. There was no way that I was going to get into the nitty gritty of it. It was too bothersome and embarrassing. Last thing I wanted to do was admit that I swindled her into marriage, so the information that she was, was just going to have to be enough.
“Yes, for the moment. But we're going through a divorce right now.”
She gave me a withering look and I just smiled back at her. Touché. It was exactly what I would've done.
“We are going through a divorce at the moment, but she still lives at home so, in my mind, there is always hope right?”
I winked at the man that had introduced himself as Tom. The other one’s name was Larry or something of that nature. It didn't really matter what their names were, because I was convinced that they weren't going to be in my life all that long. They better not be.
I could already tell that Tom was getting a little confused about the situation and it wasn't one that most men wanted to find themselves in. Best thing he could do was just walk away.
“I didn't know you were married.”
“Like I said, I am getting divorced.”
Tom didn't seem convinced and it wasn't long before he was coming up with an excuse to leave. It was the best results that could have happened out of this. The only other thing that I knew couldn’t happen, was that I couldn’t physically hit the man. Even though I really wanted to.
It wouldn’t have been that hard to do what my baser needs wanted, but I was still working on the long game with Jeanine. I was still waiting to see where it went from here.
“Why did you have to go and do that? They were actually really nice.”
“They were nice because the whole time they were staring at your tits. Do you know how little I like to see that? The last thing I want is for a couple of beach bums to be checking out my wife.”
