True love

Jack sat in his office, a very rare moment of piece and quiet, the only few minutes he had to himself, only this time he was reminded of the never ending storm that surrounded him as he held an ice pack to his head. He jumped slightly as he heard a knock on the door: “Come in” he greeted, silently praying it wouldn’t be who he thought it would be: “Hi” Molly greeted with a bright smile that faded as soon as she saw him: “Hi” he answered, putting the ice pack on the table: “What happened this time”? “Nothing I’m fine, what did you want”? “Jack”- “ Don’t” he demanded, putting his hand up a little to silence her. Molly sighed entering the room: “I, just, came to give you this back”. She informed him, placing the book she’d borrowed the week before on the table beside the ice pack: “Thanks”. There was a beat of silence before Molly sat at the other side of Jack’s desk: “Wanna talk about it”? Jack shook his head, Molly reached out her hand and rubbed Jack’s arm in comfort, he swallowed hard before swiftly moving his arm away and standing up: “So er, what did you think of the book”? He asked: “Er yeah, yeah it was good, the main character was a bit snobbish at times but”- Jack cut her off with a chuckle: “Hey at least she knows what she wants unlike her useless, floundering boyfriend”. Molly gasped in mock offence: “Doug was not floundering ok he was weighing up his options”. Jack laughed rolling his eyes playfully: “Oh I’m sure”. “We can’t all be like you you know, having it all figured out by the time you’re 30”. “Well at least I’ll never end up settling for a job I was forced into huh”? Molly rolled her eyes back at him, happy to see that smile on his face again: “I’ve missed this”. “Me too”. Molly stood up, walked over to him and took both his hands in hers: “I’ve missed how this feels, how you feel”. She whispered, leaning closer to him, he closed his eyes and breather in her scent before remembering himself and stepping back: “We can’t, you know we can’t, what are you trying to do Molly”?!

“Nothing, nothing I’m sorry I was just saying you don’t have to keep pushing me away”- “Don’t you think I have enough to deal with right now with Taylor and this job, I don’t need you coming in here and confusing things again”! Molly looked at him for a moment: “What did Taylor do this time Jack”? “Get out”. He ordered, heading back to his desk: “No, no I’m not leaving you like this, tell me what she did”. “Just go Molly”! He yelled, pointing to the exit, Molly walked toward the door and closed it behind them, locking it shut: “No, not until you tell me what happened”. “Please, please just go away”. Jack asked, voice breaking a little. She went over to him and knelt down in beside his desk, facing him: “I just wanna help, please baby stop shutting me out”. Jack sighed heavily, then broke down sobbing, he fell into Molly’s arms.

They stayed in the embrace for a few moments before Jack found his voice again: “These last few days were great, it was like old times, we were getting along again, we were happy, there was no fighting no tension, it was like how it was when we were dating, before she sucked me in I guess you could say”. “I’d never say that”. “Then this morning”- he shook his head: “We had an argument because I told her I might have to work late, I didn’t even say it was definite but she got so upset, I offered to make her breakfast to make up for it and she told me not to bother and turned to leave, I didn’t want her leaving like that so I took her hand and lead her toward the frying pan”. He shuddered: “She picked it up up and kept hitting me with it until I legged it out the front door, had my spare shoes in the car just in case”. “You drove here”?! “I was carful don’t worry, I just had to get out of there as fast as possible you know”? “I don’t know what I’ll get tonight, guilt and an apology or”… “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve any of this”. “It was so out of the blue, I thought maybe we’d finally moved passed this”. He sighed: “guess I was wrong, she doesn’t mean it though, not really, these past few months have been really difficult for her”. “That’s not an excuse, you know that deep down or you wouldn’t be looking for an escape would you”? Molly picked up the ice pack from off the table and held it to Jack’s head: “Your head still looks a little swollen, we should get it looked at”.

“I’m fine don’t worry about it”. “You could have concussion”. “I’m fine, I just wanna stay here with you is that ok”? “Only if we go after our little heart to heart”. Jack chuckled despite himself: “Stubborn cow, it’s a good job I’m the boss huh”? “Otherwise there’d be a lot more to this argument, what if they don’t believe our story when they ask what happened”? “It’s ok, it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate we’ll just say you got into a bar fight or something, believable enough right”? Jack shrugged: “Suppose”. Molly put the ice pack on the floor beside them: “She wasn’t always like this”. Molly nosed: “I know, and I’m sure for a while it was wonderful, but look where you are now, is this really how you wanna spend the rest of your life”? “Of course not”.

“Then why won’t you leave her”? He sighed, disentangling himself and moving to sit beside her instead: “It’s easy for you to ask that, you have no idea how it feels, I’d never even make it past the door, she’d kill me”! “I’d never let that happen”. “What happens if she finds out about you”? “About us”? “You know what she’s capable of”. “I can handle her”. Molly tried to reassure, reaching for Jack’s hand: “And, say I did leave, where would I go”? “You know how my dad is, a man should never show weakness”. Jack mocked in his dad’s tone of voice, Molly rolled his eyes: “He needs to get his head out of the Stone Age”. “I haven’t got any other family, Taylor guilt tripped me into giving up all my friends apart from Colin and Zack and I almost never hang round them anymore either, besides, even if she hadn’t made me give them all up, it’d still be humiliating, the big boss man of Harvest-Mead terrorised by his 5ft 3 wife”. “We wouldn’t have to tell anyone that part”. “It’s still humiliating, not being able to keep my marriage together longer than a year”. “She’s the one who should be humiliated ok not you, it doesn’t matter what other people think”. “It does to me” Jack mumbled, head bent low: “it’s bad enough that I know the whole story, much less someone else knowing parts of it, it was hard enough admitting it all to you”. Jack lifted his head back up to meet her eyes: “I’m scared Mols, I’m not ready, I’m sorry””. Molly nodded, moving closer to him and taking his hand in hers again: “Ok, then I’ll wait, and then when you are ready, we’ll go to the police”- Jack yanked his hand away: “What”?! “No”! “We can’t go to the police”! “What if”- Molly placed a hand to Jack’s cheek, stroking it affectionately: “Hey shhh it’s ok it’s ok we don’t have to think about that right now ok”? “When you’re ready, we’re gonna figure out a way to get you out of this, then we can run away together, somewhere no one knows us, or we can stay here, move into my old place downtown, whatever you need ok”? Jack nodded, breathing out a sigh of relief: “Thanks Mols”. Molly smiled back at him: “Always, and how about as a starting point I act as a buffer for you”? He looked at her puzzled: “I could randomly run into her one day, strike up a conversation, hit it off, become best mates, that way I could come over all the time, she’d be far less likely to start anything while I’m around”.

He smiled at her with unbridled appreciation: “You’d really do that for me”? “Of course, I’d do anything for you”. She smiled mischievously at him, moving closer: “And when she’s not home, we can”… She kissed him firmly on the lips before trailing her mouth from his jaw down to his neck, being carful not to suck the skin so as not to leave a mark. Jack tilted his head back with a contented sigh, after a few seconds she pulled back: “This is what it’s supposed to be like isn’t it”? “Love”. “Baby yes, this is exactly how it’s supposed to be”. Jack swallowed: “T-Taylor doesn’t love me does she”? Molly kept her mouth shut, not knowing what to say: “Do you think she ever loved me”? “Was I always just supposed to be something for her to step on”? “I don’t know, I mean it’s possible she loved you in the beginning”. “What changed”? Molly fell silent again: “Sometimes, sometimes I think I still love her, I can’t always tell”. Molly took his hand in hers a third time: “And that’s ok, you don’t have to figure this all out at once, all that matters is us and how we feel about each other”. She paused: “I love you”. He smiled “I love you too”. He leant in and kissed her deeply, she sighed happily as they broke apart: “I’ve been waiting so long to hear you say that, and that’s what we have to focus on ok”? “That we love each other and that we know this is real”. He wrapped her in a hug and she hugged him back: “I wish we could stay like this forever, I just wanna be in your arms”. He pulled back a little, putting a hand to her cheek: “Promise me you’ll stay with me, promise me that no matter what else happens I will always have you, please, I don’t wanna be on my own”. “I promise, I’m not going anywhere, but in order for you to feel that and know that you’ve got to stop pushing me away ok”? He nodded: “I’ll try, I don’t think i have the energy to push you away anymore anyway”. He gave her a week smile, then pulled her back in for another hug, they stayed like that until she insisted they went to the hospital for his head.