After Dad's death, I spent twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four working my ass off to keep both companies moving. Until that point, I never understood what it meant to be so busy you forget humans eat. Damon had to stick my food into my mouth while I signed a bunch of documents for our expansion in Italy.
"Why is her lesson taking so long?" I asked Ives the day she had visited me.
Ives glared at me from the corner of her eyes. She was the only one bold enough to do that because we grew up together and probably even had our baths in the same tub. "These things take time Jesse. You aren't training a robot."
"And your woman isn't exactly smart." Now I knew that was not true.
"Are we still talking about the same person? Amelia is smarter than you and I together just wasn't as privileged as we were." My voice trailed off at the end.
"Whatever." She shrugged. "I heard you visited Trisha."
Gossip queen of LA. "Nothing gets by you, does it?" I didn't want to talk about it, especially with Ives. As much as she tried to hide it, I knew she disliked Trisha. Not sure why though.
"It was Laura who told me. She said you put on quite a show." She got up from the sofa and headed towards me. "What happened?"
"Do I owe you an explanation?" Her brows arched. "Well, if you must know, she took Amelia out without my permission and Trisha texted me." By the way, she stared at me, I knew she wanted more details.
"That's all," I said and returned to my work.
She placed her hands on her hips "That's all? Why did you visit her then?" She looked at me and her eyes widened at the same time with her mouth "Did you guys..."
I cut her "No." I couldn't deal with her. "Leave..." I started subtly. "Now." My voice increased when she didn't flinch.
She grabbed her bag and left the office slamming the door hard. I had tried hard not to think about that night but she has reminded me.
And yes, nothing happened. I couldn't do anything. After I moaned Amelia's name, she got down and tied her robe back, I cursed myself silently. Then she asked with the most hushed tone "Already?"
Even I couldn't explain it. I didn't know how I got to the point where I said her name so spontaneously. I just knew that all the while Trisha kissed me, I felt Amelia, longed for her, and saw her in my mind. She stood there, dressed in the lingerie Trisha had on, and beaconed on me to end her misery.
I missed her. I missed the way she played stubborn, I missed her long black hair, "luscious" she would always call it. I loved the way she called my name, ever so gently, I loved the way it felt like she could break in any moment, made me want to protect her. She was so naive and I wanted to explore all her Innocence.
That was all I needed. I wrapped up everything early after I got a call that she had gone to a club and I headed home. I thought she would have returned, but it was just Mira at home. I didn't want to keep her locked up so I let her stay for a while, or rather, I found her journal. And trust me, she wanted a lot. A lot more than I could give...kisses in the rain, movie nights, ice cream parties, showers, washing the car together, and spending all day under the duvet.
There were so many others. But we could start from somewhere. I called Damon and had him fill the tanks, we had to make it rain. Then I went to pick her up from the club. I watched her type in her drunken state and somehow the fact that she only thought to text me, made me grin from ear to ear. I loved my little woman.
I grabbed her, put her in the car and listened to her nag about how I didn't give her enough time and attention and all I could say each time was "Sorry momma."
"I missed you." I heard her say after talking nonstop and she pulled me towards her and kissed me with her hand wrapped around my shoulder. The shower was meant to be on the outside, but who cared? We were already home, so I simply gave the signal, and the "rain" was let down with the roof of the car pulled open.
She looked up, her hair already soaking "Did you read it?" She asked so innocently.
"That was why you left it out there, right?" She nodded. I wanted so badly to make her happy, to grant everything she had written in the book but there were two I wasn't sure of.
"I hope I didn't disappoint momma."
As she pulled me down again and lurched at my lips, my heart hurt, I prayed to every god out there, that I would be able to love her enough and that she never wanted kids.
Kissing in the rain wasn't so bad after all. That was until she sneezed. "Alright. Let's get you inside."