Three's A Crowd

by Storm, Zee Shine

  I had almost died. If he hadn't found me on time, I might have died.

  Sometimes, in my helpless state, my mind went to places where darkness alone reigned and it made me ask questions such as, 'What if I had died?'

  At least Cole wouldn't be so miserable and stressed anymore. At least he would not hover over me expecting me to just stand up and start acting like myself again because the doctors had assured him it was possible with my cooperation. At least he and Skye would be together and live happily ever after.

  "Jasper, we're going to have to leave for your therapy session soon. Just do this one thing for me and then you can get back to watching TV," Francesco said calmly.

  Sighing, I picked up the marble and threw it in the jar with a clatter just to get him off my back. I could do things if I wanted. But the part of me that had wanted things now seemed like a far away memory. I mean, why bother?

  Francesco, however, beamed at me like I was a baby who had just learned to take his first steps.

  "Good. That was good, Jasper. Grazie. I'll go make you something for lunch and then we can go for therapy," he told me and headed off to the kitchen.

  Cole was wasting precious money hiring this loon. I could take myself to physical therapy and heat up canned stuff for my meals. I didn't need a nurse. But I was an invalid so who the fuck would listen to me?

  Cole Sawyer had simply insisted I was going to have a nurse and refused to change his mind. So I felt like showing him exactly how pathetic this guy was. That he was not contributing to my recovery in any way. That nothing he did was helping. He was useless.

  The front door opened and she walked inside dragging a suitcase behind her.

  I stared. What the fuck? So she was just going to move back in now? As if the past three months had never happened? Like she was entitled to pick up where she left off just because my boyfriend was too soft for his own good? Christ.

  And once again, nobody valued my opinion. Nobody cared that this was my house too and my life so if I didn't want her in, she damn well needed to respect that.

  I said nothing and glared at the TV as she made her way inside and chatted with Francesco, introducing herself. Maybe if I ignored her, she will get the message I tried to convey to her this morning. To leave me the fuck alone. I didn't want her or her pity. She wouldn't have returned if I had been walking tall and proud somewhere.

  My ears perked up when I heard her on the phone with Cole. They chatted for a while and then she walked over to me and held the phone out.

  "Cole wants to talk to you," she said in a business-like tone.

  Irritation spiked through me and I wanted to swipe the phone away. I ignored her instead. Skye let out a breath and sat next to me on the couch. God, her perfume, that sweet vanilla scent. It made me want to...

  "Jasper-"

  "Tell him to call on my phone if he wants to talk to me," I snapped, wishing I could just get up and leave. But then...Francesco would win.

  "Fine." She relayed the message to Cole and hung up but did not move away from me. A few seconds later, my phone started ringing next to me. I ignored that too.

  Yeah. Pretty mature.

  Skye leaned forward to get me to look at her. I didn't. The phone continued ringing. I continued to watch TV like I could not hear it. Skye puffed out another breath, got up and walked away. I finally answered the call with a cheerful hello.

  "Hi, baby." Cole sounded really happy after a long time. Well, of course. I just made him angry and bitter now. Skye's arrival changed everything. She was like his very own personal ray of sunshine.

  "Everything cool over there?" my boyfriend asked me.

  "Yeah. Everything's great. I'm being a good little dog and all. Playing fetch when the nurse tells me to."

  He was quiet. Probably thinking how much of an ass I am and what he must have done to piss off the good Lord so much that he got stuck with me.

  "Skye's going to go with you to physical therapy okay," Cole finally spoke up. "For moral support."

  "No." Anger pricked through me again.

  "Jasper, come on. You can't stay mad at her-"

  "No, Cole. You can't," I told him firmly. "You know why? Because you're a fucking pussy. And I'm not so - to hell with you and your directives. You don't get to call the shots every time. If she goes with me, I will make you both regret it."

  "What the hell, Wells?" he bit out in exasperation. "Why do you have to be so fucking dramatic? You know why she left. It wasn't because she didn't care about you."

  "Tell her to leave me the fuck alone or else she's going to be sorry!" I yelled into the phone and my breathing started to come quickly, growing more shallow.

  "Okay, okay. Just calm down."

  "Don't you fucking tell me to calm down! I'm not fragile, do you hear me?! Stop treating me like I'm going to drop dead on the spot just because I'm getting pissed off."

  "Jasper, please-"

  "God, I fucking hate you! I hate how you've become, Cole."

  "Well, I hate how you've become too. You can't even appreciate that I'm just doing my best to look after you, make sure you get better-"

  "I don't want you to!" I screamed. "I want you to stop. Just fucking stop acting like my mother. Call off your dogs and let me live in peace."

  He paused for several long moments and I could hear him breathing slowly, probably trying to regain control of his temper. Good old Cole. Always so forgiving. Pussy.

  "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay. Just...please go to therapy today. Go with Francesco. We'll talk tonight. I love you."

  I disconnected the call without replying.

  I didn't need his love either.

  ***

  For the first time in three months, my loving, too-good boyfriend did not come home at five. I watched the clock, heard Francesco say goodbye to me and exchange a few words with Skye before he left and glowered at the front door religiously during the next two hours. Where the fuck was he? Was this some sort of elaborate plan to get me to spend time alone with Skye? If so, this was a bad idea. Extremely bad. I might end up doing her some bodily harm if she tried to come near me again.

  She did not. After my phone call with Cole, she had kept to herself but her presence still bugged me to no end. If I could not see her, I would hear her and if she did not speak, her scent pervaded the house. God.

  It had been hours since I had returned from therapy and I was starting to become restless. I missed Cole and felt guilty for having yelled at him.

  The jangle of keys penetrated the white noise of the TV.

  "Hey. I'm going to the supermarket to get some stuff for dinner," Skye called out from the kitchen. "You want to go with me?"

  Wow that sounds amazing. But first, let's just wait for hell to freeze over.

  "I noticed we're out of lemons too," she mused and I frowned as I heard her rummaging through the stuff in the fridge. Oh yeah sure, hijack my kitchen, why don't you?

  "Maybe you and I could get together and make Cole a special dinner. He deserves it, don't you think? Or....we could just go to a restaurant," she said suddenly and the jangle of keys sounded closer. "He said he's working late but if we made reservations, I'm sure he'll be able to join us later."

  Wait, he never told me he was going to be working late. And why was she using the pronoun 'we' so often? It was starting to get on my nerves. There was no 'we' over here. I wasn't doing shit with her.

  "Or," she continued speaking as though my resentment was not seeping into the room like a tangible thing, "I could just leave you sitting here feeling sorry for yourself and just ask Cole to join me for dinner somewhere so we can have fun without your bad mood souring up the experience." She walked over to the door. "Hmm. Yeah, I think I'll do that. Might even take him out to a club or something to wind down later. God knows the guy needs it. Don't wait up for us, Jasper."

  How dare she? What gave her the right to just waltz in here after causing so much destruction and then hog my boyfriend? God, I was starting to sound like
a woman now. Maybe staying inside the house for months had driven me crazy. I never bothered to go out with Cole and he never left me alone in the evenings.

  But she could definitely get him to obey her wishes this particular evening given the way things were going. He was a sucker for her. And he was sex deprived so all she would have to do was present her tits in his line of vision and I was going to have to deal with a very lonely evening. Fucked if I was going to let her win.

  "I'm going with you," I announced. Skye stopped moving to glance at me warily. Pulling my wheelchair towards me, I climbed in with minimal effort. "And I'm going to drive."

  Skye opened her mouth to protest and I glared at her.

  "I can do it," I snapped at her in a tone that dared her to argue.

  She swallowed a little and then nodded. "Fine."

  After she retrieved my car keys from the bedroom and locked up, I followed her out to the driveway and she held my upper body with as much strength as she could manage while I hauled myself into the driver's seat. I tried to calm my breathing in the dark, stuffy car interior as I watched her load my wheelchair into the back before coming around to the passenger side.

  Her arms around me had felt like fire, burning me up and pushing me to feel things I did not want to feel anymore. The softness of her body and her small grunts as she had hoisted me up and towards the driver's seat. Her hair brushing my cheeks. Fuck. I hated her.

  She climbed in next to me and we sat there silently for a while. The last time we had been alone in a car together at night, we had-

  Angrily, I shook off the memories and jabbed the key in the ignition before slowly pulling out from the driveway. Skye kept her eyes on me, probably thinking I would get us killed. I scoffed under my breath. Francesco must have filled her in on my 'poor' coordination skills. Yeah. I would show her.

  I hit the accelerator and she gasped as we sped down the road, heading towards the nearest supermarket. I tried not to dwell on how good it felt to be able to drive my car after ages, just cruising through the night for something as simple as grocery shopping.

  After a couple of minutes, I glanced at Skye and noticed her gaping at me, looking ridiculously adorable in her pink hoodie which was thinly lined with fur. Sheesh. Fur hoodies. What else were they going to come up with next?

  "What?" I frowned at her and looked back at the road.

  "You can drive," she said slowly.

  I turned into a street and rolled my eyes. "Yeah. Got my licence fifteen years ago," I said flippantly. "Practised heaps."

  "No, I mean- they said you haven't been driving since...since-"

  "Since my stroke," I interrupted harshly. "You can say it, little girl. You won't get struck by lightning."

  "But if your legs are working fine then why are you using a wheelchair?" she asked in exasperation. "You could be walking-"

  "Stop. Stop talking."

  I felt rather than saw her glare and satisfaction raced through me. She wanted to play nice and not go at me for being a dick to both her and Cole. Well, we would see how long her Mother Theresa act lasted. She was definitely about to blow.

  "Why are you acting like this?" she demanded angrily. "You know what it's doing to Cole. What it's doing to me, Jasper. I'm sorry for hurting you. Please, please meet us halfway. It's hard seeing you like this."

  I laughed unkindly when her voice broke. "Not the tears again. Jeez. Don't you ever run out?"

  "You don't deserve him either, you know," she sniffed.

  "Don't act like you know what he deserves. You left. Twice. I'm here."

  "Yeah, well, it's not like you can actually go anywhere," she retorted, then gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth.

  She appeared horrified at having made the reference to my 'handicap.' I pulled into the supermarket parking lot and leaned back casually.

  "You have ten minutes," I told her calmly.

  Slowly, she lowered her hand and opened her mouth, no doubt to apologise for her comment but I could not take another apology, another sympathetic look. It made me want to break something.

  "Don't keep me waiting," I growled at her in my most threatening manner. "Ten minutes or you can find your own way back."

  She scowled right back at me, muttered something that sounded like 'asshole' under her breath and scrambled out of the car.

  As I watched her walk inside the supermarket, all long legs and angry strides, I felt the beginnings of a smirk form at a corner of my mouth. Amusement stirred within me after months of feeling nothing but bouts of anger followed by numbness. Yeah. It didn't take much to push her buttons. She was a walking emotional disaster and I figured it might be fun to return the favour by making her life hell for a change.

  ~~~

  Chapter 37

  Cole

  "Everything okay?" I asked Skye as we drove down to a local restaurant one Saturday for lunch.

  "Yup. Everything's peachy," she replied but her smile seemed forced.

  I decided not to push it. It had been five days since she had moved back in and we finally had a break from our respective jobs to go on a proper date. To my surprise, Jasper, who had not volunteered or agreed to leave the house since his accident, had decided to join us. It was a pleasant surprise for sure. I missed going out with the guy. I missed being on the receiving end of the effort that goes in maintaining a relationship during tough times.

  But while Jasper appeared relaxed in the backseat of my car, Skye seemed on edge for some reason. I didn't want to worry about it at that moment. It had been a tough day at work yesterday and I needed a peaceful break. As I rubbed the tension from my neck while navigating through the busy streets, Skye watched me with a concerned frown.

  I smiled at her to convey that I was all right but she opened her mouth and promptly declared, "Maybe Jasper should drive since all he does is sit on his ass all day long."

  It shocked me enough to cause the car to swerve a little but I quickly regained control. "Skye," I said in a grave tone. "What is going on with you? You know Jasper can't drive yet."

  She scoffed at my words but folded her arms and looked away.

  "It's probably PMS," Jasper offered from the backseat and I met his gaze in the rearview mirror. His expression was inscrutable. If Skye's words had offended him, he did not show it. But then, Jasper Wells had always had a thick hide. It was only lately that I had seen him give in to his weaknesses.

  Beside me, Skye huffed again and glared out the window. I glanced at them both for some time between watching the road and then cleared my throat. "Am I missing something?"

  God, I hoped there was something. These two were driving me nuts again. It was almost as if Armaan's words were coming true. They acted like they hated each other and yeah, it was definitely worse. I was not at all interested in playing referee in this trio.

  Neither of them answered at first. Then Jasper spoke up again.

  "Could be pregnancy. She's been throwing up a lot lately."

  "Oh for God's sake," Skye hissed while I tried to wrap my brain around yet another shocking set of words to greet my ears today. "It was just one time! And I ate something weird."

  Her glare was a force to be reckoned with but Jasper seemed unperturbed. "I wonder whose it is," he mused.

  She turned to look at him incredulously. "I'm not pregnant, Jasper," she stated firmly. “It’s been months. I’d be showing by now.”

  He ignored her. "Are you ready to be a father, Cole?" he went on calmly.

  "Arrr!" My sweet girlfriend actually growled as she turned back around and dug her fingers into her blonde locks. "Damn it, Cole. I didn't want to say anything but he's getting on my last goddamn nerve. Every single time I'm at home, he's trying to drive me nuts and I'm sick of it."

  "You can always do what you do best," my boyfriend quipped. "Leave."

  She narrowed her eyes as she looked straight ahead with a mutinous expression. I hid an amused smile under the pretence of rubbing my jaw as I reached the restaurant car park. O
kay so Jasper was still mad at her for leaving and she was growing tired of hearing about it. This was kind of entertaining. Jasper was...engaging in conversation, teasing her and it was...hell, it was better than his bitter silence and angry outbursts.

  I could not express how happy that made me though I knew I had to talk to him about it later since Skye was clearly getting upset.

  "We're here. Jasper, stop it. Her period just ended yesterday and she's definitely not pregnant."

  Skye gaped at me then. "Stop discussing my period with him," she admonished and I was taken aback.

  "I thought-"

  "What? What did you think, Cole? Just because I'm back with you does not mean I want to get back with this asshole," she snapped, pointing a finger at Jasper and then she jumped out of the car and strode off angrily towards the restaurant.

  Jasper started laughing quietly as soon as she left. I stared at him. I stared so hard he stopped and gave me an arrogant look.

  "Sorry but it's fun playing with her. She gets fired up so easily." When I continued to stare, he started to frown. "What?"

  I swallowed and blinked, trying not to croak out my next words due to all the emotions churning inside my chest.

  "I missed the sound of that. You...laughing," I explained soberly.

  He regarded me unsmilingly and then looked away. "She'll leave again," he said in a flat tone.

  His words were unexpected and yet, not at all surprising for some reason. Reaching out, I grasped his shoulder with one hand. "I won't let her go next time."

  We stayed that way for a while and he sighed. "I kind of wanted her to be pregnant," he confessed in a frank manner. "It would have linked her to us forever."

  I smiled because I understood the sentiment all too well. "It'll happen when the time is right," I murmured, squeezing his shoulder.

  He grunted. "Or you could just put a baby in her and put me out of my misery," he said abruptly.

  I laughed. "Baby, it doesn't work like that. I can't just do that without talking to her about it first."

  He scowled at the console. "If you don't do it, I will."