Maybe Arthur told Henry about us moving in together?
“You know,” I said, pulling my phone out of my bag. “I could just call him and ask instead of contemplating.”
I waited for Deb to leave my side, then locked myself into the office before making the call.
Arthur said “hello” in his sleepy voice and cleared his throat when he sensed my restlessness.
“What is it? Are you okay?”
“No, I’m okay. I just… I just wanted to know if there’s something you wanted to tell me.”
Silence.
“Arthur?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m here. How did you…?”
“Deb,” I said, crossing my legs and leaning against the door. “She overheard something. What is it, Arthur? Did you tell Henry about our decision? Because I told you that I need to tell my friends first.”
“No, it’s not that. I… I was meaning to call you later today. My divorce with Sophie will come through in a week. I’m officially going to be a single man.”
14
Arthur
Our final hearing date had been set for next week. When I got home after meeting my parents with Jessica, I checked my email to see the one thing that I’d been so desperately waiting for. Even though my divorce with Sophie wasn’t a contested one, the wait had been killing us both. I was just ready to stop receiving emails and invoices from lawyers and the courts on a nearly daily basis. The constant reminder of my failed marriage never put me in a particularly positive mood. I was ready to start over, and do it right this time.
It was all going to be over. Soon, it would be a mistake of my past, not a nagging problem of my present.
The first person I thought to call was Henry. I wasn’t ready to speak to the rest of my family just yet. He was the closest thing to a sibling for me and knew everything that I’d gone through in the recent past. As expected, he sounded ecstatic upon hearing the news.
“Finally,” he said, then moved on to suggesting that I should come by the office every day and get accustomed to running things around there. I told him that I wasn’t sure if it was even going to work yet, if I was really going to end up taking his place. He knew as well as I did that that was bullshit.
Things with Jessica were going well, and it was only a matter of time that the visa through my second marriage would be approved. It felt like a natural progression — to at least start familiarizing myself with Henry’s firm — soon to be my firm.
“It’ll also distract you,” Henry said, and I agreed. Besides, it wasn’t like I was doing much at home after I quit my job, anyway. Simply wallowing around, worrying about Jessica, and waiting to get more time with Megan wasn’t working for me anymore.
I needed to get my shit in order, and I needed to do it now. My daughter deserved a better father.
I answered Jessica’s call while I was still in bed. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the entire night, though my voice sounded raspy and tired. She gasped when I filled her in, telling her that I was going to be a single man.
“Are you serious?” is all she could muster.
“I am,” I replied, though I could barely believe the two words myself.
Even though reaching the end of the process had me feeling like I was free, I still had a sinking feeling in my stomach, like I had lost something. Because I had, and it was no small thing. I was never going to be with the mother of my first child, I was always going to have to co-parent with her, sharing time, all the things that I didn’t think that I would ever have to do.
“Going to the courthouse next Wednesday,” I told her and received silence in return.
“Also, I’m coming to Go Dot today. Should be there in an hour or so.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “Meeting Henry?”
“More like spending the day with him, meeting the employees, getting a feel of things.”
“I see,” she said. “Well, I guess I’ll see you soon, then.”
I hung up, even though I wanted to keep talking to her. Being with Jessica, listening to her voice, reading her texts was everything that relaxed me. She was my calm in the storm in every sense of the word. Besides, she’d gone through something similar with her ex-husband, Tyler. Surely, she would understand how I was feeling. Despite these reasons, I thought it was best to avoid discussing anything with her. The last thing I wanted was for her to think that I had feelings for Sophie, because the only woman I truly felt for was her.
I was going to do everything in my power to keep her close, to make her believe that she belonged with me. Jessica was a broken woman and I needed to put those pieces back together, promising to never shatter her heart again.
My next phone call was to Sophie who I assumed received the email at the same time last night. She didn’t answer the first time around, so I texted her.
- Just called to say hey. Hope Megan slept through the night.-
I saw the little bubbles appear at the bottom before they disappeared and my phone rang.
Her voice was as raspy as mine was. I assumed she hadn’t gotten much sleep either.
“You called?” She asked and I quickly responded with a “yes.”
“Arthur, there’s nothing left to talk about.”
I swallowed and silently agreed.
“Still, if you need a friend —”
“I don’t,” she cut me off. “I thought we could remain friends after everything. You know, preserve our friendship or whatever bullshit we’ve been telling ourselves. Go back to how we used to be before we made the… stupid… decision. But…”
“I get it,” I said and cleared my throat. “I understand what you mean. But, I want you to know that you have all my respect and you always will. You’re Megan’s mom. In one week, you may not be my wife but you will remain my family.”
Silence.
“You there?” I asked, feeling surprised at what I’d accomplished with my words. I’d never been one to be so expressive but I needed to be during that phone call. Sophie needed to know that I was always going be around. If not for her, then for my daughter. We were family and we were always going to be that.
“Yes. I’m here. I have to go, Arthur. I’ll… I’ll come by sometime later.”
She hung up within seconds after that and I dragged myself out of bed.
* * *
Henry was standing by the stairs that led to the entrance of the building. All suited up in grey, his smile was the only colorful thing about him, besides his red tie.
“You look like you’re in a good mood,” I commented, patting his back as he gestured toward the door.
“Aren’t you?” he smirked.
Things with him and Lauren weren’t all that great and for him, the idea of a peaceful divorce probably sounded like eating his favorite candy on Halloween.
The truth, however, was that one had to go through a divorce themselves to really understand what it feels like. Maybe, I would get over it within a month, maybe two, but I would still carry it in my heart as a failure of mine forever.
“Here,” he said, pushing a door that revealed Jessica’s face.
“Uh,” she stood, her mouth open.
“You kids hang out here,” Henry announced, turning around.
It’s not that I wouldn’t rather spend my time with Jessica instead of with Henry, but I was curious as to what his plan might be. Henry was always up to something.
“Thought you were going to… show me around?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
He gestured towards a startled Jessica.
“No, but she will. I have a meeting in a few, anyway. Ms. Clayton, would you be kind enough to show your soon-to-be boss the office? While keeping it on the down-low at the same time? Just tell whoever asks that he just wanted to look around.”
He then looked over at me, his hand on my shoulder.
“Cheer up.”
I shook my head, then fixed my attention on Jessica who’d just gotten done nodding, eager to please her boss even though she knew h
e was probably doing this as some sort of scheme.
“Ready?” She asked, her face as serious as ever as she tidied a bunch of papers and slid a stapler to the side.
“Sure. Nice office, by the way.”
“Thanks,” she shrugged, and walked towards the door. “It’s been a rewarding few months. The promotion, I mean. Except for…”
“Except for?” I was all ears.
“Nothing, forget it.”
“No, you can’t leave me hanging.”
She sighed and told me how Henry had made one of her friends her assistant.
“Sadistic son of a bitch,” I laughed.
“Right?” She smirked, showing me her palm.
We high-fived like we were kids and the smile on her face disappeared as she cleared her throat.
She, too, had a lot going through her mind — Understandably so.
I was obviously not the only one feeling weird about this divorce thing.
“How are you, by the way?” She gathered the strength to ask. “Everything ok, considering?”
“Oh, you know…”
I let her fill in the blanks.
“I don’t know what to make of it,” she continued. “I know you wanted this. You’d been waiting for this. But it still has to be hard, doesn’t it?”
I leaned forward and gently kissed her lips. My heart felt a bit lighter, knowing that she understood. Knowing that I had this amazing woman in my life who I could count on.
“I hope you haven’t changed your mind,” I said, trailing my pointer finger up her arm. “About moving in with me.”
She shook her head, swallowed.
“So, where do we start?” I asked as I pulled away, being a tease. “Introduce me to this assistant slash friend of yours? David, you said?”
She nodded with tight lips. “Yes, him and Deb. Trust me, Deb has been dying to be introduced to you. She’s going to die.”
Jessica wasn’t exaggerating when she said that. Deb stiffened when her eyes landed on me and she extended me her arm without once moving her gaze away.
“Arthur. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Hey,” she sang, continuing to shake my hand for several more seconds. I had to practically yank it away.
“Hey, I’m David,” the man standing next to her said, waving at me.
“He’s the one,” Deb butt in. “Jessica’s best friend and assistant.”
I chuckled when Jessica smacked the side of her arm and Deb rubbed the spot and grimaced.
“Jessica talks a lot about you, Arthur,” David said, trying to curb his laugher and receiving a death stare from his boss slash friend.
I was starting to feel as if I was in a high school classroom, and her friends were exactly like she’d described them to be. It was clear why Jess was so close to Deb and David. They were fun distractions from all the things that she dealt with at home, including being away from Lily. It was good that she had a solid work family to goof off with.
“All good things, I hope.”
“Oh…,” Deb tilted her neck to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Very, very, good things.”
I shook my head and laughed before being pulled away.
“Come, let’s go see the cafeteria,” Jessica announced, her hand wrapped around my wrist.
“Hey, that was rude.”
She rolled her eyes, then let go of my wrist when a colleague in one of the cubicles noticed it.
“Do they know? About Henry’s retirement?”
She nodded.
“Everyone in this office usually knows about everything. Maybe, if Henry opened his eyes once in a while, he would see that nothing stays a secret for long around here.”
I smiled at that.
“You really hate him, don’t you?”
She shrugged, opening a tall refrigerator.
“I think you already know the answer to that. Anyway, help yourself to anything that isn’t labeled. Or anything that’s labeled Henry. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind his little brother eating his sandwich.”
“I’m not really hungry.” I said, snapping it closed and touching the side of her waist. "Not for a sandwich, anyway."
“What are you doing?” She shook her head, her lower body glued to mine.
“This place is empty,” I said, looking around. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“No, not here,” she said, blushing.
I spotted a washroom to my right and opened it with my right leg, then pulled her in.
Jessica’s chest filled with air, her breasts touching my chest as I held her close. She was melting in my arms, her eyes begging me to kiss her.
So, I did.
My hands rested over her ass. She ran her fingers through my hair as our kiss deepened. Her ass felt so juicy under my fingers that I became hard at the thought of it rocking back and forth over me.
“You’re so crazy hot,” I whispered into her lips. She opened her eyes, blushed, but looked at me like she didn’t believe what I said.
The woman who could drive me absolutely insane in less than half a second didn’t even know how beautiful she was.
15
Jessica
I’d never been one to ever be out of line at work, to do things that would be considered so seriously improper. But today, when Arthur put his hands on my ass and pulled me closer, nothing came to mind except for the fact that I wanted this man.
I was falling for him — hard.
I just couldn’t get enough of him. When he wasn’t around, I would spend my day thinking and fantasizing about him. That in itself was saying a lot, considering that the only person to cross my mind regularly over the course of a day would always be my daughter. That’s just how it’d been since Lily was born and I never would have thought that the bicep man would just whoosh into my life out of nowhere and flip my life upside down.
I couldn’t complain. Not when he was still digging his fingers into my skin like I belonged to him, like I existed… just for him.
I felt protected just as long as his arms were around me. His touch, the feel of his breath touching my skin, the way he would search for my eyes with his — everything about him drove me crazy, absolutely and utterly mad.
He placed his finger under my chin, lifting my face so he could kiss me again. I never wanted him to stop swirling his tongue over my lips, sucking on the bottom one like he couldn’t wait to take me.
Oh, he knew how to make me feel like a woman, and how to make me melt in his arms.
“I need you,” I whispered and he looked into my eyes, knowing that I meant the words that I just said.
He turned me around in one quick motion and scrunched up my pencil skirt around my waist.
I felt his hard cock press against my ass when he grabbed me by the waist, rubbing himself against me.
“You have no idea how much I need you…,” he said in my ear.
The voices in my head that were begging me to stop, to be careful so I wouldn’t get caught, had been silenced by the voices coming from my ovaries that were screaming at me to let this man fuck me. Now, all I wanted was him, even if the world heard my screams.
Arthur pressed his hand over my mouth when he slid two fingers into me, then trailed those wet fingers over my thighs.
I shivered, wanting his cock deep inside me instead of just his fingers.
When I heard him unzip his jeans, my hand reached for his leg and I squeezed it. He was about to rock my world and I could barely wait.
His hand was still over my mouth while he fucked me, holding me in place. My legs shivered and my hands stayed glued to the wall in front.
It was crazy, the number of times Arthur could make me cum.
Now was his turn.
I turned to face him when he pulled out, then got down on my knees.
His fingers dug into my hair and I smiled when I saw him throw his head back in pleasure.
It was rewarding to see his face as I licked his length. It almost seemed like I knew what I was do
ing, but in reality, I hadn’t done this sort of a thing in years. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have a cock inside my mouth, to pleasure a man in a way that would give you all the power.
I felt him pulsate when I stroked harder, and then the warmth of his seed filled my mouth.
He groaned softly, his breaths shallow.
“We should do this more often,” he said, still panting a little.
“Do it in the… bathroom?” I laughed.
He shook his head.
“Be more adventurous.”
I rolled my eyes, thinking that there was enough adventure in my life because of this man already. I hardly needed any more of it.
“Well, this was fun,” I admitted. “Now can you poke your head out the door and check if anyone’s there?”
He did what I said, then quickly closed the door again.
“The janitor and a few other people.”
“Fuck.”
He gave me a half-smile. “Well, now that we have to wait in here anyway, how about a second round?”
* * *
Deb and I got to my apartment after work and I felt as if I was still floating in the air. My best friend knew better than to question the reason for my smile. She, too, looked genuinely happy to see it on my face.
I’d asked her to come help me pack, though there wasn’t much to be done. I’d decided that I would only take some of my stuff to Arthur’s for now. I was sure that I was ready to move in with him, or at least that’s what I’d been telling myself. My anxiety, however, told me otherwise.
I just wasn’t ready to uproot my life, to take all of my belongings to Arthur’s place before seeing how it turned out in the first week or so.
“Why exactly aren’t you terminating your contract at this apartment?” Deb asked, plopping herself on the edge of my mattress.
For one, Lily hasn’t met him. And two…
I pondered for a second. “I’m not sure. I’m not ready, I guess.”
“You’re not ready?” she smirked, her brows reaching for her hairline. “You’re absolutely insane, you know that? There’s this humongous smile that spreads across your face when your eyes land on Arthur’s biceps. His presence alone turns you from the boring ninety-year-old you usually act like to a teenager with a crush. I think you’re plenty fucking ready.”
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