Just You

by Jane Lark

  “That’s Portia….” I heard Mom. It sounded like she was near him, “let me talk to her…”

  “Congratulations,” Dad said, in a firm unemotional voice.

  “Portia!” Mom sounded breathless and excited. “You have my congratulations too, sweetheart, and you will never guess where we are…”

  I smiled at Justin. This was weird. Dad had sounded warm and emotional, Mom really happy and excited–Alice in Wonderland–maybe I had fallen down the white rabbit’s hole.

  “Where are you?” I answered, hearing the questioning note in my voice, that was not asking that, but asking what is going on…

  “We’re in Italy, driving along the road by Lake Garda. We are doing an Italian tour. We will be out here for a month, travelling all over. Your father wants to relive our honeymoon–”

  What?

  “We are to go to Venice, and Rome, and Sienna…” She kept talking. Odd feelings overwhelmed me. I’d never heard her sound like this. “But first we are spending a week here, the same secluded little villa we stayed in just after we married…”

  “Is everything okay, Mom?”

  “Oh, yes, everything is wonderful…” I had never heard her so enthusiastic. Then the sound was muffled a little, like she had half covered the phone with her hand, and she whispered. “You may thank that boyfriend of yours from me. Since he came down here, it is like your dad has just woken up. We are working on our marriage. We have started seeing a counselor, and we’ll carry on after the holiday. I feel so happy, Portia… I’d better go though, we are nearly there, and I need to look out for the sign. Goodbye darling, congratulations. I am going to have to come to New York when you start dress shopping.”

  “Goodbye, Mom.”

  “I love you.” I couldn’t remember the last time she had said that to me, and sounded like she meant it. But that is what it sounded like now. She must have been hurting over Dad’s infidelity for years.

  I’d been judging her, for how she’d chosen to deal with it. But maybe she hadn’t really just been ignoring it, but just hadn’t known how to deal with it.

  “I love you, too.” I did. No matter what, she was my Mom.

  The call went dead.

  “What did you say to him?”

  “Basically, I told him he was an idiot if he did not start caring about his daughter, and stop acting like a douche, and threatened to never let him near his grandkids if he didn’t grow up and stop playing around.”

  Justin was leaning forward and then pushing back, as the oars cut through the water.

  “I got you so wrong Justin Preston, when I first knew you… Thank you…”

  A broad grin cut into his face. “Well, I had you down for being someone entirely different too. But then I saw you, just you, and I was hooked.”

  He leaned forward again, before he could pull back, I moved to grip his shoulders and hugged him hard. “Just you is everything I want. I never thought that I would be this happy…”

  “Nor me.” His lips brushed my cheek with a kiss as I let him go.

  “I want to go home and watch Disney films after this.”

  He laughed…

  ~

  I Found You, book one in The Starting Out Series; Jason’s and Rachel’s story, will continue throughout the series.

  ‘Portia, look who just walked in.’ I emailed her, then stood up, and saw her turn to look as I looked across the desks.

  Jason was here. The guy who’d worked here until New Year. I’d not seen or heard from him since he’d walked out, the day Portia had been dying with embarrassment ‘cause she didn’t know what had happened in Mr. Rees’s pool.

  Jason looked agitated, angry and nervous, as he walked across the room, hands in the pockets of his brown leather jacket. But he had a determined stride. He hadn’t looked my way but I presumed he’d come back to say hi.

  “Jason!” I called as I walked ‘round the desks to block his path. Portia was standing too, and the other girls were getting up. “Hey!”

  He looked at me. His hands slipping out of his pockets but there wasn’t really any pleasure in his eyes.

  He did stop when he got close and let out a sigh. “Hey.” It was like the welcome was grudging.

  “What’s up?” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice. I was pleased to see him. We’d been friends, I’d thought, except the mother-fucker had never answered a single text or call since he’d gone. Walking closer, I held out my hand. He took it, but he only held it for a moment then let go.

  “How’s your girl? How’s the baby? Is it born?”

  His gaze focused on me. “Yeah. It’s a boy. He’s called, Saint. He’s doing good. But I’ve come in to see Mr. Rees. I need to ask him something.”

  “Yeah.” That had my eyebrows lifting.

  Portia stepped forward making her presence known, in full Miss-perfect in-office mode. That was the Portia Jason had known, and he hadn’t liked her, no matter how much she’d tried to make him. She pressed against my side, and I tucked my arm around her as she held her hand out.

  “Justin and I are engaged.”

  Jason’s eyes widened as he looked from her to me. “Really?” I’d given him a lot of shit about doing things too fast when he’d got engaged.

  “Yeah.” Really. “When you know something’s right… You don’t wait. You know that, Jason…”

  His lips shifted into a lopsided smile. I could see he wasn’t convinced Portia was right for me, but he didn’t know the Portia I did.

  “Well, whatever. Good Luck. I’ve got to go talk to Mr. Rees. Then I’m out of here.”

  “Yeah. Okay. But say good-bye when you come out, and keep in touch this time.”

  He just shrugged. I didn’t think he would.

  Portia looked at me when he walked away and then once we saw him disappear into Mr. Rees’s office, we followed. I could see Jason leaning over Mr. Rees’s desk through a glass panel in the door. No one did that unless they had a suicide wish, but then Jason wasn’t working here anymore. But if he wanted a reference, that wasn’t the way to get it.

  Portia and I stood a couple of yards from the office, opening our mouths like we were talking quietly, saying nothing, so we could hear.

  “I’m tired of your fucking games,” Jason was saying. “Just do it, you want this to get swept away, and I want the same thing, but I want it done right. Just do the damn test and then either way, you’ll get rid. Okay! Here!”

  I could see Jason slide something across the table in a small plastic bag. Mr. Rees looked up. I looked at Portia.

  I couldn’t hear Mr. Rees’s answer, he wasn’t shouting. But he looked angry as hell when I glanced back.

  “Yeah. Well. We’ll see. But if you are, then I want you to sign the papers or I’ll be back. Then… This won’t go away! I’ll drag you through every fucking court there is!”

  The office door was thrust open again and Jason came out, red in the face, and looking as if he’d have steam coming out his ears if cartoons were real.

  Portia moved forward but I stuck out a hand and held her back, then followed him alone. When I caught up with him, I said quietly, “Problems?”

  He didn’t slow down but glanced at me. “You could say that, but it’s nothing for you to give a shit about. Just keep it quiet.”

  “I can keep things as silent as the grave…”

  He finally smiled. “Justin, that is not you. You and Portia are probably the perfect match. Gossips.”

  “Well, I discovered she is pretty perfect when you know her, gossip or not.”

  He smiled at me fully then, we were still walking, but he slapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”

  “Thanks. Same.”

  When we got to the door at the end of the floor, he turned and gripped my shoulder harder. “It’s good to see you. But I’m not keeping in touch. My life’s kind of moved on.”

  “Yeah?”

  “In a good way, Justin.”

  His life had pivot
ed around the girl he’d met last year. Mine now pivoted around Portia. “I got it.”

  Portia was everything…

  Bonus Material

  Rachel and Jason’s story started in I Found You and is available to buy now.

  I Found You

  Chapter One

  The beat of the music pounded through my earphones, drowning out the loud rattle of the subway trains. I was in the zone. My heart was racing, my feet striking the pavement with the rhythm of the bassline as I ran.

  The monotony of city life swamped me in the day, but running brought me back from it at night.

  God, I missed home, and fuck it was cold.

  Too cold to snow. I heard the words Dad always repeated. I’d always thought it a myth. Was it ever too cold to snow? I didn’t know, but people had been saying it all day.

  The pavement was dry, not icy. Dry with cold. There was no moisture in the air, only the cloud of my breath, as my lungs filled and then exhaled with the pace of my strides.

  Maybe it was true. God, there were so many myths in the world. Like, New York City was the place to be. It still felt like new shoes to me, like it just didn’t fit.

  The asphalt felt firm beneath my sneakers.

  I looked forward, trying to increase my pace and energy, burning away the doubts and disappointments I’d felt since I came to the city.

  At the end of the bridge there was a figure, caught in the middle of a beam of orange lamplight, like some illuminated angel. I generally only saw other guys jogging on the bridge path. It was rare to see anyone else.

  It was Thanksgiving in little over a week and Christmas in a few weeks. Lindy was pissed I wasn’t going back home, but she’d made up her mind to come to me for Christmas.

  Was that good or bad?

  The figure was facing the Brooklyn Bridge, probably looking at the reflection of the lights glinting and shifting on the dark water. It was mesmerizing when you focused on it.

  The Manhattan Bridge was never busy, probably because of the noise of the trains. The environment didn’t inspire pleasure, so it wasn’t a place for tourists. But it was a good path for running: long and straight, and normally empty.

  I ran harder, my eyes focusing on the figure.

  The person hadn’t moved. They held their hands up, gripping the metal grill above them.

  The pose seemed odd. A little desperate. It wasn’t casual.

  My imagination shifted, no longer picturing angels but a horror movie. The way the lamplight shone down on the figure was like they were in the sights of a hovering helicopter, or a beam from a UFO.

  I thought of Christmas again, and ached for home. But I wasn’t going home. I had to conquer New York.

  The light shining down on the stranger suddenly took the form of a Godly benediction once more. The person’s arms shifted, stretching out, similar to a crucifixion pose, hands wide and high as they looked upward.

  I was getting nearer.

  My fingers were numb with the cold, even inside my gloves, and my ears burned as the frost nipped beneath my hood. Running should’ve kept me warm, but it was twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit, way below freezing point.

  Fuck, now I could see the person ahead was standing in a t-shirt. Their outstretched arms were bare.

  “Hey!” My heart rate thundered as I ran on, wondering what sort of sketchy city-nutter I was running toward. What were they doing wearing a tee in this weather? It didn’t look like a homeless dude, but…

  My breaths grew more uneven.

  The guy ahead hadn’t heard me.

  I pulled my earphones out. “Hey!”

  Still no recognition. It was like they were in some sort of trance.

  My feet pounded on the concrete.

  It wasn’t a guy, it was a girl. I’d seen the long hair way back, but hadn’t been sure. Plenty of guys had long hair. But now, I could see.

  I knocked my hood back. I didn’t want to scare her. “Hey!”

  Nothing. Not a single sign of recognition and I was only yards away. She was wearing skinny jeans and sneakers with her tee.

  Her hands moved, catching hold of the wire like she was going to climb it, then her foot lifted, seeking a grip on the railing.

  Her arms bracing her weight; her other foot lifted. What the hell was she doing? Trying to go over the wire? Did she want to jump?

  “Hey! Wait!”

  I ran harder.

  Fuck. She looked serious and she carried on climbing, searching out hand and foot holds.

  “Are you crazy? Stop it!”

  As I ran the last few yards her gaze finally turned to me. I covered the distance in moments, watching her clinging on the wire, Spiderman style.

  God knows what she saw in my eyes. I could see nothing in hers except maybe fear. They were huge, and dark, staring at me like I was the weird one.

  I wasn’t the weird one.

  My music continued playing muted sounds and air rasped into my lungs as I stopped. I lifted a hand, palm up, offering to help her down. “Come on…” My breath fogged the air around us. “Nothing’s that bad…”

  She held still. Her eyes had no depth. It was like looking into mirrors, reflecting back the electric light. She looked a little mad.

  “Let me help you.”

  She was panting as hard as I was. She didn’t come down.

  She was only a couple of feet off the floor, I could pull her down, but I didn’t want to scare her.

  My fingers instinctively lifted and touched her lower back. I could feel the breath pulling into her lungs. “Look, seriously, you don’t want to do anything foolish.”

  She didn’t move.

  “What’s your name?” Shit. My heart was still racing like I was running. I looked along the bridge path, but there was no one else here to help.

  “Honey, come on down. I can’t let you do it.”

  She was just staring at me.

  What the hell did cops say to persuade a person… “You must be cold, you can have my hoodie. I’m not going to leave you here.”

  This was like some TV drama.

  My hands were trembling from the blood burning in my muscles. I’d gone from running hard to standing still. A weight of responsibility fell on me suddenly. This girl’s life was in my hands. I’d been running wrapped up in my own world and now… Shit. “Really. Please… Come down.”

  Pleading obviously touched some nerve in her, as one foot came back down onto the concrete, her cotton t-shirt catching on my glove and crumpling up, revealing the pale skin of her lower back. My gaze dropped to her plain white sneakers, as the next foot touched the ground.

  Relief washed through me on a wave as I lifted my hand so her t-shirt slid back down. I looked up and met her gaze. It was still blank though, and her fingers gripped the wire.

  I touched her shoulder. It lifted as air pulled into her lungs, before slipping back out. I didn’t know why I was touching her, but I just… I needed to know she was okay. She didn’t seem to know where she was, or what she’d been doing.

  A dark smear marked her face, and whatever it was, it stained her hair too.

  Every sermon I’d endured as a kid raced through my head. Help the needy; put others first; don’t walk past that mugged guy in the street. I hadn’t gone to church for years, not since I’d hit my teens, but religion was stitched into my DNA. No way could I walk past a person in need.

  My shock dissipating, I stripped off my hoodie. The smell of my sweat permeated the cold air. She probably wouldn’t want it but she needed it. “How long have you been up here? It’s freezing.” She could have been up here half an hour. She hadn’t been here when I’d run over the bridge into Manhattan.

  For a minute I didn’t think she’d take it, but then her hand reached out. “I don’t know?”

  “You know it’s twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit, right? You’ll get hyperthermia.” She looked at me, her eyes still dead. “I’m Jason… Were you trying to do what I thought?”

  She didn’t an
swer.

  I held out my hand. “Hi.”

  She didn’t shake my hand, just looked at it.

  “Look, nothing can be that bad. You’ll get over it, and be glad you didn’t jump.”

  “Will I?” Her pitch was mocking, although maybe she was mocking her own thoughts, not my words, nothing in her eyes or her face told me though.

  What now? I could hardly just run on and leave her here. Dammit. “I…” I could take her to emergency… What would they do? Check her over and spit her out. “Have you got any family locally?”

  “No.”

  “Friends?”

  “No.”

  Her large eyes confirmed what she’d said. She had nowhere to go. Her full lips pouted a little. Shit. What did I do?

  “Where do you live then? Is there somewhere I can take you?”

  She was pretty. Her face glowed in the electric light, showing a clear complexion and perfectly even features, though her skin was yellowish in this light.

  “No. Nowhere.”

  Why was she here? What had made her life too hard to carry on?

  She shivered, and pain etched its expression on her face, then tears suddenly glittered in her eyes, and the coldness in them became a lake of desolation. “I need to get away.”

  “From what?”

  She didn’t answer, but her teeth started chattering. I lifted the hood of my sweatshirt over her blonde hair.

  “Look, obviously things aren’t okay for you. What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I took a breath, looking at her and hoping some magical solution would suddenly hit me. It didn’t, and I was getting cold now.

  She shivered again and her arms crossed, her hands gripping the opposite elbows. She’d stopped looking at me. She was looking at the sky, like she was searching for answers too.

  I sighed, my fingers running over my hair. She was nearly as tall as me, and I was six foot one. She must be at least five eight. But she was slender, like a model. My sweatshirt swamped her figure. She looked fragile.

  Shit. There was nothing I could do. “What are you going to do, if I go?”

  Her shoulders lifted in a shrug, but she didn’t look down.