Mimi Mine

by Aubrey Cara

  After years of making her feel bad about herself—her sexual desires—and then finally talking her into having a baby, she had found her husband in bed with someone else. His boyfriend to be exact. Jay never apologized. He'd said it was better she'd found out and he didn't have to pretend to care about her any more. He hadn't said “love,” he'd said, “care.”

  He hadn't even cared for her. Or Zeke.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  She pulled out her keys feeling dejected and hastily scrubbed the few tears that had managed to leak out. Entering the apartment she didn't see anyone. The kitchen was cleaner than when she'd left it, indicating Mason had either gotten bored or was a very tidy man.

  After working with him for almost a year she'd guess both. The small space still smelled like charcoal and steak and she wondered if there were any leftovers. She had pushed her food around more than she'd eaten it and now that she was home she was kind of hungry.

  The TV was on and playing some sports talk show. Then she noticed Mason's feet hanging off the end of the couch. He must have fallen asleep.

  Kicking off her heels and tossing her jacket over a stool she walked over to wake him, and found Zeke in his favorite blue camo jammies sleeping curled up next to Mason. Both their heads were kicked back, their mouths hanging open in identical slumber.

  Her heart melted even as it broke apart into a tiny million pieces. Emotions rioted through her as she stood and watched them both slightly snoring peacefully.

  Zeke already thought the moon and stars were hung by Mason. What had she been thinking, letting him watch him? How was Zeke going to feel when Mason didn't show at Thanksgiving? Zeke had been talking about Mason all week and that had just been after the mall and pizza.

  Her son was going to be devastated and it was all her fault. She bit her lip to hold back a tear but it wasn't any good. The tear rolled down her cheek anyways, followed by a few of its friends.

  She shouldn't have drank so much wine at dinner. She was turning into a basket-case. She sniffed loudly and nearly jumped out of her skin when Mason laid his hand on hers that was resting on the back of the couch. His silver gray eyes were trained on her in concern.

  “Hey, what happened? Are you alright?” he whispered.

  Sniffing again she wiped her face she nodded. She hadn't let herself really cry in years. She shouldn't be crying over something she couldn't change. “I'm fine.” she said equally softly.

  “Did that asshole hurt you?”

  “No.”

  Mason sat up bringing Zeke's slumped form forward with him. He carefully lifted Zeke with ease as he stood up. It wouldn't have mattered. He could have held Zeke upside down by his toes and the kid would sleep through it.

  “When he's out, he stays out,” she said. Her child had always been a heavy sleeper.

  “I see that,” Mason said smiling. “I'll put him in bed and we can talk.”

  She preceded Mason and turned down Zeke's bed. She watched as Mason laid her son down and pulled the covers up, gently tucking him in. He dropped a quick kiss on Zeke's head and whispered, “Sweet dreams kiddo.”

  Her heart pinched at the unconscious easy gesture. She leaned over and kissed Zeke's forehead wishing him sweet dreams too, then followed Mason out of the room, shutting the door until it was open only a crack.

  She had barely turned away from the door before she was in Mason's embrace. His arms were steel bands forcing her to accept his comfort. He was like a solid wall of warmth and strength. Years of having to be strong crumbled surrounded by the life and breath of Mason.

  Sudden tears rolled down her cheeks as she burrowed into Mason's chest. She cried for herself, for having to be strong when she wanted to be weak. She cried for how misguided she'd been as a younger woman. She should have known better than to have stayed with a man that had treated her so badly.

  She cried for her son who'd recently started asking her regularly about his father and why he didn't have one like other kids. She loved him so much and would give him anything, yet it seemed he wanted the only thing she couldn't give him.

  The more Mason rubbed her back and held her tighter the harder she cried. Jay had never held her this tenderly. How could she have spent years with a man that didn't even make her feel half as loved, safe, and cherished as this man she wasn't even dating?

  *** ***

  The look on Mimi's face just about destroyed Mason. She looked utterly lost and devastated. He wanted to know what the hell happened on her date tonight. As hard as she was crying she wasn't making a sound. Silent sobs shook her slender frame as tears tracked down her cheeks.

  He squeezed her tighter and she seemed to cry harder before calming down.

  When she'd finally stopped and took in a shaking breath, he dropped a kiss on her forehead and one on each eye. He released her to go get her some tissue, then pulled her to the couch to sit next to him. After she had scrubbed her face he pulled her on his lap, and she didn't even protest.

  His whole body sighed with relief as he wrapped his arms around her again. He'd wanted to hold her like this so many times. She fit perfectly to him with her head on his shoulder, her breath puffing against his neck. Her flowery clean scent swirled up and around him.

  His body was responding despite her distraught state. It had been quite a while since he'd been intimate with a woman and the fact that the soft woman curled up on his lap was Mimi made this moment all the more potent.

  He knew he should be asking her what had made her cry but when he cupped her delicate damp cheek, and she turned those big mossy green eyes all puffy from crying on him, he couldn't stop himself from leaning down and covering her mouth with his.

  Her lips were as soft as silky rose petals and tasted like wine. He'd not given himself the time to taste, to savor her earlier. He did so now reveling in the sensations ratcheting through his system.

  Her arms twined around his neck and with a hand in her hair he tilted her head back to deepen the kiss. He swallowed her moan and felt it echo through his body. With a groan he moved to lay her out on the couch. He needed to feel her body under his. The soft curves and delicate plains of her fit his lean hard frame exactly. With his mouth at her neck, her pulse beat a quick rhythm under his tongue matching his own.

  Pulling down the neckline of her dress he kissed, licked, and nibbled his way down from her shoulder to her delectable breast. Her nipples were beaded little fine points he sucked through the sheer material of her bra as she gasped and clutched his shoulders. The needy little sounds she made imprinted themselves in his mind and would haunt his dreams and live in his fantasies.

  This was happening. Finally.

  “Wait,” she said breathlessly.

  Still in a fog he nibbled along her collarbone until she yanked on his hair. Looking up, he saw her sensual haze had given way once again to distress.

  Breathing hard he tried to regain rational thought as he stared down into her troubled gaze. When he'd collected himself enough to speak he asked,“What's wrong, Mimi?”

  She teared up a little as she said, “You're Zeke's father.”

  Confused he said, “Uh, Mimi that's not possible.”

  “That's not what I meant. Everyone thinks you're Zeke's father.”

  “What?”

  “Can we talk about this sitting up? I can't think when your...you-know-what is pressing up against my you-know-what. It feels really good and it's really distracting.”

  She could say that again. Any more friction and his you-know-what was going to put him in an embarrassing situation. He cleared his throat as he lifted off of her and uncomfortably readjusted himself as they both straightened their clothes and got situated on the couch. This time they were facing each other as they sat.

  “Did you say everyone thinks I'm Zeke's dad?”

  Mimi nodded miserably. “It's all my fault. It was a stupid misunderstanding. For some reason Craig thought you were Zeke's dad. I was trying to tell him you weren't and then LeAnn Maysor or Everly now,
came up to the table and was rambling on. Do you remember her?”

  Mason groaned. “Yeah, I actually ran into her last Saturday.” He had a sinking feeling of where she was going with this.

  “One thing led to another and LeAnn was off to tell Jenny Walker and Chelsea Phillips I have your love child you haven't acknowledged in six years. I told her point blank that you weren't his father and I think she chose to ignore me out of spite. The life raft toting bitch. It was like high school cafeteria for thirty-year-olds.

  “I'm so sorry. I have no idea why Craig thought you were Zeke's dad.”

  “I um—that may be my fault,” he said. This will certainly teach him the lesson of full honesty. He'd thought the worst he'd have to contend with was a depressed six-year-old. He wasn't sure Mimi was going to take it as well as her kid. “I should be apologizing. When Craig came to pick you up, he thought I was Zeke's dad and I didn't correct him. I...I was jealous. And stupid. I'm so sorry.”

  “You...let Craig...think you are Zeke's father? Because you were jealous? You had a week to ask me out. A week!” she said, outraged. “And instead you decided to play this little game of mixed signals. You offer to watch Zeke while I go out with another guy. Then you kissed me after he'd already come to pick me up!”

  Mason winced. It hadn't been his finest moment.

  “You do know that the whole town is going to think you're Zeke's dad?” she pointed out. “That's how these things work. It's not like you're Joe Shmoe. You're Mason Coleman of Coleman Automotive. Everyone knows who you are and will delight in sharing this type of gossip. What if Zeke hears about this? He adores you. If he gets even a glimmer of hope and finds out it's not true he'll be destroyed.”

  Mason rubbed the back of his neck and avoided eye contact. “Zeke already asked me if I was his dad.”

  “Please tell me you didn't tell him you were.” Mimi's eyes were wide in panic.

  “No.” he said holding up his hands. “I promise. I told him I wasn't.”

  “Oh no. How did he take it?”

  “Eh, alright. Not horribly. He was bummed.” It had taken an hour and a lot of sugar to turn the poor kid's frown upside down. Mason had felt like a hot poker had been stabbing his gut the whole time. Looking at Mimi's concerned expression he fessed up. “I let him have copious amounts of ice cream, cause I felt bad.”

  “You deserved to feel bad, and FYI I don't usually let him have that much sugar.”

  “I could tell. He ended up running a couple laps around the apartment building.”

  “I'm sure my neighbors loved that.”

  “I'm so sorry Mimi. I really messed up. Honestly, I don't often mess up so I'm kind of out of my depth here.” Lord, that sounded more arrogant out loud than in his head.

  At his words she muttered, “Lord, save me,” and started pinching between her eyes like she was getting a headache. She did it often at work and wondered he if it was a stress thing or if her head really hurt.

  “Mason, I have a question. Why didn't you ask me out? Why not just say you didn't want me to go out with Craig?”

  “If you will remember, I asked you out and you put me in my place.” She at least had the decency to wince. “I had a plan to come in under your radar and make you think of me as someone other than your boss.”

  “Well, this seemed more like a very scattered air raid, but I'm having some distinctly unprofessional feelings for you.”

  “My work here is done,” he said smiling.

  “Some of those feeling are a bit homicidal at the moment.”

  His grin only widened when she smacked him with a throw pillow. “It's a start,” he said and she rolled her eyes.

  Their silence stretched into a bit of awkwardness as they sat staring at each other. Mason didn't want to lose the ease of just a moment ago. He couldn't remember the last time he was able to be this open with someone. He had become somewhat of an island the past couple years and it was damned lonely being an island.

  Opening his arms he waved his hands in to invite her back into his embrace. Now not as emotionally vulnerable Mimi was much more doubtful. She moved into his arms slowly in increments as if he would turn into a snake and strike out at her.

  When she finally rested her head against his shoulder and began to relax he said, “That's it. I don't bite.”

  Touching a spot on her neck she said, “I think you do, actually.”

  “I'm more of a nibbler.”

  Mason felt the rest of the tension in Mimi's body release as she let out a gusty sigh. She asked, “Where do we go from here? I'm so nervous to hear what people are going to be saying about us. This would be so much easier if you were black, or Asian, or Latino. Basically any dark hair, dark skin ethnicity would be good.”

  Mason had to admit with the little guy’s coloring and trademark Coleman blonde curls, Zeke really did resemble him. “Zeke will get older and he won’t look so much like me. What did his father look like?”

  “Tall, blond, and pretty.”

  “Well, there you go. I'm tall, blond, and manly.”

  “You really do look nothing like Jay. You just have enough similarities that my date could see you and Zeke together and jump to conclusions.”

  “You shouldn't date guys with fake tans anyways.”

  “It's okay. He let me down not-so-easy before the check came. He really hit it off with LeAnn. She has fake boobs. He has a fake tan. He's going to sell her house and she's going to have his babies. They'll live happily ever after as long as LeAnn never wants a career. Who am I to stand in their way?”

  “I promise you a much better experience if you let me take you out.”

  “Mason,” she said in a serious tone. “I'm not sure if we should date. You are my boss and I don't want Zeke to think we're dating and get his hopes up. Maybe, if we're really going to see each other—romantically—we should keep it hush hush.”

  She painted little circles on his chest as she spoke. It was maddening as hell. He wanted to take her slender fingers and suck on each little tip. He knew she was right about keeping quiet about their relationship as they felt this thing out between them, but that didn't mean he liked it. He tightened his hold on her.

  Mason wanted her in every facet of his life. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to handle another week of keeping her at arms’ length. Especially now that he'd experienced this kind of relaxed intimate moment with her. He had to remind himself although he'd always been attracted and drawn to her they were just getting to know each other.

  “Hush hush is probably good,” he said. “As long as we can have more of this on the side. I like this. This is nice.”

  “This is extremely nice.”

  “And then if things work out we'll move our relationship to not so hush hush.”

  “We'll see.”

  He wasn't thrilled with the “we'll see,” but he'd take it for now. It beat “no way.” She was quiet so long he thought she may have fallen asleep. “Mimi?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Zeke said he's never met his father...if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. It just seemed like you were crying about more than a misunderstanding at dinner.”

  *** ***

  Mimi hesitated, sifting through all the thoughts and emotions talking about Jay brought up. She'd definitely had too much wine at dinner. She never allowed herself to be this vulnerable. The only person she'd really opened up to about her marriage and her ex was her best friend Kat, and that was only after a considerable amount of shared margaritas.

  Lying against Mason’s hard chest, listening to the beat of his heart she wanted to open up to him. She wanted to share parts of herself with him she'd never shared with anyone else. She wanted to make it so they couldn't just go back to being boss and employee at work and polite acquaintances outside of work.

  She began talking before she'd fully fashioned what she was going to say. The words just falling out. “I um, well, I was twenty-four when I met...Jay.” She couldn't say he was Zeke
's father. Not out loud. He'd never been anything but a sperm donor. “He was different than anyone I had dated before.” When she glanced up at Mason he wore a questioning look so she explained. “He didn't drive a truck. He drove a restored 1979 Jaguar. He didn't own a gun, except maybe an old rifle for hunting, which he didn't do. He was pretentious and broody.”

  “And you wanted to be with him, why?” Mason asked, making her smile.

  “I was a misguided girl. I went out to Kansas City for a big corporate job at H&R Block headquarters. Right out of college I was on track to make really good money. Which I did, for a while. Until they laid off my entire division. But that wasn't until Zeke was two. Anyways,” she said shaking off her scattered thoughts. “I was so impressionable and I had this idea of how I was supposed to be as an adult. It was stupid really. Jay had fit into this image that I had painted for myself. He seemed refined and worldly and he knew how to work me. He knew just what to say. Then, after we were married he would push me just far enough then say the right things and I'd forgive him. He was always so contrite.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “He liked to critique me,” she said as way of explanation. “How I dressed, the things I said, how I ate. Everything. He was a nit picker and then he'd apologize in a way that made me sorry for doing it in the first place. He made me start believing there really was something wrong with me. Some strange way I was attracted to that in the beginning. It was this weird desire to please him, and this mind set that if I could please him I would somehow be a better version of myself. It was really screwed up.”

  “For some reason I'm getting the feeling that's just the tip of the iceberg,” Mason said. He was stroking her hair and she drew strength and comfort from the absentminded motion.

  “I've only told one other person about this. It's kind of hard to talk about.”

  “I hope you know I would never think less of you or judge you for anything you tell me. I'm a man who's been sober for seven years for a reason other than alcohol didn't agree with me. I have some pretty unpardonable moments myself.”