The Honeymoon Period (The Austin Series)

by Fallowfield, C. J.

  ‘You’re right, I have ambushed you and for that I apologise too Mia, however I needed to make myself perfectly clear. I value your relationship with Gabriel, he has changed for the better since he met you, but I know what he wants and I won’t see him sacrifice that.’

  ‘So you are asking me to finish with him?’ I felt my stomach churn and my heart constrict and I had to break his serious gaze and look down in my lap.

  ‘Not immediately, no. I’m prepared to pay for you to have private therapy with a highly respectable therapist known for his results. I’d pay as long as it takes for you to come to understand what drives your fears, Mia. The harsh fact remains though, that even after this, if you are still resigned to not wanting marriage or children, if you really love Gabriel as much as you say you do, you’d have to let him go,’ he said firmly. I sucked in a deep breath.

  ‘It’s not that simple, Robert,’ I replied as I looked back up at him. ‘Even if I did change my mind I’m … I’m … fertility challenged.’

  ‘Yes, he has made me aware and I was very sorry to hear that, Mia,’ he said sincerely. ‘I’m not opposed to the two of you adopting. That said, I would also be prepared to pay for the best fertility expert to work with you both before we got to that point.’

  I sighed and closed my eyes and pinched the top of my nose. I was out of my league trying to negotiate with Robert and whilst I felt he’d unfairly put me on the spot, I had to admire him risking the wrath of his son if I chose to walk away, all in the name of protecting him. Mum would do exactly the same for me if she thought I was unhappy. ‘Are you expecting me to give you an answer right now?’

  ‘No, but equally I’m not prepared for this to drag on, Mia. The longer it does the harder it will be for all of us. Please think about my offer and be assured that money is of no consequence if you need a lot of time with the therapist, as long as I know that you are trying, that will reassure me. I leave tomorrow night, so if we don’t get a chance to talk in private you can always contact me on my personal mobile number. Consider it open to you anytime you want to talk, Mia. My son loves you, so that makes you important to me too. I want to help in any way I can to make this work with you both,’ he said firmly as he looked at me and let me see he was serious, he really was trying to help, not drive me away. I exhaled and closed my eyes, this was heavy. Two months into dating too heavy, but at least he hadn’t offered me money to walk away from Gabe, I’d have been so insulted there would have been no coming back from that for my relationship with Robert. I looked at him again and he smiled kindly at me.

  ‘Does Gabe know that this is what you wanted to discuss with me?’

  ‘No,’ he replied with a firm shake of the head. I had to admire his directness and honesty.

  ‘What does he think we’re discussing?’

  ‘Your living arrangements. I’d prefer our discussion not to cause a rift between the two of us, but I equally understand that you may need to share this with him.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want it to come between the two of you, I know how much he values your relationship.’

  ‘And I don’t want to come between the two of you either, but I need to make sure my son stays this happy.’

  ‘I understand that.’

  We both jumped when the car hooted outside.

  ‘You’d better go Mia, thank you for hearing me out and I’ll look forward to seeing you both later for dinner.’ We both stood up and I looked at him awkwardly, what was I supposed to say after all that? He moved toward me and pulled me into a hug, surprising me. ‘Mia, you’re so good for him. Please think about my proposition carefully before dismissing it.’ I felt him kiss the top of my head, just like Gabe did to comfort me, then he let me go. I tiptoed up and kissed his cheek.

  ‘I will think about it, I promise. See you later.’ I headed out of the room and pulled the door behind me and let out a big sigh before rushing outside, getting into Gabe’s car and starting it up before I looked over at him.

  ‘Ok? I told you he’d be cool about us moving in.’

  ‘He was, very cool about it and the incident this morning. He really loves you, Gabe.’

  ‘I know and I’m lucky we’re so close after we went through that rocky period. He loves you too, you know, for being such an amazing girlfriend and making me so happy,’ he grabbed my hand and kissed it before I put the car in gear and headed down the drive. I focused on the road, at least driving around was helping me get to know the city and driving took my mind of the terrifying dilemma I had ahead of me. We were nearly at the apartment when I felt Gabe’s hand squeeze mine resting on the gearstick. ‘Baby are you ok? You haven’t said a word since we left.’

  ‘Sorry, I’m fine,’ I flashed him a quick smile.

  ‘Mia “fine” with you means, no I’m not.’

  ‘My head’s just racing, Gabe. I’ve my own apartment full of clothes where I haven’t been in four weeks, half of my stuff is at your house and we’re going to your new place to discuss plans there. I’m all over the place.’

  ‘It’s our new place Mia, not my new place. What are you saying? You want to go home to yours?’

  ‘I think I ought to Gabe, I know you’re still off sick but you’re coping on your own now and I’d like to spend some time with Lexi. I’ve hardly seen her lately, we missed Movie Tuesday and our girls Friday this week.’

  ‘Am I suffocating you? Do you need time away from me?’ I could hear the worry in his voice so I flashed him a reassuring smile before turning my eyes back to the road.

  ‘Gabe, I’d tell you if I needed time away from you, but I would like to have some time alone with Lexi and a few nights at my place now and then, you know, and not be carting bloody suitcases back and forth. I feel like a nomad.’

  ‘Ok, so when we go shopping this afternoon, I’ll buy all the toiletries and makeup you use and some spare clothes for you to leave at mine. I’ll do the same for my stuff to leave at yours. That way we can stay at each other’s whenever without worrying about packing bags.’

  ‘That’s crazy,’ I said as I pulled into my space in the car park.

  ‘Not if it works for us, Mia. I don’t mind staying at yours some nights too, but I’ll also need to stay at mine to be near the pool. I’m going to have to start swimming again to start getting my shoulder strength back. You want to sleep apart?’

  ‘No, of course not.’

  ‘So it’s settled. Once we’re done here, we’ll grab something to eat and head off to do some shopping. Then I’d like to fuck you before we go out to dinner, I never got to finish you off on the dining table.’

  ‘I don’t know if I can have sex again when your dad’s in the house.’

  ‘You do it with Lexi and Doug about and don’t seem to have a problem climaxing in clubs or restaurants.’

  ‘He’s your dad.’

  ‘So I’ll gag you.’ He sounded serious and I looked over at him and realised I didn’t find the idea of being cuffed and gagged totally unappealing. ‘Come on, move it.’ We headed up the stairs, which felt so unfamiliar. I’d spent more time at Gabe’s than in my own apartment since I moved to the city. I looked over at number five, my door, and then back to number six, his door, and saw him smiling at me. ‘See, perfect. You can have movie night and get drunk with Lexi then cross the hall to come to bed with me.’

  We headed inside, I’d only seen the floor plans and a few pictures on the agent’s details, but it was bigger than my place, albeit with smaller rooms. Gabe held my hand as we walked around and reminded me of what we wanted to do. As we stood at the back of the apartment in what would be part of our bedroom and I listened to him all excited, I had the urge to squeeze him tightly and press my face against his chest. I was going to have to seriously consider having therapy and really facing up to my past, I wasn’t prepared to walk away from him. Not even when he’d been such an irritable domineering jerk the last month, I still loved him with all my heart.

  ‘Baby what’s wrong? Don’t you like our plans?�
��

  ‘I love them, I love you. I love you so much Gabe, you know that right?’

  ‘Of course I do. Mia, what’s going on?’ The intercom buzzed in the distance, giving me an out and I let him go and kissed him quickly.

  ‘Come on, he’s here.’ I grabbed his hand and dragged him to the front door and let Tom the architect in. He was in his mid-forties with dark hair and green eyes and ruggedly attractive. He’d been recommended to Gabe by his dad, who’d used him on the Westhampton office space and their own house alterations. He smiled and shook our hands and Gabe led him into the kitchen where he laid out the agreed plans and we walked around with them getting our bearings. I held Gabe’s hand as he took charge of the discussion. I looked up at him, he was so excited, I was too, but he was like kid in a sweet shop. I felt my heart bloom to see him so happy again.

  ‘Baby, what do you think?’

  ‘Sorry, about what?’

  ‘Where are you today? You seem totally out of it. Tom was just saying scrap the guest toilet and use that space as a walk in larder and put an extra door here to our main bathroom to let guests use that.’

  ‘I’m sorry Tom, I was day dreaming. Would you mind running it past me again?’

  We wanted the back of the apartment to have a large bedroom with walk through closet and a bathroom big enough for a walk in shower, bath, dual sinks, a toilet and I’d asked for a bidet. The rest of the apartment going to be open plan, except for a gap between the kitchen and our bedroom wall where we were going to house a walk in utility and closed off guest toilet. Tom’s suggestion meant leaving a door at each end of the open plan space, one to our bedroom and one to the bathroom. Having most of the food in a walk in larder, meant we’d have less cupboards on the wall at the back of the kitchen and we could have some floating shelves to display items. We’d then have a large open plan area left to fit in the lounge and dining room and Gabe’s stipulation for his pool table, pinball, retro juke box and a gaming area. Sometimes with everything we’d gone through, I kept forgetting we were only teenagers, both still just big kids at heart.

  ‘I love it as long as it won’t stop us fitting all of the bathroom items in?’ I didn’t add “because we like a large walk in shower and big bath to fuck in and I want to be able to clean up quickly every time Gabe comes inside me.”

  ‘Mia, when we take down all these walls we’ve a very large foot print to play with. It’s at least twelve metres wide from front to rear aspect and twenty-one metres in length, we’ve more than enough room based on what you want to fit in and your proposed layout.’

  ‘There’s a couple of extra things I didn’t discuss with you over the phone, Tom,’ Gabe advised. ‘We want a pole installing but I’m thinking that it will need to go in this games area.’

  ‘A pole?’ he asked as I flushed and looked at the floor.

  ‘Yes, a floor to ceiling one. Mia likes working out pole dancing at home, but I’ve looked into it and she’d need approximately a two and a half metre clear radius to do it in. I’m not sure how we’d do it without it getting in the way.’

  ‘Well you could put it here to take advantage of the two metres wide walkway from the front door to the dining table. If you put the pool table on lockable castors, it could be moved out of the way giving you the extra space that side.’

  ‘That sounds great. What do you think, Mia?’

  ‘Yes. Great, thanks,’ I replied, wondering how much more embarrassing this day could get. All I needed to complete my mortification limit was for Gabe to ask Tom to build a ceiling rack with moving chains in the bedroom, Christian Grey playroom style.

  ‘What was the other thing you wanted to add?’

  ‘I need the apartment sound proofing as much as possible for the neighbours below and next door. We like loud music and TV and don’t want to upset anyone.’ Gabe smiled at me. I knew he was thinking more about how loud we were having sex and I blushed again.

  ‘Not a problem. What time scale do you have to complete it?’

  ‘New Year’s eve, the absolute latest.’

  ‘That’s tight Gabe, it’ll need some very precise planning to pull it off.’

  ‘That’s what I’m paying you for Tom, I’m happy to be involved on the project management side and Mia and I are accessible at any stage if you have questions, but I need it done by then. We’ll order the kitchen and bathroom fittings now and they can be stored at mine until you’re ready to have them fitted.’

  ‘I better get on it then. Pleasure to see you again, Mia,’ he shook my hand and smiled before Gabe showed him out.

  ‘New Year’s eve, Gabe? It’ll never happen.’

  ‘It will,’ he said firmly as he came and put his arms around me. ‘Because I want to start the New Year with you in our new home. We could throw a party, then throw everyone out and you could give me a very private pole dance.’ I laughed and he grinned. ‘I like seeing you laugh, Mia. Are you really ok? You’ve been out of it since I woke you up.’

  ‘I’m better than ok Gabe, I’m very excited about this. Come on, let’s stick our head next door and see if Lexi’s in for a quick drink then we better get shopping if we’re going to have time for sex and get ready for our meal.’ We locked up and I knocked on my front door to avoid an incident like this morning. When there was no reply, I opened the door and yelled for her. ‘I don’t think she’s in. Come on, lets grab some water and we can head off.’ I walked through to the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks and Gabe ran into the back of me.

  ‘Holy shit, what the hell happened in here?’ he asked as we surveyed the bomb site of my once perfectly clean and organised kitchen. There were dirty plates, utensils and empty take away boxes and bottles everywhere. The bin was overflowing and the sink was full of more stuff to be washed.

  ‘Lexi,’ I sighed.

  ‘Lexi and Doug by the looks, he’s not inherited the clean gene either. It’s a health hazard in here so I’m not drinking anything. Come on, we’ll go.’

  ‘I wanted to come back here tomorrow night Gabe, I really don’t need all this to clean up. I wonder what the rest of the place is like.’ I marched into the lounge and then the bathroom and wished I hadn’t. I went into my bedroom, the only tidy place except for the hall and sat on the edge of my bed and sighed. Gabe stood in the bathroom doorway watching me as I trailed my finger through the dust that had accumulated on my bedside table.

  ‘God, I’m going to have to spend all of tomorrow cleaning up after her, then dusting my entire room.’

  ‘No you’re bloody not. You deserve a break. I’ll get Doug and Lexi back here now to tidy up and then I can get cleaners in to do a full clean tomorrow morning. We can come back in the afternoon and it’ll be spotless for you.’

  ‘Gabe, it’ll take someone hours to do all this and who would come out on a Sunday?’

  ‘A team will get it done in no time and I’ve a number for the numerous parties Doug’s had when his parents have been away and we’ve had to do a quick fix the morning after.’

  ‘That’ll cost a fortune.’

  ‘It’s not cheap but I’m not having you touching it, Mia. You’ve done enough the last month.’ I watched as he put his phone to his ear, one hand on his hip as he organised a call out for ten a.m. tomorrow and then dialled again. ‘Doug, where the bloody hell are you and Lexi? ...Well you can both get your arse’s back to Mia’s and sort out the shit tip you left behind ... No. It can’t wait until tomorrow, Mia’s coming back tomorrow night so I’ve had to organise the cleaning team to come in and sanitise the fucking place. Get back here and tidy up your shit up first ... Fine, don’t forget we’re eating at eight so don’t be bloody late like normal and put your suit on … Ok, bye.’

  ‘Wow, you really like bossing everyone around. It’s kind of hot.’

  ‘Well it’s done, so you can stop worrying and we can enjoy what’s left of our weekend. They were in the pub and they’re coming back so let’s get out of their way before I’m tempted to rip them a new one in
person. Doug’s agreed to pay for the crew too as an apology.’ I locked up and we headed down to the car and went to a drive through McDonalds and had a burger and fries before heading to the large shopping centre and stocked up on duplicate toiletries for each of us and extra clothes. We loaded up the car and I pulled out of the centre car park onto the dual carriage way and put my foot down and looked over to see him grinning at me.

  ‘You so love driving this car, Mia.’

  ‘I do, and I think I do it pretty well.’

  ‘You know that our new place is bigger than yours so it comes with two parking spaces.’

  ‘Are you trying to say my parking’s shit and I need two spaces to be able to get it in?’

  ‘No, I’m saying you could have your own car.’

  ‘I don’t need a car, Gabe. I can get the bus to Uni, or even run it now and I can get a taxi anywhere else I need to go if you aren’t driving me.’

  ‘So you wouldn’t want me to get you a car for your birthday?’

  ‘Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with you?’ I flashed him a glare.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You don’t buy someone you’ve been dating for two months a bloody car.’

  ‘You aren’t just someone I’m dating Mia, you’re the person I love and am going to live with.’

  ‘Hmmm, “going to” being the operative word, we aren’t living together yet Gabe and if you buy me a car it won’t happen. Anyway a bottle of perfume’s an appropriate birthday gift, not a bloody car. You buy me a car and I leave you and take it with me and you’re screwed.’

  ‘Mia, if you left me, losing a car would be the last of my concerns.’

  ‘Gabe, believe me when I say you’ve never seen me at my most furious and you don’t want to, so I’ll unleash hell on earth on you if you go ahead with this ridiculous idea,’ I looked at him again and saw his bottom lip was out.

  ‘I thought you’d like it.’

  ‘Don’t sulk, you look like a moody pre-teen. It was a lovely thought, but the answer’s no. I don’t want a car, or even a moped or bike, ok.’