by Criss Copp
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve been swamped with therapy for months, and I have had nothing else to do but get over her. I’m sick of the whole process and I never want to have to think about it again. I’m so over it, I’m beginning to not even like Shae anymore.” I explain.
“Oh, how long have you known Isobelle?” she asks.
“Five weeks.”
“Was she in the same facility as you?”
“That’s where I met her, but no, she wasn’t a patient there.”
“So what was she?” Her eyes narrow.
I need to get my lie working to perfection. I can’t fuck this up; because Jade quite possibly will spaz out if she knows that Isi was a staff member. She is all about that code of conduct bullshit.
“She works for Dr. Jensen.” I begin.
“She works there?” she gasps. Time to stop this spiraling out of control.
“No.” The lie slips out beautifully. “She works for Dr. Jensen outside of the facility. She would come in and run errands and shit for her.”
“Oh. So she has access to the client’s?”
“Dr. Jensen is a very busy woman. Isi quite often had to wait around.” I continue with the lie. It’s all plausible, I’ll add in some I don’t knows here and there and it will sound even better.
“How often did she wait around?”
“Frequently.”
“So you two started a relationship within the confines of your transitional mental health program?”
“We started being friends.” I tell the truth.
“And then what?”
“When I got out on the first Monday, I asked her to meet me on the Tuesday. We spent the day together. Come Wednesday, I asked her if we could try dating. We’ve been hanging with each other ever since.” I reason.
“Have you slept with her?”
“No. We’ve barely even kissed.” I groan.
“So, we should invite her to dinner then?” she asks.
“No.”
“No? Why not?” She gives me a confused look.
“She lives in a halfway house at the moment and likes to be back before her curfew.” I explain. The best lies are told with a great amount of truth.
“She’s a drug user?” Jade gasps.
“No Jade.” I snap.
“That’s what halfway houses are for.” she argues back.
“Not all of them. She has mental health issues.”
“Fucking hell Silas. Why go and burden yourself with that? Haven’t you got enough problems yourself to deal with?”
I am seething. She can see it, but she wants me to answer.
“I’m going to forget you just said that Jade. That’s the same mentality that I’d expect from Mrs. Leveritt; not you.” Mrs. Leveritt is Shae’s mom.
She has the decency to look sheepish.
“What kind of mental illness?” She asks.
“I shouldn’t be the one to tell you. She doesn’t like people to know.” I growl.
“Silas Tayte, I know I go about things the wrong way sometimes, but you know I’m only interested in what’s best for you. If you want me to like this girl, you’d better fucking tell me everything.” She demands.
“If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else; as it is, I’ll have to fucking plead for her not to get upset with me for telling you. Plus, I’d like to point out that there are things I never told you about Shae, and it didn’t prevent you from liking her. The only reason I’ll tell you about Isi now is because you’ll find out in the end anyway.” I explain.
“What about Shae?” She asks softly.
“I’m talking about Isi now; don’t you want to know about her?”
“I want to know about both.” she sheepishly replies.
I think about it for a moment, and decide I don’t feel the need to keep Shae’s secret a secret from Jade anymore.
“Shae was born without a uterus, so she couldn’t have kids.” I blurt out.
“Holy fuck. And I used to complain about being pregnant all of the time.” She groans.
I shrug.
“I’m an asshole.” she whispers to herself.
“Yeah, you are.”
She gives me a fierce look once again.
“What is Isobelle’s battle?” She asks.
Appropriate choice of words there sis.
“PTSD.”
“Post traumatic stress disorder?” She asks a little shocked.
“Yes.”
“Was she raped or something?” she asks softly.
“I hope not, or I’ll have to find the motherfucker and bury him.” I growl.
“So why?” Jade asks.
“She’s a returned Army medic. She was badly injured in Afghanistan.”
“How old is she?” Jade asks, slightly shocked.
I can’t lie about this, and I know Jade will have a little bit of an issue with this.
“25.”
“25? She’s 25?” she asks shocked.
“Who’s 25?” Ben asks, wandering in.
“His girlfriend is 25. She’s six years older than you Silas.” she argues. “She’s not a girl, she’s a woman.”
“Yeah.”
“Shit, way to go Silas.” Ben chips in, coming forward with a high five.
“Shut the fuck up Ben. She’s only a year younger than me. I look at Silas and I see a little boy. What does she see in him?” She reasons.
“Jade, I’m old enough to go to war. I vote; I can go out drinking back at home. I’m an adult. There’s nothing illegal about this situation.” I explain.
“So you’d be happy to get it on with a 50 year old, because there’s nothing illegal about that either.” she fumes.
“If she looked like Isi I would.” I reply.
“That’s insane.”
“Jade, you’re full of double standards. When you were 19 you were fucking dudes in their late twenties and early thirties. Besides, of course you look at Silas and see a boy; you’re practically his God damn mother.” Ben throws at her.
“But,”
“But what?” Ben says.
“Yeah Jade, but what? In five years time, I’ll be 24 and she’ll be 30. It won’t even matter then.” I argue.
“But you’re barely an adult.”
“Don’t be stupid Jade.” Ben jumps in. “Silas has been an adult since he began working a fulltime fucking job and putting in a hard day’s work the same as any other man there.” Ben argues. “He’s far more grown up than most guys I know around my age.”
Jade sighs.
“Will I like her?” she asks.
“Yes. You will, especially if you kick this stupid prejudice before you meet her.”
“Fine fine. I’ll look past it.” She groans.
“And don’t be doing the whole stupid pregnancy is shitty and babies are hard work bullshit.” I warn her in advance.
Ben raises his eyebrows since he always knew about Shae.
“Silas, please tell me she wasn’t born without a womb either, I already feel like a piece of shit. Did you know Shae was born without a womb Ben?” She asks, hypothetically of course; to her there would be no reason that Ben would know about that.
“No.” he lies.
“Oh, Silas just told me, and now I’m remembering all those times I moaned and groaned about being pregnant to her. I was such a bitch.” Jade laments.
“Don’t worry honey; you can’t turn time back now.” He says, coming over and rubbing her shoulders from behind.
“Well?” Jade looks at me.
“Well what?” I plead ignorance.
“Is Isobelle the same as Shae?”
“Isi is nothing like Shae, in any way.” I explain pointedly. “But she can’t have kids since she was injured.”
“What’s this?” Ben asks.
“Isobelle was in the Army.” Jade explains. “She was in Afghanistan.”
“About fucking time Silas got a g
irl that could kick his ass.” Ben smiles.
“I have no doubt she could and would kick my ass.” I laugh.
I’ve seen her go to town on her mom’s kitchen. She can be scary; impressively scary.
“I’d pay good money to go and see that.” Jade chips in.
“I bet you would.” I respond with a grin.
“If she’s willing to kick your ass, I can certainly see us becoming friends.” Jade chuckles.
Good.
“So Silas. How did you get a hot, kick-ass older woman to let you date her?”
Jade sits up intent on hearing this one.
“I wore her down.” I smile.
“She didn’t approach you then?” Jade asks.
“Definitely not. She rebuffed me and told me to stay away from her for the first week. Every day I saw her in fact, she warned me to back off.” I laugh remembering.
“Okay. Now I know that, I like her.” Jade smiles.
Wow, I should’ve started in with that line.
“So what changed?” Ben asks.
“I didn’t take the words, ‘you’ll get me into trouble’ seriously. I pursued a friendship with her till she let me in.” I shrug.
“Pushy fucking bastard.” Ben enthuses.
“It worked.” I smile.
“So when can we meet her?” Jade asks.
“Hmmm. Maybe next week?” I reason with them.
“What do you mean, next week?” Jade questions.
“I don’t know Jade; maybe she’ll be cool with it for tomorrow. At the moment though we’re taking it slow.” I explain.
“Slow’s good.” Jade nods.
I roll my eyes at Jade, but then I remember, “Oh, I may need to move in here after today. She’s talking to Dr. Jensen right now about cutting me free from the program.” I explain.
“What?” Both Ben and Jade say simultaneously.
“I’m quitting. I’ve had enough fucking therapy to last me two lifetimes. I’ve done the mandatory transition, and I got out early on good behavior. It’s voluntary to do the residential program and I’m so ready to get back to normal I’d have sex with all of the directors if it would help. Besides, I want to be in my own place by the time Isi gets out of her program.” I explain.
“She’s in a program too?” Ben asks.
I look at him quizzically, but then remember that he wasn’t in the room when I explained things to Jade. I give him a quick rundown of the issues.
“Okay, well you can stay in the guest room and then we can start looking for an apartment for you. How much money do you have left from your fights?” Ben asks.
“Not enough to get me through the New Year and into the new UFC season.” I grumble.
“I’ll help.” Jade says softly.
“No Jade. That’s your money. Yours, Ben’s and Ben’s.” I chuckle at the double Ben’s; come to think of it, I haven’t seen the little sucker.
“Where’s Ben?” I ask.
“Asleep.” They both reply.
I smile, because they both say it like a sigh.
“I just need to get some MMA fights in over the next couple of months. It will help my money stretch out.” I explain.
“I’ll call Hansen. He’s been pretty worried about you. All the bullshit caused when you had to be pulled from your scheduled fight caused a bit of a stir. But then lots of guys have pulled out this year on medical grounds.” He reasons.
“I bet theirs were from physical injury though.” I argue.
“True. They were. But nobody has to know that Silas; unless you want them to.” He clarifies.
“Nah, if it leaks out we’ll deal with it. Otherwise let’s let sleeping dogs lie.” I say.
“What did the lawyer say?” Jade asks Ben over her shoulder, which he is currently massaging.
“He reckons that it’s just bullshit. They more than likely did it to scare you after mouthing off. He said he’d be able to get the charges dropped by tomorrow morning. I told him we’d drop off the paperwork to him later this afternoon. You still got it Silas?” Ben asks.
I indicate the paperwork I dumped on the coffee table, and Ben comes around and scoops it all up.
“I might just get this down to him now; get it out of the way.” Ben says, walking to the front door and putting his jacket on, and then stuffing the papers into the front, before zipping it up. He’s leaning down to put his boots on, and so I get up and go to him.
“Thanks Ben. You’re like the best brother a guy could buy.” I say, pulling him in for a hug.
“No worries.” He says, clapping me on the back. “You’re going to repay me by being my best man in February.” He returns.
“I am?” I reply.
“Yeah, and no strippers.” Jade shouts out.
“That’s what she thinks.” I mutter, giving Ben a sly wink.
“Strippers, yes. Call girls and escorts, most definitely not. I’ll cut your balls off and you won’t have the option of fathering a kid, it will only ever be adoption for you.” Ben growls.
“You give me the list of guys and I’ll organize something with them. Within those parameters.” I reason.
“You so better not get me into trouble.” He growls.
“Never.” I laugh.
“Right.” he replies sarcastically, pulling the door open and trundling out to the driveway.
“Leave it in my hands,” I shout out. “Safe as houses.” I yell.
“Houses in California have a reputation for going up in smoke.” He shouts back.
I laugh and leave him to his mission, so he can return quickly.
I turn back to Jade and watch her watching me.
“You have the best man in the world right there you know.” I point out.
“I know.”
“I’ll kick your ass if you ever fuck it up.”
“I know.” She sighs.
“Trouble in paradise?” I query her sigh.
“No. I’m just overwhelmed at the route my life has taken. Motherhood and everything.” she explains.
“If you’re feeling the heat, you should go and talk to some other mothers; join a group.” I argue.
“Yeah, but I kind of want to get back to work. I haven’t worked since we got here.” She says.
“Have you got any friends?”
“Just the neighbors and Ben.” She answers.
“Why are we so bad at making friends Jade?” I ask, falling on the lounge.
“Because our growing up was so tumultuous I guess.” She answers.
“You got through your teenage years, you had friends.”
“I had a lot of fair weather friends Silas. Only Rachel was a true friend and she moved away to the ass-end of the world.” She laments.
“Northern Queensland?” I ask.
“Yes.” she grumbles.
“You know there are people that will fight you for saying that.” I point out, “Them’s fighting words.”
“Whatever. Sure it’s beautiful, the people are friendly and stuff, but it’s so geographically far away.” she moans.
I scoff at that.
“You moved across the other side of the planet. She could argue that you’re geographically far away.”
“Shut up.”
“She’s going to be your bridesmaid?”
“Yeah, she’s saving up to get here a fortnight before and stay for a fortnight after. It will be really good to see her.” Jade enthuses. “Ben hasn’t even met her, he thinks I’m friendless.”
“You are. We are. We’re completely friendless and total losers.” I chuckle.
She throws a cushion at me.
“Shove off loser.” She laughs.
“Okay then. On that note, I’m going to go and phone Isi. Call me when Reynolds wakes so I can see him.” I say, standing up.
“It’s Ben.” she growls.
“Whatever.” I shrug and go to move.
She kicks her foot out to get me in the shins, but I’m faster and jump to the side.
“Nice try.” I goad.
“I know your sleeping patterns. And you can’t lock the guestroom door.” She shouts at me while I walk away.
I chuckle; it’s been too long since I’ve lived with these guys. I am so happy to be home.
Isi.
“I’ll telephone his family then, and get them to finalize some paperwork as well as collect his things then.” Dr. Jensen says, as I’m leaving.
“Thanks Jean.”
“Oh, and Isobelle; I need that key back.” She requests, holding her hand out.
There are no visitors Monday to Friday, and today is Thursday. I used my security key to get into the facility. I didn’t want to risk simply calling her and not getting an answer till later today, when it would be too late for Silas to leave.
I pull the key off my key chain.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.” She says crisply, but she’s smiling.
“So resourceful you two are. I can tell you’re both resilient. You’ll get through all of this shit and come out the other side significantly better. Keep up the therapy Isobelle; I know you already feel better for purging all that darkness last week, but if you don’t try to fully heal, the wound will stay open and fill up with darkness again.” She says sternly.
“Yeah, I will.”
“Did you want to stop doing my cleaning?”
“No, I like working for you and Bonnie. I enjoy the routine of simple physical labor.” I answer, “So no, I’m staying.”
“It’s all very understandable and Bonnie is very impressed with you. The fact that I hired you at all had her impressed.” She laughs.
I smile enthusiastically. Bonnie is lovely. I’m not sure how old Jean is, I’m thinking she’s late sixties, but Bonnie must be in her forties and she’s a stunning, warm hearted woman.
“Good, good. Now you need to be off. You’ve been running around all day and I guess you had better plans than to talk about working for me.” She says.
“Yes.” I grin. My plans had included on going to lunch with Silas. Now, mid afternoon, I don’t know if it is likely I’ll get to see much of him at all. Especially since I need to get my shit from his room. Hank has already indicated that the stuff in his room could stay there till I could find somewhere for it.
I make my way out of the facility, and I’m crossing the parking lot towards my car in the far corner where I always park it.
“Isobelle.” A familiar voice calls out.