Lucy pointed toward the conference table and said, “Did you see the bitch-face out there, the brown-haired one? She’s staring at me like I just ate her mom. And don’t get me started on the way fire crotch is judging me for eating a Danish.”
“You ate it in two bites; I judged you!” Patty defended.
“I was hungry! You don’t understand what a child does to you. You wear pregnancy Spanx…” Lucy said, while snapping her belly-slimming undergarment, “…you eat like a man who’s never tasted a vagina before and you say shit out loud that normally you would bitch about later.”
“Well, you need to rein it in, because these girls will be with us for quite some time. They’re quite qualified and work their asses off. Yes, they look like the return of the Valley Girls, but I promise you, they’ll be great assets to the company. You have to trust us.”
“I trust you,” Lucy admonished. I just don’t like bitch-face…”
“Sloan,” Patty corrected.
Lucy swallowed hard and said, “Sloan, I don’t like how she is talking about Austin.”
“What does it matter? You’re with Connor and you guys are in love. It shouldn’t matter who talks about Austin, unless…”
“What?” Lucy asked, while looking down at her feet that she was still able to see past her belly.
“Lucy….please don’t tell me you still have feelings for Austin.”
Lucy’s head shot up and she was instantly offended. “Of course I don’t! How could you say such a thing? My heart is with Connor…”
“Then, what’s the problem?” Patty asked, confused.
“I just don’t want bitch-face being the wife to my baby daddy,” Lucy confessed.
Patty shook her head and said, “They haven’t even met and you have her marrying Austin? Even if they did ‘get married’,” Patty said, using air quotes, “you can’t control that, so stay out of it or else you are going to fuck things up with Connor. Deal with thing things you can only control yourself. And if it so happens that your child calls Sloan, step-mommy bitch-face, then so be it,” Patty smiled.
Lucy playfully pushed Patty as she said, “So, you agree with me, she has a bitch-face?”
Patty looked Lucy in the eyes and said, “Look up bitch-face in the dictionary; you won’t be surprised to see Sloan’s picture in there.”
Both of them laughed as they headed back out to the conference table where they finished talking about the Braves’ Christmas Party and what needed to be finalized before the big event. The two new girls annoyed Lucy, but after her little talk with Patty, she was feeling much better. Especially since Patty had the same feelings about Sloan’s face.
**Parker**
Parker paced the length of Margo’s apartment, which wasn’t very long, as he waited for her to get home. He’d spent the last couple of weeks living in a suitcase, going from Margo’s place, to Jake and Lexi’s and even visiting his parents. When he wasn’t with Margo, he felt empty, like he was missing something and when they were together, Parker had never felt more at home. He decided to stay in multiple homes because he didn’t want to crowd Margo; he wanted her to have some space between them because what they had between them was good and he didn’t want to fuck it up by forcing himself upon her. Although, when he was at Jake and Lexi’s beach house, Margo came over frequently and they had game nights which led to drinking, which led to them going back to Margo’s, which then led to some pretty hot sex. So in the end, they ended up at Margo’s apartment in the long run, but the fact that he was trying to give her some space made him feel like he was doing the right thing.
He was coming back to her place from a couple night’s stay at his parents’ house, so he hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, but they did talk on the phone every night. It was ridiculous how attached at the hip they were, but Parker wouldn’t have it any other way. Leaving her for spring training was going to be a bitch, but he wasn’t thinking about that at the moment. He was just enjoying each day he had with her.
The Braves’ Christmas Party was in a couple of days and there was nothing Parker wanted more than to take Margo with him. He’d already cleared the days she’d be gone with her boss, he just needed to get her to commit to going with him. She was very committed to her job, so he just hoped she didn’t get mad that he’d gone behind her back to get clearance. He was doing a nice thing in his head, even if he did go behind her back and pull some “celebrity” strings.
Footsteps ran up the stairs to Margo’s apartment door and Parker smiled to himself. It was like that every day she knew he was sitting in her home, waiting for her. He spent most of his days at the batting cages at Cal U, his alma mater. Luckily, his former coach was more than happy to lend him the batting cages and workout facilities, since he was one of their famous alumni. But when four o’clock rolled around, Parker was hitting the showers and rushing back to Margo’s, so he was home when she got off of work.
The front door flew open and Margo stood in the entryway, wearing a hip-hugging yellow pencil skirt, a navy and white polka dot shirt that was tucked in and pasted to her body, and a pair of nude-colored high heels. She looked sexy as hell.
“You’re home,” she smiled, as she set her purse down, shut the door, and sauntered over to him.
“I am,” he held out his arms and she found her way into them.
“Three days is too long,” she said, as she looked up at him. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Mo.”
Margo wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest. He placed a kiss into her hair and relished the smell of it. It was a lavender-vanilla scent that soothed him whenever the smell came across his nose. It felt like home.
“What do you want to do for dinner?” Margo asked, as she stood on her toes and placed a kiss on Parker’s mouth.
“Anything you want, babe,” Parker responded, all of a sudden feeling nervous. He was lying. She couldn’t have anything she wanted; she needed to have something on the way to the airport because they were leaving for Atlanta tonight.
“Hey, Kirbs, what’s going on? You seem distracted. Is everything okay? You’re not thinking of someone else, are you?” Margo teased, but when Parker looked her in the eyes, he saw the insecurity that laced them.
“You know that’s not even close to being the truth. My eyes, heart, and soul are set on your sweet Latina ass.” Parker squeezed her butt, making her squeal. “But, I do have to talk to you.”
“Okay,” Margo dragged out. “You’re kind of scaring me.” The smile that once caressed her face had disappeared and in its place was worry and concern.
Parker took her to the couch and said, “There’s nothing to be scared about. I just want to talk to my girl, that’s all.” Parker was sweating like a beast, but kept his cool as they sat down on the couch. He held her hand as he cleared his throat. “Uh, The Braves’ Christmas Party is this weekend, so I’m headed back to Atlanta tonight.”
“Oh,” Margo looked down at her hands. “How long are you going to be gone?”
“Until Tuesday.”
Margo’s head shot up. “Tuesday? That’s five days. You’ll be gone for five days?”
“Yes, but…”
Margo cut him off as her mind ran with what he was telling her. “Five days, that’s not even close to the amount of time that you’re usually gone during the season, right? You’re gone much longer than that, aren’t you?” Margo asked, but he didn’t get to answer because she continued as she stood up and pushed her hand through her hair. “Jesus, I’ve been living in this little world of ours and forgot that you live in Atlanta.” She looked up at Parker and said, as if he didn’t know, “You live in Atlanta, Parker.”
“I know that.”
“Then….then what the hell am I doing? What the hell are we doing?”
“What are you talking about?” Parker asked, as his forehead creased.
“Parker, we can’t have a relationship with you living in Atlanta half of the year and me
living in San Diego. What the hell was I thinking? Shit.” She continued to pace as what she was saying clicked in. She was right, they lived in two different cities; it never even crossed his mind, but now that it had, hell if he was going to let it disrupt what they had.
“Please, sit down,” Parker asked as calmly as possible. Margo stopped pacing and looked at him for a second before sitting down next to him on the couch. Tears were bordering the rims of her eyes as she tried to be tough and hold her feelings back.
Parker blew out a heavy breath and said, “I want to forget about where we live for now, because I have something important to ask you.”
“We have to talk about it at some point, Parker.”
“I know we do, but just not now. Later, okay?” Margo nodded. Them both living in denial was a good thing, at least for now, until they could figure out what they were going to do. “Like I was saying, I’m headed to Atlanta tonight…I was hoping you would come with me.”
Margo’s eyes widened in surprise as she tried to process what Parker just said to her. “What? You want me to go to Atlanta? Tonight? Parker, you know I can’t do that. I have work…”
“I already cleared it with your boss,” Parker said, inwardly cringing, waiting for the wrath of Margo. She was a strong-willed woman and when you messed with her, she let you hear it.
Her forehead creased and he prepared for the worst. “You talked to my boss? Behind my back?” Yup, here it came, he thought.
“I was trying to do something sweet. I really want you to come with me and I was afraid that if I straight-up asked you, you wouldn’t even try to get the time off; this way I got the time off for you.” Parker put on his biggest and brightest you-can’t-hate-me smile.
She shook her head and stood up and then looked down at him, he was still sporting his smile, hoping like hell it would work. She blew out a frustrated breath and then hiked up her skirt so she could straddle him. His libido went on high alert as her body pressed against his.
She gripped his head with her hands and said, “Don’t do that again, you hear me?”
Parker nodded his head and said, “Does that mean you need to start packing because you’re coming with me? Parker held his breath as the woman who held his balls in her hand contemplated whether she was going with him.
“My boss said I could have the time off?”
Parker nodded and said, “I might have had to give her a lap dance, but yes.”
Margo twisted Parker’s nipple, making him yelp, and said, “You better not have.”
“Fucking Christ,” Parker replied, while rubbing his now-purple nipple. “You can’t go twisting a guy’s nipple like that. What’s wrong with you?”
“I could twist your balls instead.” Her hand travelled down to his pants, so he quickly stopped her and flipped her on her back on the couch, pinning her arms so she could do no more damage.
“Tell me you’re going with me.” He was inches from her mouth, tempting her, but not giving her what she wanted as she tried to lean up toward his lips.
“Will you fuck me in your sky-rise apartment when we’re there?”
Parker laughed. “That’s a guarantee, Mo, and as an added bonus, I’ll fuck you all over Atlanta as well.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll go, but don’t try this again. You hear me?”
She tried to use her stern voice, but it was too damn cute; Parker just smiled and kissed her, deeply. Their tongues mated as Parker moved his hands from her arms to her blouse that was tucked into her skirt. He started to unbutton it as his mouth continued its attack on her. She moaned as his hands ran across her now-exposed skin, letting him know he was doing something right. He was about to rip her skirt off when he remembered why they were kissing.
He pulled away, breathing heavily and looked down at her. “Fuck, I want to do this so bad, but we don’t have much time before our flight. We need to get you packed.”
Margo groaned and gripped his erection, making Parker freeze as he waited for her next move. “Poor planning on your part, Kirbs. Don’t you know that if you plan a surprise getaway, you have to account for a thank you fuck?”
Parker laughed as he got up off the couch and pulled Margo up with him. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, which was a couple feet away, since her apartment was so small.
“I have five minutes; I can make it happen.”
Margo shook her head and said, “You know that’s not the truth. You spend at least five minutes on each breast. There’s no way you can get to post-orgasmic state in five minutes.”
“Hey, I can’t be held accountable for treating your tits like I do, they’re fucking royalty to me and deserve the utmost attention.”
“And that’s why we can’t make it in five minutes,” she said with a wink and a pat to his cheek as she took off her shirt and skirt, exposing her neon green lingerie set. The color bounced off her tan skin, sending Parker into erection overdrive.
“Babe, you can’t go and do shit like that.”
“Like what?” she turned and showed off the whole outfit; she was still in her heels and all Parker could think was that he was one lucky son-of-a-bitch. She laughed and turned away, giving him a perfect view of her glorious ass.
It was going to be one long flight.
**Luke**
“Tell me what happened,” Dr. Drake said, as he sat in his chair, stroking his beard. The man was infuriating when he stroked his beard, as if he was trying to figure out the cure to world hunger; it drove Luke insane, but he trusted the man. Dr. Drake was the only person who truly knew what Luke was going through and Luke planned on keeping it that way. He didn’t need anyone else knowing about what happened to him when he was missing in action…no one.
“I was getting ready for bed like normal when there was this loud noise that almost sounded like the door that was attached to the warehouse where I was held captive. I tried to fight the flashback, telling myself it was just the neighbors, but once the door slammed again, I was lost. The next thing I knew, Molly was telling me to let go and that I had broken her wrist.” Luke hung his head in shame as he recalled the events.
“That’s why you made an appointment to see me, even though you haven’t been here in weeks? Why is that?” Dr. Drake asked as he wrote something down.
“I hate myself right now. I hate everything about myself, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I have a daughter who I have yet to truly meet, I’d be six feet under, ending everyone’s misery.”
“Is that what you think you are? A misery to everyone around you?”
“Of course!” Luke shouted. “You think Molly enjoys sleeping in the same apartment as me, waiting for me to snap any minute? The only reason I go to bed so early and avoid her as much as possible is so I don’t hurt her. I don’t want to hurt her anymore.”
“Why do you stay in the apartment then?”
Luke thought about the doctor’s question for a second before answering. The answer was simple, he belonged there…it was home.
“It’s home. Everything about the apartment soothes me, makes me think there’s hope. I sleep in Winnie’s room, on the floor. Seeing her things, being near her stuff, makes me believe that I could have a possible fighting chance of getting through this hell that I’m living in. She gives me hope.”
“Winnie does. What about Molly?”
Luke put his head in his hands as he thought about Molly, the one person who could make or break him. He knew he’d told her to move on in his letter. He’d wanted her to move on, but he wasn’t expecting it and when he came back, all he wanted was his girl. She was the reason he held out during the torture; she was his shining light at the end of the tunnel. All he wanted was to return to her, but when he did, he found her with another man and it broke him. Completely shattered him. But now that he’d had time to think about it, he couldn’t be mad at her. The guy hadn’t even come back since Luke saw him and it was probably because he meant nothing to Molly, she even told him that.
“Molly…is confusing.”
“Why is she confusing?”
“I want her so bad, every damn day of my life, but then there are moments where I’m so mad at her, so goddamn mad at her that if I’m near her I’m afraid I’ll say something I regret. But then again, she’s the reason why I made it through the hell I went through. She’s the reason why I’m still here. In some fucked up way, she’s my guardian angel that I need in my life.”
“Why are you mad at her?”
What a loaded question, Luke thought, as he pondered his feelings. He knew his reasoning was completely asinine, idiotic actually, but he couldn’t help the feelings that were pouring through him.
“I think it comes down to one thing…she didn’t wait for me.”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Drake pressed, he never let anything go, always wanted more. That was what he was paid for, though, to make Luke spill his fucking guts.
“When I was getting the shit beat out of me, fed cow shit and drowned all to hell, all I thought about was Molly and how I couldn’t leave her on this earth alone. She’d already lost everyone else in her life, so she couldn’t lose me too. I couldn’t do that to her. So when I was being tortured, I pictured her, I went to my happy place and counted on her beautiful face to help me through everything thrown at me. When I got home, time never fazed me. It didn’t register that I was gone for nearly two years; time stood still, so when I came back to see her, with someone else and a child, I lost my shit. And even though I accept it now and I know I told her to move on, I’m still fucking pissed that she did. We were goddamn soul mates.”
Dr. Drake nodded his head, wrote some notes down and then looked up at Luke. “I think we’ve made some real progress today. I want to see you at least twice a week, if not three times. We can get through this, Luke, we can make you feel healthy again. For now, I want you to work on expressing yourself verbally, make your feelings be known. If you keep talking about what happened, you will lose your demons sooner. It’s when you bottle everything up inside that you’re killing yourself. I want you to write in the journal I gave you, write down every flashback you have, how you felt in that moment, how you felt when you had the flashback, record everything, because the more you get it out, the better you will heal. Know your triggers and prepare yourself for them. And get some sleep, you look like hell.”