Page 14 of Second Chances
Wow, was she sore – sore and sated.
Her whole body felt like jello, topping off one of the best nights of sleep that she’d had in a long time. It was weird, she couldn’t even remember setting her alarm…
Darcy.
She knew he wasn’t still in bed with her otherwise he would have been wrapped around her. That was the one thing she had noticed over the past few nights: if he was still in bed when she woke up, he was holding her somehow; she loved it. Half-rolling over just to be certain, she found his side of the bed made, with no signs of its previous inhabitant.
Muscles protesting, she sat up against the headboard and opened up her phone, turning off her alarm and checking her email. Deciding on a nice hot shower to relax her before work, she went to set her phone down on the nightstand again and realized that there was a note waiting for her.Classic Darcy,she thought, smiling to herself a little.
She picked up the piece of stationary and crossed her legs to sit Indian-style, resting her elbows on her knees, and began to read:
Beth,
I hope your alarm woke you up for the right time. I’ve had breakfast sent up for you - I’d hate to see you be late to work again.
Yours,
Mr. Intolerable
She smirked at his playful tone. Today, he would be the reason she made it to work on time - the complete opposite of yesterday. Her stomach grumbled, drawing her attention to the other small piece of information in his brief message: breakfast was waiting.
Climbing out of bed, she pulled on her t-shirt and made her way out of the bedroom. She was about to turn and walk to the kitchen when she saw the breakfast tray sitting in the living room by the couch. She smiled and bit her lip - he knew she loved to watch the city in the morning. She sat down on the couch, pulled the lid off of her plate and browsed over her breakfast; it looked like an egg white omelet, whole wheat toast, and a bowl of yogurt and fresh fruit. She went to pick up the fork and noticed another small piece of folded paper:
I didn’t think the fruit was as tasty as what I sampled last night.
Eat it all, you need the calories.
Darcy
Even as her eyes rolled at his characteristic bossiness, her face flushed at his first statement, remembering what had happened between them in the dining room.
God, it had been incredible.
Looking back, she almost couldn’t believe that it was her. If she wasn’t still feeling the after-effects, she probably wouldn’t have. She jumped as her phone buzzed on the table, startling her from her recollections. She set down the note and picked up her fork, taking a huge bite of the omelet. Grabbing her phone with her spare hand, she unlocked it since the text was from Anne.
~Hey, how is everything going with D?Anne asked.
-Good! For the most part. Just trying to make things work.
~Oh, good. Just checking. I have no news on the mom-front; I know that Phil is working with us now but I have no idea what she is scheming up next; I’m trying to keep her busy.
- Ok, well I’ll just take it a day at a time.
~Good luck!
- Thanks! Hey, I have a weird question, actually.
~Shoot.
- I know you’ve known Darcy for a long time. Did you know he was in a relationship for several years?
~Yes. I’ll call you later though - can’t talk!
Interesting.Beth looked down at the plate and realized that she had eaten all of the food on it. Covering it back up, she went back into the bathroom to shower, wondering how much Anne knew about Darcy’s past.
Turning the water on hot, she stripped down - momentarily freaking out when she thought her upper inner thighs were bruised; turned out it was just from the blueberries. Stepping into the stream of water she relived their conversation last night. She wasn’t too surprised by how his father had raised him; she had initially assumed that that was the sole reason for why he responded to her and treated her the way that he did. To learn that it was because of another woman, that had shaken her, especially when he said it was a woman he thought he loved.
She couldn’t understand how anyone could treat another person the way he had been treated; not that she understood a lot of peoples’ actions these days, but still. To be so young, in your first ‘serious’ relationship, and to have the other person constantly breaking you down, forcing you to bury your emotions and be a controlling sex machine all the time; it was abuse, there was no other word for it.How could he have stayed with her? She wondered. Although it was pretty common for victims to want to stay with their abusers, especially in this case where the abuser made Darcy constantly feel and act like he was in control when the reality was that he wasn’t. She couldn’t imagine the type of damage that could do to your mind, even after seeing only some of the repercussions.
