By a Thread (14 page)

Stella woke in the morning with a familiar warmth on her left shoulder, she sighed and turned over placing George’s hand on her right boob instead. George opened one eye and peered at her. “Hi,” he said sheepishly.

“You broke our rule.” Stella was still holding his hand on her boob, looking into his grey green eyes.

“Your rule,” George answered.

“George, we agreed.” Her brain was going a mile a minute.

“No, El we didn’t.” George pulled her closer and caressed her breast and kissed her.

“George, I don’t think we ought to go there.”

“So, I can spend the night from now on?” George pushed.

“No,” Stella still grasped his hand, not letting go.

“El... Then we are going there. I want to wake up with you and be able to see the sleep in your eyes, desire evident in your body. Just like now.” He reached down in between her legs. She gasped, her head going back exposing her neck.

“This is so hard.” Stella was turned on, but she was fighting her brain that was telling her to cut this off immediately.

“Well something’s hard…” he started laughing, “but it’s not me and you, love.” He kissed her forehead. “We have something. We don’t have to label it or call it anything. I just want to spend the entire night with you.”

“I know what you’re doing. You just keep pushing.” Stella blew her bangs out of her face. “Why do you even want to bother with me?”

“I have faith in you. I knew a long time ago, you and I will end up together. You just haven’t figured it out yet. You make me laugh and you’re crazy smart. You like football. Your boobs look like that,” he pointed to her breasts, then flipped her over. “And your ass is awesome.”

She laughed. “You’re ridiculous.” She turned to face away from him, “I don’t know how to do this, George. I’ve been numb for so long, I don’t even know how to feel things.”

He nuzzled her neck. “Oh, I know I can make you feel things.”

“ ‘nother one.” Stella raised her hand and pointed her finger at George.

“El, I think you’ve had enough love, don’t you?” George, the bartender, walked over to the slumped figure at the end of his bar. “It’s Tuesday, don’t you have school and work tomorrow?”

“So,” Stella blurted. “Come on George, one more and then I will walk home.” Stella had been sitting on the bar stool for three hours, drinking by herself.

“What has gotten you so down love?”

“Pour me another one and then we can talk about it.” She smiled and could see he was melting. George had to be talked into the last three drinks. He pushed the Crown and ginger ale over to her and leaned against the bar, putting his face level with hers.

“What’s going on?”

“I got my grades from last semester.” She put her head down on the bar and said something incoherent.

“What?” George leaned closer, he could smell the coconut fragrance from her and smiled unconsciously.

“I got a C in Intellectual Property,” she wailed.

George shot up off the bar and looked at her, dazed. Then he leaned his head back and offered her the biggest laugh she had seen from him in awhile. “For fuck’s sake, El. I thought your dog had died or you were pregnant or something.”

“Um, I hope you wouldn’t think I would drink this much if I was pregnant,” she laughed.

“Whatever, you know what I mean. Shit.” George continued to laugh as he took more drink orders and moved to the other side of the bar. Then he called to her, “Forgot to tell you I called your mom...” he laughed some more.

“NO!” She put her head back on the bar, where it actually felt much better. A few minutes passed before she felt a very large hand on her head.

“El? You okay?”

She looked under her arm and saw Patrick and his girlfriend, Lisa standing off to her left. It was difficult, but she raised her head. “Shit. I’m so sorry George called ya’ll.”

“Come on.” Patrick said, running his hand through his hair and throwing some cash on the bar, “Thanks, George.”

“Stella, why are drinking by yourself? On a Tuesday? That seems a bit much.” Lisa picked up Stella’s purse and headed out the door. She didn’t even wait for an answer.

“I made a C in Intellectual Property,” she whispered.

“It’s okay, El.” Patrick put his arm around her shoulder and led her toward the door.

Stella looked back and yelled, “George. You shit. I’m finding a new place to drink by myself.”

“I hope not, El.” He winked at her.

She let Patrick lead her to his car and climbed in the back. Immediately Lisa started talking. “Patrick, you know, Stella is a big girl. She doesn’t need you to rescue her all the time.” Lisa looked towards the backseat to see if Stella had passed out yet. Continuing on her tangent, Stella tuned her out for most of the car ride home.

“For once, I agree with Lisa,” Stella forced out and then looked out the window and blocked out the argument she’d caused in the front seat. As soon as they pulled in the driveway, she tried to get out of the backseat, but was locked in.

“Damn it, unlock the door, I think I’m going to vomit.” The locks immediately released and Stella opened the door.

Just the brisk fall air made her feel better. Patrick went around to help her out of the car. “Shit, I’m not that drunk. I can walk.” She pulled her arm from his grasp and walked, staggered is more like it, up the stairs to the front door.

“Hey Billy, you didn’t join the come-get-me party?” Stella yelled as she shuffled through the den into the kitchen.

“Drink some water, El,” Patrick called from the front of the house.

“There was a party,” Billy looked up from the video game he was playing.

“Oh sure,” Patrick said, sitting on the loveseat in the den. “El didn’t invite anyone to it.”

“Bring me a beer,” Billy yelled from the den as he saw Stella at the fridge. She moved toward the den with two beers. Threw Billy’s at him and then fell into the overstuffed chair where Cooper was laying. She opened her own beer and laid her head back on the chair.

“This day sucks.”

“Well at least you didn’t have to walk home,” Patrick said tilting his head to look at her.

“That was my plan, drink a lot, walk it off on the way home.”

“Great plan,” Lisa said popping off the couch. “I’m going to bed, you coming?” She looked over her shoulder at Patrick.

“Yeah, give me a minute,” he answered gruffly.

Lisa sighed and then made her way back to the back room.

“El, making a C in the class is not the end of the world.”

“I’m aware...” her eyes closed as the day’s stress and alcohol settled in. She was sort of embarrassed she was letting a grade get to her. Closing her eyes, she remembered her computer totally cutting off thirty minutes prior to her final being due and she hadn’t backed up her exam.
Fucking stupid shit,
she thought
.

“You will be fine,” Patrick said.

“El, you’re like the smartest person I know,” Billy said not taking his eyes off the television.

“That’s not saying much for you,” she replied. “Enough of this shit, this is why I wanted to drink alone.” She stood up, drained her beer. “Come on, Coop.” Cooper jumped off the chair and followed her as she went through the kitchen. She pulled her shirt off and pants off on the way, throwing both in the laundry room off the kitchen.

Turning the corner, she heard Lisa grumble, “You know you can wait until you get in your room to undress.”

“You could stay at your own damn place,” she said loud enough for Lisa and Patrick to hear. She went downstairs into her bedroom and sunk into her bed.

Sometime in the middle of the night she felt him get into bed with her and snuggle into her back. “If I knew you were going to make regular use of that key I would have made you work harder for it.”

“Sure you would’ve, love.” He pulled her as close as she could get to him, pressing her back into his chest. He loved that she slept nude, all the time.

Buzzing woke her up and she looked at the clock. “Mother fucker,” she groaned. “I thought you were going to let me sleep late, asshole.” She pushed herself up and reached up and over George, who had not moved to see his phone vibrating continuously. As she picked it up, her body situated right on top of George he reached for her, pulling her back on top of him.

“I don’t remember saying that,” he said kissing the underside of her breast.

Pissed did not begin to described her feeling this morning. George had gotten in her bed, without invitation for that matter, and she allowed him. She had been very drunk and he probably took advantage of that. His early morning alarm clock for her had been pretty nice though. She was stretching in the mirrored area of Washington Sports Club, the gym where she and Patrick were both members and worked out together six days out of the week. He had yelled down this morning saying he was leaving and she barely slid into the car at 7:00 as he took off.

“Why are you in a mood this morning?” He’d barely let her shut the door before he was backing out of the driveway.

“I don’t have to time to waste waiting on your ass.”

“Just my ass,” she laughed, “you can wait on the rest of me though, right?”

“You know what I mean, shit.”

She looked at him from the passenger side of his black Audi. His black hair was still military short and his green eyes were looking forward. He was scowling. “Lisa gave you shit about last night?”

“You told her she should stay at her own place...” He looked at her with disdain.

“Give me a fucking break, she’s in our house, not hers. She doesn’t like it, she can leave.”

“Then I wouldn’t get laid and I’d be in an even worse mood.” He finally glanced over at her and smiled. “I had to work a little extra for it last night after that comment.”

“So sorry to make you have to work for it,” she laughed and pulled up her sports bra so that it wasn’t showing as much cleavage.

“Whatever, you know I don’t mind coming and picking you up from wherever. It was strange for George to call though right, you weren’t even that drunk.”

“I mean, maybe he was tired of me taking up space at his bar. I don’t know. I was too drunk to care.” She wrapped her hair into a messy bun with her rubber band and put her armband on so that she could listen to music on her phone while she worked out. “Lisa’s annoying, by the way.”

“Not that great of a lay either...” Patrick mumbled.

“Cold bastard this morning,” Stella commented. “Things not working out?”

“Whatever.” He threw his car into park and jumped out, not wanting to talk about it.

Stella inspected his face; normally she tried to stay out of Patrick’s personal business. “Why do you even bother, you don’t even like her?”

“She’s an easy lay, I guess.” Patrick slung his workout bag on his shoulder.

“What the fuck, Patrick, you could fuck any one you want. You should at least like who you’re fucking.” She shook her head in disgust and went into the female locker room.

Stepping off the escalator at the Pentagon City Metro stop, she hurried the couple of blocks to the nondescript office building where the General Counsel for the U.S. Marshals was housed. Stella was wearing a navy suit with a cream shell underneath and red heels. She signed in and made her way up to the seventh floor. As she pushed the doors open to the lobby she took in the three other law students that were waiting. Checking her watch to make sure she wasn’t late, she smiled at receptionist.

“Gary will be with you all in a few minutes, okay?” The receptionist was a well-put-together African American women with perfect red lipstick.

Stella sat down next to a girl about her age with curly red hair and freckles. “Hi, I’m Stella,” she said in a friendly tone.

“Sarah,” the redhead replied. Sarah was wearing a black suit, black heels, and pearls.

“Nice to meet you.” Stella looked over to the two guys sitting in the chairs opposite of hers.

“Jeff,” a guy with dark hair and glasses said.

“Brian,” the other guy responded. They both wore black suits and blue shirts, Jeff a red tie and Brain a yellow tie.

After a few minutes, Gary Mathews opened the code-enforced door to the offices behind the receptionist and smiled. He had spiky gray hair and a mustache. “Hey guys. Come on back and let’s get started.” He motioned them in and held the door as they filed inside the offices.

The morning was filled with paperwork, getting ID cards, and settling into their offices. Stella had one of the four cubicles in the office with the three other interns. They would be handling the backlog of citizen claims against the U.S. Marshals allowed under the Federal Torts Claims Act. Gary had given them each thirty cases to start, with plenty more where those came from once they had a resolution for the initial claims. This was the law that allowed private citizens to recoup money for property damaged by a marshal. Everyone she came in contact with at the office was nice and relatively normal; most attorneys were not normal so she was a little surprised by the overall collegial atmosphere of the office.

When she took her seat on the Metro for the few stops back to her home and began her short trip, she knew she would enjoy her job with the Marshals.

Stella and George had been driving each other crazy at least three nights a week for several months. It worked well for Stella because she was so busy with work and law school she didn’t have time to deal with typical relationship bullshit. Stella trusted that George wasn’t with anyone else. He simply didn’t have time. She hoped he trusted her.

Billy and Patrick were at work. Stella had taken the week of July 4th off work. Initially, she planned on a quick trip to Atlanta, but cancelled at the last minute. Her phone buzzed, it was George.

Can I come over?

Stella replied.

Sure

George told her he would be there in five minutes.
He was presumptuous,
she thought. Stella heard him knock on the door. As soon as she opened it he was kissing her, holding her face in his hands. It took her a minute to kiss him back. They moved through the house, not separating. Then he picked her up, putting her legs around his waist and walked down the stairs. He threw her on the bed and ripped his shirt off.

Stella smiled, “Someone’s happy to see me.”

“Take your clothes off,” George almost growled.

After they were done, George was tracing her tattoo and humming. “Come somewhere with me.”

“Where,” she asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises,” she answered and then turned over.

“You’ll like this one, it involves a pool.” His eyes twinkled. “And alcohol.”

Stella jumped up. “You sold me on pool.”

She put on a string bikini, shorts, a tank top, and her knee-high boots. Stella smiled because she loved riding on the back of bikes. Her Dad had a Harley and she used to ride with him all the time. They put her bag in one of the bike’s side bags. She swung her leg over and grabbed George’s waist.

Stella leaned in and whispered/yelled in George’s ear, “I love having you in between my legs.”

He turned grinning at her and answered, “You keep that up and we’ll never leave here.”

Stella threw her hands up in surrender. The ride lasted a little more than an hour and Stella closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sun on her arms on the way. She was surprised to see them pull into a house out in the country, somewhere in Virginia. George punched in a code and the gates opened to let them in. He pulled up in front of what looked like an old plantation house.

George stopped the bike and put the kickstand down. He got off first, turned to help her take her helmet off, then pulled her off the bike and into his arms. “Having your legs around me like that for so long did things to me,” he nuzzled her neck.

“Me too,” she answered. Looking up at the house, she asked, “What is this place?”

“Friend of my dad’s place, they are gone for the week. They said we could stay here.”

“For how long?”

“All week if you want,” George took her hand and walked her around the side of the house to the pool area.

She dropped his hand and ran to the pool. “I’ve missed pools…” She turned around, tore off her shirt and looked at him, “You sure you want to stay with me for a couple of days?”

“There isn’t anything I want more,” he said smiling.

“But I only have these clothes to wear.”

“I’m hoping you won’t be wearing clothes.”

They ran to the grocery store and picked up a few essentials, then made their way to the pool. Stella was lying on a float in the middle of the pool and George was talking to Hazel about closing the bar tonight. All of a sudden she felt the side of her float lift and she was thrown into the water. She emerged from the water gasping for air and lifted by strong arms.

“Fuck, George.” Stella sputtered trying to get all the hair out of her face.

“You know,” George started, but then Stella pushed him under water with all of her weight. He pulled her down with him and kissed her. They drifted to the surface, still kissing.

“At least I know how I can shut you up now,” she smiled.

“All you have to do is ask. I’m happy to shut up.” George covered her mouth with his.

Stella lay on her stomach getting sun with no top on. George was making them lunch. Her phone buzzed, it was Patrick.

Where are you?

Stella had gotten so caught up she hadn’t told Patrick where she was. She replied:

With George back tomorrow morning, I think

She put her phone back when it buzzed again. Shielding her eyes she read Patrick’s reply:

U scared the fuck out of me

She texted back her smartass reply:

Sorry dad

U can watch coop, right? I didn’t know I’d be gone

Patrick replied:

Always coming to your rescue

She frowned:

Thanks

“Who you texting?” George asked carrying out a tray with meat, cheese, bread, and white wine.

“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Stella said taking in the feast.

“I’m there too, you laying around practically naked.” He set the tray down in between the two lounge chairs. “Who you texting?”

“Patrick, he was pissed I didn’t tell him where I was.” Stella threw her phone under her towel so it wouldn’t get too hot.

“So you guys are really just friends?” George didn’t look at her as he opened the wine and poured two glasses. “You never… you know.”

“Um, no. We haven’t.” She grabbed an olive and popped it in her mouth.

“But, he’s seen you naked.”

“Well, that’s true,” she said, thinking the best way to respond to this. “I don’t really care who sees me naked,” she said like a question.

“What do you mean?”

Stella blushed, but she didn’t know why. “I get drunk and get naked.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“You get naked?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Yep,” she answered and put blue cheese on a cracker.

“Like, just sit around naked?”

“Could be,” she answered.

“Billy’s seen you naked?”

“Yep.” She took a gulp of her wine.

“Millie?”

She nodded her head.

“And here I was thinking I was special,” George took a drink of the wine. “That’s pretty good.”

“Oh, but you are special, George.” Stella got up and walked over to him, kissing him on his jaw line. “I let you see me naked when I’m sober.”

George bent to her and kissed her caressing her breasts. “Only me, right?”

“Only you,” she whispered.

“I don’t like other guys have seen you naked. It kinda makes me crazy.”

“George, my roommates have seen me passed out naked on my bathroom floor.” Stella walked over to her lounge chair and sat down. “Not too attractive, believe me. They don’t see me like you see me. They see me as their drunken sister. They have seen me at my worst.”

“I want to see you at your worst. I want to see you all the time.” George reached out and held her hand.

“You’ve seen me at my worst, just not the entire picture. The first year I met you was the worst time of my life. I’m amazed anyone that knew me then wants to talk to me. Patrick basically saved my life.”

“I want to know everything about you, Stella,” George leaned in and kissed her gently.

“No you don’t.” Stella grabbed salami and cheese, stuffing it in her mouth.

“Oh, but I do. I want to know about your dreams, your nightmares, and most of all I want to know when you’re going to admit you love me.”

She pushed herself off the lounge chair and pulled on her tank top at the same time. “You think you know me! You don’t know shit about me George. If you did, you would know that I won’t admit to loving you because I can’t.” She ran to the house to get away from him.

George caught her by her arm, “If you didn’t care about me you wouldn’t be so pissed off,” he said gently.

“Of course I care about you.” Stella was so frustrated a tear fell down her face. “I can’t give you what you want. I don’t have a heart to give you,” she said beating on her chest. “Take me home, George.”

“No can do love, I’ve been drinking,” he said smiling. “You think you’re the only one who has had loss, pain and despair? That’s ridiculous. You’re a smart girl, El, you know that’s not true. You don’t have a monopoly on baggage or pain.”