Exception (30 page)

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Zack demanded once Toby excused himself for the washroom.

“I have no idea what you mean.” Jody tried to dismiss the question with a wave of her hand.

Zack rolled his eyes so far back that, for a second, they were all white. “Don’t you like Tobias? Is that the problem?”

“Of course I like him, he’s adorable, Zack,” she responded, outraged by his question.

His jaw muscles worked a few times. “Who the fuck are you, and what have you done to my Jody?”

“Calm down, Z.” Seeing that both of them had their pissed faces on, Emily tried to mediate their interaction before it became a fight. Receiving a death glare from Zack, she redirected her attention to Jody. “You’ve just been a little off tonight, Cupcake, and we want to know if everything is okay.”

“Of course it’s okay, why wouldn’t it be?”

Zack opened his mouth to answer the question, but Emily lifted her open hand, stopping him in his tracks. She just knew that nothing good would come out of his mouth and she didn’t want their evening to be completely ruined.

“Come on, Jody. Z and I have been feeding you opportunities for bad jokes all night and you’ve missed every single one. The only questions you asked Toby were about his job and education.”

“Fucking boring questions,” Zack mumbled under his breath, cutting Emily off, which earned laughs from the two other men at the table and dirty looks from the two women.

“And you just called him adorable. Not yummy or hot,” Emily continued. “You have to agree that you’re not really being you, sweetie.”

Jody looked at Brad with tear-rimmed eyes, pleading for help. He draped a protective arm over her shoulder and kissed her temple before speaking. “She’s just trying to be polite and not embarrass Zack, like she’s done in the past. Now you two better stop bothering her.”

The annoyance in Zack’s face melted away. His brows arched and his eyes closed, as he mumbled a curse at himself.

“I just wanted to prove to you that I could wear a stupid skirt and be a proper lady and shit. Make you proud, you know?”

Zack felt his heart burn with grief as he focused his eyes on her. “Jody Francis, don’t be an idiot.” His words would be harsh to anyone but Jody. She knew him so well that she saw the humor. “We love you
because
you’re not a lady and shit. That’s boring and ordinary, so you better go back to being you and embarrassing us, or I’ll lift your stupid skirt and spank you.”

She eyed her two best friends with uncertainty, but it only lasted a second. With the mischievousness back in her eyes, she grinned at them before letting out the long line of inappropriate jokes she’d been holding in. When her rant was over, she was finally able to breathe again.

Once Toby returned to the table, the balance was restored and he finally got to enjoy the dynamic his boyfriend had warned him about, and the group was able to enjoy their desserts and espressos, laughing at the one-woman show that was Jody.

It was way after one in the morning when Emily and Taylor said their goodnights to the mildly inebriated couple who walked through the doorway across from Emily’s.

“You want to come in?” she asked fitting her keys in the lock.

There wasn’t a single part of Taylor that didn’t want to go into her apartment and spend some extra time together. As much as he liked hanging out with their friends, he liked being alone with her even better—but he was exhausted. “I want to, but if I do, I’ll end up crashing on the couch, so I better go.”

“Okay,” she agreed, incredibly disappointed, but knowing that it was the right decision. “You’re coming for breakfast tomorrow, right?”

“Right, I’ll be here at ten in my PJs as instructed, even if it’s weird.”

Emily forced a stern look at him; but subduing her ridiculous grin required more strength than her sleepiness allowed. “Do not mock the tradition, newbie. And bring your running clothes. That way we can go to East Rock after they leave.”

“Yes ma’am,” he agreed tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

After a long and tight hug the two friends said reluctant goodbyes, and Emily watched Taylor walk down the stairs before going inside her apartment.

T
HE REST
of the weekend went by faster than expected, and with much less alone time than they hoped to have.

Since the night of the party, Emily had planned to spend her Saturday afternoon and evening alone with Taylor in her apartment. She wanted to cook them a nice dinner and talk about her past. She was extremely at peace with her decision to tell him her secrets, and yet she was also anxious to get it over with.

However, Penelope had other plans. On Saturday morning she demanded that her brother take her out for dinner and movies, as payment for the bed she was lending him every weekend. Despite her disappointment with the change in her plans, Emily had a great time with the two siblings. Taylor’s sister was making her way into Emily’s heart with the kind sisterly friendship she missed so much since leaving Charlie in California.

Throughout the entire evening, Taylor kept Emily by his side, protecting her with that steel grip on her waist that left her feeling naked whenever it was absent. .

On Sunday, their time alone was also limited by lunch with their friends and Taylor needing to go back to NYC early to finish some work. Both knew that they would be together in a matter of hours, since she was once again spending the week in New York, but the knowledge didn’t diminish the emptiness they shared as they said goodbye in front of Old Joe’s.

Work-related responsibilities kept them busy all through Sunday night and Monday, which, combined with constant texts and calls, made their short time apart bearable, until Emily was once again riding the elevator up to Taylor’s apartment.

From the minute she entered the apartment they spent almost every waking minute together. It didn’t matter if they were lounging on the couch, grocery shopping or working, there was never more than a few feet separating them.

Emily often felt overwhelmed at how much better Taylor made her life. Even the work-related dinner they attended on Tuesday with three editors from a very prominent publishing house, which would normally bore the hell out of her, was extremely pleasant, just because of his presence. His charming personality and signature megawatt smile, combined with his ability to always know exactly when he should make a joke, offer a compliment, a comment or simply shut up, had everyone in the table eating out of the palm of his hand.

They were a perfect team and, just as had happened the week before, they produced great results. Before they returned to the apartment Emily had not only been promised boxes of samples to read and review at her own discretion, but had also been asked to write a few blurbs for some of the publisher’s new releases.

By Wednesday night they had already developed a familiar routine. They were also so acquainted with each other that even the tiniest variation in the other’s expression didn’t go unnoticed.

“What’s up?” Taylor asked as they settled on the couch after a very satisfying dinner Emily had prepared for them.

She looked at him with questioning eyes. “And what makes you think something’s up?”

“Whenever you’re thinking about something important or when you’re writing, your eyes close a bit, forming a few lines here.” He touched the corner of her eye with a gentle touch of his index finger.

Emily noticed the smugness imprinted on his face as he admitted noticing such a tiny detail. She smiled, despite the anxiety coursing through her. Deciding that she had postponed the talk for long enough, she took a deep breath before speaking. “Last week you asked me to tell you about the mishaps, and I was thinking that, if you still want to know about them, I could tell you now.”

Taylor’s entire expression changed, the happy smugness he wore just seconds before completely gone, tension taking its place. He desperately wanted to know every detail about Emily’s life. He valued her trust and the fact that she would be sharing things with him that she never had with anyone else, but at the same time he knew that whatever she had to say would crush his heart and boil his blood.

Trying his best to keep his facial expression calm and encouraging, Taylor smiled and nodded. “I’ll always want to hear anything you want to tell me.”

“Okay, so here it goes.” Her nervousness was clear as day, as she rearranged her legs on the sofa and cleared her throat. “There are two parts to this story. The first part is also the first thing you need to know about me. I had a lousy childhood, and when I say lousy, I mean it was a living hell. My mother was a drunk who was used to getting her way, even if it was by force.”

As her voice cracked and her eyes became glossy with sadness, Emily compulsively tucked her hair behind her ears. Even if Taylor didn’t know her as well as he did, there was no mistaking how difficult telling that story was. Despite the anger that was already heating his insides he kept the kind smile on his lips, encouraging her to proceed.

“Before she met my father she was a model and, according to her, the world was at her feet. The truth was that she was already a drunk, and her career was shot by showing up wasted and tripping down the runway too many times. But she was still beautiful and Frank, my father, fell in love with her. For some reason or lack of it, he actually thought he could fix her. According to my grandma, she was better for a little while after she had us, but it didn’t last.

“As time passed and she got older, she began blaming all of us for her failures.” Emily tried to keep the tears from her eyes, but it was very difficult. With quick assertive movements she mopped them away and tucked her hair behind her ears once again before continuing. “It was Frank’s fault that her career ended, and our fault that she got old and fat. Whenever she lost control like that, the accusations would be harsh. She called us names and humiliated us for no good reason. As their marriage crumbled, her drinking became heavier and so did her constant complaints and, eventually, her hand.”

Taylor had to clench his fists to try to dissipate some of the anger he felt as he watched the tears continue to pour down Emily’s face. She remained quiet for some time. Her eyes were on him, but he knew that she wasn’t seeing him. After a few minutes, she stopped wiping them and simply lowered her face to hide any trace of the sadness that had overcome her.

“How bad was it?” he asked in a raspy voice, unable to bare the painful silence any longer.

“At first it wasn’t that bad, just a few shoves or slaps.” Despite how much Taylor willed her to, Emily wouldn’t meet his eyes. “It got bad when I was about seven. Jane was harder on me than my sister. But Charlie had the habit of jumping on her every time she began hitting me, which usually left her in much worse shape. The first time it got really bad was on my eighth birthday. My grandmother threw me a party at McDonalds. Jane showed up pissed, and Nana wouldn’t let her in. When we got back home she was twice as drunk and started to yell and throw things at me. Charlotte and I tried to hide, which made her even madder.

“When she finally found us, she dragged us to the kitchen where the door to the basement was. She threw Charlie down the stairs and locked her there, then she turned on me and began slapping me and calling me names that no child should ever be called. The harder I cried the more she hit me.” Tears ran from her eyes like rivers as she remembered the dreadful night she’d never be able to forget, but she didn’t stop.

“My head began hurting from all the slaps and punches. My lip split open and started to bleed. I held her hand, thinking that I could stop her, but she just laughed and shook her arm with all her strength, making me fall to the floor.