Time to Control (10 page)

"He is so cute!" Jill
confided once we were out of earshot.
 
"Please tell me he's your single brother?"

I looked down at the ring.
 
The people at the store were only casual
acquaintances, and word wouldn't go back to my family or coworkers.
 
"Husband.
 
We're newlyweds."
 
I held my hand out for the ring to be
admired, and Jill appropriately gushed.

"Wow!
 
That is gorgeous!
 
That must of cost a small
fortune."
 
A gleam came into
her eyes.
 
"Does he have a brother?"

I laughed at her, and went into the
dressing room to start finding a new wardrobe.

"You can show me, you
know," Eddie told me after I had rejected an arms full, and accepted
another arms full.

I shook my head.
 
"These were the easy ones.
 
That pile simply didn't fit, and the
other pile is very similar to styles I've had from here before.
 
Trust me, there'll be stuff I'll want
your opinion on."

"I think that's your phone," Eddie said a half-hour later
while I was getting another armful of clothes to try on.

"Huh?"
 
Comprehension dawned, and I took my
purse back from Eddie, who was kindly carrying the purse as well as the
clothes.
 
After pawing through the
purse I finally found it, and answered quickly before the caller hung up.

"Hey, peanut!" I heard,
and stifled a groan.
 
Damn it, I
should have looked before answering.

"Hi, Dad.
 
I was just going to call you."
 
Well, later that night.
 
After a few drinks.
 
I took a deep breath, and explained
about the apartment.
 
Three
times.
 
Eddie winced at me sympathetically
when I repeated I was fine for the fifth time.

Eddie tapped on the ring.
 
"Tell him?"
 
He mouthed.
 
I shuddered and shook my head.
 
Eddie handed the clothing off to the
sales girl, and put his arms around me.
 
I insisted that I didn't need to make sure they had sprinklers in the
next apartment, especially since no one put sprinklers in apartments, and
finally signed off with a roll of the eyes.
 
I leaned into Eddie's hug.

"You sure you want to marry
into my family?"
 
I said, half
teasing.

"Absolutely."
 
He kissed the top of my head and
released me.

Not five minutes later my father
called back.
 
"You fly home
Friday late afternoon."

"Excuse me?"
 
The shirt I was looking at slid off the
hanger and pooled at my feet.
 
"I'm not going to Atlanta, Dad."

Eddie overheard me from where he
was looking at some sweaters a few racks away, and hurried over at the stressed
tone in my voice.

"Your mom and I think that you
need to come home, rest, and recharge.
 
Being in familiar surroundings would be good for you right now."

I rubbed my face with my hand.
 
"Being here so I can move into a
new apartment would be good for me right now.
 
Being here so I can buy furniture would
be good.
 
I don't have time to go to
Atlanta."

"Sure you do, it'll be good
for you.
 
Your mother wants to see
you to be sure you're all right.
 
And besides, I already bought the ticket with frequent flier miles.
 
It's non-refundable."

I sighed.
 
They always liked to guilt trip me into
coming.
 
Eddie waved to get my
attention.
 
"Hold on a sec, Dad."
 
I covered the mouthpiece.

"I'll come with you.
 
We need to tell them anyway; might as
well do it in person."

"I'm sorry," I told
him.
 
"This isn't going to be a
fun weekend."

"Any time spent with you is
fun."
 
I stuck my tongue out at
Eddie, and got back on the phone.

"Fine, I'll see you Friday
night.
 
Email me the flight
info?
 
Thanks.
 
And tell Mom to set up the guest room;
I'll be bringing a friend with me.
 
No, he'll pay his own way.
 
Yes, it's a he.
 
We'll talk
when we get there.
 
Love you
too."
 
I turned the phone
ringer off, and shoved it back in the purse.
 
"Sorry, you'll have to sleep in the
guest room.
 
It's not just propriety
-- the bed in my room is the twin bed I had as a kid."

He smirked.
 
"When I hit six feet in 8th grade
my parents bought me a full sized bed.
 
Why do you think I have a king now?
 
It's the only size I can sleep straight in.
 
I slept diagonally even in the full
size."

I moved on to a few more racks, but
had lost interest.
 
"I think
I'm good for now," I told Eddie, wrapping my arms around myself.
 
"Can we go?"

"I thought you
needed--"
 
he broke off when he
saw the despair on my face.
 
"Okay.
 
Um, you got
jeans, right?
 
And did you grab some
of these fitted t-shirts?
 
Let's
grab a couple of them; large, so they can be nice and roomy?"
 
I nodded, and headed towards the
checkout.
 
Eddie picked out a teal
shirt and found one of the pairs of jeans in the pile at the register, and
pushed them in my hands.
 
"Here, go change.
 
I'll
get things rung up."

The sales woman had me wait a second
while she pulled the tags off, and I went back to the dressing room.
 
I slumped on the bench in the room and
fought tears.
 
I didn't win.

"Schroeder?"
 
Eddie knocked at the door.
 
"We're good to go,
honey."
 
I scrubbed at the tear
tracks with my fists, and quickly changed clothes.
 
I opened the door and put the sweats in
one of the shopping bags Eddie held open.

I could feel his eyes searching my
face, but he didn't mention the obvious signs of crying.
 
"Let's get some dinner, okay?
 
There looked to be a burger joint just
down the street."
 
I nodded
curtly, and we left.

Dinner was mostly quiet, with the
exception of a "pass the ketchup, please" here and there.
 
It wasn't until I drew faces in the
ketchup with a french fry that Eddie tested the waters.
 
"Is it going to Atlanta that's
bugging you?"

"No."

"Was it something in
particular that I did?"

"No."

"Do you want to talk about
it?"

"No," I plead, looking up
at him with exhausted, sad eyes.

"What say we hit the bookstore
down the street, then go back to the hotel?
 
That way if there's nothing interesting
on TV tonight, you can read until you fall asleep."

He must know he's not getting any
tonight, I thought uncharitably.
 
I
sighed.
 
"Sorry, I'm not being
very nice.
 
That'd be
fine."
 
I leaned across the
table to give him a quick kiss.

Back at the hotel, I debated, then
put on the dark blue negligee.
 
It
barely covered my butt, and showed most of my back and cleavage.
 
Just because he wasn't getting any
didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the view.
 
New paranormal romance in hand, I stood
at the end of the bed.

"Um, which side of the bed is
yours?"

"I generally sleep in the
center."

"You might meet my elbows in
the middle of the night then.
 
Would
you rather be elbowed in the right kidney, or left?"
 
He chose the right.

I curled up on my right side, head
up on my hand, book beside me on the bedspread.
 
Eddie was watching a hockey game,
sprawled out on the bed next to me.
 
He was taking up more than half, but I wasn't fighting on that yet.
 
A commercial came on, and Eddie pushed
on my shoulder so I fell over on my book.

"Hey!" I protested as I
felt his hands at my waist.
 
"Quit that!"
 
He
slid the satin nightie up onto my back.
 
The lacy black panties were rather cheeky, and I was sure he was getting
a good view.
 
His fingers lightly
danced over the exposed skin, and I reached back to swat at them.

"I just wanted to make sure I
didn't bruise you," he said, his voice serious.

"You didn't spank that hard in
the least," I assured him and rolled over to face him.
 
"Seriously.
 
I was a little tender for a couple of
hours, but that's it.
  
One
thing that does concern me, though--" he looked up sharply at my face
--"is that I was tender.
 
Our
clothes, or lack thereof, come back with us.
 
Injuries do too."

"You said it wasn't--"

"It wasn't bad, but I was a
healthy pink, was I not?
 
No
bruising, but definitely an impact on my body."

"It was more of a rosy
glow," he admitted with a sheepish grin.

"And umm, well," I
floundered trying to find the right words, and blushed.
 
"You didn't have to take my
virginity twice."

Realization of that came across
him.
 
"So if something happens
back when, say a sprained ankle, you'd have it when you got back.
 
That might make things hard to explain."

"Yeah.
 
So let's not visit any war zones,
okay?
 
Or anywhen there was an
outbreak of plague.
 
Let's not push
our luck."
 
He shuddered,
causing his fingers to tickle where they rested on my hip.
 
"Okay, seriously, quit that.
 
Otherwise I may not be in control of my
reactions."
 
I kissed him to show
him the kind of reaction he might expect.
 
His hand pulled my waist closer to him and went exploring, and my book
fell off the side of the bed, forgotten.

An hour later I reached across
Eddie to turn the tv off via the remote.
 
Sleepily, he tried to grab me as I crossed over.
 
"No, go back to sleep," I told
him, and crawled out of bed and went to stand by the open window.

Pyramids, I thought.
 
The building of the pyramids.
 
I took the ring on and off while
concentrating, but nothing happened.
 
Undeterred, I moved on to a different time.
 
1920's Paris.
 
Shakespeare and Company.
 
Beatniks.
 
Still nothing.
 
Okay, I know England works.
 
Victorian times?

"Where are you trying to
go?"
 
I jumped as Eddie came up
behind me; I didn't hear him get out of bed.

"Somewhere.
 
Anywhere.
 
Anywhen."

"Running away?" He asked
lightly, but I could see his hurt in the moonlight.

"Eddie..."
 
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
 
"I can't handle all of this.
 
I've lost my apartment, every single
thing I own.
 
My company is being
bought out, and who knows what that means about my job.
 
I yelled at my CEO, and who knows what
that
means about my job.
 
I got my boss
fired.
  
My parents are
sweeping in and making me come visit, and now we have to tell them we're
married, and I have no clue how to do that."

I stepped away from him when he
moved to embrace me, and continued, breathing heavily.
 
"Being married all of a
sudden.
 
Spending time with my new
husband, who I just met last week.
  
Under normal circumstances you'd be lucky to have gotten a second date
with me by now.
 
I'm not the kind to
accept a proposal from someone I just met.
 
I'm not the kind to
get
a
proposal right away.
 
Right now I
know more about what you like in bed than what you like for dinner.
 
Up until last week, I was in control of
my life.
 
I could handle Alan when
he got in his moods.
 
I could handle
dealing with my parents in small increments.
 
I could handle when my car died, and I
had to get a new one.
 
But now
everything is happening at once, and it seems everyone other than me is
controlling my life.
 
What I do at
work, where I go on the weekend, what I'm eating for dinner, what I'm
buying.
 
It's overwhelming me, and I
can't deal with it."

I was getting close to
hyperventilating, and put a hand on the back of a chair to steady myself.
 
"So yeah, I want to run away.
 
I want to go somewhere where I can be in
control again.
 
Where I can
disappear in the crowd, and no one knows me, or pays any attention to me.
 
I want to see if I can take money into
the past, so that I can bring enough back with me to get a private castle on a
hill.
 
To not have to worry about
work, and just spend my days tending my garden.
 
To not have to deal with the obligations
of my family.
 
And most of all, to
be away from you so that I don't give in to the temptation to give my life,
body, mind, soul, and control to you."
 
I plopped down into the chair, trying
not to pass out.