Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Chapter 9 - Home

I am SO SORRY this took so long! As always comments are appreciated!


I groan as I get out of bed. It had been a long week with HBO following me around, the team party, and the Caps coming up and Christmas. We were winning though so I couldn’t complain about that stuff. “I’m coming.” I said loud enough someone outside could hear me. I put on my plaid robe and stumble down the stairs. I hope it isn’t random girls. I hate that. Most people who actually know me know not to shock me in the morning. I’m all bow legged and stiff going down the stairs. As per usual at this time of day I trip sliding half down the banister into the door. “I’m up.” I groaned hearing a chuckle on the other side as the door. “It’s not funny.” I said as I right myself and throw the door open.

It was the shock of a lifetime to see her there. Things were to the point where I honestly had lost hope that she would return to me. I thought perhaps she would return to Pittsburgh but would continue on as if we had never met. Now here she was at by door looking just as beautiful as I remembered, perhaps even more so as the pangs in my heart pierced my chest. “I never… I…I…” I stuttered as I stepped back sitting on the steps in the small entryway.

“I understand if you don’t want to see me. My behavior has been extremely immature.” She shifted awkwardly on her feet my heart opening up in a way that I never thought it would again. This woman who was confidant, beautiful and once mine was standing on my stoop looking quite nervous. “If possible I’d like to talk to you, um perhaps inside where it isn’t freezing? If not that’s fine I totally understand and will walk away now.”

I just sat there looking at her unable to form words till she started to turn. “Don’t you fucking dare walk away. Never again do I want to see you walk away from me.” The words had flown out of my mouth before I had any control over them. “I mean yes, please come in.”

She smiled a little as she stepped in the door taking her scarf off and then her jacket. I didn’t remember her being this skinny but my mind could have been playing tricks. She shifted her bag seeming extra protective of it. “So…” she said looking around into the kitchen. “Isn’t your family arriving tomorrow?” she asked turning back to me with concerned eyebrows.

“Uh yeah.” I said still sitting on the step in shock she would remember holiday plans we talked about in October.

She sighed putting her bag down heading for the kitchen. I followed watching her go to the cupboard where the cleaners were kept. “You go start cleaning in your bedroom…” she turned back to the cupboard pulling out the pledge duster thing. “Take this I know you’re going to need it.”

“Mal you don’t have to…” I said as she waved the thing in my face.

“Max, I’m not letting your Mother come here with this place looking a wreck. She would want to take care of it for you and that isn’t right. So get yourself in gear. I’ll start down here. We can talk in a bit.” She said as she picked the trash out of my piles of dishes and making faces at some of the things I had been eating.

It was lunch time when she called me back downstairs. I had cleaned my bedroom and had just finished the shower, by actually showering and cleaning it.

“I know I’m an awful cook…” she said laying the two plates out on the counter. “You’re awful at grocery shopping so I think this mess of lunch is on both of us.”

I had to chuckle looking at my plate. There was a grilled cheese sandwich, coleslaw and a Twinkie which she had taken out of the wrapper to present nicely. It was so endearing I couldn’t help but smile. “I think it’s perfect.” I said taking the plates to the table where hardly anyone ate. This way we could sit across from one another rather than side by side. She brought two glasses of ice water before taking the seat across from me.

We ate in the quite for a bit before she finally started to talk. “I’m sorry I ran away.” She said looking up at me her food her green/hazel eyes seeing. “It was an extremely immature thing to do. It wasn’t just you that forced me away but years and years of shit built up inside of me.” She explained.

I nodded. “I know what I did was horrible. Beyond stupid. With this time I also know why I did it now. I didn’t do it because I didn’t want you or for any real reason people cheat. I did it because I was and still am so afraid.” I sighed putting my fork down having cleared my coleslaw from my plate. “I’m afraid because I’ve never made it this far. I’m sailing in uncharted seas.”

“Really a sailing metaphor?” she said working hard not to smile. “I know what you mean. It’s part of why I ran. I’m so afraid…” she took a shaky breath. “I’m so afraid that if I am with you like this now that if we continue on and find it not working I will cease to be. Max I’ve never ever been in this deep before. I’ve never… I’ve never needed to run because I’ve never been completely involved.”

I nodded again. “Mal, I’ve never wanted to be involved. I’ve never woke up in the morning missing someone before. I’ve never needed someone the way I need you and I do need you. I need you to call me on my shit, I need you to do things like this for me…” I said motioning to the plate. “I need you to tell me how badly my ties and shirts clash. I just need you because I’m better at everything when we’re together.”

She looked at me blinking and then went on to say things I can’t really remember listing as I had what was good about our relationship. All I know was she ended it with the most memorable thing anyone has ever said to me.

“I’m not a whole person without you.”

No one has ever said anything like that to be before. I’ve been a son, brother, friend and team mate, one night stand, crush and lover but never have I been the person that someone thought completed them. It was brilliant and scary all at the same time.

“Mal I think we should…” she didn’t give me a chance to finish.
“You think we should reboot us? If so I agree. I love you and you love me and we’re on the same page for once. I think we need to really go for it. I know you may be ready to jump off a cliff because you like to do things big. That’s you and one of the things I find so endearing.” She looked back down at her food."

She was right I was in the middle of asking her to marry me. IN my head these things sound brilliant but when she speaks reality sets in; he reality of my cheating and her running away. Those were no foundations to build a marriage on. “I think you should help me get the rest of the house ready for Christmas. I have a game tomorrow and then the next night so I think I need your help.”
She smiled and nodded. “I think we can do that.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So Maxime when did she come back?” My Mom asked me with coffee in hand as we sat down. The team had gone to Washington and won and now we were all on Christmas break for a few days. I had come home to find my house fully decorated (I had done a bit but it was even better now. Several batches of cookies laid out and a stocked pantry. All Mal’s doing.

“Please tell me you are asking because you are happy for me not because you wish to lecture me.” I said as I sipped my coffee still in my robe and ‘family visiting pajamas’. It was Christmas Eve and Mal would be over in hours to spend time with my family and I. I had never bashed her to my family though they knew I was suffering with her being gone.

She shrugged. “I was only asking because everything is put together in the way only a woman can. I know she makes you happy Maxime. I even feel she makes you better as a man. I am angry she was gone and inflicted so much pain on you. I am happy now that you are working things out.” My Mom always knew how to walk the diplomatic line when it came to these things.

“So when she arrives you will not be upset? I want to know what to expect.”

My Mom shook her head no. “Oh Son, no. I will never be outwardly angry with what makes you happy. I know you two belong together. I have never seen you as happy as I did this past summer. That is next to your day with the cup. I only wish neither of you had to experience this time of pain. I guess it is good that you got it out of the way now so that in the future nothing will seem as much of a challenge as the last few months were.” She reached out taking my hand giving it a squeeze. “Now go shower before she arrives. Consider shaving that stupid thing on your face perhaps?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “She hasn’t said but I know Mal hates it too.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So that is what Christmas is like for normal people?” Mal asked snuggled up next to me on the sofa. Everyone else had gone to bed leaving the two of us on the sofa my arms around her and hers around me just laying together sharing the small space.

“I do not think anyone would ever call us Talbots normal but I guess this is what normal Christmas has become. We rotate hosting it each year so no one gets burnt out. We started doing that when my Mom was sick.” I explained brushing a stray piece of her hair from her eyes.

“The cancer.” Mal said which I nodded my agreement to.

“Yes. We started it then and just continued making it a new tradition. Next year we are back to Montreal.” I felt Mal nod. “You’ll love Christmas there.” I continued. “The snow is nice here but it is so special in Montreal. You’ll see.”

She smiled stretching ever so slightly to kiss my nose. It was the first time her lips had touched me in two months.

“Please, will you stay tonight? I don’t mean for sex but just stay. I don’t want to be away from you just yet.” We had exchanged our gifts earlier. Both were quite sentimental. She had gotten me a beautiful leather carry-on bag and the softest sweater I had ever felt. I had gotten her a necklace ages ago with Christmas in mind. It was a little handmade glass heart that had flecks of gold and purple in it. She had it on now and as I saw it catch the light I could see the colors reflected on her skin. It was one of a kind and beautiful just like her.

I could tell Mal was thinking over staying. “You still have clothes here. I didn’t move them.” I said in an effort to encourage her to stay.

She brought her lips to mine. “I’ll stay she whispered.” Her lips brushing against mine as she spoke. It was enough to make my whole body tingle and my cock twitch against her. I wanted her from the moment I saw her but even I knew it would take a bit of time for that to come back into the picture. “I love you Max.” she added before capturing my lips in the first kiss of our new commitment. And I loved her back. We love one another and because of that I knew everything was going to be ok, no matter what we would be ok.

3 comments:

  1. just found you, and so glad i did. this is lovely, and i'm so glad they found their way back!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you done with this story? I hope not i want to know what happens

    ReplyDelete