Inseparable: A New Adult Erotic Romance (8 page)

"I understand. I’ve got your back. Stand firm on that if nothing else. Besides, you’re going to have fun over the weekend with the girls."

Jack smiled. "What have I done to deserve you?"

"Nothing, and you don’t need to do anything. Just you, remember?"

"I know. I’ll call you after we get out of court today. Hopefully, we’re down to the last details and this will all be over soon."

They kissed goodbye one last time and Julie went to her car. When she started it, the smell of burning oil made her stomach rumble, so she rolled down the window and drove fast to keep the smell away. She arrived just on time and was able to get through the morning checklist before her staff got in.

She worried all day, privately certain that Sophie was going to pull one of her tricks at court. It was like a premonition, a sick sense of inevitability that she had no influence or control over.

She was scared of missing his call, so she picked up some tacos from the sketchy food truck that sat out in the parking lot. She was just finishing the last bite when the call came. She could tell instantly that it was worse than they had feared.

The words spilled out of the phone quickly. "She fucked me. She filed some extra paperwork and didn’t deliver it to my attorney until this morning. Instead of what we agreed to, she went for full custody, child support, the works. The judge didn’t want to hear anything my lawyer was saying and ordered it done. My wages will be garnished; I’m going to barely have enough..."

"Wait, wait, slow down, Jack. One thing at a time. What did she do?"

He took a deep breath. "We had worked out a shared custody schedule, just like I told you. She would keep the girls during the week, I’d have them over the weekends and we’d split the holidays. Today she filed for sole custody with monthly visitations for me. She claimed I was unfit and had statements from people I thought were my friends." He choked up crying and cleared his throat to get himself under control again.

"I was in pretty bad shape before I met you. We’d been split up for a few weeks and our friends had seen me slide into a bad place. I was drinking every day, missing work. Some of them wrote detailed accounts of my behavior. Very detailed."

She remembered that first night, how he might have been thinking about doing something foolish. That was why she had stayed at first. "I see."

"You and I have kept to ourselves. None of my friends have seen me in a few weeks. Now I see why Sophie was encouraging me to spend more time with you, saying she had been concerned and liked your influence on me. This morning she even complimented your work in the girls’ room, and let the girls get all excited about staying there this weekend. That fucking bitch, she knew the whole time! I won’t get to see my girls again until next month!" His throat closed as he choked on his pain.

"I was afraid of this. I’ve been sick all morning worrying about you. What were you saying about your wages? I thought she got most of the money from the sale of the house?"

"That was just the asset split, but I basically gave her everything she asked for assuming I was going to get dual custody. Now she has the largest part of our assets and will get over half my paycheck until the girls are eighteen. Julie, I’m so fucked, I'll barely have enough for rent and food at this point."

"Hang on, Jack. Let’s talk tonight. I’ll bring over something and cook for you for a change. Just get through the day at work and we’ll figure something out."

"Thank you so much for standing by me during this. I don’t know what I’d do without you."

"It’s no problem, I’m happy to help you. Just promise me you’ll be careful, Jack. I don’t think she’s done yet; I still have a bad feeling."

Julie arrived after picking up some groceries to find him sitting on the steps outside the front door of his apartment. He looked as bad as that first night, with a bottle of whiskey on the ground between his feet, swirling a low glass of the amber liquid in his hand. He didn't even smile as she greeted him.

"What’s wrong?"

"I lost my job." The numb way he said it pointed to the depth of his pain.

"Oh, shit," she said, kneeling down in front of him. "What happened?"

"I was accused of inappropriate use of corporate funds. You know I sell oilfield equipment, right?" he started to explain. "Pumps, valves, all kinds of industrial supplies. When we take buyers out, we always pick up the tab, even places like bars and strip clubs. It’s expected. It’s how you have to sell into this market, no matter what our corporate policy says. It’s an open secret that the sales guys put the charges on their corporate cards and turn in the expense reports with vague descriptions of what we spent the money on. Well,
someone
provided the itemized receipts to accounting for my last few sales trips."

"Someone?" Julie already knew the answer.

"Yeah, no one will tell me exactly how the receipts from my old home office made it to the accounting department. While it’s technically true, if they fired all the salesmen who did the same thing, there’d be no one left. And if they ever enforced the policy, the buyers would all go somewhere else." He held his head in his hands, exasperated. "I moved millions of dollars of product for them last year, but I hit the skids for a few weeks and now I’m gone. No one would even look at me as I was walked out today. At least I got my entire last paycheck, they hadn’t had time to process the court order yet."

Julie was speechless. Sophie had taken the game to the next level. Gutting him in family court and then somehow setting him up to lose his job on the same day was a special kind of evil.

"So, how was your day?" He had tears rolling down his face.

"Let’s go inside, Babe. Come on," she said, helping him to stand.

He walked like an old man, completely broken by the day’s events. She guided him to the bedroom, taking the bottle and glass from his hand and leaving them on the dining room table. She stopped briefly in the kitchen to put away the groceries, and then she led him to his bed. She quickly undressed him and pulled back the sheets, putting him under the covers. She took off her clothes, folded them on the dresser, and then climbed under the covers with him.

She held him from behind, wrapping her arms around him as he finally gave in and sobbed, letting out his pain as she gently touched his back. She had tears in her eyes as well, hurting with him, frustrated that she couldn’t do more than hold him. When he finally stilled, she kissed his back, inviting him to turn over and find comfort in her arms.

When he turned to kiss her, she could taste his tears. She held him, gave him all the time he needed, and let him lead her where he wanted to go. Eventually, the kisses warmed them both and he reached for a condom, letting her help him put it on. She pulled at him to lie on top of her, settling him between her thighs as she continued to kiss his face and stroke his hair.

They came together slowly. She kept her arms around him, running her hands along his back, soothing him with her kisses. He began to thrust, but she was solely focused on him, whispering his name, giving him permission to just let go, encouraging him with soft gasps and sighs. His breath caught as he tipped over the edge, his fingers running into her soft hair, his quiet cry coming as he pushed his face next to hers. She felt him pulsing as he emptied himself, holding him tightly while he trembled, then waited longer as he began to cry again, his hot tears falling along her cheek.

He eventually calmed and then got up to use the bathroom. Julie got up to get a drink of water, her stomach grumbling loudly about the tacos she had eaten for lunch. She made it as far as the dining room before she had to sprint to the girls’ bathroom, barely arriving in time to empty her stomach into the toilet.

She heard his worried voice from the other side of the apartment, "Julie, are you OK?"

She spat again and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I’m fine, but I’m not eating out of that fucking taco truck anymore. They taste even worse the second time." She washed her mouth out with water and borrowed some of the candy-flavored toothpaste she had bought for the girls to get rid of the taste.

They met in front of the kitchen, both of them naked and hungry despite the day’s drama and bad food. They brainstormed about what to do next as Julie cooked the chicken breasts in a skillet and boiled the noodles for the mac and cheese she had brought. Jack’s cell phone rang and he showed her his parent’s name on the display. He took a deep breath and took the call, stepping into the living room to let his mother know what had happened that day.

Listening to it all over again made Julie grit her teeth in anger. She had rarely hated anyone, but Sophie was already in her top two, just behind Bill, one of her mother’s old boyfriends. Thinking of him again made the memory of what happened come to the surface. She quickly buried it before it made her sick again.

Julie finished cooking and set the table, then left the room to give him privacy to finish his call. While she sat on the toilet in his bathroom, her hands shaking as she fought another wave of nausea, she thought about what she was going to do next. She knew that the world only looked civilized on the surface. Underneath the veneer, people were the same animals they had always been. They always fought hardest to protect their own.

She knew it was crazy, but Julie felt closer and more connected to Jack than anyone else she’d ever known. He was hers in every way that mattered to her. And she was going to make certain Sophie knew it before Julie made her pay the price for hurting him.

J
ulie got up from the bed quietly. Her feet whispered on the carpet as she walked to the girls’ bathroom and shut the door. She kept swallowing hard, trying not to be sick, but knelt next to the toilet just in case, pressing her hand against her stomach as if to will the nausea to go away. The damn tacos, she insisted to herself, it’s just the damn tacos.

She sighed as the wave of nausea passed, then got up to sit on the toilet putting her head in her hands. Jack opened the door slowly to peek in.

"Are you still sick?" He brought in a glass of cold water and sat it on the counter next to her.

"Yes. I hope you can live without Mexican food, because I’m swearing off the whole menu now." She took a long drink of the icy water and shivered.

"Can I get you a robe? Are you cold?"

"No, I’m OK now, it passed. Have any big ideas while you slept?"

"I wish." He sat down on the floor in front of her and pulled her foot into his lap, rubbing along her arch and heel. "Unless I can figure out how to magically reduce my child support, I’m going to have to take my Uncle’s job offer while I look for other work. If I get behind, I’m sure Sophie will go after me with everything she’s got."

Julie sighed and wiggled her toes as he pushed his thumbs along the sole of her foot. "It’s going to cost you to get out of your lease and you just barely moved in. How far away is Morgan City?" He squeezed her heel.

"Four or five hours. As for the apartment, I was hoping you might be willing to stay here and keep an eye on things for me."

Julie looked up startled. "I can’t afford this place, Jack. Not even half of the rent, and forget the utilities. Besides, I’m still paying for most of Mom’s bills at our place."

"I can’t give it up because I still get the girls once a month. I’m sure if I moved out of state she would be back in court the next day to take that away from me as well. I should be able to pay the rent and utilities, don’t worry, I just don’t want it to sit empty for the two weeks I’m out on the rig in the gulf. Besides, how nice would it be to walk through the door and find you here waiting for me the week I’m home?" He kissed the ball of her foot, then pulled her other foot over and started rubbing his thumbs up her arch.

Julie felt her tears rise. "I’m going to miss you so much. God, I never get emotional like this. You know I’ll do what I can. What else would a friend do?"

"Just friends?"

"You’re still on the rebound," she said with a smile. "But I’m not. I decided last night you’re mine. Once you get through this, we’ll discuss if I’m yours or not." Suddenly her smile disappeared and her face turned pale. "You need to get out of here."

"I’m not going anywhere." He got up as she turned around.

"Well, if you’re staying, then you can hold back my hair."

He held her hair for her and rubbed her back tenderly while she threw up again. "What else would a friend do?"

***

S
he arrived at work a few hours later, glaring at the food truck as she passed it in the parking lot. Never again, she thought as the greasy smell of cooking food blew by her open window.

Cathy was waiting by the door for Julie to arrive and unlock it. She must have seen the look on Julie’s face, because she pinched her lips and shook her head sadly. "How’s Jack?"

"He’s crushed. The punch line: he got fired yesterday as well."

"What?" she screamed.

Julie held the door open and made air quotes as Cathy entered. "Someone turned in a bunch of old receipts he kept in his home office from sales trips that proved he took his clients to strip clubs, which was against corporate policy, so they fired him." After Cathy passed, she locked the door again.

"And his ex-wife is the ‘someone’, right?"

"That’s what we thought." They walked inside, as Julie turned off the alarm and turned on the overhead lights. "My heart breaks for the girls. They were really looking forward to spending weekends with their Dad. Why do people make their children suffer to score points? I swear I’m going to find a way to make that bitch pay, one way or another."

They split up to finish preparing everything before opening. Julie started cleaning the equipment while Cathy set up the concessions counter. When Cathy finished she came out to help Julie disinfect the play area.

"So, what’s Jack going to do for a job now?" she said as she sprayed and wiped the inflated vinyl equipment.

"He’s going to work for his Uncle rough-necking out in the gulf."