TWELVE
Zeus
Dark clouds gather on the horizon, dulling what was an enjoyable spring day. The loud clink of metal on glass tears my focus away from the approaching storm and back to Jodie.
“Are you listening?” Her perfectly drawn eyebrow arches as she leans back.
I focus on where she smacked the teaspoon against my beer glass and frown. “Sure.”
“What did I just say, then?”
Fuck. “That we’ll split the agent fees down the middle?”
She huffs, her ample chest heaving as she does. “After that, Zeus.”
I stare at the woman I once promised the rest of my life to and wonder how I could ever have been so stupid. Dating her in school had been an accomplishment of sorts, considering she was one of the rich, popular girls, and I was… well, the poor half-caste from the wrong end of town.
But pretty girls love bad boys, and a bad boy was all I was. No entry-level scores for my exams, no perfect attendance. Just a few thousand in my back pocket from the shit I’d stolen and hocked off at the traders downtown, and an entitled attitude that no level of authority could heel.
“You’ll have to remind me.” I lean back and spread my legs wide beneath the table.
I don’t miss the way Jodie’s eyes track the shape of my shoulders before she answers. “I said I’d list it as negotiable over four-twenty.”
“Sounds fair enough.” Last valuation had our house at three-ninety, so whatever she can get over that is more money in my back pocket once we divide the profit.
“Veronica, the agent, has the papers drafted awaiting the price, so I can get them from her for you to sign tomorrow.”
I nod, already disinterested in the conversation again. Yet the more amicable this split is, the less it’ll cost me in lawyer’s fees—money I don’t have right now. I shift my gaze to the clouds again, thinking how they look the same as the rain storm that hit the day I spoke to Belle out the back of John’s when Cerise left: black and foreboding.
Belle loves storms. Always has.
Even at age five she’d tug on my arm and beg me to turn all the lights off to sit in the dark and watch the lightning with her. John and Cerise would leave us to it, probably thankful for the break. I loved those afternoons. I’d almost go as far as to say I miss them.
“You’re not listening again, are you?”
“I think we’ve covered everything we have to.”
Jodie’s eyes narrow as she lifts her purse. “I asked where I could find you so I know where to bring your copy of the documents.”
“I’ll come see you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She pulls lipstick and a compact out, her brow furrowed.
“Let me guess.” I can’t keep the twitch from my eye as I stare down this harlot. “You’re at his house now.”
“I told you he asked me to move in.” She smacks her lips, the look in her eyes fire.
“Yeah, you did, but I thought you’d have more decency than to jump ship before our bed was even cold.”
“Don’t fool yourself, Zeus.” The scrape of her chair on the pavement is as angry as her words. “Our bed was cold months ago.”
“And who’s fault would that be?” I show indifference to her tantrum by refusing to move, spread out on my seat still.
Her chest heaves once, twice, before the brutality of her words punches a fist into my chest and rips my heart out. “We’re trying for a baby.” The victory shines in her eyes. “You know, that thing you could never give me.”
Bitch is lucky we’re in public. I’ve never hit a woman, but goddamn she makes me want to start.
“Go play happy families, Jodie. I’m at John’s when you’ve got the paperwork ready for me.” Sooner we get this shit tied up and finished, the better.
I push to my feet and make it as far as swiping my keys from the table before she digs her talons in that extra inch.
“John’s? How’s that working out for you, sharing the same roof as his melodramatic bitch of a daughter?”
“Say something else about Belle,” I threaten with a finger pointed her way. “And see what happens.”
Her freshly painted lips curl up on one side. “A bit on the defensive side, aren’t you?”
“Sick of this shit, is all.”
She huffs, slinging the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Admit it: drama follows that wee madam everywhere. He spoiled her after Cerise walked out and made a rod for his own back.”
“He hardly spoiled her.” He barely had two coins to rub together at the end of the week. If anything, he sacrificed to make sure she didn’t go without. John never lost his physical size because he stopped working out with me, he lost it because he couldn’t afford to maintain it anymore. Shit, some weeks he only ate because of the help I gave him.
“You’re as delusional as he is.” Jodie shakes her head. “Just make sure she doesn’t try to manipulate you as well. Last thing you need is that little leech sucking you dry.”
I scoff as I march past her. “No, Jodie. Not when you’re doing such a great job of that all on your own.”
Her response doesn’t reach my ears, the words lost in the distance between us as I stride out to the parking lot and drop into the GTO. My heart thunders in my chest, the words she spoke about Belle fuel for the fire I keep dampened inside.
I have a tendency to become violent when provoked, especially when it comes to the people I care about. Hell, one look at the reason I was sent inside proves that. But I’ve spent years with the custodial therapist working on keeping my fists to myself and resolving issues with words. Fucked if one jaded ex-wife will be the reason why that changes.
My pulse continues to throb fat and heavy in my neck as I drive back to John’s. The more I try to calm myself, the more wound up I become. Yet strangely my frustration doesn’t have me craving the usual outlet for my anger. A session with the bag at the gym, a few swings of the hammer onto the tyre, and my mood eases. Not today. The more I run what Jodie said through my mind, the more I wonder if that’s how everyone views Belle, and why she gets a hard time. The more I want to hold her and tell her I don’t think that way at all.
Inappropriate, Zeus. Totally not what I need to do to ease this pressure coiled tight in my chest.
She came to me in confidence on Friday night, and what did I do? I brushed her aside and discounted how she felt, all to save how I felt. I did the same as every other fucking person in her life—everyone except her father. And yet, she won’t talk to him. Why?
I park the car in John’s driveway and wander toward the house in a daze, my thoughts still so tangled in Belle that I don’t notice John at the door until he almost bowls me over in his effort to look behind me.
“She’s not with you?”
“Should she be?” The panicked look in his eye sets my racing heart back where it left off.
He turns and storms inside the house, leaving me to follow. “She wasn’t here when I got up.”
“She went to the shops, man.”
His shoulders sag as his face relaxes. “Of course.”
I slap a hand on his shoulder and smile. “Beer?”
“I think so.” He drags a hand over his face as I head for the fridge. “I guess I’m a little on edge.”
“You don’t say.” I uncap the bottle and hand it over. “Why?”
He slumps into a seat at the dining table and looks up at me with nothing short of apprehension.
“What have you done?”
“It’s not what I’ve done,” he says. “It’s what I’m about to do.”
I lean back against the counter and open a bottle of water. “Which is?”
“I got a phone call a few months ago.” He chews the inside of his cheek before continuing. “Cerise.”
“Fuck off.” My jaw sets to stone. That bitch ruined him. Nothing she could have to say would be worth it.
“She wanted to see me, to hear about Belle.”
“She’s had ten years to hear about Belle,” I point out. “And now she gives a fucking shit?”
“She had issues to work through, mate.”
“She gave you issues to work through last time she was around.”
He sighs. It’s clear that no matter what I come up with, this deal is done. “We’ve been meeting up, catching up.”
“When?”
“Before work. After.” His guilty eyes tell me everything.
“You’re meaning to tell me that you were worried about leaving Belle on her own while you’re at work, but you were okay with making booty calls with your ex instead?”
“Zeus, have some respect, man.”
“I am,” I deadpan. “You don’t want to hear what I really think of her. What happened to Mr Moneybags?”
“They lasted two years.”
“Two years.” I scoff. “Her affair is over after two years, and yet it’s ten before she thinks to come ask about her fucking daughter.”
“She admits she fucked up, okay? But tell me,” he asks with a narrowed glare. “How easy would you find it to walk back into your kid’s life after all this time?”
“If I loved her, pretty fucking easy.”
He regards me a moment, silent as he takes several pulls of his beer. “We’re thinking of a reconciliation.”
“Are you high?”
“Z, man. I haven’t had a serious relationship since her. Fuck, I haven’t had one long-term relationship.”
“So, you’ll settle for seconds?”
“I thought you’d support me—us.”
“If I thought it was a good idea, then yeah, I would.”
He huffs heavily out his nose. “I need you to try, mate. I need you to put some real effort into seeing how she’s changed.”
“Why?” I narrow my gaze on him, not liking the unease in my gut one fucking iota.
“Because I want to ask her to move back in as part of the reconciliation.”
My bottle hits the counter with a splash. “No fucking way.”
“I’m sorry,” he snaps with the most balls I’ve seen on the man in years. “But this is my house, so it’s my decision.”
“And Belle is your daughter. You know, the one you raised alone the last ten years? How would she feel? You thought about that?”
“She’ll either adapt or she’s welcome to start her own life under her own roof.”
“You’d boot your eighteen-year-old daughter out unprepared in the name of maybe working things out with the woman who fucked around and left you for the next shiny thing?”
“This conversation is going nowhere.” He rises, face impassive as he stares me down.
“Too right, it’s not. Just like your future with that fucking woman.” I snatch up my drink and turn for the door. “I’ll keep my mouth shut for you, J, but fucked if I’m going to play nice with her.”
“That’s all I ask.”