Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,47
some aspects of our life. Unfortunately when he drinks, he can take it out on me.”
She said the last sentence really quietly – it was so hard talking about this stuff, particularly with someone who was a virtual stranger and she felt ashamed to admit to what her life had become.
Vaughn was still silent; considering, weighing things up and for a moment she saw the shadow of pain cross his features again, as if reliving an unpleasant memory. It was fleeting though and when he turned his eyes onto her again, she saw sympathy in their dark depths.
He reached across the table again and took her hand.
“I am really struggling here, Elise; - I just don’t know what to say. Part of me wants to go to that hospital and beat the shit out of your husband – again – and part of me just wants to wrap you up in cotton wool and shower you with roses to show you how you should really be treated.”
At that Elise burst out laughing surprising both herself and Vaughn.
“What?? What did I say?”
“It was the cotton wool and roses thing, that’s pretty much exactly the same thing that Cole said! What it is about men and cotton wool and roses?”
As if Vaughn had just said the funniest thing on earth, she continued to laugh until she became hysterical and tears were pouring down her cheeks. At first they were tears of laughter but in no time at all they had turned into tears of sorrow and before she knew it, she was sobbing uncontrollably.
In a coffee shop. In the middle of the night. In front of her boss. Crap.
Vaughn obviously realised the moment that the tears changed and jumped out of his seat, going around to her side of the booth and sliding in next to her putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her tightly against him.
She continued to sob into Vaughn’s shirt with endless wracking sobs. She knew she was making a fool of herself but it was like the floodgates had opened and she was powerless to stop it. Clearly opening up to Vaughn, even the few small facts that she had done, must have had some cathartic effect and whilst she had done her fair share of crying in the past, it had never been like this. She felt totally and utterly drained and she had no clue as to how she was ever going to get back to normal again.
Eventually, the sobs began to ease and Elise became aware of the fact that Vaughn’s shirt was completely soaked. He didn’t appear to notice though and kept her tight to his side, rubbing his hand soothingly up and down her arms and her back, letting her cry it all out.
She was vaguely aware of him signalling to the waitress and then a warm flannel was pressed onto her face; soothing her, wiping away her tears and she found herself unbelievably grateful for the thoughtfulness of the gesture. In the back of her mind she registered that Dale would never do anything like that for her but she pushed the thought away. Now was not the time for negative contemplations, she wanted to enjoy these last few moments with this man until he sent her on her way and moved onto someone with a lot less baggage – the way that she knew he undoubtedly would.
Subconsciously she frowned, and Vaughn lifted her chin up and looked deep into her eyes.
“Hey...” he said soothingly “It’s OK. Look, if it’s OK with you – let’s get out of here.”
Dully, she nodded – this was it, the moment that he took her back to her car and walked out of her life. He would be kind - of course he would - but he would make his feelings clear and insist that their relationship remain purely professional from now on. Not that she could blame him of course, they had only known each other a matter of days but he had already broken up a fight on her account, been shouted at by her and now she had soaked his shirt with endless pent-up tears. She didn’t know any man that would put up with that type of behaviour - let alone someone as striking and wealthy as this man. He didn’t need her crap in his life and she had no doubt that her little performance just now had cemented that fact for him.