No Rebound

Chapter 11

Chapter 11The journey was made in silence as I couldn’t look at her but her car was an automatic, leaving my left hand mostly free to hold hers and it felt as natural as could be.

By the time we reached her house she had started to stiffen up and was starting to bruise from the force of hitting the ground. I sat her in the living room, fed Jasper who was winding himself around her legs in anticipation and went into her bathroom, where I ran her a bath with scented bubbles that I found on a shelf.

Back in the living room Jess was sat where I’d left her, still in her jacket, with Jasper purring loudly as he pummelled her lap. I crouched down in front of her and smiled, noticing the slightly wild look in her eyes. She was obviously in shock and I was starting to wish I had more knowledge of what to do in this type of situation.

‘Hey, how you doing?’ I asked, making sure to look right at her.

‘I’m ok although I can’t help think about what might have happened if you hadn’t been there and knocked me out of the way. I had no idea that car was coming, it would have ploughed straight into me.’

‘I was there though and it didn’t. You have some scrapes and bruises but you’ll be fine. Come and have a bath and soothe your muscles.’ And I lifted Jasper from her lap and took her hand, leading her into the bathroom that was now filled with scented steam.

Walking into the bathroom she realised that I’d already run the bath for her and turned to look at me with slightly misty eyes ‘You’re so wonderfully caring’

I smiled, took her coat from her and turned to leave the bathroom but she grabbed my arm ‘You’re not leaving are you?’

‘No Hon, I’m just going to hang your coat up, I’ll be right outside if you need me. Besides -- you kidnapped me so I don’t have my car here!’

‘Oh yeah, so I did’ and the hint of a smile played across her lips. Not the wonderful smile I knew she was capable of but just seeing her look slightly happier lifted my spirits.

I left her to undress and get into the bath while I hung her coat and started rummaging through her kitchen cupboards to distract myself from the fact that she was naked just down the hall.

I noticed a similarity to my own cupboards in that they were full of easy to cook food for one person.

I may have had Sarah in my life until yesterday (was it really only yesterday?) but we had never lived together and rarely ate a home cooked meal at my house.

The fridge was fairly well stocked but nothing in there leant itself to my limited cooking skills so I came to the conclusion that we’d be ordering a takeaway.

I gave Jess 30 minutes to soak in the tub and soothe her aching muscles before quietly listening at the door in an attempt to tell if she was out of the bath yet or not but I could only hear the unmistakeable sound of quiet crying.