Day and Night Ch. 07

It's a short one folks. Not really any fucking, more of that sweet, sweet tension. But I'm actually writing the next chapter which will contain a fair amount of sexy bits.

And for the folks who emailed me, thank you! No seriously, it's been just a shitty time for me personally and professionally all around and getting emails and comments of people just wanting more is just like the nicest thing. Even when it's demanding. I love it.

-RSP

***

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cracking the door open a sliver, Beth checked on Brian. Thankfully the kid was out like a light, the soothing sounds of an ocean keeping away the every present cacophony of the city and allowing him to rest. The same couldn't be said for Beth, but she'd gotten used to the noises. At her old apartment the near silence had been isolating, their place so high up and the floor only shared by three other units, it created a disconnect from the city that had unnerved her. But it wasn't like they'd spent much time there anyway; between work and social engagements, that apartment was just a really nice hotel: meant for sleeping and not much else.

Well, and fucking my ex-best friend. Even as she thought it, Beth rolled her eyes, silently tugging the door to Brian's room closed again. She was about ninety percent over the whole Simone and Jason debacle. That last ten percent was more the freshness of it all. A few weeks wasn't enough time to get over relationships that had lasted years. Wasn't the rule for getting over someone half the time in the relationship plus seven? Or was that the math for the youngest person you could date?

Beth shook her head, moving quietly around the living room and kitchen, turning off the lights. A night light near the entryway and hallway would provide enough illumination for whenever Day got home. And they talked.

"Fuck," she groaned quietly, entering their bedroom. Their bedroom. Their home. It was all happening too fast and yet so slowly. If her relationship with Jason was like a bullet train, fast and predictable, then her relationship with Day was more like a road trip, with hours that seemed to flow like minutes and bouts of traffic like interruptions that caused things to slow to a drawl or halt altogether.

Like now. With Brian and that fucking school of his. Former school.

Plopping down on the toilet, Beth pulled her phone from her shorts' pocket and scrolled, not for the first time, through the private schools in the city. There were many. All she really needed to do was pick a random school from the list and call them up. No doubt they'd have a spot open. Money had a way of opening doors if you had enough of it and Beth certainly wasn't exactly worried about that with Day. Granted, the few news articles she'd read about the man could have been off, but even if they were off on his net worth by a few million it still wouldn't matter.

Money wasn't the issue; Jason and his parents were.

Wracking a hand through her hair, Beth set her phone on the counter and finished on the toilet. Brian could get accepted into a hundred private schools, but as long as they accepted outside donations that dictated their actions toward a student they were screwed. And Beth didn't blame them. Only an idiot turned away that kind of money for one kind. It was an all around shitty, creative, ingenious way of getting her to bend to their will. No way was Beth going to mess up Brian's education or Day's business. Because that would be the next thing if it wasn't already under way.

"I'm driving myself crazy," she muttered, shimmying her bottoms fully off and yanking her t-shirt over her head. "This only ends two ways," she said out loud, climbing into the shower and turning it on. "Leave Day and go to Jason or leave Day and run. Both start the same damn way so why am I dragging my feet? I should just end it. Clean. Just walk out and... and..."

The tears she'd held at bay all day broke, trailing down only to be washed out by the pelting water. Beth turned her face to the spray as the dam broke, as she sobbed, fist hitting the tile uselessly. Her knees wobbled, and she sank down to the floor. She knew how unfair life was; she'd seen it first hand with the ectopic pregnancy in her mother when she was six and her brother was ten, one that had led to an emergency hysterectomy. She'd seen it again when cancer stole her brother from his wife and children, from their parents, from her. Life was incredibly unfair. It gave just as easily as it took. There was never rhyme or reason to it.

So she found Day and Brian, but that didn't mean she got to keep them. Some people got happily ever after and some didn't.

Beth let herself wallow until the water ran cold, then longer still, until she started to shiver. "In the morning," she whispered, the cold worked to strengthen her resolve. "I'll leave in the morning."

***

It was late when Day got home, the traffic nearly tripling his commute time. Climbing the stairs two at a time, Day unlocked his door and threw his coat and bag over the coach. Locking the door, he rubbed the back of his neck as he slipped off his shoes and strode across the floor. A quick check on Brian showed his son curled on his side, asleep.

He spied the time on the microwave as he moved past the kitchen and into the hallway leading to his bedroom. 12:13AM. There was still a chance Beth was up. But as he entered the bedroom he found her in much the same position as Brian, eyes closed, body curled, breathing heavy and even. We can talk in the morning, Day assured himself, dragging his body to the bathroom to take a quick shower, brush his teeth, and slip into sleep pants.

"You're home."

The quiet statement made him jump as he exited the bathroom, spying Beth sitting up, eyes alert in bed. "Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't."

He frowned. "Something wrong?"

She hessitated. "Brian's school kicked him out."

"What?"

The sharpness in his tone made her wince. "The Brucksworth threw some cash at them. It was a convoluted way to get to me."

"Through my son?"

She nodded, biting her lip. "It's only going to get worse, you know."

"I'll deal with it," Day states flatly, moving toward the bed.

"Okay."

"Beth, look at me," Day commanded, reaching over to grip her chin and tilt her head up until their eyes met. "I. Will. Handle it. This isn't on you. I--"

"Yes it is," she said quickly, almost reflexively. "It's my fault."

Day let out a careful breath, lowering his hand and leaning forward to box her in. "Beth, you need to let me handle it."

"Handle what?" she scoffed, voice kicking up in agitation. "They will tear you down and leave nothing because they can. That's who they are--who I was going to be. I'm not the victim here, Day, you are. Brian is. I could make it all stop if I just--"

"What?" he shouted in her face, losing it. "Just what?" his hands went to her shoulders, gripping hard. "Leave me? Go back to that piece of shit abuser and his fucked up family?" His eyes were wild, pupils blown as he leaned toward her and practically growled the words, "I swear to God Beth, I will go to jail before you go back to him."

A minute passed. Then another. The moment was fraught, a line drawn and demarcated clearly.

"I love you."

Day blinked back at the sudden pronouncement and Beth looked just as shell shocked, as if that wasn't what she meant to say at all. "Yeah." She nodded, lips thinning and eyes hardening. "I fucking love you and Brian. I love you. And I refuse to do this to you. I refuse to be the reason you go to jail, Day. Like I told my father, Jason isn't worth it." I'm not worth it.

Day coughed out a laugh, arms falling away from her as he scrubbed a hand across his face. "You're wrong." He laughed again, an edge to the sound. "You can't just tell me you love me and then tell me you're leaving me in the same sentence, Beth."

"I just did."

"Yeah," he stroked his jaw, looking away. "You just did." Day shook his head again, shifting on the bed to climb under the sheets. "Lie down."

"I'll leave in the--"

"Beth, I need you to lie down and go to sleep."

"Well, I need you to fuck me," she snapped.

"No."

He gripped her around the waist, pulling her down the bed and into his arms. "Go to sleep."

Her fingers trailed Day's chest as she mumbled into his clavicle. "I want you inside me. Please."

He reached down, yanking his sleep pants down enough to free his cock before lifting her leg over his hip, tugging her panties to the side and thrusting into her to the root. It was quick, sudden, with no prep. But she was wet. Always so fucking wet. And he was hard. Always fucking hard for her.

She arched in his arms, thighs shaking as her nails scrambled over his biceps. "You asshole!"

He closed his eyes, holding her close. "Now go the fuck to sleep."