A small smile graced Henry’s lips but his eyes had a glint of concern. “I’m sorry, I can get you something else if you like, I’ll get Jackie to whip it up right now… I just… well, I really wanted today to be perfect and for me, it just seems like a sweet breakfast always gives off something a little bit extra, you know? But if you would prefer, eggs or anything else, let me know and I can get it for you right now.”
I shook my head. Henry was sitting next to me on the couch, his body turned towards me. But he was twitching around, his body and voice both nervous. I rested my hand firmly on the top of his thigh, pulling his attention towards me, bringing him into the vortex of us that we shared as I watched his shoulders instantly soften.
“I don’t want anything savory,” I said softly, “I was making a joke. You’re right, this is absolutely perfect.”
Henry sighed as he reached out for the side of my face, pulling me in towards him and placed a kiss in the middle of my forehead.
“But you might want something bitter,” said Jackie, appearing from around the corner with two more large mugs of coffee in her hands and the biggest painted-on smile on her face. Maybe she had always looked like that, more fake than genuine, but it was only now that I was seeing it.
She handed each of us a mug, and I thanked her before she quickly disappeared. Henry’s eyes locked on me as he took a long sip of his coffee before placing it down next to the tall stack of pancakes.
“Molly, I wanted this morning to be perfect for many reasons,” he said, as he took my hand into his. My heart began pounding unsure what exactly he was doing, but without hesitating, I turned my body towards his.
“Molly, I want today to be perfect, just like I really wanted this whole trip to be perfect for you. But unfortunately, so far, it hasn’t exactly been like that. I know that after yesterday I have a lot to make up for,” said Henry, his gaze never leaving mine. I went to open my mouth but before I could speak, he brought his finger to the tips of my lips. “Sorry, I’m not trying to silence you, not at all, not in the slightest. I just don’t want you to condone what has happened or try and make any of this right. I need to apologize for what happened last night.” He cleared his throat, as he squeezed my hand tighter. “I don’t even know where to begin with what I did to you, and to be honest, seeing everything back so clearly now. What I did is really a completely unforgivable behavior. You should never accept being hurt by anyone. In fact, I was surprised that you didn’t run down here this morning begging to go home. Because if you did, it would make perfect sense. Not only should you never let yourself be physically hurt by someone who tells you that they love you, how I reacted after what happened was just cold. And it was horrible. I personally don’t even believe that I deserve to give an explanation for how I acted, but I do just really want to try and explain where I was coming from, not that it should be excused.” The pain in his eyes was evident, and I wasn’t going to excuse his behavior, well, not completelyanyway. I wanted to sit down this morning and talk about some boundaries like we said that we would last night, but for now I just sat in silence, nodding as I let Henry continue.
“I’m sorry for what I did, Molly. I am so beyond sorry. There’s not even a word that exists yet for how I feel. And the sad thing is, what I wish wasn’t true, was that I meant it when I said that I get carried away and I don’t know how to stop myself. Only because well, I’ve never really had this chance… I’ve never been with anyone that I can share this with. I meant it when I said I wasn’t going to even share this with you yet, because as much as I love this and as much as I love how open that you’ve been. I can’t put you in that danger again. I can’t and I won’t ever hurt you like that I promise, never again…” His brow furrowed as his eyes watered.
“I have never felt more suited to anyone in my entire life before you. I messed up badly, but since I met you, well, I can’t imagine life without you….”
“Henry,” I said wiggling closer to him, so that there was no space left between our legs. I raised my finger to his lips this time. “I think you’re forgetting how alike we really are, and how much I really do understand you. I know you never meant to hurt me, Henry. I know it took over. And yes, it hurt me, I’m still hurting. But I know your intentions weren’t bad ones. We just need boundaries. Really good boundaries, because I don’t ever want to feel like that ever again. I can’t and I won’t.
“I know Molly, I know. I am so deeply sorry. And I also know that sorry is a pathetic word for what I put you through,it doesn’t make any of it better.” I watched his bottom lip tremble as he bit the inside of his lip, forcing it to stop shaking.
“I know that you care for me, the words that came out of your mouth, the ones that you said to me last night… that you, might even love me. Well, I feel them deeply too. And…” I gulped but I didn’t want to hold the words in anymore and right now felt right. “I love you too… this, us, it’s all just been such a rollercoaster, an incredible rollercoaster that trust me, I am so glad that I jumped on the ride of. I appreciate the apology, I really do. But I just wanted to experience all of you, and I wanted to let you feel so open with me, that I just went into this without us putting some boundaries in place, that’s all….” I could tell how badly he wanted to jump in on what I was saying but I kept my finger planted firmly against his lips. “I don’t ever want you to hide any part of yourself with me. If this is really love between us, if what I feel is real then I want you to know that you can feel safe and open with everything around me.” I kept my eyes locked on his as my heart pang. My finger dropped from his lips at the same speed I watched a tear fall from his eyes. “But last night, that is something that can never, ever happen again.”
“Trust me Molly, it won’t. And I’m not going to just say that, I will spend as long as it takes showing you that with me, you’re safe,” he said as I watched another tear fall, causing my own eyes to water before he grabbed hold of my face, my arms wrapped tightly around him, our lips pressed together. Any time his hands were on me my whole body melted. It meltedinto comfort, it melted into safety, it melted into a feeling that I had always longed for but never truly knew what it was. Now I finally had it. And once I did, there was nothing that I wanted to have for breakfast from this moment on than the taste of him.
Our lips parted, noses still touching as Henry held me tight. “How are you feeling today?” he asked cautiously. “Are you in pain?”
I nodded as his brow creased deeper. “A little but it’s not as bad as last night,” I whispered back to him.
Henry let go of me and pointed to the far corner of the table.
I was so taken away by the amount of sweet food in front of me, that I missed the three red boxes piled up in the far corner.
Henry picked up the three boxes and set them in his lap. “Since we’re having a morning surrounded by honesty, I need to be honest with you about something else,” he said as I stayed quiet. “I wasn’t really working last night, well, I was, but I was working on something else, a few things that I hoped would make everything that had already happened a lot better. Hopefully, we can finish the rest of this trip on a much better note.”
Henry pulled open the first small red box and passed me a small unlabeled tub of cream. I held it in my hands and stared up at him confused.
“Miss Molly, I was so worried about how much I had hurt you, I wanted to tell the doctor but while he and Aaron were both here, I was so ashamed of what I haddone that I didn’t know what to tell them or how to even deal with it. I needed to do something, though, so I told Jackie, and she helped me make this cream. It’s a sensitive healing cream. Jackie really is a wizard when it comes to this stuff. It’s like her hidden talent. It has zinc for healing and aloe vera for soothing… and if it doesn’t help then I want you to know that we can leave at any time and go straight to the doctor.”
I didn’t know how I felt about him telling Jackie. Were they that close that all this time Jackie knew about his hidden fetishes? But I guess it made more sense now about why she was acting so weird in the kitchen last night, and why she didn’t want me to disturb Henry. She was working with him on this.
“Thank you,” I said. “Are you going to help me put it on later?” I whispered, I knew that there was absolutely nothing sexy about it, but it was the closest that we were going to get to any real intimacy until I knew that I was completely healed.
“That I can do,” he said as he handed me the next box.
“What’s this?” I asked as I sat it in my lap.
He shrugged, “I guess you’ll have to open it to find out.”
I pulled the lid of the A4-sized red box to see a bunch of papers sitting inside. Contracts and legal documents. My mind was too busy to focus on any particular word, to find out what all this was about, but then I saw my full name printed at the top of the letter head which read:
This declares Molly Margret Joplin, the head director of the new company structure for innovations, a sub company under Bentley enterprises.
I looked up at Henry, my mouth dropped open as I felt my heart begin to pound out of control inside my chest. Henry was smiling wide back at me. “Wait, what is this? Innovations?” I asked.
“It’s what we spoke about yesterday. You knew that you wanted to be in business, you knew that you wanted to change things, and you knew that you didn’t have one specific niche that you wanted to focus on. To be honest I’ve needed something like this in my life for a long time. It’s a part of the business that I have set up that will also allow us to move into many more markets together.”
