It was tiring enough to work in the local convenience store even without certain brats coming in to irritate her. Ok, it's not like Gillian didn't like Paul at all, he wouldn't be her boyfriend then, but he could sure be a pain in the ass sometimes.
She wouldn't forbid him from coming to the store, it was a public place after all, but teasing her and being provocative in front of her work colleagues wasn't necessary at all. Yes, she is personally well aware that he is of age, but is required to ask for his ID, especially if her coworkers are around. There is no need for him to make this process demonstrative and tease her in public, especially not in unsanitary ways like pressing his mouth against the cash register? Maybe work hours aren't the best time and place to ask when she's free to peg him again, it's not that she isn't interested, but the ridiculous displays are not alluring, to say the least.
What is even more unnecessary, is boasting about having sex with her to her son. While she can enjoy the bastard's company, sometimes the immaturity of his actions is downright baffling. Why the two would ever need to discuss this topic was beyond her, but she suspected the altercation might have been initiated by Paul, knowing his personality. It was kind of understandable why he ended up with a black eye and a split lip. Not that he couldn't survive a light bruising, but this kind of behavior added even more complications to her already difficult family situation.
She and others could wonder, why was she together with Paul at all? Well, if they didn't have chemistry and she wasn't as fond of him as she was, she would've thrown him out ages ago. Despite the rocky moments and occasional crudeness, she and Paul really understood each other on a certain level and, if done right, his cheekiness was rather amusing and they could have a good laugh.
But there was the problem, there was a line between being endearingly cheeky and being an insolent brat. She told him again and again, to try not to embarrass her in front of colleagues, and his latest visit had happened to take place just as her boss was right next to her. And the getting into a fight with her son for bragging about the sex they had, is absurdly out of line. She was furious and was going to do something about this, it was high time for Paul's behaviour to be reeled in.
Luckily, her father and his fiancée who lived with them had planned to be out for most of the day, so she and Paul could have their discussion without the chance of being overheard. Paul was home and was aware of what was coming to him. Because of various circumstances, she'd been too busy to really address these situations before. But, this morning, she'd made it quite clear to him that once she got off work, they would properly talk about everything. And now, finally, she was pulling up to their home
"You alright, love?" came Paul's greeting once she entered the living room. Of course, cheeky as always, she wasn't surprised.
"Right, get yourself upstairs,"
"Would you like me to make you some tea?"
"Upstairs. I'll be there in a minute," she wasn't surprised at his attempts to distract her, but she knew better than to let that keep her from getting straight to the point.
"Alright," he muttered and, since Gillian wasn't paying attention to him anymore, hanging up her coat and putting something away in the kitchen, he finally started dragging up the stairs to the next floor.
Gillian shook her head, what a brat, but at least he had finally taken the hint. She went to the bathroom to freshen up, and soon, was ready to go face Paul.
Having reached their bedroom, she closed the door behind her and turned to Paul, who had plopped himself down on the bed, looking up at her. He had this smug expression, he was subtle about it, but she knew that playful glint in his eyes. This time though, it was not the best choice. Seeing him try to make this into a joke only fuelled her anger more, and reassured her that her feelings were justified.
She crossed her arms.
"Care to explain why you've been behaving like an absolute twat?"
"Oh, that's not a nice thing to say."
"How many times have I told you to not bother me at work? Especially in front of my coworkers or my boss? And what possessed you to brag to Raff about us having sex?! Really, how childish do you have to be to use that taunt and for what reason? You know how he is, why would you provoke him!"
"I was just, joking around, you know me! And I didn't know your boss was there! Anyway, no sympathy for what Raff did to me?" he gestured to his bruised eye, then muttered, but loud enough for Gillian to hear, "It's not my fault he can't control himself."
"Paul!" Gillian scolded, then tensed up in determination, "You know, I thought you should know better to recognize when your "joking" is not appropriate, especially when you've been explicitly told or when you know you're shit stirring. But I guess I was wrong, and I'll have to teach you."
Gillian turned to the dresser and opened a drawer, rummaging for a moment before pulling out a wooden hairbrush. He has had this long coming to him, Gillian was finally ready to discipline her reckless boyfriend.
She sat down next to him and wasted no time in hauling him over her lap. He gasped at the sudden movement, but didn't put on much of a resistance.
"Ohhh Gillian, what are you going to do!" he teased, the tone of his voice strongly suggesting that he wasn't taking this seriously, "Putting me over your knee? How mean!"
His behaviour was very on-brand, but she was not in the mood for his shenanigans. Perhaps he didn't realize yet that a punishment spanking would really be a punishment spanking, but he would soon find out.
Not humoring his remarks, she took hold of the waistbands of his trousers and underwear. The elastic waist of the sweatpants wasn't hard to get over his hips and, with a few firm tugs, both garments were pulled down to his knees.
She hoped this would finally let the right idea sink in and he gasped, but immediately added, "Oh! Easy! Well, I see you're eager today~"
He propped up on his elbows and glanced back to grin at her, but she had had just about enough.
Without much of a warmup, she brought the brush down in a hard smack that rang out in the room.
"Ah! Oh! Ok, Gillian, you didn't come to play!" Paul exclaimed, caught off guard by the loud slap, yet still hanging on to his playful attitude towards the situation.
Rethinking it, she repeated the action again and again, but lighter, so she could increase the intensity as she kept going, her other hand firmly pressing down on Paul's back, keeping him in place.
After a harder, particularly well aimed swat at a sit spot, he hissed in what sounded a more genuine reaction, encouraging Gillian to continue striking him in this area.
"Ow!" a hand was thrown back, blocking her access to the target, yet she dealt with it swiftly, slapping it away and nipping this behaviour in the bud.
"You will keep your hands away for the duration of this unless you want to make it worse, I won't repeat this twice," she stated, her tone icy.
He pulled his hand back and grabbed a nearby pillow to clutch on to, muttering, "Oh, so strict you are, Gillian.."
"You'll see just how strict I can be, you insolent boy!"
She felt a faint shudder from him and took that as a good sign.
Paul had already gotten several good licks, but wasn't making an effort to grapple out of this. The pain was one thing, but at this moment, he was busy taking in the fact of how being called "boy" had just made him feel. He couldn't say if he liked it or disliked it, but it set the tone of how Gillian felt about him right now. She was upset and fully intending on thoroughly punishing him.
She couldn't see it, but his face was getting warm too, he grimaced at the hot feeling of blush at the tips of his ears. Maybe he really had gone too far, he thought, starting to feel bad and having this uncomfortable feeling in his body. Perhaps it was the shame he should've felt when he did all those stupid things that lead to Gillian upending him like this.
Gillian hoped that the subtle change that she had caught in him was what she hoped it was, and gripped onto him tighter, preparing to bring the onslaught.
And that she did, the brush came down again and again as she really let him have it. Soft gasping turned to whimpering then to crying out, it all sounding genuine as the blows kept coming down increasingly faster and harder. She aimed to turn his posterior a nice deep shade of red, just short of bruising him, not that it would hurt him either way.
She smacked every inch of backside, as well as the tops of his thighs, ensuring that he would definitely feel it when attempting to sit. She went over the whole area once, then twice, then thrice, the skin getting darker each time and his squirming more erratic. It didn't take too long until he was kicking and wiggling his hips side to side so much that aiming wasn't that easy, but if she accidentally hit the same spots more times than necessary, it wasn't her loss. She could've tried ordering him to stay still, but it wasn't much of a problem, and it was a plus to see that it was getting to him, perhaps now he will take her seriously.
"...I'm sorry! Ow, ugh, Gillian really, I am!" Paul exclaimed and pressed his face against the pillow, he was very tempted to throw his hands back again, but wouldn't dare disobey her further, he took a breath before speaking again, "I won't do those things anymore, I, ow, I got the messag- ah!"
Gillian smiled, finally he seemed to sound regretful. It was likely that he just wanted to be let up quicker, which is why she would keep going a bit longer to let the message sink in.
"Good," she responded and paused for a moment. She shifted a bit to bring him at a better angle then laid several hard swats into the tender underside of his bottom as he cried out pitifully, legs kicking against the bed as she did so.
Gillian stopped and examined him, he was breathing heavily and his once tawny brown skin was much darker and redder than before. It was certain that he would be sore and wouldn't forget about this experience too soon. She put the brush aside and stopped putting pressure on his back, instead rubbing her hand in circles to calm him down. After a bit, she reached for his sweatpants and slowly pulled them back over his sensitive posterior, him hissing into the pillow as she did so.
She patted his back and sighed.
"Come on now love, you can get up."
He cautiously did so, pushing himself up, until he was on his knees next to her. The moment his torso was upright, his hands went to his bottom. Face flushed, he grimaced, clutching and rubbing at the freshly spanked flesh.
Gillian only watched him, both feeling satisfied and a little sorry for him, not that he didn't deserve it. But really, it wasn't fair that he could be so endearing like this, especially when he stopped, resting his hands on his thighs, and leaned toward her.
"Gillian… when I said that I was sorry, I did mean it. I'm, I'm sorry that happened, I'll watch what I say around people, you do forgive me?"
He was giving her this look of a hurt puppy, his big eyes even shining with tears, and sounded truly sincere and apologetic. He was timid and suddenly looked so small, her heart panged. The way he could be so crude one moment and this adorable the next, damn him.
"Of course I do," she snorted with endearment, "come here you sod."
She embraced him in a hug and he hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her torso. He was so soft and at this moment her anger had almost completely dissipated.
They pulled apart and Gillian sighed, rubbing his arm.
"Right, of course I forgive you, can't stay mad for long when you're like this," he couldn't help grinning at her remark, "but I will be if you do this again. Don't think I won't repeat this if necessary," she added in a sterner tone
"Of course.." he nodded, then trailed off, looking out the window, "Oh, your father's car is here, I didn't hear them pull up."
Gillian whipped her head around and saw that it really was there, ...how long had they been home? Did they hear..?
"Right uh," Gillian looked at him again, patting his shoulder and ruffling his hair before standing up, "I'll see how they're doing, come down if you're ready."
He nodded at her and she left the room.
It turned out that they'd just arrived, and Gillian went to help them put away groceries and things they'd bought for their wedding. Soon enough, Paul did reappear downstairs and Gillian's father, Alan, called out to him.
"Hey, Paul, we're gonna have dinner, are you joining us?"
"Hey, , oh, I, n-no, thanks," Paul blushed, looking a bit flustered.
"You alright, son?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I- uh, I'm going to go chop some firewood," he stammered and quickly slid out into the front yard.
"Oh, ok," Alan turned to Gillian and shrugged, "he looked a bit off."
"Yeah, we had a bit of an argument over what happened with Raff, but we've talked it through now," Gillian explained.
"Ohhh, that, right, I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Gillian responded and continued helping with the groceries.
They suspected that Gillian had probably had some stronger words for him, but, of course, no one knew what "talking it through" really meant. For the next few days Paul seemed slightly tetchy when it came to any activities that involved sitting down together, usually finding a way to excuse himself, but no one took much notice.
On one hand Paul was sore and slightly inconvenienced, but he didn't hold it against her, and they could joke about it in private. Strict or not, he was fond of Gillian and she was of him too, despite what she might say during arguments or banter. Their relationship, especially it's beginnings, had not been the smoothest, but he knew that he wanted it to last and to keep Gillian happy with him.
Most people, including themselves, had considered them an unlikely pair, but, once the drama had finally settled down, they felt more comfortable and happy together than could've imagined. Paul had always admired Gillian to a certain extent, and wanted the best for her. When Paul wasn't putting up an act of bravado or acting irrational, Gillian couldn't deny his charm or the soft spot she had for him. There were still the times Gillian had to 'guide' him, but it was always resolved in the end. As their relationship went on, domestic everyday life on the farm and Halifax was that much more bearable, even enjoyable, going through it with each other's company, love and support.