*I'm so sorry this took me longer than I expected! -Lyndsie*
Paul quietly closed the front door and dried his feet on the mat. He stood silent, listening to what everyone else was doing; Stephanie and Ellie giggling and playing in the spare bedroom, the squeak of Madison's swing in the living room, newspapers rustling from the dining room. His shoes squeaked on the tile floor as he tried to creep towards the kitchen, "can I talk to you for a second?" He blankly stared at his friend, "in the garage."
"Yeah," Shawn threw the newspaper down and stood up, "where were you?"
Paul pulled the elastic from his wet hair, "I woke up in kind of a shitty mood so I planned to smoke a joint on the beach, but its raining. All I did was sit under my deck and smoke a half a pack of cigarettes," he sighed, "Steph's been acting weird ever since you came around."
"Dude what the fuck is all that shit anyway?" He shook his head disapprovingly, "I swear, the other night when I walked in on you two in the kitchen, I knew if I hadn't come in at that moment you would have fucked her against the refrigerator or something. You swore you were only doing this for Madison but now even I'm confused. I'm confused and honestly a little disgusted," he turned away and began to stroke his chin, "I know I don't want to hear the answer but I have to ask it anyway; when did you start sleeping with her?"
He cleared his throat, "I'll answer you once we're in the garage," he mumbled, shoving Shawn across the kitchen and out to the garage, quickly making sure the door was closed behind them, "the first morning you were here, she came into my room flipping out about whatever 'secret' you were trying to hold over her head. She woke me up asking me a million questions about what I was keeping from her, next thing I know she's naked in my bathroom, practically begging me to get in the shower with her."
"Wow," he scoffed and dramatically rolled his eyes, "well first of all, it doesn't quite sound like she 'flipped out' on you but I'll take your word for it. Secondly, I'm not sure what I'm more disgusted by, the fact that you slept with her while me and all your sister's kids were in your house," he took a few steps closer in an attempt to intimidate his friend, "or you lying to me about that being the first time." He was instantly caught with a blow to his nose that knocked him to the ground, "what the fuck was that for?" Blood poured through his hands to the cement while he laid on the cold floor.
"Why is it that every fucking time you have some sort of family problem, you go and start shit with everyone else? I don't know what the hell you think you're talking about, but you'd better keep your mouth shut because you don't know shit," he helped him up using the collar of his shirt and tossed him into the hood of the Mercedes. The scuffle continued as they both swung at each other a few more times, "I'll decide when and what I tell my wife, not you."
Shawn slowly stood up and grabbed a towel from a pile of dirty clothes. He groaned while wiping the blood from his mouth, "you want to know something, the only reason Rebecca even found out I was cheating on her is because she started getting all jealous at your wedding. It seemed like you moved on so she had to pretend like she did too. She started asking all these crazy fucking questions about you and work all because your wedding ceremony kiss seemed like it was fake. That is the whole fucking reason this shit started happening, because even though she's had two kids with me, and been married to me for over 12 years, she's not fucking over you. She's fucking obsessed with you, I mean, I only gave you guys that picture of you kissing at your reception because it got her to stop talking about you."
"How is that my fucking fault? You conceived a kid with another woman almost three years ago, that shit has nothing to do with me. You cheated and you got busted, don't try to turn this shit on me. Also, I'm pretty sure we both know there's nothing to worry about between Rebecca and I, its over and I've been over it long before her and I even got divorced, as we all know."
"Damnit if you hadn't gotten involved in Stephanie's shit, I could have actually filed for divorce like I had planned. She was never supposed to find out about Emily, I was going to get divorced and move out and live with Mandy and I wouldn't have had to hurt her like this, I wanted her to find out after. I know I'm a piece of shit Paul, I met Mandy and slept with her a few times, next thing I knew she was pregnant with my kid and I didn't know what to do other than keep lying about it."
"Well I'm sorry you're having your problems with your wife and your girlfriend, but that still doesn't give you the right to come over to my house and start shit with me and my wife. I had to drive my sister's kids home last night after only three days because we just couldn't handle having nine people in my house. Unlike you and Ellie, they can go home," he ran his fingers through his hair and turned away.
"I know Paul," he closed his eyes, "I swear I never meant to hurt anyone. Becky didn't deserve this again, I mean this is almost the same shit you pulled on her."
"Fuck off," he grabbed the neck of Shawn's shirt again and slammed him down onto the hood of his car, "I only cheated on her, I never had a kid with anyone."
"Get off of him!" Stephanie jumped down the steps and grabbed his arm, "cheated on who?" She angrily helped Shawn up off the car and shoved him towards her husband, "I heard you guys screaming at each other, what the fuck is going on?" She looked around at all the blood on the ground, the Mercedes and Paul's hands, "what did you do?"
The room was silent except for Shawn sniffling, "I'll be back in a few hours, I had plans with Rebecca and the kids today, I wanted them to meet Ellie before its too late." He looked down at his bloody clothes, "bye Steph," he slowly disappeared back inside.
"Paul?" Her eyes slowly squinted as he remained quiet, "what was all that about? You beat the shit out of him."
He rolled his eyes, "okay, here's the big secret that Shawn's been trying to bring up; Rebecca is my ex-wife, I met her when I was 28, we eloped in Vegas and we were only happy for like, six months. We had a pregnancy scare and after that things just weren't the same, she was so concerned about getting pregnant 'too early' in our marriage we quit going out and eventually just quit talking. I met another woman and I was dating her for a year and a half." He ripped his sweatshirt off and went inside to wash his hands and face, "I came home one night to Rebecca in the bathtub surrounded by candles, I took my pants off and she saw lipstick prints all over the waistband of my white boxers," he let out a small laugh, "that night was something out a movie. When I realized she saw the lipstick, I had to come clean, there was no way I could come up with a good enough excuse that fast. She jumped out of the tub, grabbed me and held my head in the bathtub for like, fifteen seconds. When I came out of the bathroom she had already packed up and left and I never got to explain myself or anything until she started seeing Shawn. I swear there's nothing to worry about with her Stephanie."
"Paul, its totally okay that you used to be married to Rebecca, why did you think I would be upset about that? Is that really what Shawn is trying to hold over my head?"
"Well he's upset because said that she's not over me," his voice dropped seeing the disappointment on her face, "please listen to me before you get upset," he grunted as she shoved past him so he gently grabbed her arm, "I don't love her. In fact I resent her for ignoring me and making it seem like it was a bad thing when we thought she was pregnant, the part that really killed me was when her and Shawn came over after they'd been dating three months to tell me they were expecting Cameron. I wasn't good enough to be the father of her children but Shawn was."
"Ouch," she stared at him, "I'm sorry, that's pretty harsh."
"I know, but I mean, I've been over her for years, its not my fault she's not over me. There's absolutely nothing she could say or do for me that would make me even consider going back to her, its not her I want," he paused, "wait, are you jealous?"
"I'm not jealous," she quipped, although who was she kidding, of course she was jealous. Right when things seemed to be heading in the right direction for her and Paul, his ex had to come back and try to ruin everything, "who do you want?"
He stared at her in awe, "I think I like that you're jealous,"
She let out a small whimper as he picked her up and set her on the kitchen counter. He stole her attention away with kisses while his hands worked at unclipping her bra, "wait a second," she pulled away, tearing her shirt off and tossing her bra down to the floor in one sweep He groaned and leaned into her, pushing her back into the open cabinet. A glass fell from behind and shattered on the granite counter, he jumped back as she shrieked. Madison let out a single cry from the living room, followed by silence, "I think its fucking ridiculous that Shawn can't close the cabinet after getting a glass. I almost wish I wouldn't have broken up the fight in the garage," she couldn't help but to tear up as her daughter continued to fuss.
"Here," he picked her up and tip-toed around the glass towards the living room, putting her down once they reached the carpet, "I think I'm gonna go take a shower, I can feel half of my face starting to swell up.
"But..." she glared up at him with a slight pout across her lips, "you really don't want to? I kinda thought..." she paused as she felt her breath catch in her throat, "I promise I'll get her back to sleep in less than ten minutes. Just sit here on the couch, play with yourself a little if you have to. We have the house to ourselves,"
He squinted his eyes at her, "I don't know about you, but its a little hard to get back 'in the mood' when there's a screaming baby in the house," he put his hand at the base of her neck, pulling her close enough to kiss her cheek "you take care of Madison, I'll take a shower, we'll come back to this. It won't be the last time we have the house to ourselves you know,"
Without another word, she took Madison from the swing and carried her to the spare bedroom. He let out a long, exasperated sigh as the door slammed shut, assuming he'd lost his chance.