CHAPTER TWELVE
10 YEARS AGO
Smooth forearms rest on a cold, lacquered-wood counter, the hands connected to them anxiously awaiting a freshly refilled glass to hold onto.
"...Am I gonna have to peel you back up off the floor like I did last weekend?" A gruff voice belonging to the aged bartender asks her as he grabs the bottle of Gin, his silver beard running along the dark skin of his jaw.
"I got church tomorrow, uncle Bo." She replies, assuring him he won't have to deal with her getting that drunk.
"Oh, really?" He asks, enthusiastically, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes, really. I try to go whenever I can." She informs him, smiling just a little as he slides her glass back to her, half full. "Mama always stayed on me about it." She adds.
"Hell, I know what that's like. Your grandmama always rode us about it. 'If you're gonna stay out all night with the Devil Saturday night, you best get your tail up and be repenting for it come Sunday morning'." He quotes, mimicking his mother's voice, hearing her in his mind with each word. "I never paid no attention to her...but Cherie...she took it to heart." He explains.
"I know she did." Gia mumbles, sipping her drink.
"Think the only sermon she ever missed was the morning she had you." He adds. "I had to go with her because your father couldn't go."
"Where was he?" She questions.
"At church with his wife and kids...didn't want anything to do with her or you after she told him she was pregnant. He didn't love her like she thought he did, like she loved him...it was really complicated, I can't say I blame him." He replies gently, shaking his head slowly.
Gia's known the story of her conception ever since she moved in with her brother following her mother's death, so it's no shock to her.
She just didn't realize her own father never met her. And never wanted to.
"I think I might need a little more after that." She admits, downing her drink and handing the glass back to him.
"You got two more and I'm cutting you off." He wags his finger at her as she gets up to go to the bathroom.
"I can go find another bar." She states, grinning.
"You got church tomorrow!" He recalls as she walks away.
His eyes cut to the stanger in his peripheral, on the other side of bar, staring after her with a fixed gaze.
"Might as well talk to her." Bo speaks up, looking to the stranger. "She's got an affinity for white men she ain't got any business messing with."
"Doesn't she have a boyfriend?" The stranger asks, recalling seeing her in a few news paper clippings at events held by the famous Wayne family, each article always disclosing that the commissioner's sister was dating Bruce Wayne's adopted son, Jason.
"He left town and everything in it. Including her." Bo tells him, turning to go serve another customer.
Upon Gia's resurgence in a couple of minutes, she's slipping back onto the bar stool, seeing a freshly refilled glass in front of her.
"You better hope I got money to pay for these drinks." She tells her uncle, joking, grabbing her bag, going to grab her wallet to go ahead and pay her tab so she can leave when she's done.
"Order a couple more. You're not the one paying." He tells her, chuckling.
"I've told you to stop covering my tab." She says in a snap.
"Nah, it's not me."
Bo nods his head in the direction of the black haired, slenderly fit man, finishing his own drink at the end of the bar.
"Them grey eyes been on you all night and you ain't shut your trap long enough to even notice." He adds. "Go speak to him." He says next.
"I don't know that man." She says through her teeth, wearing a fake smile in case he's trying to hear what they're saying, although it's probably impossible.
"That's why you don't go home with him. You just go thank him for the drinks and go on home." He tells her with a shrug. "Unless you wanna take him to church with you." He sarcastically throws out, earning a flat, unamused glare from her. "I'm trying to help you get back out there, Gia. You always complaining you're single. You gotta talk to folks to find one you wanna keep, ya know."
"I don't want to keep anybody right now."
"It's been eight months."
"Cut the time you were together in half and that's the appropriate grieving period. We were together for some years, so technically I have at least two years to get over it."
"I'm not watching you grieve yourself to death over a man that didn't want anything to do with you in the end. I want more for you than what she was dealt." He refers to her mother and she exhales.
"...I'll go thank him for the drinks. Then I'm getting the hell out of here." She says, finishing her drink, turning to see he's already leaned against the bar beside her.
She just looks up at him, and feels like an ant under his gaze, his high cheek bones and sharp jaw that's cleanly shaven...slicked back, black hair and eyes a murky blue that looks grey.
She has a feeling he's older than he looks.
"I'm John." He says to her, extending his hand for her to take.
"Gia." She forces out to avoid gawking at him, swallowing to wet her throat that's gone dry. "Thank you for the drinks." She adds, catching her uncle glancing at the two of them from the corner of her eye.
"It's no problem." John tells her cooly, blinking slowly, a smile pulling at his lips and she can't help but do the same as if it's contagious.
"I don't go home with strangers, especially not in this city." She tells him, trying to shake herself out of whatever lust daze she's caught herself up in, which is difficult to do with the way he's looking at her
"I don't either." He assures her, pausing for a moment before adding, "Who said anything about going home?" He puts his glass on the bar, finished, and the tip of her brow raises just slightly.
Perhaps it was the mix of Vodka and Gin she'd gone through that night, or the fact she was only human and found it hard to turn down an invitation by someone with such a peculiar yet beautiful face...or simply because she knew she'd go home, lay in bed alone, and not go to sleep the way she hadn't for eight months.
So, the night leads exactly where she lets this new stranger take it: to a automotive repair shop downtown.
"...Are you sure this isn't breaking and entering?" She asks him at the loud sound of him pulling a metal garage door up.
"Can't break and enter somewhere you own." He comments and she raises her brows, not expecting that response.
"Oh." Is all she says back, looking around the dimly lit garage, wrapping her coat tighter around herself, opting him to step over and turn on the small space heater in the corner before taking his coat off.
"I've got some drinks in the office if you're thirsty." He offers and she just glances around.
"No, thank you," she says softly, and he leans against the wall, watching as cars pass by every once in a while, not wanting to start a conversation unless she does. "How come I've never seen you here? I use this place anytime I need an oil change."
"I just own it." He replies, crossing his arms, looking at her as she raises her brows and scoffs a little.
"Sounds like my boss." She mumbles. "Owns a business yet can barely locate any other department floor that his office doesn't reside on." She adds.
"Who do you work for?" He asks.
"Bruce Wayne—well, Wayne Enterprises...Bioengineering." She says.
He just nods slightly, not necessarily surprised but impressed to say the least.
"Thought you'd be a receptionist or an assistant or something." He admits.
"If I were, I wouldn't have to work."
"Why do you say that?" He asks and she chuckles.
"Because he's screwed half the women behind those desks. Given them all the paid time off in the world...even taken some of them on vacation with him." She divulges.
"Ahhh." He nods, again, not shocked.
"I like working for him, though. He's not a complete asshole like he wants people to believe. Just oblivious. Like every other rich person in this city." She sighs before her mind refuses to put Jason in that category, despite his wealth, and she verbally makes her correction, "Well, like a majority of them, at least."
He notes that she made her correction.
"What about you?" She asks him. "How'd you get the money to buy this place?"
"Life insurance policy." He explains and she furrows her brows. "My wife passed away." He adds.
Gia doesn't exactly know what to say, simply because she knows nothing can really be said to make it any better, so she just doesn't say anything.
"It was years ago, I've gotten over it, I think." He goes on. "It's just...strange..." he finishes.
A couple of minutes of quiet pass and Gia looks at him.
"You brought me out here to talk about your deceased wife?" She asks without thought, but it doesn't offend him in the slightest. It amuses him.
He cracks the slightest grin.
"We can talk about your runaway boyfriend if you'd like." He offers and it cuts at her briefly, but she knows it's an appropriate response to her question.
"My runaway boyfriend didn't run away." She tells him, taking her coat off, getting hot from the heater that's permeating warmth throughout the garage. "He got killed. But his dad didn't want to make a huge fuss about it, he wanted to keep things private, so the rumor is that he skipped town. But he didn't. Not even the cops know what happened." She says, feeling the need to get it off of her chest, having a hunch he won't go around blabbing about it. "How'd you get over it?" She questions, hoping to grasp some advice...
"I spiraled for a while...I don't know. I might still be spiraling." He informs her and she can certainly relate to that feeling. "How'd you get over it?" He asks her next, blinking at her, and she lets out a deep, heavy, weighted breath.
"A lot of stupid things." She shakes her head.
"'Trust a stranger you just met' stupid?" He keeps his tone lighthearted in an attempt to bring the mood back up.
"'Sleep with his brother for six months' stupid." She confesses, fully expecting him to be disgusted, but he's not. Instead he continues his attempt to make her smile.
"I can go to the paper and make a pretty penny selling that story, you know." He points out as she steps to him slowly.
"But you won't." She says, blinking up at him.
"Why not?" He asks lowly, his knuckles brushing against the skin of her cheek, his intense eyes wandering between her eyes and lips.
"Because you clearly already have plenty of money and don't strike me as the greedy type." She says softly.
"I can be sometimes." He warns, his hands snaking across her waist before he kisses her, his hands balling the fabric of her dress in his hands, their tongues meeting, coaxing a quiet moan from Gia, her nails biting into his back through his tucked in, buttoned down, white shirt.
Her hands are going to his belt buckle fast than she'd like to admit, but what else is to be expected from her? She's going through a lot. The least she can have is a night to get her mind off of it, with someone who can most definitely benefit from getting his mind off his own shit as well.
He guides her back to the wall, kissing along her jaw as she pulls at the buttons of his shirt, exposing his taught abdomen, discarding the fabric to the cement flooring before he's grabbing under her thighs, pulling her up to snake around him. Their lips meet once again, one hand in her hair, the other pushing her her panties aside, his lips and tongue painting across her chest, the straps of her dress having already fell down her arms.
He relishes in the sound of her moans, the desperation so wantonly dripping from her with each movement, the soft skin of her legs wrapped tightly around his hips, her smooth hands running along his back, her nails clawing at him in ecstacy, her teeth leaving little bites along his shoulder.
She closes her eyes, hands threaded through his hair, tongues tangled together, her chest now spilt out of the top of her dress from slow but demanding thrusts into her, her body wrapped so tightly around him in all aspects that she feels she might explode.
She finally does, shaking, evidence of their time together running down her legs, and he makes sure to pull away from her when he finishes, their time together merely a stain on the floor, the both of them heaving to catch their breath. A brief kiss is shared between them in the midst of their own wake, Gia hoarsely extending an invitation that she knows isn't any good, but she can't help herself.
"You wanna come home with me?"
It's accepted in the form of a satisfied smile and matching hungry eyes.
They get to her apartment, barely making it through the door before they pick up where they left off, round after round, distraction after distraction, throughout the night...she doesn't make it to church the following morning, instead wallowing in complete disillusionment, complete sorrow, complete loneliness, but it's the decision she made and she knows it, only hoping her one night lover feels as empty as she does.
PRESENT
Gia's eyes catch on the faded mechanic shop, frowning, catching herself from audibly saying, "he must've run out of money," to avoid Jason asking, "Who?"
Although he wouldn't have necessarily cared that she had a random hook up in the midst of mourning him, she didn't want to acknowledge she had any connection with anyone in the years he was gone, whether it meant she had to pay strangers not to go around telling people they scored with Gia Gordon, or sever a close, personal, friendship, through the abortion of a kid that should've never been conceived by "friends" in the first place...that one in particular he would have cared, especially when the topic of the father came up.
Exactly why she's not even going to mention encountering the owner of the once busy mechanic shop.
"Where are we going again?" Jason asks her, brows furrowing behind his sunglasses.
"To tell my brother bye, Jason." She reminds him.
"Ahh." He nods, turning at a light. "Almost forgot."
"Please don't. I promised I'd tell him bye."
"Is he even there this early?"
He glances at the clock on the dash. 5:36a.m.
"Do you know my brother?" She asks, scoffing. "He doesn't know how to relax and rest and let it wait until later."
Jason looks at her for a moment while she leans against the window, closing her eyes, sleepy, and he raises his brows.
"...Like you?"
"Oh, please, Jason, I'm going to freaking Miami for two weeks, alright? I know how to relax."
"Because Bruce banished you from work until you take a break and get your head clear. If he called right now and told you you'd have your old position back, you'd get out and walk home and be there two hours before your shift started."
"I like my job." She shrugs. "Bite me."
He grabs her hand and opens his mouth, making her snatch away, holding back a smile.
"You're a child." She throws at him.
"I'm only two years younger than you." He states.
"Coulda fooled me." She says, closing her eyes once again, and he grabs her hand again, this time wrapping his fingers around hers.
Jim rakes his hands down his face at the site of stacked files on his desk, shaking his head a little before a knock on his door breaks his focus.
"Goodmorning." Renee says. "Your sister is here." She adds.
"Send her in." He sighs, leaning back.
She steps aside and motions for Gia to come in.
"Where's Jason?" James asks her when she gets in, walking over to lean down and hug him.
"He's in the car on the phone with somebody." She explains.
"Oh." He says.
"Rambo is staying with Barbara and Richard so no worries." She adds.
"I'm sorry I couldn't watch him."
"No need to apologize, Jim, I get it." She assures him. "He'll be perfectly happy with them."
The two of them don't speak for a handful of seconds before James is speaking up again.
"How's marriage?"
"Being that clown maniac and miss clown maniac escaped the day after it was announced, I'd say it could be a little better."
"Don't worry about him, Gia. He's my priority right now. I'll have him locked up by the time you get back." He assures her. "Where are you staying in Miami?"
"I'm not sure. Jason just said we're going to Miami."
"Why? All the places you guys could afford to go...?"
"I don't know. He wanted to go down there and I didn't argue."
"Hmm." Jim mumbles.
"You can tag along." She extends an invitation and he can't help but laugh.
"Oh, no, I can't leave this place for two weeks. It'd go to hell."
"It already has." She points out and he sighs.
"I'm one of the few things trying to keep it together. Especially now that Joker's out, things are gonna get really interesting again. They need me here."
Gia understands, not wanting to push the topic any further.
"I'll see you when I get back." She says. "Please be careful."
"I always am careful." He reminds her. "You be careful. Stay in the safer parts, please."
"You say that like I'm not taking Re—" she abruptly stops herself, James raising a brow. "...I'll call you when we make it down there."
He lets it slide, not wanting to get back into that mess once again, a mess that strained their relationship for a while before he ultimately accepted Jason had been through a lot and, although Jim disagreed with his night life, he understood he had a reason not to walk such a straight line with his morals. As long as he wasn't doing anything too illegal, he let him slide, much like he had let Batman and others like him in the city slide all these years.
But that didn't mean he wanted to be reminded that his sister was now married to a vigilante.