THE BIG LEAP

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - WHOOPS!

That morning had started out pretty good. He hadn´t broken up with Joanna yet, having decided that doing it right up to Christmas wouldn´t be the right time to. She would be spending most of it down in Germany, where her parents were living at the time, anyway, so putting it off until the new year was, in spite of being a coward´s decision, an easy one to make. Marie and her brother were having their parents visit them for the holidays, which gave them a whole week to indulge in one another the naked way, practically as much as they pleased, before Joanna came back. Like with Marie, Joanna´s holiday had started a few days before his own did (not that you could call it much of that, since he only had three days off) and they´d spent most of the past two days together, whenever he wasn´t working.

"This place is so dirty" she´d said that morning, as they were having their morning coffee in front of the TV, after running her finger over his coffee table.

"If you want to clean it for me, I won´t stop you" he´d said jokingly without thinking a whole lot about it and for a moment considering the chance, that she´d actually say yes to it.

"If I say yes, will you make us something really nice for dinner tonight?" she´d asked him and it seemed at the time like a great trade to him. He was filling in for a few days on the lunch shift anyway, which gave him plenty of time after work to both shop and cook for the two of them.

"Knock yourself out!" had been his reply and since a few moments after he´d walked out the door, he´d regretted saying those words dearly. Because in his dresser drawer, even if he knew deep down that the smart thing would have been to throw it out and dispose of the evidence, was the letter Marie had written to him after their first night together.

That lunch service had been the worst one he´d had since his first days on the line and at least at that time, he could excuse it with himself still being in a learning phase. After all, none of the other restaurants he´d worked in, had more than half a dozen chefs and kitchen aides working in the kitchen at any time, and this was food preparation on a whole different scale, than he´d ever tried before. On this day, it was because he couldn´t stop picturing all of the worst case scenarios, should Joanna find Marie´s letter, that he was making mistakes that he hadn´t made in months and should be far past making. Klaus, as the nice guy that he was, had assured him that anyone could have a bad day on the job and that he too had tried it from time to time, where you just feel like nothing is working for you. In Denmark, as he´d found out, they even have a name for it, a "Tycho Brahe Day", named after a famous Danish astrologer from the old days, who apparently must have had his share of those days too, if they named it after him.

After that borderline fiasco and already feeling like he wanted the day to end, he went shopping for Joanna and his dinner that evening. It took him twice as long as usual, since he kept changing his mind, when could keep it on his shopping, that is. In the end, he decided on making a Thai-style curry dish with beef bits and lots of vegetables in it, knowing that Joanna loved Thai food and hoping that if she´d found Marie´s letter and he could somehow talk (or lie) his way out of it, to where they could still be friends, it would be enough for her to not entirely hate his guts. Not that he wasn´t well aware, that he deserved her hatred, but the selfish (and perhaps also a little naive) side of him was holding onto a fool´s hope, that he would get out of this as easily as possible.

More unwanted thoughts flashed through his mind, as he walked up the stairs to his apartment, where he was either soon to face his verdict for his crimes or spend an evening trying to avoid looking too relieved, over not being exposed for being an embarrassingly amateurish adulterer. Neither sounded too appealing to him, but one was after all, less unpleasant than the other and far less likely to end with things being thrown at him.

"Honey, I´m home!" he said, as he came through the door. Joanna wasn´t there, but then again, she hadn´t said that she would be, only that she would clean his apartment. In some ways this was a relief, still on the other hand, now that he had gotten this far, he preferred to find out as soon as possible. He could see that his living room hadn´t been trashed, so that was a positive sign and it even looked clean in there too. His kitchen looked spotless as well and she hadn´t smashed all of his dishes, so that made two. The final test was his bedroom and by this point he was pretty sure, he was in the clear. Even if he was going to break up with Joanna, he still wanted to do it the right way and this certainly wasn´t. His bed was made, another good sign and breathed a sigh of relief, until he opened his underwear drawer and saw what Joanna´s revenge had consisted of. Along with writing several expletives on Marie´s letter, that don´t need to be repeated, she´d cut out the crotch of every pair of boxers, he owned. He sat down on his bed, both relieved that it was over and sad, that it had come to this. He still cared for her and the thought alone, that she was now heartbroken and without her best friend thanks to him, made him feel like he couldn´t sink any lower.

The only word that could describe his evening was self-hatred. He´d cooked dinner like he´d planned to, but when it was done, it took five minutes for him to feel full enough, that he didn´t want to eat anymore. Thinking that alcohol would help with his horrible mood wasn´t a great idea either and the six-pack of beer he drank, only served to make him feel even more melancholic and everything he watched on TV went in one ear and right out the other. He was just about to call an end on this day of misery, when his phone buzzed. He almost didn´t check it right away, but decided to anyway and saw that he´d gotten a text from Marie.

It read:

"I talked to Jo and she´s really mad at both of us. Not that I can blame her. I´d still like to be your girlfriend, if you´ll have me. You don´t have to answer now, I just wanted you to know. XOXO"

He sat there for a good while after, thinking of both the advantages and disadvantages. For one thing, it wouldn´t be him as much as it would be Marie, who would face the backlash for this. Joanna and him didn´t work the same schedule most of the time and even when they were at work, it wasn´t like he saw a whole lot of her. It was Marie, who went to school with Joanna and knowing how girls punish one another, he was sure that there would be some kind of hell to pay for her, sooner or later. It wasn´t him either, who was proposing this, just like it hadn´t been him, who had initiated things between them in the first place. Was that true, though? He couldn´t deny that his attraction to her went back to the first time they´d met, so it could be that he had subconsciously been flirting with her or sending her signals.

He´d already gone to bed once, determined to sleep on it, before deciding that there was no use in keeping her waiting. After getting up, we went into his living room and grabbed his phone, that he quickly typed in a short reply to her on. It only read "Yes". Moments later, she sent him back a reply text, that only consisted of a widely smiling smiley face.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

It certainly looks like it´s the end for Pacey and Joanna, but will it be any different with Marie, considering that there´s still a Joey to get in their way? And will Joey soon start getting in the action too, or will she keep saving herself for him?

Next up, it´s a pair of Christmas chapters! So, be sure to check in on Friday, when I release both of those chapters.

Thanks for reading!