I'm back! And just to warn you, this chapter contains sexual situations which you may feel uncomfortable reading. If that is so, just scroll past the middle section and down to the end. Thank you.

Interruptions to the Past

Mimi was standing in front of her full-length mirror. It was still quite early on Friday morning; the sun low in the eastern sky, but Mimi was already dressed to kill. She'd had her outfit planned for days. Her quest for the right dress had been bordering on an obsession. She didn't know why she cared so much; all she knew was that she had to look good. She wanted Matt to need her. She wanted to knock him dead. She wanted him to be in her power. She wanted him to be out of control and unsure, the way she had been for so many years.

She had chosen a short, strapless black dress that showed off her sculpted curves and lithe legs. She knew from past experience that Matt did not have a problem with her displaying such features. That, in conjunction with her perfectly styled hair and classically made-up face, made her sure that there was no way that Matt could resist her.

Striding into Jamie's room, kitten heels clicking a swift beat, she gently shook her son awake. Bleary eyed, he rubbed his face with his small hands and asked,

"What, Mummy?"

Mimi smiled and ran her had through his fluffy blonde hair.

"We're going over to Ben's! You had better get ready!"

As much as she hated having the children in the house while she and Matt… did what they did… Jamie was her excuse for being there at all. What if the paparazzi caught her over at Matt's place all by herself? Or worse, Sora? There was no option.

Mimi arrived at Matt's late in the morning. The door was answered literally within seconds of her ringing the doorbell, and Mimi had the sneaking suspicion that he had been watching out of the window, waiting for them. He ushered the two of them inside, his hand resting lightly just above Mimi's rear as he guided them. Both he and Mimi stayed silent as Ben skittered in. After a rapid-fire conversation, both of them ran off towards the sitting room. As Mimi found out later, Jamie had discovered that Ben had the whole Thomas the Tank Engine series on tape. Going into transports of delight, he had begged to see it and Ben, ever eager to please, had acquiesced easily. Effectively leaving the two adults alone together.

"Nice dress, Mi." Matt said in his deep, rumbling tones. Scrunching the hair at the back of his neck, he added, "But I'm sure it wouldn't look as good if it weren't… on you."

He'd deliberately left his emphasis ambiguous, and Mimi smiled at his attempt to be smooth. "Why, thank you Matt. Do you think we should test that theory? In the name of science and all?"

Matt's eyes sparked like the rays of the sun bouncing off the sea. She was playing his game. She was letting go of her fears and anxieties and succumbing to the desires he knew they shared. He loved her so much it made his heart sing, and it hurt him deeply to see her fighting and refusing to love him back. He knew that it was what he deserved, and that after what he'd done, he was not worthy of ever seeing her again. But it didn't stop him wanting her to be his.

"Yes. Yes I do. So you should come up to my room so that we may conduct this experiment."

Mimi nodded, and they both made their way towards the stairs. Their hands brushed as they ascended, each of them stealing sideways glances and trying not to smirk. They made it to Matt's bedroom so quickly Mimi felt like she must have been flying, and Matt slammed the door behind them. Facing Mimi, his eyes were dark, pupils dilated so that the cerulean blue was almost completely black. Within seconds he'd pinned her to the wall, making her stomach fizzle with expectant desire. Matching lust zapped in his eyes, and his lips crushed on hers with a fervour and passion Mimi had never seen in anyone else. He was kissing her like he had been aching to do so for days, his tongue massaging hers with expert skill and fiery determination.

Sucking on her lower lip, he tugged on her dress. It pooled at her feet and she kicked it out of the way. Matt pulled away and gazed down on the garment.

"I was right. Not as nice off you."

Mimi laughed and wrapped her arms around him, effectively returning his focus. His kisses became messier, lighter as they rained on her face, hair, neck and shoulders. Mimi tangled her hands in his thick blonde mane, moaning as his long fingers explored every hidden inch and intimate place on her body. It was sometime around then that they both shed what remained of their clothes, leaving them only in their underwear. Matt's lust was taking over, and he pressed his body further into hers. Feeling him rubbing against her, what little patience Mimi had completely dissolved. Her whole self was crying for release. Grabbing him by the boxers, she pulled him over to the bed.

Post-coital, Mimi snuggled down into the soft blankets of Matt's bed. Matt, sated, lay next to her, flat on his back with his arms folded behind his head. Squirming like a caterpillar, she moved to rest her cheek on his chest. There was an easy silence, as Mimi just listened to Matt's deep, slow breathing and the still slightly raised beating of his heart. She was lightly tracing the ridges of his toned abdominals when she spoke. She didn't even realise she had said anything until it was already hanging in the air above them. It was as if the thoughts she tried to keep buried in her most deeply secret heart of hearts had bubbled up and out without the approval of her mind.

"Matt… when you thought Jamie was Michael's son… and you thought I'd cheated on you… did you hate me?"

Matt shifted a little under her, his hand lowering to gently stroke her hair. "Never," he murmured. "Not for a second. I tried to hate you, because hating you would have been so much easier than what I was going through. I hated Michael, I'll admit that. I had moments of temporary insanity during which I thought the best course of action would be to fly over to the States and commit bloody murder. But there was always something about you that just wouldn't let me stop loving you. Your laugh, maybe, or the way you flicked your hair… or it could have just been my memories. Whatever it was, not a moment went by that I didn't think of you, hoping Michael was treating you right."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "But I can't lie to you. I… I hurt pretty badly. And I hit the booze in a big way. Drowning my sorrows, I guess you could call it. Blissful oblivion, up to a point… but I think that might be a story for another day."

Mimi touched her lips to his bare chest. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I wish we could turn back time. I wish fate had been kinder to us. I wish Sora had never passed on the wrong information…"

Matt cut in. "I wish I'd just stayed five seconds longer to ask who the father was. I wish I hadn't believed her. Every day I wish."

Mimi propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him evenly. "Why didn't you ask who the father was?"

Matt sighed, finding a spot on the far wall to gaze at so that he didn't have to meet her questioning stare. "I don't know. A lot of reasons, in hindsight. I heard the news from Sora, and I assumed that as your best friend she would know. Then there was my pride; I didn't want to seem like there was anything in your life that I didn't already know about. But I suppose the biggest reason was that I didn't think I could stand to hear that you were leaving me. I thought that if I walked away and didn't hear it, somehow it would hurt less. It sounds so stupid now…"

Mimi smiled and cuddled up to him again. "I can understand wanting to hurt less. But I still don't know what Sora told you to make you believe I was having Michael on the side."

Matt knew he should have expected this question. Much as he didn't want to have to answer, Mimi had a right to know what an idiot he had been. He took a deep breath and tried his best to tell things exactly the way they had happened.

"A little while after you flew in, maybe a week, I saw her in the shopping mall. She told me you were pregnant, and that was why you were avoiding me. I assumed the child was mine, and after initial shock I was quite happy. Then she said it was Michael's, and I was crushed. I didn't want to believe her, but she'd sown the seeds of doubt. I started thinking of how much time you spent in New York, and how easy it would have been for you to have… dalliances. And Sora only made things worse, calling me all the time and asking whether I'd talked to you and sorted the Michael issue out. She said she'd thought you'd been cheating on me for at least a year. I don't know… then when you confirmed what she'd said about the pregnancy, I just assumed the rest was true as well. I'd been so obsessed with the concept of you and him together, I couldn't think of any other possibilities. I was so foolish. So terribly, utterly irrational. I've always been that way… jumping to conclusions… I just hope you can forgive me for it, one day."

Mimi knew she would forgive him. It would be impossible for her not to. Love made people do things they never normally would. But one person Mimi didn't think she could ever forgive was Sora. She had told her about the pregnancy the day after she had arrived. There was no way Sora could have misunderstood, and if Matt was right about the timeframe, then Mimi was certain that the attack must have been calculated and deliberate.

Now Mimi just had to decide what to do with her knowledge.

Emma's useless facts about nothing in particular

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.