When the doorbell rang Friday afternoon Paul knew who it was going to be before he opened the door. Stephanie had showed up with his groceries. He made his way awkwardly to the door and sure enough as he opened it Stephanie stood there with a smile on her face, surrounded by bags of groceries and cleaning supplies and she said brightly, "Hey." There were so many bags that she must have made several trips to her car and back to his condo with them before ringing the doorbell. All Paul said was, "I can't help you with any of that."
As he made his way back into the condo Stephanie brought the first few bags inside and said, "I know. How's the knee?"
"Painful," Paul said as he lay back on the couch, "I hope you brought me change?"
"No. I spent all of it," Stephanie cheerfully informed him as she walked back in with the second lot of bags.
Paul exclaimed, "All of it? How do you even know what food I want?"
Making her way back outside Stephanie chirped, "I don't but I figured if you're hungry you'll eat it."
Trying desperately to keep an amused smile from his face Paul said, "I suppose I can't talk you into going away instead of spending all afternoon here cleaning the place?"
Making a final trip into the kitchen area with shopping bags after slamming the front door closed Stephanie asked, "Someone offers to clean your condo for free and you complain about it?"
"No you do it and I complain."
As she began unloading the groceries into the cupboards and into the refrigerator Stephanie smiled. It amused her that Paul continued to say things like this and pretend that either of them believed he wasn't interested in her. She laughed, "Right, I fought my way through a bunch of other hot women that were begging to do your cleaning on my way in here."
Paul was in a difficult spot. He wanted to give Stephanie a break and he genuinely did appreciate her help but he did not want to give her encouragement that something might happen between them. He decided to lie on the couch, watch TV and say nothing. Predictably this did not last long as thirty seconds later Stephanie asked, "Have you eaten anything? I can make a sandwich or something?"
"I've eaten. I ordered a pizza in earlier."
Stephanie chastised him, "So you're unable to train and you start eating pizzas? Sounds like a good idea."
"Sorry mom."
The sound of the kettle boiling began to come from the kitchen, "I'm having a coffee. May I have the considerable honor of making one for you too?"
"I suppose so. One sugar but make it quite strong," Paul was unable to resist a smile this time and Stephanie saw it from the kitchen area. A few minutes later she walked over to Paul with two cups of coffee and a sandwich of some kind on a plate. As she handed a coffee to him he said, "I told you I already ate."
Stephanie smiled, "This is for me. You'll have to move over, how do you only have one couch to sit on?"
"It's only me that lives here, how many places to sit do I need? Wait, you take my money to buy food and then you come over here and start eating it all?"
"Just move over so I can sit down," Stephanie ordered firmly after deliberately ignoring his complaint. As Paul did as she said and she sat down and took a bite out of her sandwich Stephanie almost choked as she burst out laughing.
Genuinely confused at what she was laughing about Paul asked, "What?"
Still laughing Stephanie pointed at the TV, "You're watching Judge Judy? Oh my god!"
"There's nothing else on," Paul said defensively, hoping that his cheeks did not redden.
The laughter continued, "There's nothing on apart from Judge Judy? Don't you have a DVD player or something?"
Paul sipped his coffee in embarrassment, "Okay so I was watching Judge Judy. You caught me."
"Your secret is safe with me," Stephanie said before attacking her sandwich again. Paul could still see a smile of amusement on her face.
For the next ten minutes Paul resisted Stephanie's attempts at conversation as best he could as she ate her sandwich. His stubbornness and her obvious persistence were only increasing his determination not to allow her to get close to him. When she had finished the sandwich and the cup of coffee Stephanie stood and said, "Right, I'm going to clean this place from top to bottom and when I have you're going to keep it that way. You might have a bad knee but that's no excuse for living in a mess like this."
Paul sighed deliberately louder than was necessary to emphasise his next sentence, "If you insist on cleaning fine but stop the lecturing. You're giving me a headache."
Stephanie laughed and set about cleaning the condo. Paul lay and watched a news channel as she did so, still doing his best to keep the conversation to a minimum. Stephanie moaned about the state of his kitchen and asked how he could possibly cook food on a cooker this dirty. "I don't cook. That used to be Trish's job," was the answer.
"You're something else you know that? It's like you're fully grown but you're still a ten year old." Stephanie said, shaking her head. Paul ignored this comment and left her to it. As she cleaned the sink, the cooker, the refrigerator and then the cupboards Paul again resisted her attempts at conversation as best he could. Almost an hour later she was apparently done in the kitchen area. "I'm not doing your bathroom too as you've not been nice enough," she informed him as she dried her hands on a towel.
"Nice enough?" Paul asked quizzically.
"You do realise that I've spent half of my day running around for you and cleaning this hole for you and you've not even thanked me?" Stephanie pointed out as she walked out of the kitchen and back into the living area.
Feeling guilty almost despite himself Paul looked at her and said genuinely, "Thank you."
This produced a large smile from Stephanie as she said happily, "You're welcome. I can stop by tomorrow and see if you need anything?"
Paul clarified as much for his own benefit as hers, "I didn't ask for any of this Stephanie."
"I know, yet you keep letting me in. I'll see you tomorrow," Stephanie said sweetly and with that she walked out, leaving Paul with a smile on his face. He had to admit to himself that he had almost enjoyed having Stephanie around the place. As she was evidently going to ignore him saying no even if that was his answer he would have to leave her to keep coming around. There was no way he was going to let anything come of it or allow himself to develop feelings for her. After Trish he was done with relationships that was for sure and he was not going to change his mind.
Over the next two weeks the only people to visit Paul's condo were Stephanie and a physiotherapist as he had told his mother not to come in no uncertain terms. The last thing he needed was a lecture about treating Trish badly and ruining his own life by being stupid and everything else she would undoubtedly bore him with. The physiotherapist was a balding man in his fifties. Paul figured that he had Laura Molinaro to thank for that. She probably took pleasure in the fact that had been expecting some hot young woman to show up but instead he had this guy. Laura had not even bothered to call him at any point to check on his progress, not that this really surprised him. At least his knee was standing up to the work and his recovery was on track.
He had to admit to himself that he was now enjoying Stephanie's frequent presence in his condo. The girl seemed permanently happy to be around him no matter how rude or sarcastic he was to her. It was now becoming more like some kind of banter between them than a genuine attempt by Paul to get rid of her constant attention. He also had to admit to himself that if she decided to stop coming to see him he would miss her. She was breaking down his defences and soon this was going to have to be considered a relationship of some kind. He was beginning to have feelings for her, that was the truth of it despite how many times he had told himself not to allow that to happen.
The feelings between the two first began to come to the fore one Wednesday afternoon. Paul and Stephanie had eaten a lunch that she had made and Stephanie was now doing the dishes by hand. "Why can't you buy a dishwasher?" she complained.
Paul chirped from his familiar position lying on the couch, "Why would I? Looks like I've already got one."
Stephanie was halfway out of the kitchen area to go and hit him when the doorbell rang.
Trish Levesque had been waiting for this day for some time. She picked up the large brown envelope from corner of her desk and then stood and put on her grey suit jacket. As she walked out of her office she had a smile on her face. Earlier that day she had persuaded someone in the personnel department to get her Paul's new address, although this was something that should definitely not be done, and now she was heading over there on her lunch break.
Every time she thought of her cheating, lying, scumbag of a husband she felt her blood boiling. The way he had cheated on her with that slut McMahon and then came straight back to their hotel room and slept with her too had been disgusting enough to warrant a divorce but if anything the amount of planning he had put into getting the chance to fuck that little whore was even worse. He must have been thinking about it for months and all the time Trish had been oblivious to it.
Today was the day for Trish to get a small measure of satisfaction back from the cheating bastard. She was driving to his condo right now to serve him with divorce papers personally. She had absolutely insisted to her divorce attorney that she had to be the one to serve them as she wanted to see the look on his face.
As she arrived at the correct address Trish pulled her Audi Q7 in behind a beat up Ford that looked out of place for the area. As she got out and locked the car she looked at the place where her soon to be ex husband now lived. Sure it looked like an expensive place but it was nothing compared to the house that she was taking in the divorce. This caused a satisfied smile to appear on her face as she walked up to Paul's front door and pressed the button to ring the doorbell. This really would be a surprise for the bastard when he opened the door.