Well, whatever else happened in the next eight months, John knew that the magic between he and Lori could never be doused. Their interlude in the bedroom last night meant the take out had gone cold by the time they'd made their way back to the kitchen, yet the sexual gratification meant that neither of them really cared.
He'd been restless for most of the night while Lori slept soundly in his arms, a contented smile gracing those beautiful lips that he loved to lose himself in. She'd slept without a care in the world while he'd done nothing except churn over the endless problems that seemed to be plaguing their lives at the moment.
After living together and getting married, starting a family and moving into a bigger place were the next logical steps in their relationship, yet there were major roadblocks preventing them from doing that. Real estate in New York had always been hideously expensive and there was no way that they would be able to afford to rent, let alone buy a house anywhere within a 50 mile radius of the city.
As far as he could see there were only two options: take extra shifts at the precinct or take Fancy up on the offer of supporting his application for the lieutenant's position at the 23rd Precinct. But he was still young for a cop; mid-thirties was nothing when it came to most men in the squad room. Did he really want to take up a management position when he still had so much to offer as a detective out on the streets?
Perhaps it was his male pride talking when he considered the consequences of taking a desk job. He'd always seen himself as a fit and healthy man and in the prime of his life. Would sitting behind a desk all day drinking coffee and eating doughnuts make him lose the lean figure that had served him so well during his time as a cop?
Somehow he couldn't see himself running down the street chasing a perp with a gut the size of a heavily pregnant woman. Sure, he could still play pickup games with the guys at the YMCA, but it would only be a matter of time before work would get in the way. There would be endless meetings to attend, paperwork to sign off on….and it would make him lazy….and fat.
Lori wouldn't stand for him letting himself go either. How the hell would he be able to teach his kids to play ball when he'd be too fat to even keep up with them?
Maybe he was making issues when there weren't any, but taking the position as lieutenant had the potential to create as many issues as it solved. The money would be better, the hours more regular and it would put Lori's mind at rest to know that he wasn't out on the streets on a daily basis, but would the hassle involved in managing not only his own life but that of a dozen or more men be more stress than it was worth?
Getting the position would change everything in his life and he wasn't overly sure that he was ready for that. Maybe Fancy was right: he needed time to think it over properly, to weigh up the pros and cons before he made a definitive decision on the matter.
He'd all but given up on sleep, dozing fitfully until he heard Lori stir beside him.
"Hey, beautiful," he murmured, placing a sensuous kiss on her slightly parted lips.
Lori sighed, her ample chest rising and falling at the simple pleasure of the contact. "What a nice way to wake up."
"Well, we aim to please here at Casa Kelly."
John knew he had a shit-eating grin on his face but he couldn't help it, knowing he was one lucky son of a bitch to have a woman as beautiful as Lori in his bed.
"What's the plan for today?" he asked, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.
Pulling herself further up, Lori looked at her husband in some amusement. "You and I are going to narrow down which shade of yellow we need and then we'll get started painting the baby's room. What do you think?"
He answered her with a searing kiss.
"John, we haven't got time for that. We've got too much to do today; we need to get ready for the baby."
He pulled away slowly, trying to dampen the ardour that he felt for Lori, yet the tenting of the bed sheets gave him away. "Uh, I'm finding it a little hard at the moment."
Lori could see the evidence of his arousal from the corner of her eye, a sly grin crossing her face, her hand reaching under the sheet and making its way further down his body. "Well, let's see what we can do about that….."
Another bar, another whore, another hangover.
This was turning out to be more than a week of shitty days. It was a month of shitty weeks in a year full of shitty months. He'd spent the last God knows how long drinking and pissing his worthless life away.
After promising himself to do better, he'd let John down yet again. John wasn't stupid, he could see that his partner had been drinking yet he'd said nothing but to tell him to go home and sleep it off. Andy had nodded his head and agreed, giving John a sheepish smile as they parted ways on the corner of West and 34th.
He'd ended up in another dead-end bar, drinking the afternoon away while his partner sat in the squad room typing up the reports that they should have been completing together. But yesterday afternoon, he didn't feel guilt at letting his friend down, he just felt the overwhelming urge to drink and keep drinking until he puked or passed out – possibly both.
The trigger for his latest drinking binge? The fact that he'd forgotten his own son's birthday.
His ex-wife never turned down an opportunity to stick the knife in, yet he couldn't deny that this time he deserved every word she threw his way.
"Andy Jnr was distraught," she'd told him in a tone somewhere between fury and disdain. "How on earth could you do that to your own child?"
Andy Jnr was less of a child, becoming more like a grown man each day – not that he'd seen much of him recently to substantiate his theory. He'd promised his boy that, after the divorce, he'd still be a big part of his life.
It had worked for a while, until his desire to drink ruined his chance of maintaining a healthy relationship with Andy Jnr. Nancy had always seized on any opportunity to manipulate a situation to her own ends and this lapse in memory had been no different – Andy Jnr was nothing more than a pawn in their vicious game, one that was designed to inflict maximum damage on the opponent with seemingly little or no regard to how it would affect their only child.
They'd been happy once, hadn't they? He was sure that there was once a time that he and Nancy had been young and in love, with their whole lives ahead of them. Looking back it seemed naïve and stupid to consider the notion that they would live happily ever after. Maybe they never really loved each other in the first place.
He knew he wasn't a bad man, not really. When he'd signed up to the NYPD it had been with the intention of doing something meaningful with his life, making a difference to the community and the city he served. Yet too many years of seeing the darker side of life had sucked out most of the joy within him. How many murdered kids, rape victims? Hw many innocent victims of brutal crimes had he come across in his 25+ years on the job?
Too many.
Hope may have been the antithesis of despair, yet it had been his misfortune to find that despair had been the stronger. Despair had gripped at his soul, squeezing the life from him, pushing him further into the downward spiral that was slowly draining away the little of the good man he'd once been.
Like a boxer who'd taken too many hits, the fight had been beaten out of him until he could see nothing but the bottom of the next bottle of scotch. Drinking made the images of the dead and abused fade away into the darkness until he could no longer see the eyes of those helpless victims who pleaded with him to help them.
Drinking numbed the pain that he felt for every victim he'd ever met. Drinking dulled the voices that hounded him, the smell of alcohol masking that of burned and rotting flesh. Alcohol wrapped him in its warm and comforting embrace, allowing him just a few moments of peace…..
Screw it. Who was he to get all misty-eyed about past regrets? A turd would always be a turd - no matter how much you polished it. There was nothing else you could do but move on and make the best of what you had left.
Knowing that he owed John for covering for him yesterday, he'd agreed to talk over the details of the Giardella case with the new ADA, Sylvia Costas. Both he and John had been reluctant to meet the woman at the weekend, seeing as they'd worked the last seven days straight, but the woman had insisted that it would be the only time that would work for her.
Never one to let a broad call the shots, he'd almost told her to shove the case up her ass, yet he wanted Giardella badly. The guy was a snake, managing to wriggle out of every charge they'd brought him up on. Nothing stuck even though he was known by all to be one of the guys behind Marino's operations. With so many ties to the mob, Giardella never took the flak for anything.
Pulling himself from the bed and ignoring the scantily-dressed woman still passed out, he eyed the bottle of scotch lying on its side on the carpet. Maybe one drink before meeting the ADA wouldn't hurt…..
"Here, take a break."
John smiled his gratitude to his wife, taking a deep gulp of the beer she'd handed him. "Yes, ma'am."
It had been a long day, but one of the more enjoyable ones of the last few months. Both he and Lori had gotten a little carried away at the store, buying a crib and other pieces of furniture that they'd need for their impending arrival.
Having finally narrowed down which shade of yellow would work best, the two of them had headed back to the apartment like the proud soon-to-be-parents they were. The arguments, tension and resentments of the last few days had faded away as they found themselves swept up in the excitement of expecting their first child.
He'd forgone lunch in favour of putting the crib together before starting work on painting the walls. Lori had attempted to look interested in decorating the room but had spent most of the time flicking through the catalogues they'd picked up at the furniture store.
She'd already pointed out a number of items that she insisted they would need for the baby and, each time she circled one of the hideously expensive items, he found his mind drifting back to the offer Fancy had put on the table.
Babies were expensive. Real expensive. Would they be able to survive on one set of wages alone when the baby arrived? Even if Lori returned to work quickly, they'd still have to find the money for day care during the working week.
Maybe taking a desk job would give him more time with his child. The thought of raising a little John Jnr was an appealing prospect. There would be so many things he could show or teach his son but would he ever get the chance if he was working all the hours that God sent as a detective out on the streets?
A wet paintbrush to the face pulled him rudely from his thoughts as he found Lori giggling at him, paintbrush in one hand and the other covering her mouth as she attempted to stifle a giggle.
He couldn't help but grin back at her, but not before he'd caught her unaware and returned the favour, flicking yellow paint from his brush straight across her chest and face.
Lori looked amused and affronted at the same time. Saying nothing, she dipped her brush into the pot of paint before raising her arm in the direction of her husband. "Think that's funny, do you?"
He was too quick for her, ducking out of the way in time so that only the top of his head caught the splashes of paint. Keeping his head low, he crept over and grabbed her by the waist, gazing into her eyes as they both laughed. His face inched closer to hers, leaning in to kiss her only to find his lips meeting a wet paintbrush. Not one to admit defeat, John leaned close again, capturing her lips with his own, spreading paint between them as their hands dropped the paintbrushes and made desperate grabs for each other's clothes.
Forget the arguments and issues, this was how it should be for expecting parents – excitement, joy, passion. A child would be the perfect symbol of their love for each other and if things carried on as they had today, maybe there would be another couple of brothers or sisters for little John Jnr in the pipeline...
Authors' Note: This is a continuing story from the writing team of WriterJasmine and Teeheehee1234. It's meant to be a fun attempt at writing a story together based on words that readers provide to us on a weekly basis. For more information about this, please read our profile and please feel free to participate. The 'bolded' words throughout the story are words that some of our reader friends sent our way this week. The words utilized are: magic; corner; management; birthday; potential; manipulate; distraught; antithesis; Sylvia Costas; divorce; consequences; baby's room; misty-eyed.