FIC: Turn the Page ~ Chapter Twenty-eight

[bugsfic]

Title: Turn the Page ~ Chapter Twenty-eight
Author: bugs
Genre: AU, Drama, Romance
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,900



Chapter 28:

Bill looked away from the accusatory blank laptop screen and out his office window. The trees were bare now, their branches dripping with rain.

He had too many of his own scenes and dialogue from the past week running through his mind to deal with his characters' plot.

Like picking a scab, he returned to the flashpoint.

A little slip of paper, the type's ink nearly unreadable. But Laura had been able to decipher it like a forensic scientist.

Bill blamed the fact he hadn't been married for over a decade. He'd lost his survival instinct; forgotten that he should never, never say, "What's the problem?"

She had spelled the problem out with that clipped voice of hers. "The problem? The problem is, I don't even make twelve hundred dollars in a week. I barely make that in two weeks! To spend that on a purse and scarf!" She'd tugged the silk from her flaming hair.

Stupid statement number two: "It wasn't your money," he'd pointed out. He had thought he was being logical.

Her nostrils had flared. "That's not the point! The point is, that's an obscene amount of money to spend on a piece of of silk and a leather bag!" She pushed the offending object with her toe on the floorboard.

He continued to try to apply logic. "It'll last you a lifetime--"

"For that money, it should be made of gold!"

"If it were gold, it would have cost more--"

Her arms folded tightly.

Then he'd made the final, fatal error. He'd laughed and patted her knee. There was a flash of bright light in her eyes, like seeing a nuclear detonation from miles away.

"Don't worry about it. And you can't return them since you've used them," he said comfortably, and had assumed it was over when there'd been no more retorts.

He'd never known chewing lettuce could sound so loud as they had lunch. Laura made clipped conversation. She wasn't shutting him out, but the easy intimacy of the weekend was gone.

At his desk, Bill's shoulders hunched just as they had that afternoon. He'd done nothing wrong. He'd just bought her a purse. It wasn't a frivolous purchase of a luxury brand. It was a sensible, well-made bag that would last a lifetime, dammit.

It hadn't helped when the flight attendant had taken Laura's purse to put it in the overhead compartment. "Oh, a Dooney and Bourke! You lucky lady," she'd cooed, despite Bill's warning grimace behind Laura's shoulder.

But Laura had only given a short huff of breath; she'd said nothing more to Bill about the purse. He had picked up some real estate pamphlets at the airport and conspicuously laid them out on his tray as soon as they were in the air. Laura turned on her tablet and kept her eyes on her work during the entire flight. Bill had looked at cottages by himself.

When they were in his car driving back toward their neighborhood, Laura said crisply, "I need to get home. I have so much schoolwork to check on."

"Of course," Bill said gloomily.

He'd expected her to shut him out for a few days as punishment. Instead, she'd proved to be a much more wily opponant; he wouldn't have guessed that she'd never been in a relationship before.

With Kara still at his house, Laura had invited Bill over to her apartment after work. He'd arrived, wary, but she'd closed the door behind him, led him to the bedroom and had screwed him senseless.

Shaking his head at the memory still, Bill wandered to the kitchen for coffee, his footsteps echoing in the empty house. When they were lying in her bed, he had told her that Kara would be back in her apartment by Wednesday. Laura had had news of her own.

"Tom gave me the most amazing opportunity today," she'd said, pushing pillows behind her to sit up and out of his embrace.

Bill rolled on his side and put his arm across her bare chest. Tom. Not Mr. Zarek anymore. "Yeah?" he grumbled.

"Mr Gaeta can no longer attend the charter school administrative conference in San Diego next week. Tom wants me to go instead."

"What about your classes?" Bill asked, fighting off a few other 'what abouts'.

"This is the chance for Billy to fly solo," she said, her gaze faraway.

"San Diego's nice," Bill said, "I haven't been in a long time."

This is where she should invite him along--

"I won't be doing any sightseeing," she said, her tone heavy as a slamming door.

"I didn't know you were interested in the administrative side of education." He cupped one of her breasts gently, desire still lapping through his body.

"I didn't either," she said with a contented sigh, sliding down into his arms again.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Monday through Friday."

Before he could say anything more, she continued, "I'll have to work all this week and Saturday to prepare Billy for the classes and myself for the meetings."

Bill had taken that to mean he wouldn't see her again before she left, but she did call him over for another evening before Kara moved out and came to his house two times before the weekend. Each time, she initiated making love with a ruthless efficiency. He'd welcomed each encounter, hoping that he'd see his uneffected Laura again, not feel this slight distance even when their bodies were joined.

Leaning on the counter, Bill stared sightlessly out into his soggy garden. Perhaps this was just the way it was going to be now. Had he created a fantasy woman out of the person he'd met, but Laura had evolved from her? She had the right to change and grow...

His mouth turned down and it wasn't just the bitterness of his burned coffee.

She had not come to him on Saturday. "I have to pack, Bill. I'll call you when I get there," she'd said with that vagueness that drove him crazy.

It was now Tuesday and no call.

He'd hated Carolanne's prolonged yelling and ranting. What he'd give anything for one good blowup right now. Shoulders slumped, he shuffled back to his office and the waiting laptop.

Then he heard his phone ring. Bill snatched it up without looking at the screen. "Yeah?" he said breathlessly.

"Oh hi, Sharon." He slumped down in his chair. "How ya doin'?"

Twirling a pencil, he listened her agitated chatter with scant attention. "Yeah, yeah. It's comin' along."

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling as she went on. "How can I write when I'm on the phone with you?"

He winced in pain and replaced the handset as she slammed the phone on him. Women just didn't want to listen to logic very much, he decided, turning back to the blinking cursor on his empty screen.

Laura watching the slide change on the Power Point presentation and made a note on her tablet. Then her finger strayed to doodle in the page margin. She'd always been a doodler and she was glad this tablet allowed her continue this habit. She could always delete these hearts and questions marks later...

She'd been very proud of herself. She had not called Bill when she arrived in San Diego, despite that being her first thought as she'd entered her spacious, luxurious hotel room. She hadn't called him as she'd dined in her room before the dark window, looking out at the lonely car-filled freeway below. She'd made it through the first day without calling him the half a dozen times she'd felt the urge.

She needed to regain control of her emotions. She didn't like the anger she'd felt--yes, it was just a purse, but that wasn't the point. Also, she didn't like feeling as though desire was ruling her life. She'd confronted that head-on the previous week. Rather than avoid it, she'd find a way to contain it and give it a rightful place in her life.

When contemplating her new life she was about to embark on, she'd worried about dealing with sex. How she saw that was the easy part. It was the other unbridled emotions which were going to do her in if she didn't find a way to contain them. Fury, frustration, petty jealousy, petulance, neediness...She felt as though she was living some Middle Age's list of minor sins.

Once she'd compared her crisis of faith to cancer. Now she was reminded of her mother's downward progression in her illness. She'd watched helplessly as her mother retched and writhed through her chemotherapy treatments and had wondered many times if the cure was killing her mother just as much as the disease. Was her relationship with Bill like chemotherapy, stripping her heart bald and weakly shivering inside?

"Would you like to do dinner again, Laura?" came from behind her.

She looked up from her tablet and the dripping heart she'd drawn. Blinking, she looked around. The last session of the day was over. "Oh hello, Wally."

Wallace Gray had been in one of Laura's small discussion groups on the first day. He was friendly and easy-going, making her feel welcome in this new environment. The group had dined together that evening. Laura told herself that her late return to her room was the reason she had not finally called Bill as she'd promised.

"Yes, Wally. That would be very nice," she said, rising stiffly and stretching her back out. What she'd give for that tub from their Pacific Grove cottage...

Her warm smile caught Wally's attention. "We'll grab some room service," he said smoothly.

She looked around. "Should we ask Tonya and Alex to join us again?"

Wallace glanced across the room. "I think I saw them going off with a group from Fresno."

She put her tablet in her bag.

"I'd be happy to show you our allocation schedule for miscellaneous expenditures," Wally said.

Felix Gaeta had asked Laura to takes notes about any budgetary changes she heard about.

"Thank you so much," she murmured, following him from the conference room.

In Wally's room, Laura brought up a blank page on her tablet.

"Hey, that can wait," Wally said easily, reaching for the room service menu. "Let's order first."

She smiled tightly. "I'll have the chicken salad."

"Something to drink?" he suggested with his eyebrows raised.

She'd been in the act of sitting at the dining table. She paused and straightened back up. Squinting at her new friend, she took his hopeful expression.

They'd had glasses of wine with dinner last night; that suggestion shouldn't be raising the hairs on the back of her neck. She glanced around the room; the bed dominated it. His eyes immediately followed her gaze.

She folded her arms. "Is this about more than budget allocations?" she asked.

Wally gave a helpless shrug. "If you want it to be."

She wasn't frightened; he was not intimidating. She was shocked though. It had not occurred to her at all that he was interested in her personally and she cursed her inexperience again.

But she sat down. "No, I don't. I do want that salad, a glass of water, and to learn about budget allocations."

Once back in her room, Laura dug her phone out of her purse.

"Yeah?" said the husky, familiar voice.

Now that she had him on the phone, she didn't know what to say. "Hi," she said, collapsing on the end of the bed.

"How's it goin'?" Bill asked cautiously.

She kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes. "Okay. How are you?"

"Not writing."

"Why aren't you writing?" she fussed.

"Too much on my mind."

Lying back on the bed, she stared at the ceiling. "San Diego is lovely," she said lamely.

"Thought you weren't going sightsee."

"I haven't been. The weather's nice, that's all."

"Good. Good."

"I'm learning a lot."

"That's good," he said, then cleared his throat.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothin'."

"Oh," she breathed. Twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, she sighed. "I didn't want to bother you--so you could write. Now you're not writing," she said accusingly.

"Yeah."

"I've missed you," she admitted.

"Good," he said, smiling at the phone.

She frowned at hers. "I should be able to go to a conference without thinking about you all the time."

"You've been thinking about me all the time?" He was grinning now.

But she didn't sound happy when she growled, "Yes."

He shifted in his chair and rubbed his stomach. "You missed me, or missed me?" he asked cockily.

"Both," she confessed.

"I'm right here," he rasped into the phone, his hand sliding lower on his belly.

She gave a sharp chuckle. "Fat lot of good that does me on the phone."

He quickly licked his lips. "I'm right here, Laura. Just tell the doctor where it hurts--"

She laughed outright. "Oh Bill. Do those lines work on other women?"

It was his turn to frown. He tried again. "If I were there, I'd be kissing you all over," he said huskily. "I'd start right behind your ear, where my voice is now--"

"But you aren't here," she whined, cutting him off.

He wasn't going to give up. "I'll tell you what I'm doing if you tell me what you're doing--"

"What do you mean?" she asked sharply. "Bill, are you--"

His hand jerked out of his crotch. "No." It settled on his thigh, his fingers jittering. "...But I could be," he suggested.

"Bill! That can just wait until I get home," she said primly.

Sad, his fingers stilled. Her breathy giggle was doing nothing to alleviate his arousal. If he could bottle that...

He listened to it quiet to a hum; it was fretful.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly. "Besides being horny."

Her chiding "Bill" didn't have the sharp inflection it had earlier. Something was wrong. Concerned, he hunched in his chair.

"Laura--"

"Why don't people adhere to their wedding vows?"

"What's happened?" he asked, harsher than he meant to.

With her usual blunt quality, she told him. "And then as we were dining, I noticed a tan line on his ring finger! Not only was he trying to sleep with a stranger, but he was being unfaithful! He seems like a nice person! Why would he do that?"

"There's a lot of reasons," he mumbled. "Maybe his wife doesn't mind. There's the thrill of anonymous sex--"

She made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat.

He agreed with her sentiment. "In theory at least. Not so hot when you're in some doctor's office with an STD or on a morgue slab."

She didn't say anything.

"Being out of town, away from responsibilities, some people can forget their commitments easily." He ran out of excuses for this unknown jerk.

"Did you?"

"What?"

"Ever have an affair or even just flirt, when you were married?" Her voice was high and accusatory.

He rubbed his forehead. "No."

"You seem to know a lot about this."

Shifting the phone to his other ear, Bill sighed. "I've still got experience."

"Carolanne?" she gasped.

"Yeah."

"Is that why you divorced?"

He rolled his neck on the chair's back. "No. It was about five years before things fell apart." But now that he thought about it, it sure hadn't helped either.

"How could you stay with her?" Laura spit, furious at this unknown woman.

"There were kids, a home, commitment. It's never as black and white as it seems."

"I would never--"

"I know," he said warmly. "Instead you call me up and tell me all the dirty details of this asshole luring you to his room...What are you wearing, Laura?"

"Bill!" she chided him again with a watery laugh.

He waited.

"Well, I've taken off my shoes," she said, sounding terribly uncomfortable.

It was his turn to laugh. "Give it up, Laura. You won't be moonlighting as a phone sex worker any time soon."

Her harrumph sounded offended but he decided that was a good thing. Let her have an edge by the time she got home. Maybe she'd feel as though she had something to prove to him and no more of this clean and efficient sex.

"You should go," he said soothingly. "Get back to your notes. Another big day tomorrow?"

"Yes," she said slowly.

"There's something else?" Leaning back in his chair, he waited, his free hand gripping his skull through his thick hair.

"Bill..."

"Uh huh--"

"Are you my boyfriend?"

Painfully, he swallowed his guffaw. He'd learned his lesson about laughing at her serious concerns. "I don't think I'm much of a boy anymore--"

"I don't know about that," she said slyly.

"Fine. I'll be your boyfriend if you're my girlfriend."

She made a discontented sound and he nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we just are, okay?" he suggested. "For now."

"Okay," she murmured, but didn't seem satisfied.

"Goodnight, my girl," he said.

"Goodnight, big boy," she said impishly.

Before he could refute her comment, she disconnected the line.

Shaking his head, Bill replaced the handset on the stand. That woman always had to have the last word. But she hadn't given back that purse. He had to hang onto that.

With a nod, he turned back to his laptop and put his fingers to the keys.

End~ Chapter 28