SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOON WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU by Enola

PART 22

Before going back to London James wants to see his father, so for this reason after a delicious breakfast in a very nice café in Cardiff Bay, the two of you go to Blackwood. His dad doesn’t know you’re going there too because James wants it to be a surprise. From his words you understand that he told his father everything about you. In fact as soon as he sees you he smiles.  He already ‘knows’ you because James let him watch Rhys’ wedding party video. You both are quite pleased to know each other even though you have to admit you feel a bit embarrassed . You all sit in the living room, you and James in very comfortable sofa, his dad in an armchair. Close to him there’s Jesse, their lovely dog, who started wagging his tail as soon as he saw Stella entering. On the contrary, she looks a bit frightened so hides under your legs. James’ father is forced to grasp Jesse by his collar since he seems ready to jump at her. Some minutes later, after a pleasant conversation, James’ dad goes out for a while so lets Jesse go as, in the meantime, he’s got quieter. He keeps sitting for a moment, then he starts coming closer very slowly looking at James in search of his approbation.

“Don’t worry sweetie, Jesse just wants to make friends” he says stroking her head gently, while Jesse gets closer and starts sniffing her,
“Jesse reminds me of someone!!” you laughs looking at James. In a few minutes the two dogs seem to get along together as Stella’s understood that Jesse is very friendly, but you’re a bit worried anyway. “I think you have to do something…you know, Stella’s still a puppy so she…”
“I know…don’t worry. He won’t dare…Jesse’s a good doggy…aren’t you?” says James proudly stroking him,
“Couldn’t you talk to him?”

“Talk to him?” he repeats smiling, “Um…okay…if you like” so he calls his dog in a very tender way, “Jesse come here!” At the beginning his dog doesn’t obey since he prefers turning all his attention to Stella so you and James can’t help laughing at it. “Jesseeeeeee!” he calls him again and he eventually comes closer and jumps at James at sits on his lap so James starts rubbing his ears smiling at him, “You like her don’t you? I know Stella’s stunning…but you can’t…erm…you know what I mean…so…be nice to her!” Afterwards, Jesse joins Stella again lying over the floor next to her. You thank James giving him a soft long kiss and you think how amazing is the fact that dogs are very similar to their owners in personality. Firstly, Jesse reminded of him when you played rugby and he jumped at you several times, then Jesse made you laugh a lot the minute he started sniffing Stella. “She smells good like you!” he exclaimed smiling, “She’s sweet like you, she’s beautiful lik…”
“Okay okay…cut it out!!”

Before leaving there is another thing the two of you have to do there since James has bought some flowers for his mum. You’re holding each other hand when you enter the cemetery, then he lets your hand go.
“Hi mommy!” he whispers touching the gravestone so he squats down leaving the flowers at the foot of it. As he gets up he grasps your hand again.
“I wish I’d know her!”
“If she was here she’d adore you!”

During the first weeks everything is alright between the two of you. You meet everyday, go out and you try to sleep overnight at his place at least twice per week and on weekends when the two of you enjoy spending a lot of time just cuddling up together on the sofa while you’re watching telly or still in bed on Sunday mornings. All that embarrassment felt the first times has slipped away now, sleeping and waking up next to him has turned natural and pleasant above all. You are also getting used to his hands that explore your body gradually day after day, to his kisses and his infinite sweetness. At the beginning there was just one thing you found a bit annoying, his gifts. During the very first days he sent you flowers even three times per day, boxes of chocolates, tons of red heart-shaped balloons which said ‘I LOVE YOU’, three stuffed animals, a duck, a tortoise and a tiger cub, a couple of porcelain dolls…

One day, since you couldn’t stand that situation any longer, you switched your mobile off and didn’t even answer the phone of your office and told Shane ‘If someone called James looks for me, please tell him I’ll talk to him again only when he’ll stop sending off stuff!' Your ‘threat’ worked as he promised not to send you anything else. You were grateful to him but you also let him understand that he didn’t need to give you flowers or anything else to show how much he loved you and how important you were to him. He didn’t need to give you material things to show you that because the way he looked at you, his smiles and kisses said it all. Then one night, as soon as you got at his place, he led you to his bedroom since he wanted to show you something. He stopped in front of the chest of drawers where previously he had put two pictures of you, one with him and one of you alone, over it. Tied to the top drawer handle there was a big red ribbon and when James told you to open it for a moment you thought not to, but when you did and noticed it was empty you were relieved.

“An empty drawer…wow!!” you exclaimed without getting the real meaning of that strange gift. But he explained it at once. That drawer was empty because you had to put some of your clothes into it since that was your drawer now. Among all his presents that was the most meaningful one for sure. Later he told you to open it more so that you could see how big it was. When you opened it almost completely and saw a small box at the bottom of it you closed it quickly. “I knew that! It was a trick!” you said a bit upset. Consequently, James said that you couldn’t react like that since you didn’t even know what that box contained and for that reason he persuaded you to open it. When you took the box in your hands you noticed it was a bit bigger than a packet of cigarettes. You found a key ring with two keys, one was that flat key and the other the Cardiff flat key.

All this doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any quarrels between the two of you. It happened more than once but you always managed to clarify your issues, even though sometimes hurting and being hurt has been unavoidable.
You had James had been staying together for one month or so when one evening Chris got to ‘The House’ clearly shattered almost in tears as she had had the worst workday ever. She couldn’t even manage to tell you and Shane what had happened that day at hospital. Claire, a six-year-old little girl, arrived there with her teacher since she was bleeding and soon as Chris had treated her she noticed that the little girl had been raped. Hearing her saying that made you shiver with horror causing a sick feeling in your stomach and you ending up running to the toilet and throwing up when she said that her mother had ‘sold’ her to a neighbour because she needed some money to buy herself a dose of cocaine.  The next morning Chris and Shane told you that they had talked about he eventuality to have Claire at ‘The House’ for a while because they were both sure you all could help her, but since you were the director you had to give your approbation. At the beginning you were worried and frightened because this time was different, the other kids didn’t have a family while Claire had been harmed twice, physically and psychologically. You were aware that Chris and Shane could help her a lot, but how could you help her? Furthermore, James was away for some days just when you desperately needed to talk to him but didn’t feel like telling him about Claire on phone and asked Shane not to tell him anything since you would do it when he had been back.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go how you had hoped. He got back the day after but didn’t see each other at once since he had to met a producer and go to a gig later, so you arranged to meet at his place after the gig. You waited for him up as you didn’t manage to sleep and because you were looking forward to holding  and telling him everything. When he arrived it was quite late and you immediately noticed he was annoyed for something. He just gave you a quick kiss and went straight to bed as he was knackered. Some minutes later you joined him, although you couldn’t talk to him you needed to feel him close to you. He was lying on his front as usual so you lied next to him and kissed him softly.
“Monica…please…I’m tired!” he protested. You got shocked as he had never been so cold.
“I just want to cuddle up to you” you whispered stroking his hair, but he didn’t say or do anything. Afterwards you got up and before leaving the room you went on, “Maybe I shouldn’t have come!”
You turned the television on and sat in the sofa and he joined you one minute later,
“Still feel like cuddling up?” he asked. You were too angry and sad so you didn’t even look at him,
“I’m watching telly now!”
“Y’know, you were right, maybe you shouldn’t have come!” he said harshly. Those words made you lose patience with him so you got up and put your coat on,
“Next time you don’t want me around I’d be grateful to you if you tell me that before coming here!” Finally you went away slamming the door behind you.

The next day he got to ‘The House’ bringing a huge bunch of flowers that you immediately threw into the rubbish bin, then you raged at him. “You men are incredible! You think you can solve everything with a bunch of flowers…What do you think I do every day in here? Who do you think cleans this house? Who do you think cooks? Me! Always me!! Sometimes I’m so tired that I can hardly manage to stand but I go at your place ‘cos I want to spend a bit of time with you…but if you think that going to a fucking gig is more important than staying in with me okay…that’s fine…go to all the gigs you like…but don’t complain if we don’t spend enough time together. I have some responsibilities that I think are a lot more important than a gig…I thought you knew that!”

You rushed upstairs to your bedroom since you didn’t either see his face or hear his voice and for several moments the only thing you felt like doing was hitting him so you relieved anger kicking the waste-paper basket and pushing over all that there was on your desk and among the other things, a frame with a picture of you and James together whose glass shattered in pieces on the floor. You stayed still by the desk for some minutes with your head down and your eyes shut. James was there in the threshold and even though you hadn’t either seen him or heard him coming, you knew he was there. Some moments later you felt his hands on your waist and he wrapped his arms round you slowly. He kissed your hair and rested his head against yours before speaking in a slow whisper,
“You needed me last night but I didn’t understand that…you’ve got every reason to be angry…yes, you have ‘cos I am the greatest dickhead alive…but I’m here now if it’s not too late.” Although you still were quite angry with him you couldn’t chase him away because you needed him to hold you tight in his arms. You turned over and hugged him and as soon as you rested your head on his shoulder you started crying.
“Why James? Why are there such horrible people? Claire’s just a child…why?”
“Dunno honey…there’s so much rottenness in this world…but it’s good to know there are also people like you, Shane and Chris who take care of kids who need help.”

Things are much better now since James is doing anything to be forgiven and he’s even given up pubbing for a while. The main reason is that he wants to spend as much time as possible with you as he’s going to be touring around UK for a couple of weeks. Tonight you’re going to eat together at his place as tomorrow he’s going to Dublin in the afternoon. When you enter his flat and call his name he replies he’s in the kitchen but you notice at once that the light is off. As soon as you reach the threshold he lights a couple of white candles with his lighter and you shake you head amused while he comes closer and welcomes you with a slow tender kiss. He moves a chair so that you can sit down but you wash your hands before, then before sitting you kiss him again.
“These ready lasagne suck, don’t they?” he says as soon as the two of you start eating,
“I thought you liked them!”
“That was before I tasted yours!” he remarks smiling, “I’d eat them every day!!” Then after having drunk some wine he adds, “I’ll be missing your cooking during the next couple of weeks!”
“Don’t worry darling, I’m sure you’ll survive!”

Having eaten you both sit on the sofa and watch some TV even thought there’s nothing interesting. Strangely James is silent and you noticed that he didn’t speak a lot during the meal as well. When you ask him about that he replies everything is alright but this don’t convince you since you know that there’s something which upsets him, so in the end he speaks.
“It’s the tour…don’t feel like leaving”
“What? Are you insane? The tour’s starting in a couple of days…think you drank too much wine!”
“It’s not the wine…I’ve thought over that the whole day and…”
“James, you must go! Lots of people bought tickets months ago…you can’t disappoint them…they’ve been waiting to see you playing for ages…it wouldn’t be fair!!”
“But I’ll miss you!!” he snorts, “Everything would be easier if you could come with me!”
“Thanks God I can’t!!” you exclaim pleased, “Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of reasons not to come with you…how could I bear all those girls in the first rows who scream your name and stuff like…no need to say that…you know very well what they say, don’t you?” He chuckles for a while then he kisses you pushing you down slowly with his body. He stops kissing you as soon as you’re lying over the sofa and stares at you while his hand runs through your hair,
“Don’t be jealous!” he whispers, “You have no reason to” he brushes your nose with his index then he goes on kissing you in between “You know…you’re the…only one…I want!!”
“I’m paranoid and childish, aren’t I?”
“Must be honest…I’m jealous too!” he giggles,
“You jealous? Jealous of who?”
“Um, forget it! It’s stupid and even more childish!” Forget it? No way!! You want to know that so you persuade him to speak. He’s jealous of the kids because you’ve been with them almost every day for a lot more then one year by now, because during the next few weeks you’ll be the last person they’ll see before falling asleep and the first one they’ll see when they’ll wake up.

The next day he comes to ‘The House’ a few hours before his departure and he promises he’ll phone you continually, you don’t doubt it at all because you know he’ll do it. He suggests keeping your cell phone hung up on your jeans and the ear phone in your ear so that you can speak to him without giving up whatever you’ll be doing in the meantime. He phones you from Heathrow, from Dublin airport, from his hotel room…and he keeps on calling you the next day as well and you’ve been talking even for three hours!! This makes you feel a bit stupid since you go around the house while you’re talking to him and everyone look at you perplexed and amused at the same time. Having put the kids to bed you lie over the sofa and finally relax watching telly, Chris and Shane have gone to one of Chris’ colleagues for dinner so you’re alone. But your moment of peace is very short since your mobile rings again and you’re starting hating that ringtones like mad!!
“It’s you again!” you snort jokingly, so you hear him chuckilng,

“Don’t worry, I’ll be quick…gotta be onstage in three minutes!”
“Thanks God! How long does the gig last?”
“Um, one hour and a half more or less”
“That’s a good o piece of news!” you sigh so he chuckles again then he says that Nick wants to say hi so you talk to him for a while and before saying bye you ask him a big favour, “Please Nicky, hide James’ phone somewhere!” Chuckling he replies he’ll try to so he gives the phone back to James,
“Gotta go now…talk to you later…bye honey!”
About one hour and a half later your mobile rings again but this time it’s Nick,
“Hey Nicky…”
“It’s not Nicky…my phone’s mysteriously disappeared, so could you please tell Nicky to give it back to me?” he says quietly,
“Why do you think Nicky has it?” you titter,
“Cos you told him to hide it! You cheeky little monkey!” he laughs.

Afterwards you tell Nicky he can give James his mobile back, so he says he won’t call you anymore since it’s late and you must be tired. You go to bed but you don’t manage to fall asleep, so you grasp your phone and call him.
“Hello! What’s up?” he asks kindly,
“Nothing….are you…ehm…angry?” you ask a bit worried,
“Angry? No…why are you asking?”
“I feel so stupid…” your voice starts trembling and your eyes fill with tears, “don’t want you to think that your phone calls annoy me ‘cos they don’t…I was kidding…I love hearing your voice and…”
“I know you were kidding…I know you too well…I know you’re about to cry so don’t worry, I’m not angry at you!” His caring warm voice relieves making you smile. “Are you in bed?”
“Yep” you whisper,
“Good! Take a pillow and hold it as if it was me, I’ll do the same!”

The first week passes rather quickly, it’s Saturday and they are going to play in London tonight so you’re looking forward to seeing him again. You can’t before the gig since he’s quite busy so you’ve arranged to meet at his place after the gig. Probably, he’ll be late so he doesn’t want you to wait for him up and promises he’ll wake you up when he’ll get there. During the whole afternoon you keep on thinking to go to Wembley Arena just to see him for a while, but in the end you decide not to as he said he’d be busy. When you go out the children are watching telly, since it’s Saturday they are allowed to stay up a bit longer so before leaving you kiss them one by one. Once you’re at James’s flat you put your pyjamas on and around midnight you get to bed. He wakes you up about one hour later with a long passionate kiss, then he moves his hand under your pyjamas jacket and starts rubbing your back sensually. Little by little his lips move up to your temple then go down again under your ear while his hand runs over your belly and goes up till one of your breasts. A moment later he undoes your pyjamas jacket with the other hand while his lips keep on going down on your neck and finally on your breast.

“I was thinking to pop over to Wembley Arena in the afternoon…I’m happy I didn’t!!” you moan running your hands through his hair. He gives you several soft brief kisses then he you see his sweet smile,
“It was worth waiting, wasn’t it?” You nod laughing so you kiss him again brushing his shaved cheeks,
“Tired?”
“Exhausted!” he whispers,
“Aww poor thing! Sleep then!” you say sweetly,
“Sing that song to me”
“Um, okay…you deserve it after all!!” you start singing while you stroke his hair and stop a few minutes later when you realise he’s fallen asleep. You give him one more kiss on his forehead so you rest your head and your hand over his naked chest and fall asleep as well in a while.

It’s the day of their last gig in Cardiff and you’re impatient to see him again tomorrow. To be honest, you can’t wait any longer and you don’t know if you’ll be able to resist another day without seeing him. according to Shane there’s just one thing you can do, catch a train and go there, then wait for to make him a surprise. You don’t think about that twice, put a few things in a bag and rush to the station. When he phones you before the gig you’re already in his flat and when he calls you again after it you’re about to tell him you’re there so that he can join you immediately, but in the end you don’t say anything. Afterwards you wait for him, time passes…one hour, two hours…but he doesn’t arrive so you end up falling asleep over the sofa.

The noise of the door closing wakes you up at 2:40 am and when you raise yourself up he’s standing silent in front of you. You get up and greet him smiling but he didn’t say anything. He pours himself some whiskey and you follow him with your eyes while he gulps his drink and pours another out. He looks pissed, annoyed and drunk at the same time and you don’t know what to do. A moment later he walks towards you, leans his glass over the table in front of the sofa and pushes you against the wall. He starts brushing your face and your neck then he bites gently your flesh over your jaws. The huge smell of whiskey in his breath disgusts you giving you the shivers.
“I want you…now!” His throaty voice frightens you making you whole body trembling with fear.
“J…James d…don’t…” you plead almost in tears,
“Shhh” he leans his lips over yours while his hand undoes your pyjamas jacket, “Everything’s gonna be okay!”
“Pl...ease stop!”

“Shh…be good!” he whispers kissing your neck roughly while his hands are lowering your pyjamas pants. You plead again, crying this time but your words go unheard. You’re unable to move since you’re stuck between the wall and his body but you’re aware you must do something to stop him, it shouldn’t be like this and you don’t want it to be like this. It’s not a problem of time anymore, the only problem is him, the fact he’s drunk, rough and insensitive. That’s not the man you love with all your heart, that’s not your sweet Jamie. You put your hands over his chest and push as much as you can and he finally goes away from you staggering, ”I must be totally mad!” he snarls shaking his head, then pointing at the big window he goes on, “Out there there are lots of girls who are dying to shag me but I’m here with you” he pauses for a while and finishes off his drink with one large gulp, then he takes his jacket and looking at you he adds, “It’s over!” so finally, he goes out slamming the door behind him…

The noise of the door closing wakes you up at 2:40 am and when you raise yourself up he’s standing smiling  in front of you.
“Bloody hell!” he giggles coming closer so sits down next to you wrapping his arms round you. “What a beautiful surprise!” he adds rubbing the nape of your neck,  “Why didn’t you tell me you were here? I’d have come before…I’m so happy you’re here!”
‘What the hell is happening?’ you thought. He kisses you softly and you notice that he doesn’t smell of whiskey at all, then he’s also caring and sweet.
“What’s up babe? You look as if you had seen a ghost!”
“Huh? A ghost? It’s nothing…I’m just…confused!”
“God! You must be dead tired after that journey! I’d better put you to bed now!” he kisses your forehead then grasps your hand and leads you to his room, so he tucks you in, “Need to rush to the toilet…lost count of cokes I drank…be back in a sec!”

‘What the hell is happening? Am I dreaming or what?’
He returns one minute later and lies down behind you wrapping one arm round your waist while the other hand moves your hair form off your face so he kisses your cheek gently,
“Wouldn’t you feel better if you told me what worries you?”
“Guess so…later. I wanna sleep now!”
“Okay…Goodnight my love!”

Sitting in a chair in front of the bed you’re staring at James asleep. It’s almost 7 am and you’ve already got up since you didn’t sleep at all. After having turned over again and again you decided to get up so that at least James could have a good sleep. You’ve thought a lot about what happened and you came to the conclusion that you had the worst dream ever. You should be relieved but that dream awoke a bad memory you thought you had forgotten forever. You see James moving slowly, he looks for you with his hand so he raises himself up on his elbows when he realises you’re in that chair just in front of him.

“What are you doing over there?” smiling he beckons to you to return to bed, then he leans his pillow against the bedhead and sits opening his arms to invite you to rest against him, so he wraps them around you. “You didn’t get a wink of sleep, please speak!” You say you had a horrible dream before he got so you tell everything about it and you can’t help crying while you’re speaking. When you finish he holds you even tighter and speaks softly, “Shh, stop thinking about that…it was just a nightmare…it’s something that won’t ever happen!” You raise your head and looking at him straight in the eye you whisper,
“James…let’s make love”
“Shh” he cups your face in his hands, “Honey, it was a nightmare, ok? Relax! You won’t ever lose me cos I don’t wanna lose you. Now hug me!” You immediately throw your arms round him and as you hold him tighter and tighter your fears slip away. Having relaxed your grip you look for his lips and you kiss each other sweetly, then he sighs, “You must resign yourself to your fate…you’ll never get rid of me!” You finally smile. “Here’s that lovely smile again! I’ve missed it!!”


PART 23 >>>


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