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Jessica shifted her feet. Her leg was hurting pretty badly today as was her back. She needed to take something soon or else tomorrow would be worse. The usual and agreed upon dosage wasn’t doing it anymore. “This is insane!” She found herself shouting a little louder than she’d intended. Additional shoppers were starting to take notice of her predicament no doubt, thanks to the snotty twenty-something and her huffing and puffing coming from the rear of the line. She took her credit card from the clerk’s hand. “I need to make a phone call. I’ll be back.” Jess said as she turned, shoved her wallet back in her handbag, and glared at the loud-mouthed girl.
She’d intended to say something once she reached her, but as Jess made her way through the line, her leg gave out, and she fell. No one moved to help as Jessica tried in vain to pick herself up. The clerk came from around the counter and stared, her mouth open.
Immediately, Myles was at her side as she tried once again in vain to rise up off the floor. “Here, let me help,” he whispered.
Jess intended to refuse his offer, she was embarrassed enough as it was, but when she met his gaze, she was surprised to see something in his eyes, something she hadn’t seen before. She nodded before he grabbed just underneath her armpits with both hands and gently pulled her up. She steadied herself as Myles held her in place. “Are you dizzy?”
She shook her head. “My leg hurts.”
Myles addressed the clerk. “Hold those items, the last name’s Ingram.” Then he turned, swiftly picked Jess up, and carried her out, parting the crowd in the process. If people hadn’t been staring before, they certainly were now. But for the first time in a long time, Jessica Clemens found she didn’t give a damn.
The long car ride home was mostly a silent one until she interrupted the silence. “I don’t understand why he would do this?”
Myles didn’t respond right away and when he did, it wasn’t what she expected. It never was. “It’s none of my business, but I’m not sure how you didn’t see this coming.”
The fight had gone out of her. She was hurting too bad to put forth any real effort. “Well, I didn’t.”
Myles looked her way and studied her face. He started to speak and hesitated before starting again. “Do you want my opinion?”
Jess stared out the window. It was a cloudy day and a light rain had begun to fall, fitting weather for the occasion, she thought. “I don’t know. Do I?”
“I guess I just have a hard time understanding how you let it happen.”
She was disappointed with his response but not in the mood to fight. “Oh?”
Myles lowered his voice and focused his attention on the road. “I assume he has complete control of your finances.”
Jess sighed. “Your assumption would be correct...”
“Sadly,” was all he said in return.
“What am I going to do about it?”
He looked over then, offering a small smile. “I don’t know… but I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
Jess leaned her head against the cool glass window and closed her eyes.
There was nothing more she wanted to say and so she let the silence fill her up. How could she have been so stupid to hand over not only all responsibility of her personal finances to her husband but also her family’s fortune? She couldn’t even recall exactly when this had happened or how the decision had been made. And to think she’d never once considered it a bad idea. She wasn’t sure which was worse—the fact that she had done it to begin with or the fact that she hadn’t known better.
Myles interrupted her reverie. “Hey, Jess.”
She opened one eye and peeked out in his direction.
“Try not to let that something be the pills, okay?”
Jess closed her eyes, curled up, and shifted to fully face the window. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
Myles smiled to himself. Captain. It had been a long time since anyone had referred to him that way.
This wasn’t so bad. Who knew what tomorrow would bring, but that day, they’d both gotten at least a few things right.
Jess woke the following morning and found that the pain was as bad as she’d expected. If not worse. She rolled over to grab the pills Myles had set out for her. Ever since the Yoga incident and subsequent intervention, her medication had been closely monitored. It was dished out to her at regular intervals and she was accompanied whenever she left the house. Of course, she hadn’t agreed to these terms completely voluntarily. There was the threat of sending her back to rehab, or to a different rehab altogether, if she couldn’t cope, a threat that weighed heavily on her mind.
She tossed the pills back and placed the glass of water back on her bedside table when something caught her eye. Hanging on a rack in her bedroom were none other than the pieces she’d picked out at Neiman Marcus the day prior. Jessica pulled herself to a seated position, then slowly stood, and made her way over to them. She grinned as she ran her hand over the fabric. There was a note attached to the top of one of the garment bags, which Jess removed and unfolded carefully.
These are on me. Get your shit together, though. I’m almost starting to like it here. —Myles
She carefully refolded the note and placed it in her nightstand drawer. She had an idea and quickly wondered how she’d missed this all along. It was all starting to make sense now.
