Hold Me Close & Don't Let Me Fall ✓

Chapter 8

"Sunny needs me to cover for him again tonight." I say one Friday morning, as I'm getting dressed. "I thought maybe Roberta could watch Mary and you could come hang out, have a few drinks and then we could come home and enjoy the empty apartment?" I ask.

"And what would you have in mind for after?" he responds, coming up behind me and removing the bra I had just put on. I moan as he kisses my neck.

"Frank, you're going to make me late." I whine.

"Then you better work out a good excuse for Ferg because I'm not letting you leave until I've fucked you senseless." he says as he walks me back to our bed and pushes me down. He removes my jeans, my panties going with them, and brings a hand down, running a finger up my slit, moaning when he felt how wet I was. My back arched as I tried to get more friction but he just gently pushed me down.

"Patience is a virtue Georgia. Surely you don't want me to stop." I shake my head, groaning when he pulls his hand away. "Your words, love. You know how this works at this point. You gotta tell me what you want or I'll stop."

"Please don't stop, sir." He smirks, pumping me with his fingers, growling out as I came in his hand.

"Good girl," he says as he wipes his hand on a towel I had left by the bed from showering, before removing his pants and thrusting into me, causing us both to moan out. He was merciless in his attempt to get to me scream so loud the neighbors could hear, pounding me into our bed, until I was nothing more than a moaning, formless mess.

...

"I can't believe you made me late this morning." I admonish him as he takes his usual stool at the bar that night.

"I don't remember hearing you complain." He laughs.

"Well you wouldn't. But I had to use feminine problems as my excuse with Ferg and I think we both wanted to die." He laughs at me again and I find myself joining in. My eyes are drawn to the door as someone comes in, someone who looks so out of place in a bar it's almost comical. "Umm... Mary's teacher is here," I say subtly pointing in her direction.

She sees us and makes her way over. "Play nice," Frank warns me.

"I make no promises." I whisper as she walks up. 

She taps him on the shoulder. "Do you know who I am?" I scoff.

Frank gives me a look before responding, "Hey! Mary's teacher... Bonnie."

"You lied to me... You both did." She accuses us, turning to face me too.

"Ok," he says sassily. "Can you narrow it down?"

"I'd like to know the truth about Mary, my student, your niece." she says.

"Shit... Stacey, I'm taking my break." I say, leaning over to the other bartender. She waves me off. I grab another beer for Frank and one for myself. "Do you want anything?" I ask her.

"No. Thank you though." I nod and lead the way to a quiet booth in the back. I slid in and Frank got in next to me, an arm coming up to wrap around my shoulder, his ring clearly on display. She handed us an advanced math worksheet she made up for Mary. I chuckled a little when I saw they were all correct.

"I was running ridiculously late, for our proposal dinner, although she didn't know that's what is was," he says, nodding his head in my direction. I give him a sad smile. That was simultaneously the best and worst night of my life. "Diane and Mary had been staying with us. I had run home real quick to drop my stuff and grab the ring. She stopped me as I was running out the door, wanted to talk. That she needed to talk. I told her Georgia and I would talk to her when we got back. I worried showing up late to dinner would cause her to say no. I was already convinced that she was way out of my league."

A fresh wave of guilt washed over me. It really was my fault that she killed herself. I felt Frank grab my hand and shake his head, reading my mind. "We came home that night and Mary was on the couch, Diane nowhere to be found. She never would've left the baby alone. Frank went to check the house. He found her on the bathroom floor." I finish.

"I mean there was no way we could've known, but... We should've known." Frank adds. I frown. I should've known. I was supposed to be her best friend. "Six and a half years later, Mary and us are still hanging out."

"And what about the father?" she asks.

I huff out, angrily. "He was a piece of shit."

"What Georgia is trying to say is that Diane was so socially awkward, she didn't date enough to know a good guy from a bad guy. This particular guy didn't last a month."

"Yes, because he was a piece of shit."

"And no grandparents?" What was she playing at?

Frank shakes his head. "Dad died when I was eight. My mom... short version is, she turned her back on Diane when she got pregnant." There are very few people on this earth that I loathe as much as Evelyn Adler. 

"Why?" Bonnie asks.

"Because it didn't fit into her master plans for everyone. Much like Frank's engagement to me." I add. 

"She's an exacting woman, my mother. Uncompromising, very British." he explains.

"Do you mean British in demeanor or..."

"No, like she's from England."

"Plus Diane had already decided that, should anything happen to her, I as Mary's godmother, was to stop in so their mother wouldn't get her." I add.

She sighs, "So Mary is a genius?"

Frank gives her a look as if to say no shit. So that's who was teaching the kid bad habits, I should've known. I go back to the bar, closing out the night before shutting the place down and we go home. getting in bed and just hoping we didn't just screw the pooch by bringing yet another person into the circle of trust.