Third Shred of Love

Chapter 6.3

"Uh sure. Whatever you want." Marc was about to agree to everything just to make you feel better.

You felt his sudden care and decided to just use the moment.

"So, uh, I wanna apologize in advance, I might start crying."
"Maybe then you shouldn't-"
"I'm afraid I have to." You sighed. "Starting from the very beginning, I left work early cause my mom called." You paused.

Marc put his hand on your knee, listening carefully.

Surprisingly that helped you collect yourself and you continued "My mom called about my dad. He's sick."

Marc's bushy eyebrows jumped up.
"He has a heart disease and uh I guess it could've been worse, but he's still my dad," your throat tightened "And I just love him too much." You looked up in hope that your tears would dry and that your mascara wouldn't betray you.

"I'm so sorry." He confided. He moved closer and pulled you into a hug.

You buried your face in his shoulder and tried your best not to cry too loudly.

"It's alright, you should feel upset. It's better to let it out then keep it all in, trust me." He whispered the last part.

Clenching on his shirt, you tried to calm down but the tears kept coming and coming.

It was just something about the way Marc dealt with everything that made you unravel this easily.

Marc was patient and calm, he held you close to him, making sure you knew that you weren't alone. And for the first time ever, he placed an affectionate kiss on top of your head, accompanied by comforting back scratches.

A couple of minutes passed by and you finally got the ability to talk again.

"S-sorry," you said in hoarse voice. "I-I was gonna say that I have to fly to New York for thanksgiving."

"O-oh." Marc didn't expect that.
"My sister wrote to me. She said that we're having a family gathering."

"What Willow?"

You nodded against him. "Actually she wants you to meet her husband. Well," you sniffed "She said Steven, but if he's coming than so are you and Jake."
"She's married?"
"Yeah." You breathed out. "They have a baby."

"A baby?" Marc's reaction was priceless.
"He's like two."
"Steven loves babies."
You chuckled lightly at his comment.
"But I don't want to put Steven through the pain of meeting Javier. That guy is so full of himself, just like his wife."

"He's Spanish?" Marc just kept learning new things.
"Yeah Jake would love to show off his fluent Spanish to that guy."
"No doubt."

You finally felt like it was okay to let go of poor Marc. You moved off of him and wiped your face.

You noticed Marc staring.

"What am I that red?" You moved your lose hairs out of your face.

He shook his head slowly.

"You should talk to Steven about it."
"I will." You sighed. "I just don't want him to..." you didn't know how to finish without it sounding offensive towards Steven.

The thing is that Javier didn't really understand how to talk to normal people.

He spent so much time with countless modeling agencies that did everything that he wanted. He also was always used to everyone giving him compliments and other similar attention-giving words and phrases.

You met him once, last summer when you came to visit your parents.

Steven was the shy smart guy and Javier was just a muscly dumbass. They wouldn't get along, Steven just wouldn't understand that guy.

"We could just send Jake in." Marc suggested, sort of joking.

"I dunno." You shrugged pursing your lips.
"Okay just try not to think about it too much for now alright? Your dad is going to be ok, I'm sure and you can talk to Steven later yeah?"

You agreed.

"There's still a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving, so you've got time to think about everything. If you need help with anything I'll be happy to."

"Thank you."

"Yeah no problem. Don't worry alright?" He got up. "I'll be here." He motioned next door.
"Imma keep my door open." He said, closing your door ever so slightly, leaving a gap so he could hear you just in case.

For a few minutes you sat there with a small grin on your face, inside you felt warm and fuzzy.

Did you and Marc finally find common ground?