All or Nothing

Chapter 16

Gotta go now. At CFA. Can I come over later? x

Aimee stood in her kitchen, over a pan of simmering water with a bowl of chocolate above it that she had been attempting to melt, but had instead burnt, and sighed deeply. She had been completely distracted by her phone and was now a heavy mix of frustration and disbelief.

He was in the car! 

Had he seriously been sending her messages about wanting his tongue on her clit when he was driving?! She and John had been in communication since the moment John had woken up with messages that had gotten increasingly risqué. It wasn't even 9am and already she had wet knickers and urges she couldn't cure with a child underfoot.

"Is John coming today?" From where she was kneeling at the kitchen table, Rosie interrupted Aimee's thoughts and looked over at her with wide hopeful eyes.

"No baby, probably not," Aimee sighed dejectedly as she scrapped the chocolate into the bin.

She had seen John every day since Saturday, even last night he had stayed long after Rosie's bedtime. Rosie had insisted he read her a story; Aimee had listened from her bedroom, where she was sorting out washing, as Rosie cackled with laughter at the silly voices John put on and screamed in delight when he tickled her.

"That book's hilarious," John had told Aimee as he joined her in the bedroom and sat at the foot of her (still unmade) bed. He tried to look the other way as she tossed a week's worth of knickers into a pile on the bed. He wanted to laugh over how ridiculous it was that he had seen her in her knickers, removed her knickers and seen her naked, yet he still felt shy about seeing her underwear when she wasn't even in it.

"You've really never heard the The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly before?!" Aimee was stunned; Rosie's book had actually belonged to her when she was a little girl, she thought everyone knew that song.

"No," he shook his head. "Hattie would love it. 'Swallowed a horse, she's dead of course', that's so sick for a kids' book." His shoulders shook as he laughed, Aimee shook her head and smiled fondly at John's juvenile sense of humour.

"You can borrow it if you want," Aimee opened her sock drawer and dumped several mismatched socks inside. John thought he was going to have a panic attack there and then, why did she make life harder for herself?! How did she ever find socks that matched!? Now he thought about it, he had noticed Rosie in odd socks more than once.

"It's fine, I'll order it off Amazon."

For John, whipping out his phone to order a book that cost less than a fiver was no big deal. But for Aimee, it was a reminder of the disparity in their lifestyles; she couldn't just fritter even a fiver away carelessly, every penny had to be accounted for. She was embarrassed to have even offered to lend the book, of course, Hattie Stones had never had to borrow anything in her life. Not like Rosie who had left the hospital in a second-hand car seat and hand-me-down baby clothes.

"Hey," John pulled Aimee's arm and tugged her down onto his lap.

Aimee's hair was getting longer now, when he met her, it sat at her shoulders, and she struggled to do anything with it. Now, it was long enough to style a bit, today, she had it in a low knot at the back of her head. He stroked at the loose strands of hair behind her ear that had escaped the hair grips, "What's wrong?"

In a relationship built on lies it would be easy for Aimee to fob him off and tell him nothing was wrong, but she didn't want to. She liked that he could tell when something wasn't right; it fed into her hopes that this was about more than just sex.

"Sometimes I forget you're not normal that's all," she reached up and twirled a curl around her fingers. 

He laughed; was that all?! She was being silly.