About six weeks later:
Derek called Jen on her cell phone, "Jen, I can't make it Saturday night."
"Saturday night is OUR night. You're coming over. Period."
"No."
"Look. I have Saturday afternoon sex because of you. Patrick hates that I can't go out with him on Saturday nights, but that night isn't free for anyone else but you. So he and I have sex when it's daylight on Saturdays. Not optimal. Good, but not ideal. But it's what we do because you and I share Saturday nights. You can't blow me off, Derek. Just bring your mopey ass over."
"I can't."
"Unless your plans involve another woman, you're not getting off the hook."
"They do."
"What? Who?"
Derek said nothing. The silence drove Jen crazy. "Is it one of the nurses? Because you need sex, Derek."
"No. No sex."
"Why go out if there won't be any sex?"
"Jen, you sound like a wh***--not a shrink."
"Shut up and answer me, Derek."
"There won't be sex. There can't be sex."
"Explain to me why there won't be sex. How can you know that already? Is she jail bait?"
"No......she's Meredith."
"What???!!!!!"
Derek started explaining, "She.........she called. She's coming out. She wants to talk to me."
"Oh, God, Derek. Do you think?"
"No. She's married. She's coming out to deal with something at the nursing home where her mother was. This is just incidental."
"You don't have to see her, you know."
"Yeah......like that's an option."
"Well it would be a step toward self-preservation. You've started to heal a little bit. You're not over it but you're moving through the pain. What if seeing her just rips you apart again?"
"I'll be fine."
"Yeah. That's so what happened last time you said that. When's she coming?"
"Saturday."
"Well I'll keep Patrick on notice that I might have to ditch him--all you have to do is call, OK? Or do you want me to come with you?"
"No. I don't trust you not to kidnap her and make her divorce her husband."
"And the problem with that would be??"
"Free will, Jen. It's called free will...that and children not needing their families ripped apart. I have to respect her vows.....her choice."
"OK. But I'm nervous about this."
"Me, too."
YOU ARE READING
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
FanfictionThis story had a beginning. But we're no longer at the beginning of the story. Instead, we join a story that's already in progress--one that has evolved over time without the benefit of our watching its events unfold. Given the fact that we're jumpi...
