No Ordinary Love - The Journey

Tough Love

S13. Ep 2. Ride The Blade.

Damon lied to Stella... So did Kelly.

Fallout? Is she mad? Well...erm....yeah....she is...

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Stella was in a mood. A bad one, so she had hit the gym straight after work. There was a whole load of pent-up aggression that she needed to get rid of to stop herself from hunting down Damon and tearing strips out of him. Or out of her husband. Or the way she felt right now, maybe even both of them at the same time.

She hit the punching bag again and again, cursing under her breath, the sweat rolling into her eyes, blinking her eyes to get rid of it. Damn that felt better... but also it didn't.

Her P.T. instructor, Josh, let go of the bag and stepped back in exaggerated fear.

"Tough shift, huh?"

"Yeah... you could say that." Stella was out of breath and exhausted. She'd been here one hour and 45 so far, working with him on body weight exercises, until she was flat out but afterwards insisted on the punching bag, her gym gear drenched but still not letting up. She needed this.

"Kelly o.k?" Josh held into the bag and
Stella hit it again.

She knew that by staying here longer, she was just putting off going home and facing the inevitable post mortem on Damon. Yeah, Damon, who had become a thorn in her side, pulling her conscience in all different directions, and it wasn't a feeling she was good with.

"He's great....just great." Punch.

Josh grinned, his perfect white teeth gleaming in his tanned face. "O.k... enough for today..... You're pushing yourself into excessive workout."

Stella's face dropped. "Ten more minutes?" But she knew that he was right, her shoulders were burning, and her hands were equally begging her for a break.

"I'm sure there's other ways of letting off that excessive steam...at home."
Josh suggested with an arch of his brow, letting go of the punching bag and helping Stella out of the gloves.
Stella was one of his favorite clients, loving her honest zest for her life, her career, but most of all, her husband. But today, he sensed discord.
He really hoped they'd work out whatever it was quickly because last year had been damn hard on them.

"Yeah..maybe.." Her face was still grim, thinking the last thing she was planning on doing was to let that husband of hers seduce her out of her pissed off mood with him, using that puppy dog expression he adopted when he knew he'd fucked up.

And when she returned home, his smile was as expected, uncertain and hesitant, looking up from the kitchen counter where he was unpacking grocery supplies.

Kelly had been to the store and picked up dinner, thinking maybe he could fix her something special tonight to say how sorry he was for lying about Damon to her. That is if she was back talking to him by then, because from her brooding expression right now, first signs weren't looking positive.

Keeping Damon at the firehouse had been a sentimental decision on his part, one he thought he could handle but in truth it had left him unable to circumvent their working relationship, and that uncertainty had led to this. A wife who was spitting mad at him and the realization that he couldn't let his newly formed bond with Damon come between him and Stella. He'd always known how to manage his company and other trucks if needed, and it had never given him any real issues, pulling people up. Yeah, sure, he'd crossed some lines himself in his time, but this time Stella was involved, and her understandable disappointment and subsequent anger at him had left him guilty and ashamed. He'd let his allegiance towards Damon, make him act out of character towards Stella, and he wasn't okay with that.