Taming of the Tom

Chapter 5

He walks back over, his perfect smile softening his face.

"Thank you," I say as he hands me my coffee. "I'm sorry for how I acted, I can-"

"Look, it's my fault. I came across too strong and I-"

"No. You didn't. It's nice, I mean I was shocked to hear a compliment. I don't usually get those from men. It's nice." I look down, surprised those words came out of me. I realise that what I've said is the truth.

"Well that's good then." He smiles at me. "I don't understand," he says after a minute or so. "That man, he approached you. I don't believe that men don't give you compliments - what I said was true."

"They don't. Well, I guess I may have switched them off. I usually ignore people I don't know."

"Why?"

"Because... You don't want to hear it. I barely know you, you'd find it annoying or something."

He looks puzzled. "Tell me. I want to understand, - I won't find it annoying."

"Well, okay. My parents got a divorce when I was very little, about five or six. And...well...my mother left us. I had to hear from mutual friends of my mother and father that they suspected she was in an abusive relationship. This guy she'd met off the street. I never found out anything else, until about 10 years later. 

"I was dating this boy, he was about seventeen, and I met him near the skate park around my school. He didn't go to my school. Well, this boy began to spend a lot of time with me, skating up to my house and so on, and one night we went to the park together and he kissed me, right on the cheek. Then on my neck, and my shoulder, and it felt strange. I told him to stop, because I thought I could trust him, and he said yes, but only if I would come to his house.

"So I did, because I was curious to what his house might be like. He walked me in and started to call me 'hot' and 'pretty' and 'fine' and I liked it. No one had ever called me those things before. He took me up to his room, and I looked around at his collection of skate things and his collectibles, but then he said: "No kissing, right?" I nodded, but then he pulled my school skirt up and-"

I stop. "You can guess the rest." Tom nods. "Afterwards, I went downstairs to leave and I saw a framed photo of him, a large man who I assumed was his father, and...my mother." His eyes widen and he puts his hands on the table, enabling him to slightly lean over. "Sorry you had to hear all of that," I add. 

"I did say it was okay for you to tell me. I'm just sorry you had to go through that."

"Don't be. He wasn't you. And that's why I shouldn't have been so rude to you before."

"I understand now."

"Thank you." I run my hands through my hair. "Gosh, I've only told one other person that before."

He laughs, breaking the ice. "I'm glad you could confide in me."

"Me too."

After talking about other, lighter subjects, we part and exchange numbers.

Thanks for a great day. T x

Thank you. I hope we can do it again sometime. J x

Sometime soon x

I walk into the bookshop, feeling light and happy, but nervous to speak to him again. 

I hoped you liked this chapter - it revealed why Jennifer is so guarded. We might get to see those guards being lifted as a result of Tom, you never know ;)

Thanks again for reading - I know I say this every chapter, but seeing the reads go up and up makes my heart flutter a little. I'm sure if I saw comments or reviews, I'd burst with happiness.

The next chapter is a little more plot build up, so please be patient with me :) If you wait a little more, you'll get a VERY good bit with Tom. 

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