Time To Live

Chapter 24: Unresolved

She gaped up at him, wide-eyed, as he sauntered into her tiny bathroom, shut the door behind himself, and sat down on top of the toilet's closed lid. His smirk seemed to grow and lengthen, a Cheshire cat-worthy grin crossing his bearded face. "Jenna, Jenna, Jenna," he shook his head slowly and then clicked his tongue. "Such anger inside of you. Are you working on that? Unresolved rage can kill you, you know!"

Jenna slowly inched her body lower down into the mountains of bubbles and tried to casually position herself on her left side, so that the bathtub itself blocked his view of her most private body parts. Still, she felt as if every single inch of her skin was glowing neon, begging for his appraisal.

He seemed to echo approval of her body as he continued to leer. "You wouldn't want to raise your blood pressure and risk your health. What about that precious little boy?"

"Leave him out of this," she spat. She fought to avoid his eyes but eventually relented and forced herself to meet his hungry gaze. "What do you want now? Haven't you done enough?"

He considered her questions slowly, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck from side to side before donning a crooked smile. "Well, my dear, I do have a slight problem that you might be able to help me with."

Jenna was terrified of the answer and her mind began to travel to the darkest depths, but still she heard her voice inquire softly: "What?"

Ryan drew in a long breath. "After I was assaulted at your son's birthday party, it seems that my bandmates got together and decided to dismiss me from my band."

"Tragic," she scoffed, stone-faced.

"Yes, well," he grinned, showing his brilliantly white teeth. "I'm not okay with that, so I want you to have a little talk — or fuck, whatever it takes — with Cerulli or Olson, and get me back into the band."

She snorted so loud that she choked, and then began accidentally splashing water as she fought for a breath. Once she had managed to calm herself, she battled back laughter as she glanced at Ryan's stormy expression. "No. You got what you deserved."

"I would say the same about you." He winked at her, the vile smile returning to his lips.

At the coldness eking from his tone, Jenna sunk lower into the water. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"

"Get me back into the band," he demanded, his voice dipping low and turning to a growl at the edges. He stood up and towered over her as he approached the tub, and kneeled down on the tiled floor beside it. Pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head, his voice softened. "We had some fun together, didn't we? It wasn't all bad, was it?"

"Of course it was," Jenna squeaked as she tried to put as much space as possible between his body and her own. "It was all a lie!"

"No," Ryan demanded, just short of a yell. "It wasn't a lie." His brown eyes softened then, and the tip of his tongue passed quickly over his bottom lip. He smiled tenderly and reached out to touch her silky black hair. "You're a beautiful woman, Jenna, and I enjoyed the time we spent together. There were definitely moments where I thought that, in another life, I could fall deeply and unequivocally in love with you."