Can't Stop (Frusciante fan fic)

Part 14-They're Red Hot

A/N: Some NSFW material below. And finally, Ellie shuts up for a bit, lol! 

Greg's POV:

It's Friday, not even yet lunchtime, and my mind is already wandering away from crunching the numbers I have to crunch for the firm today. I'm seriously bummed that Ellie has to work out of town this weekend. Seeing her every week just doesn't seem like enough to me. I'd see her every day if I could. And it looks like this week, I'm not going to see her at all. 

Since Holly died last year, I have been wandering around in a bit of a fog. Other than staring at pictures of her, and spending what seems like every waking minute with two heartbroken kids, much of it in silence except for Will saying every night at dinner that he misses his Mom and wants her back, I have had almost no interaction with women. I toss and turn in bed, dreaming of Holly and her smile and laugh. Then wake up in bed alone, reaching out, and finding no one there, put my head back down on the pillow, and stare at the ceiling, feeling empty. 

The only time I went out with a woman was when a tall, pretty blonde woman called Heather approached me at the PTA meeting about 6 months after Holly passed, and introduced herself. We got to talking about our kids; her son Matthew was in second grade, the same as Maeve. "Oh,  Maeve, that's such a pretty name, sounds Southern!" She laughed. Yep, Holly was from Georgia and although I grew up in California, I had the good fortune to end up working in Atlanta, and she was right there from my first day in the office. I went out to dinner with her, but felt a complete lack of chemistry. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because she seemed to have no interests outside her kids and bashing on her ex-husband. Or I was just not ready to date. 

We moved to San Diego just before Will turned 4. The kids love it here, but Holly felt out of place. She tried talking to other moms in the neighborhood, but they showed little interest in her. Yes, she had barely turned 30, and I was 17 years older than her. But the snotty women seemed kind of Stepford wife-ish to me, except for what Holly described as a few bitter divorcees who really didn't want to talk to her.

It pained me to see her so lonely and trying to take care of two young kids all the time while I was at work. Then she started getting abdominal pain and headaches, and was spending more time lying in bed once I got home, and I took care of the kids. I finally convinced her to go the doctor, who said her abdomen "didn't feel normal" and ordered more tests. Sure enough, she had a tumor on her right ovary the size of a large golf ball, and it was aggressively spreading. She underwent surgery, then started chemo not long after. When they say chemotherapy is poison and nothing more, they are 100% right. 

Nearly 10 months of home health nurse visits, chemo sessions, having to leave her behind and the kids in the care of a neighbor because someone has to bring in money to pay the bills, ensued. It's not a time I like to look back on to say the least. We found out from imaging that the reason Holly continued to lose weight and her tumor markers had not gone down was that the cancer had come back, more aggressive than ever. At this point, we desperately turned to hospice, and she passed peacefully in two weeks. Our kids were there, but I doubt Will understood much at his age. Now they both know she's not coming back. 

Well, that was emotional to think about, and I can't let it interfere with my life. I keep working, and my mind shifts to something much more pleasant. Ellie that is.

Ellie is different than any other woman I've dated, or even met, for that matter. She instantly attracted my attention walking away from the women at the top of the hill. She must not have noticed me because she walked very quickly past me, then stopped when she found the perfect space to stand to watch her daughter play, about 8 feet from me. 

I'd never seen a woman at any of my kids' practices in a baseball cap, really short shorts, and never, ever in a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt. I stared at her pretty face, long legs, and very nice bum. The cutoffs suited her well. I would guess she was about mid-30's, but could pass for younger.