Ben - Gigi’s Bitch
I knew when we got the puppy that I’d end up being responsible for it as well. Maggie had a fly by the seat of her pants way of living, and that wasn’t very compatible with being a responsible pet owner.
The first day back at work, we left the puppy in Coleson’s care, and when we picked it up, Coleson looked like he'd been put through the ringer.
His hair stuck up at odd angles and he shook his head. “Never again, guys. I don’t do tiny dogs. The thing pooped on my keyboard. I can’t handle that. I bleached everything so many times I’m now afraid I poisoned myself.”
That’s how I ended up bringing Gigi to the school with us.
We were stopped every two seconds in the hallway for kids to bend down and smoosh their faces into hers for cuddles and I was practically itching out of my skin from too much social interaction.
“This is good for you,” Maggie said, touching my arm in the hall.
“Oh?” I grunted.
“Yes! You’re making so many friends because of Gigi!” she said with a bright grin.
I stared at her like she was crazy. I think she was.
She just giggled and skipped off to her classroom, leaving Gigi and me behind.
A gaggle of senior girls came running towards us, and I dipped down to snatch up the pup before it got trampled. Damnit . I was becoming protective of the fluffy rat.
_______
Colorado experienced torrential downpour the next morning, and it wasn’t Maggie who took Gigi out for a poop before school. Nope. She gave me those hopeful eyes and pouted out her bottom lip as she pleaded with me to take her dog outside.
“Fine,” I grumbled, snatching up the tiny scrap of a dog. “Let’s make this quick, G.” I glowered at a giggly Maggie.
The rain pounded as I stood outside. I was getting absolutely drenched down to my skin while I held the umbrella over the teeny dog as it sniffed around trying to find an acceptable place to do its business.
A dark SUV which I knew belonged to the FBI drove past me. The windows rolled down and all the guys mocked and laughed at me. I definitely heard someone call me “Gigi’s bitch.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled at them, trying to wave them off. “You’re scaring the dog.” Then again, maybe it was good they scared the little thing, because it finally started peeing– probably from fear.
“Good job, G,” I encouraged it.
The guys busted up even louder.
How the fuck was this my life right now?
Right then, Maggie ran out of the building carrying a bright green umbrella. She went to her tiptoes to press a kiss to my jaw, shocking me. Suddenly I didn’t care that anyone was making fun of me anymore.
A chorus of “Aww’s” came from the security van.
I flipped them off, then picked up Gigi and placed my hand at the small of Maggie’s back to guide her to the parking garage so we could get a move on.
On the way over to the school, Maggie yawned about twenty times, and I wondered if she got any sleep last night at all.
“Gigi keep you up last night?” I asked. I could’ve sworn I didn’t hear a peep from the thing.
She shifted uncomfortably and a hand went to her abdomen. “No,” she said tightly. “M’fine,” she mumbled. But those dark circles under her eyes said differently.
I was too focused on her– wondering what was wrong and how I could fix it for her– and that’s why I almost missed a guy with a grown-out bleached blonde hair, sunken-in cheeks, and piercing blue eyes staring at her as we walked into the school. He had to be in his upper-twenties, so I guess he could’ve been dropping off an elementary-aged student, but something just didn’t sit right with the way he was looking at us as we crossed the parking lot into the school.
I shifted to guard her from his view and tapped my airpod. “Coleson.”
“Sup?”
“Gray car. Kinda a junker. Can’t see the license plate,” I muttered under my breath.
“I see it.”
“Wanna check that out?”
“Yeah, something happen?”
My chest constricted as I scooped up Gigi so we could move a little faster. “He was looking a little too interested.”
Coleson laughed. “Feeling territorial there, Cap?”
My jaw tightened. “I’m serious.” I chastised myself for muddying the waters here. This was serious.
Coleson thankfully dropped the playfulness and his voice was steel when he said, “Okay, looking into it.”
I turned back at the junker car one more time, just to be sure
The guy gave me a taunting grin.
Fuck. I hated being right.
And the day didn’t get any better from there.
Walking into her classroom, Maggie dropped her coffee all over the floor and it looked like she was about to cry as she stared down at the liquid mess.
“You need water anyways,” I said lightly, coming up behind her with some paper towel.
I thought she’d quip back at me or roll her eyes, but instead, her shoulders just fell, and I felt like an ass.
I watched her closely as she taught that morning. It seemed like every smile was forced, and at one point she turned to the board to hide a wince as she held her lower stomach.
I wandered to the front of the room after that. “Hey, you good?”
She just grimaced and gave me a tight nod.
Between classes, she leafed through her backpack for a tiny bottle of painkillers. That had red flags going up in my head, because I knew how much she hated taking medication.
“Need anything else? Anything I can do to help?” I offered, feeling helpless.
“No.” She held her head and blew out a sigh before squinted her green eyes at me. “Why are you being so nice today?”
“I’m nice all the time,” I said with a smirk. “Where’s miss happy-go-lucky, find the light in all situations?” I teased.
That question earned me a glare.
The bell rang again, and she hid her face in her hands.
“You want to call it a day?” I asked, hoping like hell she’d say yes. “Just tell the office you’re not feeling well. Can’t they get a sub in here?”
“No,” she sighed. “We’re short on subs. Other teachers would have to cover for me on their prep. I’m not doing that to them.”
Damn. I could understand not wanting to shoulder responsibility onto others, but she clearly wasn’t feeling well.
As she continued through the day, it looked like she was battling inner demons, and I hated watching. I wondered if any of the kids could tell that she was either absentmindedly holding her stomach or blinking rapidly to clear her eyes. A surge of protectiveness roared inside me and all I wanted was to steal her away from the world and tuck her back in bed until she felt better.
When the day finally ended, I got to work cleaning up after the little rugrats.
“You don’t have to clean, I'll get the AP kids to do it in the morning,” Maggie said quietly.
“It’s no problem. Take a seat.”
Her eyes went all teary and it just about killed me. She laid her head down on the desk.
I cleared my throat. “Did you drink enough water today?”
“Ugh, it’s not that!” she cry-yelled at me.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Most of your problems would be solved if you’d just drink more water.”
A second later, a water bottle flew at my head.
The only sound in the room was the water bottle rolling away. My eyebrows flew up as I stared at the bottle on the ground, then back at Maggie.
Her hands went to her mouth and her eyes rounded with apology. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me!”
A laugh popped out of me at her shock as I leaned to pick up the water. “It didn’t even hit me. Pretty good aim though.”
“I can’t do anything right.” She collapsed into tears and hid her face in her hands. “I just… I’m sorry. Violence is never the answer, and I just… I threw it at you! I could’ve decapitated you!” she cried. “I’m so sorry! Oh my God, I’m violent!”
That had me bracing both hands on the table and dropping my head to laugh. “Decapitate? Not sure you have that kinda power, Jinx. And you are not violent.” I cocked my head to the side. “Except maybe against yourself sometimes.”
She kept her head buried. “I am sorry. Some days, I just can’t help it. It just all gets to me.”
My eyebrows tugged together. “What gets to you?”
“That I’m a waste of space.”
I stood stock-still, shocked at her candidness, and upset that she felt that way at all.
“You’re not,” I bit out a little harsher than I intended.
“Yes, I am.” Her shoulders shook with a ragged breath. “There’s no point to… to me,” she said with tears streaming down her face.
I strode over to her, right into her personal space and grabbed up her chin so she was forced to look at me. Those green eyes looked haunted. “I never want to hear you say that again.” I palmed her delicate cheek with my other hand. “You said there’s always light in the world, right? You are the light, Maggie. You’re this bright, colorful light, and you brighten everyone else up, and it’s… It’s beautiful to be able to watch you teach these kids. Don’t ever discount yourself like that again. You matter, you make a difference, every single day, even if you don’t realize it. Okay?”
She just sniffled as she absorbed my words.
I swiped her tears away with my thumbs. “C’mon let’s go home and get you to bed.” I turned to gather up Gigi.
“I’m sorry.” She let out a cry of frustration. “This always happens.”
“What does?”
She pressed her palms into her eyes. “I’m just on my period. It’s just… bad sometimes.”
I squeezed her delicate shoulders. “I know. Figured that out a couple hours ago.”
She looked startled. “You… knew?”
“You’re not very stealthy, Jinx,” I said with a wink. “And you have no reason to apologize.”
She used the back of her hand to wipe her face. “I just get in this depressive hole and say all this stuff and then when I finally get out of it, I feel so… embarrassed . Like, I know I’m going to be embarrassed about this in a day or two, but right now I can’t help it and I can’t keep the bad stuff in.”
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Life gets hard for everyone sometimes. Let’s go, babe.”
I think both of us were shocked at the word that popped out of my mouth, but I didn’t take it back, I just tugged her along, determined to take her home and make her feel better.
She breathed out a ragged sigh. “Thank you.”
When we returned home, Coleson was just leaving the bags from Shake Shack and Walmart on the table. “Perfect timing. It’s all there. Let us know if you need anything else,” Coleson said, giving Maggie a kind smile.
“Thanks, man.”
He gave a nod, then whispered to me. “I’ll be contacting you in a bit about that little thing you asked me to look into this morning.”
“Everything okay?” Maggie asked cautiously, sensing the obvious tension in the room.
Coleson gave her a smile that I knew was fake. “All good, Jinx.”
I busied myself with pulling out the food and plating it. Coleson must’ve uncovered something about the guy watching her this morning. I tried to place his face, because he looked so damn familiar. Handing Maggie the heating pad from Walmart, I murmured, “might help you sleep better.”
Her eyes went to mine. “How did you know I didn't sleep last night?”
She was standing so close to me and my mind stopped reeling for a second. Swallowing hard, I gently palmed the side of her face and swiped my thumb over the bags under her eyes. She let her head fall against my chest. I closed my eyes, loving the comfort between us, but knowing I had no business feeding into it. I reluctantly rubbed the back of her head.
“I don’t know if I should feel insulted or touched,” she mumbled against me with a light chuckle.
I let out a wry chuckle. “I vote touched.”
When she looked up at me, her lip wobbled.
“No,” I breathed out, brushing my hand down her hair. “I didn’t want to make you upset.”
“No… I’m… happy,” she struggled out. “Thank you… No ones ever done anything like this for me.” She started silently crying, then she stomped her foot in frustration. “Stupid hormones. Ugh. I don’t want to cry anymore.”
I bit back a chuckle. The way she fought against showing this vulnerable side of her had me wanting to take care of her even more than usual. “Let's just relax for the rest of today, yeah?”
She nodded and I carried our food into the living room where we sprawled out on the couch.
At some point over the next couple hours of lounging around, we’d both shifted, and she’d fallen asleep tucked against my chest. I enjoyed the feeling of her warm body pressed up against me and the way I could cage her in with my arms. I felt protective of her and the little puppy who slumbered at our feet– way more protective than what the job called for. I thought of Coleson’s warning before walking into the interrogation room where Maggie was waiting for me just weeks ago– “don’t get attached,” he said.
Yeah… I was way past attached and everyone knew it.
My phone finally dinged with a text from Coleson.
I fumbled with my phone to open the text that read: Is this the same guy?
The next text was a grainy picture image. Maggie and I were in the picture. It was us, walking out of the school only a couple hours ago. We walked right past the guy from this morning.
I hadn’t even noticed.
My eyes shut as self-loathing coursed through me.
I was distracted.
And it could’ve cost us everything.
I quickly typed back– Yeah, that’s him.
His reply came quickly: Are we telling Jinx about this or not yet?
Not yet.
She already knew she was a target. She didn’t need the reminder to be scared. I breathed in the lavender scent of her hair and enjoyed holding her a little while longer, because I needed to pull back after this.
Something about being in her presence felt like taking a break from the real world. She presented a peaceful, happy bubble for just us. But it wasn’t real. And I was falling into a trap of contentedness, only thinking of her, while someone was literally out there plotting to kill her.