Chapter 12 Lennox
LENNOX
I get Violet to the car, trying to focus. But it’s easier said than done when I can feel the softness of her body against mine and her scent is flooding my nose. Even in pain she’s beautiful, and my senses are attuned to her.
She’s biting her lip hard enough that I worry she’s going to make it bleed, and her face is screwed up in a grimace of pain.
It’s clear she’s really hurting, and seeing her like this almost makes me feel pain.
It sucks, knowing she’s going through this and there’s not much I can do other than carry her to the car.
“It’s going to be okay,” I murmur to her, firming my grip. “It’ll be alright.”
“Yeah,” Rhett says, leaning in closer. “We’ve got you, okay?”
Violet nods, and I shoot Rhett a look. For once, not angry or annoyed, more glad that we’re on the same page.
I drove us to the bakery, and my car is bigger than Violet’s so I get her into it, laying her across the back seat as gently as I can.
“Can I have your keys?” I ask her.
“What? Why?”
“So Rhett and Sawyer can drive your car home.”
She nods, digging them out of her bag and handing them to me. I pass them to Rhett. “Follow us?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I get in the driver’s seat and adjust the mirror so I can see Violet in the back. She looks pale but like she’s trying to rally, and I start the car, pulling out of the parking spot.
Violet groans, curling up around herself with a new wave of pain, and I reach back, offering her my hand.
She grabs it, squeezing it hard as she rides out the agony.
She looks miserable, a sheen of sweat on her face that makes her hair stick to it. “It’s always like this,” she mumbles. “My periods have been bad for most of my adult life.”
“Like this? Making you hurt this bad?”
Violet nods. “Yeah. I usually try to make sure there’s no one around when this happens, but this one caught me by surprise.”
I frown, glancing into the rearview mirror to meet her eyes. “Why don’t you want people around? For privacy?”
She laughs, and there’s no real humor in it. “Would you want to be stuck with me right now if we weren’t fake dating? It’s not fun for anyone.”
My frown just gets deeper. I don’t like the way she seems to think that something like this would scare people off or make her high maintenance or something.
But I don’t say anything. It’s not the time to argue. Not when she’s practically doubled over in pain already.
I take the turn for her neighborhood, maybe pushing the speed limit a bit as I get us to her house. “We’re almost there,” I assure her. “Just hang on a bit longer.”
Once I pull in, I waste no time hopping out of the car and helping Violet out and then into the house. Rhett and Sawyer pull up a moment later and grab Violet’s coat and purse, bringing them in with us.
Violet leans on me as I help her into her bed, and I fluff the pillows in case that does anything to help right now.
“What do you need?” I ask her, sure that she knows best what will help her body in times like this.
And I’m right. Violet has a list of several things, from her hot water bottle to two different kinds of painkillers and tea, rattling them off like she does this every month—because she probably does.
I guess since she’s been having periods since sometime in her teens, she’s developed a solid system for how to deal with the bad cramps.
“Oh wait. Shit. I don’t think I have any of the tea that helps,” she says, making a face as she flops back against the pillows. “Or my painkillers. I think I used the last ones last month. Fuck, I also need more tampons. I thought I had more time to buy them, and I’ve been so busy.”
“We can go get them,” I offer.
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to put you out or anything. You didn’t sign up to deal with my period bullshit when we agreed on the fake dating thing.”
“It’s fine, Violet,” Rhett says, and Sawyer nods. Both of their faces are creased in concern as they look at her.
“We’d do it for a friend, so we’ll definitely do it for you,” Sawyer adds.
She chews on her lip, looking unsure. “It’s just that…
well, Andrew always got weird about period stuff.
Like he thought it was gross or something.
I guess it just squicked him out. The one time I managed to get him to pick stuff up for me, he came back with all the wrong stuff, and I had to go out again myself. ”
I scowl, imagining the lack of care my youngest brother probably put toward the task. He’s always been self-centered when he wants to be, but that’s a whole new level of selfish.
I haven’t had a serious girlfriend in years, but I still know that you should treat the person you’re dating better than that. You should treat anyone you claim to care about better than that.
“Well, I’m not Andrew,” I tell Violet. “So hang tight and we’ll take care of it. Anything else you need?”
Violet seems unsure still, but she rattles off a few more things. Tampons, panty liners, sizes and brands. I make a note in my phone just to be sure I don’t fuck it up and then I glance at Sawyer, who nods, knowing what I’m asking without me having to say it.
“I’ll stay with her,” he says.
“Good.” I turn to leave, and Rhett follows.
There’s a drugstore not far from Violet’s house, and we start there.
“I don’t think this place is going to have her tea,” Rhett says quietly. “I think I remember that shop in the square sells stuff like that.”
“We can go there next, then,” I reply.
The drugstore has the painkillers and period products, at least. We find the right aisle, and Rhett and I stand side by side, scanning the shelves as we debate how much to buy.
“Do you think thirty-six is enough?” I ask him.
He furrows his brow. “I think I remember hearing that if you have really painful periods, the flow is usually also pretty heavy. Not always, but…” He shrugs.
“She might have to change them more often. Let’s get the biggest box.
Worst case, she has more than she needs and they’ll be there for her next time. ”
I nod because that makes sense and load big boxes of tampons and panty liners into the basket.
It’s odd, feeling a sort of camaraderie with my brother right now. We haven’t worked together like this since the days when we had our company, but Rhett’s the kind of person who has always done better when he has a task in front of him. A problem to solve. I guess I’m the same way.
We go to the shop Rhett remembers next, and I walk up to the counter to ask the man behind it about the tea. Luckily, they have it, and I get a few boxes to replenish Violet’s supply.
“Do you think we got enough of everything?” I ask Rhett as we head back to the car.
He looks thoughtful, his eyes scanning the busy street while we walk along. “Let’s make one more stop,” he says.
I nod, trusting that he’s not suggesting it for something stupid while Violet is at home in pain, waiting for us. He ducks into the specialty chocolate shop across the street, and I follow, smiling a little.
We both know enough about periods and stuff to know that chocolate is a good thing to have on hand.
Rhett looks at me when I don’t argue, and I shrug, gathering some of the little bags that are hanging nearby to put selections in. “I remember this place,” I tell him, as if that explains everything.
Maybe it does. Or maybe Rhett is just choosing to go with it, man of few words that he is. Either way, we get some things for Violet. Truffles and little bon bons and a massive chocolate bar with a sprinkle of salt and chili on the top.
“She likes to experiment with flavors,” Rhett says, reminding me of their conversation yesterday at lunch. “Maybe she’ll be inspired and this will take her mind off the pain for a bit.”
“It’s a good idea,” I tell him.
If he’s surprised to hear it from me, he doesn’t say so. He just nods and we head to the front to pay.
We go back to Violet’s house with everything and find her curled up in bed. Sawyer’s there with her, sitting on the edge of the bed with his fingers in her hair.
“How are you feeling?” I ask her.
“A little better. I took the subpar painkillers and Sawyer got my hot water bottle. I’m just waiting for everything to kick in and put me out of my misery.”
We unload all the stuff we bought, and Violet’s eyes are warm and pleased when she looks over it. “Thank you,” she says, sounding truly grateful. “You got everything.”
“And some extras,” I say. “Rhett thought you would like some chocolate.”
He shrugs, but pushes the little bag from the chocolate shop closer to her.
“Thank you,” she says again, looking in the bag curiously. “Ooh, is that chili? Interesting.”
A little pleased smile spreads over Rhett’s face.
“Here,” I offer. “I’ll go make your tea for you.”
I slip out with the boxes, putting them in the cabinet with the other teas she’s collected. I use the electric kettle to quickly boil water and come back with the tea, steeped with honey and settle it on her nightstand.
“You guys are the best, honestly,” Violet murmurs. “I should be okay now.”
It’s clear she’s expecting us to leave, to go back to whatever it is we’d be doing if we didn’t feel obligated to take care of her. I can see it playing out in her head that she’s inconveniencing us by having a natural reaction to being in extreme pain.
Instead, without even discussing it, the three of us settle in to keep her company. Sawyer slides up to sit on her left side, and I take my place at her right, leaving Rhett to sit on the end of the bed.
“You don’t have to do this,” she says, looking around at the three of us. “I really mean it. I’ll be fine now. It’s not like this is the first time this has happened or anything.”
I shrug, unbothered as I get comfortable. “I don’t have anything else I need to be doing. Do you?” I glance over at Sawyer.
“Nope,” he says definitively. “I’m free as a bird right now.”
We both look to Rhett, who shakes his head. “Nothing on my end either.”
I can’t remember the last time we were all on the same page like this. And then I correct myself because the last time was when we all agreed to pretend to date Violet. Clearly there’s something about her that makes it easy for us to put aside our differences and stand as a united front.
“So,” Sawyer drawls, folding his hands behind his head. “What do you want to do?”
Violet shrugs. “I usually just binge movies or reality TV when I’m knocked out by my period like this. Something light that doesn’t require me to think too much.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“But I don’t have a TV in here. I’m usually just watching on my laptop.”
“That’s fine,” Rhett tells her. He fetches her laptop from on top of the dresser and brings it to her, letting her search through her streaming services until she finds something she wants to watch.
“You really don’t mind?” she asks, finger hovering over the trackpad before pressing play.
“I mind Rhett’s foot in my personal space,” Sawyer says, playfully kicking at Rhett to get him to move over a little. “But other than that, it’s not a big deal.”
“You’re one to talk,” Rhett mutters back. “Manspreading all over the place like you think you’re hot shit.”
Sawyer throws him a scandalized look, and I roll my eyes at both of them. “If you don’t stop, you’re both going to fall off the bed, and I’m just going to laugh.”
“Because you’re fucking rude,” Sawyer says.
There’s some pushing and jostling as we get settled in to watch the movie, but even that has more of a playful vibe than it has in a long time. The barbs aren’t venomous so much as they are just snarky, and no one storms off in a huff.
Violet starts playing The Princess Bride, and I lean back against the headboard. Her bed isn’t big enough for us to be truly comfortable like this, all crammed in the way we are, but it feels… nice. It feels warm in a weird way.
Sawyer makes snarky comments during the movie that make Violet laugh, but by the time it’s over, she’s fallen asleep with her head on my shoulder, breathing softly.
The three of us quietly close the laptop and return it to the dresser and then get up to leave. It’s more awkward than it was before, none of us making eye contact with each other as we slip out of the room and close the door behind us.
Standing in the hallway, I feel like I want to say something. Like I want to continue the companionship I felt with Rhett while we were shopping or the casual teasing from when we were watching the movie.
But I don’t. I don’t know what I’d say, and without Violet there to be a buffer, it just feels harder to get started.
So when Sawyer and Rhett disappear into the living room, I head into the office, crawling onto my makeshift bed to get some sleep.