Jules #3
“Stop, you’re going to make me cry and I don’t want to cry.” I sniffle, trying to hold my tears at bay.
Drew smiles slyly. “Promise that you’ll always fight with me.”
I laugh. “That’s a guarantee. I’ve been really nice lately, though, haven’t I?”
“Suspiciously nice.”
I start to reply when his phone buzzes insistently on the table. He reaches for it, typing in the passcode. I lean in to see a message from Lavinia, in all caps, telling us to turn on the news.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Let’s see.”
I stand up and we walk into the living room, where Drew turns the tv on, switching to the news.
A reporter appears on the screen, standing outside an arena similar to the Parker Caine Arena where the Titans play.
“The Boston Avalanche’s PR team and head coach has confirmed this morning that Travis Martin has been suspended from the team due to allegations of sexual assault.
Late last night, messages between Travis Martin and various anonymous women were released to the media.
The nature of the messages varied from threatening to sexual proposition, and in a few instances, the women accusing him of sexual assault.
Several recordings and video footage was also sent to the Boston Police Department anonymously relating to the matter. No news yet from Travis Martin’s camp.”
My knees grow weak and I sit down on the couch before I fall. Bailey barks, nudging my thigh with her nose. Absent-mindedly, I reach down and stroke her head.
The telecast switches to the newsroom and it’s more of the same story with Travis’s photo appearing on the tv. I flinch and Drew raises the remote, switching the channel.
I glance up at him, expecting to see the same shock I’m feeling reflected back at me, but he looks perfectly calm. Almost like he was expecting this. But that doesn’t make sense. How could he have known?
“Drew, did you do this?” I ask.
He blinks at me innocently. “Not personally.”
I make a noise in the back of my throat, raising my hands to cover my mouth in shock.
“How?”
He shrugs lightly, his arms crossed. “You don’t need to worry about that. All it took was one phone call. I want you know that I’m not going to stop until he’s lost every fucking thing.”
“Why?” I whisper. Why now? Why this?
Drew gives me a long look, his eyes wide and solemn behind his glasses. “Because I love you. Because he’s a monster who doesn’t deserve to walk around freely and have people praise him while he gets away with whatever the fuck he wants. Because he doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you.”
He shrugs again. “It’s a grand gesture.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, utterly confused.
He smiles a little. “When I was panicking that you weren’t answering my calls or texts, the guys convinced me I need a grand gesture to get you back.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I settle on laughing because I’ve cried enough already.
“Your grand gesture was running to me in the middle of a game while you were on the ice,” I say. “You’ve been benched and fined because of your grand gesture.”
“That’s not the only thing,” he says.
He walks out of the room and I clutch my head.
My mind is reeling from everything. I never thought there was a possibility that Travis would suffer for what he’s done, to me and to other women.
The head coach and dean at Mercer never did anything after I reported it and I foolishly accepted that no one else would either.
Drew walks back into the room and sits down next to me, holding out some folded papers. I take them from his hand and open them, my eyes scanning the document.
“Drew!” I gasp, looking up at him wide-eyed. “How did you do this?”
Bailey climbs down the couch and lays down, resting her head on my lap.
“I took Aunt Constance’s help since I knew they wouldn’t sell it to me,” he says. “Offered double the price than they listed it for and your parents were too eager to sell.”
I stare down at the deed to Gemma’s apartment, which is now Drew’s apartment since he just bought it.
Drew wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me against his side.
“We’ll talk to the lawyer after the holidays and get it transferred to your name,” he says.
I tilt my head to the side to look at him in wonder. I don’t know how I managed to bring my ideal man to life, but I’m glad it’s him. More than glad. I’m ecstatic and over the moon. For the first time, being happy doesn’t fill me with fear.
“I didn’t talk to you for two days and you went all out with grand gestures,” I say.
“When you find a person you love as much as I love you, you do everything in your power to keep them.”
“Is that why you fought with me all the time? So I’ll pay attention to you?”
Shadows lengthen in the living room as night slowly approaches. It begins to snow outside, the world narrowing down to the three of us in the living room.
“I never fought with you,” Drew defends. “You always started the fights.”
I shake my head, rolling my eyes. “You’re a revisionist, Andrew Callahan.”
Drew presses a tender kiss on my temple, looking at me like I’m the only thing he sees in the world.
“I’m yours, Juliet Love.”