The Scottish Thistle and The English Rose by HaylsValo

Chapter 21: Infidelity And Lies

"So things with yer Ol' Lady aren't goin' too well I take it." Michael McKeavey said as he and Chibs drove towards Charming. The words were not a question, but a statement and the Irishman had a smirk on his lips the entire time, a smug glint in his eye. He envied the Scotsman, envied his apparent perfect little relationship with a hot 22 year old young woman – that he'd hooked up with when she was just a girl of 18 and he an old man of 41 no less – and he was glad somewhat to see that their relationship was suffering. It wasn't that he wanted Chibs to suffer it was more, hell four years with his girl without any major troubles; it's about time their relationship took a hit!

Chibs scowled at that, cocked an eyebrow as he turned to glare at the Irishman. McKeavey had gone the whole trip without saying so much as a word about Boo; he just sat back, drank and talked about the cause just like he always did, so why now was he bringing her up? And how dare he even suggest that things weren't right with Boo! Where in God's name had he gotten that idea from? Chibs hadn't said a word about Boo either. He never did when he was with McKeavey because he knew McKeavey didn't give a shit.

"What the hell are yeh on about McKeavey?" he asked, spitting the words out, tone vile and almost threatening. McKeavey couldn't help but titter a little at that! He'd touched a nerve there!

"Yeh nailed at least a half a dozen blonds while with me." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders for over the few days he and Chibs had been up north, the Scotsman had dragged a fair few women back to his hotel room. Always blond, older and more than a little bit ditsy. Women that were nothing at all like his girl back home. "Not like yeh at all, girl's got yeh whipped." McKeavey added. He worked with Chibs a fair bit, and since he'd hooked up with his Ol' Lady he'd let himself get totally whipped. Over the years he nailed the odd woman or two, but mostly he stuck to blow jobs, hand jobs, a quick fumble in a dark corner. His girl had him on a short leash and the man didn't like to tug too hard on it. McKeavey almost felt sorry for him...

"I ain't whipped." Chibs spat back at once, insulted by that comment. He did what he had to, to make his relationship with Boo work and if that meant he didn't fuck whores on runs, then he didn't. And for the most part he didn't want to, normally he'd be satisfied with getting his dick sucked and a dirty call with his girl and his right hand, but up north with McKeavey things had been different. He'd been numb, almost totally void of emotion since he'd left Charming. Things were going to hell with his girl and he didn't know how to fix them, hell he didn't even know what their problems were! They had been so sudden, so out of the blue and made little sense at all! The only time Chibs felt anything, the only time the heavy feeling of numbness was lifted from his shoulders was when he was with a woman. He thrived when with a woman, was filled with excitement, want, lust... those feelings were like drugs to him, addicting, consuming and damn near impossible to resist. Especially since when he was with another woman he could forget for just a short time, push completely to the back of his mind, the troubles he and Boo were having. So when he was with a woman, any woman that didn't remind him of his girl back home, he found it impossible almost to stop until he was lying naked next to her, bathed in the sweet lusty afterglow of sex, weighted down by a heavy burden of guilt and the onset of the numbness soon to follow. And like with any addiction, all too soon he was craving another fix, another hit. Guilt all forgotten Chibs would seek out another woman, driven by his need to feel something, only stopping when the deed was done and the cycle started all over again. Now that he was going home to Boo he felt sick, dirty and guilty as sin. There had been more half a dozen girls, at least one a night in the ten days he'd been away and Boo would know about them as soon as she looked at him. She always did. Chibs was terrified that it would be it for her, for them. That his infidelity would completely drive them apart and put an end to the relationship he'd truly believed would last until his dying day. "And things with my woman are fine." He added to McKeavey, unable to look at the Irishman. Chibs didn't know why he was lying to McKeavey, it only made the terrifying feeling of guilt that much stronger, but he did anyway. He knew on some level he was just being proud, defiant. He didn't like that McKeavey had dared to suggest there was something wrong with him and Boo, that was their business not his! But on some level, he also knew he was trying to reassure himself. If things were fine with Boo, if their relationship was running smoothly, then he could just about get away with what he'd done up north. Hell, if things were fine with Boo he wouldn't have done it at all...