You Are In Love ✓

Verse 3

Morning, his place, burnt toast Sundays
You keep his shirt, he keeps his word
And for once, you let go
Of your fears and your ghosts
One step, not much, but it said enough

*2 Months Later*

I groggily wake up, breathing in the scent of the man who's chest I'm lying on. He smells of fall, of cinnamon and fire.

I gently remove myself from his grasp, the need to pee overpowering the want to stay cocooned in him. I lose my balance as my feet get caught up in the blanket and I crash to the floor.

I sit up, watching as his head flops back against the pillow from the force of his laugh. "Yeah, yeah. I fell, it's hilarious. Please help me up." I ask.

"I'm up, I'm up." He says as he gets out of bed and picks me up off the floor. "Good morning." He adds, his voice still husky from sleep.

"Good morning." I reply before he kisses me softly. "I hate to cut this short but I really have to pee." I say and he laughs as I run into his ensuite, throwing his t-shirt on as I did.

When I come out, the bedroom is empty and I hear pots being banged around in the kitchen, followed by a string of curse words. I giggle and follow the sounds down the hall. "You ok?" I ask, a smirk growing on my lips.

He turns to me, an unamused smile on his face. "I appear to be losing the battle with breakfast." He says before the toast pops up, burnt beyond repair and black smoke filling the kitchen. "Shit!" he exclaims as he grabs them out of the toaster, burning his hand in the process.

"Hey, it's ok." I say, taking a hold of his hand. I turn the sink on, testing the water until it's cool enough to place his hand under. "You didn't have to make breakfast alone. I could've helped."

"I wanted to do something special for you." He says, placing a kiss on my lips.

"Thank you." I smile up at him. He seems to pull away from me. "What's wrong?"

"I haven't been completely honest with you about the reason I moved here."

I furrow my brow. "It's ok. I know you'll tell me when you're ready."

He takes a deep breath. "I'm ready now." He says, taking my hand and leading me into the living room. "I have a son. His name was Jacob." He tells me, pulling a photo down from the bookshelf.

Smiling up at me was a teenager with dark hair and fair skin. He must have favored his mother, but the smile... the smile was all Andy. "He's a cute kid." I say softly, passing the photo back to him. "Does he live with his mother?"

He huffs out a chuckle. "No... This whole time we've been together, you haven't googled me?"

I blink, confused. "No. I don't really make it a habit to internet stalk the guy I'm seeing."

"Umm... Ok, this is going to be a lot to cover." He takes another deep breath. "About... 2 years ago now, my son was arrested for the murder of another kid in his class. The evidence was circumstantial at best, a lot of it being the result of Jacob being tormented by this kid. But our world fell apart. I was an ADA at the time and I was forced to sit back and watch a colleague question my son on the stand. Eventually another person, a pedophile with a rap sheet far more convincing than Jacob's confessed before killing himself and Jacob was cleared but... just a lot of shit happened during and after the trial and it drove Laurie, my ex, to do the unthinkable. she was on her way to take Jacob to get a haircut, and it was raining, and the car crashed. She was fine... mostly, but Jake... Jake went into a coma and never came out. Eventually I had to make the decision to remove him from life support and watch my son die."

We sit in silence for a while. Poor Andy. "I'm so sorry Andy." I say, taking his hand in mine. "I'm sure you're tired of hearing it by now."

"After that... I couldn't... I didn't know how to be with her. We filed for divorce and once everything was settled my former boss helped me get a job out here."

I sit and watch as just about every emotion one could have played across his face. No words are spoken by either of us for a while. I sigh. "I was 20 and at the end of my sophomore year of college. I had been seeing this guy for almost a year at that point. One night we weren't as careful as we should have been and I got pregnant. It wasn't in either of our plans, but we both agreed we'd adjust those. At a checkup about halfway through my pregnancy, we were told that our baby had some sort of genetic defect and the odds were high that I would go into premature labor and he wouldn't make it. So I carried my baby as long as I could and then, once he was born, held him as he took his first and last breaths in this world." I finish my story and risk looking over at him. It wasn't pity I saw there, it was understanding. Understanding that only comes when you too, have suffered the worse pain imaginable.