𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐋𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 (joel miller) ✔️

chapter thirteen: comfort

Joel did his best to ignore Anabella for the next few days. And it worked for four days. When he was home, she was at work. And when she was home, he was at work.

It worked until now. And at midnight, Joel was woken up by his phone.

Concerned, he immediately sat up and accepted Tommy's call.

"Yeah?" he asked tiredly.

"Joel? You need to come to Zions" his brother replied.

"What? Why?" he asked confused and stood up.

"Pick us up, please" Tommy said and Joel immediately noticed that he was slurring.

"Us?"

"Yeah Ana and me"

"I'll be right there" he replied and ended the call. Joel sighed loudly and quickly got dressed, took his keys and got in the truck.

And fifteen minutes later Joel parked in front of the bar and immediately noticed a police car in front of it. Worried, he got out of his truck and saw Anabella and Tommy sitting there.

"Shit, what happened?" he asked concerned as he saw blood running down Anabella's nose. Her white shirt was torn and blood dripped onto it from her nose. And she looked damn tired.

"Anabella are you okay?" Joel asked her.

"Yeah I'm fine" she replied and a police officer approached her.

"Hi Dear, how are you?" the female officer also asked her.

"I'm fine" she replied annoyed.

Joel looked around to find another person, because clearly she didn't do this to herself. But he only saw Tommy standing a few meters from her and talking to another police officer. Tommy was a little drunk, but pretty upset and Joel saw blood on his brothers knuckles as he gestured wildly in front of the officer.

Knowing that Anabella wouldn't tell him what happened, he went to his brother. And Tommy was relieved when he saw Joel, "Thanks for coming"

"It's okay, but can someone finally tell me what happened?"

"There was this guy," Tommy began, pointing to the police car, which had a man in the back seat, "He bugged Ana all night and didn't accept that she turned him down. I was there with Carlos and Robert, but decided to stay a bit longer because I didn't want to leave her alone with him"

"Okay and how was she hurt?" Joel asked impatiently.

"Well at some point she took out the garbage, but then didn't come back for a long time. Then I went outside too and he stood by her and didn't leave her alone. He ripped her shirt, and Ana punched him in the face and kicked his balls" Tommy explained.

„She did?" Joel asked surprised.

„Yeah, when she looked at me she was distracted for a moment, then he hit her. And then I hit him"

"Shit, I hope she's okay" Joel replied and turned around to look at her again. But she just sat there and answered the police officers' questions.

After a few minutes she got up and walked towards Joel.

"They don't need any more information, can we go home now?" she asked and Joel noticed that she was shaking slightly.

„Are you cold?" he asked and immediately took off his flannel shirt. Nodding, she took it and put it on. He was only wearing a black shirt underneath, but he wasn't really cold. And it was more important to him that she was okay now.

„Thank you" she told him.

"You need anything else?"

„No, I just wanna take a shower. And a drink" she replied while walking to his truck.

First Joel drove to Tommy's house to take him home and then to his place. On the whole ride, no one said a word and when they got home, Ana immediately went to the bathroom.

Joel was sitting on the sofa with a glass of whiskey in his hand when she came out of the bathroom again. Her hair was wet and she was wearing her pajamas as she sat down next to him. She looked damn exhausted and her nose was bruised.

Joel was just happy that Sarah was already asleep, he didn't have the nerve to talk about what happened now.

"Can I have some too?" she asked and Joel immediately got her a second glass from the kitchen.

„Here" he told her when he handed her the glass.

Ana drank it immediately and grimaced slightly as she placed the empty glass on the table.

„Thank you" she told him while she leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes.

Joel didn't know how best to handle the situation. Ana was never that quiet or emotionless. But he couldn't blame her, she must be feeling awful.

After they sat in silence for a few minutes and he tried to find the right words, she started to talk again.

„Hey Joel?"

„Hm?"

"I guess you were right. The bar was probably not a good place after all. I should have listened to you, sorry" she whispered.

"I'm really sorry that happened to you" he replied and also leaned back against the headrest.

"It wasn't your fault," she said and Joel noticed that she was holding back tears. He sighed lightly and rested his arm on the headrest, "Come here."

After a moment's hesitation, she scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her and began gently stroking her upper arm, "It's okay"

He didn't hear her cry, but felt her movements. He wanted to rest his head on hers, but he didn't know if she would want that. Maybe she didn't want to be touched too much now, so he didn't do it.

After a few minutes of snuggling up against him, she started talking again, "Do you still need a secretary for your company?"

"Yes. And I would be happy if you'd want to do it" he replied relieved. He never wanted her to work in the bar, but he'd hoped that after today's event she would want to quit.

"I'm going to quit tomorrow. So I could start the day after tomorrow" she replied with a small smile.

„That would be great" he said and squeezed her a little harder.

„Thanks" she mumbled and closed her eyes as she snuggled a little closer to him. She enjoyed that he was there for her and it wasn't long before she fell asleep.