The Fight


    After starting the journey to our rooms, we realized we weren’t ready to turn in. Ford and I found the bar located on the top floor of one of their suite buildings, and decided on a night-cap. The only other thing up here is the penthouse suite, which Sutton and Avery have for the night.


    We enjoyed our drink. I found myself ncing at the elevator doors every few moments, wondering when they’de up.


    Ford had gone down to his room after our drink, and I chose to stay at the bar, waiting until I was so exhausted that I knew I’d pass out the moment I went up. Now is the time. I’m beat, and have my mind set on bed. I pay the tab, leave a generous tip, and head out, suit jacket slung over my shoulder by a finger.


    But while walking to the elevators, yawning, my mind fuzzy from the emotions and booze, a blur of white rushes past me. At the elevator, frantically tapping the button, her garter belt and thigh highs peeking out past the short hem of her silk robe, is Avery.


    “Avery?” I ask, but I don’t know why, I know it’s her. She spins, rivers of mascara cascading down her cheeks, her eyes and the tip of her nose red. Her hair is messy, and loose strands cling to the wetness on her cheeks. Her robe is marked with tears, stained with makeup. She wraps one arm around herself and the other hand stays on the button, tapping.


    The doors open and she steps inside, her bottom lip wobbling in a way that makes my entire core ache. My chest goes concave and my spine rigid–I’ve never seen Avery upset to this extent. Emotional? Yes. But upset like this? She’s devastatingly beautiful even in her pain, but I put those thoughts aside as my son’s voice flits down the hall, calling out his new wife’s name.


    A momentter he appears and my gaze cuts to him. His eyes hold mine, full of pain and uncertainty, and then he looks into the elevator. I don’t know if she looks at him, too, but I see his face when he spots her, and the pain that overwhelms him in just a split second. His gaze returns to me, and I do what I need to do.


    Something has happened between them.


    She’s running. He’s chasing.


    They need me.


    I step onto the elevator just as the doors close, leaving Sutton on the top floor. The only thing up here is the penthouse suite, and the CityScape bar. I nce at the deck of buttons, and see that Avery has selected the lobby. I turn to her, and find her holding her face, quiet sobs slipping between her fingers.


    “Avery, you can’t go down to the lobby that way.” I slip out of my suit jacket, and wrap it around her, tucking the ends of my sleeves into her hands, forcing her to hold it around herself. “You can’t go down there in lingerie and a robe, sweetheart. And tomorrow, when this is all settled, you won’t have wanted to.”


    She looks up, her honey hair curtaining her swollen cheeks. “This won’t be settled tomorrow.”


    I lick my lips, my pulse ticking nervously in my throat. “What is this?”


    She sobs and I can’t stop the sobs, nor do I have the right to ask, so I pull her into my chest as the doors open. A man stands on the other side, a roller suitcase next to his feet, a briefcase hanging from his hand. He had the red eye and he’s here for business, no doubt, but I catch his nce as he moves to join us, and I simply shake my head.


    “Catch the next one,” I tell him softly, over the top of Avery’s head. He nods, and the doors close, and I tap the PH button on the panel.


    “I’m going to take you back up to Sutton, sweetheart, okay?” I tell her softly, stroking my palm up and down her back, trying not to take even a molecule of pleasure from the way she looks in my suit jacket.


    “Not yet, please,” she cries, jerking out of my grip, her hand thwacking against the STOP button. The elevator slowly halts, and the overhead lights drop to a dim.


    “I’m not ready,” she whispers, voice shaky, tears still streaming.


    I may have missed a lot of bonding years with my son, but we always lived under the same roof, and have worked together for years. I may not be his best friend, not just yet, but I know him. He would not hurt Avery. He adores Avery. He’s obsessed with her, one may even go so far as to say. So why she’s running from him on their wedding night, I have no clue.


    “What happened?” I ask her quietly, our voices slightly echoed from the small, confined space.


    “Sutton, he…” she starts, but her words quickly fall off, and the tears rece anything understandable. We stand in the stopped elevator for a minute while she cries, and I reach out, stroking my hand up her arm, hoping to make her feel better.


    I hate seeing her this way.


    Thest few drinks, which had settled nicely, are now tumultuous fire in my belly, making my lips tingle with nausea. I hate seeing Avery cry. It’s quite possibly the most awful thing I’ve ever experienced. “Avery, please, I can’t stand seeing you this way,” I admit, and her head lifts from my words, exposing her messy, reddened face—still goddamn gorgeous, nheless. I bring a closed fist to my chest and thump it over my heart. “It’s killing me, sweetheart. Please, let me take you back to Sutton.”


    The wobble in her bottom lip almost undoes me. “I can’t talk to Sutton.”


    I file that sentence in with the very limited information I have. Sutton ran out, after her. That means he didn’t kick her out—fuck, of course he didn’t. He loves her. They just fucking married.


    I restart the elevator, because we both know she’s got to go back.


    I scratch at the back of my head as the elevator drags us up, quietly and smoothly until we startle to a stop. The doors open.


    “Maybe I can help talk to him,” I assure her, though I have no idea what I’m walking in on. Are they arguing over something that took ce at the ceremony? I can’t even begin to think of one logical reason that would have them in this state.


    I extend a hand to her, and she takes it, and together we walk off the elevator into the cool hallway. On the floor, crumpled and disheveled, Sutton is slumped, head tipped forward into his hands. At the sound of the doors closing, he startles to his feet, blinking between us.


    We walk quietly, Sutton leading us back to the grand, ckcquer double doors at the end of the hall. Using his key card, he pushes inside, and I guide Avery in, past him. She keeps her head down, and when my eyes meet his, I’ve never seen my son quite like this.


    Genuinely worried.


    I guide her to take a seat at the edge of the bed, and motion for my son to sit in the oversized leather chair in the room, near the bed. I bring her a bottle of water from the mini bar, and a box of tissues.


    “What’s going on?”


    Avery says nothing and continues to sniffle, while Sutton also says nothing, his leg jumping nervously as he peers up at me from his chair. I shake my head. “I’m here to help. Please, tell me what’s going on.”


    Sutton pinches the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh of frustration. “This isn’t a discussion I wish to have in front of my dad.”


    I will never tire of hearing him call me Dad instead of George, Geo or father. I shrug. “We are family. And since I found your wife in the elevator in tears, I’d say your ability to solve this issue without a third-party is non-existent.”


    Suttonughs, humorlessly, then quietly breathes “Oh my god.”


    “What?” I ask, looking between them, finding Avery at least looking up at me now, calming down a tiny amount. My coat has fallen from her shoulders, unintentionally, and I ignore the sting of disappointment when I notice.


    “In truth, I’m not really sure what the problem is,” my son says a momentter, hands now death-gripping the chair’s arms.


    Avery nudges my foot with hers, now bare, her heels abandoned beneath her. When I look at her, she tips her head back, and my eyes follow, spotting a ck box, ck satin ribbon beneath it.


    She reaches back and passes it to me, and I knock the lid off, exposing a small ck anal plug inside. I look up, splitting a curious nce between the two of them. “Okay… and?” I don’t see how this toy has caused such divide. I don’t understand and in fact, am more confused than before.


    Rolling her lips together, Avery twists the lid off of the bottled water, and takes a few sips. Letting out what seems to be a steadying exhale, she looks up at me. “I gave that to Sutton tonight, as a wedding night gift.” She reces the lid on the box and tosses it aside, as if even looking at it makes her sick. She brings a wadded up tissue beneath her eye and swipes at the makeup. “I thought once we were married, we’d explore more things… you know, sexually. And this gift was to…” She shakes her head, then captures it in both hands, shielding herself from us.


    I nce at my worried son, then take a seat next to Avery. She slides into me, and I rest my hand on her knee. “What? Tell me exactly what you’re feeling and thinking. Sutton’s here. He’s listening.”


    I’ve never mediated anything before. Most of my life has been spent walking on eggshells around my son, hoping for things to be different while being positive and hopeful. When Margot was alive, all I really did was beg. Beg for her to be different, to stay home, to love me, for me to be enough, for her to… stay.


    But I can mediate.


    I will help my son and my daughter-inw fix this. I didn’t earn him back, and her too, only to fail them now.


    I’ve failed my son too many times in the past.


    I have to help now. It’s my duty.


    “I just… I love you, Sutton. And I always want more of you. The other day, when you turned me down in the house–” she shakes her head, and I see for the first time behind the veil. It’s not perfect between them, yet I’d never have guessed otherwise.


    “I told you, not in public. You are mine, for me, and I would never want some stranger walking in and having ess to things that are private.”


    She shakes her head. “Let me finish–please, Sutton. This is hard enough.”


    I keep my hand on her knee and give her a gentle pat.


    “I truly thought that once we married, slowly, you’d be open to giving me more of yourself. Exploring. Trying new things.”


    Sutton smooths his palms down his thighs. “One of the things I love about you is that you…” his eyes cut to mine, and I simply blink, hopeful that he realizes now is not the time to be shy. That his whole life is on the line. He nods his head, understanding the nonverbal cue I’ve given. “I love that you want to make love to me, with me, and that we’ve been verypatible in that sense.”<fnf980> Find the newest release on F?ndNovel</fnf980>


    “I like that, too, Sutton, I do, I adore you, you melt me, you absolutely do,” she stammers, voice shaky.


    “But that,” he says, nodding to the box, “that tells me you don’t like what… the way we’ve been. That you’re unhappy.”


    She gets to her feet and I get to mine, and suddenly we’re standing and I’m between them. “I love what you love, I do, I promise you, every moment we’ve shared has been everything to me,” she says, tears leaking from her eyes. “I just want more. I want so much more, Sutton.”


    He shakes his head. “I love you, Avery, but… I know myself. And I’m not sure that exploring things like that are… for me.”


    I’m surprised when she stands taller, with conviction in her blue eyes. “Are you saying that you’ll never regrlye in my mouth and let me swallow?”


    Shock stings my senses, and I can’t help but stare at Avery as she stares at my son, eyes wide. I’ve never heard her curse, I don’t think, and now, to be addressing such personal issues–I’m surprised. But that’s why I’m here. And I just told my son not to be embarrassed, that I’d help. I can’t let the shock of learning that Avery is sexually starved stir me up right now.


    “Avery–” Sutton says, his cheeks flooding with color. I face my son and extend a hand, urging him to calm down. “Sutton,e on. I realize you and your wife have a sex life. Let’s not get embarrassed.”


    “That’s my whole point, Sutton. You can’t even talk about it. I wanted to go down on you after we made love and you couldn’t stand hearing that I wanted to taste us.” She shakes her head, hands going to her hair, pulling at the stands for a moment. “You don’t let me in the bathroom while you shower. I’ve never seen you go to the bathroom. You don’t even get dressed in front of me until your boxers are on!”


    “You want to see me go to the bathroom?” Sutton asks, which earns a wall-rattling groan from Avery.


    “No, I mean—yes,” she huffs out, her voice rising, and this is another side I’ve never seen of Avery. Frustrated. And judging by Sutton’s expression, it’s a side he’s never seen before, either. “It’s not that I want to watch you go to the bathroom, Sutt, Jesus, you’re missing the point.”


    They both fall quiet again. “You’re looking for more intimacy then?” I guess.


    She shakes her head and roots around in the covers before she finds the box again, holding it to her chest. “Sutton, you are an intimate, romantic lover and I love that so much. I really do. But I love you so much that I want more than romantic sex with you. I want… feral, unhinged, carnal, raw. I want you to react when you see me, I want you to show me how much you love me by forcing your way inside me because you just can’t wait. Taking yourself out in the car on the drive home and begging me to suck you because you need me—my mouth—that bad.” She shakes her head, casting her shining blue eyes on my son.


    He lifts his head, and smooths his hand over his hair, his dark eyes wet. “I’m not built that way, Avery. I’m just not that man.”


    She rolls her lips together. “You put me on the kitchen counter. That was… I was so sure that more of that wasing, that you were just waiting until we got married to really just… let go with me.”


    The room goes silent after my son speaks again. “I enjoyed that, and you’re right, it was spontaneous for me. But I enjoy having you in our bedroom much more.” He shakes his head, studying the gold band on his finger. “I am not into gratuitous sex with the woman I love.”


    “I don’t think gratuitous is the right word choice,” I amend, as Avery’s face plummets.


    Her voice is so small, yet it has the ability to nearly cave in my entire chest. “I learned something about you tonight, Sutton. You are judgmental. And I have never felt more misunderstood and judged than at this moment.”


    I can’t help but chuckle, and insert a subtle truth in hopes of diffusing the emotionally stiff moment. “He’s always been judgemental, Avery. That’s not new.”


    She shakes her head. “Not where I’m concerned. Not until now.”


    More silence.


    I turn toward Avery. “You’re asking for Sutton to be… more explorative, sexually speaking?”


    Avery nods.


    I face my son. “And you feel that exploring some of these things is beyond your breadth?”


    I haven’t seen him this way in many years. His chin wobbles and he gets to his feet, reaching for Avery, but she doesn’t budge. “I love you so much.”


    Avery exhales, broken and shaky. “Answer your dad,” she begs.


    Sutton’s eyes never leave hers as he responds, “Yes.”


    “Yes, what?” I can’t even remember my own question, because a tear is slipping down Sutton’s cheek, and Avery’s face has gonepletely white.


    “Yes, I do not believe I can be explorative in the ways that Avery is asking.”


    My stomach plummets. I hold no judgement in my heart for either of them–but I am surprised to learn that none of this was discussed before marriage. I turn to Avery, nervous for them as I ask, “Can you forgo sexual exploration?”


    Sutton doesn’t let Avery answer. “She shouldn’t have to,” he says, voice thinning. “I want you to have everything you want.”


    “I want you, Sutton.”


    He shakes his head. “But you want more. You need more.”


    She stands in her conviction. “I do.”


    He reaches past me, and touches her hip before letting his hand drop. “I don’t want you to go without the things you want. But I can’t live a life of being someone I’m not.”


    “Sutton,” I start, fear clinging to every nerve ending inside me.


    “I think we should sleep apart,” she says, sinking into the bed, her tears growing frantic and wild. Sutton grabs his bag, and heads for the door.


    “Stop,” I call to both of them, though Avery is motionless on the bed. “No one is going anywhere.” Not until this is worked out.