Tears On My Pillow
Part 4
See Disclaimer et al in Part 1.
Dedication: to - who else? - my Geoffrey. He's my Larry Paul. I adore both :)
- - - PART 4 - - -
“I have no life but this –
To lead it here –
Nor any Death – but lest
Dispelled from there –
Nor tie to Earths to come,
Nor Action new
Except through this Extent
The love of you.” – Emily Dickinson
- - -
Golden rays of sunlight slowly crept into her bedroom. She felt his breath on her cheek, but refused to open her eyes. His lips went down to caress her neck, then her shoulder, but opening her eyes still seemed impossible to her.
“Ally…” he whispered.
No answer.
“Ally, you awake?”
“No…” she mumbled.
“Ally…”
“Hmmm…”
“Al-lee… it’s 8. We need to go to work.”
“Work? What’s work?” Ally mumbled again and hid her face in the pillow.
He gently lifted her head up and looked into her eyes.
“We need to get up. Really.”
“Okay…”
Neither moved.
“We *really* should get up.” He repeated with a smile.
“Sure…” Ally replied and smiled.
“Okay. Let’s get up.”
“Let’s.”
Still, neither got up. He only moved his lips closer to hers, and she tilted her head to kiss him.
“Keep that up and we’ll never get out of the bedroom…” he warned her.
“So?” she asked calmly.
“I’m serious…”
“So am I…” She kissed him again.
“Ally…” he took up the stern tone with her.
“Yes, Larry…?” she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Ally.” He was determined to say something serious to her, though hadn’t yet decided what, but couldn’t take his mind off of…
“Yes.” She replied with a look as serious as his.
“Ally…” He tried again, and again failed miserably.
“Yeees…?” She looked questioningly at him.
“Ally. I…” He still couldn’t come up with anything smart to say.
“You… wanna make love to me?” Ally continued.
He let out a sigh. “Yes, Ally, that too, but –“
She flashed him a sexy smile.
“To hell with work…” he finally agreed…
So they’d have to be late for their morning meetings. Who needs work anyway?
- - -
“Ally?” Ally looked up to see a puzzled Richard looking back at her.
“Umm, what?”
“I asked about the Hartman case…”
“The what? Oh, the… umm, yeah, we… settled yesterday…” she answered, continuing her thought silently with <…Over and over again…>.
“Brilliant. We have money-money-money. And more money.” Richard did a little dance.
“Who’s opposing counsel on it?” Ling asked, simply interested.
“No one…” The firm didn’t need to know – yet – of her relationship with Larry. Or at least from Ally.
“What do you mean – no one?” this time John piped up.
“Oh… there are, ya know, so many…” Ally started. It was lame, but it was the best she could do. “It’s hard to keep track of ‘em!”
Even John was puzzled by her behavior.
“Look,” she continued with a smile, “if you all don’t mind, I have some work to catch up on…”
- - - - - - - - - - -
“I’m not going over there to sleep with him… I’m not going over there to sleep with him… I’m being a very good girl, I’m just taking files over there…” I tried to persuade myself on the way there, but deep down I understood it was useless. Even if we didn’t repeat our “deed” on the couch, we would do it over lunch at my place… or his place… or in a hotel… I’m not usually one to have sex several times a day – EVERY day – but I guess the fact that we’d been torn apart for so long had its impact on the whole case. I was weak for him. I loved him, and he loved me, and we just… gave in. I knew this would change with time, but I just… right then it was the only thing that mattered. And it’s still like that. When we touched, I could swear I was flying. And it was blissful… I didn’t think about the future. Or the past. This was good. This *is* good. Better than it had ever been before. With anyone…. I can’t help but smile thinking about it…
- - - - - - - - - - - -
“Nelle?”
She looked up and smiled.
“Hi, John.”
“You okay?”
“You of all people should by now know that I never answer that question…”
John raised his hands in a “sorry” motion. Nelle looked back to her laptop.
“It’s amazing no one found out. With the speed this office carries news around…” she continued.
“Everyone’s been preoccupied elsewhere. Word got out Ally’s back together with Larry, and Elaine’s been on the tail of that…”
“This place is just swarming with news, isn’t it?”
John didn’t seem to hear the last question, for he asked something completely different. “Does the… um, father know?”
Nelle looked up again. “No.”
“Don’t you think-“
“Look, it’s not up to you to decide what I should *think*, okay, John?! Can you just stay out of my thoughts? I can think for myself, thank you very much. And I see no point in notifying him of what he would obviously loathe hearing!” she blew up.
John stood up to leave. She was impossible to talk to in this condition.
“I’m sorry…” she quietly said, soon enough so that he would hear, being still in the room.
“It’s quite alright. Nelle, you need to take a few days off.”
“Take a few days off to where? Home? Alone? I’ve seen enough of my walls, thanks.”
She looked at him again. Everything he’d said so far in this conversation had been totally wrong, but she still felt closer to him than to anybody. For a day or two, the only thing that mattered was her child. Now that her child was gone, the only thing that seemed to bring her comfort were conversations with John. Ling, though a great friend, looked at it through the eyes of a *woman*, but Nelle at that point needed to be assured that not all men are like the bastard she’d been pregnant by… the only one who could give her that assurance was a man. John.
“You wanna go get lunch?” John suddenly asked, surprising even himself.
“I beg your pardon?” Nelle was just as surprised, if not more.
“Let’s go get lunch.”
“I-“ Nelle tried to object, not because she didn’t want to, but because she really did have work to do.
“C’mon, let’s go.” He reached across her desk and grabbed her hand. Standing up, she suddenly realized this was going be the best therapy for her anyone could think of. They’d made mistakes before, they’d hurt each other time after time after time, but they were both determined to avoid those mistakes in the future.
- - -
“On this sweet Sunday
And into Monday
Your arms wrapped around me
Well my love has found me
Has finally found me
But am I really free?” – “Read Your Mind”
- - -
As Ally & Larry rhythmically swayed their hips to the Bar music (alongside John & Nelle, who were doing the same, and obviously enjoying each other’s company very much), Richard joined Elaine, Mark & Renee at a table in the corner.
“Look at them… *Both* of them…” Elaine said, adoration in her eyes.
“They’re happy. Which is good…” concluded Richard. “Happiness equals productivity. Productivity equals money.”
“All this while, we were so occupied with the inside scoop on Ally’s adventures…” Elaine added, astonished. “And we managed to overlook John & Nelle hitting off… How could we?”
“Beats me…” Richard replied, sipping a martini.
“No, seriously, Richard… If this keeps up, we could stop noticing EVERYTHING…” Elaine realized.
“Yeah, but there’s a certain pleasure in not knowing, isn’t there? I mean, knowing everything in advance bitters the joy of finding out…” Richard noticed Ling by his side. “Carrot stick, care for a dance?”
“My feet are tired today, Richard…” Ling proclaimed, though later softened… “Okay… a little one…”
“Itsy-bitsy…” Richard signaled with his fingers, and they walked out onto the dance floor.
“Hey guys…” Ally came up to the table, Larry in tow, to say her goodbyes to the rest of the gang.
All three smiled in perfect synchrony.
“We’re gonna head home… catch a movie on HBO or something… ”
Elaine thought.
“When should I plan on intruding?” Renee asked.
“Never…” answered Larry with the sweetest smile he could manage.
Ally flashed a happy smile.
“Sometimes I just wanna slap them…” Renee turned to Elaine.
“I know…” Elaine agreed, watching them walk out, his hand around her waist, her head on his shoulder. There was just something so perfect about them, something that made them stand out from ordinary couples. It certainly took her a long time, but it just could be that Ally had found the man of her dreams.
Or at least he came pretty damn close.
- - - THE END OF THE WHOLE DARN THING - - -