Montreal

Chapter 12 -- Montreal

It was about half an hour outside of Montreal when I realized that Jane was squeezing my hand. She had taken it, and was holding it tight, probably for the last 15 minutes or so. I knew Jane's history with the city had been bittersweet, but I could feel the tension emanating from her.

Everything had all really started shortly after our night at St. Anne's. Jane and I had an amazing night there, and I really began to see that Jane was lifting herself from the fun she had been in. It was like she was remembering the woman she was before her failed marriage to Robert. A couple weekends after the banquet, Jane called me up while I was on a trip.

"Tom, I was wondering if you'd want to go with me to Montreal a couple weekends from now" Jane told me. I was more than happy to accept. Jane continued "Every summer, a bunch of the girls I played rugby with get together. This year they're celebrating the 25th anniversary of our national championship. I haven't been in a few years, and wanted to go."

"Promise me there won't be any big surprises, Wonder Woman?" I had taken to calling her that, much to her chagrin.

"No, dear, I was merely Lois Lane in my college years" Jane replied. I considered correcting her, but decided that I'd rather not and risk ruining the chance of getting to hear about the lingerie she had bought for when I got back.

The next couple weeks flew by, I got to see her in (and out of) her lingerie, and the Montreal trip had arrived. We were across the border, and then headed up the highway for night one of our trip. We'd be visiting Jane's brother and his husband in Toronto. I was surprised to find out that the scenery had a lot more in common with Kansas than I had expected. Jane was bemused by my observations. We talked about a lot of things, but Montreal stayed on the outside of the conversation.

Jane and I got to our hotel, showered, and were off to meet her brother and his husband at a nice restaurant downtown. The conversation that night ran the gamut of topics. Intelligence and athletic skills had run in their family; Peter had gone to Queens ("Think of Harvard vs Yale" was Jane's explanation), and had played junior hockey for a while.

"I'm happy things are getting better" said Peter, "I knew as soon as I was ready to come out, that it was going to either be hockey or happiness." Their parents, despite being lifelong Catholics, had supported his decision completely, even leaving the church when the judgement of their fellow parishioners became ridiculous. Everything about Peter and Jerome I liked, and at one point Jane and I locked eyes, and I could see her thanking me, without saying a word.

Later that night, in our fancy hotel room, after having made love for a couple hours, Jane started talking. "Tom, I'm so happy that you're" and she started crying a little, which turned into sobs.

"Honey, what's wrong?" I asked, but received no response for a few minutes, until she'd calmed down.

"My brother and I didn't speak for years, because" she composed herself for a minute "I chose Robert." I held her, and she powered through "Robert was very homophobic, and I" she stopped, and the sobbing continued.

I was going to stop this. "Jane, it's in the past, I'm not Robert, your brother and his husband are amazing. I'm not jealous of Robert, but you need to stop bringing him up, because it's not good for you." Jane stayed silent. I just squeezed her. She eventually fell asleep, and I stayed awake, looking at her. I had felt the change in her mood. Going back to Montreal might have been a bad decision.

The next day, we headed up to Montreal from Toronto. It was a pleasant drive, but Jane had barely been able to talk. It was like the city of Montreal was the epicenter of the disaster of her life. The little we did talk, was just guidance for where I should go to stop when we needed to. The car was full of tension. I wasn't sure if I had hurt her, or made her angry. It really didn't matter, and if she hated me with the passion of a thousand suns right now, I'd trade that for her to just be happy. So when she took my hand, it gave me hope that we would be okay.

We got to a beautiful old hotel in downtown, where a few of her former teammates were staying. Jane checked us in at the desk, while I got the bags sent up to our room. Jane still looked beautiful, even now when she was a mess. Especially now. We walked into the room, and she went for the bathroom. I checked on the weather, did a few other housekeeping things, put our clothes away, etc. It wasn't until an hour had gone by that I realized the Jane had been in there for that long. I knocked on the door, and Jane didn't answer. I opened the door, thankful it was unlocked, and saw Jane sitting in the tub, fully clothed, no water in it.

"Jane" I tried to find the words, but saw that she was crying. I stepped into the tub, and sat in behind her. She lay against me, still crying. It took me a while to find the courage "Jane, can you please tell me what's wrong." She just pulled my arms around her.

Eventually, she seemed to get the courage. "Tom" she shuddered a little "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I've been thinking about my life" she paused to wipe tears away "and everything I regret." I knew better than to say anything, and Jane continued. "I regret being with Robert, who used me as his placeholder so that the other partners thought he was good for the firm, and" and she began to cry harder "for wasting my life." I felt hurt a bit, but it wasn't about me now. "Tom, I love you very much, but you did so much, and had so much success, and I can't stand up to what you've done."

I let her words roll around a bit, and confessed "I wanted to be a fighter pilot."

"What's the difference" she was at least not crying as hard anymore.

"We flew the F-14 Tomcat when I entered the Navy, do you remember Top Gun?" Jane nodded, so I continued "well, the top two guys in flight training got that, the next few got the Hornet, a strike fighter, and then I had only one real option. I love the jet I flew, but it's been my big regret." I waited for Jane, but she was silent.

"I regret never getting a command" I started again "and it was because of my divorce." Jane looked at me in surprise. "Yeah, the story I got was that I was a shoe in, but one of the members of the board had the view that 'a divided house at home doesn't bode well for a leader of fighting men'" I said, bitterly spitting out the line from my review. The look on Jane's face was shock, and she lay her head back on my chest. "However, I don't regret what happened the day I insulted you. Because that's how we met. I don't regret loving you, proposing to you, marrying you. I don't regret a single second we've been together." Jane just pulled my arms around her even more. Jesus Jane, I hate this.

"I wanted kids, so bad Tom. So bad." She was sobbing again. I couldn't say anything, because I knew that she knew it wasn't going to be an option again at her age. I couldn't say anything. I felt so helpless. So I started crying too. We just held each other, a mess, sitting there in the tub. Jane finally turned and looked at me, tears still streaming. "Tom, I love you, and" she couldn't find the words "I'm sorry, I love you so much." She lay her head on me.

As I held her there, I thought of her being ashamed of her 'failures' in life, of time wasted, and the thought came to me suddenly. "Your old coach at St. Anne's is retiring next year, right?"

"Yeah" she answered, seemingly not understanding.

"Have you ever considered getting back into rugby?" I asked her. She looked at me, confused, so I continued "Seriously, if you want kids, help coach the rugby team. Make those your kids." Jane smiled weakly, and pulled in closer to me.

Another idea came to me "Jane, give Robert the money back." Jane jumped a little at this, and looked shocked. "It's the money that's hanging over you. I've thought it since you told me, the money you got in the divorce is the hold he has over you. I can take more flying trips, we can move over to Windsor and get a smaller place, I could teach fl-."

Jane cut me off "No, Tom, no. You have the right idea, but we don't have to do any of that. I only got 5 million."

"You told me it was 8 million" I said, myself confused now.

"Tom, I hired a great accountant, and a great money manager. I had made 3 million by the time I told you." I was seriously confused by then. Jane continued "and by now, it's almost 10 million." I was extremely impressed by Jane's business acumen. I would have turned the 5 million into a lot of debt through dumb decisions, but well, Jane was brilliant.

"Jane, it's your money" I trailed off, but then continued "but it's not the money I want. I want you, the way that you were before Robert." Jane lay her head back against my chest. I looked at my watch, seeing that we'd need to get ready to meet her teammates.

Jane saw me, and said "I don't want to leave the room, Tom."

"It's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself, honey." I said. Jane started to cry a little, and I held her. "I love you Jane" was all I could think of.

Eventually, I had to get up, and went out to beg us off for the night, when the door to the bathroom opened before I could call. "Tom, I need to do this, you're right." She looked like a mess.

"Jane, if you don't feel like it, then" I started, but Jane cut me off.

"Thomas, I came here to see my friends. You're going to meet them" Jane said.

"Okay, Jane, but we're going to have to make some sacrifices for time. We'll have to shower together" I said, my wittiness hopefully breaking the tension. It did, as Jane smiled through her tears. We stood in the shower for a few minutes, enjoying holding each other. Jane slowly stopped crying. She was going to be okay, for now.

We exited the shower and got ready. She dressed perfectly, in a wine colored sleeveless dress that covered her skin, but showed her curves, and had me set up with an outfit that matched hers. We walked down to the bar. We were the last ones there, and given the moment in the room, it made sense. Jane was outwardly better by now. As soon as we walked into the bar, one of the handful of teammates who were there screamed out "BOOBS!"

Jane, seeing the diminutive woman running to her, let out her own scream "WORM!"

Apparently, these were their nicknames.

Over the course of the evening, I found out even more about my wife. Mainly, that she really was good at not telling me about things she should have been proud of. The true story of her time at McGill was that, while she wasn't Wonder Woman like in high school, she wasn't far off. For one, her nickname was, while obvious where it derived from, a result of her first week of practice for McGill. A senior on the team had taken one look at Jane, and declared that a Barbie doll with big tits was in the wrong sport. Jane used that as fuel, and absolutely flattened the senior the first chance she had. The nickname was proudly worn by Jane through the rest of her college career.

I also found out that she was well loved by her teammates. 'Worm', or Alicia McCormick, was the team's scrum half, and graduated the same year as Jane. Everyone had a ton of stories, and the legend of my wife grew. She had started every game her last two seasons, and only missed a game her sophomore year due to injury. Jane was also the smart one on the team, who tutored a lot of the girls in her spare time. Like I said, Jane was extremely popular among her teammates, and not just for her rugby talents. I noticed, over the course of the night, the topic of Robert seemed to be avoided. Jane was in better spirits, and I suspected that her teammates knew not to broach the subject.

Towards the end of the night, Alicia and I talked about Jane, and I found out something that surprised me. "Jane would have at least had a shot of making the Canadian national team" Alicia dropped the bomb on me. "It's just" she paused for a moment "well, Jane fell in love."

"I heard the story" was all I wanted to really volunteer, hoping to ward off the redness that was creeping in from the outside of my vision when the topic of Robert came up.

"The truth is, though, he blindsided all of us. When she was married, she was never allowed to come to these thing" Alicia said, not doing anything good for my temper. "Thank you for being the type of man who" and Alicia trailed off, seemingly unwilling to finish the sentence.

I replied "No need to thank me, Jane's" I couldn't think of the words at first, but then I noticed Jane wandering over to Alicia and I "she's Wonder Woman." At that, Jane gave me a death glare, which only made me laugh.

"Thomas, you've heard enough by now that you should be scared of me" Jane was in a good mood again, playfully threatening me with some undetermined punishment to be applied later.

I replied with something I knew would make her less happy with me "I'm not scared, I know your weak spot, or two." I just grinned. The look on Jane's face could have melted steel. A couple of her friends nearby laughed, and Jane just shook her head at me, with a little smile on her face.

The night wound down, we said our goodbyes until the next evening when we'd be at a more formal gathering, and Jane and I headed upstairs for the night. "Jane, I'm sorry about making" but Jane cut me off by pulling me into a huge kiss.

"Thomas Banner, you're a dickhead, but damn it you're the dickhead I love and married" Jane was smiling, and crying a little.

I had to defend my honor "Hey, I do what I do best" I said, with a smug grin. I continued "Jane, I want to tell you that it's off the table tonight."

Jane smiled a little, still crying, and said "Sex is a lot more on the table than I thought it would be after earlier, but yeah, Tom, I need to be held tonight."

I stripped to my boxers, Jane into her panties and sports bra, and we cuddled and talked. A lot of what we talked about involved the stories I had heard that night, but eventually the topic turned to Robert. Jane was, by now, handling it a lot better than I'd thought. I thought she was drifting off to sleep, laying against me, when she said through tears "I'm going to give the money back."

I was caught off guard a bit "Jane, I don't want you to do something you don't-."

Jane stopped me "Thomas, what you said is right. When he gave me that money, it was fully implied that he just wanted me to shut up and go away. You weren't there, you didn't see the smug look on his face when the lawyer passed the offer across the table." Jane was close to losing it again.

"Jane" I couldn't think of anything to say, as my temper was, again, starting to fail me.

"Tom" Jane paused as well, but just her saying my name was telling me that it was settled, and that she would be giving Robert his money back, and with that, any hold he had left on her.

We ended up falling asleep like that, and I woke up just before the alarm the next morning. I turned it off quietly, and at the exact moment it was set to go off, I started tracing circles around Jane's nipples. Needless to say, this wasn't particularly well received. "Thomas, what the hell are you" and Jane had to stop talking to keep from moaning too loudly. "I hate you, jerk" she said, through a huge smile, before ripping the covers off of me and wrapping herself in them completely.

I ended up abandoning her to the covers, and jumped into the shower. She managed to sneak in behind me, and cupped my balls before I knew what was happening. "Got you back" she whispered, playfully, into my ear. I turned and kissed her, but that was the extent of anything for now. We showered, dressed, and had a good time going out and exploring Montreal. I got to see McGill's campus, and saw the stadium where Jane played her collegiate rugby. We got back to the room in time to change for the evening.

That night was more formal than the previous night. Quite a few women who played rugby for McGill were there, Jane spoke for a minute about her time at McGill, and one guy talked for 40 minutes about the importance of McGill in young womens' lives. I would have been bored with it all, except for being able to sit next to Jane for the night. We held hands and talked to the others at the table.

It was late that night when we finally got into our room. Jane seemed tired, as was I. We'd be heading out in the morning, and I figured that sleep was the only thing in the cards. Jane used the restroom first, I followed, and we ended up in our underwear in bed, cuddling. I felt Jane slip into sleep, and I just held her. The feeling of being able to hold her, just to be with her, was powerful. I was happy to be able to be everything she needed by now, and I wish I had a way to tell her that she was everything I needed as well.

I was woken up the next morning before the alarm, having my boxers pulled down, and Jane tugging on my penis. She smiled sweetly at me. I chased her into the shower, where we made out until we finally had to leave.