Please read from part 1 first.
Hope you enjoy the story.
No harm or injury was incurred by any children's toys during the writing of this story.
from Part 6
He was hoping he could be left alone for the rest of the day so he wallow in his self pity. He also knew that would be a forlorn hope. The women in his life would never let him have a bad moment to himself. Somewhere in his mind he knew this was not a bad thing. Some people loved him and wanted the best for him. His last thought was to Jenny just before he pulled into his driveway.
"Dearest Jenny. Life was marvellous with you. Why did you have to leave me?"
~~~~~~
#1
Ashley was at work today, so only Diana was home when Brian entered the house. She was at the kitchen table sorting through the course information from her first week of lectures. It took her all of half a breath to see he was stressed, and she made it to the hallway door in time to intercept him. Having learnt from her mother on how to treat this particular man she held him tightly in her arms, making sure he could not pull away. It was at times like this that being taller and stronger made no difference, and even a tiny woman could stop the biggest of men. Love and concern were a big equaliser. Brian let a sigh escape as he surrendered to her, then held her in return. They stood there for a minute with her head resting on his chest and his against the top of her head. Both had their eyes closed, relishing the close contact of a loved one.
Pulling back a bit to look up into his eyes Diana asked, "No crap from you, tell me straight. I haven't all day to spend forcing it from you. What happened?"
Brian let a breath out slowly and dropped his head forward to rest against her forehead as he considered the best way forward. His decision came easy as she said the one thing his sister liked to use on him, "Spill it."
With a wry grin he stepped back and moved them both to sit on a kitchen chair, Diana ending up on his lap. Her eyes never left his own.
"Okay Di. I'll give you the condensed, you-are-obviously-busy, version. I got a message earlier from Trish to meet for coffee this afternoon. I turned up and before actually entering the coffee shop I saw her with a man, and they were enjoying themselves together. I did ring her and worked out she hadn't sent the message. I can only guess that the man with her had sent the message for whatever reason he thought he had. I said goodbye to her over the phone, as I am not wanting the drama of sharing her with anyone else. And before you say anything they were having a little romantic coffee break, he had his hands all over her and she was happy with it."
"Oh shit Brian, I'm so sorry that happened. Do you know the guy?" then in a sweet gangster voice. "Can we go to his place and rough him up a bit," returning to normal, "Might make you feel better. Perhaps Em, Faith and I can sort out Trish a little for you. just enough to know she can't two time someone without consequences," then with a finger to her chin and a look of concentration, "Perhaps a horse head in bed or something. I think I've still got some My Little Ponies we could use."
He laughed at that, which was her intent, "Thanks Di, just the offer from my godfather-niece makes me feel better. I'd hate to be the cause of injury and harm to your pony dolls, they haven't done anything to deserve that," then he got a thoughtful expression, "But then that dark green one did have a bad attitude," causing more chuckles, "I just want to let it ride and it can all go away. I refuse to let myself dwell on it for longer than she deserves. Just a hit to my pride that I wasn't enough for her."
Diana looked at him closely and could see he was more hurt than he wanted to admit, but she had this inner need to get to the bottom of things, "Could he be an old flame from before you? Perhaps you could have misinterpreted things."
He could tell she would need more information before letting it go so, he tried telling a little bit more, "I know who he is, but don't ask me about him. That part needs to rest. She definitely only began seeing him after she started dating me. She lied to me on the phone today saying she was home as we were talking, even though I could see her at the time. He kissed her neck as she was on the phone, and she allowed him to do it, even responded in a joking way when he stopped. They were actions of romantic involvement, not a relative or a stranger. I even let her know about the message to me about meeting for coffee, but she didn't believe me. After I disconnected, she did check her phone and I saw her get angry at him and storm off. I guess that romance was short lived, like mine."
He looked at his niece as she mulled over this information, and he attempted to nip any further queries before they came out, "That's enough for now please. Just bear with me, I'll get over it soon enough. Just having you here to talk to has helped immensely. Okay Di?"
She let her body lean against his as her arms held him, resting her head onto his shoulder, "Okay Brian. I'll stop with the questions, for now. Although be warned, mum may not stop till you are bleeding all over the floor, and she knows absolutely everything, down to the exact wording of the phone call, to what type of coffee they were drinking," the last said with a smile.
"Thanks. Just give me a cuddle for a minute longer if you can, I'll be right as rain then."
"Sure thing unc'."
Five minutes later she did hop off him and returned to her study material. Brian left the kitchen to rest in his room, needing to recharge his energy before Ashley arrived home. As soon as he was out of hearing Diana was on the phone, alerting his support crew of the news. Patricia and the unknown man were lucky a lynching party hadn't been formed, and that nobody really wanted to cut the head off a My Little Pony.
Brian didn't get the rest he was needing, as his phone dinged with a series of messages just minutes after he closed his bedroom door. He ignored the ones from Patricia, but couldn't do the same to the others. Martin wasn't above gloating of his success in getting one over on Brian. He read them and, to start with, he was ready to blast the world with wild anger, but then by the fourth message he had simmered. Martin's actions had been a childish tantrum, demonstrating just how weak and gutless the man was. Rather than face him directly he had gone to so much effort to find out that Brian had a girlfriend, then went all out to gain her affections. All this just to force Brian to be embarrassed. It's not as though he had made any commitments towards the woman, they had just started getting to know each other. The last message kept going on how week Brian was to so easily cuckolded. His sexual ability must be pathetic if another man could so easily sway a woman away form him. Brian had to wonder which playground Martin was in, to be displaying this low level of maturity. The messages eventually stopped when it became obvious that Brian wasn't going to respond in the way Martin had wanted. Sometimes silence is the best way to deal with situations.
He had received a few text messages, and even a couple of phone messages, from Patricia that afternoon. Curiosity got the better of him and he brought them up on screen and from message bank. 'She was sorry', 'she wanted to talk to explain', 'it was all a mistake', 'it was all a misunderstanding', 'it wasn't what it looked like', 'she was set up by him', amongst other words. Ending with the last phone call message, 'It's your fault, how could you just walk away from us over something trivial like this'.
At the end Brian had to stop and get some rest. He knew exactly what happened and why. Martin had worked so hard to bring this about, and succeeded. He knew Trish hadn't gone out to cheat on him with another man, but she ended up doing that anyway. Brian was just glad to know now how easy it was for her to be swayed into being with another man. He tried resting but his brain kept going over everything. The hurt would not disappear except with time. He knew this, having suffered worse things than this. He did sleep for a short period, his mind pulling up an image of Jenny which gave him some peace. After waking he realised that maybe he was actually getting on with life, and thinking of Jenny gave him a good feeling instead of loss and depression.
Ashley came home from work to find Diana preparing the meal. She had a wonderful feeling in her heart at the sight of her daughter helping them. A few years ago just suggesting she help with anything around the house would have resulted in a screaming fit.
They had a whispered conversation about the man of the house as Ashley was brought up to date on her brother's afternoon activities. Curiosity got the better of Ashley, she would get all the information from her brother and it needed to be aired before they ate. Now was as good a time as any so she barged into his room expecting him to be asleep. This would be perfect timing as his brain would be dopey if he was woken before he was ready. Instead of seeing him snoring in bed, she had a full view of his naked body as he entered his room. He had just finished drying himself after taking a shower in his ensuite. Brian surprised both of them by nonchalantly continuing to the bed where he had laid out clean clothes. After his briefs were covering his groin Ashley managed to speak.
