Author's note: Thanks to KS for editing as always. If this is your first time on this story, you probably need to read previous chapters to understand it. Or, if you just want the sex, then read on.
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Voluntary Love
Chapter 05
I stood there as still as a statue trying to take in Jane being there.
"Jane...that is you?"
"Yes," she said. She must have moved closer, as her voice was much nearer when she said, "I'm here."
"Why are you here?" I finally said.
"To ask you if we can start again," she said, quietly.
I noticed she said 'start again'. "You're here because Robert is dead, or that he left you?" The accusation that she was only here because she had no other options was clear in my words and in the edge of my voice.
"Yes, he's dead. He died a month after we spoke. I got married again. If you'll have me, I'll leave him."
ClichΓ©, I know, but my mouth did hang open after these revelations. Bloody hell, I thought. What the fuck is going on here.
"I am with someone else," I said, trying to get back control of my thoughts, of my emotions, and the situation.
"I know," she said, even more quietly. "I've had someone watching you for the last couple of weeks."
"Shit!" I said, with real feeling, "why the fuck did you do that?"
"I wanted to know where you were, how you are, and whether I would be wasting my time."
"And you still came, even though you know I am with someone else?"
"Yes. I want you that much."
With nowhere to go after that, we just stood there. I imagine we were staring hard at each other.
"Can I come in, if you're not expecting someone."
I hesitated, but not for long. I was thoroughly confused, totally intrigued, and not a little touched.
I offered her coffee, which she accepted. We sat in the living room, me in the armchair and Jane on the couch. We sat for a while saying nothing.
"Who goes first?" I finally said, lighting a cigarette. I offered her one, and she took it.
"I will," she said, drawing hard on the smoke. "Robert never really recovered. He never regained consciousness from the coma. We buried him a couple of weeks after he died. I then had to stay around London to sort things out, like the will. He left everything to the children. I got nothing."
Her voice was matter-of-fact. She hadn't expected anything, and hadn't been disappointed. He, obviously, was a genuine bastard.
"When did you come back to Manchester?"
"At the end of October or beginning of November."
"You didn't try to contact me." It was a statement of fact, not a question. I was still in Manchester at that point.
"No." Her voice was a whisper again.
"I didn't want you to tell me to get lost."
"Why the fuck would I do that?" I said, annoyance in my voice. "I loved you, and would have had you back straightaway."
"Please," she said, with a real pleading in her voice, "my husband, even though he was a total shit, had just died. Yes, you were my lover, but how serious were you? I couldn't think straight."
The tears came and I was across the room in seconds. She collapsed into me, crying tears of real pain. They didn't subside for several minutes. I stroked her hair. Interestingly, I had no other physical reaction.
When the tears had changed to just sniffs I asked, "And the marriage?"
"I did try and contact you on Christmas Eve. When I realised you had gone, I was devastated. On New Year's Eve, my friends took me to a party. I met a lovely bloke who was very nice. I just went along with it. The first time we fucked, it was kind and gentle, like him. He could make me laugh. He was thirty. He asked me to marry him in May, and we married last July."
She blew her nose and lit another cigarette.
"Two weeks ago, I heard 'Thank You' on the radio. I just knew for certain, I only really loved you and wanted you. So, I hired a private detective agency to find you. It took them a week to find you here, and then they followed you for a week."
'Thank You' had been a Led Zeppelin track on a tape we had been listening to, during one of our lovemaking evenings. She had asked what it was, as she loved it.
I just sat there still holding her. I knew immediately that I still loved her. I also knew I was falling in love with Angharad. There was genuinely no feeling of either one or the other. What the fuck could do.
"I need to tell you about Angharad," I finally said.
"Please do."