Blooming (11 page)

It was hard
to watch the look of utter hopelessness on his face as he left.

As the second
week started Sean brought down fabrics and sketches he’d made for Jen, and
although it killed her to do it, in the hopes that it would engage Lily she
allowed Sean to drape her in brightly coloured satins, silk and lace - pinning
and poking her until she felt like screaming.

She played
her part with good grace though, and they played music at full belt as she
strutted up and down the living room as if her heart was actually in it. The
boys taking turns to be her male model escort.

That was the
first time since the rape when anyone saw Lily smile.

When using
Jen as a catalyst for getting Lily to respond seemed the only way for her to
make progress, the three guys dragged them both out on a shopping trip. And
while Todd took his sister for coffee - her hands shaking the entire time, Jen
had to endure Sean and Sebastian choosing an armload of new lingerie for her to
try on.

When Todd and
Lily met back up with them it was to find the three of them having a knock down
drag out argument over whether Jen required chicken fillets or gel inserts
neither of which she had any intention of buying. “What happened to my breasts
being the perfect size for my frame?” she was heard yelling at Sean.

The stress
the whole thing caused Jen was almost worth it for the brief upturn in Lily’s
mood.

There had
been no spare time for Todd and Jen to be alone or talk, and she felt him
distancing himself from her - even while he seemed to join in any of Sean and
Seb’s schemes. But she was ok with that because she was struggling to cope
without any sexual innuendo going on.

After two
weeks Lily was physically almost healed and managing to make herself breakfast
at least without prompting, but Jen was absolutely exhausted from the physical
demands of trying to prop her up and work at the same time.

Sean and Seb
came down from their latest visit with the girls where they’d left Jen asleep
on her computer keyboard and tore into Todd.

“Todd it’s time
you took Lily home, Jen can’t take much more of this,” Sean began.

“He’s right
Todd, she generally has a challenge on her hands keeping herself going, but the
stress of helping Lily too, well it was ok for a while but enough’s enough.”

Todd scowled.
Because he’d left it far too long without telling his parents, he now felt very
apprehensive about dealing with the consequences and knew he’d been a shit,
selfishly using Jen while knowing she was struggling.

A part of him
knew he had actually been punishing Jen for what had happened, trying to excuse
himself for taking his eye off the ball.

“Todd have
you looked properly at Jen lately, she’s got saddlebags under her eyes, and
there is almost two inches less of her than when I first managed to measure her,
Lily is looking better than her now, it’s like that girl has poured every bit
of her mind and soul into Lily and she’s got nothing left. She needs some space
and you shouldn’t need that pointing out to you.”

****

Todd left his
apartment and went upstairs, he knocked quietly and Lily opened the door. The
stilted brief hug she gave him showing she was clearly still not at ease with
him, and then he really did get disgusted with himself because she reminded him
so much of Jen and it hit him that Jen had been living with this kind of
painful insecurity for years.

He pulled his
sister closer to his chest, and spoke into her ear, “Lily gather up your
things, we’re going home. It’s time to deal with all this properly.” He
released her and then looked for Jen; she was where Sebastian had said, asleep
at her computer - knotty hair matted to her head. The picture of pale exhaustion.

Jen awakened with
a stretch and a self conscious smile as a familiar and comforting set of arms,
scooped her up and carried her through to her bedroom. She turned in to the
hollow of his throat and breathed in deeply, smelling Todd’s familiar scent. With
no little surprise she realised she truly had missed being so close to him and
it was nice to be without fear of it, that sensation was new and a little bit
thrilling.

He tenderly
placed her in the bed Lily had been occupying and kissed her eyebrow, her temple
and the line of her throat. She had grid patterns on her face from the
keyboard.

Todd was
bereft, how could he have been so stupid? It shocked him how slight Jen had
become. He’d used her to try and fix Lily, and really as the days went on he
knew he’d simply been stalling the moment he’d have to admit to his parents how
he’d failed, and he felt deeply ashamed of himself.

He drew the covers
up over Jen and leant over her stroking her cheek to wake her again before he
told her he’d see her in a few days. She smiled at him not really taking in his
words just feeling the faint stirrings that things might be about to turn for
the better again.

When Jen
turned over in the bed to get more comfortable, he began gathering up the few
belongings of Lily’s that he could see, and then he cast a final look at her
before he left the room. She’d pulled the covers up over her face so only her
wild hair was visible on the pillow.

When he came
home he was going to make sure everything was different.

****

In the finish
Todd was away for ten days. He called Jen a handful of times just to say his
parents had taken it better than he’d hoped - although they were pretty furious
he’d not told them immediately. They’d all done plenty of crying and talking,
but he thought Lily was doing better for being with her mom and they’d found a
therapist for her.

Todd said
little about anything to do with the two of them other than to say he missed
her and hoped she was eating better. He always sounded embarrassed to be
disturbing her which was weird.

Jen spent
most of her time catching up on sleep and work. On several nights Sean and Seb
invited themselves over to cook dinner for her, and regaled her with tales of
their debauched single days. The third time they came to dinner Sean broached
the topic that had been bugging him for ages.

“Jennifer,
are you ever going to take the time to sort out your appalling lack of personal
grooming?” he said bluntly, even Seb gasped.

Jen who was
smart enough to have seen this confrontation coming weeks ago, was ready to
defend herself.

“Sean I do as
much grooming as I need to do, ok my hair needs cutting but it’s hard to find
anybody who can properly cut curly hair.”

“And what
about the fact you go around with more beard on your legs than Todd can grow in
a week?”

At that she
did spit out the mouthful of wine she had in her mouth, “how the hell do you
know that?”

“Because my
muse I have twice seen you have the nerve to wear three quarter jeans without
attending to matters.”

Jen was
starting to get really mad; she only wore those jeans in the privacy of her own
home when she was down to her last pair of trousers before laundry day. It
wasn’t her fault nobody gave her any peace anymore.

“What’s going
to happen the day Todd really puts the moves on you - are you just going to
say, hang on you gorgeous walking sex bomb, I need to spend three hours
exfoliating and waxing before you can come near me?”

“No it’s not
going to come to that.”

Even placid
Seb jumped in then, “I’ve got news for you Jen it’s going to happen and if
you’re prepared when it does you’ll feel a hell of a lot better about it.”

“Look you two
just because you’re gay it does not mean I have to feel comfortable discussing
my non sex life with you. For all you know I might be cultivating that leg hair
precisely to put Todd off.”

“No my
darling,” Sean disagreed. “You’ve just completely given up on thinking of
yourself as a desirable female, and before Todd comes back Seb and I have
decided we are going to ensure, at the very least, that you are de-were wolfed!”

Jen
spluttered temporarily lost for words. Seb leaned over and put a hand on hers,
“we’re taking you out tomorrow. I have a client with a fabulous salon and we’re
going to have you pampered top to toe. Unfortunately the hairdresser we have in
mind for you is on vacation at the moment, so the hair will have to remain for
the time being, but I promise you’ll feel like a million dollars.”

Sean couldn’t
help himself, “but I’d stock up on some wine and aspirin if I were you, because
it’s going to take a shit load of wax.”

Jen was about
to unleash a storm of curse words on his head when Seb cut in, “Jen before you
murder him I think it’s time we showed you something.”

Sean beamed
wickedly at her and they dragged her upstairs to their place. She walked into
their living room where there was a garment bag hanging from the curtain rail.
“Oh” she said.

“Come closer
said the spider to the fly,” Seb quoted cheekily, “come on open it up, I’m
dying to see what you think.”

With shaky
fingers Jen opened the bag; “oh,” she said again, “I didn’t know it was
possible to fall in love with a dress.”

“That waxing
seems like a better idea now doesn’t it babe?”

****

The next day
passed in a surreal blur for Jen. Sean and Seb picked her up at ten and whisked
her to the “Bliss in Bloomington Spa” where she was shown to a private
treatment room. At that time in the morning she felt shy accepting a glass of
bubbly but accepted purely of course for preventative pain relief slash Dutch
courage. She suspected as a guest of the boys, she was getting special
treatment, and was further relieved when her beautician was the least over the
top glamorous and most friendly.

Firmly rejecting
Sean’s idea that he personally supervise her waxing, she had her underarms and
full legs done. Then she grudgingly had to ask for their input over what to do
with her bikini line as she didn’t have a clue about the technical names.

For some
reason a Brazilian with a landing strip was the way to go. She hoped not to
ever do it again that’s for sure, unfortunately for her she grew body hair as
well as she did the hair on her head.

After they
took her to lunch at a cafe next door, she had to return to have her eyebrows
and upper lip threaded, then Sean tried to convince her to wax her arms which
she flat out refused saying, “for god’s sake even women are supposed to have
hair on their arms.”

By the end of
the afternoon she hardly knew herself and as painful and awkward as she’d found
the whole thing she was proud of herself for surrendering to the experience. She
also couldn’t believe how nice her skin looked now, smooth and sleek, almost
pretty.

Sean’s mobile
rang as they were ready to go home, it was Todd - he was coming home tomorrow
night, but Lily was going to stay on for a while.

Jen sucked in
a breath. Anticipation, terror and excitement stirred - what was going to happen
now?

****

The next day
came and Jen buried herself in work, she was almost back on track thank god. Nervous
energy had her absolutely wired, she wanted to see Todd so much. She’d missed
him however much he triggered things she wasn’t comfortable with yet.

As the clock
neared 11pm and she wasn’t sure what was happening there was a knock on the
door, her heart skipped and she flew to the door, only to greet poor Sebastian
with a disappointed frown.

“Sorry honey,
Todd just called, he had car trouble on the way and he has to wait for a
replacement hire car. He’s not going to be here until the early hours.”

She took the
news on the chin with a vague amount of relief, “thanks Seb.”

“We’ve
persuaded him to put off seeing you until tomorrow night,” he said with a glint
in his eye.

 “Why?” she
asked as her brows furrowed.  

“Don’t be
cross but we’ve arranged for the two of you to go on a date.”

“What?”

“You’re to
take a taxi and meet Todd at Silvio’s tomorrow night, 8pm, for dinner and
dancing. You’re going to wear your dress, one of your new g strings and no
pantyhose. Those are Sean’s instructions not mine of course.”

“Why do I
have to take a taxi, why can’t I go with him?”

“Because Sean
wants to up the ante, he figures Todd will only get the full effect if he meets
the new you away from home turf. It will be almost like a blind date. If it’s
any consolation, Todd who is usually the definition of a confident alpha male, seems
every bit as anxious about it as you are. If he was strung any tighter he’d
snap like a wishbone,” he joked.

“Please don’t
you start freaking me out Seb, you’re supposed to be the good guy.”

“I am,” he
laughed, “I had to strong arm Sean to be the one to tell you, he had plans to
wind you up far much more. You’ll be fine Jen. If you get too nervous just
channel the most confident woman you can think of and you’ll get through it.
Just be thinking more Angelina Jolie than Martha Stewart ok?”

He bent to
kiss her goodnight on the cheek. “We want this to work out for the two of you.
Whether you like it or not, people here care about you Jen, and that’s not a
bad thing.”

She smiled at
him sort of believing it, and closed the door softly.

****

Jen started
to get ready at five pm, she bathed and washed her hair, carefully drying it
and then she coiled and twisted it, pinning it intricately, she knew by the end
of the night it would leave her with the mother of all headaches, but it looked
pretty damn good even to her critical eye.

She applied
some make up, tinted moisturiser and a little powder, bronze blush on her
cheekbones and a little down her nose. She took extra care to apply soft taupe
eye-shadow as well as dramatic navy eyeliner and flared her eyelashes out with
mascara. She didn’t have the nerve to do dramatic lips, so she chose a simple
nude gloss instead.