Brick by Brick

Part Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

Sammy's heart was in her mouth, it was the first time she'd been kissed in years, and she'd loved every minute of it, but now, as she looked down at the shattered picture frame on the floor at her feet, the beautiful smile of Marcus looking up at her, she felt sick. Dropping to her knees to clear the mess was the easiest thing to do, easier than facing Joel, and easier than facing up to how she was feeling.
She could feel him moving away from her, crossing the room, giving them space, distance, but she couldn't look up. Her face was flushed, her body still humming, but again she had to block that out. The glass front of the small frame had literally fractured into shards, pulling the photograph free she shook the glass from it then stared at it for a moment, Marcus was grinning, his arms wrapped around her as they stood on the beach on the second day of their honeymoon. Because of what he told he was a big business deal he couldn't afford to take her anywhere exotic, anywhere long haul, instead they went to a friend's villa in Greece, not the place they'd met, but another sun-kissed island. She was wearing the bikini he'd bought her at Heathrow; scarlet satin that he swore made her pale skin look luminous. As she looked at him, bronzed, happy...godlike, she felt sad, and she felt guilty.

"Shit!"

Her lack of concentration meant that she'd stabbed the pad of her thumb with one of the needle-like shards of glass. And it started to bleed...lots.

"What the fuck..." Suddenly Joel was there, pulling her to her feet and wrapping a tourniquet to her thumb as he pulled her to the kitchen, he hadn't looked at her face as he pulled her hand over the sink then removed the offending piece of glass. The coincided with a spurt of blood and he cursed under his breath. Grabbing a tea towel he knotted it tightly over her thumb stemming the flow of blood.

"That's deep," he offered still staring at it, he still wasn't looking at her. She still had no idea what he was thinking, how he was feeling.

"Thanks," she offered.

He nodded, "sit here and keep the pressure on, it's small but deep." Then he turned and headed to the lounge and she could hear him cleaning up after her. She wanted to cry, her thumb was starting to hurt, but that wasn't why, she had a myriad of emotions all swirling around in her head, and she had no idea what she felt, couldn't comprehend what had happened.

"You ok?" She looked up to see Joel stood in the doorway, the glass, the frame or rather the remnants of it were on a piece of newspaper in his hands. When she gave a nod he added, "I need the vacuum cleaner, make sure it's all out of the carpet, don't want Ellie getting hurt."

"It's under the stairs," was all she could muster.

He dispatched himself off and she could hear the whir as he turned it on, clearing away the evidence of the damage...but the damage and turmoil in her heart and head would never be cleared away as easily.

The sound of the vacuum seemed to take over his thoughts, and Joel needed that relief. The last twenty minutes had thrown his whole world into chaos. He'd thought about kissing Sammy, back in the day, but also maybe more recently. But they had been fleeting thoughts; he never intended to act on it. He'd been stunned by his own actions, but also b y her reaction. That hadn't been a one way kiss, far from it, at the moment that picture had fallen, knocked by their escalating passion, Sammy had been giving back as fast and as furious as him. He closed his eyes for a brief second and thought of Marcus, he was like a bucket of cold water being thrown on their antics, and he had never felt so much shame in his life. What was he thinking of? Throwing himself on his best friend's widow, when she was clearly grieving for her mother who was fighting cancer. He was a first class bastard.