I Think I've Had Enough

Chapter 68: But I blame it All on Who Made You So Irresistible

                   

It was nearly sunset as Patrick jumped on the highway to head to his home. He had survived his work day with ease. Mostly because he desperately didn't want it to pass. Jillian and the kids had arrived earlier today. He was going home to his first family dinner in Los Angeles since May. During which he had discovered he had another daughter, reunited with Ellen and somehow managed to develop a feeling for her. Feeling, singular. He wouldn't give it more than that. It wouldn't control him this time. He would control it. She didn't deserve it, and even if she did, the feeling was not mutual.

It was temporal. He was simply waiting for it to pass.

On Second thought, he had been waiting for it to pass for 15 years. Even after everything they had been through he wasn't sure it ever would pass completely. He thought briefly about the years he spent coming home with this same feeling in his stomach. He thought about what Ellen said she would want to hear if she were Jillian. He would ponder those words for a long time.

Patrick glanced out the window at the setting August sun. He slipped on a simple black t-shirt and ran his hands through his hair.  Today's photoshoot had been the longest amount of time that he had spent with Ellen off the grounds of Prospect Studios. It solidified the feelings that he had spent the last months making a joke of.

How did he want to spend more time with a person he had just spent six consecutive hours with?

Self-control he rehearsed in his head, self-control. He grabbed his keys and headed towards the door. Just as he got there it opened. Ellen's smile peaked through the door as she nearly hit him. "hey," he said softy hoping that she'd come back for him.

She stepped around him, "forgot my purse," she smiled pointing to the table.

He held the door for her as she walked back towards him. Patrick swallowed hard forgetting the words that he rehearsed and remembering all of the sweet nothings he had whispered in her ear all day.  He closed the door behind them and then without hesitation or rational thought, "do you want to get a drink?"

Ellen was taken aback, she turned back to look at him.  Her head tilted slightly, "today was literally the longest date I've ever had," she raised an eyebrow, "and you want to spend more time with me?"

"Always," he spoke truthfully. He watched her fight against her guard and better judgement. "It's just a drink."

"Is it just a drink... You spent the day trying to get me to kiss you and telling me how sexy I am."

"It was a photoshoot," Patrick smiled, "it's essential."

"Oh, so you didn't mean it," Ellen asked with a sparkle of her own.

"Ahh," he smiled, "I guess you'll find out." He found himself trapped in her eyes. His mind was racing with the same desires he had fumbled with all day.

"Where," She asked.

He was sure that he had blacked out on the drive there. His heart racing, his palms sweating, his phone abandoned in the car. The had entered the restaurant separately, him through the front, her through the back. It wasn't that they wanted to hide the fact that they were together, merely that the just wanted to hide. At least that's what they told themselves as they sat in a dark corner near the front window. The lights had just dimmed for the evening. The waiter dropped off a couple glasses of wine and left them in peace.

Her laugh echoed lightly in his ears as he enchanted her with his wit. Ellen had let her guard down and given in to her own desires. Most of them anyway.