City Mouse

Chapter 20: The Aftermath

Mouse woke up the next morning from a fitful sleep, grateful that she had slept at all. Leo slumbered next to her, the deep sleep of the young, looking perfect as he dreamed whatever it was four year olds dreamed about. His hand rested on her arm, small fingers spread. Mouse realized that, if not for Leo, she would have simply packed her things and left without a word to anyone. He was holding her here, with invisible threads looped around her heart, tethering her to his life.

Mouse sighed and rolled onto her back, careful not to disturb him. She could see a chunk of bright blue sky through the window, and hear the gentle sound of the surf, breaking on the beach. It looked like another perfect day in the Aegean Sea. It also felt very warm, considering how early it was.

She got out of bed and took a quick shower, pulling on a pair of shorts and a tank top in anticipation of the heat. Leo was up by the time she got out, and they went downstairs together to get breakfast and start their day.

Henry came down, freshly showered and dressed for work in shorts and a polo, just as they were sitting down to eat on the downstairs patio. He looked so handsome, freshly showered and shaved, and it was hard for Mouse not to stare at him. She realized that he looked different to her, now that she'd seen him naked, now that she'd "lain with him," in the biblical sense. He looked softer, somehow; she was more aware of the tastes and textures of him. She saw the way his hair curled around the bottom of his ear as he reached across the table for the coffee pot. She could feel the the skin on the top of his forearm as he peeled an orange. She wanted to nuzzle against the roughness of his jaw when he smiled at Leo.

She wondered if she looked different to him.

"Mouse, did you get hurted last night? Is that why you were crying in daddy's bed?" Leo asked as he ate his yogurt. His bright blue eyes darted back and forth between his father and his nanny.

"What do you mean?" Mouse fumbled, taking a sip of her coffee.

"You have ouchies all over," he answered. "On your legs and arms, and I saw some on your tummy last night in bed, and you even have some right by your neck, too." He got out of his chair and came around to where Mouse was sitting, touching her neck.

"Here and here, and here," he said, "Daddy, can you see them?" He gently put his fingers on the pink and purple suck marks Henry had left on her when they were together. "And see on her legs?" Henry looked, and he could see bruises on her thigh where he'd grabbed her, when he'd yanked her leg higher on his hip.

"Oh, dear Jesus," Henry said in a quavering voice, covering his eyes.

Mouse had bruises on her arms, shoulders, her body was covered with evidence of the time she'd spent in Henry's bed.

"What happened to you, Mouse?" Leo asked as he climbed back up on his chair and picked up his yogurt.

"I fell," she answered. "I went to get something from the car, and I fell in the driveway, you know where all the gravel and little pebbles are? Yeah," she nodded. "And they poked me, all over, and it really hurt. Way more than I thought it would at first."

"Oh," he said, digging with his spoon to get the last of the yogurt. "Do you still hurt now?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

"I'm kind of sore, yeah," she replied. "Sort of all over sore, you know?"

"Like when I fell at the park?" he asked, picking up some grapes.

"Yeah, like that," Mouse answered, nodding.

Henry was having a hard time swallowing, listening to this exchange. Mouse looked like an assault victim. How could he have done that to her? What was the age of consent in Greece, anyway? What if he'd broken the law?