A soft snoring sound right next to her ear breaks Perrie's light slumber. Ever since she became a mother, she's been sleeping lightly and wakes at the slightest sound. Even when she started living with the other kids as their stepmom, before she had her baby, her awareness eclipsed that of her husband.
Perrie takes a deep breath and smells Jade, her hair, her skin, her bed, her smoke. She's fast asleep, snoring gently, her nose in Perrie's hair and her hand still holding Perrie's wrist. Perrie blinks and stares at Jade's relaxed form in the dim light, a wave of affection flowing through her body. She wants to wake her, and kiss her more, hold her close and mess up her hair, but it's also too much, and too late, and she's so tired of worrying and crying. Her throat is tight again and she takes a deep, shuddering breath, holds it while she carefully removes her arm from Jade's grip and untangles their legs.
Perrie uses Jade's bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror. She's a right mess, and it makes her smile. She fixes it as best she can with water and a little washcloth that she finds in the small cupboard under the sink. She pads naked through the dark house, finds her hoodie next to the couch and puts it on. Her belly coils at the thought, the thrill of taking off her sweater and showing her naked breasts to Jade, the way she moaned and nearly drooled at the sight, her hands cooler than Perrie's overheated skin, which had a calming effect on her.
Perrie is aware of the shift in her universe at this very moment, standing in Jade's bedroom and sliding on her clothes without making a sound. Her eyes water, her breath halts and she presses a small kiss to Jade's forehead, she moans, smacks her lips, but doesn't wake.
Jade's ancient phone is on the coffee table and Perrie knows her stressed out, angry messages from earlier are still in there. She picks it up and tries to open it, and to her surprise there is no code. She sees her painfully erratic texts are still unread, and deletes them one by one, takes her own phone from the pocket of her jacket and sends a new message. She tiptoes into the bedroom and puts the phone on the empty pillow beside Jade.
P: You need a code to lock your phone ;) I deleted my texts from earlier bc I wrote some stupid things. It's almost 11, I have to go, don't wanna wake you. Thx for everything, talk soon XXX
The late evening is cold as Perrie jogs across the street, looking back one last time at Jade's dark windows before she closes the front door.
The house is dark, silent and empty. After the week they had, she was glad Danny had decided to take the kids to his mom for the weekend - he probably wanted to punish her by taking the kids away and leave her alone in the house, but it wasn't as bad as he might think. Perrie misses the baby most of all, because he's her precious little bean and she is so used to having him around all the time, and thinking of him makes her sad as she slips into the bed. She scoots to the middle, enjoying all the space on her own, and imagines Austin's chubby little face. Her heart jumps at the thought of leaving Danny, and the kids, what about the kids? Will she still see them? Will she leave and live somewhere alone with just Austin? How will she run her business with a baby and no grandparents to watch him? Maybe she should just move back to Wisconsin...
Perrie sighs, turns around in the bed and tells herself sternly to go the fuck to sleep. It's no use thinking too far ahead. Tomorrow is another day, and she'll talk to Danny then.
*
Perrie wakes up early, feeling rested, but a little lonely in the empty house. She knows she's not actually needed at the salon today, but a text from Danny tells her he and the kids won't be home until the end of the day, so she decides to go in for a couple hours. Hopefully she can get some paperwork done and tidy up her office, which has been a mess ever since she opened the salon almost two years ago.
