Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Fifty-One: Toxic Desire

No matter how many times he'd tried waking Ada, reminding her of her words about sleeping too long, she brushed him off and fallen back asleep. The mountain of tissues on her side of the bed grew each time, and tears had turned into a crust on the bridge of her nose. Once it was time to lay next to her, he replenished her supply and threw away the old ones.

As soon as his body hit the bed and cradled hers, the silent tears she'd been shedding for hours turned into uncontrollable wails. Her small frame shook against his as she let it all out as Tom just continued to hold her. There were no words that could take the pain away, no action to make anything right, so he simply laid there against her body and entangled her slender fingers with his own.

He saw Jeff standing in the doorway, slumped against it, looking as helpless as Tom. Jeff was not a man who gave into his emotions, not this one at least. He'd give into anger freely, showing ultimate control of his surroundings.

But he couldn't control this. He couldn't take away his youngest daughter's pain. He couldn't relieve her of an ounce of anguish. And as tears filled Jeff's eyes, Tom knew it killed him to see her like this and to see that it was now Tom's job to hold her as she wept.

Ada eventually fell back to sleep, and he soon followed her there, welcoming a sliver of peacefulness.

The next day, after they all showered, they went their separate ways. Ada drove with her parents, wanting to stop at the hospital one more time before heading back home. He didn't mind driving by himself since he didn't want Ada to join him on his next destination.

Tom gripped his steering wheel like he was holding onto dear life. It was early yet, but he had something to do in Ridgewood before graduation and he wasn't sure how long that something would take.

He'd looked up the address in the phone book when he stopped for gas just outside of town and entered it into his GPS. Where it took him left him shellshocked. He imagined her living in a gorgeous two or three-story house, manicured lawn, maybe with a white picket fence surrounding the property.

The fence surrounding this property, however, was metal and sort of just dangling there rather than standing upright. The lawn only showed pale shades of green with brown patches scattered across the small property. The paint on the house showed wear from remaining untouched for years. The house itself was one story and appeared smaller than his apartment.

Tom thought he remembered her father being a big lawyer over in the town he'd just left, but this wasn't the house of a lawyer by any means. He couldn't help but turn on his alarm after leaving the vehicle, never realizing that the town he'd lived in for years had this rough of a neighborhood. Train tracks that went through town even separated it, forcing them to live in a cliche of being from the wrong side of the tracks.

When he tapped his knuckle against the screen door, it swayed at the impact, and Tom stepped back and waited.

It took a minute for a woman to answer the door, her face smeared with yesterday's makeup and her robe dangling from her gaunt body. Tom didn't dare look to see if she had a nipple hanging out, which he was fairly certain she did, but focused his attention on the woman's face.

He'd met her mom only once or twice during freshman year and could see small hints of that woman in the one that stood lopsided before him. But the woman he'd met over three and a half years ago was confident, strong and well put together. This one looked like a flat out train wreck.

"Help you with something?" She asked, pulling the dangling cigarette out of her mouth.

This time when he smelled it, it didn't make him crave one for himself like last time. She made it look like it had zero appeal.