| April 20th, 1993 |
Natasha Jackson's POV
"Michael, I want a divorce," I told Michael and his face fell. He stared at me with his eyes squinted and his lips parted slightly. I could tell he was trying not to cry.
We had been sitting in the Neverland living room in silence. We hadn't done much talking since I caught him and Lisa together. It was either short, angry exchanges or silence. Both were unusual for us.
"That's not fair. You said we'd work this out, 'Tasha. You told me-"
"I know what I told you, Michael, and I'm telling you that I changed my mind," I looked directly into his eyes, hoping the eye contact would tell him that I meant what I said. That my decision was final.
"It was just a kiss, 'Tasha." And a handjob. "Lisa and I are only friends. You know I'd never let it happen again, baby. I wouldn't break your trust that way."
"But you already have! And I thought I could forgive you. I thought- no, hoped I could live with it because I love you. I love you so much, Michael! And I'm sure you still love me, but a part of love is respect and you've clearly lost that respect."
Michael stepped toward me, delicately holding and caressing my hand. "Now, that's not true. I do respect you, Natasha. I respect and I love you. I always have and I always will. I just-"
"You what?"
"I made a terrible mistake, and all I can tell you is that I won't allow it to happen again and hope you'll trust in me."
I took my hand out of his. Trust in him? You've gotta be fucking kidding me.
"How am I supposed to trust in you when you're fucking cheating on me?! We have a son together, Michael," I yelled at him.
"Calm down, Natasha. You'll wake Miles." He warned. Miles was asleep in his living room bassinet. I could feel my blood begin to boil in my veins.
"So now you care about Miles?" I whisper yelled. "Where was this concern for your family when you let another woman give you a handie?"
"For the love of God, Natasha. I didn't even finish!" Michael threw up his hands in frustration. He usually did this when he felt like he was being backed into a corner.
"You didn't finish?" I laughed sardonically. Absolutely no way he's serious. "Michael didn't cum, so that means he never cheated. You sound so stupid right now."
"I'm sorry, okay? I wish I could go back and undo it, but I can't. I just want to move forward with you and only you. You're everything to me! Tell me what I can do to make this right, baby, and I'll do it. I'd do anything, you know I would. Please." Michael pleaded tearfully. His hands lifted slowly to hold mine, but I pulled them away. A tear rolled down his cheek when I did this.
"I want you to make this process easy, Michael."
"Natasha, please." He whispered. I shut my eyes. I couldn't look at him in this state.
"Michael, do you understand how belittling and humiliating this is? That I wasn't enough for you?"
I saw Michael part his lips to speak, but I didn't give him that opportunity. I was tired of all the explanations and excuses. It was time to tell him how I feel.
"It crushed me to find that you would even consider cheating on me with another woman! And an extremely famous, married, white woman at that? That was SO selfish, Michael. For the both of you! You know what'll happen if this makes it to the public." Maybe extremely famous was stretching it, but my point still stood.
"And, we've built so much together, Michael," I could feel tears begin to well up in my eyes as I recalled the years we spent together. "We've been through so much."
"I know." Was all he said. Michael was no longer looking me in my eyes, but instead looking past me. Somewhere behind me. He was chewing his lip nervously. He looked lost.
"Why her? What does she have that I don't?"
"You have everything she does and so much more, Natasha. You should know that."
"Of course I know that. I really question whether you know that, though."
He sighed, shifting his eyes to me again. "It was never because of you. I adore you. You're so kind and genuine and talented and beautiful. I admire your entire existence. Truly. It was just... a sincere mistake. A moment that got away from the both of us. I wasn't even thinking. Really! It meant nothing to me."
"Well that 'nothing' cost you your marriage. It's over, Michael. We're done," I said, before turning around to walk to our bedroom. Michael followed. I went straight for the closet to pack a suitcase. I can't stay here. Michael stood in the closet doorway just watching me with sad eyes.
"Where are you going, 'Tasha?" Michael said after a few minutes.
"Back to New York for a few days. I need some time away to think," I mumbled, pushing past Michael with my suitcase. As I walked out of the bedroom door, I tried to close it behind me. I didn't want to be followed.
"Wait- What about Miles?" Michael stopped the door before it could close and continued to follow behind me.
"There's breast milk in the freezer. You know how to take care of your son."
With that, I walked out of the front door and called my driver to bring me to my hangar.
A/N
Sorry about this boring chapter. Things should pick back up next chapter! Also, I apologize for my hectic update schedule! Both of my parents got arrested a few weeks ago and I've been struggling to take care of my 18 siblings and also pay the bills. Next chapter should be out next weekend. xoxo
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2008
Michael and Natasha are both 49.
"I didn't like that one," Michael closed the laptop. "Too dramatic. Too out of character."
"Well, it's supposed to be entertaining, Michael. And it's make-believe! They don't know us, so it's not gonna be one hundred percent accurate. I'd almost rather it not be," Natasha commented, taking off her reading glasses and setting them on the nightstand. "If it was too accurate, wouldn't you feel weird about it?"
"Probably," Michael shrugged. He had gotten used to complete strangers knowing too much about him. However, his relationship with Natasha and his family was something he always kept very private.
"I feel like they captured you pretty well," Natasha laughed slightly.
Michael took offense to this comment. He, understandably, didn't want to be compared to a cheating, disloyal, foolish portrayal of himself. He always prided himself on his loyalty to Natasha. He and Natasha prioritized loyalty to the point where they almost clung to one another. They rarely trusted or consulted anyone outside of each other. They knew they could count on the other to be honest and well-intentioned. Can't really say that about everyone, especially in the industry.
"Now, what are you trying to say, Nat?" Michael shot Natasha an annoyed stare.
"I'm not saying you would do any of those things, babe. You're not that dumb," Natasha affectionately kissed Michael's bare shoulder. He had no shirt on. "Whoever wrote this got the way you speak down, though."
"When have I ever called you 'Tasha?"
"Besides that. I'm talking word choice and mannerisms, Michael. I swear you've told me that you admire my entire existence before."
"Well, I do!" Michael said almost defensively. He felt strange being read by a fan-fiction writer.
"And then the following me from room to room? That's you for sure."
Michael twisted his face as if he didn't agree.
"Come on, you follow me around all the time. I follow you around too. It's our thing," Natasha smiled at Michael who still held that skeptical expression.
Though they had gotten a lot better at spending time apart, they were still sort of attached at the hip. Michael did cut out time to spend by himself, but outside of that, they were usually doing things together, watching the other do something, or following one another around. If you saw one, you saw the other. That sort of thing. It's cute.
"I still didn't like this one." Michael declared. It was the cheating part that got to him. Natasha knew this.
"I did. I like drama," Natasha said and Michael frowned. "You gotta remember that this is all imaginary. The author might as well be writing about a completely different Natasha and Michael. It's pretend!"
"I don't know..." Michael squinted his eyes at Natasha.
"I feel like the graphic sex scenes bothered you less."
"Well, we have sex, Natasha. That's more accurate than me cheating on you with Lisa Marie Presley of all people," Michael explained.
"Again, I don't think these things are supposed to be accurate, baby. I thought we were having fun reading these."
"We were. I just don't like that you like the book where I'm cheating on you."
"I don't see this fictional Michael as you. I'm sure the author doesn't either. Like I said, it's like they're different people. These are characters in a book, not us. Think about it that way. We don't have to read these anymore if you aren't comfortable. I was just curious about what these fans be writing."
Michael shook his head and finally took his reading glasses off. He always hated the way the glasses made his eyes look enormous and they were beginning to give him a headache. "We can still read them. It's fun every now and again, you know? They're entertaining. I feel like I'm being dramatic."
Reading online fanfiction wasn't something they did frequently by any means. It was a little activity they did together when they were bored enough.
"You're allowed to feel how you feel. Are you sure you wanna read these?"
"Uh," Michael thought for a moment. "Know what? Maybe we can put this one on the shelf for a while," Michael said with a shrug. He wasn't sure why he tried to lie about his feelings the first time.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Natasha said, not in a condescending manner, but in an 'I know you' sort of way.
Michael placed the laptop on his bedside table, threw the covers off of himself, and stood with his back facing Nat. He needed to get his mind off of this fanfiction stuff.
"Where are you going?" Natasha asked as she watched him bend down to pick up his plaid pajama pants off of the floor. He didn't have on pants either.
"To get a snack. Come with me," Michael mumbled, pulling his pants over his boxers. Natasha stared at his butt, something she found herself doing often. What could she say? He has a nice ass.
"Don't turn around yet," Natasha giggled, thoughtfully stroking her chin. Michael turned around anyway, ending Natasha's little show. She sighed dramatically when he did.
"You coming with me?"
"I guess I'll come," Natasha groaned, getting out of the bed and following Michael into the hallway. "I forgot you're scared of the dark."
"Stop it," Michael held up his hand and stopped walking. Natasha stopped walking too. "No, I'm not."
"Boy!" Natasha rolled her eyes and pushed past him. Now he was being dramatic.
"I hate it when you tell people that. It makes me look weird." Michael admitted, walking beside her.
"It's just a joke," Natasha shrugged.
"I don't think people can always tell when you're joking, Nat."
"Okay, I'll stop joking like that in front of other people," Natasha said as she entered the kitchen. She wasn't going to continue embarrassing him or making him feel uncomfortable for the sake of a stupid joke. She was too old for that, and she understood where he was coming from.
They both shuffled around the kitchen in comfortable silence. Michael peeled himself and orange and Natasha grabbed a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Michael had warned her about eating those.
He would say, "Natasha, we're nearly 50! We gotta watch what we eat."
And she would respond, "One bag won't kill me."
And Michael would think, "It won't kill you now, but in the long run..." but would never say it aloud.
Once they hit 40, Michael had become somewhat of a health nut. Natasha figured she had a few more years of salt and vinegar chips before she seriously had to watch out for those kinds of things— you know, the sodium and stuff like that. But, Michael wanted them to be as healthy as possible. His wish was to live healthy, long lives with one another. It was sweet, but Natasha found it to be annoying sometimes, especially because she was typically a healthy eater and exercised very often. It felt kind of nitpicky.
They ate together in silence, too, until a thought occurred to Natasha.
"Do you think our families have ever seen the-"
"Don't finish that sentence. We don't need to think about that."
"You right." Natasha agreed and returned to her bag of chips.
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actual authors note
This chapter was actually so dumb. Now that you have finished reading it, I would like to formally apologize. I'm sorry. I can't promise it won't happen again.
Also, Im in the process of writing another story. It's kind of a mess right now, but I'll publish the chapters when I finish the whole thing.