Water Ch. 11 - Hardest Part IS The Night

(Circa 2011)

Landing back at the Red Bank house, Beth doesn't know what she should do. She doesn't know how she feels about the last few hours and the events that unfolded. She really thinks that she just wants to take a break, get away from Jon for a little while. Oh, God - how will he take that piece of information? She thinks to herself. They walk from the helipad up to the back door of the house. Beth hesitates at the threshold and Jon could sense that.


"Are you okay? Let's go in and have a glass of wine." he says with his hand on the small of her back, leading her into the house.
"Jon, I think I just want to go back to my room, if you don't mind? I'm tired and have a headache starting. I just want to take a bath and lie down." she's worried he's going to be mad.
"Let me grab a few things and we'll go. I just need clean clothes and my own razor." Laughing, he says to her.
"No, I think I want to go alone. Can you just drop me off?" she pauses and waits for the Italian temper to flair like it has so many times before. He stands there and just looks at her like, really??? He leans on the kitchen counter because he feels like someone just kicked his legs out from underneath him.

"Is that what you really want to do?" he asks her with heavy disappointment. She simply nods her head yes. "Okay, let's go. Do you want to grab a bite to eat since we haven't eaten since breakfast?" he's hoping, so he can spend a little more time with her.
"I'll call room service a little later on, I would just like to be alone now." As she's walking out the door looking back she says, "Do we got it anymore?" Using his own words on him.

They get into his car and the ride to Red Bank was a quiet one with the exception of Coldplay playing in the background. They get to the Oyster Point and Jon asks Beth, "Do you want me to walk you in?" She shakes her head no. "Am I going to see you again?" he is getting scared now, but he had to ask.

She shakes her head yes and says that she'll call him. She leans over to give him a quick kiss goodbye and he grabs her, holds her face and says, "Promise me you'll call." Kissing her lips, kissing her nose and each eye. What she does next made his heart practically stop - she took off his hoodie and got out of the car. All he can do is sit there and watch her walk away.

Beth walks into the hotel lobby and turns back to see if Jon had left. He had. That kind of surprised her. She expected to see him there, waiting. She goes into her room and turned the TV on, she needed a distraction. She needed a mental break. She kicks off her wedges and sits in a chair at the table. Exhausted. And back where she was 2 days ago - alone.

The TV does very little for her. The commercials drive her crazy and the shows can't catch her attention. She's going to go mad, she's going to go crazy. Sitting with her head on her arms she knows what she has to do. The 2nd hardest thing she will ever do - she needs to go home. Back to where he doesn't know where she is, back to when they didn't talk. The traffic wouldn't be to busy this time of night.

She got up and grabbed her bag and threw it on the bed. Maid service hadn't been in and she could see the night before on the bed. Sheets are all disheveled and the bed is a complete mess. She knows that if she touches the pillow he slept on, she'll sit there and smell it and change her mind. Throwing all she needed to in her bag, she did a quick walk thru and seen his shorts on the other side of the bed between the wall and the bed, along with her nightie. She picks them both up and puts them in her bag. The bathroom is cleared of her stuff and so is the rest of the room. Checking the patio - that too is clear of her stuff. She grabs her bag and walks half way out the door. Stopping to go back and grab his pillow. The pillow he slept on, the pillow he sweat on. It is now hers!

Pulling away from the Oyster Point was bittersweet. She had to protect herself, she had to guard her heart. The drive was quick. Quick out of Red Bank and quick into New York City.

When she pulled into her building, the parking attendant told her hello as he let her in. She drove up to her level and parked her car. She grabbed her things, including the pillow and lugged everything to the elevator, down the hall and into her home. A home that she felt like she left a 100 years ago.



Beth and Jon were practically neighbors in NYC, she's really shocked that they haven't bumped into each other before now. And him catching her in Red Bank was a fluke, but if you ask him - he will tell you it was meant to be. She lives down by Wall Street and he's just up in SoHo. Practically neighbors.

She unpacks her bags and starts a load of wash. She didn't want to be stuck doing it over the weekend. She puts everything else away, including the pillow. The pillow is now part of her bed. She has made it so.

She now has nothing to do. She briefly goes through her mail. Nothing important and nothing that needed her immediate attention, so she leaves it on the dining room table. It suddenly hits her that she hasn't seen her cell phone. Shit, what did I do with my phone. She's patting her pockets and looking through her empty bags. Shit, she runs into her room and dumps her purse onto her bed. There's her phone and a small teal green jewelery bag.