Water Ch. 56 - There's A Room At The End Of The World

 

 

Jon takes a while upstairs, Beth can only hope he's saying hello and goodbye to the kids.  She feels for them, having their dad being gone all the time - but then she thinks to herself that maybe they are used to it?  You can't miss what you never had. 

 

A few minutes later Jon comes busting out of the glass door to his apartment building, and Beth can tell that he's pissed.  "God damn it, why did I marry her?" she can hear Jon, with the window up.  Beth slid over and got as far away from the door that he was going to enter, that she could.  She hasn't seen him this pissed yet.  This didn't look good.

 

"Let's go!" he barks at the driver.  Beth is floored.  She has no idea what to do or what happened, but she does know that it can't be good.  Jon just looked at her and gave her a look.  A look that she hasn't seen yet and a look she that never wants to see again.

 

"What happened, babe?"  she quietly asks, fearful of how he's going to answer.  Uncharted territory for Beth.  She holds her breath, waiting for him to respond.

 

"She's being a bitch, what's new?" he says, as he's looking out the window watching other's people lives go by.  "She's just a bitch." he mumbles.,

 

"What happened up there?"  she's concerned because she knows at least Stephanie heard them argue.  And she is guessing that the boys were up there and they heard it too. 

 

"Don't worry, I have it taken care of." he barks at her

 

"Bullshit, what happened and what do you have taken care of?' she demands to know.  He better have a good reason for treating the driver the way that he did and a damn good reason for snapping at her, like he is. 

 

"I really don't want to talk about it."  he slides up close to her and puts his hand on her leg and his head on her shoulder. "I'm exhausted.  She sucks all the life right out of me."  He closes his eyes and just sits there.

 

"Are you going to tell me what happened?  I don't like this not knowing.  If it's not my business then tell me that and I'll leave it be.  But, if it's something I may need to know, Jon please tell me."  she felt like she was begging, but whatever happened had to be big, to take this man down.  She took his hand in hers, to let him know she was there for him.  Kissing his head, she said, "We're almost to my place.  Are you going to talk?"

 

She can see that he's struggling, struggling to decide if he wanted to lay all of this on her when they were about ready to say goodbye?  "It will be okay, I'm taking care of it."  he tried to reassure her, but Beth isn't dumb.

 

"Come on Jon, you almost ripped the door off it's hinges back there.  You snapped at the driver and gave me a look I hope that I never see again, what's going on?  I don't want to leave with something going on.  That's not fair.  Specially if it involves me.  What is Dorothea doing?"  she is pleading with him now and he's not trying to be an ass about it - he just doesn't want it to be the last thing they talk about.

 

Looking at her, all he can say is, "Please let me take care of this while you're gone.  It's nothing really.  She just caught me off guard, that's the Dorothea way.  It will be all better" he grabs her face and starts kissing her lips, "when you get back.  I promise." 

 

With a kiss between each word, trying not to get distracted by the wetness of his lips or the passion in his touch she tells him, "I don't like seeing you that pissed off.  I don't want to leave with you upset like this Jon.  Please tell me what happened?"

 

He leans back in the seat of the car, pressing his head against the head rest, not wanting to tell her what Dorothea's latest trick was, but he knew he wasn't being fair if her left her leave with this hanging in the air.  He can only imagine the many scenarios that she might have going through her head.  So, with all that in mind, he looks her in they eye and says, "She's contesting the divorce." 

 

"Oh my." was all she could muster to say. Her heart was everywhere. In her feet, in her stomach and on her sleeve. She's contesting the divorce, why? I thought they had it all worked out, she's thinking to herself. What has changed? Was it because of Beth? Oh God, is she losing him before she ever really had him? "What does this mean? What is she contesting, do you know?"

Beth doesn't even want to hear the answer, it didn't really matter. Dorothea was contesting the divorce proceedings, that meant more time, more money and more bullshit.

"She can't agree to irreconcilable differences and in New Jersey, if there is one glitch it all gets put on hold. I told you not to worry about, babe. My lawyers are all over it already. Let's not let her have a hold on the last little bit of time we have together, please!?!" He moves in and starts to kiss her again. This time he starts at her forehead and works his way down and around to his lips. His kisses are like a magic potion that puts all problems in another place. She reaches up and puts her arms around his neck and asks him, "Are we going to be okay, Jon? Or is this the end?"

He sits back and looks at her. "Beth, my daughter thanked you for making me smile, do you think I'm going to let that go? I'm not. Nothing has changed between us, but now you know, we could have a fight on our hands. Are you up for it?"  He believes that she is, he couldn't love a woman that didn't have fight in her or a woman that couldn't take a stand. And he knows he has all of those qualities in Beth. He believes the way he feels about her and her him, will pull them through this.

Feeling slightly offended, she tells him, "Yes, I'm up for it Jon. It's just that I don't like prying info out of you. No secrets and no delays. Okay!"  Beth has to put conditions on this.  She can't be in a one sided relationship.  She was supposed to be an open book to her rock star, we'll he should be an open book to her as well.

Stopping in front of Beth's building, she reaches for the handle to get out, and Jon grabs her arm to stop her.  She pauses and looks at him, "Hey, aren't we going in?"  she asks him, a little concerned.

"I can't, I need to go take care of some things.  What time does your flight leave?" he can't even look at her, he is so upset and consumed by Dorothea's actions.

"I need to be the the airport by 6:30, Julia said my flight is at 7:30.  Where are you going?  What do you need to take care of on a Sunday night?" she questions, disbelieving that they aren't going to spend this little bit of time together. 

"I need to go to my house and call Peter back.  We talked earlier today, that's who was on the phone when you were in the shower.  He had called to let me know that he received a motion from his service on Saturday." Jon tells her, making himself feel worse with each word that he says.

"What do we do here, Jon?  I need to get to L.A. and you have business to take care of."  Beth actually starts to laugh, something she does when she gets really nervous, and right now she is really nervous.  "Ya, know - it's good that this all happened in the beginning, before we fell head over heels in love.  Go take care of what you have to, Jon.  I'll call you from L.A."  She proceeds with getting out of the car, with Jon trying to stop her. 

She's out of the car and on the sidewalk that's practically empty, with the exception of a power walker or two, and a jogger her and there.  Jon jumps out after her, "Beth wait." he chimes out.  Stopping her dead in her tracks.

"What Jon?  Should we drag this out or just say goodbye?"  she knows her limits and she's not yet met it, and truthfully, she doesn't want to meet her limit.  Meeting her limit would be a forever goodbye, and her heart isn't ready to say goodbye.  But can she deal with this?  Should she have to? 
She knows that all of this was out of Jon's control, if he could make it go away, he would.

"Why would we say goodbye?  I just have somethings I need to work out, before the courts open tomorrow.  Peter needs to be prepared to respond to her motion." trying to sound in control, when he's falling apart inside.  The divorce is his biggest challenge right now, but Beth leaving is his biggest concern.  "When I see you again, I want all of this out of the way. Done and over with.  No more surprises and no more Dorothea bullshit."

"I understand that Jon, go, go take care of what you need to.  I told you I would call you from L.A. and I meant it." walking up to him, she kisses his chin and he leans down to meet her lips.  With her bag over her shoulder, she puts her arms around him and just holds on.  For she knew this would be the last hug she would get for him for a while.

He puts his arm around her neck, resting them on her shoulders and he tells her, "I'm sorry this is happening, I never seen it coming.  I thought she was okay after we met with her.  Hell, she let Stephanie go with us.  I just didn't see it, I am so sorry."  He puts his lips on her forehead and just stands there.  He knows that this is goodbye and he doesn't want to let her go.

"Jon, go take care of your business.  I promise I'll call you when I land.  Come on, we need to get the little shit out of the way and standing here on the sidewalk in New York city isn't the way to get it done." she slightly pulls away from her rock star, neither wanting to break free. 

He takes her face into his hands and says, "I love you Beth Adams."  Kisses each eye, her nose, her cheeks and finaling on her lips.  One peck, two pecks, he licks his lips and moves in to give her the goodbye kiss of her lifetime.  She responds in the exact way that she is supposed to, she kisses him back and the closer she gets to him, she can feel his passion growing between them. 

Beth breaks the seal and backs up, pointing to the car she says,  "Now go.  Get it taken care of.  I'll call you later."  she has one of his hands in hers, not wanting to let go.  "It will be late here, when I get home.  Will you be up?

"Call me, I don't care what time you get home.  I want to hear your voice." he tells her, and he means it.  "Seriously, call me the minute you get home, please?"

She laughs at him, and at the situation, "Okay, I promise, I'll call you."  She kisses him on the lips and leaves him there on the sidewalk, in front of her building.  He makes sure she gets in through her security door and he leaves.  He just left the love of his life, and he felt it.  He did not like the way that felt, not at all.

Beth went inside and started to pack what she had with her.  In her bag, she found one of the candles that she took from their picnic in the desert.  She smelled it and instantly smiled, she loved her night in the desert with her complete stranger.  She place it on her night stand next to the picture of her and Brian.  Looking at Brian, she smiled and said, "It's going to be okay.  Don't worry."

She finished what she needed to get done and headed to the airport.  She had a long night ahead of her and she's counting on sleeping on the flight.  She needed a nap.

Jon ended up at the house in Red Bank.  Walking in, it was cold and empty, fitting he thought, because that's how he felt.  He is still mentally stuck back in NYC, on that sidewalk, with her.  Turning on all the lights, hoping that will help with the lonely feeling, he walks through the house to his office. 

Looking around, planning what he needs to do - he sits at his desk and powers on his computer.  Once it's powered up he goes through his folders and prints the documents that he needs and faxes them to Peter, in L.A. California, that's where is sweetheart is.  When he's done with that, he sits there and looks around.  He looks at pictures of his children, him and his children, he and Dorothea.  He hates the sight of her right now. 

Walking into the kitchen, he decides he wants something a little stiffer than a glass of wine, and anything that matches that description is out in the studio.  He grabs his phone and a pack of cigarettes and heads out to The Shoe Inn.  His own private recording studio, that has equipment that is top of the line and in high demand.  He has made a name for himself, not only in the music industry, but also as a producer. 

The Shoe Inn hasn't been used in quite sometime, and Jon could smell that.  It had a slight musty smell to it, like it hasn't been aired out in a while.  He walked through and opened a few windows and sat at his control panels.  Reaching up, he powered everything on, and played back the last thing that was recorded in there.  Much to his surprise, it was a demo for 'Summertime'.  He played it back and loved what he was hearing.  Not even paying attention to what he was doing, he was mixing and playing with Bon Jovi's next record.  The good thing is, that kept Jon preoccupied and he was able to keep his mind off of Beth and the dysfunction that Dorothea was causing.  'Summertime' was finished.  Jon wrapped that up, and he felt good about it.

When the recording 'rush' was over, Jon looked at his watch.  It was 10:30.  Shouldn't she be home by now?  he asks himself?  Then he thought about it for a minute and figured it could be anytime.  A flight to L.A. was about 3.5 - 4 hours. 

In an effort to kill time and keep himself distracted, he grabbed a pen and a notebook and thought he would try to write.  He had room on the next album and he wanted this record to reflect so many different things. 

'Summertime' was a great start, and keeping with the 'theme' of what he had in mind; he wrote on the top of the piece of paper 'The Last Night' and the lyrics just flowed from him to pen tip. 
The words resonated the way he felt and expressed what he thought. He knew that tonight wasn't going to be his last night of being alone, and he knew that he would get to the point when his nights alone were few and far between.  He was certain of it.  He knew he was going to get this divorce and he was going to be with Beth.  

Thinking of Beth, he looked at his watch again.  It was 1:30am.  Doing the math, that makes it 10:30 over there, why hasn't she called?  Looking at his phone to be sure he didn't miss a call, he was really starting to worry, well he was starting to wonder.

Sitting at the sound board rubbing his achy head, he looks down at the lyrics he had written:

There's nothing worst than living less
When you yearn for something more
Makes no sense, its hard to understand
When there's something that should fill you up
Keeps slipping through your hands
and is trying to decide if he wants to start on the music.  No, he thought.  I need to get to bed.

Walking back into the house, he calls Beth.  Worried now that she hasn't called and she should have landed by now.  Her phone rings and rings.  After 6 rings it goes to voicemail.  He simply says, "Hey, it's me.  I'm a little worried here.  Please give me a call.  I love you."