You and I

Home : Stories by Mick : Twisted Web : You and I

Summary: Confession was never so difficult.

AUTHOR: Mick
EMAIL: mick@cryptoffic.com
RATING: R
SERIES: Twisted Web
CHARACTER: Chandra Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr
WORD COUNT: 1,443
COMPLETED: July 18, 2008
DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I’d be too busy to write this stuff. Just fiction, folks. I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
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Charlotte, NC - Hendrick Motorsports

Even though her face was hidden, concealed by two finely manicured hands, he could still see it. He could sense it in her attitude, see it in her posture, all hunched over and tense. He could see what she was so desperately trying to hide from him. It wasn’t regret. No, far from it. It was panic, worry, a sense of impending doom. No, that last one was just him. The panic and fear were all her, coming off of her in wave after palpable wave. Something had happened, something she didn’t want him to know about. She was keeping something from him, something big, but he didn’t want to push, didn’t want to come off as prying or demanding. For all he knew, he was just reading her wrong. He never had been very good at seeing people for who they really were. It’s why he rarely made new friends. Still though, he couldn’t help the sense of dread creeping up his spine. Something was wrong, something was off. If he could only think of a way to make her open up. If he could somehow break the ice and get her to at least look at him.

The lack of contact between them was what had truly unnerved him. In the months that had passed by, they’d never been able to keep their hands off one another. The moment they were alone together, they were all over each other. This time, she’d walked into his office and sat in the chair across from him. She was dressed modestly, in a sweatshirt and jeans, not one of the scandalous outfits she usually waltzed in wearing. Her hair was pulled away from her face in a sloppy bun and her eyes never once met his. This was not the woman he knew so well. All of her confidence and sex appeal were gone and in their wake was a shell of who she normally was. This woman in his office was scaring the crap out of him. What made it worse was that he was at a total loss for words. How was he supposed to find out what was wrong if he couldn’t figure out how to ask without seeming intrusive?

Another tense minute ticked by before he finally managed to find his voice, looking at her with eyes full of concern, "Chani? Everything alright?" His voice was soft, tender even, afraid to startle her out of the daze she seemed to be in. He wanted badly to put his hand over hers, to find some sort of contact between them, but he was worried it would send her bolting out of the office. As it was, the sound of his voice made her cringe and curl up further into herself, picking nervously at her nails as she worried away on her bottom lip.

"Chandra? Please talk to me…you've got me real worried, darlin'. Is there something you need? Somethin' I can help you with?" Her reaction had unnerved him completely and now he couldn't help himself. The words tumbled from his mouth and he had to know what was wrong. His head was spinning as he watched her unravel before him, coming undone at the seams. Tears slipped from her eyes, wiped away roughly only to have new ones take their place. Her tiny body shook with each quiet sob.

When she finally found her voice, the words that came from her mouth shocked him; socked him hard in the gut, "Junior we can't do this anymore. I can't do this anymore. It…it's over between us. It has to be over." They came out in a jumbled mess of hiccups and sobs, but still her eyes wouldn't meet his. They stayed locked on her hands, wringing nervously in her lap.

"W-what?" He couldn't believe it. The wind had been knocked out of him but he still couldn't believe what she was saying. Over? They were over? What the hell had happened to make her suddenly change her mind about all of this? About them? They had something good, didn't they? Sex with no strings? A fun little relationship, a friendship with the added bonus of mindblowing sex? What the hell had gone wrong? And more importantly, how had he not noticed it before now? A trembling hand came up to run through shaggy red hair, then dragged down over a face tense with confusion. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't part of the plan.

She finally lifted her bloodshot eyes to meet his, her lower lip trembling as she fought off another wash of tears, "There was a…I…" She pulled in a ragged breath, "I had a scare, Junior."

The words registered slowly in his brain, "…a scare? Y-you mean…did…are you? Did we…" A scare? A pregnancy scare? His heart rate sped up rapidly. Was she pregnant? Had he knocked her up? True they hadn't always used protection, but she'd told him she was on the pill. That was supposed to keep this sort of thing from happening, wasn't it?

"No, Junior. We didn't. There's no…it was a false alarm," She looked relieved once she said the words out loud, but she still couldn't bring herself to say the word "baby", or "pregnant" for that matter. False alarm or not, it was still a terrifying experience, not one she ever wanted to have a repeat of. She's spent a majority of that night in bed with Jimmie, having round after round of mediocre sex. Neither of them had really been all that into it, but she was pretty sure he figured it was what she wanted so he went along with it to make her happy. And then he'd gone and ruined what should have been a good night by finding something he was never supposed to know about.

"Chandra?" Junior looked at her intently, trying hard to read the expression on her face. There was more to the story, he could tell, but he wasn't so sure if he wanted to know what it was. After the confession she'd just made, it couldn't be good.

"Junior…" She swallowed hard, forcing herself not to look away from him, "Jimmie, he…he found the tests. I'd shoved them away in the back of the cabinet…completely forgot about them and he found them. It's been so long since we've had sex, he…sort of put two and two together…he knows there's someone else." Once the confession was out, her eyes returned to her hands, now trembling with fear. Jimmie had been slicker than she'd ever given him credit for. It'd taken him less than five minutes to figure out that she'd been cheating on him. A box of pregnancy tests, with one missing? There was no one she could say she'd been holding them for, not even Ingrid.

Junior's face turned pale, his head spinning uncontrollably. Jimmie knew? Did he know who she was having the affair with? No doubt he was out for blood now, and if he knew who had been fucking his wife all this time, surely he'd come looking for him. He swallowed thickly, "Does he know it's me, Chandra? Did you tell him?" He couldn't really blame her if she had told him. They were married, after all, and Jimmie had a right to know who she was messing around with on the side. Even if she didn’t tell him, it wouldn't be long before he figured it out on his own, anyway.

"No, Dale. I didn't tell him and he doesn't know it was you. Not yet, anyway. He's bound to figure it out on his own if he starts snooping around. I just…you deserved to know. I wasn't going to lie to you. Figured the sooner you knew, the better…" She picked at some already chipped nail polish, chewing on the corner of her lip, "I won't tell him, even if he tries to beat it out of me. I wouldn't stab you in the back like that."

Before he could respond, her cell phone rang, the ringtone growing louder and  louder by the second. She cringed and pulled it from the front pocket of her hoodie, flipping it open without checking the ID, "Jimmie…hi…no, I…I'm on my way home right now. I just had to stop--" She frowned, giving Junior an apologetic look as she stood up and made her way to the door, disappearing out of his office without so much as a wave goodbye. As soon as she was out of sight, he slammed his head down on the desk, fingers curling in his hair.

One word managed to fall from his lips.

"Fuck."

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Mick - mick@cryptoffic.com