Upwards

Sunday, 10th May 2008.

I spent most of today still seething in anger at yesterday’s turn of events, so when Frank came round to see Rosie, I made myself scarce in the kitchen and sipped at my coffee as angrily as is physically possible, scowling purposefully at the wall every time I heard his voice drift through from the next room.

How the fuck did I go from loving him to hating him so suddenly?

He’s such a fucking hypocrite. He screwed me over big time, on more than one occasion, and I let it slide because I’m apparently a giant, vulnerable moron. Maybe I should have just stayed and let him fuck up his life. We’d probably be living above a butcher’s shop by now, barely scraping enough money from his second-hand music store to afford baby food. How stupid of me for wanting better for me and my husband and my child.

Kate came sauntering into the kitchen as I quietly raged to myself. “Still pissed off, huh?”

I shot her a despairing glance and went back to my coffee, not even bothering to humour her with an answer.

“Alright,” she nodded, taking a seat beside me and resting her feet up on the table. She knows I hate it when she does that but I was determined to do my best to ignore her and just carry on with being angry at Frank instead of rising up to her mind games like she wanted me to.

“God, I really just can’t keep up with you two,” she muttered, casually flicking through a magazine without actually reading anything. The sound of the pages flicking made me want to stab myself in the eyes. Still I refused to respond. “It’s just constant drama. I hate him, I love him, I miss him, he’s such a dick, he’s-”

Here she was interrupted by me grabbing the magazine from her hands and flinging it across the room. I’m ashamed to say I could contain myself no longer.

Kate grinned and sat up properly. “There you are,” she beamed, just a little too happily for my liking. “Now are you going to pull up your big girl pants and face your problems instead of just sulking around in the kitchen?”

God she’s hard work. I hate when she’s right.

Sighing as dramatically as I could muster, I plonked my cup down on the table and heaved myself to my feet, heading into the living room where my husband and daughter were playing with building blocks.

“You,” I said frostily, glaring at Frank. Kate came in and sat down beside a blissfully ignorant Rosie, taking over play duty oh-so-swiftly. “We need to talk.”

To be honest I’d actually had quite enough of talking to him, but in the interest of our daughter I knew we needed to resolve this. I led him into the kitchen and closed the door.

“You drive me fucking crazy,” I began, leaning against the counter with my arms folded. “You always have.”

Frank gave a guilty smile that I found really difficult to be angry at. “Yeah?”

Little shit. “You really are impossible, aren’t you? I swear; I get more sense out of Rosie than you. In fact, I get more sense out of Atticus than you.”

He let out a small chuckle and stepped closer to me, looking up at me through his fringe. “But you can’t stay mad at me, can you?” he pouted.

Annoyingly, he was right, though I didn’t like to admit it. I rolled my eyes and uncrossed my arms. “So now what?”

By now he was standing right in front of me, smiling sheepishly and generally looking so sexy that I didn’t know whether I wanted to stab him or fuck him. “I don’t know,” he said playfully, batting his eyelashes just a tiny bit. “Can we just start again?”

Sometimes it’s awfully difficult to tell when he’s being serious. I’m sure he’s bipolar or something. This doesn’t seem like the same man that was telling me yesterday how he can’t trust me. “You mean, right at the beginning?”

He nodded and held out his hand to me. “Frank Iero. Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

I raised my eyebrows but eventually I gave in to him, as I always will. “Daisy Iero. Pleasure’s all mine.”

Frank smirked. “We have the same last name, what a coincidence. Perhaps we’re related.”

Despite my pent-up anger, I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head. “You always have to make it weird, don’t you?”

He feigned shock. “Goodness me, Ms. Iero, you are terribly rude.”

“It’s Mrs. Iero, actually.”

He gave a guilty smile. “Well somebody is a very lucky man. And he’s probably very sorry for being a pain in the ass. In fact I’m pretty sure that he didn’t really mean anything he said yesterday because he still thinks you’re the most amazing human being on the planet and he will always love you. I bet he just needs a little time to get to know you again.”

I smiled and we were both quiet for a little while as my rage melted away, to be replaced with expectant glee. Frank has a huge effect on my emotions and I’m not sure if I love or hate that.

Oh who am I kidding? I love it. I love everything about him, even if he is a giant pain in the arse.

“You’re very perceptive,” I replied, playing along with his little game. “But I have to admit I’m a little difficult myself. I admire my husband for putting up with all my shit.”

Frank grinned. “I’m sure you’re worth it.”

There was another little silence between us. Frank was smiling down at his feet and I was just watching him. I can’t help myself. He’s so fucking gorgeous. I could look at him forever and still never figure out why he wants me, out of all the other women in the world.

“So, we’re good?” he finally said.

“We’re good,” I nodded, and I couldn’t get that stupid smile off my face.

Frank nodded too. “Good.” He took another step closer to me so that our bodies were almost touching. My breathing started to spasm and my heart began to pound and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I could smell vanilla and it was as if none of this had ever happened and we were just Frank and Daisy again. I wanted to grab his face and kiss the life out of him. I wanted to fuck him and fall in love with him and marry him all over again.

But he was just standing there, his face an inch from mine, his eyes drinking me in, chewing on his lip ring. I’d never felt tension like it and it was incredible but all I wanted to do was to ruin this perfect moment.

“Just fucking kiss me,” I so eloquently begged, flicking my gaze up to those eyes of his.

He smiled and put a hand on the back of my neck. And then, just as I thought I couldn’t take another second without being kissed, his lips were against mine. Soft and polite at first, quickly becoming more intense and animalistic as I grabbed at his hair and bit on his lower lip and he groaned into my mouth. Fuck. I never wanted it to stop.

But of course it had to. As any wizened person will tell you, all good things must come to an end. In this instance it was because Frank remembered himself and pulled away from me.

He stared into my eyes for a fair few seconds. I was flustered and horny and why had he stopped?

“Fuck, Daisy,” he sighed with a cheeky smile. “I’ve missed you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and fall into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me accordingly and kissed the top of my head. “We should probably talk about things properly,” he whispered. “Somewhere in public so we don’t get distracted like this.”

Begrudgingly, I agreed. We were never going to accomplish a conclusive adult conversation if we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. “We could go for dinner tonight,” I suggested, mumbling a little into his shirt. He smelt so good and familiar that I didn’t want to move.

I felt him nod. “That would be nice,” he conceded. “Let’s do that.”