Jo was pissed. She could take a lot, but not the fact of publishing her photos, printed in shitty tabloids. She didn’t deserve such humiliation. It was below all her values, and moral and ethical standards.
She knew Julian was a ruthless, unscrupulous bastard who could walk over the dead just to achieve his goal. As long as she had known and remembered him, that's how he has been. He could do absolutely anything to tease Mike. Besides, it was not only him that gave him a hard time, but also the whole group of them.
She was glad that Julian wasn’t around, or else she would have surely given him a hard beating, blood would have spilled, because she had no mercy for such assholes. This time, Jo had to be sure that Julian would get a generous punishment; he deserved it.
After careful re-examining all the published photos in the tabloid, she was sure that someone had chosen the frames very carefully, and knew exactly what he or she was doing. The point of
“What are you doing here, Matt?” Jo articulated slowly, letting him step inside.“This is how you greet your friend?” He looked at her with a sly expression on his face. “I decided that I should visit you. You may urgently need support.” He added after a moment of hesitation and his lips stretched into a subtle smile.He was still dressed in a very elegant grey suit; he even had a tie on, but there were trademark signs of tiredness etched on his face. She had no doubt that he had flown straight from the courtroom.“I don't need support in my war with Julian, but will be happy to have company.” Jo said honestly and an inexplicable gleam flickered across her eyes. “Did you come, literally, straight from work?”“Is it so obvious?” Matthew asked as he undid his tie ostentatiously. He was so tired that he was not sure if it was a good idea to give her a little show.“Yeah&hell
Matthew realized that not everything was as he thought it seemed to be. He had to rethink everything, taking into account the circumstances he had omitted. In actuality, he was even disappointed that he had missed significant facts.He looked around her kitchen, which looked strangely similar to his. ‘We have more in common than I knew!’ Matthew thought as he studied the space carefully.Jo’s kitchen had a rectangular shape and was quite long. On the wall, in front of the front door, was a huge window, consisting of three parts. There were no curtains, only cream-colored blinds and a few pots of herbs on the windowsill. He immediately recognized parsley, coriander, chives, dill and basil.By the window stood a small wooden table, the same color as the kitchen countertops, the short edge adjacent to the wall under the window; with four stools, two each, on the longer edges on which grey cushions were placed.On two walls along the kitchen
Even though Mike was in her apartment for the first time, he had immediately found the kitchen that was radiating off delicious scents. Somewhere along the way, he had left his suitcase and backpack, as well as his jacket in the corridor. In a second, literally, he was ready to eat in the kitchen. He was followed by a surprised Jo.'I missed that freak here!' Some negative emotions swirled in her head. She wanted to push him out of her front door immediately. She could deal with only one of them at the same time, but both of them together meant a real mess; the trouble was guaranteed.“This one always knows when to come for a free meal!” Matthew greeted him by raising his hand. "At least wash your hands, Doc.” He added seeing that Mike was ready to sit at the table.“The washroom is there!” Jo pointed to the door of her little toilet.“Ok, monsters!” Mike said and lazily went in the direction indicated by Jo.
Jo couldn’t sleep. She rolled on her bed from side to side, occasionally glancing at the clock sitting on the side table. Despite being extremely tired, her eyelids weren't even heavy. Thoughts swirled in her head.She had already used all possible means to smoothly move to the land of Morpheus, but all her efforts failed. Neither the relaxation techniques known to her worked, nor the calm music worked.As soon as she closed her eyes, she could feel Matt's warm breath on her neck and his muscular scent, which was very attractive to her senses. 'Damn it! What’s wrong with me? I have to pull myself together!’ She repeated over and over again, unsuccessfully.In the end, she was aware that her torments were pointless and it was time for a calming lemon balm tea, or as a last resort, a few sips of cognac.In order not to wake up her guests, she didn’t switch on the light in the corridor and she went into the kitchen in the dark. She tu
There was silence in the kitchen. Mike wondered what she was so upset about. Since his cousin wasn't a cause for concern, it must have been something more serious.“Are you going to tell me what is bothering you?” Finally, he asked her again.“My main concern is Matt's behavior.”“If you consider the fact that he has access to all of Julian's records, he eventually took over some of the law firm from his parents. You have the rationale behind his action.”“Maybe you are right; maybe I am exaggerating everything that is going on which might not even amount to anything.” She said, finishing her lemon balm tea.“Go, try to rest. I will make sure you won't oversleep.”“I will try.” As she said that, she got up and left her cup near the sink.“It doesn’t sound convincing.” Mike summoned. “Wait, just sit here.” He took a stool and put it in
Mike immediately saw a lot of blood drops soaked on the white towel around his hips. The more he looked at them, the more he was shocked. He looked up higher and saw the two paper tampons already leaking blood from her nostrils. “What happened here?” He wondered loudly. When he saw a bag of frozen green peas on Jo’s forehead he burst out laughing. After a while, he added mockingly. “Woah, was that such a hard sex, some sado-maso?” The second he said that, the bag of frozen peas landed on his bare stomach. “Fuck!” He bent down, holding his abdomen. It wasn't painful, but it was fucking unpleasant. “Should I throw it a few inches lower?” Jo asked in a similar, mocking tone. “Are you deliberately trying to deprive me of the possibility of procreating and being a father?” “One more word, and I can't guarantee my reactions, so shut up.” She articulated through gritted teeth, changing the paper dressing under her nose. “We need help
“Thanks for the invitation, Elen. We just escaped from our offices and honestly, we would like to stay away from any, at least for the time being.” Matthew tried to sound reasonable. “What about lunch or dinner, guys?” “Not today, Elen. We need to take care of something urgent.” Mike added. Jo just looked at her co-worker in disbelief who was desperate to meet with her two hunks. She was sure Elen wasn’t interested in them;, she had a lovely fiance. She just wanted to know what they had in common with her. “What about tomorrow?” Elen decided, despairingly, to try one more time. “Fine, for our part, yes, but we don't know what Jo's plans are for us.” Matthew announced in hope that Jo wasn’t feeling like meeting her co-worker during the weekend and she would quickly come up with some kind of excursion or other urgent activity for them. “We will talk about it over lunch, Elen.” Jo proposed a solution. She could see that her guests were no
“Are you ok, Jo?” Mike asked as he checked the marks of Julian's grip on her wrist.“I am fine. I was so close to kicking him. If it weren't for the awareness that a photographer was lurking nearby, I would have shown him my self-defence skills.”“You said that it's not worth putting your reputation on the line.” Matthew was concerned, not only about her wellbeing but also about her professional image. He knew that sooner or later she would decide to come out of the shadows and show what she really was good at. That was just a matter of time.“Caring for my image is the only thing that holds me back, not to show him what it means to be responsible and take consequences for your own actions.” Jo exclaimed, but after a moment of hesitation, she continued.“I am a very patient person, I will wait. Maybe he will rethink his wicked behaviour. Maybe something will reach his consciousness.”&ldqu