-Chapter Two: I Need A Drink, Fast-
-By Natali-
"Oh, you mother fucking little shit straight from my asshole!" Lily swore, punching the stubborn dummy for the final time. "Take that, you damned wanker!" She kicked its side. "And one for good bloody measure. Rot in hell!" she said, kicking off its head. "Oops, sorry, Robert. Come up, sweetie."
The blue dummy got up and shook Lily's outstretched hand.
"So sorry I knocked off your head like that, but you were being a regular bugger today," she smiled, drinking some water. "I suggest you go up to the main office and get that fixed." The dummy nodded and walked away.
"Did you always curse that much when we dating?"
Lily was so surprised to hear him that she spilled water all over herself. "No, recent, I suppose. But he was being a pain." She took up her gym bag. "Really must fly, I'll see you around."
"Do you always leave whenever I enter a room?" James asked, grinning.
"It's a gift, I suppose." She headed for the door. "I suggest you stay off Robert today. I whacked off his head and he might not be feeling up to things."
He nodded. "Lily, want to talk?"
"Not necessarily," she grimaced. "Sorry, nothing personal."
"You never did like talking about things. Took me a year to figure out that we weren't heading in the same direction," James muttered, just as she put her hand on the door knob.
"You idiot, I talk about things, it had just never come up in conversation," Lily defended herself, all thoughts of leaving gone now. "And this is my gym!"
He smiled. "You were always possessive too."
"Do not talk about me like you know every damn thing about me, James," she fumed, slamming down her gym bag. "Gosh, I haven't even seen you in three years! Who's to say that I haven't changed? You noticed yourself that I swear more. Good bye."
Convinced that she was going to leave, and maybe even find a new gym, Lily turned the handle.
"Who's to say that it's not for the better?"
"Shove it, James. I still don't want a husband or kids."
"Don't believe you," he said softly. "But ok."
"Ok," she repeated, leaving for real this time.
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(-A Month Later…-)
"I need a bloody drink," Lily muttered, rubbing her temples. "Whoever decided that opera was singing must be nuts. Completely whacked. Crazy."
"Talking to yourself now, Lily?"
She looked up and frowned. "Oh, hello, James. No, just complaining about the singing. Emmy dragged me along. She's somewhere inside, `enjoying' that dreadful music. Are you stalking me, or something?"
He smiled handsomely, making her melt just a little bit. In truth, she'd forgotten all about him this past month.
"No, actually, I'm-"
"James!" cried out a curly red-haired woman in a black strapless dress. "My love, it's still going on you know."
Lily's stomach plummeted as the bitch walked straight up to him and kissed him soundly on the lips.
"This, Lily, is my new girlfriend, Erica. Erica, this is a friend from school, Lily," James said, his arm around the woman's waist. "Well, we should go back in. I'll see you around, Lily. I noticed you weren't coming to the gym anymore."
"I go in the mornings, before work now," she replied absently.
He nodded, letting Erica fall a bit ahead. "I'll see you then. By the way, Robert says hi."
She smiled, but only after he'd walked out of sight. Shaking her head, she mentally berated herself.
Oh, Lily. How could you do this to yourself? …Again.
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"Oh, James," Lily groaned, writhing in her bed. "Oh, my… Do that with your hands again. No, to the right… Right there." She moaned, louder this time, turning so much that she fell off the bed with a thump, certain to leave a bruise on her left thigh.
"Ouch!" she hissed, waking up instantly. She felt instantly like crying. She, Lily Evans, was having an erotic dream about her ex, James Potter.
And not feeling one damn bit remorseful about it.
"My gosh," she sighed, rubbing her neck. "Sad part is that he's even better in real life."
And he has a girlfriend who he's probably blessing with that delightful treatment right now, she reminded herself. A pretty girlfriend who looked nearly exactly like her. Sort of.
"I just had to wake up, right?" she sighed, looking at her clock. "Seven in the morning already? Glad I don't have any work to do. Mandy, come here!" she called to her owl. "You have to go tell Emmy to meet me at the gym."
Twenty minutes later, she was already pounding on Robert, who was feeling much better, but was feeling the stress of Lily Evans on his foam body parts.
"Ah, I see you've appeared again."
"Yes, I'm back," Lily replied, punching Robert in the jaw. "I'm sure that you're thrilled. What on earth are you doing up at this hour?"
"Same as you," James replied, picking up a towel. "I just came here to get my towel. I left it here earlier. I'm here with Erica."
Lily hid her scowl. "Tell her hi for me then." After a quick pause, she felt compelled to say, "She's pretty. Been dating for long?"
He paused near the door. "About less than a month or so. We met at the New Years party."
Lily's lips formed a small O as two dummies attacked her at the same time. "If you don't mind me saying, she's kind of… Well, kind of like me, isn't she? Red hair that curls in the most annoying fashion if not done properly, green eyes…"
"If I can't have the real thing, I've got to find the next best," he said simply, trying to hide a grin as Robert punched her in the stomach. "You ok?" he snickered.
"Fine," she gasped. "Just dandy." Doubled over, she soaked in the information. "If I can't have the real thing, I've got to find the next best." What was she supposed to make of that?
So engrossed was she in her train of thought that she didn't realize that James had crept behind her. He put either hand on either side of her waist, lightly massaging it. She let out a squeal.
"You know, I had a dream of you last night," he told her in a husky voice.
"Did you?" she asked lamely. Where were her wits?
"I did," he affirmed. "In it, you wanted me as your husband and you wanted to bear my children. In it, we were happy, in love, and had a wild sex life. My sex life hasn't been so good in the past few years. Yours?"
"Get off me, please," she whispered, standing up. "This isn't one bit fair, to me or to you."
"I just… If I had known that night, three years ago, that that was the last time I'd ever make love to you," he whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine, "I would've done much better. Maybe then…"
"James," she warned. "We're not together. And it's three years later. If your sex life's suffered, that's your fault. As if millions of women wouldn't love to shag you."
He sighed heavily. "I've missed you."
"You got over me, if Erica is apparent," she insisted coldly, as his lips brushed her shoulder. "James, I'm sweaty. Get off me, please."
He turned her around slowly, his hand massaging her cheek softly. Against her own will, she pushed her face into his hand, nuzzling him back. No one made her feel like he did.
Which was terrible, of course. But it felt so good.
"Lily… why can't we-" He broke off abruptly, dropping his hand as Erica came in. "Hello, sweetheart."
"Hey. Oh, hello, Lily!" she said, too perky for Lily's own taste. Who smiled that much anway?
"Hello," Lily responded, then to James under her breath, "We can't meet anymore. Ever." She broke off as Erica joined them.
"My, Lily, you sweat like a pig, don't you?" Erica laughed.
"Thank you," Lily bit out, glaring at her replacement, who apparently didn't sweat at all. "Well, I need to go now. I'm meeting up with a friend for coffee and then there's an art exhibit that's opened at the east end. I hope you two have a happy lifetime. You seem to be perfect for each other." She walked away, loathing the girlish giggle that Erica gave.
That was the "next best" thing to her? What did that say about her?
"Thank you, Lily. I hope that you find someone as wonderful as Jamie is," Erica cooed. "Come, we need to go and meet up with Mummy."
Disgusted, Lily disapparated to Emmy's flat, near regurgitation.
"Emmy, you will not believe what James-Ah." Lily stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes glued to the scene on the bed: Emmy and Remus tangled in the bed covers.
"I-I sent you an owl, that I couldn't go. I guess you didn't get it," Emmy said nervously. "You two've met, right?"
Lily giggled, for the first time in a few months. "Well… Just… Use protection, and let's try to prevent this from happening again." She winked and went to disapparate, but added, "By the by, nice position, you two. Looks positively kinky."
"Lily!"
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James tip toed into Lily's room, pulling off his shirt as he went. Lily lay across her bed, as if she'd expected him to come.
"I've missed you," she whispered, tugging him onto the bed. "A lot."
"Lily, tell me you love me," he whispered against her lips. "Tell me that you'll marry me, and that you'll have kids with me, Lily. Please, that's all I ask."
"I love you," she said, softly crying. "I love you so much. Are you asking me to marry you? Because if you are… the answer is yes. Please, James. I've been so afraid for so long."
He kissed her, plunging his tongue into her warm mouth, exploring its crevices with a hunger he'd never known before.
"This time, I'm not letting you go. Ever," he promised, slipping off her lacy underwear to reveal the treasure beneath.
As they began to make love, throwing themselves completely into the task, tears of joy fell down their faces, glad to be whole again.
Happy again.
In love again.
A loud, rude snore woke James up from his pleasurable dream. He sat up, distressed at his dream, looking at the sleeping Erica.
He'd just had the worst sex ever with her. It was disgusting.
His bloody dream had been better, he noted with a grimace. She'd been so cold and had even faked an orgasm.
Maybe I'd be a little nicer if you'd pretend to at least enjoy yourself, he thought bitterly. Really, as if it's such hell.
He swung his legs over the side of her bed, and apparated to his house.
"That was the crappiest shag I've ever had!" he exclaimed, climbing the stairs to his room. "Good Lord, as if it's so hard to just lie there…"
"Didn't enjoy yourself, mate?" Sirius asked, popping his head out of his door. "I could hear you complaining from downstairs. Anyway, point is, I think Remus is shagging someone."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because he told me he was shagging someone."
"Ah, that'd do it. But who?"
Sirius shrugged. "Not a clue. Well, I'm heading back to sleep, we'll interrogate our lovely shagger tomorrow morning. As for you, dump that bitch, because she's always calling on you. And it's rather annoying, if it must be known."
James shook his head. "She's terrible in bed. I never thought I'd see the day when I would never want to shag a girl ever again. And I mean that. Never."
"Too bad, too," Sirius sighed, closing the door. "She was hot."
James shook his head, continuing down the hall. When he reached his door, he was surprised to find it already open. Cautiously and with his wand out, he went in, only to find that he didn't need it. But he might need a psychologist.
There, sitting on his bed and inhaling hard liquor in pink pajamas, was Lily.
"Hello," she smiled drunkenly. "You've been forever, you know. You cannot imagine how much alcohol I've consumed in the past two hours. So much that maybe I'll even have my first hangover tomorrow morning!" She gave a high pitched laugh.
"I think that you've had enough," James said, gently taking the bottle of rum from her hands. "I'll take you back to your flat, Lily."
But she ignored him. "Do you know that I've just accepted a date with a man that I met today at the art exhibit? After, of course, Emmy and Remus disengaged themselves from their kinky position in which I found them this morning after the gym."
"What?" James sputtered. "Emmy is the girl Remus shagged?"
"As I was saying, I'm really serious about this," Lily sighed. "I know I won't love him, but Emmy says that he's a lovely guy. She knew him because they used to live on the same street. He's a muggle, damn it, but he knows about the wizarding world because his mum is a witch."
"That's… interesting, Lily. You sure you don't want to go home?" James asked, trying to ignore the jealously welling up in him. There's a guy now?
"Yes, I'm sure. I came here for a reason, you know. But back to my story," she slurred. Taking a deep breath, she seem to orient herself. "I'm going to marry this one, if he wants to. I'm ready, I've decided. I'm tired of coming home to an empty flat. I want a home, with someone who will take care of me, even if he doesn't love me."
I would love you, James felt like telling her. I would love you and take care of you. But instead, he only nodded, fists clenching.
"So yeah. You mentioned something earlier that if you had known that we were going to break up that night so long ago, you would've enjoyed it more. Or something to that effect at the least. I'm somewhat tipsy, and can't seem to even remember getting here," she giggled. "So, I'm here, to let you enjoy. I'm not so drunk that you should feel bad about sleeping with me, but neither am I sober enough to know that it's wrong because you have a girlfriend." She gave him a sloppy grin. "So what do you say, James? You in?"
This isn't how you want her. And yet, you're still willing to take what you can get, you disgusting slime ball, a voice inside his head said. Go ahead, take advantage of a girl who probably will regret her decision in the morning.
But that, he snapped at himself, is her problem. I, for one, will not regret one moment of this. She said to enjoy it, so enjoy it I will.
He made to kiss her, but she averted her head.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Don't kiss me, please," she whispered, taking his chin in her hand. "Don't."
If the request seemed odd to him, he didn't let it show. "Alright. I won't." He pushed her gently onto her back, kissing her shoulders.
She sighed happily as he slipped his hands under her girlish sleeping attire.
"I'd like to apologize for this disgusting confection," she gasped as his fingers reached her breasts. "It was all I had."
"On the bright side, you won't be wearing it for long," he chuckled. "And I think you should throw it out. It looks like something my grandmother used to wear."
They shared a laugh, and Lily seemed to sober up a bit.
Many minutes later, just as the waves of pleasure finished washing through them, James broke his promise to her.
His lips found hers and she kissed him back, without reserve. And it felt so good.
"Why are you crying?" he asked, with some effort.
With a racking sob, she said, "I'm always going to love you. I'm so sorry."
He made to tell her right back that that was how he felt too. They could stay together, get married, do everything he'd always dreamed about.
But fatigue overcame him, and after all…
He could always tell her in the morning.
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-A/N: You cannot believe how pleasantly surprised I was to find that so many people liked this story, even though it was at fanfiction.net. Goes to show, when you review a lot, I'm motivated to write. Anywho, thank you very much for reading and reviewing, and I hope that you all continue to do so.
Also, I didn't expect this chapter to happen, but for lack of anything better to do… Amie, you requested, and so I gave.
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERY ONE!
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