Chain Reaction 3.31: Soulmate

Charlotte

      Jarvis is washing the gratuitous amount of hair product out of his hair simply because I asked him to. I'm glad. He just didn't look like him if that makes any sense.

      I hear the water turn off, and I mentally prepare myself once more for the emotional tidal wave of happiness and love that's been coming from him the past few hours.

     The bathroom door opens, and he steps out...

     ...shirtless. My mouth drops open.

     "Hi," he says in a typical Jarvis fashion. Then, like a playful kid, he bounds over to me and flops down onto the couch.

     I look down. "Did you forget something?"

     "Like what?" he asks like he has no idea what I mean when I know he does. "Oh. Yeah, I did." He tilts his head and gives me quick kiss. I thought he smelled good before. That's nothing compared to now. I get lost in his emerald eyes for a minute before he asks, "So does my hair pass inspection? You haven't said anything about it."

     "Forgive me if I'm a little distracted." What kind of game is he playing?

     "Distracted? Why are you distracted?" He runs a finger down my jaw before kissing me again, this time for longer.

     I clear my throat. "When did you, um, get a tattoo?"

     "About... three months ago, I think. I hope it's okay because I like it." His eyes travel hungrily down my dress, and he starts kissing my shoulder.

     I can't stand it. I have to point out the obvious. "Jarvis, you're not wearing a shirt!"

     He goofily acts like it just occurred to him. "Oh yeah. Well, you said you wanted the real Jarvis."

     I giggle, guessing where he's going with this.

     He continues, "So this is how I look just hanging around at my place. Sometimes I have on even less clothing. I can fix that if you want."

     I laugh louder. It's funnier because I know he would if I asked. "No, that won't be necessary."

     "Why is this funny? This is exactly how I am when I'm by myself. Though, I'm never this happy." He leans in and starts quietly talking into my ear. "I'd often fix that by fantasizing about you. That would usually make me much ...'happier.'"

     I gasp and turn to look at him. He expected that and immediately goes in for another kiss. What am I supposed to do with my hands?! Normally, I'd rest them on his shoulders or arms...but those are bare! When he moves to kissing my neck, I say, "It's just you're in your pajamas while I'm still in my formal wear."

     "I'm glad you noticed," he says against my throat. "We could fix that. You know... if you're feeling overdressed." His hand happily moves under my skirt again.

     I pull his hand out, but he's not dismayed. Instead, he leans heavily into me, pushing me back against the couch with him on top of me. Before I know it, we're making out. He doesn't try to remove my dress again, but his hands go everywhere. It's never been this wonderful for me. I start to enjoy the fact that he's not wearing a shirt. His skin tastes good.
     Jarvis' joy is contagious, especially for me, especially because I'm also producing plenty of my own ecstatic happiness. Yes, I do feel a twinge of guilt for what we did to Aunt Isabella, but Jarvis and I are meant to be.
     But Isabella doesn't deserve to be hurt like that.
     My kissing Jarvis back skids to a halt as the 'twinge' of guilt more becomes a two-by-four hitting me in the head.
     He notices the change in me. "What is it?"
     "I'm a horrible person."
     He sits us up again.

     "Tell me why you just said that."
     I sigh and look at the floor. "Because of what we did to Isabella. I mean, I know she'll be okay. She liked you because you felt secure to her. I don't think she's ever been in love. I don't know. Maybe I'm misreading her."
     "Well, I am so very much in love. And it's so awesome that you know. And I'm so elated you're not trying to fight it away. Please don't let this be another start to that, to you fighting me away. Yeah, I'm not thrilled either with hurting someone, but that is so heavily outweighed by my happiness at this moment." He pauses. "Could I ask you something, though?"
     "Yeah."
     "What changed? Was it seeing me with someone else?"
     "That was probably the proverbial back-breaking straw, but it was mostly Dwight helping me there."
     "Who's Dwight?" Jealousy from him punches me.
     I sigh. "He and I met the night you and Tommy had that fistfight. We became friends. He's fascinated with my empathetic ability. That's what he calls it. Everyone has it to some extent, but with me, you know, it's very acute. Anyway..." I go on to tell him what Dwight told me about being traumatized by my mother's death. Jarvis finally hears the reason I've always pushed him away: I didn't want him to get hurt if I died. It was bad enough when it happened to Daddy, but I couldn't bear the thought of it happening to the man I love.
     He lets that soak in for a few minutes. Then, he speaks. "I would never, ever trade perpetual loneliness for avoiding devastating heartbreak. You should talk to your dad. I don't really know him, but I'll bet you he'll say the same thing, that he'd rather have the too-short time with your mom than none at all." He reaches over and takes my hand.

     "I love you, Lottie. I want this to be the beginning of something that lasts our entire lives. I want," he chuckles, "grandchildren with you. I..." He gets extremely nervous suddenly, so much so that he's queasy. "I want you to know that I'm very serious about this, going to the very utmost extreme limit of seriousness." I get the feeling he chickened out of something he might've said. Still, I couldn't be happier with it.
     I smile and look at our hands. He loves me more than I do him, but that's because he's had time to let his grow while I did my best to try and prune it out of existence. Its strong, stubborn roots refused to fade, however. Maybe I can graft onto it some from his.

      Jarvis is my best friend. My boyfriend. My soulmate.
      He takes in and lets out a shaking breath while looking into my eyes. He's so darn cute like this. "I'm basically asking for as much a committed relationship as possible."

     "I'd like that," I reply, and he kisses me. Where did he learn to kiss like this?

Click here to go to 3.32