Perfection

Chapter 26

"You missed breakfast," Jason announced as Trevor stepped into the large busy kitchen filled with Bradfords and food.

"That's fine. I'm not really hungry," he said, barely aware or caring that all activity in the busy kitchen suddenly stopped as every Bradford in the room, even one year old Cole stopped trying to climb onto the counter to get at the large platter of cookies his mother made to stare at him in disbelief.

"You're not hungry?" his aunt Megan asked, frowning as she wiped her hands on her pale green apron. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered automatically as he stole the vegetable peeler out of Jason's hand and started in on one of the thirty pound bags of potatoes. Right now he needed something to focus on instead of how pissed he was.

"Trevor, sweetheart, do you want to talk?" his aunt asked and he didn't have to look up to know that she was probably twisting her hands nervously in her apron. She was a worrier and a babier and on a good day all her fussing was hard to take and today sure as hell was not a good day. "Why don't I make you up a quick plate of eggs and bacon and we can go into the living room and-"

He shook his head. "I'm fine, Aunt Megan. Really."

"But-"

"He's fine, honey," Jared said. "But I could use a hand finding the cranberry sauce."

"Wasn't it on the counter?" Megan asked, leaving him to help Jared and hopefully forgetting all about him for the day, which he knew wasn't likely to happen. She'd just wait to corner him and bug the hell out of him until he told her what was wrong.

"You want to talk about it?" Jason asked quietly so that the rest of their family wouldn't hear.

"There's nothing to talk about," he said, taking out his anger on the potato in his hand since he couldn't spank Zoe's ass at the moment, and not in the good way.

Why the hell hadn't she wanted to take things to the next level with him?

"I'm fine. Great even." But he wasn't. He was dying to hunt Zoe down and spank her ass until she agreed to live with him, no, begged him to live together.

"You know where to find me when you're ready to talk," Jason said, sounding so damn sure of himself and further pissing him off.

"I don't need to talk to you," he snapped, grabbing another potato.

"Uh huh," Jason said, yawning. "Whatever you do don't kidnap her, that'll only piss her off more. Believe me I know."

"Whatever, just go away and leave me alone," he said, stealing the potato out of Jason's hand.

"Fine, I'll go see if my little grasshopper needs help setting the dining room table," he said with a shrug.

Trevor watched as his cousin snagged a large chocolate chunk cookie from one of the platters and gave it to his son, who happily took it and settled himself on the floor, out of the way. After giving the boy a wink and him a meaningful look he headed out the swinging kitchen door to help his wife.

He watched with bored interest as his Aunt Megan stormed over to the door and shoved it open. "Don't you dare try to drag her off, Jason Bradford!"

Thirty pounds of potatoes, forty pounds of butternut squash, three trips to the convenient store down the street, hundred bucks poorer and four hours later Trevor was pushing his food around on his plate, wondering if Zoe was giving his idea any thought and wondering why her hesitation felt like she was pulling away from him.

For the first time in his life he couldn't eat and didn't want to. What he wanted was to hunt down Zoe and force her to see his side. He would already be heading out the door to drag her home except for one little problem.

He had absolutely no idea where she was.

The few times he tried to get her to talk about her family she quickly changed the subject. They also never came down or seemed to be involved in her life at all, which actually pissed him off. What the hell kind of family stood around and let someone as great as Zoe struggle? And where the hell have they been?

He could name at least a half dozen instances where she could have used family in last few months, but not once did he hear anything about them showing any concern for her. When he'd asked about her Thanksgiving plans he wanted to demand that she come with him, but the way she spoke of her Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and how much she looked forward to it every year put a stop to that. They might not be close, but at least they made sure she was taken care of during the holidays.

That was something, he thought, not much, but more than they'd been doing for her.

"Haley, why did you make a pumpkin pie with a 'Z' on it?" Jason asked as he walked into the dining room with his daughter happily sleeping in one arm, Cole wrapped around his leg, and carrying the second platter of turkey Aunt Megan had asked him to get a few minutes ago. He was actually surprised there was any meat left on the plate or that his aunt trusted Jason or any of the Bradford males to go into the kitchen unsupervised after last Christmas.

As Haley struggled to pull Cole off Jason's leg, she said, "I was hoping Zoe would come, but just in case I figured I'd send the pie home with Trevor."

Jared snorted at that. "It will never make it to the house," he said, although he did throw Trevor and his untouched plate a curious look.

"It better make it there," Haley said, giving him what she probably thought was a stern look, but even he had to admit she was really too damn cute to pull it off, not like his Zoe. Now that woman knew how to glare, he thought with a wistful sigh.

"I tried to get her to come, but I think she's still mad at me," Jared grumbled, sounding truly unhappy.

"She's not mad at you and you did what you had to do," Trevor said, knowing it was the truth, but he knew his uncle felt bad for making Zoe cry. It didn't matter that Zoe went out of her way to show the man how much she appreciated Jared caring enough to talk to her or the dozen cupcakes that she'd bought him, the man simply couldn't tolerate a woman crying.

"She has no family or anywhere to go for the holidays. If she wasn't mad at me she would have come," Jared grumbled, sighing as he pushed his food around his own plate.

The fork in his hand dropped with a loud clink as his uncle's words sank in. "She doesn't have any family?" he asked, wondering why the hell she never told him.

"She grew up in foster care," Haley said softly.

He shoved away from the table, holding back several choice words as he shared a look with an equally stunned Jason.

"Well, let's go get her then," Jason said, handing his baby girl over to Jared and swiping a roll off Haley's plate before heading for the door.

Trevor was about to tell him that he didn't need any help, but then he realized that having a witness just might stop him from throttling Zoe's pretty little neck.

"Don't worry I ordered a little something special for the two of you," Zoe said as she hung up the phone. Toby and Max gave her little puppy barks of approval as she gave them each a quick pat and headed back upstairs to grab a pillow and a blanket.

As she headed downstairs her stomach growled loudly, demanding food and making her groan. She really hoped she was able to keep down her special Thanksgiving lunch. It was something she looked forward to every year and something she allowed herself to have whether she was on a diet or not.

P.B. Chang's was the best Chinese food in the area and something she normally didn't allow herself because she usually couldn't afford it, which is why she only treated herself to it twice a year. It also didn't hurt that the two days she allowed herself the treat were also the two days P.B. Chang's automatically doubled the amount of food for free. While other people were going to be eating turkey for several days she'd be eating Chinese food.

"Let's get set up, guys," she said cheerfully, earning several barks of approval.

After depositing her blanket and pillow on the couch she took the dogs out for a quick walk and quickly changed into a Red Sox tee shirt, baby pink flannel pajamas and a pair of Trevor's thick white socks. She was just sliding the first disc of her "X-Files" DVD collection into the DVD player for her Thanksgiving Day "X-File" marathon when a knock sounded at the door.

She grabbed her wallet and headed to the door, giving the dogs a stern look to stay put. With small groans they did just that. As she opened the door the aroma of fried chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and beef teriyaki hit her hard and made her mouth water. She could not wait to tear into her food, which was a good thing considering how much food there was. Maybe she'd ordered too much, she thought as she frowned down at the two large brown paper bags that were overflowing with food. She may have gone overboard ordering this year, forgetting that they'd double whatever she ordered, but that was okay because she was starving.

It was only after the delivery boy left that she realized that he didn't bring her orange soda, not that she could complain. She paused the movie and quickly grabbed two cold cans of Coke, knowing she'd go through them and returned to the living room to find her boys sniffing around the bags.

"Be good and I'll give you something yummy," she said teasingly as she opened the bags and quickly found the beef and broccoli she'd ordered for them. After she split the small carton between them she sat on the couch, pulled the coffee table closer and hit the "Play" button as she got comfortable.

After Trevor's little announcement this morning she really needed this. She wasn't sure what was going on with Trevor, but she knew that she couldn't go much further with him before she broke. She loved him so much that she was actually afraid to take any chances on him.

Not that it was much of a risk considering that he hadn't exactly offered his undying love or anything. The only thing he'd offered her was convenience, whatever that meant. She loved him and she was pretty sure that he cared about her, more than just for the arrangement, but he didn't have anything else to offer her and she'd be stupid to sit here depressing herself over something that she had no control over at the moment.

At least she could drown her sorrows in extra duck sauce, she thought, reaching over to start on the bag closest to her.

"Oh, look at that, Jason. She got us a little snack for the ride," Trevor suddenly said, scaring the living hell out of her.

Gasping for breath, she pressed a hand to her chest and wondered if her heart was ever going to be able to stop pounding against her chest. "Stop doing that to me!"

"Doing what?" Trevor asked, never taking his eyes away from her as he crouched down to greet the excited dogs.

"Scaring the hell out of me!" she snapped.

Trevor shrugged as he continued to pet the dogs.

Jason threw the dogs a curious look as he stepped further into the apartment only to come to an abrupt halt when he spotted the label on the brown paper bags.

"Is that," he noticeably swallowed, "P.B. Chang's?"

"Yes," she said, gesturing towards the bags, "would you like some?" The words were barely out of her mouth before she found herself moving quickly out of the way as Jason sat down next to her with a carton of chicken fingers in his hand and one already in his mouth.

Shaking her head in wonder, she turned her attention back to Trevor to find the man glaring at her, but that didn't bother her since he seemed to glare at everyone.

"Aren't the two of you supposed to be with your family?" she asked, cautiously reaching out to grab a chicken finger only to pause halfway when Jason shifted the box away from her with a murderous glare. With a small groan, she let her hand drop. Even though she was starving and it was P.B. Chang's it wasn't worth losing a finger or two over.

"We were, but we had to leave to come get you," Trevor bit out, looking angrier than she'd ever seen him before. Then again he had left a Thanksgiving meal to come here and she could only imagine the insane amount of food served at a Bradford get-together.

"Why?" she asked, reaching out to open the bag closest to her only to pause halfway there. She threw Jason an incredulous look. "Did you just growl at me?"

He gave her a sheepish smile and a shrug. "Sorry, habit."

With an eye roll and a few muttered words about Bradfords and their food obsession she pulled the bag closer to her, throwing Jason a cautious glance only to find the man leaning back on the couch, watching television as he devoured a large carton of beef teriyaki.

Didn't he just have chicken fingers? With a mental shake she forced herself to focus on the really pissed off man.

"Well, since I didn't ask you to come the two of you can return to your Thanksgiving dinner and I can go back to mine....." Her words trailed off as she looked at Jason.

Wasn't he just eating the carton of beef teriyaki? He ignored her questioning look as he dug into the large carton of noodles. Sighing, she went to grab her Coke only to find it and the backup she'd brought out only minutes earlier empty next to a large stack of empty food cartons.

"You call this Thanksgiving dinner?" Trevor demanded, grabbing her attention from trying to calculate how much food Jason went through in a day. It was actually frightening, because it appeared that he ate more than Trevor.

"No," she said, jabbing a thumb in Jason's direction, "I call this Jason's light snack."

"Sorry," Jason mumbled, not really sounding sorry at all, but that was all right because unfortunately the scents she thought were enticing only a few minutes before were actually starting to turn her stomach.

"Look, I don't have to time to fight about this. Run upstairs and throw some clothes on so that we can go," Trevor said, gesturing lazily towards the stairs.

"Go where?" she asked, moving away from Jason, not only because he was actually starting to frighten her, but the garlicky odor from the noodles was starting to make her feel sick.

"Go back to Thanksgiving dinner," he snapped.

"Um, I was having Thanksgiving dinner," she pointed out, not bothering to add that she planned on sending the bags of food with the men, which was hopefully soon because she really wasn't sure how much more her poor stomach could take.

She went to stand up only to have to sit right back down as a wave of dizziness hit her.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked around a mouthful of food.

"Yeah," she said, taking a deep breath, "I'm fine."

"Because you kind of looked a little pale there for a second," Jason pointed out as Trevor dropped to his knees in front of her.

He cupped her face. "Are you okay?" he asked, pushing her hair out of her face.

She pushed his hands away. "Yes, I'm fine. Now would the two of you just go back to your family dinner so I can go back to mine?"

Not that she could eat anything at the moment. Between her stomach twisting and her head spinning she didn't think she'd be able to hold anything down for a while, never mind eat.

"You need to-" Trevor began, but she'd had enough already. She was sick and tired of the games, and of this stupid arrangement which only made her want to cry herself to sleep most nights because she loved him so much and she was nothing to him. She shoved to her feet, forcing him to back up so that she could walk away from him.

"No, you need to go," she snapped.

"It's my goddamn house!"

"No," she said, pointing in the direction of his apartment, "that's your goddamn house. This is my home."

"It's one and the same," he said between clenched teeth.

"No, it's not! I'm your tenant, you're my landlord! That's it! You have no business coming here and telling me what to do!" she yelled, feeling herself tear up, but she couldn't help it. She was so exhausted. She was physically tired, emotionally strung out from pretending not to love him. She couldn't take this anymore.

"I'm a hell of a lot more than just your landlord!" he said, clenching and unclenching his hands by his side as though he were fighting back the urge to grab her.

"What are you then?" she demanded, taking a step towards him. "Are you my employer? My friend? Or my fuck buddy? Because last time I checked none of those titles gave you the right to come in here and demand anything!"

"Wow....this is so awkward," Jason mumbled, but instead of getting up and leaving like any normal person would he simply tore into the second bag, grabbed anther carton and gestured for the dogs to join him on the couch.

Trevor on the other hand looked close to killing her. "You know damn well what I am," he bit out evenly.

"Yeah, I do," she said, wiping at her face with the back of her hand as she made a decision. "You're my ex-landlord, ex-employer, and ex-fuck buddy. So get out," she said, rushing out of the room before she broke out into sobs.

She made it to her room before the first one escaped and was sobbing hysterically by the time she stumbled into her bathroom to splash cold water on her face. By the time she'd realized what she'd done she was already blacking out and falling towards the edge of the bathtub.