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Part XV

After the kiss incident, Marshall took great pains to make sure he kept the relationship between him and Coral as normal as possible. He didn’t want her to feel like she had done something wrong and he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.
Which obviously she wasn’t because the night of Fourth of July she met up with her ex-boyfriend from high school. Marshall was the one left feeling uncomfortable when she told him that she’d be going out with the ex again that Friday night and not to expect her home until late.
Obviously it hadn’t meant that much to her since she was moving on. Good. He was glad, there were no worries now. He’d been shut down and now he didn’t have to wonder how she felt.
Then why the hell was he so pissed off about it?

In the ensuing month they worked diligently on getting his office put together. Here they decided they could use the space to work on the designs for the rest of the house and he would have a space for his computer. As per his agreement with himself, he had been just as friendly towards Coral as before the kiss, and that meant talking to her about this guy.
“So who is he? What’s he do?” Marshall asked while they were putting down the drop cloth and taping it to the baseboards.
“His name is Ryan Haste, he’s, if you couldn’t have guessed it, a lawyer.”
“Another lawyer? Damn. How long did you two go together?”
“Four years. We were fine until graduation, he was going into pre-law and I wasn’t. He went off to Bard, then to Harvard. I stayed here. We lost contact after that,” Coral replied.
“You two stopped dating, just because he was going to law school? Was it because you wanted to be a chef?” Marshall asked confused.
“No, it really wasn’t that. I mean, we were, at least I thought we were, in love. I thought four years was enough to figure that out, but he, he didn’t want that kind of commitment. Not right out of high school anyway. Besides, he’d be at Bard, I was gonna be in Paris, that relationship would never have worked out anyways.”
“He didn’t want to get married?”
“No, he didn’t. My parents thought us getting married would have been a great idea. Two budding young lawyers in the family, a young man from a good and prominent family in the community. He had white picket fence and golden retriever stamped on his forehead. But I wasn’t the little lawyer, and he didn’t want to get married. It was an amicable parting, between me and Ryan that is. Between him and my parents, that was another story.” Coral laughed.
“They really liked him?”
“Oh yeah. They blame him partly for me not wanting to be a lawyer. They think, if we had gotten married, right now I’d be a corporate lawyer, just like them. Ripping companies to shreds, laying people off left and right and feeding the bloody wreckage to the sharks.” She ripped the piece of tape she was working with off the roll and flattened it against the boards on the wall.
“When you say you thought you were in love, how did you know? When did you know?” Marshall asked carefully.
“Oh that’s easy. I knew it right from the beginning. I’m one of those kinds of people who believe in love at first sight. Well, maybe not first sight, I mean life isn’t as romantic as that photo I keep hanging on my wall. Life’s not as pretty and photoshoped like that. But I think I knew when I saw him, just standing with his friends in the cafeteria one day, and this other girl, a real enemy of mine, came up to him and asked him out to our prom. Now we weren’t really an exclusive thing at that point, but he turned around to the cafeteria, jumped up on a table and shouted, ‘For your information, the girl I’m taking to the prom is Coral Matthews, and that’s because she’s my girl, and don’t any of you think of trying to go for her, and don’t none of you girls try bothering me either.’” Coral was laughing and shaking her head.
“He actually did that?”
“Yeah, he did. From that day on, we spent almost all of our time together. I really thought we had something going.”Coral said thoughtfully.
“You think you two might get back together?” Marshall asked carefully, though he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to hear the answer. Coral stilled for a moment, considering that thought.
“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s been ten years, people change. When people become lawyers, they change, and sometimes not for the better.” She replied seriously.
“I didn’t tell him that I married you,” she added suddenly.
“Good, you don’t want to scare him off.” he replied ripping off a piece of tape, a little harder than he intended.
“I doubt he’d be interested again. I mean, he is a famous trial attorney, and well, and a cook, it’s not exactly making the nicest picture for his desk now is it?” Coral chuckled. Marshall could tell that she was seriously thinking about getting together with this guy and for more than just coffee and a chat about old times.
“If he can’t see how great a person you are, just for you, than he doesn’t deserve you. It don’t matter what you do for a living, as long as you’re happy.” Marshall said gruffly.
“Thanks Marshall.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He kept his back to her as he worked, though he could feel her smile burning into his back. He hated this. Pretending to be something he wasn’t didn’t come naturally to him. Good thing 8 Mile was so close to home, otherwise it would have been shit. He wasn’t an actor. He couldn’t play happy while he was mad.

Coral knew what she was doing was wrong, but there was nothing else to do about it. Ryan had been her first love and if she had a chance at rekindling that, she was going to take it. Besides, they still hadn’t gotten the divorce notice, Paul was beyond frustrated at the legal hoops they were making him jump through to get the paperwork in order. They had signed at least half a dozen different sets of divorce papers and still none of them had gone through.
Coral had made a deal with herself. As soon as those divorce papers had gone through, she was going to move out of Marshall’s house, get that job with Jackie, and put all this behind her. Of course, she thought to herself, that’s easier said than done.
Since that kiss, Coral was sure that she had been a little bit dopier around the kitchen. In fact, right after the kiss happened she burned herself, the stew meat she was cooking and even over cooked the pasta. It was such a short kiss, but it had been worth waiting for. Now was the hard part.
Marshall acted like he wanted to forget it, so that meant he wasn’t going to try anything else. He thought he had already overstepped his boundaries. There was no use in crying over spilled milk. Ryan had come back into her life, and well, what other opportunity with him was she going to have? If Marshall got hurt in the process it was only his own damn fault for being so stubborn. Then why did she feel like she was cheating on him?

After the initial conversation of Ryan Haste, there were no others. Marshall didn’t feel the need to bring him up, considering the fact that he didn’t like him. And Coral did not want to be an instigator. She could tell Marshall was under some strain. He tried to make out like he was happy for her, but he was just a bit chillier than normal.
It wasn’t until one night when Coral got into an argument over the phone with Ryan, and Marshall had heard.
“No Ryan, I don’t want to go. No, what part of that don’t you understand? I don’t care if it’s your family picnic, I don’t like beaches. I’m not being a baby Ryan, no, no, I’m not going, goodbye.” Marshall stood with eyes wide in surprise as she hung up the phone in disgust.
“You all right?” he asked cautiously.
“No, I’m not. This being afraid of water crap is seriously fucking with my life,” she replied sitting down at the counter.
“You don’t want to be afraid of the water?”
“No. Who does? I want to be able to be normal, go and sit on the beach without having a heart attack.”
“I could help you, if you want?” Marshall was jumping at the chance to do anything with Coral that might allow him to get a little bit closer to her and maybe make up for the jerky way he’d been acting lately. Yeah he was jealous of this guy, but he knew as well as Coral, there was no way in hell he’d be making another move, so he should just be happy with what he got.
“Really? You’d do that for me? I mean, no therapist crap, I mean, helping me, not to freak out?” she asked.
“Yeah, if that’s what you want,” Marshall replied sheepishly. She nodded and smiled.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I want.”

Cody sat on his newly erected perch on the patio table by the pool as he watched Marshall and Coral standing by the pool’s edge. The pool went down gradually in depth, so there was no danger in drowning. Coral’s body was vibrating with nervousness.
“All right, I’m going to get in here, right where it’s shallow, and then I’ll help you, okay?” he asked softly. She nodded with a shake and watched as he did what he’d said, holding up his hands to take hers.
“Now see, this is all it is. Only a foot of water, you can do this Coral, I’ve seen you eat a foot long sub, you can definitely take on a foot of water,” Marshall said and she laughed. She nodded.
“Okay, okay,” she said as grabbed his hand and stepped gingerly into the water. Her hands were shaking as they came in contact with his. She was really afraid.
“What you trying to do to me, huh? Make a vanilla milkshake with those hands?” he asked as he took a step backwards.
“Don’t do that,” she laughed.
“What?”
“Move backwards, not, not yet,” she replied.
“All right all right, we’ll just relax here for a moment.” They stood there, facing one another, Coral’s big coffee colored eyes now clouded with terror. She really didn’t want to be here, but she really didn’t want to be so afraid.
“Now come on and show Cody there, what his momma can do,” Marshall chuckled.
“That reminds me, I got to get another cuttle bone for his cage,” Coral replied and at this Marshall was able to coax her further.
“Yeah, and I need to get light bulbs, three went out in the upstairs fixture.”
“You gonna change those things?” she asked.
“Well yeah, eventually, but we’ve only gotten the living room and Hailie’s room finished. We have to get the office done so we can plan the rest of the house.” as they talked, slowly but surely Marshall was pulling her into the deeper water. She didn’t start to panic until the water was covering her hips, and then she said she couldn’t do any more.
“Nope, this is it, I can’t do it. I can’t. I thought I could, but I can’t,” she tried to pull from Marshall’s grasp, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Hey, now just calm down, take a deep breath, relax. I’m right here, look at me Coral.” She turned her face to his and starred into his eyes. She couldn’t be afraid of much.
“Do you think I would let you drown? Huh? The guy who dived in and saved you? The guy who nearly killed himself diving into this pool. The guy who ruined a good pair of Nike’s to jump in here and save your skinny ass?” he asked, she bit her bottom lip and laughed.
“No, you wouldn’t,” she replied. She took the step forward, the same time he took another step back.
“Oh come on, that’s not fair!” she laughed.
“Come on, you can do it Coral, I know you can. Remember, Coral belongs in water,” he replied tugging a little on her hand.
“And your little Eminems are gonna be squashed and melted in a bag on the pavement in about a minute!” she laughed, taking the step forward.
“That’s fine and dandy, but come on, you can do it, just one more,” he said edging back just a tad. She moved forward suddenly, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.
“Thank you,” she said, finally feeling safe in the water, finally feeling like she had some semblance of control back in her life.
“I don’t know what I’d do with out you,” she remarked, hugging him as tight as she could.
“You’re welcome, any time.” Marshall felt some part of his facade fall away, and for another first in his life, he wasn’t afraid of it.