More Than That - Chapter 36: Learning (Gwen/Luis)
 by Jamie Witter
 

Chapter 36: Learning

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
– M. Kathleen Casey
 
 

Luis didn’t want to get out of bed. He turned to his side, scowling at the sunlight streaming through the window in the guest room of his brother’s apartment. He had been awake since nine o’clock and now two hours later, after agonizing about the situation of his life – he wished the world would just open up and swallow him whole.

But he knew that didn’t happen when you really wanted it to.

Two nights ago he had slept over at Antonio’s when he left Beth’s after getting drunk. Then, he decided it was much easier to get a long with his older brother than it was to live in a tension filled house with his mother and Theresa who seemed to have moved back in temporarily.

He didn’t need his mother’s worried glances or disappointed sighs. And he definitely could do without Theresa’s glares and back cramps.

He had enough of his own problems.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Luis stated frustrated, standing near Sheridan’s bed. “I can’t keep fighting with you over stupid things.”

“Oh so now I’m stupid?” she replied from the bed, her eyes watering despite the determined set of her jaw.

“That’s not what I said and you’re deliberately twisting my words so that I turn out to be the bad guy in the little scenario you have in your mind.”

“Oh now, Detective. I would never dream of you being the bad guy,” she shot back sarcastically. “Detective Lopez Fitzgerald is Harmony’s finest. He’s not capable of being such a jerk.”

He shook his head in disbelief and then ran a hand through his hair, trying to control his anger. “I can’t do this.”

“What can’t you do, Luis? I thought you were infallible.”

“Well apparently, I’m not good with this,” he answered and pulled his suitcase from under her bed. Her eyes widened in curiosity for a minute and then narrowed suspiciously. He indicated the space between them with a dismissive gesture. “Whatever is left of this. I can’t do it anymore.”

“What are you doing?” He could hear the fear in her voice.

“What does it look like I’m doing, Sheridan?” he retorted. “I’m packing. This is it. This is over with. I need to get away from us before things get out of control. Or maybe it’s already too late.”

She looked shocked and after a minute of gathering her bearings, she tried to speak. Her voice came out weak. “You’re leaving? Are…are you breaking up with me?”

He knew he was being cruel. But he needed to do it. For both their sakes. “Yes. I am.”

A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. “I don’t want us to break up.”

“That’s the only thing I can do right for us, now,” he answered, without looking at her. He walked over to the cupboard and pulled out his clothes, dumping them in randomly. “Maybe we’re in way over our heads.”

She sat down on a wicker chair, watching as he gathered all his stuff from the bathroom and around her bedroom. Quickly, he jerked the zipper close and pulled the suitcase off her bed and looked at her.

She looked so lost. She looked like such a stranger.

She met his gaze, pale blue eyes swimming in tears and even through all the anger and pain he wanted to take her in his arms and make them go away.

“Goodbye Sheridan.”

He grumbled to himself and pulled the covers savagely from his body as he sat up in bed. Swinging his feet over the edge, he stepped on the metal part of his belt that he had left on the floor the night before and cursed loudly. “F*ck!”

He was glad for the millionth time in the last two days that he wasn’t home.

He pressed the palms of his hand to his eyes, hard to keep from cursing again. He shot off the bed, pulled on his wife beater and jeans and made his way to the kitchen, hoping that food would do him some good.

The musical laughter of a woman greeted him as he made his way to Antonio’s kitchen and he found his brother in a heated lip-lock with a sultry redhead who was wrapped in nothing but a linen sheet. Reluctantly amused, Luis cleared his throat making his presence known. The couple pulled apart but not completely and turned to face him. Antonio smiled at him with thinly veiled annoyance. “Hello, little brother.”

“I didn’t know you had company,” Luis replied with a little grin as he opened the fridge. He then addressed the woman in his brother’s arms who was flushed and more embarrassed than her lover. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Luis Lopez Fitzgerald.”

“Jade Winslow,” she replied her green eyes sparkling with the laughter of woman caught doing a something she never had before but still remained unrepentant. “Antonio was telling me all about you.”

Luis was curiously studying her face, trying to remember why it was her name sounded so familiar. He was sure he hadn’t seen her before, but the name was pretty…Gwen, he thought triumphantly as the name popped in his head. Gwen went rushing off to meet her that morning and I…I seduced her into staying.

His manners prevailed over his discomfort with Jade knowing the nitty gritty details of his affair with Gwen and he smiled politely. “Well Tony tends to twist the truth a bit. Like for instance, when I asked him if he was seeing anyone, he looked me straight in the eye and said ‘no’.”

Jade giggled and Antonio shot him withering glance. “I wasn’t seeing anyone when you asked me, dufus.”

The redhead raked a finger over his cheek. “That’s because I wouldn’t give you the time of day then.”

Luis let out a whoop of laughter as he buttered a piece of bread and then stuck it in the toaster. “Good for you, Jade. You have to knock him down a peg or two.”

Antonio sat down at the table and arched an eyebrow. “She said we Lopez Fitzgerald men were notorious. And we were trouble.”

“Smart woman.”

Jade grinned and swept the bottom of the linen sheet that was dragging on the floor, up in her arm. “Thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve given you boys enough eye candy for one morning. I’m going to go find my clothes.”

When she left, Luis smiled devilishly at his brother. “So someone got lucky. She looks like a temptress and has the smile of an angel. What in the world is she doing with you?”

“I’m going to take that as a backhanded way of saying that you approve,” his older brother quipped and took a sip from the mug of coffee that rested on the table. “She’s friends with both Gwen and Sheridan.”

The timer on the toaster pinged and Luis replied through gritted teeth. “I know.”

Antonio slapped the tabletop lightly and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, no mention of Sheridan or Gwen. I understand. Listen, if you really don’t want to think about that right now, I suggest you distract yourself by looking into that apartment you were so keen on moving into.”

“Tired of me already?” Luis scoffed.

“No, I just think that you shouldn’t let your whole life come to a complete stop just because your love life is in shambles. You don’t know when Sheridan is coming back and you’re not to keen on the idea of talking to Gwen, do something else other than moping around.” Antonio explained sagely.

Luis hated to admit that his brother was right. So he didn’t – not directly. “Maybe I will.”

“Good,” Antonio stated and pulled out a paper from underneath a magnet of the fridge door. “I heard that the people in 5C are moving. This is the number of the landlord. Call and make an appointment. The place is just right for you.”

He nodded and ran a hand over his face before looking his brother in the eyes with sincerity. “Thanks Tony.”

“Yeah, well I’d rather have you living above me than anybody else.”

“I’m touched.”

“As you should be.”

Luis laughed ad Antonio left the kitchen. His brother’s morning antics had proved to be just the thing he needed to get away from his problems and focus on the rest of his life.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Gwendolyn!” Rebecca stated with a semi-pout in Gwen’s office. “Are you listening to one word I am saying?”

“Mother,” she stated through clenched teeth. “I am trying to work.”

“Of course you are! It’s for your father, you’ve always put him before me!” she complained, shifting her position on the leather in front of Gwen’s desk. “Ever since he’s been sick, you’ve been by his side. But when I am going through this sordid divorce, you won’t even stop by!”

“Because you brought this on yourself!” Gwen stated irritated. “You’ve put Father through so much stress, so much humiliation…and I think it’s about time the two of you went your separate ways. And I don’t see why you’re complaining! You’re milking him dry!”

Rebecca jutted her jaw out indignantly. “You’d have done the same thing.”

That comment made Gwen shoot out of her chair furiously. “I wouldn’t have humiliated my husband by chasing after another married man for his money. I wouldn’t have used my own daughter and I surely wouldn’t have sunk to the low depths that you have! Leave Mother, before I say something I won’t be able to take back.”

Rebecca’s eyes flashed with rage. “You already have. I’m going.”

“Close the door on your way out.”

“You know,” her mother said stopping at the door. “You weren’t always such a goody two shoes. Ever since you started sleeping with Luis…”

Gwen clenched her jaw. “How did you find out about that?”

“I have my ways,” she replied discreetly. “So it is true. Seriously Gwen, I thought you were smarter than to sleep with a Lopez Fitzgerald. They’re all trouble. And this was your chance to win Ethan back. I even hear he has having trouble with Theresa. We both knew it was - ”

“No!” Gwen raged. “I will not let you trample over me, Mother. It’s my life! And I will sleep with whomever I choose. I moved on with my life. I suggest you start moving on with yours.”

“But that’s the thing, Gwen,” Rebecca stated calmly. “You haven’t moved on. You’re still in the same place you were two years ago. Wanting something you don’t have. It’s just a different man, this time.”

Internally, Gwen knew her mother was trying to get to her but she couldn’t help fight back the tears that were threatening to surface. Her mother was right. In the end, she was somehow always unsympathetically right. And Gwen hated it.

She opted for the only thing that would make Rebecca leave. “I’m going to call security if you don’t leave. They have been informed of the divorce and Daddy has specifically mentioned he wants you no where near his office and if he gets his way, no where near this building.”

Silently, Rebecca left.

Gwen slammed her hand hard against her desk and swore.

Unlovable. The word kept repeating in her head.

She grabbed her purse and walked out of her office determined. Rebecca wasn’t going to get to her. She wasn’t going to let her.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sheridan closed her eyes and composed herself. All of her life, she had been weak and the one people needed to take care of her. In death, she wished to be remembered as strong, as brave and as someone who learned her lessons well.

She picked the phone and dialed Lu’s cell phone number.

“Hello?”

“Hey Luis, it’s me.”

“Sheridan,” he stated evenly. “Are you home?”

Home, she thought and looked around her living room. She smiled. “Yes, I am. Can you come over for dinner tonight? We need to talk.”

After a paused he answered. “Yes. I’d love to.”

“Seven, okay for you?”

“I’ll see you then.” She hung up and headed towards the kitchen to make preparations.

Life was about making choices. She'd learned that much.

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