hands pinned behind your back

The elevator door closed again, with Victoria still in it, frozen still.  She couldn't move, she could barely hear anything other than her own heartbeat pounding into her brain, she felt her legs growing weak, shaking, she wasn't sure if she could ever take a step forward and out of the metal box she was locked in.

After a few minutes, she found the courage to press the button, and let the doors open wide. Her stride was shaky, her fear was palpable, it washed over her like the scent of perfume. She saw a familiar figure standing at the front door, probably around 20 feet away from her, the only sane thought in her mind was to keep waking towards him.

"Hi babe" Joe initially greeted her as usual. Then he noticed the lack of any color in her face, her eyes opened like orbs, her demeanor filled with fear. "What? What happened Victoria? Did something happen right now? Was someone here?" Victoria didn't reply, she just grabbed Joe's hand as tight as humanly possible and yanked him out of the building. She could feel him fight her grip, begging for answers, demanding her to stop and tell him, but she couldn't to that right now, the feeling of threat was too overwhelming.

Joe finally gave up on demanding Victoria to stop and talk to him. He could tell how delicate the situation was by her actions, so he followed suit, making sure to hold onto her as if his life depended on it, and he started walking to his car as fast as he could without starting to run.

Victoria didn't want to run. She felt like a chase wasn't truly a chase until someone ran. And she sure as hell didn't wanna be chased around in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night, even if she had Joe by her side.

Joe opened the door of the car for her, and quickly got into the driving seat. Victoria immediately locked the car doors. The panic in her voice was so intense, Joe could feel it, even if he didn't know what had happened yet.

"Please just drive" She begged. Joe complied, not sure about what else to do for his girlfriend to start talking to him, he didn't know if keeping on pushing her was the right move, but he was desperate for answers. He waited until they had been on the car for a solid 5 minutes. "Victoria what happened there? Please tell me, I need you to talk to me"Joe inquired.

"You're gonna be so mad at me" Victoria started to sob, silently, trying to hide the sheer amount of panic, confusion and helplessness that the encounter had caused her.

"Baby I won't be mad at you" Joe lifted his right hand from the steering wheel and reached for her cheek, wiping her tears. "Please, tell me what's wrong"

"There was a van. An old black Toyota mini van outside of my home. It's been there since I came back from your place a couple of days ago. I mean it comes and goes, but it mainly stays parked in the street directly across from my bedroom window. I wrote down the license plate. I was thinking about calling the KCPD, or the police department here in Cincy. But the really scary thing happened when I got into the elevator. There was a man I had never seen before, who started chitchatting with me, but when he got down he turned around to say something like my father had taught me well to not talk to strangers"

Joe's jaw clenched, he stayed quiet, carefully choosing his next words. His grip on the steering wheel had become so strong that his knuckles turned white.

"So you chose not to say anything again. Here I am worrying sick about your wellbeing and you, again chose not to be honest with me" Victoria had a sudden shock of guilt.

"Joe please don't think about like that, I wanted to tell you" He interrupted her.

"Yes, you always want to tell me, you always say you want to be honest, but you never do. It's starting to get old now" Joe felt so fed up with her way of constantly hiding stuff from him.

"I'm sorry. You can just drop me off at home, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you" Victoria didn't know what to do, or how to fix things with him. Joe chuckled.

"You really have no clue how much I care about you, do you? You really think that me being mad right now means that I'm just gonna get rid of you and that'll be all? I'm taking you home, my place I mean, we'll pick up your stuff in the morning" Joe cleared his throat, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"So I'm still moving in?"

"If you still want to. You'll always be welcome. It's practically our house now"

Victoria shook her head.

"I don't understand you, first you're so mad, then you say things like it's our house"

"What's to understand? I love you, a fight won't change that. My anger doesn't affect my love for you" Joe said as he pulled up to his place. Their place.

Victoria entered the house, it seemed a little bit smaller to her now that she would finally be living in it.

Joe stared to heat dinner made up from leftovers he had. He served Victoria her food, and sat quietly next to her as she ate.

"Joe, if I could just explain to you what happened..." Victoria tried to engage in conversation with him.

"You will, Marlowe, I promise you tomorrow you'll explain why is it so hard for you to communicate with me. But right now I'm angry, I'm hurt and if we start to argue I might say something I'll regret. So for now, let's stick to eating"

Victoria understood where he was coming from, and somehow felt glad that he had such  maturity and developed emotional intelligence to handle affairs like this. She nodded. 

"I love you, Joe, I just wanna say that"

"I know you do, and I love you too" He softly kissed her forehead.

The rest of the night was spent in silence, they washed the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen and headed for bed.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" Victoria asked Joe, with her best puppy face. 

"You don't need to ask permission for anything anymore, this is your house now, get used to it" Joe pulled her into their now bedroom, secretly longing for her touch while laying in bed with her, it was extremely hard for him to hold back from Victoria.

Victoria smiled, her pijamas consisted on an oversized hoodie stolen from Joe's closet and her underwear. She snuggled up next to Joe, in his huge king size bed, that stood in the middle of his massive room, hovering over a fluffy beige carpet. They fell asleep, not saying a word, but finding comfort in each other's presence.

"Good morning love" Joe's voice was the first thing Victoria heard that morning. She thought to herself that she could get used to that.

"Morning Joe" She half smiled.

"Whats the plan for today?" Joe got up from bed, and he started quickly changing into work out clothes, Victoria was amazed at Joe being a morning person.

"Uhm I need to go back to the lab, finish writing some stuff and maybe I can clock out early. Then I need to head home and pack up. We're still leaving for Vegas tonight right?"

Joe nodded, pondering his options.

"I'll drive you to the lab, pick you up and about your bag... Yeah don't worry about it, I'll buy you anything you need when we get to Vegas. The plane leaves at 7:30 pm" Joe felt like that was actually a good plan.

"So I should just dump my car, leave my house like I fled, and forget about my personal belongings in said house?" Victoria tried to banter him, closely analyzing his reaction.

"I hate the idea of you being alone in that home" Joe clenched his jaw. "I need to go back, even if it is just to say goodbye to my house and pack my stuff" Victoria had a point.

"Okay, I'll drive you there, you'll pick up your car, go to the lab and clock out as early as possible please. I'll head to the stadium for a last minute press conference and to pack up everything I need. I also have an appointment with Dr. Paulson" Joe started frantically walking around his (their) room.

"I'm glad you still see her" Victoria smiled.

"With the way you drive me insane? I need her" Joe playfully teased her.

"Then after that we'll meet up at your house, pack what you need for Vegas and head to the airport" Joe concluded.

"Sounds good. We can figure out the rest of my stuff when we come back from the Super Bowl. I'm excited you know? I've always wanted to go to Vegas" Victoria grinned 

"You're very funny" Joe said ironically.

The rest of the day went on, uneventfully and as they had planned. Joe got into the training facility to pick up the last of his training gear that he would need for his big day, the press conference was filled with your standard pre Super Bowl type of questions. Nothing extraordinary. To be honest, the thing that Joe was mostly looking forward to was his appointment with his therapist. He really needed to talk.

"So Joe, you're angry at her for hiding the thing about the van from you?" Dr. Paulson inquired, while she poured him a glass of sparkling water.

"Yeah, I mean it's not just that, it's the way she keeps hiding things from me. Things that put her in danger. It's like she can't keep herself from getting involved into some shit"

"Why do you think that is Joe, have you not been always open to communication with her?"

"I have, truly I am... I just don't get why she acts like that"

"What happened the last time she was threatened by anything? Did you not refused to sleep for over 36 hours because you insisted on being with her on the hospital? Or when Ja'Marr came after her in that party, did you not punch him in the face, and refused to talk to him for weeks? See where I'm going with this?" Dr. Paulson had made a very clear point.

"I guess" Joe replied, unconvinced.

"Victoria might be scared of how you might react to circumstances when you feel like she's in danger" Dr. Paulson paused "Have you thought about that? Also by the things you tell me about her, she seems like an independent young woman, I highly doubt that she'd want to play into the whole lady in distress role"

"Yeah, that seems about right. She hates feeling babied"

"See? You need to be more open minded about your relationship with her, and not jump to conclusions straight away"

"I need to talk to her, yesterday I didn't even give her a chance to speak"

"You do that and let me know how it goes" Dr. Paulson smiled, as she said goodbye to her patient.

Joe met Victoria at her place, later that day. He hugged her when she got off her car after she parked, absorbing the intoxicating smell of her perfume for as long as he could.

Victoria initiated the conversation while they packed her bag.

"So how was your meeting with Dr. Paulson?" She inquired.

"It was great. Enlightening"

"I'm glad to hear that" she said as she folded some blouses and carefully tucked them into her pink carry on.

"Vi, please tell me why you didn't come forward with the van thing, it's killing me" Joe pleaded with her.

"Because of many reasons: you have the biggest game of the year in a few days, I don't want anything in your mind distracting you from that. I'm not gonna be the reason you're not at 100%, you always say my safety comes first, well for once, I put your profession in first place"

Joe felt moved by her confession.

"I told you before, screw the Super Bowl, I only want you to be safe" Joe tried to argue.

"And I told you that It doesn't work like that. We prioritize each other's passions and careers"

"Plus, I have to say, I'm always on edge about how you will react whenever I bring stuff like this up, the last time something happened you punched your best friend" Victoria quickly responded.

Joe chuckled remembering his conversation with his therapist.

"I figure you'd bring it up"

"It's a lot of things, also I didn't, I still don't have any supporting evidence about anything. It's just an old van parked there as far as we know"

"It's still odd"

"People dump cars all the time. I wanted more concrete evidence"

"Ah you and your need to rationalize everything, Marlowe, really" Joe sighed.

"It's who I am at my core, baby, a rationalist"They both laughed. Joe pulled her in for a tight embrace.

"Thank you for caring about me so much, I can't begin to describe how nice it is. But sometimes I need to handle stuff on my own" Victoria whispered.

"I know. And I fully trust your ability to do it. I just wanna protect you all the time" Joe confessed.

"I am sorry for not being honest. I promise I'll let you know if anything new happens. But for now please let us drop the subject and enjoy Vegas and your high night" Victoria smiled, she closed her bag and Joe helped her carry it out.

He kept his word, and the rest of the way to the airport was a happy one, filled with laughter and their classic teasing. Joe however was just concealing the absolute panic he felt in the moment: the defining moment of the year, the most important three hours of the season. He had to prove everyone wrong, because he didn't know what would become of him if he didn't manage to win.

@marlowe_tori: Hello Vegas, it's a pleasure to be here. 👥 people tagged: @joeyb_9❤️ liked by @joeyb_9 and 9,274 others