A meeting in the gardens
AN: Whew! This one took a minute guys. I'm sorry for the delay, but I recently had a birthday and had a few weeks before and after of "omg, what the hell am I doing with my life???" But now, I'm in a slightly better place than what I was and the first thing I wanted to do was write!
This is the promised follow-up to Ari's story from 'i dream at night i can only see your face'. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to @localbookshop for allowing me to use the pretty girl in the top left corner and @nix-akimbo who is no longer on tumblr, but gave us this beautiful depiction of tattooed Ari.
Warnings: noncon touching, some swearing, and character death mention
How It Started
“And topping the news this morning, the remains found in the ravine last Saturday has now been identified as Natasha Romanoff. Romanoff, 37, was last seen leaving Stark Industries, and was reported missing by her sister on Tuesday. Authorities are still investigating her death…”
Ari Levinson, switched off his television, wondering why he even bothered watching the news when the world was in such a depressingly dismal state.
Today was supposed to be a good day, a great day if he had anything to say about it. It was Friday, marking his three-day weekend from the clinic, and hopefully, the first of many outings with his Tinder date. But now Ari was having doubts. Since making plans to meet up at the Botanical Gardens, she went MIA on him. From deleting her Tinder account to not answering his texts. Ari would be lying if he said her ghosting him didn’t hurt his feelings a little. He thought that they shared some real chemistry. She was funny and sarcastic, and not to mention beautiful. He hoped that he would see her today.
Ari went about his usual morning routine, showering, trimming his beard, and making breakfast and coffee. He dressed casually in an unbuttoned beige shirt, white undershirt, black jeans, and white Nike’s.
The Botanical Gardens was only a short walk from his apartment, but Ari had the feeling he might need his car today. He sat in the parking lot, enjoying the precious moments of blissful AC before venturing out in the sweltering summer heat again.
I’m here.
He waited a beat before he texted again.
I’m looking forward to finally seeing you in person.
Five minutes went by. Ten minutes went by. When it was nearing twenty and he was officially wasting the gas that he had already spent an outrageous amount of money on, he decided to call.
The line rung twice on his end, before a gruff voice answered. “Who the hell are you and why are you calling my girlfriend?”
Ari’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline from both the man’s aggression and the news that his date had a boyfriend.
“I’m—”
“What are you doing with my phone?”
“Who the fuck is Ari?”
“Don’t talk to me that way, James.”
Ari drummed his fingers against his steering wheel as the silence on the other end of the line stretched.
“I’m sorry, doll, you know I don’t mean it.”
Hearing her low murmurs and the sounds of them kissing turned his stomach. Ari was about to just hang up and cut his losses when she suddenly said, “Ari?”
“Boyfriend, huh?”
“I swear we weren’t together when you and I matched. It just, it just happened suddenly.”
“I get that things happen and you meet people, but you could have at least shown me the courtesy of letting me know what was going on rather than ghosting me.” Ari tried not to let it show how upset he truly was, after all, what were they beyond two strangers on the Internet? He had no obligations to her and she clearly understood she had no obligations to him.
“I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, Ari. Take care.”
She hung up on her end and Ari was willing to bet his life savings that she immediately blocked his number. If she did, it was for naught. Ari had no intentions of getting further involved with a woman who thought no more of discarding him than a child does when they’ve grown bored with a toy.
Still, a part of Ari couldn’t help but be concerned over the anger he had heard in James’s voice. He’d seen that type of anger focused on a partner firsthand. He only hoped her story had a better ending.
Ari leaned back against his seat, weighing his options. He could go back home and sit and stew over something he had no control over. He could pop in at the clinic and risk being scolded by his staff for refusing to take a break.
Ari huffed, turning the key in the ignition and stuffing the keys in his pocket. He was already there, he might as well go inside before dragging his sad self back to Charlotte.
The gardens were as lovely as always, bursting with colors and filled with the fragrant scents of exotic flowers. Visiting the gardens was one of Ari’s more relaxing hobbies. Although, this visit was now tainted by the aftermath of bitter disappointment.
Ari strolled leisurely through the exhibits, doing his best to shake off the bad start to his day. He walked until he found his favorite topiary, the Pegasus monument, he fondly nicknamed Fred. The topiary reminded him of the one he and his mother created back when he was a child, an eight foot tall hog in the likeness of their beloved sow, Mary.
Maybe he would go home next month. He missed the farm and he missed his parents. He knew they could use a hand with his nieces.
Ari went to pull out his phone to snap a few pictures to send to his mother, when he noticed the sound of little sniffles, as though someone was holding back from outright crying.
The little sniffles became shuddering breaths, and Ari knew whoever made those sounds was slowly losing the fight to hold it together.
The sounds came from the other side of Fred.
Just leave it be, Ari. Leave it be.
The mental pep talk failed and Ari found himself slowly inching around the other side of Fred.
The first thing Ari noticed about you, the thing that made him softer towards you even more so than your tears, were the brightly colored scrubs you wore. Ironically, it was the same pattern he had to talk to his assistant out of ordering for everyone at his clinic. You wore your hair swept back into a ponytail. A few mutinous curls escaped, fluttering around your nape and ears in the soft breeze.
Suddenly, your eyes flickered to his, making Ari feel like the worst type of creep watching you the way he was. “Um, hey.” Jesus, let the ground open up and swallow me whole. He was usually more confident than this, but one look in your big, tearful eyes and he was a 6’6 mess of a man.
To his great relief, you smiled back, albeit shakily. “Hey.”
“I don’t mean to be creepy or anything, but are you alright?”
You looked down at your feet, seemingly thinking of how you should answer or if you should answer at all. “I don’t really know.”
“I’m Ari.” Your smile is a little less stiff when you tell him your name. “So, what do you think of Fred?”
“Fred?”
“Yeah,” Ari gestured to the topiary before you. “Doesn’t he look like a Fred to you?”
“I guess he does. I like Fred. He makes me smile when nothing else does.” The light in your eyes faltered. “Why did you name him Fred?”
“I don’t really know,” Ari answered honestly. “It was just a stray thought on one of my visits. ‘Fred looks good today,’ you know?”
You giggled and Ari thought it was the sweetest sound in the world. He hardly noticed that he moved a little closer to you than he originally was until he heard someone say, “you’re a very hard woman to track, sunshine.”
You didn’t seem particularly upset over the abrupt presence of the man with the trashy mustache and shirt that was clearly two sizes too small. “Are you pretending that you didn’t ping my phone’s location to find me?”
“Eh, well, if you answered the fifteen missed calls from myself and Jen, I wouldn’t have had to resort to that.”
Your face fell. “Shit,” you muttered. “Everything happened so fast I didn’t even think about texting her that I’m okay.”
The moment you looked away and at your phone, Mr. Trashy Mustache, who was only a few inches shy of being classified as a 70s pornstache, raked his critical blue eyes over Ari. “Who’s the meathead?”
Your head snapped up and your wide-eyed gaze went from Mr. Trashy Mustache to Ari to him again. “Lloyd!” you hissed, swatting his arm with the back of your hand as he fake winced. “This is Ari. Ari, this is Lloyd. My friend’s husband and resident pain in my ass.”
“Oh!” Lloyd clutched his left boob in faux hurt. “Would a pain in your ass have everything you need to bury the Olympic Asshole and your former boss in the palm of his hand?” he showed you a flash drive. “She tried erasing the camera footage, but it’s all there. I even added a few of the boss making her way through most of the fathers of your little ones.”
Your lips parted and your nose crinkled in disgust. “Those poor kids.”
Ari had no idea who or what this Lloyd was referring to, but from the way you gingerly plucked the flash drive from his hand, he knew it must have been at least a part of the reason he caught you crying in front of Fred.
Lloyd’s attention flickered to Ari again. “Sure he’s not bothering you?”
You huffed a little, pushing the drive into your pockets. “I’m sure, Lloyd. In fact, Ari and I were going to grab lunch after the butterfly exhibit.” This plan was news to Ari, but he kept that fact out of his expression.
“You don’t need to worry about her, Lloyd. I’ve got her.”
Lloyd tilted his head to the side. “Have you?”
“Oh my god, Lloyd, stop being an asshole. I’m fine! Tell Jen I’ll call her later, please.”
But of course, Lloyd disregarded your words, taking another step closer to Ari until you were practically squished between their bodies. Forcing himself to ignore how soft and warm you felt against his chest and how good your hair smelled, Ari didn’t allow himself to break eye contact.
“By the time you’re both finished with lunch, I’ll have found out everything there is to know about you, Ari. If even a single hair is out of place on her pretty head, well,” Lloyd chuckled. “It might take them a while to identify your remains, Ari.”
You covered your face, embarrassed that your friend’s husband had resorted to threatening him. Ari, on the other hand was faintly amused. This Lloyd person might have been connected to the government, CIA probably, but Ari was unbothered. “And what makes you so sure you’ll be the one walking away?” Ari simply asked.
“Okay!” you said, voice pitching higher than before. “While I love being trapped between two unmovable walls of testosterone, Lloyd, Ari and I do have plans, and it’s hotter than the Devil’s balls out here, so would you please?”
Lloyd finally tore his eyes away from Ari smiling down at you. “Fine, fine. Far be it for me to voice my concerns over you have a date with a rando in the Gardens.” Lloyd tapped your pocket twice. “Use it.”
Lloyd disappeared as quickly as he arrived. “I’m sorry about him.” You turned to Ari with a rueful smile. “I would say Lloyd’s not normally so abrasive but,” you shrugged. “Lloyd’s just—” arrogant? Condescending? Walking around with a few screws loose? “—overprotective of his wife and by extension the people she cares about.”
“It’s fine,” Ari waved off her apology, no longer interested in Lloyd now that it was obvious you saw him as more of a family member than anything else. “Were you just trying to get rid of him or do you really want to have lunch with me?” together, the two of you made your way to the butterfly exhibit. “I get it if you only said it to get him to back off a little.”
“No, no,” you rushed. “I meant it.” You smile at Ari, looking more beautiful to him by the minute. “If you want to, I mean.”
Ari smiled, distracted by the multicolored butterflies fluttering around you, some landing on your hair and top. There was even one particularly brave purple and yellow butterfly perched on the tip of your nose making you go cross-eyed trying to watch it. “Sounds great.”
Ari scrapped the pub idea, not wanting to have the rest of your day together shadowed by his Tinder date fail. Instead, Ari followed your lead and the two of you ended up in your favorite little diner, Bette’s, a cute little restaurant that Ari somehow never noticed. The two of you sat on the patio under an umbrella, splitting a cheese pizza while you sipped on a peach iced tea while Ari drank a blueberry pomegranate tea.
“Wow, so, she reels you in like she’s really interested, ghosts you, and then suddenly reappears with a hostile boyfriend?” you huffed, shaking your head as you nibbled on a piece of ranch dipped crust. “I think you dodged a lot of drama and maybe even an unnecessary arrest.”
Ari couldn’t disagree with you. He told you about his clinic, his staff that he could not have been luckier to have by his side, his messy divorce, and his best girl, Charlotte.
“Aww!” you gushed over the pictures he had of his five-year-old Tortoise shell cat. “I always wanted a dog growing up, but my mom has an intense fear of dogs, and my dad always conveniently moved us to places that had the No Pets Allowed rule or made you pay an obscene deposit just to have your fur baby.”
“I think every child should have at least one pet growing up.”
“Because it instills a sense of responsibility and nurturing?”
“Nah, I just want every animal to have a loving home.”
“That’s definitely the doctor in you, Ari.”
Your eyes drifted down Ari’s exposed arms, tracing the various lines of ink and color. “Do you have any?” Ari asked, gesturing to his arms.
You shake your head with a wistful sigh. “No. I want one and almost got one when I went off to school, but I could never think of anything important enough to put on my body forever.”
“Why were you crying earlier?” the words tumbled out in a steaming pile before Ari could catch them. That was one of his biggest flaws, he decided then and there. His brain never knew when to tell his mouth to shut the fuck up. “You don’t need to answer that. I don’t know why I just—”
“Ari,” your soft hand fell atop his to stop his rambling and self-depreciation. “It’s okay. I knew you were curious, and Lloyd’s appearance only made it worse.” You sighed, glancing down at his arm again. “You could probably tell from the uniform, but I’m a kindergarten teacher.”
“Over at Miss Honey’s Starbright School?”
“Yes. I’ve been there a little over seven years. I love kids, I always have. I’ve never had a problem until this past school year. This new family moved to town and enrolled their daughter in Miss Honey’s. The little girl is one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever had in my class. Her mom is…” you hesitate as if thinking of the best way to describe the mother. “Doting, but the exact definition of a business mom.”
“But the mom isn’t the problem,” Ari deduced, now getting a better picture of what may be going on.
“Her dad adores her. He’s there for every parent-teacher conference. He’s always asking questions about her work and if there’s anything he needs to pay attention to at home. It just—it all came out of nowhere…or maybe I was just ignoring it because nothing matters more than those kids.”
“What did he do?”
“It was the little things. Telling me how much he liked the way I styled my hair when it was his turn to bring Addie to school. Or saying how much he enjoyed seeing my outside of my scrubs when we had little fieldtrips around town.” You fidgeted, growing more uncomfortable as you recalled every leering look and every inappropriate word. “The more I brushed off his words, the more emboldened he grew. Lloyd’s wife, Jenny, is a teacher, too. She noticed right away what he was doing and how uncomfortable I am around him. She urged me to go to Principal Alice. I don’t like causing trouble. What if it was all in my head? What if he was just being overly nice because his daughter adores me? But then last Monday, he groped me. Right there in front of the school. I slapped him. It was a knee jerk reaction, but some of the other parents saw me hit him and so did some of the kids, thankfully not Addie.” You huffed, eyes growing red and teary again. “The principal pulled me into her office and sent in a sub to take over my class. I tried telling her everything he had said and done leading up to the point, but she didn’t want to hear it. She said that the Tucker family was beyond reproach; they were big donators to the school. Besides, what could he possibly want me for? She suspended me for two weeks without pay. Jen called me a couple days later to tell me Mrs. Tucker came to the school and showed her ass, demanding swift and immediate action for attacking her husband. I don’t know why I thought anything could go back to normal. Alice called me in this morning and fired me on the spot.”
No wonder you were so upset. You were assaulted on your job and your principal refused to do anything about it. Ari’s hand curled around yours, threading his fingers with yours. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. Are you going to sue Tucker for assault and the principal for wrongful termination?”
“I don’t know. I really just want all this to go away, but if I don’t do something, who knows what Alice will put in my file. I don’t want something that was not my fault to ruin my chances of teaching again.”
“Don’t forget you have that flash drive. Whatever’s on there, your friend Lloyd seems confident it will help.”
You stared down at your entwined fingers, lips pulling in a shy smile as Ari’s thumb stroked over your knuckles. “Do you happen to know any lawyers, Dr. Levinson?”
Ari’s smile was radiant. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
How It’s Going
Ari had the day off. He could have done anything. Go to the movies. Take Charlotte to the park for a walk. Try that new Mexican restaurant that opened last week. Instead, Ari was spending the better part of his morning in his favorite place. On his knees with your legs thrown over his shoulders. Your panting breaths and gentle sighs of his name are muffled by your soft thighs pressed against his ears. Ari groaned, loving the taste of you on his tongue, the warmth of your juices smeared on his lips and cheeks. His large hands cupped your ass, pulling you impossibly closer to his face so that your scent was now embedded in the hairs of his beard. Ari felt the faint trembling of your legs and your fingers gripped his hair a little tighter, signaling you were about to come.
Ari’s hands slid up your torso, cupping your breasts and pinching your nipples just enough to tip you over the edge. He held you tightly as you moaned and thrashed above him, back arching as your release gushed into his mouth. Ari sat back on his heels, licking his lips as he watched you lay across your share bread like a starfish. He tried not to look to smug when you finally looked down at him.
“Are you relaxed enough to face the day now?”
You laughed, slightly out of breath. “I feel relaxed enough to sleep for the next five years.”
“Only five? I must be losing my touch, Mrs. Levinson,” Ari teased, leaving you to retrieve a warm washcloth from the bathroom. When he returned, you had the top of your sundress pulled back into place and was cuddling with Charlotte, who wandered back into the room now that the fun was over. He gently cleaned between your thighs, faintly listening to your quiet murmurs and Charlotte’s purring. He pulled your panties back up and pulled the hem of your dress down.
Today would be the day you were finally able to put the worst moment in your life behind you. Thanks to his longtime friend Andy Barber, and if Ari had to begrudgingly admit it, Lloyd Hansen, you were able to successfully sue Lance Tucker for assaulting you. Once Andy presented the school superintendent with the documented evidence of your assault and threatened to sue the district on your behalf for wrongful termination, everything escalated rather quickly. The Tuckers settled almost immediately when the videos from the flash drive surfaced, and last you both heard, Lance was also in the process of working out a divorce and custody agreement. Principal Alice, now just Alice, due to guest starring in five videos with five different parents, was promptly suspended herself by the superintendent. Karma at its finest, Ari liked to think. You were reinstated and issued a substantial settlement as an apology.
And somewhere amid this chaos, you and Ari grew closer. Long talks on the phone, dates on the weekends, impromptu lunch visits to his clinic, and even the most aggravating double dates of his life with your friends Lloyd and Jen, although Jen was never the problem, she was a peach. But Ari ignored the baiting comments from Lloyd, who was just an abrasive asshole by nature, because it made you happy. And you made Ari happy by becoming his lover, his wife, and ultimately the love of his life.
Ari was beyond proud of you. You were going to walk in that room with your head held high, look that Olympic Medal asshole in the eyes, and take what you were owed.
“What do you want to do afterward?” you ask, once Ari pulled out of the driveway. He gave you that look, and you smiled, lightly smacking his arm. “I mean besides that.”
“Why don’t we go to Liberty Plaza? That new year-round Autumn store is open.”
“Since when do you want to go shopping?” before he could answer, a smile worthy of the Grinch curled at the corners of your mouth. “Oh, I get it. This is you telling me you want to go crazy in Books-A-Million without actually telling me, right?”
Ari did not blush. That was just something that he did not do. “Um, no, I just thought it might be nice to spend the day with my beautiful wife.”
“So, did I imagine hearing you talking about buying that new Nightmare Before Christmas book with your new friend Lloyd?”
“That asshole is not my friend,” Ari vehemently denied.
“You’re right, you’re right. He’s your best friend.”
Ari waited until you were parked outside of Andy’s office. He calmly pulled the key from the ignition and when he looked at you, you shivered, knowing exactly what was burning behind those cerulean orbs. “Tonight, Mrs. Levinson, I’m going to make you come on my tongue again and again and again until my face and chest are drenched in you,” Ari leaned over to your ear, relishing in your heaving chest and clenched thighs. “Then you’re going to ride me until your legs give out, and when that happens, I’m going to fuck you so hard, your soul is going to leave your body.” He slowly licked the shell of your ear, relishing in your needy little whimpers.
“Ari,” you whined, hand slyly reaching for his belt buckle.
Ari deftly grabbed your hand, kissing the shining band around your finger. “Let’s finish this.”
As you walked hand in hand to close this chapter, Ari felt an immense sense of gratitude to his would-be Tinder date. Had she not backed out, Ari would never have met the most amazing woman and built this life with her. He hoped that she got her happy ending the way Ari has his.
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