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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 0:42:52 GMT
There were a lot of things that Madison had tried to prepare herself for in her life. Her philosophy had always been that it was better to be overprepared than underprepared. It was probably that reason that had driven her to apply to a dozen colleges, why she kept her resume as up to date as possible (should anything happen), and it was definitely the reason behind the thousand of questions she had for Cooper when they had started dating. She was coming to find that she didn't like surprises nearly as she probably should. It was difficult to know what a person was supposed to do when given no time to prepare for it. And she had absolutely no time to prepare for the reality that Cooper's ex-wife, Melanie's mom, could come back at any time. It hadn't even been something that she had considered, and she felt so naive for not having been ready. She felt stupid for coming over unannounced and she felt stupid even just being in a relationship that was much more complicated than she had realized.
So she had opted to give him the time and space to figure it out on his own. She knew that it probably wasn't the most mature thing to do, but she had avoided him, waiting for him to make the first move to talk to her about whatever was happening in his life that he wished to share. But she still couldn't stop thinking about it, even as she curled up on the couch with a glass of wine and a good book.
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 0:53:31 GMT
Cooper had regretted allowing Madison to walk out of his place the other day when Simone had re-entered his life like a hurricane. But at the same time, his battle with his ex-wife had not been something he wanted to drag his girlfriend into at all. After taking some time to consult the right people to figure out what his options were legally and learn what the worst case scenarios were, he had known he had to go talk to Madison. If he hadn't been aware of it, he'd been aware when Riley Nicholls had all but screamed at him over the phone to get over to her best friend's place and talk to her about what was going on. So he'd dropped Melanie off with Cassidy to babysit her for the night and had made his way to Madison's brownstone. He stopped at a shop on the way and, when he knocked on her door, he had a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine and his apology prepared.
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 1:02:07 GMT
Part of her knew even before she opened the door who was on the other side, but she wasn't sure whether or not she was going to he happy to see him until she saw him. Madison had wanted to be angry with him, maybe more for the way that Melanie had been subjected to the yelling that had occurred. The biggest problem that she supposed that she had with everything that had happened the other day was that she didn't know what she was supposed to do. She didn't know what her boundaries were and what her role was when Melanie's mom was involved. She had decided that she refused to call her Cooper's ex because it filled her with an irrational sense of dislike toward a woman that she didn't even know.
She sighed softly and leaned against the side of the door, "Hi," she greeted him softly. "Come in," she added, stepping away from the door. Right now she hoped that he had an idea of what he wanted to say because she had no idea where to begin.
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 1:18:47 GMT
Cooper stepped through the door, holding out the flowers and looking at her. "Hi, these are for you," he said gently before his shoulders slumped a bit. "Maddy, I am so sorry for all of this. I know I haven't handled it well. Not with you and definitely not with Melanie." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "When you came over, she had just shown up at Melanie's pre-school and I lost it."
He shook his head. "She wants to take her," he explained, looking away. "She has a new husband and she wants Melanie to come live with them." He felt his chest constrict at the very thought of losing his daughter. There was very little that he wouldn't do for Melanie and he knew he'd made mistakes by subjecting her to his own anger when her mother had reemerged, but it didn't change the fact that he loved her and that he was willing to go to whatever extremes he had to to keep her. However, Riley had assured him that it wouldn't come to that.
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 1:29:39 GMT
She smiled softly and accepted the flowers he had held out to her. It was very sweet, she thought, but unnecessary. She knew that he hadn't meant to handle it the way that he had and had she been thinking more clearly herself, she might have said something at the time. "It's okay," she reassured him. "There's really nothing to apologize for. I'm not sure I would have handled it any better if I had been in your shoes." And while that was mostly true, she couldn't deny the fact that he feelings had been hurt, or at least bruised, by the whole thing. She hadn't meant to be upset by it, but it had just seemed to be unavoidable when she realized that she was a lot more emotionally invested than she had thought.
Hearing him explain the situation she could feel her stomach drop and she frowned at him. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to go to him and wrap her arms around him tightly, but on the other hand she wanted to provide some sort of support for him in any way that she could. "I'm going to put these in some water and then let's just talk about this, okay? I just - I don't really know what to do," she admitted. "Do you want a drink or something?"
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 1:46:14 GMT
Cooper shook his head. "Just some water would be good," he replied, dropping down onto a chair and resting his head in his hands and waiting for Madison to get back from taking care of the flowers. When she returned with a glass of water, he thanked her and took a deep breath. He let a moment of silence take over before speaking. "I spoke to Riley to help explore my legal avenues and she said I shouldn't worry - that she'll take care of it. But damn if I'm not terrified of losing her, Maddy," he explained, taking a sip of water and staring down at the floor. "But I wanted to try to explain to you about the other day, too. I didn't mean for...any of this to happen," he admitted.
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 1:55:19 GMT
Maddy sat down in a chair across from him, happy to just let him further explain what was going on. She hated the idea that he had to be concerned about Melanie's mom taking her away, but with Riley working on it, she was sure that he would soon have nothing to worry about. There were hundreds of things that her best friend was great at, and luckily for Cooper this was absolutely within the wheelhouse of things that she trusted Riley to accomplish. She nodded at him understandingly, "I'm sorry for just walking in like that, and I'm sorry for not getting out of there the second that I realized something was going on. Melanie can be very difficult to detach yourself from," she said, wincing a little as she noted that mentioning leaving his daughter was probably not the most appropriate thing to say at the moment. "But I don't think you have to worry about it - if anyone can figure out what to do now, it's Riley."
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 2:05:43 GMT
"Please don't apologize for it," he said gently. "I told you to feel comfortable coming by, I just never anticipated her..." Cooper frowned and shook his head. "I get why you left, too. I didn't want you to be dragged into all of this, I really didn't. When Simone left, we didn't have a big, ugly custody fight. She'd wanted to leave and didn't even try to suggest that she take Melanie too or that we work something out. have a feeling this fight between she and I is long overdue and I've got to be honest with her, Maddy, there's very little I wouldn't do to keep Melanie and make sure she is happy. But I can be....I'm not always a nice guy and if you're around in all of this I can't promise that you won't see a piece of me that maybe you won't like."
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 2:15:20 GMT
She didn't want to admit that it might take her some time to feel comfortable just stopping by in the future, mostly because there was still a lot about his life that she was noticing that she had no idea about. Madison didn't want to run the risk of suddenly intruding on something that she shouldn't have, like an argument with his ex-wife. Taking a deep breath she tried to nod understandingly again but she was getting hung up on what he said about not being a nice person. Had he said it a week ago she might have laughed and told him that he was being silly, but she had never seen or heard him as upset as she had the other day. It was much more believable now, she had to admit. "I honestly believe that everything is going to work out for you in the end. You're a wonderful dad and I don't know why anyone would ever try and take Melanie away from you."
And as much as she wanted to reassure him that everything was going to be fine and provide whatever emotional support that he needed, she was selfishly concerned about what role she was supposed to play in all of this. "Do you want me around in all of this?" She asked after hesitating briefly.
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 2:49:06 GMT
Cooper looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, Madison. Of course I do. I want you around all the time, but I know it's going to be a lot - and I don't want to put you through anything that you didn't sign on for." He took a deep breath and another sip of water. "I love you, Maddy. I really do. I love how kind you are and how intelligent you are and how much my daughter loves you. I want you around," he reiterated, smiling softly at her.
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 3:04:50 GMT
It was reassuring to hear him say that he wanted her around, but she wasn't sure that it had ever really been the problem that the was having with this. She smiled softly in return, "I love you too, I just ..." she hesitated, trying to think through exactly how she should phrase it. It seemed silly to start spitting out a dozen questions to him right now, but she kept coming back to the same concern. "I just don't know what role I'm supposed to be playing in all of this," she shrugged before looking down at her lap for a second. It wasn't his fault, but the reality of seeing the woman who used to be in her life had made her question how she played into it now. She liked what they had, and she absolutely loved spending time with him and with Melanie, but she couldn't compete with the history that was there. Not that it was a competition, she added to herself, but Madison had been feeling a lot less confident in her own relationship lately. It had been so much easier when she had been able to just pretend that it was the three of them.
Actually, she admitted reluctantly, it had been a lot easier when there hadn't been as much baggage in the relationship. She hated to admit it but when she had only needed to worry about her own life in combination with the man that she was dating at the time, it had seemed much simpler. Regardless of the fact that both Parker and her college boyfriend had brought their own baggage to the table, it seemed to pale in comparison to this. "I know it sounds horribly selfish and I should really be the last thing that you're concerned about right now, I just don't want to overstep."
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 17:02:58 GMT
Cooper had to admit, he wasn't sure what role Madison played in all of this either. "I don't know either. You won't have to get involved in the messier parts of this, I don't want that. I don't want to drag you into it. I'd like you to still be around, I still want to take you to dinner, I want you to come over and watch movies with Melanie and me. I think she'd like that, too." Taking a breath, he nodded at her. "I'm going to talk to Riley some more and work with my legal team to have them resolve this as quickly as possible. I'd like to believe that the fact that Simone abandoned Melanie is a mark against her and the fact that I've been able to provide for her just fine on my own is a mark in my favor and take it from there." He'd briefly wondered, in a moment of doubt and anxiety, if the fact that Simone could offer Melanie a two-parent household made her case stronger, but Cooper also knew his ex was using their child as a pawn to make her new husband happy and that made his blood boil. "I think I have to take it one step at a time for now, and I'd like it if you were there, helping to remind me what normalcy is like. It won't be overstepping, Maddy. If things get to be too much for either of us, we'll just be honest about it. But I'm committed to making sure all of this works out. All of it."
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 18:04:34 GMT
It seemed like all of it was pretty messy at the moment, she had to admit. Madison wanted things to go back to the way that they were before all of this happened, back to the way that it was when she was naive enough to think that nothing bad could ever possibly happen to them. But the truth was that this had the potential to be really bad, in fact, it could have been a lot worse. It made her nervous to think that lawyers were getting involved and she wondered momentarily if dating him might actually hurt his case toward keeping Melanie. After all, being in a relationship with a woman paled in comparison to the new husband that he mentioned his ex-wife had brought along. She certainly didn't want to be a mark against him. But from her own standpoint, she didn't want to end things where they were now. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, she lamented to herself.
"I'm going to be honest then," she started. "I want to be there for you, and for Melanie, but I very much feel like I'm dangerously close to being part of something I'm not sure I know how to handle. I love you and I want to be with you, I'm just afraid that right now there are a lot of other things on your plate and I'm worried that I'm being selfish by trying to be part of it. I'm always here for you when you need it, I just ... I don't know want to be unfair to you, and I don't want to be unfair to anyone else in this situation."
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Post by Cooper Benson on Sept 23, 2015 21:22:17 GMT
Cooper sighed. "Yeah, I don't know what to say, Madison," he admitted. "I never really thought this would happen, I sort of figured that once Simone left - that was it. I don't think you're being selfish, I understand that this situation is complicated. All I can say is that until this is settled, I have to fight for my daughter as hard as I can to not lose her. I don't want to lose you too. I want you to be a part of my life for the long haul, I think we might be pretty good at it. Maybe we take this the way we've taken everything else - one step at a time."
He frowned a bit and took another sip of his water. "You mean a lot to me, Madison. And I'm not asking anything from you other than to be patient with me, because I think I'm going to need that."
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 23, 2015 21:35:46 GMT
Madison nodded, "I completely understand, and I wouldn't expect you to do any less than fight your hardest for Melanie. And as long as you still want me around, then I'll be here." She gave a little half-shrug before nodding. "It's not going to be easy," she admitted. "But I think that it's worth it." She reached across to rest her hand on top of his. "I can be patient," she promised.
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