41Kylie groans. "You know I am not a huge fan of art. Why are you taking me?"The three of us were riding inside the taxi as we sat down at the backseat."Art exhibits are cool. And you can meet eligible men there and not at clubs." Jonah answers.I smiled as I chuckled. "Kind of true.""´Course it is, hun." Jonah answers me.Kylie rolls her eyes. "It's gonna be so boring there and I'm sure I'm not gonna enjoy.""You will enjoy if you'll think positively that you will." I say to her."And besides, I heard the paintings there are all made up by a father and son team-up. What if the son is hot?" Jonah smirks.I pat her shoulder. "He is hot.""You've already met him?" Jonah gapes. "Why do you get to meet all the hot guys without us?" Kylie whines."I met the dude because he's Bethany's boyfriend." I answered.They nod in unison."Bethany Saintclare?" Jonah asked.I nod."What is she like? Is it really true that she's like a little Paris Hilton slash Kim Kardashian? I heard she's got a
42A FEW YEARS EARLIER..."Liv, c'mon I won't peek I promise." I say to him.Liv covered both of my eyes with his huge hands as he leads the way for me. I hear him laughing while he kept instructing me on where to go."Are we there yet?" I asked.He laughs under his throat. "Almost.""Where are you even taking me?" I asked him again while he walks behind me."Just relax, baby." He says to me and everytime he calls me baby, something deep inside of me kind of hates it.I hate it because it reminds me of our age gap.It has been a huge problem to us even from the very beginning but he doesn't make me feel like he's way older or I'm way younger than him. But then both of us can't really avoid that situation. Most especially when we listen to music when we're just driving on the road. He likes listening to classical rock bands from his yesteryear while I like the new pop music of my era. Right then, I can instantly compare us with our age.There are times when he would be busy for work an
43I exhaled heavily as I stare at my bedroom's ceiling. I have been tossing and turning. I haven't been able to sleep since I saw Liv again a while ago. His face still haunts me.Our past haunts me."Vi." I pulled my head up and saw Barbie standing right behind me. I looked back at her from my mirror and she sighs heavily."Skye wants to see you." She adds.I nod and stand from my chair.Barbie and I started walking away from the dressing room. Both of us were silent and I have this gut feeling that Skye is going to talk to me again about Liv. He's been warning me about my relationship with Liv because he doesn't want Liv to come in between me and my work. But I have honestly been personally wanting to quit this job."Still going out with that Swedish man?" Barbie asks me.I slowly nod. "Why does Skye doesn't want us to be commited? It feels so unfair.""In this kind of business Violet, love will only ruin you. Men doesn't respect women like us who works as a stripper and an escort b
44THEAA FEW YEARS EARLIER...."All done." Liv says as soon as he finished sketching me on a huge blank sheet of paper.I hurried to his side as soon as he exclaimed thise words and wrapped myself with the blanket on the chair that was next to me. I wanted him to sketch me while I was standing naked hiding behind the sheer white curtains. I sprawled my arms around his arms, rested my chin on his shoulder and watch another beautiful sketch of me done by him."Wow." I say in awe.I could really see myself on his drawing. It's like I'm watching myself on a mirror. I watch how calm his hand was finishing some small details and doing a little erasure from it. I loved how his hand strokes on my hip part and how he beautifully ran his finger over my nipples to enhance it a little bit."Babe, I think my boobs look bigger on your sketch." I say while laughing softly.He grins. "I don't really mind about your boobs. Those aren't what I loved about you."I kiss his cheek.And then the drawing w
45BENEDICT"You look bad."I travelled my head to Bethany right away who just joined me at the dining table."So do you." I answered cheekily.Bethany walks closer to me and replied, "No.""You look way way bad than I do." She adds.I take a sip from my orange juice and just ignored her because if I keep on talking with her, she will get mad at me for what I did last night for Sebastian to be with Thea."And why are you still here? Shouldn't you be in the office?" She asks.I groan as I rested my back on my chair. "I'm calling it a day off."Bethany bursted into laughter. "Day off?"I glanced at her and just finished my glass."Seriously." She exclaims. "You're the only person I know who doesn't and never takes a day off from work."I try to ignore her again and just continued eating with my salad. She looks at me eagerly now and I think she is trying to study my face. But I have always been great in hiding and concealing my feelings."Dark circles." She points out. "Dry and dark ski
46BENEDICTI didn't know what to feel as I stand here in front of them after what I just said. All I wondered was why Thea was here at my place. I was just totally confused why Thea is here.I look at Bethany and she looked disappointed with what I said earlier. I know I shouldn't have said that but I wouldn't even say it if I knew Thea was around.Have they heard it?God damn it. I think they did. Just by looking at my sister's face, I know they heard it pretty clearly.I take another look at Thea and she doesn't look happy too. She stares at her feet or probably her hands that were clasping together. Maybe she was offended? Maybe it affected her? But why would it affect her when she doesn't even like me in return. It wouldn't mean anything if she doesn't really care about it."Thea!" Sebastian calls out as he walks towards her.He smiles and laced one arm around her shoulders but Thea would steal glances from me as I kept my eyes glued on her. I watch as Sebastian wraps his arms ar
47THEAI shivered at that voice and opened my eyes right away, only to find Benedict standing right next to me. His eyes were looking straight ahead, serious and focused. His hair was pushed back and he was still wearing that white colored sheer top that I loved from a while ago. He paired with his white sweater pants and he looked so manly even with such clothes. His long hands were inside the pockets of his sweater pants and as I examined him, he looked like he just woke up based from his adorable puffy eyes. But he's still so handsome, it's irritating.There was silence between us for a while and I guess both of us are still trying to gather our right thoughts and right words on whether what to say to each other. I didn't know why I was feeling this way with him around and it's becoming too unhealthy for me. He makes me feel things that I have been avoiding to feel again and he's the least man I thought of to make me feel this way again. I can't find any reasons why he affects me
48THEAIt has been almost a week since I had that talk with Benedict. I never saw him after that and I got myself busy with job hunting for my internship but I haven't been hired yet. None of those companies I applied for had called me back and I felt giving up already. But lately, I wasn't really worried about having a job or not, I was more bothered about Benedict and what happened that night. I wouldn't know how to act when I will see him again.I must admit that I made some mistakes beforehand when things were still okay for the two of us. Mistakes like pushing him away eversince I met him because of infinite reasons and dont's that I could think of. I was too scared to admit to myself that I was very much attracted to him even though I was denying it all along. The urge was long there, I just didn't bother it too much and now it's firing up.The following morning after that night, Bethany said that Benedict left for work very early and didn't even have breakfast. He just told he