BASH
Damn if it doesn’t hurt being rejected. Being rejected by someone you love and you thought she has feelings for you. I feel so embarrassed, and I need to run away from her. I can’t even face her.
I sit on a stone plate in front of a small pond. The wind is chilly, but I don’t want to get inside the house, yet. I’m still upset. I frown and look down the water, and I see my reflection--a very sad Bash. I also see the crescent silver moon. I place my hand on my chin, leaning my elbows on my knees. I lift my chin up and am just amazed at the night sky with uncountable twinkling stars above me.
I always think about her whenever I saw the sky full of stars. That’s how fascinated I am with Trinity. Those freckles on her face are like stars twinkling on her face.
She’s also like the sky--she seems near, yet she’s so far. But even the sky is still reachable, right? I’m not losing hope, especially now that we shared precious moments.
TRINITY I wouldn’t be surprised if Lizzy knows everything. I would be surprised if she doesn’t have any ideas about what happened to us here. My face burns because we have a few days left before everything is over, and that terrifies me. Be mine. That’s what I don’t understand, or maybe I understand a little bit. Would he be mine too? I overreacted, I know it because I don’t expect him to say that and my stupid mind says no while my heart is beating wildly out of joy. But it’s too late before I even realized what does it mean. “What did you just say, Bash? Who are you talking to?” I demand an answer. We agreed not to tell everyone about what happened between us this whole weekend. I just don’t want things to get awkward between us. He sighs deeply. “Tri, let me explain.” “Answer the damn question!” I demand it again. His shoulders droop, ending the call and slipping both hands into his jeans pocket
TRINITY I turn my head to a man around my age in a charcoal grey suit. I know exactly who he is, but the question is, what he wants from me? This man has the face of a magazine cover model with jet black hair, piercing blue eyes, chiseled jaw with a five o’clock shadow. He smiles as he saunters towards me with his hands in his pants pockets. “I thought it was you,” he says like we’ve known each other. My brows creased. “Excuse me?” I ask seemingly surprised with my own question. “Kiara Mallory, right? I’m Sean.” His confident smile widens, and he looks good closer. Screw that looks! “Yeah, and what can I do for you, Mr. Rexwell?” I know him, his company, and he’s just like Bash, the future CEO of Rexwell; the biggest and number one rival of Hughes Industries. “Do you always speak like that to the people who want nothing but being nice to you?” He seems amused by my talk. I release an exasperating
BASH When the captain announces that we’re departing soon, I am finally able to breathe, but my heart is still crashing inside me. I can’t believe Trinity left me behind. Trinity is always impulsive. I just wish she confronted me first before she decided drastically. I thought last night was perfect—beyond imaginable, and I thought, I’ve proven something to her. Clearly, her anger took over her. It was my fault, I admit it. I shouldn’t have decided it by myself, but I was just thinking about her. It may sound selfish, but I really did it for her own good. “For fuck sake, Bash! Calm down! It’s not the end of the world, and we can still find her. I’ll find her.” Edmund’s angry tone makes me angrier. The hanok was completely wrecked. Alex will kick my ass, but I don’t have time to think about his rant right now, and I will deal with it later to fix my mess. I’ve never been angrier in my
BASH The door swings open. My eyes land on the redhead old version of Trinity. She looks stressed, but she sees me. Her eyes widen, and her contorted face lights up like a girl staring at the Christmas tree. Aunt Zoey launches herself at me and hugs me tightly. I always call her aunt even we aren’t blood-related since Trinity and I grew up together. “Thank God you’re safe! No one answered my calls when I tried to ask if the news was true,” she says after pulling herself away. She wipes her tears on her face then gives me a peck on my cheek. “Please come in, Bash.” She opens the door wider. I hear Edmund greet Aunt Zoey from my back. “Where is Trinity?” I immediately ask when I let my eyes scan the entire living room. Panic swims in the pit of my stomach when I can’t find her. “Trinity!” I start shouting while I quicken my pace to search for her. I don’t wait for her mother to answer my question. I feel my world i
BASH I walk out of her bedroom, taking the business card with me. I know Trinity is still in the shower, but I can’t wait for her to be done. Anger rises through my head. Why does she have a business card of that motherfucker? Sean Rexwell is not only my number one enemy but our business rival too. Blowing a shaky breath, I stomp down the stairs after changing into a white button-down shirt and pants. I notice Edmund is already waiting for me in the living room. The card is crumpled in my fist. “I thought you need a rest, Bash.” He catches my arm before I can walk out the door. “I don’t need a rest,” I say dismissively. “Well, I need a rest.” I narrow my eyes at him. “You don’t need any. We won’t stay out long. I just need to meet someone.” He shakes his head, giving me disapproving looked. “I don’t think I like your plan, boy.” “Don’t dare to disagree with me, Edmund, and don’t call me a boy, or
BASH We flew back to New York yesterday after the news has cleared off. If what Sean said was true, then he made his revenge against me to a whole new level. Or he said that out of his anger? Trinity stayed silent since that encounter. I can see the guilt in her eyes even though I never blame her. “Tri, you’ve been silent since yesterday. If you think that I’m mad at you, don’t you even think about it. What happened yesterday has already happened.” She came with me yesterday. I don’t want her to go alone to her apartment. If I can only convince her to stay with me, I’m going to do that. But maybe we have to apply the baby steps kind of shit first. “He threatened you, Bash.” She looks at me through the wall-sized mirror in front of us. Her eyes are full of concern. “Baby, it’s not new. He’d been doing that since we were in high school, remember?” She nods slowly. “Yeah, because of that girl you dated, but he’d nev
BASH It’s been days since dad tightens the security. No report from those guys dad hired to watch out Tennings’ whereabouts. With all the tensions about our safety, there is still something great happening, and that is my relationship with Trinity. She’s the best woman I can ever ask for, and I can say that she’s a keeper—she’s a God gift and always so sweet and thoughtful. Of course, there’s a part of her that’s annoying, but what’s more annoying is that I love it, and I love everything about her, especially the flaws she never tries to hide. Trinity complains about everything I offer, not that she doesn’t like it, but she argues first before accepting it. We’re back to work after our long discussions about that email, and I failed to convince her to take a two weeks break to travel to France for a seminar. I thought she would be glad, but she wasn’t. She’s really something but that something makes me fall for he
BASH My eyes bulge, and my pulse races the moment I recognize him. I can feel the sound of my heartbeat thrashes in my ears in terror. I’m still glued in my place, and I am unable to move a muscle even if I want to. My jaw is locked up even if I want to scream for help. Everything just freezes. He slips his right hand inside his coat. The only thing that comes to my mind is maybe he’s pulling out his gun. Is he going to kill me now? My parent’s words flash right into my face. He’s a psychopath! “Bash, I’m not gonna hurt you.” His deep voice makes me blink and brings me back to reality. I’m in front of a fucking murderer for fuck sake, yet I can’t do anything. He’s blocking the only exit I know unless I jump from the rooftop. And there’s no way I will survive, or maybe I end up with a couple of broken bones. When panic strikes me, I raise my hand and drop the half-empty bottle to the floor. “Don’t come clo
TRINITY Who says there is no such thing as perfect? It’s been six years of a perfect life, and what can I possibly ask for more? It feels like yesterday when I marry my hot and gorgeous husband, and now I have three beautiful kids who enjoy playing at the park. “Baby!” I turn my head to see Bash making his way towards my direction with our twins in both hands. He just comes from the airport, and he’s still wearing his dark blue suit perfectly tailored for him. “Hey, you’re early.” I rise from my seat and walk to meet him halfway. He pulls me into a big hug. My kids’ arms are wrap around his legs. “I miss you terribly, Trinity,” he whispers in my ear. I giggle. “It’s been only eight hours, silly.” I break the hug. “But I was miles away from you. You didn’t miss me, did you?” He went to Boston to visit his branch since he’s been the President and the CEO of Hughes Industries for four years. I, on the other hand, is a full-time mother since Baby Fifth was born. Bash didn’t allo
BASH It’s been ten hours since I brought Trinity to Maternity and Children Specialist Hospital, but her cervix only dilates from three centimeters to five centimeters. Trinity is still so stubborn when the contractions kick in, she stops walking and complains of pain instead. I’m already on my fourth cup of coffee. I’m done reading the book I brought with me. I walked ten times more compared to her just to encourage her to walk more. She’s wearing a blue hospital gown, and her hair is tied in a messy bun, and her hands are on her hips for support. I sigh helplessly. “Baby, if you follow what your doctor has told you to do, our baby would be distressed, and you don’t want that to happen, do you?” I ask when she sits back on an empty bench outside her room. I’m so glad she didn’t suffer too much throughout her pregnancy. I let her stop from her job when she’s in her last trimester. She complains of having edema on her feet, but th
BASH I wake up when Trinity whines beside me. I’m sure she had a bad dream, which is weird because since we sleep together, she never wakes me up because of a nightmare. I rub my half-opened eyes and sit up on our bed. I nudge her shoulder slowly, but she doesn’t budge, her whine gets stronger. “Trinity, wake up, baby,” I say as I continue nudging her shoulders. She jolts awake, throwing the blanket away. Her eyes widen, and her face fills with shock. Trinity spreads her legs wider, even in my half-awake brain, my cock stirs. She’s only wearing deep red nighties and thin panties with a bedhead, but she’s still beautiful to me. Then I notice she’s patting her panties. “Baby, what are you doing?” I ask out of curiosity. She sighs and looks at me. “You had a bad dream, that’s why I wake you up.” I kiss the top of her head. “Yeah. I had a bad dream, and it was weird,” she says with worry in he
TRINITY The sonographer presses the transducer on my exposed tummy. Bash squeezes my hand stronger unbeknownst while his eyes are pinned to the monitor. “What does it say? Is everything okay? She’s pregnant, right? Is it a twin? When will we gonna find out the gender of our baby or babies?” He has been babbling since we came to our appointment. The sonographer stops and looks at smiling Bash. “Mr. Hughes, I know you’re excited to find out just like any other soon-to-be dad. Just relax, and Dr. Lee will answer all your questions.” Bash releases a deep sigh. “And you’ve been squeezing my hand, Bash. Relax, I should be the one feeling nervous because I’m the one here having a baby inside my tummy.” “I’m not nervous. I’m just excited. I agreed with you to get a check-up here and not in Paris or Greece or Italy.” Bash scratches his head. He only stops when Dr. Lee walks inside the ultrasound room. We drive back to the
BASH I catch my wife’s unconscious body before she falls straight to the floor. She just turns pale then her eyes flutter close. Everyone gasps and starts to panic. I hold her in my arms when everyone comes surrounding us. “Move away. Give her some air!” I yell while my wife is still in my arms. “Do we have a doctor or a medical expert around?” Mom’s voice fills in the air. “She will be okay, Mom. Just calm down. You will be the next to collapse if you won’t calm down.” Trinity’s parents come closer. “She’ll be alright. I need to bring her to the suite,” I tell them while they’re clutching each other’s arms. I’m not worried. Trinity doesn’t complain about anything weird. She’s maybe a little bit overwhelmed, and I know she has a steady heartbeat because I can feel her warm breath on my neck. When I walk out of the reception area, I hear their footsteps get close. I can’t blame them, though, and they’re just worri
TRINITY Experts said when someone is depressed, he should involve himself with aspiring things and makes time for the things that makes him feels better. I spent every day in this street market since I arrived here in Paris. The entire city has a lot to offer, but art makes me feel better—it gives me a little happiness and diverts me from my sorrows. I found time to visit some historic places; museums, restaurants, and of course, art galleries. I remember Bash told me that once you’re an artist, you will always be an artist. When I grab the paintbrush, start mixing colors on my palette, and brush my canvass, it feels like I did this for years and have never stopped. When Bash gave me a set of art supplies on my sixteenth birthday, I started to paint since then. I still love to sketch, though, when I didn’t want to get messy with paints. It feels natural for me. This is what I love doing after all. Either sketching or pai
BASH It’s been three days since the last time I saw Trinity. I made a decision that I hope was for our own good. I want her to realize that I love her, and I never lied to her. It was torture not to hear anything from her. I even cancel my business trip to the U.K. After sending Dana and her husband to the airport, I came here to my family’s beach house where I was supposed to surprise Trinity after our engagement party. That was my plan, but she ruined it. I already planned a week’s vacation. I was planning to spend it with her, but damn it! Everything went wrong. She doesn’t trust me even a bit. I missed her so much, though. Not a single day I didn’t think about her. More guilt flashes through me, and I should’ve talked to her, but I was taken over by my anger, pain, and disappointment. Teaching her lessons maybe will make her think before judging. Maybe we only lack communication? We’ve been apart for four years, we c
TRINITY Loving so much it hurts, being lied to hurts a lot. But I can feel everything we shared these last three months was real. How could he do this to me? What should I do now? I’ve no place to go. I finally decided to move in with Bash last month when he’s been bugging me that I should stay with him for a good just a week before I moved in. I gave my apartment to Luke and Ryker, and now I’m homeless. “Tri, I was thinking this many times. I think we should stay together.” My fork freezes in my mouth. The dessert is delicious, and I can’t get enough of it. “What can you say?” He looks at me across the table. I pull the fork out of my mouth and swallow the panna cotta. It melts in my mouth, and the aroma of rum fills in my nose. But I’m I almost choked at Bash’ words, not the dessert I’m devouring. “Come again?” I’m such a stupid like I didn’t comprehend what he said.
TRINITY Last night, Sean told me about our high school days before I went to my room, and I’m not that drunk to forget what happened last night. I know this isn’t Sean beside me because I know how it feels when Bash is around. He has my heart, but how about that pregnant woman? What is he doing here with me? I can also feel the ring on my finger, which I can’t remember I put it back on. He must have seen it on top of the dresser where I left. Bash stirs, pulling me closer to him. I can even feel his morning wood pressed against my butt. His arm tightens around my waist because he knows that I’m already awake. “Morning, drunkass.” His voice makes me shiver. Something down there awakens at his presence, and he kisses my shoulder. “No good morning back for your fiancé, Trinity?” he asks when I haven’t said anything. I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “What are you doing here, Bash?” I know he wants to talk to me, but