“You look beautiful tonight.” Simon says intertwining my fingers with his. The warmth of his hand seeps through my body a nice contrast to the cool night air. I breathe slowly, enjoying the atmosphere. We walk up from the parking to a gate in the far distance. I breathe in the evening air, smiling at how happy I’ve been this whole weekend.
We had so much fun at the beach, once I got over my awkwardness I started to enjoy Simon taking pictures of me. He made me feel so special. I’ve never gotten so much attention from one human being. It feels good to be catered to, adored and taken care of.
Thank you.” I say feeling my face get warm. I smile looking up at him, I feel like the most beautiful woman in the world next to him. “Thank you for bringing me here.” I say and he smiles at me like he won the lottery.
Tonight we’re back in Simon’s world he’s taking me to the town’s art walk. The mayor hosts a street art exhibition once a month in the city cen
“How have you been man?” Charlie asks Simon from across a dinner table. He insisted we have dinner with him after he ran into us at the art walk. He claimed Simon owes him a meal after he ghosted him for their entire high school life.He’s been badgering Simon with stories about their childhood since we sat down. He’s not even giving Simon a moment to talk. This whole conversation is weird and intense. I can tell they are not as friendly as they one would think.Apparently these two stopped being friends out of the blue. Charlie believes Simon turned his back on him when he found new friends and got popular in school. I don’t know what happened but I do know I don’t like Charlie at all; he has an air about him that makes me uncomfortable. He keeps looking at me with so much interest, he doesn’t care that Simon is sitting right next to me. He’s being creepy and I don’t like it.I’ve met so many men
“Thank you for meeting me.” I say smiling at my Adira. She nods but she doesn’t smile back. “I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to talk to you. I know I don’t deserve your consideration after what I did.” I say and she looks at me her face devoid of any reaction.“I didn’t want to show up but your mother made me do it so…” Adira says annoyed but she’s trying to mask it. I nod looking at her apologetically but I don’t mean that shit. I’m just doing it because my mother said I have to do it. She is forcing me to beg Adira to take me back in. And I’m doing it because I hate living with Phil. If it wasn’t for that I would have told Adira to go and die.“Thank you for being so understanding.” I say and she nods. “I just want to start by saying I’m sorry for the way I‘ve been treating you. You opened yo
Chloe (After the meeting with Adira)“What did Adira say?” Phil says when I opne the door to his apartment. I sight at the sight of it. All the stress and tiredness of the day weigh on my shoulders. I hate coming back to this, there no feeling of being home. There’s so much dirt that it feels like I’m sleeping in the streest.He never cleans.He has chlotes all over the floor, his bed is not made. This apartment is too small fro it to be this messed up. The dirt in the kitchen overflows to the livin\bedroom areas. You can’t see what’s what.I hang my coat on the door handle and close it. I wear this coat at work; I don’t want it to take on the smell of the apartment. I would hate to smell bad at work.“She said no.” I say and he throws a tshirt across the room in anger. I look at it fly in the air and land on a pile of papers. I can’t believe we’ve been l
Adira “Chloe? What’s wrong?” I say running up to my sister. She’s gripping the door handle to my building. Her body is hunched over like shes in pain. She starts crying as soon as I say her name. Her cries come in loud dry heaves.I look at her face and realize she’s been crying for a while. Her face is red and swollen; the tea stains on her face are dry.Tonight was supposed to be a relaxing and forgetting all my troubles. Simon and I had a great day and we were planning to end it with one of his amazing dinners. This is not what I imagined I’d come home to. I just stepped out to go get ice cream and I come home to this?What happened between the time sne ans I met to now? Where the hell is that stupid boyfriend of hers? Why does she look like she’s dying? Why is she out her in the dark alone? I want to shake her hard for putting herself in this p
Chloe “Are you ready to get going?” Adira asks when she gets out of her bedroom. I look at the open door in anticipation. I wonder what Simon is going to say when he walks out. He was so kind to me yesterday; it felt nice to have someone care for me like that. He made sure I was fed, he drove Adira and I to the doctor. It was such a huge contrast to the way Phil treated me.I chose to have my breakfast at the kitchen island so I can have a great view of him when he walks out of the bedroom. I used to have my breakfast in my room when I first came here but today is different. I want to talk to Simon. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see him.I want to ask Adira where he is but I don’t want her to set her alarms off. I noticed how alert she she is when I’m around Simon. She knows she can’t let her guard down. But I fear she’s wasting her time and energy. Being vigila
Adira “What’s wrong?” Chloe asks getting into the car. She closes the door looking at me with so much concern on her face. I smile to make her calm down; I don’t know why she’s looking at me like the world is five to ending.“Nothing is wrong.” I say and she looks at me unconvinced. Where is this sudden concern and worry coming from?“Then why are you here?” She asks looking at me like I’m lying. “You never pick me up from work. Why are you picking me up today?” She asks staring at me. I start the car and we leave.“I want us to go talk to dad.” I say and she looks at me shocked. She quickly looks out the window hiding her face. I don’t have to see her face to know she’s annoyed with me.“I didn’t think you meant to go talk to him today. You didn’t sound like you were going to do it today
“How was your day?” Simon says when he opens his apartment. I smile knowing I’m finally where I want to be. He smiles too; I walk to him and give him a hug. I’ve waited to feel him and smell him all day long. His essence is the only thing keeping me sane.“My day was interesting.” I say leaning into his embrace. His arms wrap around me tighter, he always knows exactly what I need. “How was your day?” I ask letting him go.“I had a good day.” He says closing the door. He turns to look at me smiling. “How did your talk with your dad go?” He asks looking at me curiously. I smile and shake my head. I decided to not talk about my drama with him as soon as I left my parent’s house. I have to start separating my life; I need to protect what I have with him.I won’t let the darkness of that part of my life ruin the light we have in our life together.“No, I would rather have
I open the door to my bedroom for Adira, letting her walk in first. She gets on the bed and sits up on the bed. I get on the bed and lie on my tummy. I look up at her smiling; she’s staring in the direction of the painting.I can’t believe how beautiful this woman is. She’s effortlessly beautiful, she takes my breath away every time I look at her.“How long is the painting going to take to finish?” Adira asks looking at the canvas. I turn onto my back and look up at her. She’s sitting up her body slightly swallowed by the pillows.“A while.” I say and she smiles“Is it weird that I was hoping it would be done tonight?” She says making me smile.“No, that makes sense. You’re anxious t see the finished piece.” I say and she looks at me smiling sweetly.“Do you want to go back?” she asks pointing the chair I was sitting in when I was painting her.&
Two years later“Hey, there is a lady here so see you.” My assistant says walking into my office. I look up at her and smile. I told her not to disturb me for the next hour but she just had to walk in here. I don’t need this today.“Have Faith do her hair, I have so much paper work to go through. I can’t take on a client right now.” I say a little annoyed. I don’t have patience to deal with clients insist I do their hair today. On a normal day I would go out and talk them down. Convince them that my staff is capable of doing the job. But today is not a normal day; I have a lot of things to get through. I have other duties besides doing hair; I have to run the business as well.I have to make sure the schedule makes sense, the suggestions box is filled to the brim and I have to figure out where to find new staff. That means I have to get an ad out, hold interviews and I have to make sure whoever I h
“Good morning.” Simon says walking into our bedroom. I turn over and look at his beautiful man. I can’t believe he’s all mine, I catch myself staring at him in awe sometimes. I just can’t believe that I bagged such a loyal, loving and talented human being. He’s incredible and he’s mine. “I was hoping you were up. I got tire of waiting for you to wake up.” he says getting on the bed. He smiles coming closer to me for a kiss.“Morning.” I say kissing him back. He smiles staring at me for long time. I bet he’s been up for hours. Living with him showed me that he doesn’t sleep that much. I’ve changed, I enjoy sleeping these days. I look forward to bedtime and I wake up early when I have to. I don’t get out of bed before 10 am if I don’t have to. Gone are the days of insomnia and early mornings, I love my beauty sleep.
“I’m sorry.” Adira says walking through the door. I breathe a sigh of relief seeing her back home. I was so worried she wasn’t going to come back. I don’t know why but I had this feeling of dread when she walked out of here with her sister. I had half the mind to go after them; I had to talk myself down and let her do what she needs to do. She didn’t need me to come to her rescue this time; I understand she needed to do this herself. She needed to make her sister respect her and she doesn’t need me holding her hand to do that. Tonight was the death of the old Adira; new Adira took control of the situation and didn’t falter. It was hard to stand back and watch her hurting but I’m glad I held back. They both needed to go through that to make sure it never happens again. “Don’t apologize you didn’t do anything wrong.” I say and she closes the door. She takes off her shoes but she doesn’t walk in any closer to me. She feels guilty about what Chloe did to me so she’
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Simon asks me for the 100th time. I turn from my side to my back on my bed and look at him. I’m so exhausted , I don’t think I’ve ever cried like I did tonight. I walked out of my parent’s house and just lost it. I couldn’t hold in all that fear, anger and shame. I had to cry it out and I’m so happy he was there with me. It felt good to have someone there for me.The conversation I had with my father forced me to release the hurt and I was holding on to all these years. It was scary for Simon because he didn’t know what was going on. I just started crying without warning. He held me for about ten minutes listening to me cry my heart out.He didn’t rush me with questions or push me to tell him what was wrong. He just held me and let me cry it out. I can only imagine the types of thoughts that were running through his mind when I was crying. He probably thought
“What did you want to talk to me about?” I say to my father a long silence. He hasn’t said anything to me since I walked into the living room he’s sitting on his chair staring at the window. He might be comfortable with the silence, I’m not. It freaks me out; I don’t know what to do with myself. My mind keeps raising coming up with different reasons why he called me here. And most of them end with me dead in a ditch. That’s how deep my trust issues run.Even when I was a child I didn’t feel safe with my parents. I was filled with anxiety and fear every time I had to go somewhere with him. And unfortunately my mother wasn’t any different. My saving grace was getting older. Growing up gave me choices; I could decide where I wanted to go. I only went places with my father when it was necessary, other than that I stayed home.Think about it now, it’s a little sad. How can a child not feel safe with her fathe
My father opens the door looking at me like he’s surprised I’m here. I shift from one foot to another, nervous. I didn’t plan on being here today. My father called me out of the blue and summoned me here. He told me to show up at the house tonight. I wanted to make an excuse why I couldn’t come but I had a feeling he wouldn’t take no for an answer.“Who’s that in the car?” My father asks looking at Simon sitting in the driver’s side of his car. I look at my father suspiciously. I say a little prayer that he doesn’t start throwing a fit. He never liked it when I brought boys over to the house. That’s why I asked Simon to stay in the car.My dad sees pregnancy when he sees his daughters with a boy. He just thinks trouble and there’s no changing his mind. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice Simon in the car, I meant it’s almost dark outside . But I guess my father has 20/20 vision.&ldq
“Hi.” Chloe says opening the door. The smile on my face immediately turns into a frown. If she’s opening the door it means Adira is not home yet. I look down the hall contemplating if I should go wait for Adira downstairs. I don’t want to be with Chloe alone, I don’t trust her at all. “Adira is not home yet, that means we have time to talk. Come in.” She says opening the door wider.She smiles at me and I can feel my gut stand on its feet. It is telling to get the hell out of here. I’m not comfortable with this at all. I take out my phone and dial Adira’s number. I need to find out where she is and she needs to know where I am.“Hey, I’m running a little late. I’m sorry.” She says answering on the second ring. “I got an extra appointment I didn’t plane for.” She adds and I feel guilty for bothering her. I bet she’s swamped right now. I just ha
“I want to talk to you about something.” I say to Adira and she looks at me for a moment unsure. She sits up on her bed staring at me. I look at her beautiful face hoping she will be open to what I’m about to tell her. I hope she sees the good in it and not the disaster. Want her to be with me on this so bad, if she says yes our life would be so good together.“I feel like you’re about to tell me something life altering.” She says looking at me sideways. She’s not wrong; I want us to change our life for the better. This is going to be hard for her I know but I’m with her all the way.“Well.” I say and she bulges her eyes out scared. I want to calm her down and tell her it’s nothing big but I don’t know if that’s true. Moving is big thing, asking her to uproot her life for me is a big thing. I am asking the world of her but I promise t give her the world too.“
“I feel sleepy; I think we should turn in.” Adira says to Simon and they give each other that cheesy, we’re in love smile that I hate. They look so perfect and happy together. I hate that Adira has so much happiness with someone. I know it’s wrong but I love it when she’s unhappy, especially when I’m happy but I don’t care. It lets me know that I’m not a failure, it’s lets me know that I’m not alone. Seeing her with Simon makes feel so lonely, it hurts to know that I’m in this alone. “That’s sad I thought you guys were going to stay up with me for a little while longer.” I say smiling at Simon sweetly. I’m talking to him anyways; I want him to stay up all night with me. I don’t care about Adira she can go sleep alone. I want to hear more of his funny childhood stories. He’s a very cool guy, I get why Adira is so in love with him. I would be obsessed with him too if he was my boyfriend. In fact I’m not ashamed to sa