A sharp knock pierced through the room, jerking Faith back to reality. She jerked her hand back, unnoticed."Come in," Devlin called, not lifting his eyes from the book before him.The door opened and Casiuss stepped in. He sent a small smile her way. She returned it tentatively. "I'm back, boss.""Good. How are they doing?""They're good. Said you should visit yourself soon."Devlin sighed. "Yeah, I'll make some time.'""Need me to do anything else?""Yeah, Faith will be living in a minute. I need to take her back to Greenfield.""Okay, boss." He left the room, most probably heading to the gym to get some work out in, she guessed.Faith sighed with relief. With what just happened, she was glad to get away from him for a while. Getting into a small car with him would have been too much torture. She was sure now that she couldn't trust herself with this man. "I'm done," he said with a flourish, pushing the book to her.She checked out his work. "That's correct," she said, pleased with
"How are you not his type?" "Doesn't he date like supermodels and actresses and stuff?""And?" "And I look like neither of those things.""Girl, have you ever looked at yourself?" Come here. She pulled her off the bed and dragged her over to the mirror. "Look at yourself. You're stunning!"Faith looked at herself in the mirror. She knew she was pretty; always had been. Her hair fell to her mind back, thick and shiny. Her face was small and oval, her big brown eyes taking up a bit more space than average. She was beautiful--perhaps cute was a better description. But she was no supermodel, and she knew it."You're insane if you think you don't have some effect on him.""I have never noticed him say or do anything to that effect."She shrugged. "He may not realize it yet, but I'd say having someone pick you off and drop you off for a job he pays you for is not normal behaviour.""I think he's just being nice."She raised her brow. "Sure," she crawled.Faith sighed. "So what do I do no
Faith's heart jumped into her throat. She would recognize that voice anywhere now. "Faith? It's you, isn't it?" The voice asked again.She turned around slowly. Devlin appeared before her eyes, his eyes wide as he took her in. He looked her over head to toe."Wow," he said. He had his hand around a blonde bombshell that Faith faintly recognized. "Fancy seeing you here!""Err, yeah," she muttered, knowing he couldn't hear her over the music."You didn't tell me you were going clubbing tonight. We could have come together.""I doubt your girlfriend here would have liked that," she yelled."Nah, you wouldn't mind, would you, Anna?""It's Anne," she corrected.He looked at her blankly for a moment then blinked. "Oh, right, sorry.""So are we dancing or what?" She asked, squeezing her arm and pouting."Sure," he said. "See you around, Faith." He led his girl to the dance floor where she immediately began to grind on him. The way she moved, even Faith was mesmerised. She moved with precisi
Faith felt apprehensive as she sat in Casiuss' car. This was her first session with Devlin since that day at the club.She'd spent the last few days regretting everything. She blamed it on the alcohol. If she'd been in her right senses, she never would have made those decisions.She woke up the following day with a splitting headache, a hangover and distinct memories of the night. It was just her luck that she wouldn't get hangover amnesia. She could have used it.To make matters worse, Devlin hadn't even reached out to her once in all that time. She would feel better if he'd berated her or something... anything.The first time she heard from him was earlier that day when his text reminding her of the session and informing her that Casiuss would pick her up came in.It was the same text she'd gotten from him in the past. There was no change in tone, length or even punctuation. She knew because she'd analyzed it for hours.She'd even shown it to Adele, bless the girl. She'd latched ont
Faith gripped her chest which was still fluttering wildly from the shock she received. She struggled to get her heartbeat under control.Devlin dropped into the couch beside her, casually crossing his feet and laying one hand across the back of the sofa. He grinned, knowing exactly what he'd just done."Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"He guffawed. "Maybe?" He shot her an innocent smile."I think I'm having a heart attack." Although, she admitted that her heart was slowing down already but her face was still flushed and hot."Nah, you'll be fine.""When did you finish your meeting?" She asked to buy herself time to recover."Just a couple of minutes ago."She frowned. "Is there a different door? I didn't see the people you were meeting with leave."He shook his head at her. "Honey, what do you think this is? The stone age? We had the meeting online.""Oh," she muttered. That made sense. With that desk of a computer he had, he probably never needed to meet people physically.
It had been days since Devlin’s smartass “Club Queen” quip. She’d been shocked when he suddenly said that as she moved to get out of the car.She hadn’t been expecting it. He’d gone all day without breathing a word in that direction so she had no reason to think he would say it then.It was in keeping with his M.O. though. She knew that he'd waited that long to say anything to mess with her as much as possible.She smiled. At first, his pathological need to mess with her had pissed her off to no end but now she didn’t mind it—enjoyed it even. She found herself looking forward to what he would do next.One thing was certain since he came into her life, there hadn't been one dull moment. She still had two days to go to their next session, to when she would see him and she couldn't wait.But now, she had more pressing matters to deal with. She headed briskly to the dean’s office. She had twenty minutes to go before they closed.She would have gone earlier but she couldn’t bear to miss he
“I must be doing a very poor job then cause you don’t seem to be laughing.”“Oh, shut up." She pulled the car door open and climbed in.“Please, do come in,” he said sarcastically.She ignored him. “You were invited to Baylor’s concert?”He shrugged. “That’s what the paper says.”“How?”“I pulled a few strings.”“Why?”“Because you said she was your favourite artist the last time. Couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to show off now, could I?”“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! This is insane! It’s for tonight’s show. So are you going?”He sighed dramatically. “Geez, I sure would like to go but…”“But what?” she demanded.“I don’t want to go alone. I'll be so lonely. If only I could find someone to go with me?”“I’ll go! I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!” She yelled.He laughed. Faith held her breath as she waited for his verdict.“Hey, breathe. Your face is turning red. I don’t want to have to explain why a lady fainted in my car. I came here to get you so we can go to the thing
"You. Want. Me. To. Meet. Baylor. Right. Now!?" Faith sputtered."Yup." It would be a dream come true. She was one of those fans who never even dreamt it possible that they would meet their faves.She was content to watch her on a screen or attend whatever concert she could afford and see her from the crowd. To think that she would be seeing her up close and personal was almost too much for her heart to take. Her legs buckled slightly. He reached out to grab her arm and steady her. "Whoa, steady there. You really like her that much?""Is that a question?" She quipped. In her opinion, there was no one better. She was the best to ever do it.He shook his head. "So, you wanna go?""Again, is that a question?" She asked incredulously."Alright then, let's get this over with."They left the box, heading to a small doorway at the back. Devlin nodded his goodbyes to his celebrity friends. None of them spared her more than a glance or the occasional nod. Devlin was known to have lots of wom
"Dev! Get out!" Faith yelled. "Out! Out!" Sheila yelled too, determinedly pushing Devlin out of the room. "You shouldn't be here. Don't you know that it's a bad omen to see the bride before the wedding?"Devlin groaned. "Come on! I don't believe in superstitions. Can I just see my lovely wife?""She's not your wife yet, mister. Not until the ceremony is complete. Plus, you saw her last night. You too idiots slept in the same bed. I don't understand why you can't stay apart for even a second." She got him out the door and slammed it shut in his face."Done," she declared, dusting off her hands and returning to Faith. There was a short knock at the door and it opened again.Sheila turned around in exasperation. "Devlin, if I have to tell you one more time--"But it wasn't Devlin who stepped in. Adele squealed and rushed over to Faith, pulling her into a hug. "Oh my gosh, honey, congratulations!"Faith hugged her back. "Thank you, Adele. I'm so glad you could fly in.""Girl, I wouldn't
Immediately Faith saw Devlin walk through the door, her heart started beating faster, her palms started sweating and her breathing became heavy.She was scared of how their encounter was going to go, but damn did he look good. He was dressed in black cargo pants and a teal green shirt. His hair was rough and uncombed. He'd obviously come straight from bed.As soon as he entered, his eyes started scanning for her until he saw her and their eyes met. He pressed his lips together and started walking towards her, not breaking eye contact.From the corner of her eyes, she saw Adele pulling a reluctant Sheila away and into the house to give them some privacy.“Faith”, Devlin said softly as soon as he reached her.“Devlin”, she replied, breaking their eye contact now that he was close. It felt uncomfortable to continue to look him in the eyes like that. Also, she was worried her heart would go into overdrive at the sight of him.It wouldn't do to show him how much he was affecting her. Not w
As she drove to his house, she could not help but feel nervous. This would be the first time she was seeing him since they went on the road trip together and he had all but said he’d be fine with whatever direction their relationship took.She had been a friend when he desperately needed one but now that she had offered all the help she could as a friend, she could not continue with that. And even though she was the one who severed their relationship in the fist place, she loved him too much to be able to accept that.She drove like a madman, remembering ironically that she'd called Sheila that just earlier that day. She was mostly nervous and worried for him but underneath the nervousness, she was excited to see him again and maybe that had a part to play in why she drove so fast too.She arrived at his house several minutes earlier than she should have, jumped down and practically ran to the front door. She pressed on the door bell.Devlin himself answered the door, but the sight th
After they had breakfast and washed the dishes, they moved to the living room to hang out. The next few hours were full of light-headed conversations while munching on snacks.Sheila suddenly reached out and smacked Faith on the head. "Hey! What was that for?" Faith complained.“We’re going to a pool party. You should come with us”, Sheila said with wide, innocent eyes. But her amused smile gave her away.“Yeah, you should come. It’ll be a lot of fun”, Adele added.“I don’t know. You know pool parties aren’t really my scene”, Faith replied shaking her head. “You guys go have fun.”“Not without you, babe”, Sheila said.“Yes, pleeease”, Adele added pleadingly.“I don’t know”, Faith said. She was not really feeling it.“Come on, you had a lot of fun yesterday, right?” Adele asked her.“Yeah, but that’s different. That was you two. This time it’ll be a bunch of people I don’t know”, Faith replied trying to convince them.“It’ll be a lot of fun. And you won’t be with the bunch of people,
They got to the movies just in time to see a rom-com movie. Sheila wasn’t much for it but it was the only movie left that hadn’t started. They got some popcorn and drinks and went in to the cinema.It was always nice to spend time with Adele and Sheila, though they did not do it very often. A little into the movie, they started started talking to each other, making funny comments about the actors.One of the attendants came up to them and told them to keep quiet. Apparently, someone somewhere had complained they were disturbing everyone. They agreed to keep it down and the attendant walked back up t his post.A little later, they could not help it and just started talking again. Adele who did not seem too enthusiastic about the movie at first started shouting out her comments loud enough for the entire cinema to hear them.The attendant started for them once more but seemed to decide against it halfway and turned back. Maybe because everyone was laughing and no one was complaining. Sh
They ate the dinner prepared by Laura and once again, they offered to wash the dishes. Laura agreed after much persuasion. Once they finished with that, they went back to the living room where they struck up a conversation.“So Faith, how did you meet Devlin," his father asked.“Devlin reapplied to College. He needed a tutor and fortunately for him, I was available--the highest scoring entrant that year.”“Tutoring him could not have been easy. He must have been a pain in the ass. Pardon my language.”Faith smiled. “Oh, don't worry about it. And yes, he we incredibly insufferable. He’s lucky I was patient because I don’t know what he would have done without me.”“Well, thank you for staying by his side even when he’s such an idiot”, he said looking at her in a way that made her feel like he also understood what was going on. Was that something every parent had, she wondered.Devlin didn’t seem to understand since he was just laughing. He looked like he was really happy to be back home
Walking up to the house seemed to take forever. Now that they were here, Faith could not help but be nervous. She was nervous for him of course, but she was also nervous for herself, because she was going to meet the parents of the man she had been dating. Well, use to date.She had no reason to be nervous since they were not seeing each other anymore- for the moment- and she was only supporting him as a friend. Her body however had a mind if its own as she could not stop fidgeting.Eventually, they got to the door but nobody knocked. Devlin seemed to be a little scared so she fought down her own nervousness and knocked for him.A few seconds later, a man who looked exactly like Devlin, except older, opened the door. Immediately he saw who his visitor was, his eyes widened in surprise and a smile gradually formed on his face."D-Dad, its-its been a while", Devlin said looking down unable to meet his father's eyes."Devlin. What are you standing there for? Give your old man a hug."Wit
"So, tell me what happened", Faith said immediately."Well, I got in, and we talked and...""Oh no, my bad. First, what happened at the door?""This is going to be long, isn't it?""Well, the faster you answer, the sooner it'll be over"."How about I just give you a detailed summary of what happened?""Ok, alright." "When I rang the doorbell and she opened up, she was of course surprised to see me. I couldn't tell if she was scared because she sent the letter or was just still angry. Either way, I was still to blame"."She asked me what I was doing there and I told her I just came to talk. Of course, she replied that I was a few years too late and I did not have any right to come into her home after all that time.""Then I remembered what you said about speaking from my heart and I just told her, "I know that I ran away, but I loved your daughter. And it's because I loved her so much, that I risked coming all this way and getting turned back to get a chance to make things right.""By
Two days later, Faith and Devlin were in her car on their way to Isabella's parent's house. They chose her car since it wasn't as flashy as his and conveyed at least a bit of humility.They had left very early in the morning. He had to drive to her house first since she insisted they take her car. He arrived to meet her ready, so they started the journey without him having to enter her apartment.It had been a very silent trip. He was terrified of what he was on his way to do. She didn't quite know what to say to him, so they spent their time doing separate things, her on her phone and he pretending to be focused on driving.After a while, he stopped the car on the side of the road and said to her, "Would you please take over driving. My hands can't seem to stop shaking"."Of course", she replied at once. She then immediately came out of the vehicle and switched seats with him.Once they were back on the road, he turned to her, "I don't even know what I'll say, how to start. I just te