The Fear In His Eyes

"Laura! Laura!" I met Metor on my way out of the rest room, she was calling out for me coming to the toilets. 

"What happened sweetheart? Why did you leave like that?" She asked worried.

She wrapped her arms around me not wanting to let go. I also hugged her tightly, shedding some tears across her shoulder. 

"I don't want to die in his arms." She hugged me tighter, padding my back. 

"You're alright sweetheart. You're not going to die." 

Mum saw us from a distance when we were entering the bridal car. She rushed to the door before we got out of the parking lot. The driver took us to mum's apartment. 

Metor and mum waited for me in the living room as I took a shower. The wedding dress suddenly felt heavy when we got home. I just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. I changed into mum's rob, the only thing I could comfortably wear from her closet. I called one of my house keepers to bring me some clothes.

I went back to join the ladies in the living room. I was welcomed with a cup of warm coffee. Mum was preparing some snacks in the kitchen. 

"What happened sweetheart? Everything was going well. What freaked you out?" Metor asked coming to sit next to me on the big sofa. 

Her hands were doing their soothing magic, as she took my hand into her's. I took a deep breath before I could start talking. 

Mum walked in the living room with a tray full of sandwiches. I picked one to eat with my coffee, I couldn't wait for the juice. I missed mum's egg sandwiches, they taste better than the snacks served in some of the five hotel in the city. And the taste never gets old to me. 

It started a couple of months ago, when we at an event with Gerard. I've forgotten what was happening that. But there were a lot of big heads in the room. 

There were some people that are more rich and powerful than Gerard. Some demanded respect from him and he would bow without arguments. Some didn't want to show off their power but I could tell that he was inferior to them. 

The atmosphere started to feel like we were privileged to be there. I didn't know most of them so I treated them like we were equals. Some of them took interest in me. 

"Simone Blake, what's your name beautiful?" A handsome man stretch his hand to me. 

He looked to be in his early forties. Grey hair round the sides of his head and shiny black hair on top of his head. 

"Laura Wesley." I shaked his hand looking into his deep blue eyes. 

"Nice to meet you Mrs Wesley." His eyes locked with mine. 

"Its actually Miss Wesley, and nice to meet you Mr Blake." I broke the eye contact shifting my focus to my glass of wine. 

"Oh he hasn't yet walked you through the aisle." A smirk formed on his lips.

"The wedding is a few months away, and I don't intend to rush it." I knew was interested in me so I decided to play along. 

Gerard had went out to answer an important call, and I was getting bored.

"That's unusual, a lady taking her time with the wedding. You're quiet peculiar Miss Wesley." He took a sip, smiling at me.

"Yeah, I just have to, there is nothing adorable in being ordinary." I brought the glass to my mouth feeling his gaze on me.

"You're right about that. Being ordinary is like auctioning yourself for the lowest bid. No one will value you."

I chuckled, pointing my glass at him to concur his statement. 

"So what do you do for a living?" He asked. 

"I am the found of Girlsmith cooperation, and I also manage a number of growing companies that are within and out of the city..." 

"Hey baeb, sorry for taking long. There was a misunderstanding." Gerard got back. 

"Oh hello Mr Blake." Gerard's tone changed when he saw Simone. 

"Hey Gerard, how is it?" Simone returned the greeting calmly, his gaze turned back to me oblivious of Gerard's presence.

"Things are going well, though not as I had projected..." Gerard hoped Simone was listening, he was talking like someone that's hoping to get a favour. 

Simone didn't seem to care about what Gerard was saying, and that got to me. I decided to get back at him by bragging about Gerard. 

"Seems you already know each other, then I'll just reintroduced my fiancée. Mr Blake, meet my fiancée Gerard Oceans, he is the one I was telling about earlier." I hanged my hand around his neck and kissed his cheek. 

I felt Simone's gaze on me getting dark, he was burning with jealous. He didn't talk much after that, he left leaving me his business card saying he is interested in working with me on some project in the near future. 

That was the first time I saw insecurity in Gerard's eyes. He tried to hide it but his eyes couldn't keep a secret. I saw the fear in Gerard's eyes when Simone left. He was jealous and scared of losing me to someone bigger than him. He insisted we get out of there, and plus I didn't like the event, I just went there to support Gerard. so we left the place heading home. 

Gerard was silent and I didn't know what to say to cheer him up. The car was quiet I could hear the engine breathing behind us. I decided to break the silence getting bored. 

"I was just talking to him out of boredom. I don't even like his hair." I wanted to clear the air. 

Gerard seemed to be pissed cause he found me with Simone, I thought if I could make him realize that there was nothing to worry about, maybe he will cheer up.

"His hair looks like a zebra hat." I added on hoping to hear a chuckle or see a smirk on his face, but he was silent like he didn't hear a thing.

"I don't like it when you act like that." His silent treatment got to me and I started complaining. 

He suddenly stopped the car, I almost hit the dashboard if wasn't for to the seatbelt that stopped me midway. 

"What the fuck was that for?" I cussed at him. 

"The lights turned red." He coldly replied. 

"You should have gave me a heads up, I almost lost my front teeth if wasn't for the seatbelt." 

"I was waiting for you to finish talking." He was trying to get me upset hoping I would say something out of anger. 

"I don't know what got you mad that you don't want to talk about it." 

I decided to cross my hands and watch, I was tired of begging for his attention, I got back my pride and sank in my seat pulling out my phone.

We got home without talking about it. A few days later he opened up about his insecurity, but he masked it as jealousy. 

After that incident he started acting strange. He would start acting moody whenever he found me talking to another man over on the phone. 

Even when it was a business call, he would still get jealous. At first I was letting it slide. I took it he was still thinking about Simone. So I was hoping he would forget about with time. 

A tear had softly rolled down my face, I only felt it when it fell off my chin. Metor took the cup of coffee from my hands. I wiped the tears and continued. 

A few weeks later after the Simone event, I wanted to host a seminar in Manhattan, I asked Gerard to help me coordinate the program. 

At first he was supportive, he had even invested some money into the program. Then when he learned that there were other men on the program, he insisted I step back from the program.

He had even threatened to withdraw his fund from the program if I had insisted to host the program. So I gave a fake excuse and asked Monica to fill my space on the program.

I wondered why he suddenly decided to change his mind just cause there are other men on the program. I didn't want to start another fight with him so I kept quiet about it. 

I didn't want to accept that his insecurities were getting worse, so I assumed that he probably had some personal issues with one of the guys on the program and he just didn't want to talk about it. 

It was the first time he made me change my program. All along he was all helping and supportive. It didn't makes sense why would he suddenly become against my program?

I brushed off the thought that he was scared of exposing you to other men. I kept on telling myself he had his reasons and he was going to tell me about them later on. 

Weeks passed by and he didn't say anything about the seminar. When we were together he was sweet and charming, he didn't seem like someone that was carrying any barges. I assumed he just forgot to mention, but he definitely had his reasons and he was going to tell me about them when he is ready. 

I chuckled realizing how I was blinding myself.

Then this other day he found me on the phone with Charles, that time I think he had just came out of his military training. He was briefing me about his experience at the training but he wanted us to catch over some drinks. 

Gerard walked in the room when Charles was talking about the link up. 

"Hey baeb how was work?" I greeted him while still on the call with Charles. 

"Work was tiresome today, I just want to take a shower, eat, hit and sleep." He was taking off his suit by the bed. 

"Who is that in the background? Did you get into another relationship without telling me?" Charles asked.

"He is actually my fiancee. We are engaged." 

"That's not happening, you can't start dating without my concern, much worse getting engaged." Charles complained. 

"How did you expect me to tell you about it when your phone was off for months." I laughed at his complaint. 

"Where has he gone? Put him on the phone I want to talk to him?" Charles insisted. 

"Its my cousin Charles, he wants to talk to you." I muted the call.

"Hey sir how are you doing?" Gerard dragged himself close. 

"Am fine thanks, how are you?"

"Am fine." 

"That's good, my name is Charles Moore, I am Laura's baby daddy. And I want to know what you're doing with the mother of my child." Charles asked in an intimidating voice. 

"You must be mistaken sir, my fiancee doesn't have any baby daddy." Shallow wrinkles formed on Gerard's forehead. 

They talked for a while, Charles cut off the jokes and reintroduced himself properly. Gerard sounded cool when they were talking. 

Before hanging up Charles reminded me about the catch up plan, Gerard's expression seemed to change when he heard about the link up. He got moody that night, he was acting up like he often does when he is jealous. 

Days later I went out with Charles as we planned to, we had a lot to catch up on, we didn't notice how fast time flew. I got home late that night, Charles dropped me off home when it was past 11 PM. 

"Wow baeb you're watching TV. What's on the screen?" I walked to him excited, I wanted to chill with him and also share about Charles's adventures at the military training.

"Where were you?" He asked with a bottle of liquor in his hand.  

"I was with Charles."

"Don't think am a fool Laura." He put down his bottle getting up. 

I gripped my purse taking a step back. His eyes had a dark scary shadow, his ocean blue eyes turned black. 

"What do you mean? I was with Charles the whole time, he is just from dropping me off." I asked wondering what he was talking about.

"What time is it now? What were you doing with him that had you lost in the moment?" 

I chuckled at his seeing that he was jealous of Charles. 

"Baeb, he is my cousin, you talked to him last time, we were just catching up, he had been out for months." 

"I don't even know him, this guy could be your secret lover, and I just knew about his existence a few days ago, yet we've dated for over a year and you never mentioned him. If it wasn't for that call I was still going to be ignorant about his existence." His complained.

I apologized for not mentioning Charles earlier, but it didn't seem to work. He was still complaining, claiming that Charles was my secret lover. 

I avoided him going to the room, he was just accusing without hearing me out. He followed me to the room getting aggressive with his words. 

"Don't fucking walk out on me when am talking to you. Don't start acting like a bitch in my house..." His insults hurt me but I didn't reply for the sake of peace. 

I slept in another room that night. The next morning he apologized putting the blame on his jealousy, the liquor and that he was worried about me. Even after that I still didn't want to accept that his insecurities were getting worse, I still forgave him like a fool. 

"You were really blinded by his goodness." Metor said thoughtfully.

"Did he ever get physical with you?" Mum asked.