Diamond in the Making

38. Nostalgic Improvise

Fear is an impulse feeling to have when you receive a threat. Your mind takes you to dark places that show you what the reality of the threat may be.

My mind travelled to my parents house. I walked through the doors and saw them there. It gave me a sense of calm but then I saw red. The colour that matches her painted lips. The flames engulf the place that I hold dear to me.

I thought of my accomplishments, what I've created as my own. I'm proud of everything that I've done and I love every second of it. My vision flashed with each display case I set up for this evening and then the red appeared again. The fire destroyed my hard work.

Daphne is the fire. I am imagining her threats becoming a reality. I am feeling the imaginary grief. I can't stop it. I'm stuck in this day dream.

Just because Daphne fed me empty threats, doesn't mean that I wouldn't feel any sense of fear. I knew better than to think I was actually in a harmful position but you can't change the initial shock you have. Nate helped me escape the fear that began eating away at me. It's weird how whenever he is by my side, I feel protected and in some ways invincible. I was grateful to have him by my side to cry my heart out on the night of my party.

I'm very proud of him succeeding and taking the position that he so desperately wanted. I wish I had his fearless attitude but I know that deep down everyone has fears, he's just better at hiding his.

Thinking of Nate and his solo career made me remember Brad. Oh how I wish to forget Bradley Richards. If I could go back in time I would have never dated him and I wouldn't have gotten involved with the wolves. Those are my biggest regrets but I wonder if changing that would change who I am.

Brad unfortunately owns most of my business so the plan is to buy him out anonymously but keep his name on it, at least until the deal goes through. Since his name would still be there, he would think that I wouldn't know any better and he would still have his leverage over me. He could say no but he would be a fool to, considering I'm offering way more than what the shares are worth. Sounds easy enough right? The stock broker, Todd, has everything sorted but from what I've heard, it takes a while for the paperwork to go through.

Nate has been travelling a lot more for work lately and I miss him but I also don't want to interfere. I don't usually ask what his work involves, I know he's been making some plans to deal with the wolves and that's pretty much all the information I have. Being out of the loop isn't a problem for me. Nate and I live separate lives during the day but I love how we always come together in the best way at night.

Today Nate is coming back from a meeting in Boston. He'll be home until tomorrow morning when he has to get back on the plane for another trip. When I think about him being away so much, I feel a little neglected but I know this won't last forever. He always calls and texts me many times during the day, it's a reminder that he is always thinking of me and I love that.

I sat outside by the crystal blue pool with a glass of wine thinking of how the water matches Nate's eyes. I adjusted my sundress as I sat on the edge of the pool and dipped my feet in.

No one else was home, well no one that I really cared to talk to. I was just waiting for one person to walk through the doors.

My phone rang from beside me and I rushed to answer Nate's call.

"Hey," I said smoothly. "Are you almost home?" I asked eagerly.

It's kinda weird to call this place home. Home is where you're happy, it's where the source of your happiness rests. So to call this place home is pretty accurate.

"Hey babe, I have a surprise planned for you tonight."

"What kind of surprise?" I asked curiously.

"You'll see. Meet me out front in five minutes. Dress comfortably we have a long drive," he said then I heard Roman and Theo rush through the front doors.

I quickly said my goodbyes to Nate and greeted the guys before I rushed upstairs to get some sandals.

Nate stood in front of the black Range Rover dressed casually in blue jeans and a tight white shirt. I let myself admire the view for a second before I snapped back to reality.

"Do you like what you see?" He asked suggestively.

I stride towards him and wrap my arms around his neck to pull him to my lips. Every emotion was displayed, the longing, the affection, the admiration. I felt it all.

"Where are we going?" I asked, hoping the kiss was alluring enough to get a clue about the plan for this evening.

"I'm not gonna answer that," he said with a smile as he opened the car door for me.

The drive was long and I already knew where we were going but I didn't want to ruin the surprise he planned. Time passed by quicker as we shared cheesy jokes and laughed at things that weren't even funny. Before I knew it, we were back outside of my parents house.

"What are we doing here?" I asked curiously.

I'm not mad we are here, I'm just wondering why he thinks this would be a good date setting.

"Well you got the chance to get to know my parents a little bit better, with their judgments and all. So I thought I could do the same with your parents," he said as he held my hand and guided me into the house.

I didn't understand what he meant. How was this really gonna go? It's not like he will know anything about my parents just by walking into their house.

The room was dark and I saw cassette tapes laid all over the coffee table with candles. I can't believe I forgot about all of these old home videos. I've never actually watched them but I knew we had them because there wasn't one event where my dad didn't have his giant camera with him.

"You can say no if you don't want to watch them. I just thought this way I could-" Nate began to nervously ramble.

"No, I want to watch them," I said, cutting him off as tears already started to glaze my eyes.

I sat on a pillow on the floor by the coffee table with my back against the couch searching through all the labeled cassettes.

"Let's start from the beginning," I said, putting in the earliest one I could find.

We sat together all night watching the videos. My parents were my biggest cheerleaders at my sports games and recitals and the loudest singers at my birthday parties. We both laughed and Nate rubbed my back while I occasionally cried. He is very thoughtful for doing this for me, he definitely had the right idea. I felt my mom and dad's personality just spilling through the tv. In a way, I wanted to believe that this was them here with us.

The nostalgic feeling is turning into the memory of when Nate met my parents and I love that I'm living the memory right now.

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This is the last lovey dovey chapter for now because there is going to be a major reveal in the next chapter and I'm still not sure how I'm going to recover their relationship from that.
Any predictions?