Warm

23

Keanu is doing everything to get on my nerves.

And I am doing everything to not show it.

It wasn't when he walked into meetings late lethargically like he had just woken up. Or when he smirks at me like it has any effect. Or when he bosses my employees around. It's almost like he's purposely doing the things he knows will piss me off. Maybe it's revenge for putting his step-dad in jail. I doubt it. But I hate it when he acts like he knows me. When he tells Brian not to order the posole from that restaurant because I don't like it from there. When he tells the employees not to bother me at night because that's when I'm more creative. Or when he mentions the paintings hung around that are so obviously inspired by us. By him.

All of this, although it made my veins burst from under my skin, was manageable. I still treated him politely. I still acted as if we were strangers barely meeting. Like it wasn't 4 years ago that I chased him all the way to China only to find women crawling all over him.

But today, oh today, he has tested the very existence of my patience.

Because today he brought his girlfriend.

Today he brought Alex.

She cut her buttery yellow hair, it hangs sharply at her jawline. Her ice blue eyes say something different than the smile she is forcing. The girl who came to me to try and fix my broken heart is gone. An ice queen stands in her presence now. And her fingers are intertwined with Keanu's.

Nothing can hide her expressions as she walks around my museum. She's impressed.

"Can you believe him?" Laura asks. She seems to be more angry than I am.

"It was only a matter of time."

We watch from the stairs as various different emotions conflict her face. Especially when they wander in front of the paintings about Keanu and I.

They catch us staring and wave us over. "Smile," I tell Laura, putting up one of my own. We meet with them at the bottom of the stairs.

"Aurora, this museum is gorgeous," Alex says and she places two kisses on each of my cheeks, never letting go of Keanu's hand. And he stands like a mannequin, the only thing he knows how to do is smile like that. Like he's innocent.

He could smile at me while he drives a knife right through my heart.

The whole day Keanu and Alex parade their relationship to the press in my museum. She kisses his cheeks and giggles into his ear. He holds her in his arms, guiding her through my art. The art that was inspired from us. She is the reason for the stubborn headache that won't go away.

I also do my fair share of parading around. Groups of people walk behind me wherever I go, asking me to sign this, to ask what to do because something went wrong, to set up my interviews. Brian is very good at answering their questions for me but there are some I have to do on my own. Running a museum was hard enough and adding the fashion show into has definitely made me into a busier woman than I had to be. Yet, work isn't something undesirable as it was back then. I love what I do now. I love running my museum and putting all my blood, sweat, and tears into it. My dreams were once a small root and have now grown into a tall, strong tree. Working for this museum, especially now, is a wanted distraction.

Once the late evening hits, I do the remaining of my work in my office. Although it's the most boring part of the job, at least it gets me away from the eyesore that is Keanu and Alex.

It maddens me that I'm irked after seeing them. It's an endless cycle of vicious hate; blaming me, blaming him, blaming them and so on. I'm almost regretting letting him back in.