Taste of Melanin

Feel Good

No face claims
...

"I watched one of his videos." Lena stared mindless as she stirred the golden spoon in her tea cup. The soft clink along the sides of the cup served as a distraction.

"What?"

"I couldn't help myself anymore." Looking up at her best friend, Vienna, the restaurant around them seemed to disappear.

"Lena-"

"I know. I know... I just," Lena stopped herself as the memories of what she saw played before her eyes.

The calloused hands of her boyfriend running along the skin of another woman. The lips she kissed attached to the body of another.

It was an idea she'd been okay with at first, convincing herself it was only a job. Lena was never one to look down on sex work especially considering her sister worked in the industry.

When she'd first met Harvey, she thought the understanding she had from her sister would help in their relationship. What she didn't know was Harvey was in an entirely different league. He often left their shared apartment for days, weeks even, to fly to another state for a shoot.

He made sure to keep things to a minimum when they first started dating, only shooting locally and on the days where she would have been too busy to see him anyways. Now that they'd been dating for a year he was back to his usual and it was beginning to tear her apart.

The once open and honest communication they had became one sided with Lena unable to control her emotions. The thought of him leaving her for one of the women he met on scenes had begun to grow within the last 3 months. It quickly snowballed within the last month as their sex life hit a stalemate due to her own insecurities.

"I wanted to see if he looked the same. If he looked... if he looked at them the way he used to look at me." It felt pathetic to say out loud and tears filled her eyes.

"Oh, honey." Vienna quickly stood from her seat to embrace Lena on the other side. "Talk to him, Lena."

"I-"

"And don't tell me you have because I know you better than that. You're letting your mind create solutions to problems that don't even exist. If there's one thing I know, it's that Harvey loves you and you don't have to worry about any of those skinny, white bitches." Vienna rubbed her arms as she pulled back.

"You're right. I will, I promise."
...

Lena arrived back to her apartment later than planned as she'd spent the last three hours mindless driving to avoid her current situation. Her phone let her know it was nearing midnight and the silence of the apartment let her know she was alone.

Kicking off her shoes, she placed her purse on the couch and made her way into the kitchen. A cold bottle of wine was placed under one arm while a pint of ice cream sat under the other.

"Well hello my sleepy boy." She cooed to Bear, the 4 year old Saint Bernard she and Harvey adopted. The large dog slowly rubbed along her side as she pet him before returning to lay along the dog bed in the hall.

"You've got one more sleepy boy to say hello to." The deep voice caused her to jump, her hands fumbling to catch the falling wine bottle.