New York, New York

Chapter 11

When he stepped out the door, he heared a humming sound from somewhere above him, that irritated him. He started to look around, shielding his eyes from the sunlight, trying to make out the source of that sound.

His eyes landed on a small rectangular objects with 4 arms.

He froze.

There, right above his terrace, was a drone.

...

He looked up at that thing, lifted his arm and showed the person who clearly was on the other end of the camera his middle finger in combination with a death stare.

In that exact moment, pictures from the prior day flashed through his mind... warm  water moving around ecstatic bodies... naked skin... feeding each other with grapes...

Something in his head klicked, and he stormed down the stairs, stomping into the bedroom as he became aware of the fact that he was only wearing cargo shorts and flip flops and was without a shirt. She was rummaging through the walk-in closet when he stormed in to grab his hoodie off the bed and wanted to go out and confront that person before he could leave.

She must have realized something happened because he was so furious.

"Hey, hey, hey? What's up, buddy?" She asked, quickly blocking his way.

"I need to get out there, to confront that sick bastard" he cussed out, trying to move past her.

"Whow, whow! What the hell happened?"

"One of the paps has a drone, it was right above the terrace. I need to get out there to..."

"OH NO! You are not going anywhere! We are going to call the police, and they will take care of this, this sure is breaching more than one privacy law!"

"But if we do that, that guy will be gone... God... I..."

"I am sure as hell not letting you go out there and pick a fight with a pap. Are you crazy?"

"How can you stay so calm? Imagine that thing had been there yesterday... when we... GOD! I CANT EVEN THINK OF THAT!"

"But it wasn't there yesterday! Nothing happened. YOU. NEED. TO. CALM. DOWN."

"And what am I supposed to do? Just let that asshole be?"

"NO, you are calling the police, let them handle it and we will simply keep our bathing clothes on for today and rearrange the parasols in case that person shows up again. And if he does, we will call the police again. But since he obviously knows you saw him I am almost 100% sure he won't try it again."

"How can you remain so calm? I mean, do you even care?"

"Oh honey, believe me, I care. For your sake... for mine... not really! I probably would see it differently had it appeared yesterday, but today, we can handle that."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE you are saying this!!!" He said, slightly raising his voice, before continuing in a slightly more factual tone.
"I never would have thought that you would be so oblivious to this!!! What happened to you?"

"ME? OBLIVIOUS TO YOUR FEELINGS? I have spend 17 years beating myself up for breaking your heart like I had back in the day, and I tried to protect us at all cost! YOU decided to put us out there right now, remember?"

"Yes because you were just blabbing on about private stuff that nobody should have known from the beginning which caused these rumors to pop up in the first place"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE THROWING THIS IN MY FACE NOW!!!" she yelled at him, looking deeply hurt.

"You better stay here and cool off, maybe take a cold shower or whatever, I am not going to continue this conversation before you came to your senses." He could see tears forming in her eyes. Tears of anger and hurt.

The next second, she shut the bedroom door in his face, running down the stairs.

He remained in his position, his mind suddenly blank. He still was unable to grasp how she could remain so cool about this. He knew that she had taken a lot of shit over the years, but how could she be so oblivious that the person could have witnessed them in the most intimate of moments if only he had thought if that damn terrace a little earlier? That in that case, every person on this planet would by now have seen every intimate detail of their bodies, not to mention the amount of sick people that could use the naked pic of her for god knows what? Or that one could use visual proof of their lovemaking like some kind of cheap porn?!? Those were moments he had cherished so much, that were not supposed to be tainted by or shared with other people than the woman he loved.

He paced the room for a while thinking of what to do next. That guy definitely would have taken off by now anyway, and probably taken his colleagues with him, so most likely those steps infront of that house would be empty by now anyway. So calling the police like she had suggested would probably not have much success either, but at least that would spare him the possibility of getting himself a black eye.

He sat down on the foot end of the bed and took a few deep breaths.

Thinking of the possibility that this could have ended in a physical fight made him reconsider what she had just said. Maybe she had just been as as worried about him being physically harmed as he had been worried about her honor. Maybe she had just sensed that he was not in his right mind and had just wanted to protect him, just as much as he wanted to protect her? Maybe she actually had been right since there wasn't really any damage done and they should just let the legal system deal with the breech of their privacy?

He realized that he had been unfair to her. She really had done nothing wrong. She had handled things like this numerous times in her life always with grace and coming out fine in the end.

And to throw her statements in her face? Really not fair either. He knew that she had just been happy and had worn her heart on her sleeve like she always had, which was part of what he loved about her.

Was this stupid shit really worth for them to fight over? Was he really willing to grant those people this kind of power over his life?

To the hell not! Now he had to make up his mind on how to apologize to her and how to handle the situation with the paps.

His eyes landed on his phone that was still charging on the nightstand. He picked it up to call his rep.

"Hey Ina? We have a little situation here, I really could use your help..."