Roses and Flame

Chapter 20

It's been almost a week since I spent that night with Tyson. We talked pretty much all the time - through texts, phone calls and even on FaceTime. I wasn't sure if he knew that it was my first time or if he was a gentleman and didn't say anything. We weren't talking about whether we would make it official or was it just fun but I didn't want to ruin whatever-it-was just because I wanted more. And I did want more. But I also knew that I wanted to enjoy this as much as I can. Whatever-it-was made me feel alive and more confident, why would I need to stop this?

I was waiting for Daniela at our local cafe. I didn't pay attention to my surrounding like I usually do because I was on my phone texting with Tyson. He kept sending me funny selfies that made me laugh. I sent him back copying his facial expression with the caption "I think I did better, lol." He texted me back saying "That's because you're so gorgeous! ♡"

I didn't even realise that Daniela was 20 minutes late when she finally sat down in front of me saying "Sorry for being late, are you mad at me?"

I quickly put my phone down and smiled at her "Of course I'm not mad at you. I didn't even realise that you were late, so it's all good."

"What, what?" she asked, "who are you and what you did to my best friend Rosie?"

She looked at me a bit unsure but I could tell she wanted to smile.

"It's still me, Rosie, do I look any different?"

"Why would you? Other than you not paying attention to time and not people watching, you still look the same to me. Is everything ok?" she asked.

I haven't been able to tell her about that meeting with Tyson cause she recently got a job or as she said "something to keep me occupied rather than thinking about you-know-who" so it was the first time in a while seeing her.

"No, no, it's all good. Don't worry," I simply said and smiled at her.

"You are acting a bit weird. Either it's because it's been a while since we last met or something has happened."

"The first one probably," I said and I heard my phone buzz meaning Tyson probably texted me. And now I realised I didn't answer him back. My phone buzzed again.

"Check your phone, it's fine," said Daniela.

"Sorry, I'll just quickly-" I said checking my phone. There were 2 messages, one from Tyson asking "are you okay?" and one from dad saying "Your mom needs help cleaning the house since tomorrow is her birthday and her friends will come to visit." Ugh, I kinda hate my mom's friends. Her friend group were housewives from the neighbourhood were only Daniela's mom, besides mine, had kids and others just liked to have these sophisticated parties every once in a while and my mom would want to have her house perfect if she was hosting. I didn't really understand why mom was friends with most of those women.

"What is it?" Daniela asked seeing the look on my face.

"It's my mom's birthday tomorrow and I have to go home to make it perfect for her friends. Is your mom going to be there too?"

"Amm, no, you're mom said that one of the others said something about my mom not being too active in the group or something so she said she rather not go to your mom's birthday."

"Great! I'll be stuck with all the boring ones."

"What about your dad?"

"You know he isn't allowed there when those women are there so he goes to the pub or something. And I can't go anywhere since my mom likes me to be her servant there while she drinks and talks bad about other neighbours with them."

"Oh, yeah, that's why my dad was never there too."

"This morning my mom even gave me an outfit to wear tomorrow saying "you will look perfect" so then she could brag about it with her friends later."

"You know what? I'm going to help you clean the house even if my mom is not invited," said Daniela.

"No way, you don't have to be part of this, it's my job."

"C'mon, let me help you!" she said, "and later we can talk about everything we haven't talked about yet."

"Fine," I said, "We better get cleaning then."