Strangers in the Storm ✔

Chapter 13: Wrong Direction

Heyy guys, thank you for reading! You can expect faster updates over the next three weeks because I'm on vacation and can finally write in peace <3 

ROXANNE 

Roxanne stared at the pink wall in her bedroom. Morning sunrays spilled over the white carpet and her freshly washed red sheets. She hasn't been able to fall asleep. Her mind kept going over everything that's happened in the past couple of days, months, years.

She came to one conclusion. Brenda and Addy were right about one thing; she was a serial monogamist. This past month since her breakup with Mike might have been the longest she's ever been single and she was already developing a way too complicated relationship with a new guy.

With newly found determination and a promise she would start working on herself, she finally drifted off to sleep. Then, her phone rang.

And all the promises went to shit.

"Rox?" Damien slurred on the other end. "Did you hear me?"

She heard him well enough and she knew he was drunk, which meant he might not be as serious as he thought.

"You met me yesterday." Her voice was a mere whisper.

"Technically," A chuckle reached from the phone, "It was two days ago."

"Don't do that to me." She shook her head. "Don't do this to me if you're not serious."

"I am." Damien answered too quickly. "I swear I am."

Roxanne didn't quite believe him, not after everything she's learned about him, how he's never had a serious relationship in his life, how he probably slept with a different girl every week, how he couldn't keep a job.

This wasn't a man who was serious about anything. Life has been served to him on a silver platter and all he understood was taking, taking and more taking.

"Why?" Roxanne asked and pinched the bridge of her nose.

She was so close to sleep, so close to making a good decision.

"What do you mean?" Damien asked through the phone.

"Why now and why me?" Roxanne felt like an idiot for even asking such questions, but she counted on his drunken honesty.

Damien kept quiet for a few seconds, then he spoke, "I like you. You look like a butterfly and you smell like spring. And you called out my bullshit when no one else did."

A smile creeped to Roxanne's lips.

"I've met you two days ago." Damien continued. "And I can't really explain it, but I think you've already changed me."

Roxanne knew he was drunk off his ass and that there was a good chance he wouldn't even remember any of this tomorrow, but her heart leaped with surprising joy. Maybe she was too quick to fall in love, but she couldn't help feeling like this time was different.

"You're not saying anything and it's making me nervous." Damien said. "Say something."

Roxanne chuckled, "I don't know what to tell you. I... you're drunk. You should sleep it off and see if you still feel the same in the morning."

"Drunk mind speaks the sober heart?" Damien offered.

"A drunk mind is an idiot and it tends to think it wants something when it really doesn't." Roxanne sighed. "Call me tomorrow if you still feel like it."

Silence awaited on the other end.

"Alright." Damien said after a while. "That's fair."

"I have to go to sleep." Roxanne yawned. "Some of us have a job, you know?"