Strangers in the Storm ✔

Chapter 19: Someone Worth Loving

ROXANNE 

Roxanne had always been attuned to changes in people's emotions, especially when those people and those emotions concerned her. So when Damien withdrew from her as if escaping a burning flame, she knew she said something wrong.

She could not quite pinpoint what, though. Maybe she shouldn't have told him she liked him, but it was the most stifled thing she could have said.

Because she didn't just like him. It was more than that.

Roxanne put the cocoa cream down as the answer hit her.

Was it more for him too? Did that freak him out?

"You okay there, darling?" Damien's mother's voice made Roxanne look up from the bottles in front of her.

"Yes, sorry." Roxanne mumbled and gathered the bottles that were still full.

The rest of the ladies were dancing in the living room, sounds of Macarena reaching all the way to the backyard and probably all the neighbours, and Damien was cleaning the barbecue.

Dana Douglas was a beautiful woman, even with dark circles under her eyes and no hair. There was still light in her hazel eyes and her behaviour. Some would have given up on trying to look good, but Dana made sure her floral bamboo scarf matched the pink blouse and white trousers she had on. She drew her eyebrows carefully and put on fake eyelashes.

"I worry about him." Dana spoke.

Roxanne looked up from the bottles, knowing she was about to be questioned one way or the other by Damien's mother. Like any good mother, she would thoroughly assess her eligibility.

"Why?"

Dana put her elbows on the table and sipped pineapple juice through the straw. She hasn't had a sip of alcohol throughout the day. She also didn't want her friends to know she wasn't drinking. Maybe because she wanted to appear healthy, maybe she didn't want them to treat her differently. Either way, Roxanne quickly caught on and pretended to pour her booze throughout the day.

"He talks a good game, but he's an emotional guy." Dana said. "Always has been. I kept telling him that was a good thing, but his father disagreed."

Roxanne sat down, leaving the bottles alone, "Why do fathers always screw their sons up?"

Dana chuckled, "Why do mothers screw their daughters up?"

"I think fathers have a hand in that, too." Roxanne mumbled.

"I think I had a hand in it, too." Dana nodded, making Roxanne realise what she just said.

"I didn't mean-" She cleared her throat. "It's just that I think both of my parents screwed me up."

"You said nothing wrong." Dana played with the straw. "I could have helped him, but I didn't. I should have intervened, but I was always too meek."

Roxanne kept quiet, unsure how to proceed. On the one hand, she knew Damien's mother screwed him up, too, but she couldn't exactly blame the poor woman.

Before she spoke, she chewed the words in her mouth, "I think Damien should have worked on himself a bit more thoroughly."

Dana's hazel eyes jumped to her and Roxanne swallowed her nervousness, wondering whether she said the right thing. It was the truth, after all.

"That he should have." Dana sighed. "But he doesn't listen to me anymore. I don't think he ever did."

"I think he did." Roxanne countered. "He probably still does."

Dana smiled, but the smile died out immediately, "I'm just sorry I won't see it. I won't see him become what he's supposed to be."

A hard, painful lump formed in Roxanne's throat and she was unable to swallow. She did not expect to feel so much for the woman in front of her and she struggled to find words of comfort in her brain.