MUFFLED GROANS

chapter 42 | Lonely night

I get a bottle of water out of the fridge while waiting for her to answer me, and I walk away to grab my cigarettes and lighter.

"Hello?" she picks up the call right when I took a sip, and I bring my bottle down to the dining table. "Hey, how are you doing?" I keep my eyes down to get a cigarette out of the box and listen to her. "I'm doing good, but I'm a bit busy because of the party, how about you?"

"I'm doing great. Is everything alright though? Do you need help to get the stuff ready for tonight?" I bring the cigarette to my lips and light it up while heading to the backyard. "It's alright, don't worry. Isaac will be home soon, so he'll help," she answers, and I smoke my cigarette. "Did he have to work today?"

"No, he went to the mall to get the items I forgot. He never works on the weekend, and thank god he doesn't," she explains. "Oh, okay. Good then. Why did you want to talk about though?"

"Well, it was about tonight. I wanted to tell you that you don't have to worry about it. I'll understand if you're not here, but I want to make sure that you know Lea is welcome here, so she's invited as well. I just didn't know about the relationship yet, otherwise, I would have said 'you' but meant you both."

"I know, I just need to talk about it with her this morning, but thank you for understanding," I breathe the smoke out, feeling grateful for her consideration. "I'll tell you if things have changed or not, but I'll drive Matteo to your house anyway. It's just all new, and I wouldn't want to see her feel awkward or uncomfortable because she forced herself to come for me."

"I completely understand, Ewan. You know I won't be mad or anything, do what makes you both comfortable and happy, okay? I'd love to meet her though, Matteo talked a lot about her, and she seems to be a sweet and great person, so I hope she'll make you happy," she still shows some care, and I smile. "She does. She's amazing, so I'm not surprised to hear that Matteo talked about her," I chuckle and tap the ash of my cigarette to take another drag on it. "Oh, gosh. If you had heard all the things he said about her. It's always 'Lea did that', 'Lea said that', or 'Lea bought dad and I this and that'. It makes me so happy to hear that you have someone good around."

"She's always there for us both, so yeah, I'm happy too. I also feel like she helped Matteo a lot after the breakup, he didn't talk much about it with me, but I'm pretty sure that having Lea around was a good thing because she's the type to sit down and listen to our problems and take time to solve them," I look down at the floor, feeling some type of way about this conversation. This is the first time I am talking about the woman I love, and this feels so good. "I'm happy for you both, and I hope Matteo will find someone better. He didn't talk about it with me either, so I hope he did it with her and found a way to move on because when I heard about it, I wanted to go and kill that girl for using and fooling him like that."

"I felt the same way," I share the same opinion about it, the topic always bringing back some bitterness and wrath. "But anyway," I stub my cigarette out. "I need to cook breakfast, so I have to hang up. You didn't have to tell me anything else anyway, did you?"

"No, that's all I wanted to talk about with you. At least, you know about it, and I'm not worried anymore," she speaks with a smile upon her face that I can hear. "Good, I'll text you to tell you about tonight, alright?"

"Alright, see you, and have a good day," she ends the call, so I tell her the same words and let her hang up.

Now that the call is over, I go back into the house, walk up to the kitchen and wash my hands to get the food I need for breakfast.

40 minutes later...

The sound of Lea leaving her room catches all my attention, and the happiness she causes to my body hastens the beating of my heart.