Rendezvous

eighty-three | paranoid

Part II - Paranoid

"No, no, no," I say subconsciously in fear before I felt her hands on me.

"Alina, baby. Wake up," Lana says urgently as she shakes my body.

My eyes snapped open before I sat up with my heart frantically beating as I vividly remembered the image of Lana and Jaime while I looked around the room suspiciously before exhaling deeply, "Jesus Christ," I breath out as I run my fingers through my hair.

thank god

"Lemme get you some water," Lana says, her voice laced with concern as she got out of the bed and grabbed me a glass from the kitchen.

Even if Lana explained the situation, I still had worry lingering somewhere in my head that provoked this nightmare. It wasn't distrust this time, it was something else, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I closed my eyes once again taking a deep breath before Lana came back with a glass, "You okay?" she asks sympathetically as she strokes my back in circular motion.

I take a large gulp of the water before I place the glass on the bedside table, "Yeah, I'm okay, baby," I say unconvincingly before I lay back down and wrap my arms around her middle, drawing her in. She planted kisses all over my neck and held onto me until I drifted off to sleep.

the next morning...

I was working from home today, zoom-call meetings, and a few legal paperwork I needed to finalised. Lana and Chuck were on their monthly boat trip with Rob, so I had the apartment all to myself.

I couldn't stop replaying the dream from the last night, every time I close my eyes I picture their hands all over each other. Connecting different scenarios that could happen because I hired Jaime.

was I digging up my own grave?

I had arranged a meeting with Jaime to discuss a few matters, and I decided to separate my personal matters from my work, and for the most part, I did exactly that before she had brought up how she was in Capitol.

lana didn't even tell me

LANA

We were on our way to the docks toward our boat 'freedom' before we were informed that the wind made its way through the sails. Dad didn't think it was strong enough to travel through Santa Monica this week, so we decided to take it out next week. Chuck and I decided to grab a quick lunch at Denny's.

"I can't believe we've been living there for like six years and we haven't gone down there once. I found dad's old 'don't touch it' photo album while I was clearing out the basement with Jason," Chuck says.

"Oh, my god. The red one?" I say with my eyes wide before she pulls out a photo album out of her tote bag.

Our dad used to take lots of photos of us growing up, but it was the red photo album that he wouldn't let us touch, because he had one print of each photo. Back then, we were dying to see them but now we understand why he made us wait until we were older.

We started looking through the photos, laughing and reminiscing back to the time before I left home. To the time where I was genuinely happy surrounded by the people I love.

Chuck kept flipping the pages before my eyes fell upon a photo of Chuck's 14th birthday, two weeks before I was going to move out for good. It was a photo of Alina putting cake icing on my nose, looking deep into each other's eyes and laughing.