Young And Beautiful

Chapter 7

We laid in bed for what felt like hours, falling in and out of sleep.

"Wake up beautiful," Todd gently shook me awake.

He smiled down at me, pressing his lips onto mine. When he pulled away I wanted to pull him back down, but I was too shy.

"You're so beautiful, you know that?"

I blushed, sitting up and covering my chest with the duvet.

"You were amazing," he kissed me on the cheek. "Mind-blowing. Are you hungry?"

"Yes," I nodded.  "I'll go make lunch."

"No, let me take you out. What do you wanna have? Actually no, I'll have someone to bring food to the house for us. What do you want?"

I laid back in his arms, my head on his chest. "Fried chicken. And fries."

He chuckled. "Okay then."

He got out of bed and walked over to the telephone on the other side of the room. I watched him in amazement. He had just unlocked a whole new world in me. I never ever thought sexual relations were meant to be enjoyable.  I always they were just to reproduce and that it'd always hurt. I quickly came to a conclusion ;sex was the beautiful thing to ever exist, a gift to mankind.

Todd and I made love on every piece of furniture in the house over the next two days. I avoided Grace like the plague, because I felt so guilty. I simply couldn't face her. I didn't know what to say to her anymore. And so I spent every minute with Todd.  He was going back to Los Angeles the next day and to say I was depressed is an understatement. 

The night before he was set to leave, he snuck into bed next to me. I had my arms around Matthew and Todd had his arms around me. I felt like the two of them were all I needed.

"I'm going to miss you," Todd whispered in my ear.

"Me too," I whispered back.

In the morning when I woke up, Todd was gone. At least that's what I thought. I woke up and went downstairs, where he was having a hushed conversation with Grace.  I sat in the stairway and listened. 

"Can't we...can't we fix it?" Grace pleaded.

Todd scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not moving to here after the wedding, Grace."

"And I'm not moving to Los Angeles," Grace folded her arms.

"Well, I guess that answers your question."

Grace nodded, wiping her face. I could see she was hurt from her croaky voice and her puffy eyes, indicating she had been crying all night long. Grace, however, was one proud woman. She would rather die than beg for her own life. What was a man? She'd find another one. She was a beautiful,  career driven woman who made a shit ton of money. Perhaps that was the problem.

"Okay. I'll drive you to the airport," she offered casually.

"Thanks, but I already called a friend. I'll go get my stuff. You're off to work anyway right?"

"Yes," she nodded, her voice bitter and cold. She got her purse from the couch. "Goodbye then. Your rings' on my dressing table."

With that, she left. As Todd was coming upstairs I quietly hurried back to my room and slipped into back into bed. He opened the door shortly.

"Rose-Marie?"

I feigned sleepiness as I sat up groggily.

My voice was croaky. "Todd?"

"I have something to tell you. You are...everything Grace is not. You are everything I want in a woman. I want to be with you. Come with me to Los Angeles. We can start a new life. You can go back to school, maybe study law too. You can work in our firm, or stay home, whatever you want. I just want to be with you."

I watched him walked over to the bed with tear filled eyes. He wanted me. Somebody wanted me.

He crouched down beside the bed and took my hand in his.

"These last two months have been the best of my entire life," he smiled. "I found a friend and a lover in you. And that's rare, Rose-Marie. Very rare. I don't want to lose this because I may never find it again. So please, come with me to LA?"

My smile faded away as I turned to look back to Matthew, who was still asleep.

"What about Matt? And Grace?"

"Rose-Marie, you know Grace loves Matthew as if he were her own. Whether you want to leave him here or take him, it's up to you. He'll be in good hands eitherway."

"I don't want to go with you and Todd to Los Angeles.  I want to stay with Grace."

We both turned to Matt as I ripped my hand out of Todd's. 

"Matthew,  sweetie, we thought you were asleep," I chuckled nervously. 

Matt sat up. "I don't want to go. I want to stay with Grace."

I didn't know what to say, so I said, "Just don't tell Grace anything. No one's going anywhere."

That night when Grace came home, she had dinner in her room. I had no appetite. I had turned down Todd's offer to go to Los Angeles,  and I felt physically and emotionally sick. I just laid in bed for hours. I must've fallen asleep,  because the next time I woke up it was late in the night, maybe eleven or twelve. When I looked beside me, Matthew wasn't in bed so I went to check if he was still watching television in the living room. Instead of Matthew,  I found Grace curled up on the couch, a glass of wine in her hand. Wine always meant bad news with Grace.

"Oh, Rose-Marie," Grace said as I walked into the room. "You're still up?"

"I just came to check if Matt was still awake."

Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. I could feel it.

"Oh, don't worry about him. He's asleep in my room."

I nodded. "Okay. Well goodnight."

I was about to hurry upstairs when Grace's words stopped me.

"So how long were you going to wait before telling me Todd's been fucking you?"