He'd gone beyond his player ways for her.
She'd grown beyond her traumatic past for him.
Together, their love was beyond.
Until one fatal accident.
__________
When she loses the love of her life in a car crash, Althea has nothing left in California...
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*ALTHEA'S POV*
October 9, 2023.
"Babe, I'm home!"
The call echoed throughout the apartment, like the shatter of glass that followed, and soon, it was footsteps rushing through the hallway until a familiar silhouette passed the bedroom door, my gaze finally settling to catch the coat and attache case still in his hand.
"Althea?"
"Yes, I'm here," I replied, as if he could have missed my tall figure perched on a stepladder in front of the closet. "It's nothing. You just scared me, and I dropped the..."
"Candles?" Jordon stopped two steps away from me, staring questioningly at what remained of these candles on the dark floor: shards of glass, an orange block of wax, and a label with the fine letters 'Summer fruits'.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, but it's why you gave me the keys, right?"
"Yes, of course, I just didn't expect you so soon."
"Soon? It's eight, babe. You're sure you're okay?" He put down his attache case, coat, and keys by the bed, stepping over the broken candles to focus his brown eyes on me while, between them, a crease was slowly etching into a too-familiar expression.
What was it with everyone frowning at me like that today? What was it with this question?
"Yes, yes, I'm fine. I just wanted to light candles for our dinner."
"I didn't even know you had candles." He lifted a perplexed eyebrow.
But at least, it wasn't a frown, and his charming smile wasn't far as I explained with a sigh,
"It's your friends Oscar and Georgina who offered them to me for my 23rd birthday. I don't have anything to light them up, though."
"Well, getting rid of them is faster than finding a lighter! Candles are a little too much, anyway. Don't you think?"
It was one way to see it, but his grin was convincing.
"As long as I've got my beautiful fiancee and a bed, it's all I need."
"Your 'beautiful fiancee and a bed'?" I rolled my lips together to hold back my smile, although the tug at the corners was winning as he nodded, holding out his hand, with his foot resting on the first step of my ladder like a Romeo—a modern Romeo in Armani suit and short-styled hair, who had braved broken shards to lean closer, and whose dark gaze was currently only on me, sliding down the outlines of my slim waist in his favorite tight, black dress.
