May we always meet again

Chapter 3

Clarke's POV

4 weeks and a few days later.

I looked at myself in the mirror and somehow I was not completely satisfied with the result. But what didn't fit? Should I put on a little more make up? Hmm, no, I was already wearing more than usual now and I didn't want to look like a clown. Leave my hair up or rather let it fall smoothly over my shoulders? But then the hour and the swearing would have been in vain, so that was also omitted. The earrings I wore matched the ring on my finger and the necklace. Of course everything discreet and restrained, I didn't want to look like a Christmas tree with only the lights missing. I didn't like to put on a new outfit either. The black dress I was wearing I had discovered once in a sale, it reached my knees and was tight on my body in the right places and in other places it was looser. I looked another 5kg lighter and I liked that. 

Suddenly I noticed what was wrong. My eyes and the fear that was in them. There was not just a nervousness in them, but sheer panic. For a moment I was toying with the idea of canceling everything when the doorbell rang. 

Oh. My. God. She's here! There was no turning back now. I went to the doorbell and told it I'd be down in two minutes. Just from thinking that I had actually hired an escort and that she also looked, well, SO, made my heart pound a little harder. Everything sped up, my breathing, my sweating, and I probably got a few more twitches soon, but what did it matter. Lexa had already seen me in some embarrassing moments, so one more or less hardly mattered. Still, I tried to calm myself down by taking deep breaths in and out, clichéd as I was. With moderate success.

She had explained to me that she was picking me up, together with her driver. This would be so common when she met with clients, but I didn't care, then I could drink as much as I wanted and I would surely need the alcohol. Buckets of it. 

I thought of the story we would serve them and had to smile. Lexa Prisa, no idea if that was her real name but for today it was, is in the final stages of her law degree and she and I have been together for almost 3 years. Our next planned step was to find an apartment together and apart from that, the document that she had emailed me as promised had something about her childhood, her siblings and such details that you just know as a partner. I had read it over and over again and by now I knew it by heart, or at least I hoped I did. I could not make a careless mistake.

After grabbing a purse, a light jacket, keys and cell phone, I went downstairs to greet her. As soon as I got downstairs I had to look her up and down, I mean wow. Just wow.

"Thanks." One of the corners of her mouth twitched up and I took a gasp. Oh god, had I just said that out loud? Hellooo red face paint, EVERYWHERE.

"You look wow too." She laughed and I liked that laugh already.

She looked beautiful in her black pants, not too tight but high cut and the strappy top that didn't quite reach the pants but revealed some belly, plus the high heels, perfect.

"Have you looked enough? Can we go?" Now the other corner of his mouth twitched as well. Great. 

I wanted to go right back to stuttering an apology, but she smiled and handed me her hand, which I looked at like it could bite, which made her laugh.

"That's a hand, you take it to hold. It's a relationship thing, you know." She laughed again and I did the same. 

As soon as our fingers entwined I felt safer, at least until I saw my old school. Immediately my whole body stiffened and she ran gentle circles on my skin with her thumb. 

"It's going to be okay, trust me. No one will notice anything." But since that didn't really reassure me, she searched mine with her eyes and tried to look at me reassuringly. As the car got closer and closer to the school, my inner teenager started to shriek, but not in the good way when you almost faint because you're watching your favorite band live and you feel like the singer winked at you. More in a Carry kind of way, when you realized you were next.