Taming the War

Chapter Eight

A D A M

I was awoken by the loud ringing of my phone sitting at my side table. The cool breeze of mid-October night added as a factor for my senses to wake up from its slumber. My room was dimly lit due to the opened window and balcony doors I’d forgotten to close when I arrived here in my apartment.

Sighing, I picked up my phone, answering the call without bothering to say hello. Whoever was on the other line knew how utterly disturbing it was to call me this late at night, hence, they won’t get any courtesy of a greeting from me.

“How was your date with Amara?”

Jesus. This was the reason why she called me?

My voice was hoarse as I answered, “Well, hello to you too, mother.”

“Spare me the greetings, Adam.” She replied, her tone firm and demanding. I can’t remember the time when she actually managed to say ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ whenever she called, so I no longer bothered to remind her to do so. “I want to know what happened with your date. Amara’s mother told me she hasn’t seen her daughter going out lately. Did you two fight? Did something happen? Don’t tell me a second date is not happening any time soon?”

She bombarded me with questions that I suddenly feel my head almost exploding with pain. I’d arrived home late because Gomez called to tell me to report in the headquarters for some additional task while I still haven’t started working with the Montenegro.

The meeting with Blair Montenegro and Deborah Ashford took longer than I had expected. It included us talking about her schedule and the errands she had to run every day.

Sharing her schedule with me was as useless as the empty pen holder Alex gave me during my birthday — both of us knew we spent our time doing field work rather than staying in offices, finishing some paper works — it didn’t matter to me. I had no say in it and was in no place to make some changes with it. I had to be by her side 24/7, including my waking hours.

Nevertheless, I still appreciated the effort.

We already agreed that I’d also be sleeping in their manor to increase her security. Though, it wasn’t Blair who made that decision.

From what I have observed so far, Deborah made most decisions regarding Blair’s safety rather than giving the woman in danger freedom to do it. I understand the protectiveness, but even I could tell she was crossing some boundaries Blair had set for herself.

Blair never voiced it out, but I could see the tiniest notion of reluctance in her eyes whenever Deborah said something she opposed to.

I sat up straight on my bed, leaning my back against the headboard. My naked chest glistened with sweat. I haven’t even noticed I was feeling hot.

It makes me wonder if I really woke up from the sound of my phone ringing or from a nightmare I had already forgotten within a span of seconds.

“The date went well, don’t worry. We managed to get through it without throwing plates at each other. Unfortunately, me and Amara both decided it’s best that we don’t have any repetition of that night.” I answered truthfully, purposely leaving out the fact that Amara was seeing someone else. It wasn’t my place to say anything.

My mother huffed, “But why? You two would look good together.”

“We don’t think that way.”