𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝'𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 |𝟏𝟖+

| CHAPTER X |❀

Alina stirred awake, shifting over expecting Dom to be next to her, holding her but the side of her bed was empty, he wasn't next to her. She frowned and pulled herself out of bed. She walked out of her room and into the kitchen, her frown immediately turned into a smile. She approached him silently and wrapped her arms around his torso from behind, leaning her weight against him. He chuckled and turned around, crouching down to kiss her.

"Good morning love, how did you sleep."

"I slept really well..how did you sleep?"

"Amazing, because I had you in my arms all night." She rolled her eyes playfully, it was cheesy but cute, she loved that about him. As she took in her features through the morning light, she began to remember last night, how could she forget? It was amazing, having another man touch her with such skill and care tugged at her heart strings. She cleared her throat and moved on from her thoughts.

"What are you making?" She peaked over, watching him cut up fruits.

"I'm making you a smoothie bowl for breakfast, I know you struggle with eating so I thought this could help, even if you eat just a little bit i'll be happy." Her heart warmed at his words, no one had ever done that for her, she felt so seen and appreciated, so much so she felt tears well up in her eyes, he looked at her worried and held her waist, his hand cupping her face to look up at him.

"Hey...baby what's wrong? Did I say something bad?" He asked, his voice laced with concern, he waited patiently for her to give him an answer, she wiped her tears with her sleeve.

"I feel so...heard and loved when I'm with you..these are happy tears, not sad tears." She said with a smile, giving a small giggle, letting him wipe her tears and comfort her.

"Don't cry angel, I don't want to see you cry.." Alina laughed it off but he was worried about her, she didn't want to make him sad.

"I'm sorry, I just got emotional there." She apologised, hugging him one last time before she pulled apart. "You're okay now?"

"Yes"

With that confirmation, he took the fruits he'd cut up and placed them in the blender, turning it on, watching the fruits cut up.

"Why'd you wake up so early? We could've slept in." She asked curiously, hopping up onto the kitchen counter.

"I have to go to work, my love." Her face turned into a frown, she tugged at his arm, holding his hand tight.

"Promise you'll come back to me tonight?"

"I have two of my shifts today, I'm sorry but I'll try to come tomorrow." Alina felt a strong wave of sadness pass over her, her knuckles gripped against the counter, holding back tears. She didn't want him to think that she was too much and too needy but she was, she had forgotten that in the dating stage, you do have to be apart from each other at some point, can't be around each other all the time.

"Okay." She said in a composed manner. He set up the smoothie bowl for her and put it on the counter before he looked at his watch "I gotta go, I'll text you say?" He said, kissing her cheek before he left her apartment without giving her time to respond.

She was alone, once again. Alina never liked being alone, it made all her sadness come back to her, being around someone 24/7 distracted her, helped her feel something else apart from the constant sinking of her heart. Her legs kicked back and forth as she sat on the counter, she wanted to cry again, about everything, even if it was just about nothing. That's the type of person she was, she was sensitive, to everything but she was strong, that was something she would never realize in herself, she'd lived on this far, even after everything she'd endured in her life, she was the strongest but always felt the weakest.