The Protection Program

TPP : Chapter XX

She paced, she paced erratically not caring where she was going. She just paced. Okay Nina, you can do this. You can do this, you have approximately four minutes till he comes back, you can do this. All week Nina had been counting how long it took Aubrey to use the bathroom and come back and it took from 3 minutes and 30 seconds to 4 minutes and 15 seconds every time, she pinch the bridge of her nose as she continued to pace. She was wasting her time and she knew that but she was nervous, what if he answered? What would she say? She didn't rehearse this and she didn't know what to say or do if he did answer. Finally after a good minute of pacing she rushed over to his desk being extremely careful in not moving anything, she didn't know when he was coming back and when he did she did not need him to be anymore suspicious of what she was doing behind closed doors. She pushed up the sleeve to her shirt and began to search through the permanent marker writings all up and down her arm, there was so much there to look at and you think it would be hard to find but not at all. She memorized all of it, she looked at it everyday of her life, she knew right where it was and wasted no time punching the numbers into the business phone.

She pressed the grey speaker phone button as the ringing began to pick up. Her heart pounded profusely in her chest as small beads of sweat grew on her underarms, she was nervous and there was no doubt about it but she had to stay calm, she had to stay collected because if he answered she would not need to be an emotional wreck. The phone continued to ring making the butterflies in her stomach feel more like razors, he wasn't going to answer, she knew it. He wasn't gonna answer because this probably wasn't even his number, he probably changed his number and moved away, he probably left everything in the past and forgot about Nina.

"hello?"

He picked up. He picked up the phone, her mouth dropped open at the sound of his voice as a feeling of nostalgia rushed over her.

"Okay, thanks Mary Beth. Tell him i said i will get on it."

The door opened and Aubrey walked in, closing the door behind him. He looked up at her as she stare down in shock at the phone, his brows furrowed in confusion as she quickly picked up the phone then slammed it down, ending whatever call she had. She swallowed hard as she blinked back the tears that threatened to fall out, she backed away and continually swallowed down at the lump in her throat that had just grown bigger

"Who was that?"

She looked up at Aubrey with widened eyes and shook her head before walking to the white leather couch that was also in his office, she took a seat and crossed one leg over the other as she stare hard at her knees. No reason she was staring at her knees, she was just deep in thought at this point, trying her hardest not to look at Aubrey as he stare down at her in concern.

"Do you need to make a call?"

"no."

He walked over to his desk and sat down in his desk chair, leaning over he pressed a few buttons on the phone machine to look at the recents. He didn't recognize the number so he guessed it was someone she had known or someone she wanted to get in touch with, he didn't put much thought into who it was compared to how much thought he put into why she looked upset about it. Not necessarily upset, but as if she just heard the news from that person that he had killed her mother, or something tragic like that. He didn't understand but he was damn sure going to find out.

"Nina.."

"I'm fine."

Okay, so maybe he wasn't going to find out, but he was going to try. She was hiding back alot and he knew that, everybody who took one look at her could see she had a lot on her plate and she needed to get some stuff off of her chest. But how could she do that if she couldn't even look at him?

"Nina-"

"Seriously Aubrey, im fine. See?"

She looked up from her knees with a small smile on her face, it was fake. Her eyes were glassy with the tears that didn't dare to fall out even though they wanted to so badly, he decided to let it go and just nod his head. He looked away and went back to typing emails, making calls, snacking on snack food that he kept in the lower left drawer of his desk. While Nina on the other hand, keep her gaze to her knee caps that try so hard not to buckle. She felt like dropping to the floor and sobbing, part of her was happy but another part was heart broken, she didn't know why though. She should be happy, she should be excited that he answered the phone, she should be ecstatic matter of factually because that meant he was not only still alive, but still had the same contact information. She knew Aubrey could tell her smile was fake but she didn't care, as long as he was laying off of her she could think, she could think about what would happen next.

Obviously she would have to call back, she would have to get answers. She would have to figure out if he still lived in Houston, she would have to figure out if she was able to stay with him once her three months were up, she had to figure out how she was going to get there as well. Her insides roared like the pits of hell, flames in her tummy and a burning sensation in her throat. She was dizzy and she felt like she was gonna pass out so she decided to lay down, her eyes fluttered closed and soon she was falling asleep with nothing on her mind but the fact that Rico answered the phone.