what happened in a small town

part fifteen

She became a small-town girl, living her life at an unchanging pace.

She wakes up in the morning to go to work. Today, she chose white pants and a shirt of the same color. She tied her hair up in a high bun and left a few strands loose. She didn’t spare any perfume to get rid of the smell of depression and sadness that dominated her. She put on her indispensable sneakers, put her computer bag with her files on her shoulders, and left her room.

Downstairs, she didn’t look for her aunt as usual, she had been avoiding her lately so as not to clash with her in anything. She left the house at half past seven, didn’t answer anyone or engage in conversations outside of work, then returned to eat and watch something until she fell asleep.
The streets are quiet, people haven’t gotten ready yet, the sun is looming in the distance as if it hasn’t fully awakened yet, the air is fresh and the silence is comfortable, she goes down early, afraid of running into Harry or anyone else who knows her, and she comes back late because of that too, she doesn’t have the strength yet to confront Harry or talk about anything but work, her dictionary is empty of words except for work, her thoughts have become forbidden like Adam’s apple, she doesn’t want to get close, but temptation makes her want to take a look.

She let him kiss her, knowing he had a girlfriend; how could that be? Did she turn into a desperate whore? Damn Dean and what he did to make her think she was a prostitute, she swears every day that she was just in pain and never felt anything, soulless but with Harry her soul burns and Every vein in her body pulsates, Harry is not Dean at all, it’s enough that she left him and he accepted her coming back, he didn’t judge her, and he didn’t hurt her, how did she turn their relationship into this much complexity and chaos, how did she allow it knowing he had a girlfriend? Did she ignore it or did she really forget? Rather, how did she put herself in this situation and why would she risk the only person she felt reassured about and could really turn to?

God damn her deadly confusion and her damned thoughts.

She found herself in front of the company, the roads passing by her without concentration, she reached her destination and returned without paying attention to anything around her, drowning in the ocean of her thoughts, the security staff greeted her after they got used to her early arrival, she entered her office and made a large cup of strong coffee, she sat behind her desk looking at the small flowering garden in the balcony, she drank her coffee slowly and stretched her body in relaxation, she closed her eyes and continued to sip her coffee calmly, why does she feel all this noise despite the calm around her as if there is a group of annoying people talking non-stop inside her mind?

They don’t shut up or stop so that everyone can hear each other, and she can’t silence them because they are not paying attention to her and she fails to attract their attention, and it seemed to her at that moment that they would never notice, the coffee ran out and she needed another cup to calm this headache in the bud, she began to appreciate some rest, she kept closing her eyes and Harry below them, she remembers that time of their lives when they were together without problems, thinking and confusion and without Ann’s presence, he always told her that even if they were created in another time and another place they would be together, they have great interactive chemistry, she feels that too, she could tell him everything, to strip herself of all the secrets with him and remain only Marla, she thought she could do this again but she didn’t say anything, and she didn’t approach as if Ann’s presence was preventing her and the flood of returning feelings strongly confused her, if only they would be silent inside her for a little while to stop that confusion so that she would know what exactly lies inside her.

“I used to come early like you.”

She smiled sarcastically and opened her eyes, turning around in the office chair to face Ethan, who had recently become attached to her. She didn’t understand why, and she didn’t like that he was following her like a child. “Good morning, Ethan.”

“Good morning.” He hummed and walked through the open door to the chair in front of her desk, scratching his blond hair with a smile. “I feel like we’ve been working together for months, not weeks.”

The wry smile widens a little as she shifts in her seat. “I feel the same way too, to the point where I’m thinking of quitting working with you.”

Although he laughed, she said it with serious thought. What he was doing didn’t make her comfortable and she didn’t want to misunderstand him. Her life wasn’t lacking in complexity. She tried to draw his attention to herself. “I hope you succeed with the product today after all the work you’ve done.”
“I will succeed.”

He leaned his arms on the desk, looking at her. She looked beautiful, especially her soft black hair, which was unfamiliar with where he came from. In the land of blondes, it was natural for black hair to stand out.
She was warm in the snowy swamp.

Her brown eyes, her white skin tinged with red, and her black hair, she was special in a way she didn’t realize. She noticed him looking at her, so he looked away, trying to recall the previous conversation. “Do you want me to be with you at the meeting?”
She shook her head, assessing the words of rejection she was about to say to him. “I prefer to be alone because the history between you two isn’t very good.”

“It means he doesn’t want to see me.”
She laughed as she brushed a fallen strand out of her eyes, raising her eyebrows in agreement.
“Can you blame him?”

She commented with a question that he did not answer. He put his fingers on the desk silently, wanting to say something but not knowing how. He mumbled to keep the thread of conversation open.

“Have you seen Harry lately?”

Her eyebrows rose in surprise; she pursed her lips after taking a sip from the coffee in her hand, and she shook her head in calm denial. “No… Do you see him?”

“He had dinner with my father and Anne five days ago, but we didn’t talk. I think something is going on between them.” He coughed and then whispered in a prosaic theatrical manner. “There are clouds in the sky.”

She nodded without commenting; Ethan gestured with his hand that he was going to his office, and she gestured to him as well; he straightened up and headed towards the door but suddenly turned around, throwing out what had been hovering around him since he stormed into the office.

“My family is having a party next Saturday and I’d like to ask you to come with me.”

She moved her eyelashes in confusion, at first she didn’t understand what he was saying then she understood, her pupils widened in tension, she didn’t understand why he was doing all this, nothing good would come of this, she tried to find the right words but she couldn’t find them.

“Please, Marla, these parties are a disaster for me. I can’t belong with them, and none of the girls I know would be suitable to accompany me except you.”

Urging her to accept, she felt embarrassed and ran her tongue over her parched lips, shaking her head meaninglessly. “But it could be embarrassing or..”

“Please just think about it because I really want you to come with me.”

She sighed in surrender to his insistence, feeling that this would never be good but she could only whisper. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”

He straightened up with a triumphant smile, waved at her, and left the office with a wide smile. She went back to arranging some papers until he left so that she wouldn’t have to look at him. She kept doing meaningless things until she calmed down on the leather couch. She sighed and felt a desire to cry, which she suppressed.

This is how much chaos and complexity in her life has become beyond bearable.
~~

Harry parked the car on a quiet street, a street far from the city, close to the marina. He lowered his head on the steering wheel so hard that he almost broke it. What childish thing did he do? He went to Marla’s house and waited for her since her departure time!!

When the stay was prolonged and past her go-timing
, he asked her aunt about her. With that appearance and his angry, worried looks, her short answer, and her dissatisfied looks, he put himself in a ridiculous situation; how could his mind allow him to do such A thing? When she knew, she would laugh at his foolishness and recklessness, all he does with her is insist on being the fool. 

The phone was ringing non-stop, and his mind was about to explode from his thoughts. Every cell inside him was melting. He nervously opened the phone, and the sound was heard in the closed car.

“What?”

His assistant’s tone came to him, agitated and nervous, avoiding igniting the fuse that was exploding in everyone at that time. “There is an important meeting today and we cannot postpone it.”
“Then I can’t get tired because there is a meeting that can’t be postponed.”

She didn’t know what to say, she tried but all that came out was silence. The other sighed nervously. “I’ll change my clothes and come, but then cancel all meetings and work for the whole week because I won’t be coming, so let those lazy idiots do what I pay them to do.”

He closed the door without giving her a chance to answer. He wanted time to escape, to separate himself from all the things that connected him to this city that he had come to hate.
He hated her because she was determined to make him miserable, a misery he could no longer bear, a misery he could no longer accept.