Heal my heart.

19

Alastair
I turn around to see Gracie standing there. She groggily rubs her eyes and asks,"All good? You look wierd."
I shake my head. "Nothing much."
She nods and proceeds to drink from a bottle from the fridge. I notice the hickey on her neck from yesterday. That's like my copyright on her. It's red and purple and very visible. Good thing it's the weekend. The issue with Paige makes it entry into my head once again. I check my watch. It's 12:00 pm, I'll have to tell Gracie. I don't know how but it's better if I tell her, rather than she meets up with Paige.
"Grace." I rush upto her.
"Drop me home please. I have a lot of work pending."
"But I wanted to-"
"We'll talk later. Let us just go down now." She places her hand on my lips. What can a man say after that?
I dress up and she wears her clothes. I help her in the car and set off to her apartment.
"Where will you be going now?" She asks.
"To the airport."
"Why? Don't tell me you're leaving."
"I have to pick someone up. I have to tell about it to you too."
"You come back and we'll sit and talk about it." She runs her fingers across mg knuckles on the gear.
I sigh. "You're so sweet."
She gets down and watches me through the window.
"Nature or taste?" She winks.
I grin. "Both."
She laughs and moves away. I hope I can keep the laughter on her face longer now.

I park my car near the airport and stand where all the people are waiting for their loved ones to come out. I see Paige after a while, swaying her hips dramatically as she walks. She's wearing a crop top and hot pants. Seriously who wears those as an adult?
She squeals as she sees me and hugs me tightly. I hesitantly hug her back. I'm already engaged and I've spent nights with Grace and I didn't feel like I was cheating on Paige; and right now I'm just hugging her and I feel like I've lied to Gracie. What's wrong with me? I'm cheating on my fiancé, for God's sake. Why don't I just let her go? Right, because she won't leave me so easily. I've rejected her once and seen what had happened. Her father was fuming at me and she emotionally blackmailed me. So what am I going to do now? I can't leave Gracie for her. I'm so badly stuck.
"Let's go to your apartment. I need you badly." She says.
I shuffle out of her grasp and we sit in the car. Throughout the journey, she talks about how much she shopped and all her girlfriends who are jealous of her. I sometimes do feel bad about how I think about her and how I'm not giving her enough love as she is entitled to, being my future wife. But then I remember all her bitchiness and cunningness. She doesn't deserve my love, since she practically threw herself on me. Oh she does has admirers, she very insultingly rejected them and came to someone who couldn't care less about her. I have to break this to Grace, I don't know how though.
We reach my apartment complex and she gets down. I carry her baggage from the trunk and take it to the car. She hooks her arm through mine and we go towards the elevator. My Grace would have shared some of her heavy freaking luggage instead of shoving it all over me as if I was her servant.
We reach my flat and she scrutinises everything. "Alastair why have you kept everything so messy? You know I don't like it. What is all this?" She nags.
I roll my eyes. Gracie never commented on things like that. "I'll clean it later on." I say softly.
"You better do that. I'm going for a shower. Please atleast make the bedroom a bit presentable." She says and sashays off to the washroom.
I take out a cigarette and light it. Putting it in my mouth, I try to clean up the room. Thoughts of Gracie knowing about Paige cloud my mind. It's going to be a bad showdown. What's worse is that I might just finally lose her.
The room looks a little bit clean and I take a long drag of the ciggy. It's a bad habit and it will kill me, but that still won't stop me from consuming it. When Grace and I broke up, I took my first cigarette. I derived some sort of a pleasure in taking long drags of it and blowing out rings of smoke from my mouth. Metaphorical, it seems; but it teaches me about life. How it's so easy to consume someone and let it out, just like that, like smoke. And that death is slowly taking over, but not letting us know. It gives me a high.
I smoke out one cigarette and hear a door unlocking. Seems like Paige is out of the bath. She walks over to me in that little bathrobe of hers and makes a wierd face.
"Have you been smoking again?" She asks.
"Yeah." I look at the burnt out stump beneath the bed.
"How many times have I told you not to smoke? I don't like it's smell." She says.
Okay she doesn't like me smoking because she dislikes the smell, it doesn't have anything to do with me. I don't say anything. I don't speak much when I'm with her. I suddenly hear a door bell. Paige is in the balcony drying her hair. I go to open the door.
Shit, it's Gracie.
"Hey." Is all I say.
She laughs. "What's wrong with you? Why are you guarding the door like that?"
"Oh nothing. Why are you back?" I ask, a knot forms in my throat.
"Oh so you aren't even gonna let me in?" She asks. "I came back because I forgot my keys of the office cabin over here. I need to go there for some work. I might have hung out with you as well. But you clearly-"
She pauses and looks pale as if she has seen a ghost. Behind me I feel a hand on my shoulder. Paige cocks her head near the door and clings onto me. Purposely, I can see that. She is still wearing that stringy bathrobe. Gracie's eyes are widened. I know what she might be thinking. Before I can say anything, Paige butts in.
"Oh hi. Who are you? I'm Paige Roberts, Alastair's fiancé." And she waves her ring in front of Grace's face.
Gracie's lower lip quivers and tears threaten to flow out any moment. She looks at me in anger and pain and just says,"I'm his colleague. Was just enquiring about work issues." With that, she turns on her heel and walks out away.