Stars

00:09

[dedicated to Ruth, who is a such cutie and a great supporter]

.*.*.

Arlando sat back, leaning his head back on his headboard and he let out a long, tired sigh. He held the book Stars tightly. He was afraid that if he loosened his grip it would disappear from his hands. The more he looked at the cover, tracing his finger over the cover, he smiled the more his beat rapidly within his chest.

He remembered that night, when he pulled away and ran away. Over the course of their relationship that stretched for over a year, Kathleen Ryburg had managed to capture his heart and interest in just one night. She intrigued him. The way she spoke, so elegantly and beautiful, the words tumbling out of her mouth both deliciously and alluringly. Her voice was what kept him awake on most of his university days. He'd stay up late just to talk to her, to hear her sweet voice echo through the phone even though the phone manipulated her voice. Her voice upfront was much sweeter than over the phone. It rang like a song in his ears.

Her blue eyes. Her blonde always falling over her dazzling blue eyes, eyes that resembled the stars. Her enticing, beautiful red lips always luring him in. Her scent, her smile, her character. Everything about her was beautiful and while he was sure that he hadn't opened up any of his demons to anyone but Landon, now staring at the ceiling her words echoed through his head, the night now sharper than ever in his mind. "You're not giving me a chance to know you," she had said, her voice hoarse, her eyes glinting with shining hope.

Now more than ever he wanted to reach out and pour out his demons to her. He was done running. He was done looking for a home. He was not lying to Kathleen when he said that he thought he had found home - it was her, his home - but everything happened so fast he wasn't so sure of himself. He needed more convincing and despite the one year relationship he shared with the first woman who stole his heart he wasn't ready for a commitment.

Kathleen had managed to tame his player ways and when he left those player ways returned. At first when he was travelling around the world, he was tentative. When girls flirted with him he would simply push them away because the image of a heartbroken Kathleen would always flicker through his mind. Then slowly, unable to take the pain locked in anymore for what he had caused, he made himself forget. He talked less and less about her with Landon. 

Landon at first was troubled. He saw through his best friends façade. He knew just how much Arlando loved Kathleen. He'd never seen Arlando like this over any other woman before. Moving on meant acceptance of mistakes but that was the one thing Arlando could not do and instead he decided to make himself forget about her. Arlando did this by returning to his old self, the player man who wooed in many girls with a simple lift of his lips and a wink. He'd never winked at Kathleen.

Somewhere in the midst of Arlando's seven years after his university days, Landon had found his home. He found a small city where his parents wouldn't pester him to own some big-shot business and be a CEO. He wanted to pursue his true dreams and that was to become a chef. And Arlando was left alone yet again. The only person who had always been his go to man decided to take on his cooking desires, which left Arlando to find home all by himself. 

Then he met Evaline Gold and she, like Kathleen, had immediately captured his attention. In the six months that he spent with Evaline he let loose some of the heavy weight that his heart held and he let himself fall again. Sitting in his bed now, with the covers draped over him and his hand having a firm hold over the book that Kathleen wrote for him, he realised something else. He looked to his bedside table to see if his suspicions were right. He carefully pulled the frame that lay on his bedside table and gingerly traced his hand over the frame, looking at the woman in it.