A Place for My Heart

chapter 11

Rose

Valerie and I had amazing tickets to see the Real Madrid game, which they ended up winning 4-3, with two goals from Cris and one from Benzema and Khedira. Val and I couldn’t help fangirling the entire time; we had never been so close to the action before. When the game was over we waited for ten minutes for the crowd to disperse before leaving. Mesut saw us right as we were about to leave and waved, sending a smile my way. He was such a cutie.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; Valerie and I went back to work tomorrow. I realized my car and some of my stuff was still at my old apartment, so I got Val to drop me off there before she went to go see her boyfriend. I was nervous, I didn’t want to see Mark again, but I wasn’t scared anymore. There was nothing he could do to hurt me, I was done with him. I opened the door and walked into the living room, which was a lot cleaner from the last time I saw it.

“Hey,” I heard behind me.

I turned around and there he was. He looked better, much better. He looked like he was clean. “Hey, I just came to get the rest of my stuff and my car.”

He nodded, and then walked past me to sit down and watch TV. He was so different. How could someone change so much in a week? I sighed and walked into our bedroom, throwing the rest of my stuff in a suitcase. I had never realized how much crap I had accumulated. A lot of stuff I just left, like pictures of us and little decoration bits. It took me about an hour to sort through our entire bedroom. When I was done with all that, I threw all my books into another suitcase. I was wheeling them both out of the apartment at the same time when I felt a hand grab my waist.

“Can we talk?” I heard him say, he was so close that I could feel his breath on my neck.

I turned around and nodded. I was prepared to take anything he said with a grain of salt, but I wanted to hear his explainations. We sat down on the couch in front of the TV, and he grabbed one of my hands.

“I’m sorry for the way I acted the last time you came here. Hell, I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting the past year. I really am, I never wanted to hurt you. I love you.” He said.

“You’ve been seeing Mesut’s sister.” I said, my voice lacking any emotion.

He stared at the floor, his head hanging down. “I messed up. I’ve stopped seeing her, I swear. You were never around Rose. I was home all day, I was lonely, and she was vulnerable. I took advantage of her and you. I’m so sorry.”

“What do you want to get out of this? I’m not coming back to you.”

“I just need you to know that I’m sorry. And that I love you.”

“I have to go. I’ll see you around Mark.” I said, getting up and grabbing my stuff.

He gave me a sad smile. “I’ll help you carry your stuff to the car.”

He took a suitcase, and we didn’t talk the entire ride on the elevator down to the parking lot. I threw my stuff into the trunk of my car, and then started to walk away. But before I could open the door to my car he grabbed my waist and pinned me against the car, kissing me. He ran his fingers through my hair, pressing me against the car, trapping me. And I didn’t want to go anywhere at that moment. I was running my fingers through his hair, down his back, up his shirt. His kisses were perfect, no one knew me better than he did.

Then the moment was over. I gave his chest a little push, and he pulled away, his hands on the sides of me, still pinning me against the car. He stared at me for a few seconds, as if he was trying to memorize my face, soaking in every detail.