The Meeting

Chapter 15 - Teasing and Pampering

I wake in the middle of the night, unable to sleep with all the thoughts swirling around in my head like a whirlpool. I slide out from the covers gently, not wanting to wake the sleeping dragon beside me, and pad into the living room, pulling on a shirt as I go. The apartment is eerie, but beautiful. The moon is full and its light shines through the large window, which overlooks the city.

I unlock the patio door and step out into the cool night air. A slight breeze blows my hair off my face as I look out over the quiet street below. A few miniature cars drive by silently, their noise not making it all the way up here.

I sit down in one of the chairs, which are set up around a bistro table, and bring my legs up to hug my knees. My mind wanders to earlier on this evening and Damien’s punishment for me. It had brought so much emotion out in me, yet it didn’t hurt. Strangely enough, I somewhat enjoyed it, but that’s something I wouldn’t admit out loud to him. If I told him I liked it, what other new things would he bring to the table? The thought makes me squirm in anxiety as well as anticipation.

Something that worries me perhaps even more, is the person he was talking to on the phone. He's hiding something from me and I need to know, but I'm almost scared of the answer. I need to press him more on the subject in the future to get him to open up, but I get so distracted with him and I forget all about it.

I look down at my cell phone, which I have clutched in my palm. I flick through photos and see familiar faces flash by. I see Aria’s laughing face with a ridiculous hat perched on top of her head. I took way too many photos of that. I scroll through quickly and stop on a picture of my mom. She is twirling her long brown hair around her finger and there is a twinkle in her hazel eyes, which look so much like mine.

She’s practically my other half and I miss her a lot. She lives in B.C with her new boyfriend, Rob, and it’s very rare that I find the time to go out there. Okay, that’s a lie. I have the chance to go out every long weekend, yet I can’t bring myself to do it. Not because I don’t want to see her, but because I don’t want to be stuck there for a weekend with Rob. He’s a great guy and he treats my mom well, but he stands for everything that I wish my Dad was. Whenever I see Rob kissing my mom’s cheek, I remember how my dad never did that, and it makes me hate him for it even more.  

My dad lives just north of the city and doesn’t make too much effort to spend time with me, which doesn’t really surprise me. He left when I was 14 so he could cozy up with a woman young enough to be my older sister. It’s quite disgusting actually. I’m pretty sure that his woman is a stripper, who was most likely attracted to his expensive looking suit and Audi TT, and then stayed when she found out he was a lawyer. However, it‘s thanks to my dad that my home video didn’t make it out to the press and he’s definitely the reason I’m not in jail.

I wouldn’t have survived a day in jail back then. Now I might, considering all the stuff I’ve gone through in the past couple of weeks. God knows I should just break it off with Damien and stop all this chaos, but something about him keeps drawing me in.

Something moves out the corner of my eye and I snap my head back to the door to see him standing there in his boxers. His body is pale and illuminated by the moon, giving his muscled stomach even more definition with the shadows created by the soft light. His face is relaxed and unreadable and his hair is tousled and almost begging to be touched.

I smile at him. “I couldn’t sleep,” I state, though it is probably obvious. He smiles in return and comes over to sit next to me. I can see small goose bumps rising on his skin in the cool breeze.

“Me neither. You left,” he says gently, watching my face with sad eyes. “I’m sorry if I upset you earlier.”

“You didn’t. It was more just everything going on. It was only a matter of time before I cracked.”