A Love Conflicted

25 | Thieves in the Temple

I sat on my living room floor surrounded by a sea of wrapping paper as I spent the night wrapping up the last of the gifts. I was finally able to get some last minute shopping in when I got back from Paisley. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and this year I was extremely behind on my gifts. I glanced up at the TV every so often to watch "The Santa Clause" as my Christmas movie marathon continued. Just as I had finished taping the last piece on the last gift, my doorbell rang. I got up and looked into the peephole, I wasn't expecting anyone over so I had no idea who it could be. It looked to be a delivery man so I went ahead and opened the door. I was proven correct when I saw the bouquet of flowers in his hands. Coincidentally it seemed to be the same teenage boy who delivered flowers for me some months back.

"Hi, Delivery for Riley Morgan Echemendía" he read his clipboard, struggling to pronounce my last name. That's odd, Prince has never used my last name on anything he's sent me before. I signed for the delivery and happily took the bouquet. I thanked him and shut the door before placing the gorgeous Christmas inspired arrangement on my coffee table. I smiled to myself at how thoughtful Prince had been to me lately. The room he made for me caught me by surprise, I'm still quite stunned by it honestly. I hadn't agreed to move in, but we did agree on me staying for longer periods of time now that I can work while I was there. It might actually be good for us and develop a sense of normalcy.

I wanted to call Prince and thank him but I knew he wouldn't be done with his show yet so I decided to wait it out and clean up the mess of paper that was scattered across my floor. A few hours later, I was lying in bed watching TV, dozing in and out of sleep until my phone rang. Grabbing my phone I see a photo of P flashing on my screen. It's funny, no matter how long we've been together or how many times he's called me, I still get butterflies in my stomach when he does.

"Hey baby, how was the show?" I asked, now fully alert.

"It was great, the energy was amazing tonight" his deep voice crept into my ears and I could tell he was proud. It's very easy to tell when a show doesn't go well for him, even if it's perfection in everyone else's eyes. When it was a good show, you could hear the confidence in his voice like the way he's speaking now.

"I'm glad, are playing an aftershow?"

"I haven't decided yet"

I rolled my eyes and laughed on the inside. Only Prince would be able to decide if he wants to play at his own aftershow or not.

"Well you mentioned how good the energy was, I'm sure it'll be even crazier if you do. I think you should" All I could do was picture the hundreds of people waiting outside the venue in the cold because they heard rumors Prince might be playing an aftershow. I love this man, God knows I do, but I had to admit his self entitlement can be annoying sometimes. Whenever I could, I would try to push him to make decisions like this sooner rather than later, I think everyone ends up benefiting from it in the long run. It'd be hours before he decides to show up or not and then it could take another 2 hours before he's even there, let alone on the stage.

"Oh, thank you for the flowers! I love them" I smiled into the phone expressing my gratitude but the phone suddenly went silent. "Prince?..you there?"

"..I didn't send you any flowers" his voice got low and suddenly became perplexed.

"Ha Ha" I joked sarcastically into the phone

"Riley I'm serious, I didn't send you any flowers...who's sending you flowers?" The indignation in his voice told me that he wasn't joking.

"What?" I said out loud to myself confused. I threw the covers off of me, getting out of bed and walking into the living room. I hadn't even bothered to look at the card because I just assumed they were from Prince.