Desolation

thirty nine

I feel like this chapter is hauntingly sad and beautiful. It made made me cry when I was writing it and still does when I read it. Please let me know in the comments what you think, I hope you like it x

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Noelle's POV

It had been almost 3 weeks and I had done nothing but focus on my work. I had been going to my office quite a lot because we had a new project that needed a lot of attention and time. It was coming along quite well but the client was the worst lady I had ever met in my whole entire life.

She was a straight up bitch, snobby and arrogant as hell. She treated everyone like they were just dirt on her shoes and then expected people to respect her in return. I didn't understand her logic. I think she just needed to get laid to be honest.

She tried her best to get to me, always disagreeing with all the designs that I came up with or completely disregarding my suggestions about the interiors but I didn't let her have the satisfaction. I was smarter than that. I didn't understand why the fuck she decided to hire an architect and interior designer when she didn't even bother to listen to me. All the people in my office were sick of her tantrums but she was our client after all and as they say, the customer was always fucking right.

Apart from the bitch that had been causing me stress ever since she stepped foot into my office, everything else was pretty okay.

Caspian was still staying here with Blake, although I hadn't seen much of either of them lately. I was so caught up in my work, it was impossible to do anything else.

Kathy had been busy with her board meetings, fashion shows and Aaron. Believe it or not, they had been messing around and she had told me that she was really into him. I was elated to hear that, she deserved happiness. After everything that had happened to her, I prayed to God that for his own well being, Aaron never hurt Kathy. If he did, Caspian, Blake and I would have his balls.

And for Stephen, I hadn't seen him at all. The last time I'd met him was during one of our meetings where we decided to put hold on the interiors as the construction work was still coming along and we had already decided a lot of things ahead of time. That was it.

I was busy with my work and he was busy settling into his new office and handling their big ass business. I had heard that his family had gone back to London and that sometimes Uncle Xavier would come and help him out with everything. I was sure it wasn't a simple task, managing an international company, especially one that was as well known as theirs.

The main reason for why I hadn't seen Stephen in a long time was because I was avoiding him. I was trying to keep my distance from him and it was working. I had some more time to properly think about everything and as I had realized that day in his balcony while waiting for him to be done with his shower, I was being selfish.

I was selfish in thinking that I could have a normal life. I was selfish in thinking that Stephen wouldn't get hurt because of me, I knew he would. I was selfish in thinking that if I didn't think about it, all my problems would go away. I was selfish because I didn't think about his family.

He had a family that loved him so much and I had seen how he was with them, he loved them immensely too and I never wanted anything to happen to him. But if he hung around me, I could never be too sure about his safety and so I had to maintain my distance and keep him away from me.

I sighed and rubbed my temples, trying to soothe the headache that was surely coming in. I had been sitting in my kitchen, on one of the high chairs, resting my elbows on the cool black granite in front of me. Thinking too much had never helped my case.