Toys are 2 play

9- To warm the skin

She looked serious, and the way she walked showed incredibly confidence and long legs. Bridgette was the kind of woman so perfect she looked false, and it felt as though I watching a walking doll. The same thing happened with famous actresses; is there someone under all that lipstick? She stopped in front of me and looked up and down. "I saw you leaving the table... looking like you're going to faint. You look terrible, Seb."

"Thanks."

"You know I always say the truth, thats why you can trust me", she said meaningfully, "Now tell me, how you're dealing with your best friend's marriage?"

"What you think? I want everything to go back to normal, thats what I want."

"So do I", Bridgette checked if her necklace was on the right side. "This might be driving you crazy; it is incredible how out of a sudden I am going to see Kennedy more than you are..." She said nothing for a moment, perhaps because we were both wondering if this conversation was meant to be happening. "Well, Seb, I have an offer..."- she said flat, but there was something more uncovered that was tight as a wire out of tune. I kept looking at her attentively. "Aleksei's marriage is playing with everyone's minds, and I am afraid it will get to Angelina's. I don't want her to fall into this illusion, because, well, Oliver will never ask her in marriage."

And then Bridgette Clay started a whole new type of speech on which she talked about Angelina's natural desire to love and be loved, and Snowfields' opposite perspective of it. In her opinion, Angelina is a strong woman by heart but very weak by brain, and that if she doesn't care of herself she would just suffer more and more because of love. Bridgette finished by saying that I was the only person that could help because in fact Angelina has always been in love with me and not our boss. If I agreed to help, Bridgette said, I could save her from Snowfields' claws once and for all. The only thing I needed to do was make a visit in her bedroom (she said all cameras and guards would be out), at that same night. There was a rumor that Angelina was mentally exhausted and nothing better than sensitive times to hit the spot.

I thought about it.

At 6 o'clock approximately I was taking the elevator. Arriving at the door Bridgette told me to open I composed myself, and turned the doorknob firmly.

🔸🔸🔸
•••

Angelina's

In my bedroom I finally felt safe from all heavy punches on the face that life liked to give me. Although I already showered before breakfast another bath was more than welcomed in that left over of afternoon, and I even shampooed my head once more.

Foggy mirrors used to be one of my favorites plays in a bathroom. I used to spend a lot of time drawing and writing William Gray's name over and over again, till the letters got dry.

Today I stopped in front of the mirror. And waited the fog to evaporate. It was a long and tedious waiting as my bathroom was not that spacious and the door and windows were closed. But a few minutes later there was a clean image carried in the mirror, and I readjusted to its contours. Angelina Firenze used to be a cute and round faced girl - now her cheeks were thiner and her eyebrows perfectly drawn with tweezers. It was as though I was facing the enemy; a dangerous enemy who knew all my secrets, even the terrible and most hidden ones.

Holding up my wet hair so it didn't touch my back I got the yellow dress Oliver gave me from my 21th birthday. Wearing it felt like wearing the sun and it warmed the skin, which was exactly what I needed.

Prock!, made my door, and I turned, to see who was so suddenly entering in my room like that. I didn't scream because obviously it would be the man who'd bought the clothe I was wearing, but I was wrong.

Standing there, with the mouth opened and hands still on the doorknob, was the last person in the world I would think of encountering right now, petrified and pale.

"Sebastian?!"

He suddenly seemed to be waken by my shouting, and his eyes went wider than two apples. "Angelina!" He stepped back, terrorized, and closed the door with a BOOM!

I stayed there without blinking for almost an hour, staring at the door and wondering what was happening behind it and if he was already gone through the hall, when from there came little knocks, and Sebastian put his head inside my bedroom once more.

"I apologize, Miss Firenze. I didn't mean to interrupt or disturb your intimacy. I got lost, unfortunately, and apologize again... AH!"

Sebastian had to stop talking because I was already grabbing him by his collar and pulling him inside. I made an incredible effort to keep him up and not to tear his blouse, which was from fine cotton and white, reminding me the physicians that visited me once in a while. I threw him in the armchair near the wardrobe and closed the door right after.

"Dr Castle, you can not be up here! If the commander finds out we will be, amn, pretty fucked; and believe me when I say Oliver knows how to end up someone's life."

"But.."

"No, you can not leave this bedroom before I check if the path is cleaned myself. More than that, we have to make sure the guards will not tell about the images they might have seen in the cameras." I was already feeling hotness and a small lack of air. Sebastian Castle was inside my bedroom sitting in my chair, with that red hair that had changed nothing over the years, although a thin orange beard covered half of his face, and was extraordinary cute. He was only 2 years older than me but the beard have him an elderly look, and he seemed wise and experienced.

"I apologize again, Miss Firenze, and I might say this was consequence of somnambulism."

I couldn't hide the surprise. "Really? I didn't know you suffered from that..!"

"Yes, it is recent." He slightly bit his piercing - and I looked away. The discomfort and anxiety suddenly came, and I saw myself facing the person who had helped me break all rules I had once believed. He was there with that same voice and soul and piercing, and suddenly I felt like hugging him and feeling his bones beneath his skin. I felt like putting my yellow dress in contact with his blouse, and see if the colors matched.

It was to suppose that the 10 years of isolation threw off the contours, that the distance of the facts erased their meaning. In fact, being distant from him had caused many controversial ideias in my head, but as months and years passed by, the little he'd left slowly went away, and Oliver Snowfields invaded completely my thoughts and ideas of a better future.

But Sebastian was there, matter of factly. If Oliver had a GPS with the people's location, Angelina Firenze and Sebastian Castle would appear at the same spot, maybe even occupying each's space, because if he stood up we would be merely inches away.

And that is why I didn't step back; until the ideia of leaving that chair finally crossed his mind. Sebastian held the armrest, and without a word he got up, looking at me and smelling the perfume my wardrobe emanated, as well as me myself, I think. My thoughts were getting strange.

"Look..." I started, but left the phrase uncompleted. Sebastian was already bypassing me towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"Back to my floor. Do not worry, Miss Firenze, even if I get caught the commander will do any harm. I am friends with Bridgette Clay. Have a good night."

"Sebastian." - I said, and he turned around to face me. Our eyes met properly perhaps for the first time in a decade. They were light blue, I remembered, but now seemed to be amber because of my room's yellowish atmosphere. - "Don't call me Miss Firenze."

"As you wish, Angelina."