His Indulgence || Book Two

Trauma

I made the final decision to stay optimistic about my situation.

The evening following that day, I decided to cook my grandmas signature spaghetti recipe for tonight's dinner. Since Eric was away on a business trip in Vegas with Santiago, I ached for something to do. Boredom was inevitable.

I snagged some ingredients from the pantry and the refrigerator. As I was scanning the fridge for tomatoes, I realized we were out. I groaned at the thought of having to leave the house to go on a hunt at my local farmers market.

As I proceeded to reach for my keys, Ales caught me heading out. She sat on the couch, looking just as eager to do something as I was. "Where're you going?"

I unlocked the double wooden front door, "I need some tomatoes, want to come with?"

She shrugged trailing me from behind as we hopped in my car, and barreled down the road.

Once arriving to the market, she tossed some fruits in my basket as we made our way down the aisle of greens.

Ales suggested she'd hold the heavy basket while I searched for bread in another aisle as she picked the tomatoes.

Accepting the proposal, I strolled towards the bakery department and began to browse their overwhelming selection.

I was torn between wheat and whole grain. Which one would taste better? I thought to myself.

"Danica?" A familiar voice, asked unsurely with disbelief overwhelming his voice. Turning to the voice, I fell into shock as I continued to stare, baffled. Each of my limbs ran cold, I stared for a few moments, not knowing how to react.

"Danica!" He leaped to me, nestling me in his tender arms.

I couldn't help but to clench him tight, and after a few moments, we disengaged from one another.

"Jesse! I haven't seen you in so long." I shook my head mystified as I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling a strand behind my ear.

Jesse had been an ex of mine, but we broke off once he left to a boarding school our sophomore year. If it hadn't been for him moving away, I probably would've still been in a toxic relationship with him. He had a tarnished reputation for being the all known school cheater. My idiotic younger self thought I'd be the one to change that from him, little did I know he had no intentions of changing. After his arrival from another school, it was almost as if he was a completely different person. He learned to respect women and foolishly expected me to just leap back into his arms, though it was too late for me.

I had Eric, and unlike Jesse, he didn't need a military boarding school to respect women.

Senior year had been a hectic experience because Jesse was completely against Eric, and Eric to him. The two didn't mix until finally, they shook on being friends. Even till this day, you could feel the tension between them.

Jesse chuckled, "Yeah, it's been ten months. I tried calling and texting, but you never picked up." A frown lingered on his lips.

I nodded, a little disappointed at myself. "I changed my number, I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Truth was, although it was rude of me to not share my new number with him, I was also a little glad because if I had told him, he wouldn't have given me the space I longed for.

"I don't want to wait another ten more months to see you again, Danica." He slid his phone out and handed me it. "Put your number in, and hopefully we could catch up before I head back to school."

"How long are you here for?" I inquired as I updated my contact. As I did so, his phone received a text message from a girl named Madison. Her name had a heart beside it, and the message read "I miss you so much babe".