Saving You (BWBM)

3

We put away all the items we bought. To keep my mind free, I started cooking dinner. I decided to go ahead and cook for Bryan too. I made baked chicken with rice and veggies.

I sat at the table and ate. Bryan was still on the phone.

It was about to be summertime. The sun was still out and it was warm, so I decided that I would take a swim.

After changing, I went outside. I swam around a little. I closed my eyes and tried to relax.

When I opened them and started getting out, Bryan was coming outside.

"How's the pool?" He asked.

"It's great." I replied. His eyes travelled to a bruise on my shoulder. Then I watched as he observed the rest of me. There were small bruises all over. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

"Does it hurt at all?" He asked.  I wrapped the towel around me.

"A little. I'll be fine. I'm tougher than you think." I half smiled. He nodded as I started to walk away.

My body jolted from a nightmare. I rolled over and looked at the clock. It was 3:50am. I pulled the covers off and went into the kitchen.

I was surprised when I saw that Bryan was awake.

"Why are you still awake?" I asked.

"I only sleep a few hours at a time. Why are you awake?"

"I couldn't sleep. My mind is racing and that dream was a little too vivid." I chuckled. A few tears fell from my eyes. I quickly wiped them away. I got a bottle of water and went to the couch.

"Kamille it's okay. You had a really bad experience." He said, trying to comfort me.

The wall of emotions I had been holding in all day came full force.

Bryan came around the couch. "Kamille." 

I cried. Everytime I tried to stop, another thought flashed into my head. Bryan had sat a box of tissues beside me.

He sat next to me and reached over to rub my back. For some reason, I jumped when he did it.

"Sorry." He said, holding his hands up. This only made me cry more. Instead, he just sat next to me silently.

************************

A while later, I opened my eyes and sat up. I had a blanket over me. The sun was up outside.

My face felt puffy and I had a slight headache. I went to my room and washed up. When I came back to the kitchen I fixed a cup of coffee.

I headed to the patio. Bryan was outside swimming laps in the pool. I sat down in one of the chairs. Bryan got out after a while.

He glistened in the sun. He was a handsome man. Tall and muscular too.

"Hey Kamille. How you feeling?" He asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm fine. I guess. I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay."

"I mean about jumping away from you. I just... I don't know."

"Like I said. It's fine." He smiled. "Maybe you should get into therapy. Ian asked me to mention it to you."

I chuckled to myself. "Never thought I would hear those words."

"I go. We see so much stuff in this job. It can be good to get it off your chest."

"Sure. I'll do it. Anything that will help me sleep."

"Okay. It will be setup for you." He said. He got up and went inside. 

I finished my coffee.  A million things ran through my mind again. I sat outside, listening to the sounds of nature around me, letting it calm me.

****************************

A month or so later

We had been here for a month and a half. It was June. I finally got to go to the eye doctor. We also went and looked at cars.

Money from my parents had finally come through. There was enough to last what seemed like a lifetime to me.

The bruises were finally gone. I started therapy and after a while, I could finally sleep through an entire night.

"Good morning." Bryan said as he came into the kitchen.

"Hey. I made breakfast, since I had nothing else to do." I smiled.  He chuckled.

"Well, you're in luck. I'm free today and I know you're tired of sitting around here. So I figured we could go do something."

"Okay. There is one thing that I want to do. My dad and I would go fishing on his off days."

Bryan almost spit out his juice he was drinking.
"You do not seem like the fishing type."

"Well I love it. It's relaxing. You do know how to fish right?"  I retorted.  He flashed his beautiful smile.

"Yes I do Kamille. We have to get some gear though."

"Great. There's an store that sells all things outdoor. We passed it a few times. There's also a lake we can go to."

"You've planned this out?" He asked.

"Yes I've been dying to do something other than swimming all day. I'm the darkest I've ever been and my tan lines are crazy." I said. I pulled up my sleeve to show him the difference in color.

"Yeap. That's is a lot darker. Let me go change into some different clothes and eat." He replied.  I went and changed too.

Soon we were setting up our stuff in a good spot.  I sprayed bug repellant on. "Here Bryan."

"Thanks." He caught it as I tossed the bottle to him.  I finished setting up my rod.

"It's been a minute since I touched a worm. I forgot how slimey they were." I wiped my hands on the towel I had. Bryan swung his arm and cast out into the water.

"You should use some of these crickets." He said.

I shook my head, "I barely like touching the worms."

"Then it's a wonder how you like fishing. The fish feel worse than that." He laughed.

We sat in silence for a while. Then the fish finally started biting. Bryan pulled in 3 before I could even get one.

"Oh come on. Mine aren't even nibbling good." I whined.

"It's all in the wrist. You have to hook em just right." He said.

"Well you'll have to show me because I haven't hooked one yet."

"Okay look." He showed me how he pulled to hook the fish. I showed it back to him. "Okay not like that."

He walked around and grabbed my hands. He guided them to show how. A breeze blew and I smelled his cologne, which made my heart beat faster. I didn't tense up this time either.

"Now you try it the next time you get a bite." He said as he let go.

"Okay." After a few minutes one finally bit. I did the movement like he showed me and hooked it.  Once I finally got it in, we realized it was a pretty big fish.  "I think this means it's enough fish. We will have too much."

"Yeah. You put up quite a fight for it."  He laughed. "Your concentration face is funny."

"Oh shut up." I sighed. I flicked him with the water from the fish.

"I'll get you back for that." He said. He wiped his face with his shirt, exposing his wonderful abs again.  We packed up our stuff and went home.