In The Safety Of A Lie - COMPLETED!

Chapter 10

Evelina woke up yawning. She was dressed in a skimpy, black dress slip, reminding her of the events of the night before. She looked over to her side and sat upright, gripping the sheets around herself.

Joey wasn't there like he had been the night before. She looked around the room. There was no signs of him or his clothes. She felt somewhat panicky as she got up from the bed to look around for him. The worked muscles in her thighs reminded her that the night before hadn't been a dream. Her hands numbly grabbed a silky robe from a hook on her bathroom door.

Her eyes scanned the apartment for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Her gaze paused on a piece of paper taped to her front door. She swallowed hard, inching her way to the note. She pulled it from the door and unfolded it. Her hand covered her mouth as the words flowed off the page. Her heart felt like it was being ripped out of her.

To My Dearest Evelina,

I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, but your safety is my main concern. I should never have laid my hands on you and did what we did last night. I regret putting you in that position and compromising what you believe in for my own selfish reasons. Not only did I put you in even more danger with the people I work for, but also, I put you in a position that you should never have had to worry about. I hate myself for what I did. I just didn't think first. I can't have the temptation of losing all control like that again, and, although I do deeply and dearly love you, I need to think of you and break off this relationship before you get more hurt than you probably already are. I'm sorry for giving you this pain and false hope for what clearly can't be. Please forgive me for not doing this sooner and not respecting your boundaries like I had promised I would. I should have stood up for what both of us knew was right and not taken advantage of you. If I could take everything back, I would, but I can't and although our time together was very special to me, I can't keep doing this. I am so sorry, Ev. Please find it in your heart to forgive me. I didn't mean for things to end up like this.

Joey

"If you could take everything back?" Evelina echoed, boring holes through the paper as the words bounced off of the page at her. Anger mixed with pure, raw emotion enveloped her. She finished reading the letter, not sure how to react or what to do. The only way to explain her hurt was through the tears slipping down her face. She'd been stripped raw.

What did I do? Was all that ran through her mind. She felt hurt and dirty. Very dirty. She held the letter against herself, pushing her back against the door as tightly as she could. She slid down to the ground, tears streaming down her face. Loneliness filled the hollow within her. It was just the right feeling to completely flood her with even more emotion than before.

Without thinking, she glanced up at the time. She had to go to work in an hour. Numbly, she felt around up on the desk by the door for the phone. She needed to talk to somebody and Joey seemed very obviously out of the question. She didn't know what she could say to him right now anyway. Words couldn't begin to describe completely what she was feeling. Her tears dripped onto the phone as she dialed the only number that came to mind. It barely had a chance to get off a single ring before she got an answer.

"Hello." Nakita answered the phone in her strong Kenyan accent. It was undeniable that she had spent much of her life in Africa, in spite of her American start.

Ev couldn't bring herself to answer her friend's greeting. The only noise that she managed to make was a miserable sniffling. She was trembling.

"Evelina?" Nakita asked gently. "Is that you?"

"Mhmm." She looked up at the ceiling and rubbed away a tear, biting her lip to feel something. At least a feeling would help her know this actually happened; that her feelings were justified. "It's me."