Who Is My Trouble?

When It Rains, What It Rains

6 months after coming back passed like the wind. Nothing changed apart from having more time for myself. I stopped giving political workshops, as I started teaching private classes in the bookshop. On a rainy night, I heard someone knock on the door at 9 in the evening, which was a very late time for anyone to visit me. I left my study and walked towards the door, and there I found out that it was him. He walked into my little apartment and observed it as he slowly sat on the couch. It had my bedroom on the right side of the apartment, a bathroom beside the bedroom, and a small living room with my little library, desk, couch with a coffee table, and the kitchen counter in it. I sat beside him and wrapped my blanket around myself. I wasn't in my best condition; no makeup, messed bun, and glasses on with winter pajamas. "Do you want to have anything to drink?" I asked while taking my cup off the table. "Why did you leave?" he asked after a moment of silence. I took a sip of my cup and looked through my window, admiring the heavy rain, "because my job with you was over, I mentored you, you won, and that was it." "But you didn't have to leave me in that way, you know that very well!""Should've I texted you on your phone instead of leaving a note? Sorry I didn't do that in the modern way that you like.""It is not for the way you left that I am here, it is for a reason.""I don't have any reason or an explanation for you. You broke through my apartment to talk about something irrelevant.""Irrelevant?""Yes, irrelevant."He nodded as I said that, trying his best not to smash the table over my head. Seth didn't look at ease at all, he seemed disturbed and couldn't put his eye in mine anymore, then decided to walk off my apartment and never show up anymore. It wasn't hard for me to know what he was doing, or how his life was going, as he became famous ever since his victory and his whole life was known and published on the internet. With time, I felt regretful about how I treated him, but I couldn't deny that he won over me just because he came from a more affluent city and a more prominent name. It was the bookshop's owner's daughter's wedding, and I was invited to attend. I was thrilled to have something new in my schedule, and on the awaited day, I had on the same dress I wore that night. It wasn't a big wedding, as it took place in the couple's new house garden. I never enjoyed dancing. Thus I stayed most of the time sitting in my home. It got crowded later that night, and I felt that I needed to take a break for a cigarette. I went to the other side of the house, which was way calmer than the whole party. A man was sitting in the same area I went to, who had his tie unfixed. I lighted up my cigarette and sat close to where he was sitting. "It seems you don't like dancing either," I said as I started smoking. "I don't like cigarettes either," he replied with a serious tone. "Oh!" I awkwardly replied and stood to walk away from him. I felt that I was ultimately disturbed by what he said. Thus I decided to walk away from the whole wedding.The next day I was at the bookshop doing the paperwork required for every month. Someone came at the counter to check out for the books he chose. As I was getting his receipt done, I figured out that it was the same rude man I met last night at the wedding. I immediately had an attitude while I was giving him back his change. "I am sorry I didn't mean to disturb you last night," he said as he took his sunglasses off. "You don't have to apologize for anything, sir," I replied as I was putting his books in the bag. "Could I ask you out for lunch today?" he politely asked. That genuine attitude did not make me forget his disrespectful attitude to me on the wedding night. "I am sorry I can't," I calmly replied as I headed him the bag. "Alright, thank you for accepting my request. There is a good pasta restaurant down that street, I will pick you up at 3, sounds good?" he giggled as he stood on the exit door. "Don't bother yourself because I won't be showing up," said I with a disturbing attitude. I spent the rest of the day in my study reading a book to pass the time. It was heavily raining, and I couldn't go anywhere with the cold I had. I heard the door knock as I was falling asleep, and to my surprise, it was my friend Kate. Kate and I became friends since I joined the bookshop, but she left once she got pregnant with her first child. Every time she came back to the country, she would stay at my place, unless if she was with her husband, they would rent a hotel room. Kate was a short, tiny, green-eyed woman. She married an American who she met while pursuing her higher education and traveled to live with him in the States. Her husband, Toby, was a kind-hearted man who hugged her when he knew that she was raised by a foster family. Kate and Toby moved in together after they knew that they were expecting their first child, as Toby felt that it was better to have his family established back in his home country. Toby was a surgeon and came to England for a short period. At the same time, Kate became a professor in a university close to their house in the States. What brought Kate that night was a surprise to me, as she came in her weirdest forms ever. Apparently, she had a fight with her husband and flew to me without her husband's consent or knowledge in the first place. I didn't accept her action and demanded that she should tell him where she was. Kate was one of the most stubborn women I have met in my life, but she ended up accepting my request and allowed me to talk to him. I called Toby and confirmed her location to him. It didn't take an hour before I heard my door being knocked on heavily. "Could that be him?" Kate fearfully asked. "Do you think that he would teleport from America to my door in an hour?" I sarcastically replied as I opened the door, "you?" I asked as I saw the same rude man on my door. "You?" he asked as if he was expecting another face on the door, then pushed me to walk in my apartment. I started yelling at him to stop from walking any forward. "Kate!" he yelled as she yelled back at him, "you?" I stood between them, stopping him from getting any closer to her. I didn't understand anything around me; how did he know my place, Kate, and why did he show up at this time. I asked Kate if she knew him, and as a cherry to my cake, he was her husband's cousin. "Can't we get rid of the Americans in my house," I complained as I sat on the couch looking up at the man. He had a seat beside her and asked her what was going on while she asked him what he was doing in England. He told her that he was invited to his friend's wedding, and was planning to leave peacefully on the weekend until he got a call from his cousin who knew he was in England and asked him to find her. Kate told him her story, she and Toby were not on their best terms as he has been taking decisions that did not suit the family. Toby and Kate have been secretly married. He was a politician and did not want to risk his family's privacy. According to what Kate complained from, he has been missing from the house most of the time, and not showing up to his kids as a father. She requested him to announce the marriage in public and stay with them more, but he refused, and to her dignity, she didn't have anything but to leave. "You have to know that I won't come back to him until he decides to accept my conditions," Kate demanded with a broken heart. "I think you should go back and for Kate to stay in my place. It is late, and all of us are tired. We will talk about everything tomorrow," I strictly requested him to leave. As he left, Kate and I had a small conversation about him. She told me that his name was Henry and that he was a close cousin to her husband. She didn't know much about him as most of the time, he was flying between England and America.