Protect Me Not

Chapter 5

Mary had always dreamed of making a life with Richard but somehow was still surprised when he asked her to take the next big step with him.

"I don't know what to say to you Richard," Mary spoke calmly.

"Just say yes! Yes that you will move in with me. Yes that you will accept New York as your new city of residence and yes that you will commit to me fully," he answered.

"I would like to give it some thought," Mary softly said as she leaned over to deliver him a soft kiss. "There is just so much to think of. I would have to learn how to navigate around the city, move my office to somewhere appealing to both my commute and my existing clientele and..."

"There is no need to stress about it baby. I will give you all the time you need to think this through but allow me the privilege to take care of all the details of your move and you won't need to even lift a finger. We are a team now. You, me and our beautiful apartment in which you can decorate to your liking I might add," he proclaimed hoping his offer was enticing enough for her to agree.

Mary's inner gut was throwing out powerful messages of disapproval with a constant pain. Her heart on the other hand was beating out the perfect fairytale rendition of a glamorous and successful powerhouse Broker. Her head told her to be practical and to offer some serious thought to such a big life changing step.

"I don't need to think about it. I'm in! Let's do this together, I'm ready," she blurted out clearly following her heart and ignoring all the other warning signs her brain and gut spat out.

"Then it's settled. I will make the arrangements for everything in the morning. Don't you worry your pretty self with any details of moving. I will have my assistant at your beck and call any time of day should you need her and please Mary, use the resources I'm offering," Richard scolded.

And with that statement Richard turned on his heal, completely satisfied with the acceptance of his proposal. True to his word, Richard had placed a call to his assistant Anna immediately. Mary could hear his voice resonating through the corridor leading to the bedroom. His strong and very masculine tone always made Mary's heart skip a beat. She could hear Richard giving Anna orders to call for the moving company and to ensure the transition went as smoothly as possible. Richard also made sure to have the extra bedroom set up as a home office so that Mary could comfortably conduct business immediately while scouting for suitable office space.

In the ensuing months, Richard ricocheted between adorning love and verbal torment. Mary found it increasingly hard to concentrate on her work. She was constantly analyzing her everyday actions in order to keep Richard from spinning out of control. It was the beginning of her slow road to loneliness that would ultimately haunt her every waking moment only she didn't know it yet. Mary would often become recluse in the comfort of her own home. Now that she shared her personal living space with Richard, she felt that she was under constant surveillance. Richard had this innate ability to know what Mary's daily activities consisted of and even what and who she spoke to. She always chalked it up to coincidence but with Richard's new character change, Mary started paying more attention to her so called privacy. When speaking on her cell phone, she often hovered into a corner cupping her mouth; trying to quiet her already whispered voice. Mary was vigilant not to leave any business contracts or proposals carelessly placed around the apartment. Never wanting to breach any of her client's confidentiality, she often hid her briefcase in different locations within the apartment. She couldn't figure out why or how there appeared to be so many specific topic correlations that Richard would sporadically bring up in conversation. Mary started to feel that their relationship was slowly withering away into empty meaning and that made her sad. Originally they had been two strong independent people working vigorously to establish themselves into a chosen career but somehow over time, Mary felt like she had lost a part of herself to Richard. His dominating antics were breaking her down. Whenever Richard would ask to set a date for marriage, Mary would feel like all the air was being squeezed out of her lungs. The warning signs of her toxic relationship were literally crushing her, but Mary chose to chalk the air deprivation up to wedding anxiety and a little bit of cold feet. For what she researched about planning a wedding, these were all normal feelings and most brides; if not all of them, go through these awkward and unwanted feelings.