Regal Love

Chapter Four

The landlord suggested that I move in only after a week or maybe even later because he wanted to verify all my details but I did not have that much time with me, after much negotiation he agreed to let me move in the very day I toured it. My mother always said that I had a way with words. I called a friend of a friend who owed me a favour and managed to get all my furniture and things moved in within a span of only four hours. Of course I still had to arrange the furniture and unpack the boxes but I had enough time to do that. I took a deep breath and looked at the apartment that I had called my home for over five years of which six months were filled with happiness and the rest in endless cycle of abuse and flowers to make up for the hurt. The apartment looked so empty, the only thing left in the apartment was Bryant’s couch, his clothes, his Play Station and some other household items that he had bought with his money. I smiled at the bouquet of wilting red roses and box of molten chocolates. I was finally ready to leave them behind. I locked the apartment for the last time and handed over my keys to the landlady of my previous home.
“Bryant is going to be surprised when he returns” Mrs. Simmons said.
“Please Mrs. Simmons, please don’t tell him that I am still in the city” I pleaded.
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell him that you went back to your country and that I don’t know anything beyond that” She said.
“If he threatens you, please let me know. He is not as straight as he may seem.” I forewarned her. Bryant always seems to be a sweetheart, which was the reason I fell in love with him but the person he is behind the mask that he always wears is a beast.
“Don’t worry my love, I’ll be fine. I’m just upset that you went through all the abuse for so many years without even uttering a single word. But I am so happy that you have mustered up the courage to finally leave the toxic relation that you have been in” She gave me a kind smile. Mrs Simmons was a widow, her husband had left her the entire building to her after he died. She was in her mid 70s but was still strong and vibrant as ever.
“I’ll miss you” I hugged her. The only time I had hugged her was when I first moved in, when I was my old bubbly and happy self. But as time passed and things became hard between me and Bryant, I shut out the world including her and even my own family. Now that I look back, I’m so happy that I never introduced Bryant to my family and vice versa. If I had done that horrible mistake, I would have struggled to not even make it out from the toxic relationship and would have even put the lives of my family in danger. I even deleted all of my social media because Bryant felt insecure, he told me he did the same for me. It was only during Christmas time that I had to secretly mail my family coming up with a fake reason to justify my absence during the festive time of the year. The other times of the year, I blocked my entire family not that Bryant told me to. A fear had developed in me but it is time for me to face them.
I left the building with the photo albums of us, actually I left his pictures back in ‘his’ apartment and took only the cut outs of my pictures, just because. I hailed a cab and headed to my new home which was still a work in progress. As I was sitting at the backseat of the cab, I caught myself smiling. I rarely smiled, at least for the four and half years of a life filled with sadness. I felt a weight get off my shoulders and I knew that I was finally doing what I had actually planned on doing four years ago. My eyes caught the sight of a beauty parlour called ‘The woman in you’ which I thought was an odd name for a beauty parlour but I ended up stopping the cab and heading there for a much needed makeover cause why the hell not. I entered the parlour, the workers looked so tired and weary and even it even seemed like they were planning on closing the place for the night. I put my box full of cut outs of me as all of them looked at me with awe. One of the older ladies with short red hair approached me and chuckled,
“Are you here for a break up makeover” as she eyed the box.
I wasn’t offended in fact I replied,
“What do you think?”
“Ladies, hold on. We ‘bout to do some magic” She said with much sass.
I did nothing drastic except got a little trim, Keratin treatment to my hair, a facial, French manicure and got my hair a shade darker.  I mean they must have done something more because I did not look the same. My hair was smoother and shinier, my skin looked way better despite the interference of the bruises. Bryant hated it when I tried to look “pretty” so I had stopped trying to doll myself up except the times when I had to cover the bruises in my face with layers of foundation, concealor and dermacol. I had to do it or my clients wouldn’t take me seriously. Now that I think about it, it is kind of ironic how I managed to be a somehow successful criminal lawyer in the city but my life was in shambles because of some illegal abusing and beating up that would always happen within the four walls of my home. I studied law, I practiced it to make the lives of others safer and better but I still did not use it to make my life better. But now that Bryant was out of the picture, I would do what I love to do without being a hypocrite.
“Thank you ladies” I told the workers.
“Do come here again for level 2 of your makeover” said the red hair lady whose name was Shauna.
“I will” I said and left the parlour. It was 11:43 pm when I reached my new place. I was slowly unpacking the clothes that I was going to wear the next day, I had this sudden impulse to do more things that Bryant banned me from doing. You know, like actually using social media.