I Won't Ever Hide Alone

Ch: 13 Reunited

Saturday came and still no reply back from Dom. Julian was beginning to think Dom was trying to drift from him. The more upset he got though, the more it made him realize how Lori must be feeling by the way he has been treating her.

He was on a work break with Kara as he confided in her about Dom ignoring his mesaages.

"You know, Kara, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it'll help me be a little more mentally stable in this relationship with Lori."

"Which reminds me," Kara added, "How is she since Thursday night?"

"She's okay. We talked it over. She apologized for always coming on too strong, which I told her she definitely doesn't. Then I apologized for being so afraid to move to the next step all the time to which she thought was cute. I swear I can do no wrong with her. She never stays mad at me for long. And she always ends up blaming herself later for things that are definitely my fault." Julian shook his head.

"Oh boy," Kara said, " She sounds like a victim for sure. Poor girl."

"I know... and I'm only making it worse."

"Yeah..." Kara agreed.

"Hey!" Julian seemed surprised at Kara for agreeing.

"Hey you said it. Listen Juls, like you said, maybe Dom not responding to you is a blessing in disguise. Maybe now you can either tell the truth to Lori OR keep trying to make this relationship an actual relationship. "

-

Later that night...

Julian took off his work apron for the day and put it away. Kara was still on the job. She was closing tonight, but Julian had the night off. Since he didn't hear back from Dom he decided to take this night to try to actually be a good boyfriend to Lori. He drove to the store, bought some carnations in different colors, and headed to Lori's house.

He knocked on the door and he was happy to see Lori was the one to answer the door. She wasn't dressed up. Just in relaxed clothes and her hair in a ponytail. He liked the natural look on her.

"Hey, Julian. What are you doing here?" Lori asked, confused.

"I just wanted to come by to see how you were." Julian smiled at her.

Lori stepped outside and shut the front door. The sun was going down and it made her green eyes glitter.

"I'm alright." She folded her arms so she wouldn't nervously start to fumble. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm great. Actually, I got these for you." Julian held out the carnations he bought her.

A smile spread across her face and she gently took the flowers out of Julian's hands. "Thank you. They're beautiful." She smelled them as she spoke.

"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl. I just wanted to say, you know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I've been so off lately and I promise. No more. I let my stress get the best of me and I will work on it." He placed a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. He held her like that for a while, but then he felt his phone vibrate. He was really hoping it wasn't Kara asking him to come back to the restaurant, because something bad happened.

"Hold on, Hun. I got to check this. It could be urgent with the restaurant."

Lori let him go. She smiled and lightly bounced on the balls of her feet while she kept breathing in the scent of her flowers.

Julian smiled at her happiness as he dug out his phone from his pocket.

He opened the message just to feel an overwhelming feeling rush over him in that moment.