This is love

NINE

“I swear to the fucking God’s above, I will literally rip every fucking tooth from his head!” 

Jason’s eyes widen and I stifle a giggle at Sapphire’s rath. She stormed through our front door a few hours ago and still remained heated over Moore’s latest revelation. Jason squeezes my shoulder and mutters to me that he’ll be back soon, stalking away to mumble a shallow greeting on his ringing phone. I frowned. 

“Know what I think?” 

Here we go… again.

“His latest squeeze has ditched his old, wrinkly ass and he’s taking it out on you.” She huffs, finally stopping her pacing behind the couch. Thank God, I was worrying she would wear the carpet down. “Either that or he’s beginning to get Alzehimers and forgets signing a fucking agreement, not even once, but four times! How fucking clueless do you need to be, seriously?” 

“Listen, there’s no point in stressing over it. Lance has reassured me that it’s under control.” I mutter, my eyes squinting as Jason hovers outside the living room with his voice still low. “Let’s leave it to the professionals.” 

Sapphire follows my eyes over her shoulder with a deep frown creasing between her brows before looking back at me. “Everything okay?” 

I hum. “Oh - yeah, yeah. Everything is fine.” 

She walks to the front of the couch and sits. “Okay good. So, now you can tell me the truth. What’s going on?” 

“I don’t know.” I mutter embarrassingly. “He’s been… distant? I don’t know how to explain it.” 

Her shock was just as evident as my confusion. After Lance called almost five days ago, he hovered around for an hour or two, but always stayed stuck to his phone and only answered if he was being spoken too. Since then, he was barely here. He wasn’t home when I went too sleep and wasn’t here when I woke. He skipped dinners, only sending me a simple text to remind me to take my meds and the odd one to tell me he loved me. Something I had started to begin to forget with his absence. 

“He’s probably just stressed with work.” 

I knew that wasn’t it. Because if it was, he would have told me. 

“Stop overthinking, Frankie.” 

I shake my head and forced a smile. “How’s everything else at the office? Ivy coping? Anything from Adam?” 

“Everything is fine.” She reassures. “But Adam - no. I haven’t heard anything else from him. You need to stop worrying about everyone else’s problem, especially Julian and Adam. Adam is learning to cope, and if Julian isn’t man enough to face his own problems that he created, then you shouldn’t worry either.” 

She was right, but I couldn’t help but feel for Julian. Even after everything he put me through. 

“I better get going.” Sapphire says. “I promised I’d have lunch with my mom and if I put off 

any longer, I’m afraid that I’ll be stuck there longer than what I need to be.” 

She gave me a hug before letting herself out and with another glance out to Jason, I sighed and trudged out into the garden. I woke up this morning with a heavy chest of foggy brain, the fluster of anxiety caused by the stress of this new lawsuit and cabin fever combined. Although my surgery had only been just slightly over a week, I had become slightly more mobile day-by-day and I knew, for my own sanity, I needed to get out of these four walls before my mental health deteriorated any further.