FROM THEN ON

Chapter Eight

At this point,my brain tried to process what Sabrina just told me but the information kept coming out of my ears. ''What?!'' I shouted. ''I'm so sorry but we knew this day would come eventually. I tried to tell them to wait till Sunday after the awards night but my parents have already made up their mind,'' she cried into the phone. ''It's okay Sabrina. It's going to be okay. Please stop crying,'' I said trying to comfort her. ''Where are you right now?'' I asked. ''Still at my grandma's house. Why?'' she asked. ''I'm coming over,'' I said and hang up before she had the chance to object. I run back to my car, and drove off to her grandma's house. When I arrived, I parked in front of the gate, got down and rang the bell. A few minutes later, Sabrina opened the gate and let me in. ''I know where we can talk. Follow me,'' she said. I walked behind her without uttering a word. We walked on a pathway that led us away from the mansion and towards a small garden. We kept walking until we reached a bridge that was over a small lake. She stood on the bridge holding the railing and staring into the water. I stood beside her with my arms folded and also looking into the water. It looked cold and reflected light from trees all around us thus, as if it was shinning. ''What do we do now?'' I asked her. ''I don't know,'' she said without moving an inch and still staring at the water. ''Mhnnn,'' I sighed. ''There must be something we can do,'' I said. ''There's nothing. I've tried everything,'' she said as her throat started to clog and tears began to form in her eyes. I pulled her closer and then hugged her with my chin buried in her head. She placed her head and hands on my chest and tears trickled down her cheeks. ''I am not giving up on us,'' I said in a low tune. ''What choice do we have?'' she asked between sobs. Just then, I had an idea. It wasn't going to help our situation permanently but it was going to work for awhile. ''Wait. Why can't you go after the awards ceremony?'' I asked. ''Because my ticket has already been bought for tomorrow and it is non-refundable,'' she said. ''What if I can get you a ticket to Washington?'' I asked. ''What about the non-refundable ticket?'' she asked. ''It's non-refundable yes but I know a guy who can change the date of your departure. He works in one of our local airports and I now he'll be willing to do it for me because..he owes me,'' I said pulling Sabrina away from me and holding her hands in mine. ''Okay even if what you're saying is possible, what happens to us after I'm gone?'' Sabrina asked concerned. ''Well, I told my boss that I'd be taking a vacation very soon. I intended on using it to go back to Washington to look for you, but now I can take a one month vacation to Washington to spend time with you,'' I said facing her with her hands still in mine. ''You were going to come back for me?'' she asked surprised. ''Yes I was,'' I replied. ''That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you,'' she said. ''You're welcome,'' I smiled. ''But after your one month vacation then what? We break up?'' she asked. ''Well no I haven't thought about it to that extent but Sabrina listen,'' I said looking into her eyes. ''I don't know what's going to happen one month from now when I am supposed to come back home. But what I know is that when we get there, we are going to cross that bridge together. But till then, let's just work with the time we have by making the most of it because I want spend the next month we have right by your side every chance I get,'' I said. ''Me too,'' she said. ''Okay so it's settled then? You'll leave after the awards ceremony and I'll follow a few days later,'' I said. ''I'll have to talk to my family about the whole ticket thing first but we have to be sure that your friend is really going to change the date first,'' she said. ''I'll call him first thing tomorrow morning,'' I said. ''Okay then. I'll talk to my family tonight and then I'll let you know what the conclusion is tomorrow morning,'' she said. ''Okay. I guess I should go now,'' I said. ''Okay. Goodnight,'' she said. ''Goodnight beautiful,'' I said and leaned in to kiss her but she turned her face and I kissed her right cheek instead. ''I'm sorry. It's just that I planned to have my first kiss on my wedding day. I just want it to be special,'' she said looking away embarrassed. ''No don't be. I should be sorry. I shouldn't have tried to kiss you without asking you,'' I apologized. ''It's okay. But can we please just stick to pecks and hugs?'' she asked. ''Sure,'' I said and smiled. I won't lie, what she said was quite weird but I respected her decision and was ready to just go with it. ''bye then,'' I said letting go of her hand slowly. ''bye,'' she said in a low whisper. As I let go of her hand, I realized how much I didn't want to. How much I didn't want to lose her moreover break up with her. When I arrived home, Sabrina called me. ''Hey. I just wanted to make sure you got home safely,'' she said. ''Awwn aren't you the sweetest girlfriend ever?'' I teased. ''Well I am trying,'' she laughed. ''You really are and yes I'm home safe and sound,'' I said. ''Thank you,'' I added. ''Of course. Well goodnight gorgeous,'' she teased. ''Goodnight beautiful,'' I replied and hang up. The next day on my way to work, I called Theodore, my friend who works at the airport. ''Hey man,'' I said. ''Rob my man. Long time no hear. How are you?'' he asked. ''I'm great. What about you and the fam?'' I asked. ''They are all good.'' He replied. ''That's good that's good,'' I said. ''Hey man listen I need a favour. I've got this ticket right, which is a ticket for a flight scheduled for today and I was wondering if you could change it for a flight leaving on Monday,'' I continued. ''Sure. Anything for my man,'' he said. ''Just mail the softcopy to me today and I'll mail the new ticket to you by tomorrow,'' he added. ''Thanks man. I really appreciate it,'' I thanked him. ''No problem,'' he said. ''Alright so I'll mail it to you as soon as I can,'' I said. ''Okay will be waiting,'' he said. ''Okay bye. Say hi to your wife and kids,'' I said. ''Alright sure. Bye Rob,'' he replied and hang up. As soon as I was done talking to him, I called Sabrina. ''Hey babe,'' I said. ''Hi baby,'' she replied. ''How are you?'' she asked. ''I'm good. You?'' I asked. ''I'm awesome by God's grace,'' she said. ''Okay,'' I laughed. It's really going to take me awhile to get used to the whole dating a Christian girl thing. But I know I'll get the hang of it. Eventually. ''So have you called your airport friend?'' she asked. ''Uh yeah. He said he'll do it. So you just need to send me a softcopy of the ticket by mail and then I'll take care of the rest,'' I replied. ''okay thank God. I talked to my parents about it and they agreed. As long as I'm coming back immediately after the ceremony,'' She said. ''Well I told Theodore to schedule your flight for Monday is that okay?'' I asked. ''Sunday would have been better but I'll take it,'' she replied. ''No I can call him to change the date,'' I said. ''No it's fine. I'm sure my family can manage a few days without me. Besides, it gives us more time to spend together,' she stated. I smiled. ''I'm at work now so I'll call you later?'' I asked. ''Sure. Have a nice day,'' she replied. ''Alright thanks. Bye babe,'' I said. ''bye gorgeous,'' she ended. The rest of the day flew by in the blink of an eye. When I got home from work, I called Sabrina. ''Hey baby,'' I said. ''Hi boo,'' she said. ''How was work?'' she asked. ''It would have been stressful like it usually is but today, it was awesome,'' I said. ''Really? How come?'' she asked. ''Because today, I was thinking of you the whole time,'' I said. ''Awwwn. That is so sweet,'' she said flattered. ''Yeah,'' I said smiling. ''What you doing?'' she asked. ''Nothing really,'' I replied. ''Great. I'm coming over,'' she said and hang up before I could even reply. ''So that's how that feels like,'' I laughed remembering that I did the same thing to her yesterday. I quickly went to have my bath and wore a polo shirt with grey sweat pants. A few minutes after, there was a knock on the door. I rushed to the door and opened it. ''hey,'' I said. ''hi,'' she said. ''Well come on in....'' I trailed off but she entered before I even completed my sentence. ''I told you to stop doing that,'' she laughed. ''I know, I know and I'm sorry,'' he said. ''I forgive you,'' she said cheerfully as she sat on the couch. ''Can you say you won't?'' I teased. ''Shut up,'' she laughed and I laughed back. ''Wanna watch a movie?'' I asked. ''Sure,'' she replied. I started walking towards the stairs. I turned and asked, ''You coming?'' ''Where are we going? I thought we were coming to watch a movie,'' she replied. I walked back to the couch, held her hand and pulled her up. Still holding her hand, we climbed the stairs and I led her to my screen room. ''Wow...'' she gasped. ''I can't believe you have a cinema in your house!'' she exclaimed. ''Actually it's called a screen room,'' I laughed. But she was not wrong. It did look like a cinema. It was a dark room with a huge screen with about fifteen chairs arranged as if it was a cinema. ''I am never paying money to watch a movie again,'' she laughed. I laughed and said, ''Come on.'' Then I pulled her in. ''Sit anywhere you want,'' I said. Then I placed a remote in her hand and said,''You choose the movie. I'll be right back.'' ''Wait where are you going?'' she asked. ''To microwave the popcorn,'' I turned and said before walking out of the room. I entered the kitchen, opened the cabinet and picked out two bags of microwave butter popcorn. When I was done microwaving the two bags and pouring it into one bowl, I heard Sabrina shout, ''Baby?!'' ''Yes honey!'' I shouted back. ''What's your Netflix password?!''she asked. ''I'm coming!'' I replied. ''Okay! Wait is that your password or are you actually coming?!'' she asked. ''I'm coming!'' I laughed. I picked the bowl of popcorn up and headed to the screen room. When I arrived, I sat beside her, placed the bowl of popcorn on her lap and took the remote from her. ''Hot!'' she shouted. That's when it hit me that I had just placed a bowl filled with hot melting butter and hot corn on my girlfriend's lap. ''I'm sorry,'' I said and quickly picked the bowl off her lap. ''Gotcha,'' she laughed. ''What?'' I laughed. Then she held my hand and then the electric feeling came again but it lasted for a few seconds and then she dipped my hand into the pool of popcorn and said, ''It's not really hot . see?'' As soon as she said that, I lifted my hand from the bowl and that sent popcorn flying everywhere even on Sabrina. I burst into laughter but she just looked at me horrified with her mouth open. When I saw the expression on her face, I immediately stopped laughing and tried to flick popcorn off her clothes. But before my hand could even touch her, she grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it at me. ''This means war,'' I joked and then we started laughing, throwing popcorn at each other and dodging. When all the popcorn in the bowl was done, Sabrina looked around and said, ''look at this mess.'' ''Don't worry I'll take care of it,'' I said. ''You sure?'' she asked uncertain. ''Yess...now can you please pick a movie already?'' I asked eagerly. ''I don't know.....I mean I don't feel comfortable sitting in this mess,'' she replied shaking her shoulders in disgust. ''Oh....so you're a neat freak,'' I teased. ''I am so not a neat freak,'' she defended. ''I'm just uncomfortable in dirty environments,'' she added. ''That's exactly what a neat freak would say,'' I laughed. ''Shut up....stuck-up,'' she said trying to get even. ''hey, hey, hey........I thought that was behind us,'' I said. ''It is. I just....'' she trailed off. ''Wanted to find a way to get back at me?'' I interrupted raising an eyebrow and then I laughed. ''Shut up,'' she said nudging me with her elbow as I continued laughing. ''Alright let's get to work then,'' I said seriously. ''Wait you want us to clean this mess together? Right now?'' she asked shocked. ''Uh...yeah isn't that what you wanted?'' I asked unsure. ''Well yeah...but I didn't think you'd do it. Honestly I didn't even know you knew how to use a broom. I thought that once I was gone, you were going to call a maid to clean it up or something,'' she explained. ''What?'' I laughed. ''Okay first of, I am hurt that you think that I don't know how to use a broom,'' I said dramatically touching my chest. ''And secondly, I live alone and I always have ever since I moved out of my parents place. I have never ever hired a maid before. I don't even know how that feels like,'' I added. ''So you're telling me, that you are a rich, busy, successful man with no maid?'' she asked surprised. ''Yeah I'm awesome, I know,'' I replied raising the collar of my polo shirt up. Sabrina just rolled her eyes and said, ''Just go get the tools,'' while trying hard not to smile but she couldn't help it. I rushed out of the screen room and into the tools room where I grabbed two brooms and two dust collectors. As I was walking back, I saw my dock speaker system on a table in the hallway leading to the screen room. I grabbed it too and went back to the screen room. ''Alright, I've got brooms, dust pans and a speaker,'' I said raising the items one by one as I listed them. ''What are we going to use a speaker for?'' she asked confused. ''Don't tell me you don't listen to music when you're working?'' I asked pretending to be shocked. ''Of course I do. Give me that,'' she replied smiling as she took the dock speaker fromme and placed it on one of the chairs. Then she inserted her phone into the speaker and music started playing. She grabbed one of the brooms from my hands together with a dust pan and began to sweep while she hummed to the tune of the song playing. ''What is this?'' I asked covering my ears. ''Ow come on. Who doesn't like Whitney Huston?'' she asked. ''I don't,'' I said as I removed her phone and placed mine there. Freaky Friday begun to play and I nodded my head to the beat and sang along. ''I woke up in Chris Brown's body,'' I sang but before I could move to the next line, Sabrina paused the music and removed my phone from the speaker. ''Hey....'' I whined. ''We need a compromise,'' she stated. ''I agree,'' I said. ''Hey what about someone like you?'' she asked scrolling through the list of songs on her phone. ''No....it's too sad and cheesy,'' I complained as I also scrolled through the songs on my playlist. ''Ooh what about get ugly?'' I asked eagerly. ''Ew no,'' she replied in disgust. ''Okay how about, ''dance with me tonight by Olly Murs?'' I asked. ''I've never heard that one before,'' she replied. ''You'll love it. Come on,'' I said as I held her hand and led her to the front of the screen room. The song started and I started dancing ridiculously. She just stared at me and laughed, ''You are a terrible dancer.'' ''Well if you can do better, why don't you prove it?'' I asked still goofing of. So she joined me and we danced and laughed together. Sabrina is actually a very good dancer and I wasn't but I didn't care. Sabrina and I were having a blast and that's all that mattered to me. When the song was over, Sabrina and I each collapsed in the closest chair we could find in exhaustion. ''We still need to clean this place up you know?'' she asked getting up and getting to work. ''Yeah...I know, ''I trailed off and got up to join her. I played ''dance with me tonight'' again and we both sang and danced along as we worked. By the time the song had ended, we had swept and gathered every bit of popcorn in the room. After that song, perfect by Ed Sheeran began to play. I dropped the broom I was holding and walked closer to Sabrina. Standing face to face, I took her hand and we started slow dancing together. It was an amazing moment that I would never forget. We didn't talk but just by dancing and looking into each other's eyes the entire time was enough to make that moment an unforgettable one. It was after the song ended that Sabrina and I realized that it was getting late and she had to go home. ''Please let me drive you. It's really late and it's dangerous out there,'' I pleaded. ''Okay fine,'' she gave in. ''Alright come on,'' I said as I led her to the underground car park of my house. ''Where are we....?'' she asked but stopped and opened her mouth when she saw the fleet of cars in front of her. ''Woah!'' she exclaimed in amazement. ''Come on,'' I smiled and led her to my limited edition Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. I didn't open the door for her because I knew she'd kill me if I did so I just hopped in and drove off. When we arrived at Sabrina's grandma's house, I said, ''I really had fun tonight.'' ''Yeah me too,'' she smiled. ''Even though we didn't get to watch the movie,'' she added laughing and I joined in the laughter. ''Good night handsome,'' she said still smiling. ''Good night beautiful,'' I said and gave her a peck on her cheek before I drove off.

The next day when I arrived at work, Regina called me to her office. ''Robert, I hope you are ready for tomorrow,'' she said. ''Yes I am,'' I said happily. ''Good. See you then,'' she said. When I left her office, Linda approached me and said, ''Sir, today is Friday. You told me to remind you about the awards ceremony tomorrow.'' ''Don't worry Linda, I remember,'' I said and walked towards my office. ''Oh and you have an interview with first point radio on Monday sir,'' she continued. ''Ah yes what time is it?'' I asked. ''It's at 10:00am sir,'' she replied. ''So does Regina know that I'll be reporting to work late on Monday?'' I asked. ''Uh...no sir,'' she replied clueless. ''Well you should probably go tell her,'' I laughed. ''Oh right. Right away sir,'' she said and rushed out of my office. I just shook my head, sat behind my desk and begun the day's work. After work, when I got home, I realized that I didn't know what I was going to wear for the awards ceremony. I went into the suits section of my walk-in closet but I couldn't decide on what suit to wear. Just then, Sabrina called. ''Hey baby,'' she said. ''Hi honey,'' I replied. ''What's wrong?'' she asked worried. ''Nothing it's just....I don't know what I'm going to wear tomorrow,'' I replied. ''Well maybe I can help,'' she said. ''Yeah but it would have been better if you were here to see the clothes,'' I said. ''Who said I'm not?'' she asked. ''What?'' I asked confused. Just then, someone rang the bell. With the phone still on my ear, I opened the door only to see Sabrina standing in front of me and then I opened my mouth in shock. ''Surprise!!!''she shouted. In excitement, I just picked her up and hugged her as tight as I could. ''What? How? When?...'' I trailed off still in shock. She just laughed, held my hand and said, ''Stop asking questions and let's go see what you've got for tomorrow.'' So I led her to my walk in closet and showed her the suits I had picked out. She picked the first one up and said, ''This one will really make your eyes pop,'' and then dropped it and picked another one and said, ''but this one really goes with your colour.'' ''You know what? Why don't you try' em all?'' she asked excited. ''What? So in other words, you want me to model for you?'' I asked amused. ''Don't think of it as modelling, think of it as me helping you while entertaining myself,'' she said as she pushed me into the dressing room in the walk-in closet. ''Yeah because that sounds sooo much better,'' I said sarcastically. ''Will you just try on the suits? I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this more than I will,'' she stated. ''Fine,'' I surrendered. So one by one, I tried on all the suits from my suit collection. Sabrina was not wrong. I actually had fun modelling with her commenting. It was like the male version of America's next top model but this time, Tyra Banks was replaced with a less vicious woman who happened to be my girlfriend. After the modelling show was over, we finally decided on a navy blue tuxedo. Sabrina had a really good sense of fashion. ''So what are you wearing?'' I asked. ''It's a surprise,'' she said smiling. ''Okay,'' I laughed. ''I have to go now. I'm meeting up with Ashley in a few minutes,'' she said. At the mention of Ashley's name, I flinched. ''What's wrong?'' Sabrina laughed. ''Oh nothing,'' I replied. Honestly, I did not know why I flinched when I heard Ashley's name. I know she had a thing for me when Serena and Ryan were getting married but I was never interested. I just danced with her it's no big deal. So then why was I feeling so uneasy and nervous. ''You are not only a bad dancer, you are also a terrible liar,'' she stated. ''Was something going on between you and Ashley that I need to know about?'' she asked curious. ''No!'' I exclaimed. ''Nothing at all and I am not lying,'' I defended. ''If you say so,'' she said. ''See you tomorrow,'' she added while hanging her bag over shoulder and giving me a peck on my cheek. ''I'll pick you up at six,'' I said. ''Alright. Bye,'' she said and then left. As soon as she shut the door, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket and realized it was a text. It read, ''Let's meet up and pick off where we started at the wedding. You can't ignore the chemistry.

-Ashley.