BENEATH ALL THE LIES

Ambush

As I was sitting in the taxi that was taking me back home, I took time to think about what I was going to do. First and for all would be to get my stuff from that house because I didn't think I would want to set foot again in that house. And I still had to think about the restaurant. For now maybe I could let Joe, the head chef to take over. He had been working at the restaurant for almost a decade.

As we were nearing the house, I could see another car parked on the driveway. When the taxi stopped, I paid the fee and got out. That was when I saw Andrew. He was standing next to his car, looking down and using his shoes to playfully kicked the grovel on the driveway.

"Have you been here long?" I asked as I walked toward him.

Hearing my voice, he looked up and smiled at me, "not really. I just got here 5 minutes ago."

I opened the door to the house and beckoned him in.

"Do you want anything to drink?" I offered.

"No, it's okay."

"So why are you here, Andrew?" I asked him right to the point.

"Because I wanna be with you, I wanna make sure you're safe. I know it's a hard time for you right now. And I just wanna help you."

"You don't have to skip work to do that. I could have done it myself. I just have to pick up some stuff."

"Then let me help you." I just nodded as my reply.

Being with Andrew was very confusing. He told me he loved me and cared for me but I couldn't forget how he actually used me to get to Zasha. Even though he denied it. I knew his intention wasn't bad but I didn't know if trusting him wouldn't break my heart.

Andrew helped me packed my stuff from my room, my clothes, my books, and some photo albums. We put them all in several boxes then he helped me carry them all to the car. But when he was gonna put the boxes in his car, I stopped him.

"We can just put them in my car because I was thinking of taking the car back to the city with me," I told him.

"No, you're coming back with me. If you want the car, I can arrange someone to take it to you. All you know is that tomorrow, it'll be parked right outside your door." He then proceeded to load the boxes into his car.

We were left with packing up the stuff in the kitchen,I put all the eating utensils in a box. But then I was startled by sound of some metal object falling and Andrew's cursing.

"Fuck!"

"What happened?" I asked Andrew but then I saw blood near her foot and a knife not to far away.

"I accidentally dropped the knife from my hand and it fell on my toe," he said while trying clean the blood off of his toe.

"Come, let me help you apply medicine on it."

I then took the first aid kit box to the living room where Andrew was sitting. I poured some alcohol on the cotton and cleaned up the blood from his toe. It was quite a deep cut and the blood kept oozing out. I then poured povidone iodine on a cotton and applied it on the wound.

"You better stay here for time being. You helped me enough. Should I get you pain killer for the pain?" I asked him.

"No, I don't need pain killer, this is nothing, just a small wound. I'll help you," he said while getting up from the couch.

I stopped him by holding his hand, "no, I'm almost done, you stay here."

I went back to the kitchen and finished putting the rest of the utensils in the box and stored it away. I grabbed my phone and dialled the restaurant and informed Joe that I was coming and that I needed to talk to him. When I went back to the living room, I found Andrew was already sleeping on the couch. His arms were folded to cover his eyes. I took a seat on the couch and put his legs on my lap. I checked his wound and the bleeding had finally stopped. I removed the cotton and put band aid on it. When I was done, I threw a glance at the sleeping Andrew and found that he was already awake and looking at me. I  put his legs off my lap and got up but I didn't get too far before he pulled on my hand, stopped me in my track.