Lovers of Freedom

Chapter 9 Barry

A letter arrived to my house. The day of my birthday. It's from Niko.

You're invited to our wedding. We hope you come!

Dearly, Nikolaus and Ebba.

Están invitados a la boda de Nikolaus Kätsea y Shapel Lëpos

Day:October 10th

Time: 6:00-8:00 pm

Place : Church of St. Mary, Helsingbor.

Behind the letter an inscription written by Niko.

Dear Annie, Happy birthday. Thank you for pushing me to get married. I wish you luck in your new relationship. Please, do come with Tom.

Att: Nikolaus

The letter also has 2 plane tickets with our names. I smiled and I put the things on the kitchen counter. Maybe it was a crazy thing. My presence there could cause unnecessary drama but...I had grown close to Nikolaus and I wanted to see him getting married. I know its crazy. I was shagging him for almost two months but he had actually helped me out to figure out a lot of things about my own sexuality. Also, the sex had been great with him. I perhaps owed him that.

There are people to have in life that goes beyond romantic infatuation and they make an impact in your soul. Nikolaus was one of those people. You might say: but you knew he was going to get married and you still did it. What kind of person does that!?

I felt no guilt. From the start I think the honest parameters between us had been clear. I mean there was that moment where he wanted me to stay in Sweden but...forget about that. We know that wasn't going to happen.

Tom arrives to my house and he is carrying a massive cake that looked more like a prop made out of cardboard. I approached the box and it opened: April and Alejandra come out and start singing happy birthday. I was officially 22. Today was 28th of September, and I was laughing out of my mind. All my friends came to the party and I was sincerely happy.

Dating Tom was going great, and it was until Tom and I had sex that everything changed.

Yes I know. I should reveal more details about our sexual moment after waiting for so many months but it was normal. It was a very normal sex. I mean he was good, and I had an orgasm but...there was something ...he seemed very worried and unfocused while we did it. We finished and I looked at him.

"Are you okay?" I said.Tom was very serious by my side, I couldn't read his expression.

"I'm sorry...yes...I am fine." said Tom, I took his hand but he pulled it away. "Sorry Annie...I have to go."He stood up and left.

I was left confused and a bit angry. What the hell!? It was our first time having sex together and...I didn't know why he was behaving like this! For the next few days I just texted him and he didn't text me back.

Was this a red flag? I was very new at dating honestly. I had my flings and I had dated David but...it didn't have such an emotional level as me dating Tom. It was October and Tom was not appearing still. My phone calls were being ignored and I guess that was it. Maybe it wasn't going to work out. I called Matt, asked him about his brother but he also didn't have an idea where he was. I knew he was alive because Peter told me they had hung out but...what the fuck!

I was alone at home. Two days later and an unexpected visit arrived. Of all people, I didn't expect Barry to come visit me. He came alone. I had some laundry drying and I knew it had an hour minutes left.

"Hey...Annie." said Barry. I let him in. "I wanted to ask you! Did you fucking know!?" he pushed me a little.

"What the fuck Barry!" I held my shoulder. "Know what!?"