Perhaps it was the money
Perhaps it was the very idea that he had cared so much that he made sure that she was provided for even if he died.
Or maybe it was just the sheer realization that her father cared about her so much that he had practically sold his health and his body to give her a better life. She knew she had to honour it. She had to get the education he wanted and be someone in life. If for nothing else, for the man who had bled to death and suffered spleen rupture for her.
Perhaps this was part of the reason that she had stayed away from the opposite sex for so long. Perhaps a part of her subconscious mind knew that she had to avoid all distractions for as long as she was yet to achieve the things that she wanted to. Perhaps each time she wiggled away from compromising situations that could lead to her letting down her guard, she was really trying to make sure that there were no stumbling blocks in her path.
Now she was alone
Chapter 5
The room was quiet. Eerily quiet. Outside, there was a heavy breeze blowing and it seemed like the one of those nights when people would need a cuddle after a heavy rain.
Something was not right. The night was stormy. What could be going on to have caused this? There was a banging on one of the walls, maybe a door. She could hear it and she suddenly became afraid. She was scared that perhaps there was a person outside like the one that her cousin Lucy had threatened her with when she was a child. She looked around frantically, looking for a place to escape through but seeing none.
The wind was growing bigger and the building was starting to shake. She could see that there was going to be a disaster if she didn’t get out of there in time.
“I have to leave...I have to find a safe place to be. This house is going to collapse in no time and I cannot be here when it happens.” Amie was saying to herself over and over again. But then as she circled the room, she noticed that that door was gone and the window was too high up in the wall. She looked around over and over again, trying to find what she had missed but there was no way out. The tower started to shake violently. The room was throwing Amie around and she kept hitting her head against things.
“Oh Lord!!! What is this!!” she screamed over and over again. Then she started to scream.
“Help!!! Help!!!” she was screaming at the top of her voice but it seemed to her that the storm was drowning out her voice. Her heart was pounding and her hands were shaking. She suddenly became cold and that feeling of lonesomeness seemed to cover her up completely. Her heartbeat was at the highest and her eyes were red with the dust that had been raised by the storm. There was that banging again. It was consistent and seemed like the rapping of knuckles on a wall. It suddenly occurred to her that the guy next door would be experiencing the same thing. Was he the one knocking? Was he also trapped in the room? She listened more attentively and was able to make out the sound on her door. It had to be the guy. And there was a door somewhere in the walls.
Screaming and sweating, she woke up with a start.
She looked around wildly and discovered that she was still in her shitty room and there was no storm outside at all. The night was quiet and the breeze was blowing outside the window. She ran a shaking hand through her hair and tried as much as she could to calm herself down. She breathed through her mouth for a few seconds and then looked into the hole to check on him. The room was mostly as she had left it but he was not on the floor anymore. Neither was he on the bed. She could see that the bed was still just as she had left it. She backed out of the chair and slapped herself on the cheek.
“Damn!!! How could I have slept off! How could I have slept off knowing that anything could happen at any time? What do I do now?” she asked herself silently as she rubbed her eyes and yawned. Her mouth was still open in a yawn when the banging came again.
Her heart did a double take as she realized that the banging she had been hearing in her dream had actually been coming from her door. Who could it be that was banging on her door like that? Was it some of the guys who had wounded her neighbour? Did they find out that she tried to help him and have come to kill her? She was shaking and she tried to steady herself as much as possible. A bead of hot sweat rolled down her face and landed on her toes. She shook her head and blinked hard. Somehow, a feeling of déjà vu enveloped her and she started to feel the beginnings of a panic attack. Her mind went through the dream she had been having in the chair near the wall... what sort of stupid dream was that? She wondered. The last time she had had a dream that made her so scared was when she was but a kid. She had had a dream about someone chasing her with a long broom. She had run through the house and into the street and tried to get people to her aid but no one had bothered. It seemed to her that they couldn’t even see her. She had run all the way to her mother’s office and he’d been told that she had gone home. This meant that she had to run all the way back to the house to find her mother and stop whoever it was that was coming after her with the broom. As she ran back to the house, one minute she would see the person who the broom... the next minute they would be nowhere to be found and just when she thought that she was safe, the person would be back out and the chase would start all over again. She had woken up kicking and screaming and it had taken her mother over ten minutes to convince her that no one was going to come hit her with a broom.
As she walked towards the door, the knock came again and this time it was even louder. Her heart continued to somersault and hands shook even worse than before. The sweat sought to double up and she had to put a hand to her forehead and wipe it off.
“Who is it?” she asked with pounding pulse and hoarse voice. She coughed lightly to clear her voice and asked again.
“Who is it?”
There was no response and she panicked.
“Oh my god! Maybe they are here to kill me!’ she could feel her veins contracting from the pressure of the blood pumping through her.
She walked over to the door and looked outside through the peephole and there he was. Her heart slammed in her chest and then seemed to have stopped beating altogether. Now she really couldn’t tell which would be worse. Being killed at that moment by a bunch of bloodthirsty katana wielding murderers or to have to face him. She hesitated and looked at herself briefly in the mirror at the other side of the room before she pulled the door open with as much of a smile as she could muster at the moment.
“Hello...” She said with a face that was as innocent as she could make it.
“Hello” he said with a slight bow. She almost bowed back. But she didn't. She was freaking out in her mind.
“What does he want? What does he want me to do? Does he know that i’m the one who was in his room? Is he mad at me? Is he here to kill me? She was practically shaking from head to toe as she held onto the door frame as if her life depended on it. And perhaps it did depend on it as she tried as much as she could not to look into his eyes.
“You’re Amie.” It wasn’t a question. It was obvious that he knew her. There seemed to be more knowledge in his eyes about her than what she knew of him. How long had he known her? How much did he know of her? Was he aware that she had been peeping at him through the hole? Did he know that she had seen his lady friend from the other day? She bit her lower lip and tried not to blurt out all of the questions that were on her mind at that time.
“Were you the one that came into my apartment?” This was obviously a question but it didn’t really sound like one. It sounded more like one of those times when her mother asked her if she was the one who stole the cookie and even though she knew the answer to the question. Amie looked at her fingers, then to his face and then to something that was behind the door.
“That... “She started to say but she paused.
“That right there is a good question and the answer to it is no. I did not... come into your apartment” if she had been listening to herself, she would have recognised the lies in her voice in that moment.
“I’m sorry” She said and then instantly hung her
head in shame as she watched the amused smile that was on his face. He knew... and he was mad at her for lying. She closed her eyes briefly and silently prayed that the earth would open up and just take her away from him at that moment.
“Well... I was just about to go have some tea and I wondered if you might want to share with me seeing as we haven’t got a chance to be properly acquainted since we became neighbours. That is if you don’t mind of course” he said with the amused look on his face again. She almost yelled “no” and run back into the apartment. But she sheepishly nodded a yes instead and when he turned around, she proceeded with
“I take coffee...” She mumbled with a small smile. He nodded
“I know... coffee then?” he asked with one eyebrow raised. It was obvious to her that he was laughing at her.
“Yes...”
“Okay... Do you want to change out of that?” he nodded at her outfit of an old t shirt and a pair of bum shorts. Her hair was somewhat tousled and her face was bright pink from all the excitement in her body system. She nodded briefly and turned around and closed the door. Actually, she slammed the door because she was too jittery. She rushed through her bunch of clothes and pulled on a shirt but left her shorts on. Then she ran a brush through her hair and rushed out.
“Ready?” he asked with some sort of look that had her wanting to rush back in and check herself out in the mirror just to be sure.
“It’s too late for that now” she said to herself and shrugged mentally.
“Yes...” She said instead and he smiled broadly. Showing a beautiful sparkling white set of teeth. Her nerves were calming down now and she was starting to be less panicked. She was stealing looks at him and was doing all she could not to seem like a love struck teenager. She was silently glad that he seemed to be okay in spite of the wounds that he had sustained. It wasn’t like any of them were immediately life threatening, but if the wounds had been left untreated, they would have gotten infected and that could then become life threatening. He seemed okay... all things considered and she was silently glad. This could as well be some Hollywood movie for her. She being the secret doctor or nurse who fixed people up without them knowing. Presently, she looked at him as he turned around.
“Good... Come with me” He said. She hesitated briefly, wondering if it was too late to say no to the whole tea coffee idea. What if she said something he didn’t like? “What if she...” she shook her head again as if to shake the thoughts out of it. Then, seeing him walking down towards the descending stairs, she shrugged and then she followed him with her heart pounding in her ears. She made efforts not to step on his feet as she walked behind him. It was obvious to her that if her heart continued to pound like that, she might just faint and get it over with. Perhaps then he would have to be the one looking after her.
Chapter 6
He walked in front of her down into the street. He wasn’t in a hurry, letting his long legs just move over the floor like he owned all the time in the world. Amie could notice this because she was one to walk in a directly opposite manner. She was always in a hurry and liked to get everything done as soon as she could. She was not one to have the luxury of slowing down to savour anything. She studied hard and fast and even when all she was doing is cleaning, she liked to do it on a time frame. She didn’t like that he was walking so slowly but there was nothing much she could do. She was too shy to complain, and then to make matters worse, as they burst out into the busy evening streets, he took her hand in his. Thus, making it impossible for her to go at a different pace from him.
“So what are you doing in this town?” she asked. He shook his head and said in a voice that only she could hear.
“No talking on the road... we will talk, but not here!” she was confused. What is with this guy? No talking on the road? What was going to happen? Would the birds of the sky listen to him and tell everyone whatever he is talking about at that moment? She sighed frustrated. First he was walking like a snail and now he didn’t want to talk. She shrugged her mental shoulders and decided to just let things be.
“If I ever go out with him again, I will give him conditions.” She said to herself just as he took her around a corner and then bringing her to stand in front of him, he put both of his hands on her shoulders and walked her into the house. It was a somewhat childish gesture and she laughed lightly. They walked to a table that sat alone in a far off corner and sat at it.
“Coffee please!” he called and she looked at him and smiled. He knew what she took...
“So tell me about you. Why do I get the feeling that you are hiding from something?” she asked him with a serious look on her face.
“Maybe because I am.” He answered with a mischievous smile. She smiled and nodded as if she understood. She wasn’t going to be one of those Hollywood girls who would freak out.
“What are you hiding from?” she asked with an air of secrecy. Again, he laughed a little bit. The way she looked at him as she leaned towards him with her face animated with the joy of being told a secret just made him want to laugh hard.
“Well... let me see...” he started and her face could not have betrayed her more. She was excited to hear a secret. His secret. She leaned towards him with anticipation written all over her face and nodded when he paused
“Go on... don’t be afraid!” she cooed and he giggled.
“In my hometown far away in Asia...”
“... Yes?” she nodded again like the little gossip girl that she was.
“There is this king...”
“...okay” she said again. She could not help it, she was cutting into his sentences.
“Well, he hates me and wants me dead...” she nodded again. It made perfect sense to her and he pulled on his most serious face and said to her.
“Now the king has a giant monster mushroom that he sends to people to deal with them whenever he doesn't like them. The giant monster mushroom is coming after me now” she frowned. What sort of a story was this? This was not some sort of fairy tale, this was reality. How did a giant mushroom fit into the picture? She looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
“Oh... giant monster mushroom is the name of a man?” he shook his head with amusement on his face.
“Nope... it is the name of a mushroom. You know... an actual mushroom!” she was starting to get frustrated as it suddenly started to occur to her that he had been pulling her legs all the while. There was no king and definitely no mushroom. She could have cried with the anger of her frustration at that moment.
“Are you kidding me right now? You have been telling me a fable all this while?” he couldn’t hold back anymore, he burst into a fit of laughter and he must have popped one of his stitches because he groaned painfully and she soon saw a darkening under his black shirt.
“Shit! You popped your stitches?” she asked. She was instantly back to her caring mode but then she had just given herself away as the person who actually went into his room and stitched him up.
“How did you know that I have stitches if you didn’t put it there?” he asked with a slight frown. Her heart slammed in her chest as she realized that she had made a booboo and could not lie about her involvement in his stitches anymore.
“Oh crap! Now he will never trust me again!” she said to herself. She was feeling quite sad about the whole affair and could have run away if the door wasn’t so far away. She dropped her head in shame and he stretched his hand and touched hers.
“Hey... I'm not mad... I think what you did for me was heroic. You saved my life...
“Well... your wounds were not really life threatening.” She said and he shook his head with a small smile.
“You know very well how wrong that statement is. You disinfected my wounds with alcohol and sugar and stitched me up. If you didn’t do that, I would most likely have gotten infected and then what?”
She nodded in a small way and looked away from him. She didn’t know why but a wave of grief suddenly washed over her as she remembered the father she l
ost and how she wished that he was still in her life. He must have sensed her grief because his hand covered hers completely and his thumb caressed her.
“Hey... It is okay... but today is not the day to grief. Today is a coffee and tea drinking day. She smiled at his joke. He was right. It was hardly the time to be sad and tearful. Indeed, it was a day to drink coffee and talk to a tall handsome Asian stranger who had come home earlier that day with life threatening wounds. Life was so full of such ironies. Before she could say anything in answer to the things that he had said, the waitress appeared with their orders.
“Hey I didn’t order muffins!” she said with a slight frown when she was served.
“I always order some muffins with my tea, so she figured you might want some with your coffee too.”
“Oh...” was her response as she picked up the muffins and dug into it with relish.
“Hmmmm... it is delicious... so good!” she exclaimed with a mouthful of muffins and crumbs sitting all around her mouth. He was looking at her mouth with a long look on his face and she actually leaned back from him a little.
“Hey... what you staring at me like that for?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know... you eat like a child.” He said simply as he raised his tea to his mouth gently. She had managed to finish her muffins and was looking longingly at the round muff that sat in his tray.
“Don’t even think about it! I’ll kick you so hard you will need an oxygen tank to get back the air I knocked out of you.” He said and she flinched slightly.
Hidden: A Dark Mafia Romance (Forbidden Kiss Book 1) Page 5
