by Mara Lynne
Goodness! I literally jump off my seat and hurry to the counter. Ray trails behind me, probably wondering what got me so excited. I can’t even explain the rush I am feeling within me. I just know that I need and have to go to the counter and see him and maybe talk to him.
But it isn’t Damien waiting for me there.
My jaw drop when I see Paul sitting on the swivel chair, wiping the rim of his beer glass with a tissue.
“What are you doing here?” I ask in a whisper, my eyes glancing on Ray who goes straight to the vending machine to take three cans of Coke for table six.
“Hello, Ms. Mohr!” he greets, smiling widely.
“I thought we have an agreement.”
He sighs, squints his eyes as if gauging my reaction, and leans over the counter.
“Just a one-time event,” I add.
“Very clever of you to instantly recognize my intentions, Ms. Mohr.”
“You wouldn’t come here for nothing, Paul.”
I don’t know what he needs from me.
“Hunter needs you again,” he says plainly.
Chapter 25: Under the Stars
“Mr. Stone will be needing your services again,” his words keep replaying in my mind. I feel light-headedness creeping through the holes in my skull. I wish I hadn’t left the utility room. “He’s going to a family reunion this weekend, and his family and friends are expecting to see you.”
It’s Angel Grant they want to see, not me, I thought.
Paul can always find a better actress than me. Look for someone who looks like me, and pay her more than how much I got. My business with Hunter Stone was long finished, and I promised to never do something like that again.
I turned down Paul’s offer and told him he can find Angel Grant elsewhere. He just has to open his eyes and be observant. Some girl out there might be the perfect actress he’s looking for. I just can’t do it again. Once is enough.
Besides, I got my pay. That was what I needed, and I am not greedy enough to take more than I need.
As usual, Paul, with his typical business-minded nature, gave me an irresistible counter offer but there’s no way I’d accept it.
My legs stop when my gaze falls upon the space just outside our wooden gate. Damien is there, leaning against the backside of his car, his eyes focused on the ground, shaking like he is in some dilemma. For a moment, I thought of running back to the bus stop and returning to Max’s.
What is he doing outside my house?
I hear my inner voice screaming inside my head, its intensity getting painstakingly stronger the more I try to make myself believe that his presence is merely a product of my surprised state of mind.
My cheeks glow red when he finally feels my presence, his gaze fixed on me. He straightens himself up, slips both his hands into his pockets after brushing his hair to his back. I can see hesitation surfacing from the look on his face. His only way to overpower it is to bite his lower lip.
Slowly, he walks toward me. I feel my legs glued to the ground, numb, cold and shaking.
“Won’t you mind if I ask a little of your time?” he asks. He’s only a meter away from me. “I promise it won’t take long.”
I nod stiffly.
“I have good news for you. I feel that it is best you hear it straight from me. Hayne’s been sacked.”
And I know it’s his doing.
He continues, “Terminated for obvious reasons, but I promise you won’t be dragged into this. I made sure nobody gets to know the real story. The administrators decided to let us march next week. They should, or they would have to put up with me for another year.” He lets out a small laugh that eventually dies after he sees me glaring at him.
I couldn’t help but marvel at how he can turn events so easily.
“I’m sorry for what had happened. Haynes deserves more than termination, but he’s old, and he has no family. I could have sent him to jail, but the school interfered. They fear for our school’s reputation so they just let Haynes off the hook. I’m really sorry, Angel.” He sighs. His eyes look so sincere. “And I have to tell you that it wasn’t me.”
“I know.” My mouth quickly opens without even knowing what I am supposed to say. “I mean…” I stammer as my face flushes, “I know you will never do such a thing to me.”
“Listen, I know who did it, and I swear he got what he deserved.”
“Who told Haynes, Damien?”
He shakes his head.
“Mike.”
So it’s clear. The rumors are true about Damien calling off his friendship with Mike.
“I did not expect he’d tell Haynes about us, about that thing.”
“You told Mike?”
“I was an idiot. I’m sorry.”
Deep inside me, I have already forgiven him. I have forgiven him the moment I heard the truth from Ray. It is a little upsetting to realize that doubt still clouds my opinion of him, that every time misfortune comes, it is him I easily blame… that I used to be so foolish to get easily swayed by my hasty judgment.
“You didn’t have to call your friendship,” I say, taking my eyes away from him. I feel my cheeks growing ablaze as the glimmer in his eyes screams more than forgiveness. I don’t think it is necessary to put more weight on me than a friend who’s been with him since childhood.
The edge of his mouth forms a slight curve, his head shaking as though in complete disagreement.
“I appreciate what you did, and I must admit that you made me feel so unbelievably important after you did all you can to terminate Haynes and to even punch Mike in the face. I just don’t think I’m worth the effort, though, Damien.” The butterflies in my stomach have gone berserk and the growing warmth on my cheeks is giving me all the reasons to just run straight into the house and find something to douse the fire. And yet, my legs are glued on the ground, immobilized by Damien’s mere presence. If I were the Angel Mohr who used to completely hate Damien Etheridge today, I would have probably hit him square on the face out of contempt. “I mean, Mike’s your friend.”
“I just did what was right.”
“And I thank you for that, but Damien—”
“Why is it that everything I do for you is always wrong in your eyes? When will I hear something nice from you, Angel?”
What he just said sends bullets through my heart. I literally feel my saliva trapped my throat, blocking my airway.
“Damien..”
He steps a foot away from me, his head down.
“Maybe what I’m doing isn’t enough... or maybe too much that you don’t see the truth behind it anymore.”
“I…”
He grins, a mixture of disappointment and pretense.
“What am I doing?” Damien looks like a man who’s never won a battle his entire life, his face a picture of a wounded soldier who’s lost his mother’s keepsake in the middle of the field. “Maybe I just expected too much from this. Seeing you always disagree with everything I do just stings like freshly wounded flesh. Maybe I shouldn’t have expected much. You will never change your opinion about me. What got into me to even think you’d like me? You hated me! You abhor me!”
“Damien…”
He shakes his head then looks up to me, his eyes devoid of the excitement and joy I just saw earlier.
“Am I expecting too much, Angel?” he asks. “You tell me, should I stop this? Because no matter how I try to think positively about this, you always gear towards the opposite direction. You make me think twice.”
“Damien…” I look up the sky, focusing my attention on the stars that spread glow all over the sky. In all truth, I just want to conceal my tears. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“I should be the one asking you that,” he counters.
“If this is one of your antics, then forget it. I won’t fall for it. I’ve been through that.”
He grins.
“You think I’m joking?” he utters in an offended tone.
“You always do,” I answer. “
You love to play jokes on me. I am clueless as to when you’re genuine or not.”
“Angel…” He steps forward, his arm about to grasp mine, but I quickly step back.
He goes on, his voice with a tinge of frustration. “I’ve always been true to what I feel for you. I know I’ve been a jerk in the beginning, but I only did that because I like you so much. I like how you blush every time you see me. I even love the way you insinuate fights with me. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s just like waking up one morning wanting to see you and knowing that not doing so would make me incomplete. It was when I realized what it was… I like you. What else do I have to do for you to believe me, Angel?”
I feel my entire body shaking, and tears fall unknowingly. His words pulled the trigger, and it hurt so much.
Why does it hurt? Is it because I know that what he says is true and that I’m guilty of not believing him?
“It’s not about sex. I’m not after that,” he adds. “You’re not the type of girl who’d I’d just play around for fun. You’re the serious one. It’s you I need in a real relationship.”
My airway starts to open up and release all the trapped air inside.
“I really have to say this, or this might kill me in my bed tonight,” he says.
In all honesty, I can only see genuineness in his eyes. Am I being misled by my surging emotions into believing him? A huge part of me is screaming to believe every word he says, and I don’t know why. Usually, I find that little voice that keeps me firmly glued to my indifferent opinion about him. Unfortunately, it isn’t the case now. That little voice of sanity seems to have drowned in everything about him.
With the way he steps closer to me, his fingers gently touching the side of my cheeks, the uncanny warmth spreading all over my face, and the strong pounding inside my chest, I think I know where this is heading.
“I like you not the way a friend sees a friend, not the way an older brother cares for his sister, and most definitely not the way you think it is.” His touch slides down to the back of my neck. “I am not used to doing this because I’ve never been serious with girls all my life. You’re the first to make me feel like this.” His voice tones down following the cold breeze brushing the sycamore leaves off its branches. The cold can’t disturb my already freezing extremities, though. I am literally petrified by his warm touch.
“Quite shocking, right?”
He pulls me close to him. I lose all the power to shut myself away from him. I like the warmth his skin brings to me. The brush of his voice near my ear makes me shiver from unknown feelings. Both his hands land on the back of my neck, cupping it as if he can break me anytime. He tilts my head up so he can clearly see my puffed up and reddened face.
“You’ve got a lot of my firsts too, Angel,” he whispers as he leans his forehead against mine, and his thumbs sweep the tears off my cheeks.
“Damien, I don’t know anything about being with a man.” I hear my voice cracking. With my eyes closed, I can only hear him breathing with his lips so near to me.
“I don’t know how I should feel about this. I don’t know—”
My speech is broken by the sudden and thrilling sensation of his lips on my warm skin. He gently brushes his lips to my cheeks until I am out of words. His slow kisses cause my heart to skip a beat. I couldn’t keep up with the surge of battling emotions within me.
“One word from you will silence me, Angel. Just one word.”
“I don’t know, Damien…”
“Do you want me, Angel?”
His lips finally reach the edge of my mouth. Wanting so much to have his lips on mine, I feel so brazen for wanting something too big. I don’t want him to think that I am expecting it.
“One word, Angel. One word.”
I can hear my heart shouting the answer. My mind, too, sing it in both my ears. The tip of my tongue is already raring to slip it out, but I wonder what’s keeping me from saying it.
Damien closes his lips to my mouth until I find myself drowning in the ecstasy that is Damien Etheridge. His kiss is slow, gentle, and unassuming. It’s like the soft music of a guitar being played on a windy afternoon, like the serene waters flowing in a stream, like everything I feel inside me.
It isn’t until he stops and I feel like wanting more when I know I have to say it.
My eyes are fixed on him.
“So, what now?” he asks.
“Okay,” I finally answer. My thumb traces the outline of his lips when I find myself smiling. “I lose, Damien. You win.”
He smirks as his face goes pink.
“I can’t stop it anymore, and I blame you.”
“That’s more than one word, Angel.”
I just know that it’s the start of things with the Damien Etheridge, and the stars above us were the witnesses of that beginning.
Chapter 26: I Love You
Two nights after Damien and I became official, my boyfriend pays my family a visit, asking my dad to allow me to go with him on our first official date. My parents got no idea that the man standing on our porch is my boyfriend. Fortunately, he didn’t come with flowers or chocolates, or I would have run to my room and soak myself in my bubble bath until he leaves realizing that all this is new to me. I wouldn’t want that no matter how much I dreamed of receiving flowers from my first ever boyfriend. I knew I should have told my parents right away, but I was too scared. They knew who Damien is. They knew what Damien’s family can do, and I know it won’t be easy for them to adapt to this change because all their lives they only have me, and to know that their daughter is finally starting to welcome new people into her life means more than just development. It could be an added stress, and stress is what I want Dad to avoid.
But surprisingly, Dad just let me go without questions. Mom too is surprisingly quiet. I notice that she keeps her smile controlled like she already knew what’s happening.
“Your parents were so quiet,” says Damien while reaching for my hand. His fingers interlace with mine, bringing them close to his lips to briefly brush. His gentle kiss makes me shiver.
“Eyes on the road, Damien!” I say blushing, quickly letting loose of his grasp. But Damien is too fast to take my hand back and tightly grip it with his again.
“You have to get used to this, babe,” he teases.
“I’m a cockroach. I adapt,” I counter, taking back my hand. “So where are you taking me?”
“Some place where I can be alone with you.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t hang out with you at school,” I say. People might take this surprise rather negatively. After the incident with Haynes, I don’t want any more mishaps before graduation.
“I understand. No troubles before graduation,” he replies with his eyes back on the road.
I honestly don’t know where we’re going, but I trust Damien. But as we pass through a short abandoned tunnel and some few familiar highlands, I immediately realize where our destination would be.
“Why am I not surprised?”
“There’s one more place I want to show you,” he says as the gates of his house slide open.
“There is one place more majestic than your library?” I couldn’t help but gasp at the thought of seeing something greater than his grand library. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that I think I could live there for years and not want to leave it for anything in this world.
He smiles.
“I know you’d love it.”
Being with Damien for the past two days wasn’t something I can call a real struggle. Perhaps it was a little awkward in my part for being a first timer. I don’t know anything about being someone’s girlfriend, so I had a lot of help from him. What I like about Damien is he doesn’t burden me with the pressure of being the perfect one. He’s not shoving to my face the things that girlfriends normally do. We act like normal people who don’t flirt that much. I don’t even think we act like couples around people. None of Ray or Damien’s friends knew about us. This set up has really made me
comfortable around him. Ideal, I must say, for a working progress like me.
Damien is not the guy I thought he was. This time, I am a hundred percent sure about what I am rambling about. This elation is not due to some scientific logic of love. This is a reality. This is my verdict of him.
Damien Etheridge is the man I have been praying to come. He’s the first that I’ve always wanted, the change in my routine, the beginning of something beautiful, the rejected who’s never lost hope in pursuing me, the crazy guy who never got tired of bullying me, the one I used to hate. All these he was, and yet I fell in love with him.
He’s entirely a different person. I can only laugh at myself now for always judging him before, and I know I am an idiot for doing that. If only I can go back, I will definitely undo the biases and prejudices I have shown him. There’s more to him I am glad to have discovered, and even his imperfections I already have learned to love. Perhaps those imperfections were the catalyst for this beautiful change. Such wonderful imperfection then!
My heart lightens every time I feel his goodness. He makes me happy. He fills my entire being with joy, and my days are always filled with expectations and dreams I have for the both of us.
I love being loved by him.
I love loving him.
“You’re not peeking, are you?” he teases with his hand covering my eyes as he leads me to an uncertain place. I feel the grass brushing the sole of my footwear. I hear the soft ripples of water meeting the wild flowers at the shore, the gentle whistling of the wind, and the birds singing.
“I am not peeking!” I say.
“Slowly, babe.” I hear him giggle. “We’re almost there.”
“I’m nervous about this, Damien.”
“Trust me on this, Angel.”
We stop, and his hands leave my eyes.
The view before me blows my mind. The nervousness turns into amazement as soon as I realize that my feet are stepping on a piece of paradise. I always knew how large Etheridge’s place is, but I never imagined they are keeping a sanctuary… a paradise.
