4. TRUTH CAN'T BE HIDDEN

PRESENT DAY

‘Physically shot, emotionally hit

Ready, aim, you get the party lit

I'm shaken to the core, my defenses are shit

Under siege, I'm marching to your beat

You're staring at me, so damn piercing Got under my skin like a tattoo

Let's keep going 'til hell's freezin'

To get to heaven just take these two’

   Maybe, it is a bad idea to listen to her favorite songs after all. Whether it is her vivid imagination or it is fate’s play, every lyric started to mean, especially, they are pointing out her situation. She switched off her speakers and removed her sweater. The top beneath was displaced when she did that and a part of her cleavage is displayed where the tattoo lay. It is a Korean word that contains, don’t know how many letters. The first letter is, 에which sounds ai, the next letter is so vague, as she got a wound there due to the accident. Everyone believed that the word is Ayla.

    As far as she remembered, her mother would kill her if she has a tattoo near her heart, she never knows, why she has a tattoo of her name in a completely unknown language. Blake convinced her many times that it is nothing but the word Ayla itself. But, when she touches the skin there, when she caresses her finger across it, she feels odd, like it is something else she doesn’t know but she needs to know. This time, her tattoo reminded her of Jayden, his fair skin turning into a pink bruise when the coffee was spilled. Even the thought itself made her cringe immersing her in an ocean of guilt.

    Her phone rang and she knew that it is Blake without even looking at it.

    “Efendim.” She says while keeping her phone between her ear and neck, with her two hands applying the hand cream.

    “What are you doing?” Blake asks on the other side of the phone cheerfully. “Let me guess.” He says before she answers, “You are looking at your tattoo in the mirror and thinking of your forgotten past, and if I know you well, you held your phone between your ear and neck and doing something. Aren’t you?”

    It’s not that Blake is smart. He knows Ayla well. “You are right. But I am not thinking of my forgotten past.”

    “Then what it is?”

    After listening to everything that happened to her, Blake burst into laughter.

   "What? You are saying that you lost your job?" He exclaimed on the other end of the line.    

    "Nope. I said I did something that can cost my job." She corrected.    

     She heard him laughing loudly again. Definitely, he is recreating the scene that happened at the cafeteria in his own vision. She cursed him under her breath before she hung up the phone. It is 2:00 AM and everything that happened yesterday deprived Ayla of her sleep. Her heart is not at all at ease. It has been drumming since she met him. That shouldn't have happened like that, she thought. That shouldn't have happened at all. She would rather not meet him than spill hot coffee on him.

   Will you die if you don't have a cup of coffee Ayla?

     She mentally slapped herself. She stomped from her bedroom to the living room, the living room to the kitchen, and then to the balcony. Her apartment is small when compared to Quinn's, but large enough for her. She could say she has a decent living as long as she has a job. Her phone rang again.    

    "Breathe, sweetheart. He can't fire you for spoiling one of his branded shirts." Blake is right. He can't fire her for that. Even the idea of buying a new shirt popped into her mind along with an ointment. It would take away almost half of her salary. She inhaled deeply thinking of the house rent and other bills.                      

    "Are you there?"      

    "Yep."      

    "Easy, girl. Everything's going to be alright. You will be fine. Even if something happens, we are there for you, Quinn, Daisy, and me. You know that right?"      

     "Yep.”

    "Good girl. Go to sleep."

     “How can I? The first impression lasts. And I screwed it, Blake.”

    “Wait. What do you mean by the first impression? On whom did you spill that coffee?”

    “On my new boss’s shirt.”

   Ayla heard him muffling his laugh. She scoffed at his reaction. “This is my life, Blake. Do you know who my new boss is? It is Jayden Knight. He is the one who bought our old firm. Now, the entire building is owned by him. He works upstairs.”

   He felt like someone cut off his oxygen as soon as he heard his name. He knows that she looks at Jayden like a role model, an inspiration, and an idol. But he never thought they would cross their paths ever again after what has happened. They did, now and he is still in the middle of swallowing this truth that is tightening around his neck.

     “Do you mean your demigod you always blabber about?” He tried to sound so casual like nothing she said had affected him. Deep inside, he prayed it isn’t true.

     “Yes.” She said and he is taking deep breaths with his mouth to suck more air.

     This time, he fails to soothe her and left the call in the middle.

    Ayla lay still on the bed looking at the ceiling. This is not about the job. It is about the impression she had made before him. As Blake said, he can't fire her for that. But, the question, what would he think of her erupted. She still has no idea why does it matter so much to her.

   Blake and Quinn misunderstand her admiration for him. They don't get it when she says she feels strangely connected to that ‘unknown’ Jayden. No one understands. They call this insane. Jayden is not even aware of her existence when she thinks of him from time to time. Even though she sounds like a stupid teenage fan girl, she can't help it.      

                              *                                                 

     "She met him." Blake mused after a long silence he kept between Daisy and him.     

      Daisy is not surprised. She knew that this would happen. And it did.      

     "Maybe I should tell her the truth." He said in a spiritless tone.    

      He saw her lips form the correct words," It's too late. It has to happen one day. And it did. I saw this coming.”

      “How?” He asked her. “It is the least probability.”

       “I don’t know about the probability of their meeting, Blake. It is the truth, I am talking about. It can’t be kept hidden for a long time. You hid that from her. You lied to her. It is coming back crashing your lives.”

       He knows that Daisy didn’t accuse him of anything but merely spit the truth.

      They both have to eventually cross their paths and the consequences will be merely her pain. Ayla doesn't deserve that. ‘If there is anyone to suffer, it's me,’ Blake thought to himself.       

He still remembers her F******k profile, a 17 years Turkish redhead with grey eyes, fair skin, and wide lips with a charming smile. That's what he thought of her. She is the most optimistic, broad-minded, and understanding person Blake has ever met. She is mature beyond her age yet innocent and clumsy. She is a simple girl who had big dreams. And in every large house she was going to build, every car she was going to buy, every place she was going to visit, her mom was with her. Due to her mother's ill health, she was forced to stay with her father to complete high school, the father she never met till then.

       On the first day of school, she ran into Mr.Davies, the math teacher, and fell on the floor with a thud. While all the other forks laughed at her, Blake stood silent in the crowd planning her next humiliation.

      Back then, Jayden stood for her. He gave her the love she deserved, he became her home. He protected her from her father, her stepbrother, and from Blake. Now it's his turn to protect her from Jayden. Blake saw the inescapable fight coming after seven years of Ayla’s accident.