"You okay?"I faked a smile at Thea and nodded, my heart still running at a thunderous speed. "Yeah. Would you like some toast?"She looked at me quizzically first because we'd just eaten but a smile spread along her face. I just needed an excuse to collect myself."Of course. Make that two for me." She yelled after me.I picked up pieces of bread, buttered them up and put them in the toaster while I looked at the message again.The sender had no name, nothing.I tried calling the number but the number didn't exist.I racked my brain to figure out who could've sent me the message but absolutely no one came to mind.I figured it was a mistake and deleted the message. I picked up the toast and carried on with my activities.Thea hadn't suspected a thing and for that I was relieved. I didn't want her to be worried for absolutely no reason. "The year is ending, isn't it?"We looked up at the sky from our balcony, wrapped up in blankets."Yeah." I agreed with her. The year had started ex
The drive back home was silent. Way too silent for my liking.I hadn’t expected him to say it back but I hadn’t expected him to lock up. His jaw tensed as his knuckles turned white, tightening on the steering wheel.“Kol?” He didn’t answer as I followed him inside his house. From the time of the retreat, I realised he had two places. One as a work base and the other his primary home.“Kol?” I called again. Had I somehow pissed him or said something wrong?He stopped in his tracks and whirled around to face me. I stepped back a beat at the sudden motion.“Are you okay?” I was worried about his silence. His smile turned sad as he approached me.He placed both his hands on my face and pulled me closer to his.“No…”“No, I’m not.”“You beat me to it.” He placed a soft kiss on my lips.“What?” I asked, confused.He picked me up and placed me on his kitchen aisle. “You are one of the smartest people I know, the kindest."“You are beautiful, in and out. Your smile lights up my day and I fe
I looked around the kitchen for what I could make for breakfast. It was a new year and I was feeling brand new as well so I opted for bacon, eggs and a hash brown skillet. I tried to be as quiet as possible as I moved around.I was about to move the skillet from the stove when I felt hands over my stomach. I screamed“That’s different from last night.” I turned around and smacked his chest. He was referring to my screams and I didn’t have to know that.“You’re such a jerk.” I placed the skillet on a platform and dropped the gloves“But I love your screams… I know they’re for me.” His eyes roamed over my body and lowered to my bare legs. I was wearing one of his shirts with nothing else underneath and it was extremely large on me.“Oh My God… just eat.” My face flushed as I could tell what thoughts were spawning in his head. I could barely walk and I didn’t think I could handle him again this morning.“What did Thea say last night? When we were about to leave…” I offered Kol water as he
I took my clothes from the laundry and folded them absent-mindedly. I was going back to work in a few hours. I should’ve been asleep but my mind had been occupied throughout the new year break. I had also avoided the subject after I had spoken with Kol.I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried that both message and flowers were linked but he had been getting them before I got the message.I’d also been sort of avoiding Kol, trying to figure out if I could tell him. If I should.I looked at the time once more, it was 11pm. I didn’t want to call Thea and disturb her. She was also trying to adjust to her new life in a new place.Now that the clothes were folded, I twiddled my thumbs, seeing if there was anything more I could do. I peered around the room. It was sparkling clean. Taking a deep breath, I fell unto my bed, back down and stared at the ceiling. The glow-in-the-dark stars Thea and I had put there were dimming.‘Oh Thea…’ My eyes pricked with tears and my mouth shook, tryi
Jason had only come to remind us of the fact that we had been backed against the wall. Even if we took the case to the court, we would have to suspend all activities on the app for as long as the case went on and Jason was intent on dragging it out as long as possible. He had also claimed to have the original file which we weren’t even sure how he got in the first place.Jason was ten steps ahead of us and it wasn’t that he wanted the app. No, he had made that very much clear. “You can never beat me. Nicholas, you never have and you never will.”My palms had itched with a burning desire to give him a twinning mark on the other side of his face. How Josh and Kol had managed to hold themselves back, I would never know. It was only Kol’s grip on me that had held me in place.I picked up everything that had been thrown across the floor. Kol and Josh had gone to ‘take care of some things’. Most likely, people were going to get fired. It amazed me that every single time, he came, he was
“What the f*ck is wrong with you? You scared me.”I placed my hand on my chest, where my heart raced, trying to calm myself. Josh doubled over in laughter as he let go of my hand.“It’s not funny.” I scowled at him, even though he could barely see my face.The lights of the parking lot turned on all of a sudden, momentarily blinding me.“Was this also your doing?”“What? The lights? Nope.”“What are you even doing here?” “Kol isn’t finished with work and I needed to hitch a ride. Then I saw you…” He shrugged. My heart raced for an entirely new and different reason. Kol was still up there, in his office.“He’s still up there?” “Yup.” Josh said, popping the ‘p’.“Once he gets like that, he doesn’t like to be disturbed.”I was worried about him. He had brushed me off earlier and now, he was pushing everyone away.“When will he leave?” Josh had no answer to my question as he bent down to pick up my stuff from the floor.“Let’s go. I’ll drive.”***I had been so preoccupied that I didn’t
I carried on with the day absentmindedly. I was still in shock even after my phone screen had shattered into pieces and I wasn’t sure there was any reviving it. When I had put my system into the dustbin and waste paper into my bag at the end of the day, Dara had given me a worried look.“Are you okay ma’am?”I looked at her wondering if she had said something to me with the way she was staring.“Hmm?”“Your laptop… it’s in the bin.”“What?” My face scrunched in confusion as I looked at where her finger pointed. My eyes widened in embarrassment. Absolutely no work had been done today. I stared at the screen endlessly and my mind wandered far. No one came to mind as I wondered who it could be. It was that bad. I had been told that I was abandoned as a child without so much as a note. While growing up, no one had come for me either so, I was thoroughly convinced I had literally no one.“You should go home. We’ll finish up here.” I nodded at her and gave her a hug.Dara had become someon
Kol and stayed the night with me and left quite early in the morning, before I had woken up. We had both agreed to go the coming Saturday when both of us would be free.I had taken the bus this morning because my car was still at work. I walked to the parking lot to pick up some things from my car when I saw a crowd gathered at the parking lot, the noise almost loud enough for me to pick up their murmuring.‘It’s 9 in the morning. What the h*ll is going on?’ I thought to myself. I made my way to the crowd when I saw they had gathered just in front of my car. “Ugh. That stinks!”“Do you know the owner of the car?”“Not really. I think it’s most likely someone who just joined us. Maybe a few weeks.”“I definitely know who owns this car. You can tell from the quite ugly model and terrible smell.” I knew that nasally annoying voice and would recognise it even in my grave.There was a pungent smell that permeated the air. I gagged from the smell as I noticed people also had their noses in