Athena got up in the morning, she heaved a deep sigh and remembering she was not in her house nor in Frank’s, she sat up immediately and looked around the room, she was lying in the bed and it was the most comfortable bed she had ever slept in. She had fallen asleep immediately her head touched the pillow. Fred had been kind enough to give her the bed and took the couch, even though she was the intruder.
She climbed out of the bed and readied her things; Franks should be back from wherever he went to, right? She thought and walked out of the bedroom to find Fred still sleeping on the couch. She approached him gently and didn’t know if he would be angry that she woke him up from his sleep but she really has to go and it would be wrong if she left without telling him, he was a kind soul and she would never forget that. After staring at him for a few minutes, she finally cleared her throat and his eyelid flickered before he opened them to stare at her. “I-I-I’m sorry to wake you, is j-just that I should leave now. I don’t want Frank looking for me when he gets back.”Fred yawned and sat up on the couch, he rubbed his hand on his eyes before ruffling his hair with his fingers, looking up to her, he said, “good morning, slept well?”Athena looked away and nodded softly, “yes, thank you.”Fred stared at her and sighed, looking away from her for a moment, “you are more than just someone he wants to help, right?”“I don’t understand,” she answered.Fred thought about it, what’s his business? If they are more than friends, it has nothing to do with him, right? He has done his part, gave her a place to sleep in and his bed. He sighed and stood up, “never mind. I’m sure he will be home by now, just don’t knock and use the bell so that he could hear you. It was nice knowing you…”“Athena,” she filled in.Fred smiled, “great name, rare but great. You can call me Fred,” he offered, “see you some other time, Athena, hopefully,” he added before making his way into his bedroom, he still need some more sleep after sleeping so late last night.“Yea,” Athena nodded and walked to the front door, she turned back to look at the beautiful living room filled with different kinds of art, smiling, she opened the door and left. The door closed gently behind her and she heaved a deep sigh before walking to Frank’s door. She took Fred’s advice and pressed the bell.It took three minutes for the door to open to reveal yawning Frank, he was rubbing his eyes and his hair looked disheveled. When he finally took in the person in front of him, he was surprised, “Athena, you-you-you are here,” he looked back into the house and then at her, “I thought you were gone. Where were you last night?”“I-I waited till late in the night but you didn’t come back and then your neighbor came over and offered me to stay in his place, so…”“What?” Frank interrupted with a scowl, “you came to find me and you slept in another man’s house, really Athena, is that how it is?”“N-n-no, I waited but you weren’t coming back, it was cold out here and I didn’t know when you would be back, that was why I left with him.”“Is that so? Why couldn’t you wait for me, Athena? Do you know how worried I was? It’s not like there is any way I could contact you. Do you have any idea how worried sick I was? The only hope I gave to myself was that maybe you went back home and it turned out that you slept with my neighbor?”“I didn’t sleep with him, I only slept in his place,” Athena rushed to defend herself.Frank placed his hand on his temple and pretended to be calming down, “so you are trying to tell me that two grownups of opposite sex, slept together in the same room, under one roof and nothing happened? Really, what do you take me for, Athena, a fool?”“No, why can’t you just trust me? I will never do that. Listen, if you don’t believe me, we can go over and ask him, he is right there,” she pointed to Fred’s door.“Oh yeah, like he would just tell me, what if you two planned to make a fool out of me?”“Frank!” Athena called in disbelief, her eyes had already welled up and it wasn’t long the tears started falling.Frank sighed, “listen, why don’t you wait for me downstairs, I will dress up and come meet you. You are leaving today aren’t you?” When she nodded, he continued, “good, we can grab breakfast together and then I will see you off. I need to go to the office as well.”Athena only nodded again and he sighed, “great, I will be done in a few,” he said and with that he closed the door. Athena stared at the closed door and sighed, he wouldn’t even let her in, she wondered why but stopped herself, maybe it’s because he needs to dress as soon as possible and wouldn’t need the distraction, yes, that has to be the reason. She lowered her height beside the door and hugged her knees to her chest; she would prefer waiting there for him then going downstairs.***Frank took Athena to the restaurant that was just opposite his building, when they got in, he led them to a booth at the far end sight of the room. She slid into the chair and he took the one opposite her, “how are you?” He asked.“I’m fine, and you?” She asked.“Great, everything is great,” he answered, picking up the menu and handing it to her, “order what you want, we have to be fast, I can’t afford being late to work.”Athena nodded and made her orders when the waitress approached them, “don’t you want anything?” she asked when he made no order.“Don’t worry, I’m okay, I will get something to eat in the office.”“Oh,” she looked down at her fingers, heaving a deep breath and letting it out slowly. They stayed silent for a while until she spoke up, “I’m sorry for sleeping in your neighbor’s flat, I should have waited for you. I was wrong, will you forgive me?” She looked up at him.Frank heaved a sigh, “it’s alright, I was unreasonable earlier, it’s not like I should expect you to just sit in the hallway and wait for me till I’m back, so…it’s okay.”“It won’t happen again, I’m really sorry.”“It’s alright, Athena,” the waitress brought her order, “eat up.”She nodded and began eating. After the breakfast, he took her where she would take a bus to her place and left her with only a few dollar bills to pay for her transport. Athena didn’t read anything into it, he had told her that they hadn’t start selling his designs yet so he hasn’t start receiving his percentage and that once he does, he would give her more money and she could also stay with him in the city. She could only wait for such day and meanwhile, he had mentioned that they would be a fashion show in a week’s time and his designs would be among the dresses that would be showed off, he is hoping on making great sells after that and she couldn’t be more proud of him.A week later, Frank was talking with some models outside the hall that the fashion show was taking place, when one of them scowled in disgust, “who the hell is that? That dress is so outdated, in fact, I don’t think I have ever seen such.”“My goodness, you don’t think she is attending the show, do you? I mean, dress in that?” Another said, her face and tone no different from the first model.Hearing the ladies’ words, Frank was forced to turn around and he froze when he saw the brunette who just got down from a cab and was looking around the place. She was dressed in a pitch pink dress which he recognized as her mother’s, her hair was let down on her shoulders and she was putting on a white two inches heels, he was with her the day she had bought the shoes but he never realized how ugly the thing looked until now. She smiled and waved when she saw him and he woke up at that moment as he heard one of the model’s words, “my gracious, is she waving at us?”“It can’t be, where
Athena gulped, staring at the man beside her, he had deep brown hair in a slicked back style, his face was oval with sexy cheekbones, his nose was perfectly pointed. His lips so succulent with the lower lip fuller than the upper and light red in color, his eyes, a beautiful shade of hazel and his lashes so long that she would have been jealous if she wasn’t a little tipsy. A sexy line of bears graced his cheeks and jaw and for some reason, she wanted to run her fingers through them.Her eyes trailed from his face to his fair neck and his body, he was dressed in a navy blue blazer with white shirt underneath and white pants. He had broad shoulders and his athletic body complimented his blazer making him look godly sexy, she gulped once more, her eyes going back to his face to meet with his smiling eyes.“Like what you see?” he asked with a soft chuckle, “I’m beautiful, I know,” he winked and pulled the stool next to her, sitting on it, he looked back at her, “you don’t mi
Athena glanced at him with a frown, “in your world, are you an alien?”“What?” He asked shocked and they both laughed, “why would you think that?” He asked, still laughing.“You kept mentioning your world, forgive me if I had to think so far,” she giggled.“Ah, to be honest, those in my circle often classifies themselves as a different world, a bigger world and more.”“Wow, I will like to be in that world.”He looked at her, for once since talking to her, he didn’t smile, “I wouldn’t want you to, it would stain you, take away that innocence that makes you different and soon, you would be just like them, with nothing to differentiate you.”“That’s not true, nothing can change me.”He smiled then, “ah my dear, you don’t understand, it changed your darling Frank, and it will change you too. It changes anyone who finds themselves in its midst.”“What about you, it didn’t change you?”He didn’t answer for a while, then he whispered, “it did, I think I am the mo
It’s been two weeks since the day Frank pushed her away and the night with the mysterious gentle stranger, Athena had tried not to think about it but even though she had tried to live like it never happened, he had haunted her dreams, his face, his hazel eyes, the feel of his hand on her body, the taste of his lips. One might say that as it has been fourteen days and she was drunk when it happened that she shouldn’t have so much detail of it, but that wasn’t how it was, every single night, she dreamt of it and the more she dreamt of it, the clearer and more detailed it became.She had downed herself in alcohol during the first few days to forget about both the man and his touch but it was never possible, it had also been her reason for not going after Frank since then, although she had wished that he would miss her and would come for her, telling her that he didn’t mean what he said but that wasn’t the case, she didn’t see neither heard from him and coupled with her guiltiness fo
Athena stood in front of the biggest house she had ever seen, her eyes had widened when the cab had stopped in front of the house, people were going inside but they always stopped in front of the door to hand something to a very huge man. She gulped, taking in her surrounding, never in her life had she dreamt of stepping into a house that big, there were different types of cars parked around and everyone going into the house all dressed so beautifully that she had taken another look at herself, but having decided to come over, she wasn’t going to let anything discourage her. She entered through the big open gate and walked straight to the line which has thinned down by then.Soon it was her turn and she stood face to face to the big man who was dressed in black suit, with dark eyeshades, something like an earphone with a white wire was attached into his ear and the wire inside his suit. She gulped and stood straight, trying not to look intimidated by him, even though she was scar
Athena heaved a deep sigh and walked carefully around the room, she was careful not only because she didn’t want to be spotted and thrown out but also because she doesn’t want to slip and fall. The floor was too smooth and she fears that if she lets go of herself, that she might slip, it wasn’t just her assumption but the fact that she had almost slipped when she had entered the hall. She searched everywhere her eyes could go, looking for only one person; she avoided her face when someone looked at her for a long time. She looked different from all of them, she knows and she had no intention of staying around for long, she just wants to see Frank and talk to him, after that she would leave.Minutes passed and Athena was beginning to have the feeling that Frank might not be in the hall, for Christ sake she had been searching for a long time and still could not find him, it’s also not helping if the hall looked like it houses a thousand people and it was s
Frank wiped his face in a frustrated manner, “listen, I told you already, things has changed Athena, look at me, I am not the same Frank anymore, I have changed. I now drink and dine with celebrities, big tycoons, businessmen, my life has changed Athena and I adapted to it. But you,” he pointed his finger at her, “you never change, you are the same Athena, year in year out nothing new happens to you. We watched that firework two years ago and you still have this dress, you never buy anything new, you keep reusing everything that you have.”“How can I buy something new, Frank, I have been paying back our debts, the ones I got because of you, you promised to give me back the money to pay back, you never had and I am using all my salary to pay up. How can you expect me to buy something new? How can I do that?”“Listen, Athena, I know I am owing you and I will pay back, I promise, just let me have that money I have my eyes on, I will f
Athena was shocked at his words, “wha-what?”“Come on, Athena, let’s get you out of that cloth first,” he offered.Athena quickly clutched on her dress, she gulped and looked away from him, “I’m sorry about that night, that shouldn’t have happened. I was drunk, you were too, we didn’t know what we were doing, so let’s never talk about it, it was nothing but a mistake.”Due to the fact that she had her eyes lowered, she missed the glint that flashed in his hazel eyes, he didn’t linger to it and spoke almost immediately, “I never do what I don’t want to do, whether drunk or not, but if it will make you feel better, then we will not talk about it and address it as a mistake, hmm?”She looked up at him then, not believing he had actually agreed to that, did he really? It was almost impossible for Frank to agree to anything she says at first, she would have to go on about it for