Chapter Three

Alethia swerved quickly to avoid the pole. It'd loomed with a frightening suddenness that almost made her heart jump out of her chest, though she'd been absent-minded, wondering how to approach her mother and what the woman would say on seeing her. She pulled her cardigan more closely to her shoulders -- at least she remembered to take that along with her before she left the house, and the weather was getting colder now.

There is something about November that just makes indoors the place to be, and now she was wondering why she'd decided to run away from home in the first place. But if she hadn't met Ethan, she probably would still be wandering around by that time of night.

Ethan…

Did he exist or was he just a fragment of her imagination? He'd been too real to be her hallucination. Every moment with him, however short, had been right in place, save the moment he disappeared, leaving her to wonder if he was real or if he'd just existed in her thoughts.

Alethia took a deep breath. Once she raised her head, she realized she was already approaching the front door of her house, and her feet automatically halted. Her heart began to pound again and her cold feet suggested that she should retreat. But she had nowhere to go.

She could see that the light was still on. It meant her mother was still awake. If there was no way to avoid the situation, she would have at least preferred to sleep through it and face it the next morning. But her mother probably won't prefer to leave the issue unattended.

She was still in her thoughts when she heard the door open. She looked straight on, and there her mother was, looking as though she'd been squeezed out of her usual form. The light at the front revealed her mother haggard and pale. Alethia felt a wave of emotion sweep over her, leaving her dry as well so that her eyes could even bear the hot tears that seemed to have gathered at the back of her eyes. Her breath became more rapid that she had to struggle to keep her chest in place.

"Aleth! Oh, baby…" Emily bolted towards her -- instinctively, Alethia took a single retreating step, but her mother was already wrapping her tight in her arms before Alethia could think of taking another step back.

"I'm so sorry, baby," she said, sobbing onto her shoulder.

Alethia couldn't beat the guilt. She made this happen, and she hated herself for that.

"I'm sorry Mom. I'm sorry I made you worried."

Emily sniffled. "It's okay, baby. It's my fault. I pressed too hard."

"No Mom, it is my fault. I was too harsh."

They played the blame game for another minute before Emily released her from her embrace. Then she checked her out to make sure she was okay, like a treasure that had been out of its shelter and back in its place. Emily dusted her off, then picked up her luggage and held her hand to take her back into the house.

Once they were inside, she sat Alethia down on the couch and quickly left to make tea for her.

"Mom, I'm fine.' Alethia said when her mother came back with a steaming cup of tea and forced it into her hands.

"You must be cold, honey. Just a sip."

Alethia took a sip. Then another, until her mother made sure she emptied the cup.

"Have you had something to eat? Should I make something for you?"

"No, mom. I'm fine."

Emily sighed deeply. She sat beside Alethia on the couch and cupped her cheeks with both hands.

"Oh, goodness! You're cold."

Alethia took her mother's hands away from her cheeks and dropped the cup on the coffee table beside her. She'd thought of a thousand ways to apologize to her mother, but Alethia wasn't even given a single chance to do so. And the more she got treated delicately, the more she felt the guilt consuming her. She should at least say her apologies and get reprimanded for it, and maybe she would be able to sleep a bit peacefully that night.

So, she held her mom's hands and adjusted to face her.

"Mom, I'm sorry."

For whatever reason, Emily couldn't hold back her tears.

"Mom…" she said as she searched for her mother's face.

Emily sniffled and exhaled swiftly. "I'm sorry, baby. This is just too overwhelming. I wish your father was here. He would have known what to say…" she paused and raised her head to keep more of the tears back. "I miss him so much."

For the first time since her father passed, Alethia was thinking that maybe her mother deserved to move on after all. Maybe there was no point reminiscing on her father's time with them and letting it hold them back from moving on. He would after all be a loving memory, but no matter how much they had loved him, it wouldn't bring him back.

Alethia realized she had also shed a few tears when she felt her mother's hand on her face as she picked the beads of tears with her knuckles. They were both in an emotional state it just felt right to be in each other's arms at the moment.

"You can bring your Ethan," Alethia said abruptly. She didn't know why she had felt the need to differentiate her mother's Ethan from the Ethan she had earlier met, but it came out as such, and her mother wasn't even attentive enough to notice. She'd rather have been stunned by the abruptness.

"No, baby. We should leave that for now."

"It's fine, mom. I realized I was just being selfish. You do deserve to be happy, and if this Ethan makes you happy, I should want that for you."

Emily sighed heavily. She'd ached for her daughter's approval of her new man, but given their situation at the present, it felt awkward.

"I'm sorry I have to make you feel this burden, baby."

"It's fine, mom. I can take this much. And I'm sorry I've been so laid off. You needed my help around here, but I wasn't responsible for anything."

"It's okay with all that, dear. I'm glad we're here now, at this moment. At least we know how to move further now."

Alethia sighed deeply. She still couldn't find herself in motion with the idea of having a stepfather, and maybe because the man was not in the house yet. But she was ready to take the situation as it had already turned out, for her mother's sake. At least she had to meet the man to know what kind he was.

"Thank you, baby. You don't know how much this means."

"You're welcome, mom."

They embraced each other again, after which they both moved into Alethia's room and got into bed together.

Alethia prayed it would be a long night so that she has more time to dissolve the tension.

***

A soothing breeze washed over her body and it didn't take long before Alethia realized she was at the beach. On the other side was a ship beached near the port. Alethia watched with keen interest as people were entering and ready to make sail. As the air became more chilly, she wrapped her hands around her body and tried to make her environment. Somehow she felt like a stranger as if she'd just been thrown only to land where she stood. A couple on the right side seemed to catch her interest for a while as they were both making out on the bench -- it is indeed a free world, but Alethia wished they'd get a room and save her the sight.

It didn't take long before she found a dad hoisting his little daughter up his shoulders, while the mom paced towards the duo. Alethia found herself smiling more widely now, reminiscing on one of the many memories she had of her father. Maybe this particular memory was more vivid because it was one of the last memories she had of her father before he became bedridden at the hospital.

Alethia sighed deeply. The last days of her father were more painful. One of the reasons she hated her mother these past few days was because her mother was always still head-bent on going to work while her father was at the hospital, and Alethia had to be the one to care for the man before he couldn't hold on anymore.

She heaved a sigh and cleared her clogged throat. Her eyes were ready to spill again, but she reckoned she'd rather leave the environment than die in the cold hands of the weather. But just then she felt a blanket covering her, and on turning sideways, she met his blue eyes.

Alethia forgot to breathe for a moment, rather than letting herself get consumed by his overpowering aura. How come he was there? She'd thought it would take a magnificent kind of miracle to meet him again since she'd thought he was only her imagination. But there he was, staring into his eyes like a miracle she'd envisioned, and smiling widely so that she thought he was the most beautiful thing she'd seen since there was light.

"Forgot to bring a blanket?" He said and turned away from him.

But Alethia couldn't stop staring at him. Even that angle portrayed him handsomely. She could see he was smiling from the. movement at the side of his lips. She watched his neck and down to his broad shoulders hanging firmly above her head. Gosh! He was everything she had never imagined a man to be.

"Trust me, penguin, you're gonna bore a hole through my face if you keep staring like that."

Alethia quickly retrieved herself and tried to be modest. Her spirit had been heightened to the point where she was starting to imagine things. So, she heaved in a deep sigh and swallowed a lump.

"It's you," was all she could say before she looked up and caught his eyes an inch away from hers and he bent towards her abruptly. Alethia cringed and held still. Her breath stopped in her throat, and her heart became heavy as she held onto the little inkling of life running through her bones. She was relatively aware of his lips an inch away from hers, and his body ached for his touch.

"Were you expecting someone else?"

She swallowed hard again. He peered her eyes more deeply now. Alethia had lost her sense of the sheer awareness of his presence, so her body was lost to numbness. She was standing there to be touched, and for him to do whatever he so pleased with her.

"You look red," he said and felt her forehead with the back of his hand. Alethia trembled under his magnificent figure. She could feel a jolt of electricity running through her spine as his hand moved further down to caress her cheek. Then his hand moved gently down the slope of her neck, and he held her neck in full palm like he was going to choke her.

She loved every step of his hands touring her body. More so when he held her neck, allowing him to feel the thin path of life defined by her rapid breath. There was no escaping this passion. She didn't want to escape anyway. She wanted more of what he was doing to her body, arousing her carnal desire like she'd never felt before. There was something about this man that drove her nuts for reasoning. She didn't even know him well enough to figure out her actual feelings for him. But his mere existence seemed to override every reasoning, and all he just had to do was to touch her and never let go.

She didn't know why she had to look sideways at that moment, but when she did, she found that the couples she'd earlier wished could get a room and save her the sight of them devouring each other outside were now staring at her. She instinctively jerked back from Ethan and lost her footing, so he caught her again.

There was no escaping him.

"Easy there, Penguin."

That he called her a pet name made her heart swell. As he helped her back to her feet, she struggled to stand straight. Then she felt his hand on her back, thinking he meant to help her straighten up. But he rather pulled her close to himself.

"Do I make you tremble?" He asked.

The softness of his voice beside her ear echoes her desire. She could feel herself becoming weak, and what was that feeling she was having in between her legs? A sudden fright made its presence known. She was brimming hot with pleasure and more desire. She looked into his eyes. He was smiling with those lips. Those darn beautiful lips that she could barely resist. Well, why the hell should she resist? He'd been the one to come close to her, so if she couldn't possibly ward him off, she thought she might as well bask in the stream of emotion he'd gathered between them. So she held him by his collar and stood on her toes to kiss him…

Darn it!