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Chapter 27
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ:
2023-01-05 10:40:14
owlonmywristHe's trying. Is it too little, too late?
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Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 28
I continue to get flowers every dayâalways a Gerbera daisy paired with another bloom. A sunflower to remind me of the day we stopped on a road trip back from a cabin our families rented and traipsed through a sunflower field. A rose to remind me of the bouquet he gave me on my high school graduation day. A lily to remind me of the time he took the blame when I broke my momâs favorite crystal lily. Each day brought a different flower, a different memory. And with every memory, he told me what he missedâmy smile, my eyes, my laugh, my compassion.On Sunday, he sent another full bouquet of Gerbera daisies.At first, I gave everything to Kora to get rid of. After the third day, I only gave her the notes after reading them. But by the end of the week, I was keeping them. And my wonderful friend, Kora, had kept them all instead of throwing them out. She said she knew Iâd want them eventually.By Thursday, our apartment looked like a floral shop. Thank God each bouquet came with its own vaseâ
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-07Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 29
Itâs the day of my opening, and Iâm a nervous fucking wreck. I barely slept last night and feel like a zombie right now. Finally, at 4 a.m., I decide to just get out of bed and get the day started. Ship told me to text him the second I was ready for breakfastâno matter what time it was. He said heâd let me know whether I was being insane or just a normal first-time exhibitor. I get the feeling heâs as nervous as I am.I go for a run. Yes, itâs 4 a.m., but itâs New Yorkâthere are always people out. Quarantineâs still a thing, but the cityâs slowly pushing forward. I stick to the well-lit, busy areas and run for an hour, hoping to exhaust myself enough to crash on the couch when I get back.No such luck.Next, I take a long, leisurely bathâshaving, exfoliating, soaking in the tub. But I canât relax, and Iâm out and lotioning within twenty minutes. I decide not to stress about hair or makeup yet. The show isnât until 7 p.m.âIâve got more than twelve hours.Instead, I pack my bag with ever
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-10Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 30
âSamantha.â His voice is hoarse, thick with emotion. His eyesâthose same eyes I painted in the regret sectionâare locked on mine, filled with tears. He swallows hard before he can speak again. âSamâĶ hey.ââHi,â I whisper.He turns away, swiping at his cheeks. âLook at you. You really made it to the big time, didnât you?âI chuckle, though tears are already gathering in my eyes. âYeah, wellâĶ I kind of owe it to you. Just a bit.âHe barks out a laugh. âYeah, Iâve never been anyoneâs muse before. Not sure whether to feel flatteredâĶ or disgusted with myself.â He looks back at me, the humor fading fast. âDefinitely disgusted.âI blink, and tears spill over.âI know this is your big night. And Matt told me youâve been up since 4 a.m., so I know youâre exhausted. If you want to talk later, we can. Iâll take you back to the apartment and we can talk tomorrow. Orâafter you sleep for a week,â he adds with a small, broken smile.I study him. And I allow myself to feel everything Iâve ever felt fo
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-12Love in the Time of Quarantine   Story 2: Cole and Kent - Chapter 1: Cole
Itâs 2 a.m. and Iâm drowning myself in a bottle of tequila. It stopped burning hours ago, not too long after Zoe left.Fuck, Zoe. I canât even think about her without taking another swigâbut when I bring the bottle to my lips, I realize itâs empty. Just a few drops left.Well, shit.Sooo... the tequilaâs gone. Time to start on the vodka.I try to stand and make my way to the bar weâve got set up on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, I miscalculate and slam my shin into the coffee table.âFucking hell, that hurt!â I hiss. âWho moved the damn coffee table?âI let out a groan and start to fall forward, catching myself barely on the arm of the couchâjust as the front door opens. I hear someone giggling and a hasty, âShh! Shhh!âI turn my head, but my vision swims, and it takes a second to make sense of what Iâm seeing.âCole? Dude, what are you doing standing there in the dark?âOnly after he speaks does my vision settle, and I see my roommate, Kent Johnson. Heâs wearing ripped, fi
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-14Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 2: Cole
I wake up to the smell of Axe body spray and fabric softener. My head is resting on something warm, and my arms are wrapped around it too. Iâm still half asleep, so nothing really registersâuntil I hear a deep, masculine voice.âNever wouldâve taken you for a snuggler.âMy eyes fly open, and I try to jerk back, but one of my arms is pinned underneath his back. When I focus, I see that Iâm in bed with Kent. Both of us are shirtlessâheâs in boxers, and Iâm still in sweats.âWhat the fuck happened?!â I practically scream in his face.He just laughs. âYou seriously donât remember anything?âI shake my head, and he mutters, âFigures.âHe sits up, and I immediately scoot to the other side of the bed. Iâm not as freaked out as I wish I was, and that pisses me off.âWhat happened?ââLook, man, I came homeââ Kent starts, but I cut him off.âWith a guy.â The words come out with more heat than I meant, and I try to play it off, rolling my eyes and dragging my hands down my face.I hate that I fee
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-21Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 3: Cole
Itâs the beginning of March, and Kent has been pulling more and more hours at work. He works at this place called Zoom, a company he started at about a year ago. Itâs a video telecommunications company thatâs been used a lot in the business sector. Itâs kind of like Skype used to be, but clearer and easier to connect.Kentâs been working longer hours because Chinaâs been under quarantine due to a pretty nasty virus. People over there are starting to panic, saying itâs going to be another pandemic, like SARS or Zika. Kentâs a little on edge about it too, but I meanâhow much did our lives change because of SARS? Or Zika? So I wasnât supposed to travel to specific places. Meh. None of those pandemics ever affected me personally, and I donât see this one being any different.Still, itâs lingering in the back of my mind. Especially with Kentâs job.Heâs been helping expand Zoomâs user interface for China and for companies who normally send employees overseas. Heâs a badass programmer, and G
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-24Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 4: Cole
Two weeks later and we are in full lockdown. Santa Claraâour county in Californiaâhas had 20 deaths as of today, one of them a teenager, the first in the country. This shit is getting real. It sucks, itâs scary, and I donât like it.You know what else I donât like? The headache thatâs come from trying to deal with all these couples who are having to change their wedding dates, along with the conferences, trainings, parties, and random events scheduled over the next month. Iâm on the phone for hours every day trying to figure out how to rearrange all these events around everything else weâve already planned. At least most of these events coordinated through us for venue, food, alcohol, and rooms. They just have to work around their families and florists now. But trying to cram two whole weeksâ worth of events into other slots gives me a migraine by the end of every day. I feel like beating my head against the wall.And that leads to my final problem with this lockdown: liquor stores are
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-26Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 5: Kent
It has been a LOOOONG several months. The company I work for, Zoom, has been making a lot of changes since COVID started at the company. We are now a household name, used in nearly every business. The sudden expansion has made my other programmers and I have to work overtime, adding features that are needed to keep things moving smoothly in business meetings, doctorâs appointment, and therapy sessions. But none of that comes cheap. So many hours are put into making sure that one new feature is added appropriately. To troubleshoot any issues. And do you know how much money we sank into bandwidth and memory storage? Itâs insane. I was promoted, not to long before COVID began, to section manager. Weâre in charge of developing new tools for the program. Due to the increased traffic and usage of the site, along with all the different types of applications it was being used for, we had a lot of different things in the works. I mean, a kindergarten teacher is going to need very
āļāļĢāļąāļāļāļĢāļļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ : 2023-01-28
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Love in the Time of Quarantine   Author's Note
Hey friends! Thank you so much for reading Love in the Time of Quarantine. I hope that you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. Here are a couple of announcements/interesting information for you. 1. If you are interested in what I listen to while Iâm writing, you can find my playlist âCreative Juicesâ on Spotify. I love all different kinds of music, so there's a little something for everyone. 2. Other books on GoodNovel: Trio of Mates Series: 4 werewolf books that take on the idea of what would happen if one of the leadership was gay and couldnât produce an heir. Lots of very graphic smut. (completed) Trio Legacy Series: The stories of the children of the wolves introduced in the Trio of Mates Series. Completed: Hide and Seek, Ongoing: Red Rover Dissonance and Harmony: The story of a high school girl who has to face her rapist at his sentencing hearing and deal with her PTSD from that night. Graphic violence and rape scenes. (completed) 3. Follow me under the same name
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 30: Jorge
Iâm standing outside the girlsâ apartmentâour old apartmentâwith a picnic basket of baked goods and a cooler full of drinks, fruit, and toppings. I brought muffins, cinnamon rolls, danishes, cinnamon raisin bread, and fresh bagels.Okay, I went a little overboard. I can admit that. Iâm just so fucking anxious, I donât know what to do with myself.I was already awake when Andieâs text came through last night, replaying everything Angel had said to me earlier. Iâd been scrolling through old photos of Andie and Jaime, staring at all the joy I used to have. I miss them so damn much. It took losing them to understand exactly how badly Iâd fucked up.I didnât even hesitate. I texted back immediately that Iâd bring breakfast.And for the first time in a while, I fell asleep without any trouble.Granted, it was only for a few hoursâI had to make deliveries at the bakery this morningâbut I got there early, dropped everything off, and grabbed the best of the morningâs offerings for them.Now Iâv
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 29: Jaime
Iâve been tossing and turning in bed all night after listening to everything Angel and Maddie said tonight.âYou three belong together.ââHe loves you.ââHe wants you back.ââWhat do you have to lose if you do call him?âI know what my heart wants. I also know what my heart is afraid is going to happen. How can I allow him to possibly hurt meâusâall over again?Whatâs the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Wouldnât it be insane to let him back into our lives and hope it ends differently?Angel and Marta have both said heâs reduced his hours at the business. That theyâve hired new people. That heâs learned his lesson. Could it be true? Could he really have changed for us, even if he didnât think weâd ever come back?I donât know.Weâve been in bed since midnight, and itâs now 3 a.m. With a huge sigh, I get up and grab my robe, tying it tightly around me. I canât lay here any longer. And if I keep shifting, Iâm going to wake
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 28: Andie
Jaime and I go about making dinner in silence. Weâre a well-oiled machine at this point, moving easily around each other in our kitchen. Angel and her partner Maddie are coming over tonight for dinner and to play cards.Itâs something we started back in college with Angelâa weekly card game. Each week, someone picks the game we play, and once a year, each of us is supposed to introduce a new card game. We use candy and snack foods for any games that require betting. Itâs more about hanging out and having fun than anything else.Maddie and Angel have been very careful about who they let into their circle, as have we, so we all feel comfortable being around each other, even with COVID still going on.Unfortunately, this is how much of our life has been since Jorge left: a silent orbit around each other. We hold each other through the tears and the pain, but we donât really talk.I mean, whatâs there to say?Weâre enough for each otherâbut not for the man we love.It hurts. And weâre grie
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 27: Jorge
âAngel, do you have tomorrowâs shipment of bread all packaged? Carmelloâs needs the delivery an hour early. Iâd like to be able to have everything on rolling carts so I can just load up the trucks the second I get here,â I call to Angel.When she first started working with me, I had brought Angel on just as a delivery driver. But over the last two months, I have consciously tried to pull myself back from the business, and Iâve made Angel a partner. We have three drivers, a part-time baker, and two part-time packagers. Iâve cut my hours back so that Iâm working nine-hour days, as opposed to the sixteen-hour days I was working before.The only reason that Iâm driving tomorrow is because our early morning guy took the day off. Otherwise, Iâve even built in Wednesdays and Sundays as days off.âYes, everythingâs all ready. Just waiting for the last batch to finish cooling before we get it packaged. Iâll get that done in the next hour,â Angel tells me.I let out a huge sigh. âOk. Iâm heading
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 26: Jaime
Itâs been a week since our last interaction with Jorge. Weâve been communicating via text and notes left at the apartment. The morning after our breakup, Jorge was gone before Andie and I even woke up. Heâd packed a bag and left a note saying heâd be in and out while we were at work over the coming week.Heâs moving into an apartment over his parentsâ restaurant. It used to be his dadâs office, and over the years, various family members have crashed there when they were in the doghouse with their wives or girlfriends.Not a bad placeâbut not exactly the kind of space youâd expect someone with a thriving business to live in. Still, with COVID still bad, Jorge decided to stay somewhere only family had been. Said it was safer.Trying to decide what belongs to who over text is awful.Iâd honestly thought Jorge was the one. The guy Iâd spend the rest of my life with. When we added Andie into our lives, it felt perfect. For a while.So we bought everything togetherâTV, couch, microwave. Even
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 25: Andie
In that way that grief between people who love each other will sometimes turn sexual, when Jorge turns to Jaime and kisses her, she kisses him back.I lean in and kiss the side of his face. He turns toward me andâGodâit feels good to kiss him. Iâve missed him so damn much. Itâs been too damn long.Jaime brings his mouth back to hers, their kiss hungry and desperate. My hands go to the bottom of the hoodie heâs wearing and I rip it off of him.Jaime finds his mouth again, and I lean down, licking his nipples. He groans into Jaimeâs mouth, his body tensing in arousal. He loves having his nipples played with. At the same time, I rake my nails down his abs.Jorge pulls back from Jaimeâs mouth to look down at me. âPlease. I need you both.â His voice is so full of need.I look at Jaime, asking if sheâs okay with this. Because this is going to be an end, not a reconciliation. But I want this. I need him.Jaime nods, both of us catching the motion.Jorge surges from the chair, knocking it to t
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 24: Jorge
Andie looks between Jaime and me, and I can tell she immediately understands whatâs going on. Sheâs always had that abilityâto take in a situation at a glance and know exactly whatâs happening. I guess thatâs what makes her such a good programmer.And an expert at calling me on my bullshit.Ever since the day I triggered Jaimeâs meltdown, Andieâs been more distant with me. I think she realized that, even though the promises I made to her and Jaime were heartfelt, they werenât ones I could keep.The time I managed to get after that? It felt more like it was for Jaimeâs benefit than for Andieâs. As introverted and quiet as she appears, Andie doesnât take shit from anyone.She gave me more rope than I deserved. And I guess I finally used it to hang myself.âHow far are we into this conversation?â Andie asks calmly.I blink at her, caught off guard by how level her voice is.Jaime answers instead. âI told him heâs not treating us like priorities. That the last chance we gave him was the la
Love in the Time of Quarantine   Chapter 23: Jaime
Iâm sitting on the couch flipping through TV channels when Jorge walks in. Itâs been two days since our failed date night, and this is the first time Iâve seen him for more than a passing second. Heâs dressed in sweats and a tank top, hair wet from a showerâhe mustâve just come back from a run.Andie and I have been sleeping in her old room ever since that night. With the hours heâs been keeping, I donât really know what heâs up to anymore.Honestly? I donât know if I can even muster the energy to care. Every time I try, it just ends up hurting.âHeyâĶâ Jorge says tentatively, sitting on the arm of the couch.I glance over. âHey,â I reply, then turn my attention back to the TV.âUmâĶ whereâs Andie?â he asks, like heâs not sure what to say.âDoctorâs appointment and then grocery shopping.â My responses arenât angryâjust short. I give the remote a voice command to switch to N*****x and start scrolling through options, skipping past the show I actually want to watch.Shadow and Bone. Canâ
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