AMELIA The restaurant Colin had invited me to was chic and nice and I was really surprised. The Palm was a five star restaurant and it took weeks to get a reservation. Colin had always had impeccable taste and I couldn’t deny that. He must have made a lot of enquiries and effort to get a reservation in hours. After I had admired the exterior of the place to my satisfaction, I made a mental note to myself to add a little of their decor to my business, if the need for renovations ever came up. As I went in, Colin spotted me before I saw him. He was sitting at what had to be the best table in the place. He smiled and waved me over. I could see no signs of his bodyguards. "Is it just me, or are you looking even better than you did at the airport?" he teased. "Really? Well, I think you need your eyes examined.” We laughed and I felt myself already relaxing. Colin beckoned to someone over my shoulder. A waiter came forward to take our orders. As we waited for him to bring our f
DAMIAN I didn't want to miss her, or have her sneak off to work without seeing her. Lately, she seemed to be avoiding contact with me—leaving early to work and returning late so we wouldn’t have to see each other frequently. But I would be waiting for her today. She came down the stairs a while later, hesitated on the bottom stairs when she saw me, but gave up on her hide and seek game. I gritted my teeth. If she thought she was going to leave without giving me a plausible explanation as to why she had returned home late that night, then she was mistaken. I didn’t care about her schedule but the terms of the contract had to be obeyed. She kept her eyes firmly fixed in the direction of the door. "We need to talk right now," I said in a tone of barely suppressed anger. She stopped in her tracks. "About what?” she glanced around before her eyes settled on me. "About what you did last night," I said sharply. "Since when have you begun returning home late? Do you know how c
DAMIAN Goddamnit! What were the bloody odds that I would run into the very person whose existence had gotten me all worked up today? Could this shitty day get even more shittier? I noticed Mr bloody Techfy was sizing me up just as I was doing the same. The thing was, he had me at a distinct disadvantage because while he stood there looking all immaculate in a natty suit, the front of my trousers were soaked right through so that it seemed I had just pissed myself. "I'm so sorry about this," Colin said. The sympathetic bartender also murmured an apology. He handed me a paper towel which Colin took from him and held out to me. I completely ignored it, grabbed one off the counter and mopped up my trousers as best as I could. Colin stooped, picked up the glass and handed it over to the bartender. The bartender looked like he wanted to say something to me, but wisely moved away after I shot him a glare. "My bad," Colin murmured. "I just wasn't looking-" "Damn right, you weren'
AMELIA I stuffed a large piece of toast into my mouth and tried to swallow. It was hard to. I grabbed my cup of coffee and drank half the coffee so fast my eyes started to water. The toast eventually slid down my throat and I sighed in relief. I still ate quickly but a lot more carefully now. I wanted to finish eating breakfast before Damian woke up, not choke myself to death. Practically running away from the house so as not to confront Damain was a cowardly move, I knew that. But this morning, I could not bear to face Damian's wrath. He was sure to be pissed about my date with Colin. Though I knew I had held my own during our argument last night, arguing with him wasn't something I was looking forward to doing on a daily basis. I accidentally scalded my tongue as I tried to gulp down the remaining coffee when I heard footsteps approaching. I visibly relaxed when I seconds later, I saw it was Molly, and not Damian as I had thought. "Yes, Molly. What is it?" I asked. Please,
DAMIAN "Oh sir. You are back." Molly dropped the rag she was using to clean the cooker. She hurried over to me. "Hi. You're busy here I see." She nodded, eyed the grocery bags I had just laid on the counter and reached for them. I shook my head. "Don't bother. I will take care of this. Go home. You have the evening off." "Really? Thanks Mr Damian." I watched her hurry out the kitchen door. I turned to the bags of groceries I had picked up on the way to work. "Here I go," I muttered to myself as I rolled up my sleeves and began unpacking the groceries in preparation for making dinner. On the menu tonight was Amelia's favourite meal and of course, fried chicken. She was partial to fried chicken. I didn't hurry the process, partly because I had come home from work much earlier than usual to cook, and also because I wanted the meal to be finger-licking perfect. Minutes later, the kitchen was filled with the aroma of delicious food. An hour before Amelia was due to come ho
AMELIA Why did life have to be so damn difficult? That was the first thought I had the moment I opened my eyes the next morning. Right now, my life was not only difficult, but complicated too. I heaved a sigh and practically had to drag myself out of bed. I did not feel well rested. Not one bit. With battling feelings of guilt, confusion, sadness and more guilt, I had gone to sleep really late last night. And then to top it all up, I had fallen asleep with an image of Damian's hurt expression in my mind's eye. The emotional torture continued this morning as I padded barefoot into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I could not stop thinking about what had happened last night, about what Damain had said. I wanted badly, so badly, for things to go back to the way there were before between Damain and I. I missed our closeness, our camaraderie. I missed the intimacy. All I had to do was close my eyes and it would seem as though I could feel his hands sliding along my- "Ow!" I le
DAMIAN "And why can't you ever give me any practical advice?" I snapped at Anton. He opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again. "How on earth am I supposed to do that if you haven't told me what the problem is yet. I'm not a wizard. Neither am I a mind reader." After a moment's reflection, I realized that Anton was actually right. I hadn't told him anything yet. All I had told him was that I was on the verge of loosing it. I took it for granted that everyone knew my problem. How could they not when I wore it like a batch, day in and day out? I forced myself to stop drumming on the table. To keep them still, I laced my fingers together. "The problem is Amelia," I began. “She’s driving me crazy and trust me, I’ve seen all kind of crazy.” "Aaah. I should have known. She seems to be the only one who can manage to get you this worked up. What has she done this time?" "It's more like what hasn't she done? Ever since her mother left, we have gone back to square one. The first
AMELIA It was like it happened in slow motion. I watched it happen, but I was so surprised that I could not do anything about it. I felt Colin's hands leave my shoulders. My leg throbbed as my knee buckled without his support. As I turned quickly to know why Colin had just stopped supporting, Damian punched Colin in the face in full view of the busy street. Right in front of the reporters. Right in the front of the whole world, because sure as hell, those cameras were streaming what was happening, live. For a long moment, I was speechless. The force of the blow made Colin stagger back a step. He cried out, clapped a hand to his face. Colin's face contorted in rage as he yelled, "How dare you?" Damian growled something intelligible, made a fist and advanced. Colin began to charge forward. My paralysis broke then and I stepped in front of the men. "Stop!" I cried. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Damian?" "Step aside," Colin barked from behind me. "Colin. No. P