CHAPTER 4

Chapter 4

Mark's POV

That night I almost lost two of the most important women in my life.

First, justy left, but I checked my location on my phone and it told me that she was only a 15-minute drive away at a three-star hotel, so I decided to give her the night to cool off.

Lucia wasn't as easy.

She was always such a sensitive soul. After seeing how Justy had honestly overreacted, she wanted us to break up.

She was already packing up her things, throwing them into a suitcase. If she threw a top in, I was fishing it out the next second.

Lucia would get angry, pout, and try to put it in again. We continued this for a while until she burst into tears.

“Stop trying to stop me, Mark bear I need to leave.”

Hearing her call me by that usual term of endearment made me turn into mush inside.

“I won't do it, I can't live without you Lucia. Baby you know I love you?”

We ended up having makeup s*x, it was hot, it was messy, and it was just what we needed.

I made sure that she was too exhausted to even have the strength to walk away from me, both literally and figuratively.

She woke up in the middle of the night brushing her nose against my chest and almost getting me riled up for another round.

“What if your friend doesn't come back? What if she tells your parents about us?” Lucia asked already shaking in my arms.

“I don't want your parents to disown you, I would never be able to forgive myself if that happened,”

I stroked her hair, my fingers combing through the strands, and as always, this regular rhythm calmed her down.

“Justy isn't like that, don't worry tomorrow I'll convince her to come back. She's just angry for now but Justy has never been able to stay angry at me.”

I mean, we just say it was always how high she needed to jump for me, not if she would.

Like any other woman, she still has her pride, of course, she'll be upset tonight, but by tomorrow, she'll miss me too much and beg me to take her back.

Morning came, and I left Lucia with bundles of reassurance and went to the hotel to see her.

I even paid more attention to my appearance that morning, not like I needed to really put in much effort with the kind of genetic lottery I won from birth.

She saw me, and she wasn't impressed. Not only that, but she still looked just as angry as yesterday.

I was nearly worried when I told myself that she was merely pulling an act for my attention.

Keeping that in mind I carried on through our conversation.

At the end of it agreed to come back.

I planned to really crank up the charm for the next 7 months, I'll have her eating out of the palm of my hand before she knows it.

But she wasn't making this easy though, I soon realized.

She took her things to a separate guest room, she was up before the sun and back when the moon was high up in the sky.

On the rare occasions that we bumped into each other, she treated me like furniture and went about her day.

Lucia told me that it was the same with her too.

“She doesn't say good morning to me even when I say it first, I try to help her out with some things but she won't even let me,” she said to me once in bed before breaking into tears.

This was really affecting poor Lucia's mental health.

Morning came one day, and I woke up extra early to catch Justy in the kitchen making her morning coffee. She had a very particular way of making her coffee, which was probably why she was not just buying it outside.

“Morning, Justy,” I gave her a pleasant greeting to break the ice. She mumbled something between breaths that I couldn't understand, and I sighed, watching her work.

I tried to cut through the rest between the two of us even if it was just a little bit.

All I got back were coldness and one-word answers.

Yeesh, she's being really petty about this.

“Just we need to talk, it's about Lucia,” I said just as she was about to tip her mug filled with freshly made coffee to her lips, she lowered it down until it was at her mid-section then responded; “I have nothing to say about you and your mistress,”

Mistress, the word ticked at me immediately. Technically, that was what Lucia was, but it was such a bad name, I didn't want her to be referred to like that.

“Please there's no need to call her names,”

“It's not a name I'm just describing to her, it's not my fault that the shoe fits,”

Now I was getting agitated, I pushed away from the island that I was leaning on casually and asked; “How long do you plan to hate her? You might not know this because you haven't spoken to her, but Lucia is one of the most fragile and kindest people you will ever meet, being ignored like this really messes with her head and…”

I was explaining something to her, and her first reaction was to throw her head back, bursting into laughter.

By the time she was done, she finally looked at me, not at some kitchen equipment or utensil, but me directly for the first time in days.

“Are you being for real right now?”

That was when I saw the eye bags, the red real in her eyes that told me that she had been crying non-stop, her collarbone sticking out proving she hadn't had a proper meal in forever.

Suddenly, I felt horrible for not noticing sooner, but right now, Lucia was my number one priority, and Justy was strong, so she could handle a little stress, but not my poor Lucia.

“I was wondering…” I said finally gliding into it, “... Why don't you try being friends with Lucia?”