WHEN ALLAN SCREAMED Layla’s name and raised his hand, as if wanting to throw the rock at their house, she decided that it was high time she put him in his proper place.She retreated from the broken window.“Call the police!” she told Lillian who was standing beside her mother beside the sofa in the living area, a few feet away from the windows. She ran to the door and got out, ignoring calls from her Lillian and her mother. But when she rushed to the door, she saw Allan already involved in a fisticuff with another man—her brother Cedric.All her blood rushed to her head. “Stop! Stop!” she screamed as she approached the two men fighting, scared that Allan had a knife with him and would use it against her brother, furious that Allan wouldn’t stop harassing her. She grabbed the shirt of Allan at the back and pulled him away from her brother, almost tearing it. He could stab all he wanted but spare her brother or any member of her family. Then, she pushed Allan away from her and towards

AMBERT’S PHONE RANG while he was in car on his way to meet Allan, who according to Anika was a very obnoxious—and quite dangerous—man. He had been harassing not only Layla but also her family, and hearing about it made his blood boil. He looked at his phone and saw an unknown but vaguely familiar number—Layla’s.“Hello,” he answered it.“Hello,” Layla greeted back, and he couldn’t deny that hearing her voice again delighted him. “Sir Ambert?”“Yes, this is Ambert.”“Sir, t-this is Layla,” she replied, stammering a bit.And he already had a guess on why she was calling him. Anika called her an hour ago to tell him that Layla called her in the wee hours of the night to talk about her dream where he was stabbed and apparently killed by Allan. Layla was scared that it would happen in real life—some of her past dreams served as a premonition of bad things to happen— so she wanted him to avoid talking face to face with Allan. A phone call would probably suffice to make a deal with Allan, or

AMBERT GLANCED AT the side view mirror as they were leaving the parking lot of the restaurant and saw Sadie, still standing beside her car, looking stupefied, but still beautiful with the wind playing gently with her hair. Of course, she should look stumped as was expecting that he’d fall to his knees and obey her and call Allan to get back the check like she had ordered him—and she was surprised that it didn’t happen. They had lots of arguments in the past—some serious, many petty—and the only way these conversations would end was he should acquiesce to her. She only allowed arguments to end if she had won it. CEOs, COOs, VIPs, wealthy, influential people, some of them even crafted government policies that affected millions of people, listened to Ambert, took his advice— but not his girlfriend. He leaned back to his seat and sighed. Looking back, he she seemed to treat her as a subordinate when it came to their relationship.Back at the parking lot, if he was a wily and conniving man

LAYLA’S CELL PHONE beeped while she was at her desk, busy chatting on Facebook Messenger on her laptop. She picked up her phone and saw Anika’s text message. Come to my office, she told her. She left the conversation on her laptop and stood up and with her phone in her hand, walked towards her boss’ office.Anika, who was tinkering with her own cell phone, smiled generously at her when she peeked through the slightly-opened door, like her boss was a flower and she the sunlight she needed, and Anika gestured her to come inside. She walked inside and sat at the vacant chair in front of her desk. Anika put the phone down on her desk and asked her, “So I heard you already heard the good news about Allan?”She flashed her a shy smile. ‘Yes, ma’am,” she answered. “Sir Ambert called me up this morning.”“I’m just curious, maybe, you want to show him your gratitude.”Layla had been thinking on how to show her gratefulness to Ambert, and to Anika. “I-I don’t know how,” she said.Anika laughed.

AMBERT SAW LAYLA closing her eyes as she kissed him before closing his own eyes and letting sweet darkness embrace him. He didn’t need his sight for now; all he needed for now was his sense of taste. And it got stronger when he shut his eyes as he returned his kisses. He had kissed a few pair of lips but he could judge quickly that Layla’s were the sweetest and the softest. He shut his eyes tighter and the sweetness and the softness of her lips intensified, like she was kissing a flower that was currently blooming on his lips and he was sipping all its nectar.He opened his eyes when he felt the hand of Layla on his cheek and saw him staring at him with tear-stained eyes. “I love you,” she said, almost choking with her words. “I love you so much, that’s why I was so scared to be with you because…” She paused and sobbed. “Because I knew that I would die once you found another girl.”He held her hand on his cheek and kissed it. “That would never happen,” he said and looked deeply in her