BEYOND THE LINES
“Breath in, breathe out and tell me what on earth is wrong,” Reid said, trying to contain his frustration.
“I need to get my ass inside a plane and not drive. I need to get the hell out of this town as soon as I can. That’s what’s wrong!” she grinned her teeth out of anger, sadness, frustration and above all hurt.
She was hurt that things keep happening to people at the lowest end of the equilibrium. It’s never balanced and they are always at the receiving end. It sucks!
“Okay, listen. I need you to calm down. We’re gonna have it sorted out and you’re gonna be out of this town,” he assured as he thought hard for a second. Maria’s face was buried in her palm already, thinking hard about what to do.
At that moment, it was like having a hard time for a long time and just the slightest thing puts you off the edge.
Reid picked his phone up and called his P. A to arrange a plane for them as soon as he could. That was one of the power within a billionaire’s reach.
“What?” Maria looked bewildered as Reid dropped the call. “No. No. You don’t have to do this. I could probably find a different way out.
“Uhmm. Like fly?” he joked and he looked away from him, looking down at her thighs.
“It’s all settled, Maria. Now, let’s drive,” Maria looked at him as though he was a different person. She most definitely needed the help and there was no point in declining a kind gesture towards her.
“Now go on, hurry!”
“Uhmm, yeah,” she replied as she fumbled to ignite the car.
A few moments had passed and Reid keeps looking over at Maria who seems to be bothered by a totally different thing other than the drive at the moment.
“Maria,” he called softly but there was no response from her. “Tell me what’s wrong?” He pressed on. He had noticed her countenance since they began the drive and knew there was definitely something wrong. He had managed to sort out her worry at least, he expected to see her happy but her look remained the same.
Her gaze was unchangeably fixed on the strip road without diverting a single glance off it.
She raised the accelerator and was speeding faster than a gazelle, this caught Reid’s mind more as he held onto his seatbelt tightly as he yelled her name but she didn’t respond.
“Maria!!” he shouted again but still, there was no response from her except for the increase in speed.
“You are gonna get us fucking killed!” he yelled again and that seems to do the wonder when she stepped swiftly on the brake, causing it to stop abruptly.
“You are gonna get us both killed,” he repeated with uneven breathing as she parked by the roadside. He opened the car door, coughing like he was going to throw up.
“You are gonna get us killed,” he repeated, breathing heavily.
“I’m… I’m sorry… I… I think I must have lost it for a minute. I’m really sorry,” she fumbled for words as she gasped for air.
“Are you okay?” she asked out of concern.
“I get it! You hate me so much for liking you and you don’t give two shit about me. I get that what happened this morning was an unforgivable occurrence and you’re gonna leave me guilty for the rest of my life but I’m sorry, okay?” he rushed the words out without even blinking.
“We’re almost there, yeah?” she asked him without giving any thoughts to his words.
“I’ll do the driving!” he ascertained instead as he got down from the car to the other side and Maria had no choice but to get off and let him drive.
“I need to see my mum as fast as possible. She’s dying,” Maria said softly, so low that Reid could barely hear her speak.
“What?” he asked her so she could repeat herself.
“My mum is dying,” she repeated as tears rolled down her cheeks. This broke Reid’s heart as he does not want to see her cry.
“I’m sorry,” he managed to say before stepping on the accelerator and hopping like an antelope.
“I’m sorry, Maria,” he whispered as Maria’s eyes shut and she drifted off to sleep.
****
She turned lazily in bed as her alarm chimed loudly, disrupting her peaceful sleep and almost clogging her ears. She groaned louder when the sound wouldn’t stop, even after she had managed to wake up.
It had been a while since she slept well. She had been with her mum at the hospital for the past two weeks and obviously, sleeping at the hospital is like sleeping on a rope.
Distinctively, the love she has for her family was beyond an explainable detail for her.
A few weeks had passed and thankfully, her mum was recovering from the fall. It ended up not being a big issue to worry about. She had been with her family throughout those two weeks and now, it was time to get back to work.
She headed out earlier than her usual early morning work routine to get her usual coffee from her usual coffee shop.
She hurried up to her car as the morning sun was no longer dispensing its normal vitamin since it was getting hotter by the minute. Thankfully, she had applied her sunscreen.
A few minutes later, she was pulling up in front of the restaurant and with her coffee in hand, she got off, trying her possible best to avoid the harshness of the sun on her skin before she walked in.
“Good morning, ma’am. It’s so good to see you,” a couple of her workers greeted her with a smile on their faces as she walked to her office.
“Thank you,” she said with a little wave.
She got to her office and there, Genevieve was waiting patiently for her.
“I thought I was waiting for the rapture,” the young woman joked as she stood and they hugged, air-kissing in the process.
“Goodness, I wasn’t expecting to see you,” Maria retorted before sitting directly opposite her.
“I bet you didn’t. It’s been a while and it seems as though you were never coming to the gallery,”
“I had plans to visit today. I have been extremely skeptical about what painting to choose,”
“I doubt that exactly should be a problem. Reid would do the choosing,”
Reid. Talking of Reid. She hadn’t heard from him since he left the day they both drove to see her mum. She doesn’t exactly know if things should go on normal between them even after every incident that happened back to back.
Cynically, she would have chosen to stay far away from him but he kept pestering her about his said love for her and not like she could escape seeing him at the restaurant whenever he came over.
“That’s fine,” she ascertained.
“Let’s go then,” Gen retorted.
“Now?”
“Yes. Now,”
“When is Reid coming?”
“He should be here…” she raised her wrist to check the time and just in time, Reid walked in.
“Now,” she concluded with a slight smile on her lips.
“What took you so long?” Gen scolded and he scoffed.
“Let’s go,” Reid said, staring through Maria’s soul and making her uncomfortable.
As Gen stood and walked out, Maria and Reid walked steadily behind her.
“We’ll join you soon,” Reid said to Gen who turned to look back at them as Reid pulled Maria towards the office.
“Uhmmm. How have you been?” he asked with his hand resting in his pocket.
“I’m good,” she answered with a straight face
“I promise, I was going to give a call to at least know how things were going and all,”
Maria raised her hand, signalling to him to his up his words.
“It’s pretty fine. You did what you could do and it was enough,”
“I’m sorry for what happened,”
“My mum is okay now. You don’t have to be sorry,”
“No. Not that. I mean, yeah, I’m sorry for that but I’m not referring to that,”
The reality of him talking about what happened to them was enough to give a lump in her throat as she swallowed hard, severally.
“Maria, I’m talking about the…” he was interrupted by her.
“It’s fine! It doesn’t even mean anything. I was sad and you tried to console me. There is not much to that, right?”
He looked hurt but he covered it up with a smile.
“Yeah, it meant nothing. There was absolutely nothing much to it,” he answered.
Maria smiled broadly at him, nodding her head in agreement before they both walked out of the office.
He looked at her as she walked right in front of him, swaying her hips to the side as her ass jiggled in her dress.
He shut his eyes for a nano-second before affirming in his heart. “How can I lose you? I’m not letting go.”