Hollis woke me up with a gentle tap. Since he insisted that I must sleep in his bed, I did. But instead of placing my pillow under my head, I hugged it to myself. This prevented me from turning over to Hollis during the night.
Although the pattern wasn’t hundred percent certified. It did get the job done when coupled with determination.
I opened my eyes and the sight of Hollis’s tired face gave me a scare. He looked tired, exhausted and worked up.
“I need to talk to you Baby.” He said to me,
I sat up immediately and turned to face him, wondering how long he had been sitting there. Looking at the bedside clock, it was just a few minutes past ten. So I’ve probably only slept for less than an hour.
He was wearing a red T-shirt, making his beautiful features even more noticeable to me. I was now sure that he did these things on purpose. He was seated on the edge of the bed.
“You’re still angry with me,” Hollis said after almost a minute of waiting for me to settle down.
I briefly lifted my eyes but otherwise kept silent. Defeated, he drew closer to me on the bed. His hands passed over his face and halted, brushing through his hair.
“I’ve always dreaded a time like this.” He whispered.
“I’m sorry to be such an inconvenience to you,” I murmured.
He laughed and shook his head. “You know you’ll never be any sort of inconvenience to me. I am happy when you are happy. What do you need me to do for us to get over this phase?”
I could feel the weight of his gaze on me while I cleared my throat and decided to ask another pressing question on my mind. Since I was waiting for Britney and her evidence and Hugh with his explanation, and I couldn’t share these things with Hollis, I decided to diverge my worries to other pressing things.
“I’m not mad about what you might have done to your uncle. I was mad, but not anymore. This is your life and how you live, and it’s not like I’m going to be part of it forever. I have just a couple of months to stick around.” I paused and he squeezed his eyes tight, like I was hurting him with my words. But I continued anyway.
“We had sex…” I said, “Without protection.” I added.
“I’m clean Ugo. I’ve never had unprotected sex ever.” He replied and of course, I believed him instantly.
He didn’t have a reason to lie. If he told me he had STD, would I kill him? Of course not.
“But you had one with me,” I said and swallowed hard.
“That’s because I know you take your sexual health seriously.”
“How so?”
“I know you’re currently on a birth control plan, you’ve taken all your necessary vaccines and you’ve been taking your vitamins.”
My mouth fell open. “You stalker!”
He laughed so sweetly that I couldn’t help but laugh too. He pulled his bedside drawer open and handed me a fat envelope. “Here.” He said, pushing it to me. “These are my recent test results. Had them done, two weeks after our wedding. I haven’t been with any other woman except you since you came into my life.”
My heart melted. Hollis was like a fictional man. A dream-come-through kind of man. But… there’s always a but. He’s a fucking Mafia. If only he wasn’t…
“You can go through them tomorrow morning.” He interrupted my thoughts.
“Okay,” I said.
“So, what do you need, Baby? Are you bored?” He asked, surprising me. I shrugged, instead of offering him an answer. “This place isn’t so bad, is it?” He asked me with an edge of concern in his voice.
“It’s definitely one of the nicer prisons I’ve been in,” I mumbled.
“What If you take up the management of my resorts like I proposed? You haven’t thought about it yet?”
I thought about it. “I think you’ll manage it better than me.” I said, trying to dodge the responsibility. As my mother said, my time here is almost up.
“You’ll manage it better than me.” He insisted.
“Ah, that’s a big dream.” I laughed. “I’m a very poor substitute for you.”
Hollis sat back up, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. I could sense that he was studying me, and I tried to ignore that. “Then let’s do it together. I’ll put you up to date with everything about the resorts and we’ll manage them together.”
I looked down at my fingers and nodded. “Baby, can you look at me?” he asked. “Please.”
I lifted my face and let him see my eyes. His lips curved a little higher, but his eyes remained tight. “I’m sorry, for anything.” He told me. “I hate seeing you sad. So, I’m apologizing, if I’m the reason for this sadness.”
A tear fell from my eyes. I wasn’t ovulating, nor was I menstruating. So, why are my hormones misbehaving? I rounded the bed and threw myself in his arms.
“I’m so sorry.” He murmured against my ear.
“No, you didn’t do anything. None of this is your fault. I’m… I don’t know what came over me.” I sobbed.
He held me tight and kept planting soft kisses all over me. I suddenly felt like a terrible person. How could I listen to Britney? After spending months with Hollis, how the hell could I still listen to someone who knows nothing about this amazing man that I’ve grown to love?
Love? Yes, that was the word. I have fallen head over heels in love with Hollis. And it’s a beautiful and terrifying feeling because I know that being in love with a man like Hollis was like selling my soul to the devil. ‘The not-so-bad devil’ if there’s a word like that.
We ended up seeing a movie instead of going to sleep. I wasn’t feeling sleepy anymore and Hollis wanted to do whatever I felt like doing.
We were watching ‘Rich Skills’, a movie I had wanted so much to see but never had the time. We got to a scene where the main character and his friends were choosing nicknames for themselves.
I giggled at some of the funny nicknames and turned to Hollis, “Did you ever have a nickname?”
He laughed and nodded. “While I was in high school. It was such a funny name.”
“Tell me.” I urged him.
“Tiny.” He said and I laughed.
“What?”
“Yeah,” he continued. “I was sick most of my life. I had ‘osteogenesis imperfecta’. It’s a term for brittle bones. I didn’t really live a very normal childhood. I didn’t always have this much muscle. Had to work my ass out at the gym and practiced bulking for a while before I could get to this.” He explained.