I was annoyed with what Samer did because he had the audacity to come to my house, knowing that I’m still angry with him. Why is it that when I tried to distance myself, he keeps on pursuing me? Ugh, I’m tired. Maybe it’s better if I just live alone for the rest of my life, so I won’t have to worry about anything else except my child.
“Do you no longer want me?” he asked when he caught me in the living room.
“Why are you asking me, Sam? Between the two of us, you were the one who changed first. You chose to be with your ex even though I didn’t want it, even though it hurt me! And now, you’re asking me if I no longer want you? Maybe,” I replied.
“There’s nothing between Kate and me except that she’s the mother of my children,” Samer explained.
“I know that she’s the mother of your children, but why? Why did you let something happen between the two of you while I was just in the next room? Weren’t you bothered that while you were with her, I was just on the other side waiting for you to come back?” I reminded him of the whole incident that changed how we treated each other.
“That was just an accident,” Samer tried to make an excuse.
“Oh, come on, Sam! What kind of accident are you talking about? If I told you it was just an accident that something happened between Brent and me, would you believe it? No, right? So, don’t fool me!” I scolded him, and I saw that it struck a chord.
“Did something happen between you and that guy?” His voice raised slightly, but I didn’t answer and just rolled my eyes. “Tell me the truth, Jamie!” Samer shouted as he grabbed my arm.
“You have no right to ask me that,” I said and glared at him. “I just want a peaceful life, Sam, and you can’t give that to me. Leave.”
“I won’t leave,” Samer insisted.
After spending many years living under the same roof, I know that the man can be quite stubborn. But I’m equally stubborn.
“Suit yourself, I’m going to sleep now,” I said and headed back to the stairs to go to my room.
“I’ll hang out outside, and I don’t care if I get eaten alive by mosquitoes,” Samer threatened.
“Well, go outside then! You’re old enough, and you know you’re allergic to mosquitoes,” I warned him before I left him.
When I entered my room, I made sure to lock the door to prevent Samer from coming in again. I felt confident that he wouldn’t leave the house because he knows what happens when he gets too much mosquito bites. I turned off the lights in my room, and only the lampshade on the right side of the bed provided dim lighting to the whole room.
I was lying down when I decided to peek outside the window. I gently moved the thick curtain aside and accidentally gasped when I saw Samer standing outside the house. He was looking towards my room, and I immediately got worried that he might have noticed me peeping.
I went back to bed and covered myself with a thick comforter. I tried to sleep and ignore the fact that Samer was outside, being attacked by mosquitoes. I had to take deep breaths because I couldn’t close my eyes knowing he was out there, getting bitten.
I waited for an hour before I decided to peek again, and he was still there. Geez, he’s really stubborn! The smell of my nose came out of the room, and I quickly went downstairs and opened the door. I scolded him as I approached.
“You’re like a child!” I reprimanded him and pulled him back inside the house. When I looked at his face, he had a smirk as if he was happy with what happened, almost giving me hypertension because of his stubbornness. “What is it?” I yelled at him.
“Listen to my explanations, Jamie!” Samer pleaded, but I pretended to be deaf to what he said.
“I’m not deaf, Sam, so I heard that! Do I need to believe you right away just because I heard it?” I asked him.
“Why is it so hard to talk to you?” Samer sighed, seemingly giving up on convincing me if I may call his actions convincing.
“I’m not, I just don’t want to talk to you nicely,” I told him.
“Jamie, please! Are all our memories together worthless?” he asked.
I smiled when he tried to use our shared memories. “For me, they were valuable, but you just threw them all away because of Kate,” I reminded him that I was not the first one to let go of our relationship; it was him.
“Please forgive me,” Samer apologized repeatedly, but he had no plans of giving it a second chance.
“I already forgave you, so you can leave now,” I said.
“You promised me that you would only love me,” he reminded me of our vow when our friendship leveled up.
“You also promised,” I replied.
“I’m willing to start over,” the man suggested.
“You can start over without me,” I responded to his earlier statement. I continued to be stubborn, but when Samer suddenly knelt in front of me, I lost my words to continue arguing. “What are you doing?”
“Give me another chance to show you how much I love you,” Samer pleaded.
I sighed as I helped him stand up. “Kneeling in front of me doesn’t suit you,” I told him.
“Please, Jamie?”
“Thirty days, Sam,” I said, and he furrowed his brow. It’s normal that he didn’t understand what I meant because I didn’t explain it properly.
“No matter what you ask me to do within those thirty days, I’m willing to do it all,” Samer promised.
“Follow me,” I told him and led him to my home office. While my office at Khalifa had a picture of a man hanging on the wall, I had my own picture hanging there.
As soon as I opened the door, Samer was immediately taken aback. He looked as if he saw a ghost when he noticed the picture hanging on the wall. When I followed his gaze, he was still staring at that painting.
“If I only knew that this is what I’d see in your office,” Sam whispered in a voice almost too low for me to understand.
I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to explain properly. “What are you going to do?” I asked when he refused to complete his earlier statement.
“If I had known, I would have come here every day,” Samer said.
“Pervert!” I scolded him because he still couldn’t take his eyes off the painting. “What’s so special about that picture when it’s just me there?” I asked him.
“Who made the painting?” Samer inquired.
I was annoyed with his numerous questions. “Do you want me to get angry with you again?” I threatened him. Fortunately, he heeded my warning and behaved. He quietly sat in an empty chair in front of my desk.
“Who?” he asked again.
“You’re so persistent. Why don’t you just leave so I can get a good night’s sleep? It seems you don’t want to accept my challenge,” I said, about to get up and leave the office.
“Wait,” Samer called me.
“You’re too curious. It’s better if you don’t ask,” I said because I knew what was going on in Samer’s mind. He wanted to know the identity of the artist who drew his nudity.
“Were you disrespectful when you did that?” Samer asked again.
“Why would I disrespect myself?” I countered because I was the one who painted that nude painting.
“You? How did you manage to hide that talent from me?” Samer released another question, but I didn’t care.
“You seem more interested in the painting than the things I’m asking you to do. You said you’re ready to prove to me that you truly love me,” I reminded him, and only then did he lower his gaze. “Why?” I asked when I noticed that his way of looking at me was different.
“Your chest looks bigger in person,” he said jokingly.
“Whatever! Go ahead and disrespect me to end this conversation!” I warned Samer. “Don’t forget that your status with me is still uncertain, so don’t get ahead of yourself,” I said. I took a post-it note and wrote on it. “Can you do it?”
Samer laughed loudly when he read the note from Jamie’s handwriting. “Just this?” He said as if challenging me to make it harder.
“Yes! But you don’t even have a cellphone,” I said to him. Actually, I didn’t know if he had a cellphone or not. I just guessed.
“I’ll get it from the hotel and come back,” Samer said, but I shook my head because that’s not allowed.
“If you leave now, you won’t find me here tomorrow,” I told him.
“That’s unfair!” Samer complained.
“Don’t want to?” I asked him, and he didn’t answer right away.
“I do,” Samer replied.
“So, tomorrow again? Just use the guest room you used before,” I told him.
“Good thing because something happened in that room that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” Samer said.
I felt my cheeks heat up when I remembered what happened, so I quickly changed the subject before Samer could notice. How could I forget the night I surrendered my flag to my friend?
I was still enjoying my dream when suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. I quickly got up to ask the man outside what he needed. We had an agreement last night that he wouldn’t wake me up and just text me instead.
As I opened the door, Samer’s smiling face greeted me. He seemed freshly showered judging by his damp hair, but it could also be that he just sprayed water on it to make it look wet.
“Good morning, honeybunch!” he cheerfully greeted me, but I didn’t smile back.
I was sticking to my plan of being strict when it comes to his advances. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again, so I needed to be careful.
“It’s still early, Sam,” I told him, and when I looked back at my bed, I felt like going back to sleep. I slept late last night due to overthinking. “What do you need?” I asked him.
“Breakfast is ready, let’s go,” he said. “I wanted to bring the food here, but you’ll enjoy it better if we eat there. Come on!”
“I’ll just change quickly,” I told him because I wasn’t wearing a bra yet, and it would be embarrassing to go straight to the dining table without fixing myself.
“Come on! We’re the only ones here,” he suggested.
“I don’t want to! You might still ogle at me,” I refused his suggestion.
“Am I a pervert right away? I just looked, and you’re already calling me a pervert,” Samer complained in a soft voice.
“You go ahead,” I told him, but he suddenly entered. I shouted at him and ordered him to leave immediately, but the jerk just went straight to my bed and lay down there. “What are you doing?” I asked him.
“I’ll wait for you, so hurry up if you don’t want me to sleep here waiting,” he threatened.
“You’re not in a position to order me,” I reminded him.
“What position should I be in? Like this?” he asked, changing his lying position as if trying to seduce an old maid. Samer could be such a brat sometimes. His mischievous side comes out whenever they have arguments.
Did he think I could dress properly when he was watching? Whatever! I took the robe hanging there and put it on over my pajamas.
“Let’s go,” I said and headed to the door.
He shrugged and followed me because his attempt to seduce me didn’t work. Maybe the man thought he could use his good looks to persuade me. Well, he already did that before, so it won’t work this time!
When we arrived in the kitchen, I was amazed by the amount of food he prepared. I furrowed my brow because I couldn’t remember the time when he cooked. It was impossible for him to have done it himself since the food on the table was like that of a hotel’s.
“Yeah, of course. You know I’m not good at cooking. Take a seat,” he said to me, trying to be a gentleman. “I just need to get something,” he said after he helped me sit down as if both my feet were crippled.
“Okay,” I said.
He returned after a short while, holding a bouquet of flowers. I secretly smiled when I saw how beautiful the orchids were that he brought. However, the color and size of the flowers seemed familiar to me. Just yesterday, I watered those in the garden.
I got up in anger and snatched the flowers from his hand. “How did you do this to me?” I confronted him while my eyes were fixed on the beautiful flowers from my garden.
“Which one?” Samer asked back.
“Why did you cut the flowers?” I asked him again, but he just furrowed his brow.
“I don’t understand you, but flowers for you,” he said, looking at the flowers I was holding.
“These really came from the garden, so they’re mine,” I said.
“What came from the garden? I had these delivered here by Rhea,” he asked, then he held my arm and led me out of the house.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked him.
“To the garden, so you can see that I’m telling the truth,” he insisted.
When we arrived in the garden, I felt a little embarrassed because none of the flowers were missing. “I thought these were from the garden. They have the same color,” I explained.
“That’s why I chose to buy these because I knew you liked the band’s flowers,” Samer replied.
I admit that I was touched by what he said because he knew even the not-so-important details about my likes. “You asked Rhea, didn’t you?” I accused him of using his influence to get information from my secretary.
“No way! I’ve known for a long time that you like these,” Samer answered.
“Thank you,” I said, because what else could I say to him. “You shouldn’t have had food delivered here,” I told him as we walked back to the dining room.
“You ran out of stocks,” he said.
“What do you mean, ran out? I have plenty,” I replied because I really had a lot of stocks in my pantry, although they were mostly canned goods and instant ones.
“If Kate comes here and picks a fight with me, everything will be over for us, Sam. Even our friendship will end,” I warned him.
“We already talked, and she won’t cause any more trouble,” he said to me.
“Really? Then what’s this?” I took out my cellphone and showed him the message from his ex, who seemed to have nothing better to do than to bother me.