She kept staring at him as she lied on his rock hard chest while Tom slowly drifted back to sleep. When she came to her senses, she flew up and quickly rushed out of the room back to the studio, she could not understand the feeling that was going on with her body because she was familiar with it but she knew it shouldn’t be, he’s her boss.
It’s not like she haven’t fall in love before so she knew that she was crushing on him right now. She quickly shook her head and slapped her cheeks several times so she can wake up to the reality before puffing out two rounds of air from her tensed lungs.
She spent all day catching up with the world of art by reading the books he picked out for her while he was sleeping soundly on the sofa. She was happy to stay at that place because she didn’t want to stay in the same house with Emily who is always restless and uncomfortable around the house. Although she was enjoying her display of guilty show, she still needed to give herself space because she’s not ready to listen to her, at least not her.
After two more hours, he woke up and they left the house to drop her at her own house since she didn’t have a car.
“Thank you for today” he told her and she smiled before replying “I had fun and I think I am falling in love with art now. I look forward to our partnership” and got down from the car after waving him a goodbye.
She was about entering the apartment when she noticed a familiar figure waiting by the visitor’s desk. She rolled her eyes and walked past the desk as if she didn’t see him but he ran up to her to pull her by the hand.
“I know you saw me here, why did you walk past me? Am I that insignificant to you?” Eddy said to her with a sober tone and she shook his hand away. “Are you shameless or you are brazen? How can you even think of touching me? What exactly do you want from me?” she lashed back and he sighed with his head hung low.
“Amber please, just give me a chance to explain. You are not picking up my calls and you are not reply my chats, so I have no choice than to wait for you here” he pleaded and she folded her hand.
“And what do you want to say? What exactly is that urgent explanation that you want to give that is making you wait for me here?” she questioned
He scratched his head for a bit before opening his mouth to reply her that “I wanted to clear up the things between us. I am sorry for going behind your back to date Emily but we already had a thing for each other before I met you, we just didn’t know. I wanted to explain to you but you were always not available, you don’t like to talk long on call and you don’t have the time to chat for long. You were always in your own comfortable world without giving two cent about me. It was supposed to be a relationship but I always felt left out, you were never the communicative type so I had no choice but to…” he ranted but he was cut short by the loud slap from angry Amber.
“What an imbecile” she muttered with a fuming chest before moving closer to him. “I see that you came here today to show me my fault and make me realize that I was the one at fault, that I was the one that pushed you to cheat on me with Emily. You are a trash that can’t even be recycled, what a waste of emotions I have invested in you. Ever since I came to Chicago, you were the first person that opened his arms to me and I embraced you with everything I had. I let you know my strength and weaknesses, I never did anything suspicious and every little time I have left after my strenuous work was always spent to make up for the time I wasn’t available but I am not what? I am not the communicative type? I don’t talk long on call or chat? When did you text me that I didn’t reply as soon as I saw it?” she yelled at him angrily.
“I am not even telling you to come back and beg me but here you are spewing a lot of nonsense about how everything that happened was my fault but well, you are not entirely wrong. It was my fault for being the dumb one, I couldn’t realize it when you were both cheating right under my nose, and I shut down every suspicions because I believed firmly that you were both friends. I made sure to respect your friendship and didn’t whine about your closeness but look at what I got? I was still the wrong one at the end of the day” she added, getting worked up so much that she was sweating profusely.
She marched closer to him and pointed her hand in his face, “Don’t ever show up in front of me anymore and my number? Get rid of it because if you mistakenly dial it or chat me up, I will get you arrested for stalking, you sick bastard!” she growled at him and stomped into the elevator.
The tears were already welling up in her eyes but she tried her best to push them back by raising her chin a little as the elevator traveled to her floor. She opened the door and saw Emily rushing out of the sitting room to her room but she rushed after her and pulled her hair back.
“You bitch! How dare you try to run away from me? You are the cause of everything” she cursed at her and threw her on the sofa as she dragged her all around in a fist fight.
Emily was crying because of her hair firmly held by angry Amber, it was so painful that she couldn’t even return the beatings she was receiving from her. When she managed to get lose from her grip, she sprinted into her room and locked the door immediately.
Amber’s chest was rising and falling with every breath she was taking mixed with anger. She was so livid that her temperature was rising. She walked straight to her room and yanked off her clothes to take a cold shower when Tom’s call came through.
“Amber, you forgot your clothes in the car. I will send it by a courier tomorrow” he informed her and she closed her eyes for a bit to rub her throbbing forehead before responding, “Alright, thank you sir” and the call got disconnected.
She had even forgotten about the clothes that got mixed with paint, she had it packaged and wore the gown Tom bought for her home. She was conscious of the shortness but ever since Eddy riled her up, nothing mattered to her anymore.
***
She visited her mom at the hospital the following day and paid the deposit for the week before the nurse starts to call her. She helped her out of the room to have some fresh air according to her request. She was hesitating if she should reveal the truth to her mother or just let it go quietly, she was still contemplating on what to do when her mother spoke up.
“I haven’t seen Eddy in a while, is he that busy?” the mother asked and she paused for a bit. She closed her eyes briefly before crouching in front of her mother’s wheelchair, “We broke up” she responded in a low but sad tone and her mother could not believe her ears.
“You broke up? Why? Eddy is such a gentle and loving man so what happened?” her mother questioned with a confused expression
Amber only answered with “Things happened and we both went our separate ways” and stood to her feet but her mother would not take that for an answer. “What do you mean things happened? Of course, things have to happen but that is supposed to make you both stronger and not split up” her mother queried but she ignored.
“You should call him and make up with him, if you are both proving stubborn then it will never work out” her mother advised, holding her hand gently but she flung the hand away angrily. “Why should I call him and make up with him when he’s sleeping with my roommate?” she hollered and her mother went mute for several seconds.
What she heard was too weighty that it didn’t register in her head for some seconds. She just sat there blinking to the revelation her daughter just made to her. She gently took her daughter’s hand and drew her closer to her shoulder.
“You were smiling brightly as if nothing happened, why didn’t you share it with me? I know that you will not tell me if I didn’t press you that way. When you are hurt, do tell me. You have to share it with me because I am your mother. I might be sick and confined in this hospital but I can still listen your talks, I want to know what is going on with you and how you are coping. I am a mother who understands that there are ups and downs, I don’t expect you to be happy every time so anytime you feel so down, you have to tell me” her mother softly comforted as she patted her shoulder and that made her burst into tears.
She sobbed on her mother’s shoulder like a poor and her mother was patient enough to lend her the shoulder for as long as she wanted. They ended up taking a stroll together and talked about some other things to lighten her mood before taking her back to her room and left for the day.
****
She got back to the office on the following Monday morning and was sorting out the requests they had over the weekend and other offers when a mail dropped in for her. Tom had given her the Umbra email which he gave to Lawrence so she can have access to it at any moment.
She opened the mail and read the content “You are invited to the L’expression de la jeunesse (Expression of youth)’s exhibition”. She read all the details about where it would be holding, the activities involved and also things to expect. She scrolled down to see that the event date is the following month.
“I have a lot to prepare for now, the game is about to begin” she mumbled to herself as she glued her face to the screen in front of her with a heavy weight of if she will do well or not on her heart.