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J
ust one night before her whole life flashed before her eyes and everything she had ever known fell to her feet, things seemed to be pretty calm in Angela's life. She remembered one of the best nights she had with David; the memory stuck to the back of her mind and kept on replaying repeatedly like a broken record on loop.
She remembered the way she had felt when David had turned around and spoken to her with hope in his voice; she remembered the moment clear as day.
“Have you ever thought of what life could be like if we moved far away from the city...the noise and the stress?”
Angela's head was placed gently within David's lap...he was playing with her hair as the sun was beating down on her skin from behind the trees. David had the brilliant idea of going on a picnic at a private park downtown. He had checked all the boxes with the picnic blanket and the wooden basket paired with red wine and, of course, cheese sandwiches.
Until the moment they stepped into the area, covered from top to bottom with greenery and trees on every edge...flowers in various colors as well as a few butterflies here and there, Angela hadn’t thought of just how peaceful life could be.
She looked up as she flinched with the rays of sunlight falling over her face. She could see the same feeling washing over David's body, his fingers laced through her hair, and he looked down at her; their eyes met for a mere moment of bliss as he spoke.
"You know what, that isn't such a bad idea...imagine if we got a huge house by the countryside and had fields layered all around it. Just imagine being away from all the drama."
She stared at him for a few moments as the feeling slowly began to settle in between the two of them. Angela spoke up out of nowhere without even thinking twice about it.
"So why don't we? I mean, why didn't you do something like this before me? Why keep yourself here?"
As soon as the words had left her mouth, she knew that she should have just stayed quiet. She watched as his expression changed suddenly. He shifted uncomfortably in the grass; his fingers were suddenly lifted from where they had previously been knotted in her hair as he cleared his throat. She stared at him; he bit his bottom lip for a good few seconds before the words finally left his mouth.
"It doesn't work like that, Angela. My whole life's work is in New York. I mean, I know I don't talk about it much, but my business matters a lot to me...I can't just abandon everything I've worked so hard to achieve."
She sighed...she knew that she had hit a soft spot, and she immediately lifted herself up from his lap. He shifted in his place, too, giving her room as she sat up and stared back at him. She could tell that he was starting to get flustered; she took a deep breath before she spoke.
"David, I didn't mean to say that you don't care about your business...but it's always nice to imagine a different life. I didn't mean to offend you."
She felt as if the trip had been ruined...maybe it was her fault for bringing up the wrong things. Just as she was about to shift in her place and move away from him, not knowing how to behave in the given moment, something unexpected happened.
Angela felt David's arms wrapping around her torso, and she shrieked as he pulled her in towards him. Before she knew it, her body had tumbled over on top of his, her eyes landed directly on his, and she could see a mischievous grin appearing upon his lips as he spoke.
"I know you didn't mean it that way...I'm sorry, I just get a little defensive sometimes."
She nodded her head; her breath hitched when he reached up and carefully pulled a loose strand of her hair out of her face; she rested her head on his chest this time. He was staring up at the clouds as his palms brushed over the surface of her hair. Angela was lost in the sense of sudden peace taking over her body.
She closed her eyes and paid attention to the rhythm of David's heartbeat, the way his heart was thudding his chest again. She felt safer in his arms than she ever had before. Maybe this was why she stuck around even after everything they had been through. She knew that he wouldn't let her down, and at the end of the day, when the dust would. settle, she would always have a place back in his arms as safe as ever.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard David’s voice.
“So, what do you think about Greece? Maybe Italy?”
She raised an eyebrow as she spoke.
“Wait a minute....what are we talking about?”
She lifted her head as her eyes landed on his. The sunlight had now faded out behind the trees they were sitting under, and both of them didn't need to flinch from looking up into the sky anymore. David allowed the sounds of birds chirping in the distance to take over for a while until he finally replied to Angela, whose eyes were fixated on him.
"For a place...I mean, near the countryside with farm-type vibes?"
She sighed.
"You're not serious about this, right?"
When she turned to see the look on his face, she knew right away that he was dead serious. She placed both her hands on his chest as she spoke.
"David...I don't want you to splurge on some property...especially not when we have so much going on here. I like New York, and I don't want to move away for a while, at least. So why don't we just put the thought on hold for like, the next year or so?"
She knew that no matter how much convincing she would do, he was still David at the end of the day, and when he had his mind set on something, it was impossible to get him to let it go. He was quite easily the most stubborn man she had ever known so far.
She was right...little did she know that after that evening had ended, David had contacted his team to start looking for a property on the outskirts of Europe...with farm animals and acres of open space.
This was possibly David's best-kept secret. Even though he had not known her for long enough, he had a feeling she was the one he was meant to be with, and so he kept a promise to himself to reveal the property to her on their anniversary...only if they had stuck together for long enough. David was starting to feel as if there was finally hope for things to be okay between them.... he just had to wait it out for a certain wedding ceremony to take place.
While she was still lost, the memories began to morph into daydreams. All she thought of was him, even when she was lost and drowning within the depths of a dream world.
Her eyes were clenched shut, and her body was pressed to the ground as the moment came to her at once.
It was a chilly evening in the penthouse on the Upper East Side.
She watched as he turned his back to her, and she could see his reflection in the mirror as his broad shoulders faced her. He slipped on the silver-coated wristwatch, and then he whipped around, instantly catching her off guard. He had a smirk dancing on his lips as he walked over to her slowly; she could smell his deodorant radiating from his body as her breath hitched, and she tried her best to keep her heartbeat under control.
Deep breaths, that was what she told herself in her mind, but it didn't matter because soon his eyes were locked with hers, and he was all she could think was, there was something about the man; he had the power to take over your thoughts in an instant and stick there for good, to collapse any other thoughts in one's brain.
He reached the bed, and she watched as his tall frame stood over her for a few seconds, holding the eye contact exactly where it was; she didn't dare look away from him either.
He smirked a little as he slowly reached over and moved the glass of water out of her hands, it was smoothly leaving her grip and sliding into his, and she didn't resist or try to stop him; she simply just watched in awe. David placed the glass of water on the bedside table; Angela moved further back until her back was pressed against the headboard of the bed. She stared up at him, thick black eyelashes almost glistening under the light above them. He placed his thumb under her chin; the goosebumps in her body flooded up and rose. She tried to stay focused, but it was like her mind was buzzing, and all she could think about was him.
He leaned in, and just as she thought his lips were about to crash into hers and she mentally prepared herself for this to completely shatter all sense of normality in her brain, something unexpected happened. Instead of letting his lips crash into hers, they met with her forehead as he held her head in place with his palm resting below her chin, his grip tightening on her skin.
There was something about the way he knew exactly how to play with her feelings and push her to the very edge before bringing her back to life all at once. He placed a kiss on her forehead as her eyelids shut with the touch of his lips on her skin. When she opened her eyes up again, he was standing a few feet away from her. He remained there for just enough time for them to make eye contact; he gave her a little smile, and then he spoke.
"I'll be back before you know it, my love."
There it was; the same sense of electric waves rushing through her body at once. He had control over her, and he knew it very well.
Even if things weren't perfect between the two of them, Angela had a feeling deep down that no one else would understand her quite as well as David did. She knew that there was a certain level of darkness within him as well; she would be lying if she said she hadn't picked up on the depths of who he was the very first time she came across him, but it was one of the reasons she had been drawn to him in the first place.
She felt as if the shift in energies was equally distributed. David may have more of it within him, but Angela knew deep down she wasn't exactly someone without any skeletons in their closet either; she knew that one day the very darkness within her would spring out, too.
The secrets would spill onto the fancy carpeted floors of David's penthouse, and she had a feeling when the time would come, she could fully count on him to hold her together and stop the pieces from crumbling to the ground all at once.
She had a feeling he could handle the side of her she had kept hidden for ages; it was the one thing she was counting on. She saw him the way no one else did, and even though he may not know it at the time, he would soon be seeing her the same way, and hence, it really did feel like it was meant to be.
