| |
B
y the time Angela had made it back to her apartment, the city was already drenched in darkness; it was New York, so the city lights would always come to the rescue, leaving behind dark alleyways and corner liquor stores. The rest of the area was filled with light falling from streetlamps in deep shades of yellow.
Angela had just stepped into her apartment when she suddenly realized she had forgotten to reply to David; the ominous text message he had left slipped her mind. She needed a moment to gather her thoughts and ask herself what she was about to get into.
She had barely just sat down and pulled the heavy coat off her shoulders when she felt as if her heart had stopped in her chest. She heard a hard knock on the door, and she thought for a moment that her life was in danger; she shook the thought out of her mind and pulled herself to her feet.
She had just reached the door; as soon as she pushed it open, she expected to see someone on the other end. Instead, her eyes reached down to the carpeted floor; she couldn't help but smile when she saw the bottle of fresh whiskey with a bucket of ice and diamond-coated glasses placed at the door.
She couldn't help but pull the smile from her face. She hadn't even reached down to pick the basket up when she felt her phone vibrating in the back pocket of her jeans. She was brought to her senses as she pulled the phone out and stared at the screen; the same stream of emotion flooded through her system when she saw the message that was flashing across the screen.
––––––––
Unknown Number: You have an illuminating smile.
She was almost afraid for a minute. She felt her chest swelling out of fear as Toby's warning came back to her, and she instantly began to type back asking if he was watching her; she had barely even finished with the text when suddenly, she heard footsteps across the hall.
For a moment, Angela assumed this was the part in a horror movie where she would end up getting killed, but she held her breath and looked up, only for her eyes to instantly fall upon the same light chocolate-brown ones.
She held her hand towards her heart with fear, and David instantly took a few steps forward as the worry flashed across his face. Both his hands were held out as he practically yelled with his voice echoing out in the entire hallway.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, I just needed to see that smile on your face in person!"
Angela still had her hand placed upon her heart while she tried to calm herself down. She took a deep breath as she finally took a step backward into the apartment; before she knew it, she tripped over her own feet; her heart skipped a beat and she closed her eyes, waiting for the fall and for the pain to spread through her body. She braced herself for the fall, but she began to feel nervous when her body refused to hit the ground.
She felt a set of arms under her body, and she started to put together what was going on but she didn't get the chance to react properly when her body began to freeze up. Once again, she felt David's skin touching hers slowly, his lips made contact with her ear, and he whispered in her ear, calming her down slowly.
"Hey, hey, it's okay; you're going to be alright. I gotcha."
Her eyelids flickered open, and there he was, staring down at her with worry dripping from his eyes. At first, she was at a loss for words; his grip tightened around her body as he slowly began to rest her upon her feet.
Once she felt as if she was finally standing, she could still feel his arm around her waist, holding on to the small of her back. She stayed quiet as she looked up at him. Her chest was heaving up and down, and he noticed it right away. He hurried towards the kitchen, and she heard him whispering under his breath.
“Let me get you some water.”
She stood there slightly leaning against the wooden frame of the door, still thinking about what had happened as she tried to make sense of it all. The feeling of his hands being pressed to her waist was still there. It was faint, and it refused to leave, causing her mind to spiral even more. She looked up, and before she knew it, he was back; his perfume had spread through the air and filled up the hallway all at once.
She breathed it in and exhaled; her hands shivered as she reached forward and grabbed onto the glass of water. She placed it to her lips and slowly began to take sips. She could practically feel his eyes on her the entire time, like he was watching her every move, and it made her anxiety worse.
She still hadn't gathered the courage to speak, but just as she took the last sip of water, David gently reached forward and placed his hand on hers; he narrowed his gaze towards her as he spoke.
“Are you feeling better?”
Angela looked up at him and took a few deep breaths before she finally spoke.
"I'm better, and I'm so sorry you had to witness that."
He immediately raised his hands in the air, and she could see the guilt in his eyes as he spoke.
"You really don't have to apologize for anything. I'm the one who is supposed to be sorry; I really shouldn't have snuck up on you like that. I'm just very used to hiding in plain sight because of the cameras and the reporters...."
He trailed off and carefully snuck his hands into his pockets; a certain level of shyness washed over his face as he began to stare at the ground.
Angela felt a wave of sympathy washing over her body. She didn't even think twice as her eyes landed on the bottle and the words came slipping out of her mouth with no room left to take them back.
“I think we both need a little bit of this after what just happened.”
His eyes trailed towards the bottle on the floor, and they lit up for a moment like he was a child who had just been offered ice cream. She pushed the door to the apartment open wider and gestured inside; he picked up the basket with the whiskey and the glasses and followed her into the apartment.
As soon as Angela switched on the lights to the place, she watched as the expression on David's face shifted; he looked around the well-kept apartment with his eyes wide open. The living room had two couches in plain white coverings by the fireplace overlooking windows that had an open view of the city.
She noticed the way his eyes trailed towards the rugs and the clean marble countertops in the open kitchen. Angela gestured for him to place the glasses and the drinks by the large coffee table in the middle of the living room, and as he did so, Angela spoke up.
“So, what do you think about the place? I’m sure it’s not nearly as posh as your billionaire mansion.”
She rolled her eyes in a mocking manner, but he turned around to face her and spoke right away.
"The place is actually really well put-together; it kind of screams that I'm in a lawyer's home."
She instantly picked up on the fact that he was referring to the list of degrees and wins hung on the wall above the fireplace, and for a moment, she felt her cheeks heating up. She shrugged her shoulders and he pointed towards the whiskey. He poured a glass for her first before he proceeded to pour himself one, and finally, she smiled as she heard the glasses clinking together.
A certain level of warmth flooded through her body, and before she knew it, the hours had started to blend once again. She looked over her shoulder, and by the time the clock had hit midnight, the bottle was emptied out; David's shoulder was placed on the arm of the couch as he was sitting on the floor, merely a few inches away from her. He had a smile on his face, and his blazer was tossed across the room, his tie was loosely hung from his neck, and he had unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt.
His hair was a mess, and his glass was half empty as he picked it up to take another sip; Angela looked over at him and spoke; she was trying her best to pretend like she was sober even though she was practically slurring her words.
"Hey, go easy there, champ."
He looked up at her and a smile spread across his face; David raised the glass in the air and spoke up in a gentle tone.
"You have no idea how grateful I am for your existence. I can never breathe, I can never even get drunk, you know, with my manager on my ass about a public image, it's like humanism is forgotten within everything else."
He trailed off right before the glass touched his lips, then he downed the rest of the drink. She looked over him, almost feeling bad for him as she gulped, thinking about how he would react if he found out that she was about to betray him soon. She pushed the thought out of her mind as she spoke up.
“I’m glad you can be yourself here.”
She noticed the way he had rested his head upon the sofa; his hair had fallen into his eyes as he spoke.
“Thank you....”
He trailed off once again, and she raised her eyebrows. She noticed that he was close to falling asleep, and she knew she couldn't just leave him there on the ground, so she reached forward. Angela carefully pulled the glass out of his hand, and he whispered under his breath words that she couldn't understand as they were too muffled.
She looked down at him, and his eyelids were tightly pressed together while his lips were slightly parted, and his chest was peacefully heaving up and down. She sighed as she carefully placed both her arms into his, and she held her breath and barely managed to pull him upwards with all the energy she had left in her body.
She placed him on the couch, and just as she was about to pull her body away from his, she shrieked in a low tone as he grabbed onto her, pulling her towards him. Angela froze; emotions rushed through her body as he wrapped his arms around her and spoke up; it was more of a whisper, but it reached her right away.
"Thank you for everything."
Angela felt shivers running down her spine; she nodded her head and told him to rest up, but he had already passed out again; his arms fell to his sides as he let go of her. Angela pulled away from him. She stood there for a few moments, just looking over at him and admiring the way his lips were carefully parted and his chest was moving up and down.
When she realized what she was doing, she pulled herself away instantly. She ran her fingers through her hair before she grabbed the glasses off the floor and placed them on the table. She hurried to grab a blanket from the guest room; as she placed it over his body, she was about to leave the room when she felt him shifting on the couch. Angela waited by the door, and within moments, he spoke up.
“Aren’t you coming? There’s space for you.”
He shifted to the side of the couch, and she smiled to herself, knowing that he wasn't in his senses. She sighed as she walked over to him and whispered back.
"Not tonight, but I'll be in the room right across the hallway. If you need anything at all, let me know."
She knew that he had already passed out again as she carefully reached for the light switch and shut it off.
