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| SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOON WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU by Enola PART 8 James’s birthday is within a few days and he’s invited you, Shane and Valerie to dinner at his flat. Moreover, he asked you to do him a favour, he asked you if you might cooking as he loves Italian food, and you accepted with pleasure, of course! So on his birthday you go to his flat in the late afternoon as you have plenty of things to prepare, a big birthday cake included! “Happy birthday!” you smile entering his flat. He welcomes you with a lovely smile, so you kiss him on his cheek and he kisses yours, “I have something for you” you add handing him a paper carrier bag, “I hope you like it!” “A gift! Oh Monica, thanks. You shouldn’t have done it!” he replies a bit embarrassed taking the carrier bag, then he beckons to walk up to the sofa where you sit down, “Really, you shouldn’t have bought anything, you also have to cook so…” “Stop it! It’s not anything exciting!” you smile cutting him off, “Whatever you bought I’m sure I’ll like it!” he says starting unwrapping the flat rectangular box, and when he opens it and sees a blue shirt inside it he laughs, then he takes it and says, “It’s beautiful! Really, I love it! Thanks!” “You know, I didn’t know what the hell to buy, then I thought that since you usually wear shirts, I could give you one! By the way, do you like the colour?” “Yeah, I love it! It’s really nice!” he reply happily, “Hope I bought the right size…” you say a bit concerned, “Yeah, it’s the right one!” he grins, “But if we want to be surer I just have to try it!” he adds, “Um…n…now?” you stutter slightly, “Yeah, of course! Do you mind undoing this?” he asks handing you his new shirt, so he gets up and starts unbuttoning the shirt he has on in front of you. You feel embarrassed…just a little bit…you also get up and a while later he takes his shirt off and lets it drop on the sofa. You stare at his massive chest for a while, not at his face, and unconsciously you let thoughts escape from your mouth sighing, “Beautiful!” “What’s beautiful?” he asks, “Uh?” you look at him and see a smirk on his face and suddenly you realise what you said a while ago, “Um…your…um…your…” you grin sheepishly, “your tattoos…are beautiful!” “Oh yeah my tattoos, o’ course!” he laughs amused, so he takes his new shirt from your hands and wears it, “So…what do you think?” he asks, “Well, it fits perfectly!” you smile, “Thank you, I was sure about that!” he smiles back, then he comes close to you and kisses your forehead gently and whispers, “Thanks a lot sweetie, I really love it!” You look at each other for a moment while his fingers brush your cheek gently. He’s still pretty close to you so that you feel his warm breath over your lips. His are about to touch yours, but you don’t want him to kiss you, “Don’t do it” you whisper, “OK. Sorry” he breathes, “Don’t worry, that’s alright!” you say sheepishly going away from him. Then you add you’d better start cooking if you want to eat something, so you go to the kitchen. A couple of hours later, also Valerie and Shane arrive. After a while they both enter the kitchen to say hello and Valerie asks you if she can give you a hand, but as you’ve almost finished, you don’t need any help, so you thank her and she leaves. You notice Shane is quite annoyed because since this is the first time for Valerie at James’s, you asked him to come with her even thought you perfectly knew he can’t stand her. Also the fact James invited her as well bothers him a lot. He doesn’t understand why he did that as they’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks. On the contrary, you don’t find it strange at all as Valerie is a nice girl and you’re glad James and her are friends. The atmosphere during the meal is pretty weird. Shane is silent. The only words he’s spoken were about food, 'delicious as always'. Valerie and James have been talking to each other as they were alone, laughing all the time and drinking a couple of bottles of red wine all by themselves. When James realises both bottles are empty, he gets up to go to take other wine. A while later, Valerie’s fork falls over the floor, so she goes to the kitchen to take another one. Several minutes later, as they still are in the kitchen and Shane is tired of waiting for the wine (“What the fuck are they doing? Did they go to buy it, by any chance?” is his annoyed comment), you go to see what’s happening in the kitchen. “Hey guys, where’s the w…” you begin entering the room, but you stop at once as soon as you see them kissing…Valerie’s arms round his neck…James’s hands over her bum…They suddenly stop kissing and go away from each other when they hear you voice. You all stay silent for a while and you couldn’t say who of you is the most embarrassed, “Oops! I’m sorry!” you begin, “didn’t mean to interrupt you…just come here for the wine!” you smile, so you grasp a bottle and before leaving you add, “sorry again…um…you can go on!” Since his birthday, James and Valerie have been going out together, but that doesn’t amaze you at all as you did expect it to happen not just because you saw them kissing in his kitchen that night, but above all because the day after Valerie got at ‘The House’ later than usual looking quite tired. You didn’t ask her anything and she didn’t tell you anything, but it wasn’t hard at all to understand they had spent the night together. But, as James’s life, and Valerie’s too, are none of your business, they are totally free to do what they like. There’s just one thing that bothers you: James’s behaviour towards you. You last saw him on his birthday and since then you have the impression he’s ignoring you. A week is not a long time, but as you were usually used to hearing from him on phone, through text as well almost every day, you feel there’s something wrong with him, or perhaps there’s something wrong with you. You have the confirmation he’s ignoring you when, one day, you answer the phone of ‘The House’. It’s him and he just says he wants to talk to Valerie as her mobile is off. Not a word more. He neither says hello nor asks if you’re ok. Nothing. His voice’s so cold… Why? Why is he treating you with such indifference? What have you done to him? The only answer you can give yourself is nothing, you have done nothing to him, so you can’t understand his behaviour at first…but in the end something comes to you: you didn’t kiss him! Yeah, this might be the explanation…Hell! Is that a kind of vendetta against you or what? You don’t have the time to think about it too much because in a few days everything gets out of control… Olivia wants to talk to you about something really important in her office. She starts saying she’s extremely sorry for what she has to tell you, but she can’t help it. She says you can’t work there anymore as she’s decided to take Valerie on and at the moment they can’t afford to pay three people. She justifies saying they need Valerie more than you since she’s got a degree in psychology. She adds you can keep living there as a volunteer if you want to. You have to admit you didn’t expect that, but you are aware of the fact Olivia’s right; Valerie deserves that job more than you. Valerie is very sorry for you and she feels guilty as she knows that job was everything to you, but you tell her she doesn’t have to blame her for that. Obviously, also Shane is sorry for you, but above all he’s extremely angry with Olivia. He tells you he did everything possible to persuade her not to dismiss you, he was ready to renounce part of his salary too. Some days later while you are helping children with their homework, Shane enters the playroom with a sad, and angry at the same time, expression in his face. He beckons to you to leave the room and when you are out he starts speaking, “It was Valerie to persuade Olivia to dismiss you…” “Shane give up telling nonsense, I know you don’t like her, but you’re getting boring now!” you say slightly annoyed, “I have the proof!” so he calls one of the kids, “Luke, tell Monica what you have heard before” “I’ve heard Valerie speaking on phone to her mum” he begins, “What did she say?” asks Shane, “She said it wasn’t easy to persuade auntie Olivia to get rid of that poor idiot, but she got the idea in the end” “Thanks Luke, you can go now!” says Shane, then he looks at you, “I’m sorry!” You are shocked! You shut your eyes and let yourself rest against the wall… PART 9 >>> <<< Enola's stories |