Collateral Damage

thirteen

"You're right. Thanks." Arya sent him a small smile.

"How have you been?" She hesitated a minute before deciding to give him a full and honest answer. The time spent away from Ethan allowed her to forgive him for what he had done. She just hasn't been able to reach out and let him know that she had forgiven him. In a sense she'd been nervous to talk to him, and was waiting for him to reach out to her. Plus she wanted to hear him say that he regretted what he did.  She needed to hear the exact words to fully forgive him.

"I haven't been myself lately. Things are just different. I've just been taking everything one day at a time."

"You're telling me. I can't even sleep for longer than four hours at a time. This is sick. We spent all of six weeks together and now I can't even function right without you. I want you to know that I'm sorry for everything. There were other ways to go about pursuing you, but I convinced myself that was the only way. I'll apologize everyday. I just can't continue being like this with you."

"You sound like you missed me." Arya teased with a playful smile on her face.

"I did, well, do. I do miss you. If you don't mind, I would like to spend some time with you at the house once we finish up with my grandpa. You don't have to agree if you don't want to."

"No, that actually sounds nice. I don't have anything planned for the day, so I'd love to come over." Ethan smiled, happy to hear that she actually wanted to spend some private time together. He was hoping that the time away from each other would have a positive impact on their relationship. He wants to be with Arya without having to fake anything. That's what he enjoyed most about their relationship, they never had to fake it. Everything came naturally.

"I love you in braids." Ethan complimented while brushing the loose braids over her shoulder, leaving his hand on her back. Arya smiled and leaned into his embrace.

"You know, you're the only person I've dated that actually has nothing but positive comments about my braids." She couldn't believe that men could have the audacity to make comments about how she styled her hair, especially black men at that.

"Who the hell had something to say about your braids?"

"They're not around anymore for that exact reason. They would make underhanded comments about me being in the position I am with braids. Or they would try to downplay my company's status saying that I wasn't in a real corporate role due to the services I provide which is why I was able to get away with wearing my hair however I wanted. Even had someone to reference my braids as not being an adult hairstyle. The biggest turn off ever."

"The fact that you're in the position that your in, proudly rocking whatever style you desire, is sexy as hell. So many people have that ignorant mindset and they still will never be in the position we're in with their so called standard professional look." With a smile, Arya leaned over and kissed Ethan's cheek.

"We'll rock our braids together." Ethan locked eyes with Arya, contemplating on if he should kiss her or not. Figuring it would be to sudden he decided not to and instead moved his hand to her waist so his arm would be fully around her. Arya took the cue and leaned fully into him, laying her head on his shoulder.

"I know why he set us up like this. He most likely wants to talk to us regarding the breakup rumors. You know how he is about bad press. It's nothing to change about it. You broke up with me and we've been focusing on work."

"I did not break up with you. We're still getting married next month."

"It feels like a very real breakup with the anticipation of a not so real marriage." Arya didn't respond since that's exactly how it feels.