The Ache Between Us

Chapter Eighteen - Iris

With one last glance at my reddened cheek, he stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door behind him, giving me privacy and the space to collect my thoughts. Rafael's bathroom was ten times the size of my own. I didn't expect any less. He made good money, and he didn't mind spending it, too.

I hopped off the counter and looked in the mirror to see how swollen my cheek had gotten. My fingertips brushed against my skin, and I winced as I traced the reddened area. After getting pushed around for so long by my father, you would think I'd get used to it, but how does one get used to being abused by her father?

The woman staring back at me in the mirror wasn't me. It couldn't be. She was so pathetic, and she looked crazed like someone who ran away from the looney bin. My hair was sticking up from every direction, some sticking to my face from the sweat and my face.

I looked horrible, bare, and I felt naked without anything to cover up my blemishes or those dark bags underneath my eyes. I stripped out of my clothes and walked over to the glass doors of his walk-in shower. Extravagant, I thought, as I turned on the showerhead and was downed in a waterfall type of fall of water.

I let the water fall over my skin, my muscles, and the steam that formed from the heat aided in slowly calming me down. My arm had a bruise that was beginning to bloom from when he held onto it, and all I could do was stare at it as silent tears fell out of me. Why? I still didn't know why he had suddenly changed. My father was never like this. He never cared enough to tell me good morning or remember my birthday.

Yet that night changed everything. That night, something inside of him switched, and it made him ugly and evil.

I stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel that was hung on the rack, and knowing it was Rafaels, made me hold it tighter around my body. I could smell the faint smell of oranges, and that bitter zesty smell had me smiling against my will. I stepped out of the bathroom, and on his bed, there were clothes folded on the duvet.

His room was as lovely as the rest of his house. The entire decor of his bedroom was simple, yet I knew nothing was simple about Rafael. The colors were all neutral, beige, white, and light gray. The bed frame was Armida gray wood, with matching colored nightstands on either side of his massive bed.

The floors were white limestone like the rest of his estate, but a grand, cream-colored carpet underneath the bed. The window on the right side of the bed was closed, and the white drapes were tucked onto the sides, revealing his backyard. I went to where the clothes he left out were, pulled on the dark green long-sleeved shirt that reached right at the middle of my thighs, and put on the boxers he laid out.

I had to fold the top over and tuck it in so that it wouldn't fall. I ran a hand through my hair and used the back of the towel to dry it off before hanging the towel back on the rack. I tossed the clothes in the hamper and stepped out of his bedroom altogether. I took the stairs down, and the smell of fresh mozzarella, basil, and sweet tomatoes filled my nose once I reached the kitchen. Rafael's back was to me as he gracefully moved around the kitchen.

He was in low-hanging black pajama pants that did absolutely nothing to hide the man underneath, with a matching black v-neck shirt that accentuated his back muscles and his chest. He spun around, and I felt the heat of his eyes scan me from the top of my wet dog hair to the bottom of my bare feet.

I felt nervous underneath his scrutinizing gaze, and I tried hard not to look him in the eyes, but it couldn't be helped. Then, our eyes met magnetically, and the energy between us changed. I was breathless and at a loss for words as we shared this intimate moment. If I could close my eyes and allow myself to imagine that we were some sweet couple, who take turns cooking dinner for each other, and sometimes I'm in his clothes, and he'd tease me about how I look better in them, then we laugh it off, I would, but I can't.