Brave Enough To Love Again

Chapter 59

Eden

I was walking back and forth in my living room, waiting for Keane to come home, thinking about what I should say to him. This being-in-the-spotlight-because-of-the-paparazzi-thing was beginning to annoy me immensely.

What if I just completely ignore all of it? Just like Levi does? Is there a good thing about knowing everything that is being written about me anyways? No. So, why bother with all of the lies? It's exhausting.

I heard the key turn in my front door, so I hurried over to greet Keane. Seeing his face felt like coming home, despite me already, literally, being home. He was my home. We kissed, and I held onto him tightly and didn't want the kiss to end. When his fingers started to unfasten the buttons of my shirt, I sobered up. I needed to get this issue about Vic off my chest before anything else, so I stopped our kiss abruptly and led him to the living room.

He smirked at me mischievously, "Okay, baby, lead the way." He thought that I was planning on continuing on the sofa. However, I purposely sat down on the other end facing him, to make a point, to stop the thing that would only lead to us being naked again.

"I need to get something off my chest before we continue," I confessed.

"You mean your shirt?," he stared at my shirt, at the first button that he had managed to undo,"I can help you with that." His suggestive wink and eyebrows wiggling almost undid me, but I stood my ground and shook my head in earnest. "Can't it wait until later?" He almost sounded whiny which would have made me laugh out loud in any other situation, but I bit my tongue, determined not to give in. I had to tell him right then. Right now.

"No, I need to say it now," I insisted, "please focus."

"Alright," he began to take off his tie as if in preparation, so he was ready to jump me once my speech was over, "hurry up and tell me then." I had to suppress a grin at his impatience, but the thought of talking about Vic helped keeping the sudden outburst of glee at bay.

After taking a deep breath, I told him exactly what had happened that day. About Levi saving me from the paparazzi, about him driving me around until I had to go grocery shopping, about being pulled aside by Vic the dick across the street from my place and about how all of those things ended up in the papers.

His whole demeanor changed immediately after hearing my ex's name. He became serious and pensive. When I finally finished, he looked away from my eyes and stared at the window instead. I looked at his profile and saw him clenching his jaw hard. It seemed as if he was trying to calm himself down, or as if he was biting back a remark, or as if he was simply trying to suppress a strong emotion.

And if it was the last option, I needed to know which emotion it was, so I moved closer to him. With my right hand, I gently touched his chin and slowly moved his face so he would look at me instead of the window. I was taken aback by what I saw.

Anger. Fury. Rage. Ire.

All of the above and many more of those words with the same meaning applied to his look. I should have expected it, but still, I wasn't prepared for the intensity of his resentment.

I held my breath, carefully thinking about how to calm him down. My hands slowly wandered to his which he had balled into fists, "I think I need to have a final talk with him, to have some sort of closure, you know?"

"It's over between the two of you, is it not?," he looked at me with irritation in his eyes, "what kind of closure does he need?"

"Not only he," I was hesitant with my words, "I think, I think I do too."