By A Rose

|CHAPTER ONE🌹|

"So...Ray, tell me. What's the most screwed up moment of your life?" Wesley asked.

I looked down at my almost dark-skinned thighs while patting the pleats of the short black dress I wore. My fingertips danced on my skin as I bit my lips.

The night was long and I searched non-stop for the warmth of the morn to take over the chilling despair that came with the sour night.

Wesley had taken me out to dinner. I remember calling myself a fool for going out with a man who I had tried to cut off from my sad life. Still, this man with acuity caused by fear was the closet person to me.

I had walked the road of despair and dread with no one but my lengthened shadow. So just one man being very familiar with me, was not a choice neither was it a compulsion. Life had made it so. After all, I was a loner and Wes felt I needed someone by my side.

"Ramona Becky Taylor! Are you even listening to me? Look, I know that for the past five years you've been going through hell but this is 2008! It's time for a new beginning and that's the reason I'm here. I'll never leave you and I'll be by your side always. I just want to see you laugh and smile again. I'll help you Ray. Sure you're scared and worried but I'll help you attain happiness. All I need is your trust. I think I deserve it and somehow your life depends on it. But hey...It's your call. Doesn't  matter how much you want to deny it, you need me and you know it. So do you trust me?"

I looked into Wesley's eyes and for an unknown reason I tried to place him somewhere in my heart.

Funny enough, I couldn't find a place. My heart had been smashed years back and the only vacant space left for Wesley was the size of a key hole.

I could have told him that I didn't care about dinner. I wish I told him that I wanted to be left alone and that my life was more than screwed up. Scared? Worried? I was past those things. I had drowned in the river of worry years back and I held onto hope with something thinner than a strand of hair. In any moment I was sure it would snap. Happiness? If only it was real.

I stared at the wine glass in front of me for a while, took in a deep breath and gazed into the eyes of Wesley Stark.

"Wesley I do trust you. I know you can help me get through all of this. Actually, the truth is I can rely on no one but you. Life just sucks and sometimes I feel it's best to handle things my own way...Although you're right. I could use your help."

"Finally she speaks. This would have been the worst dinner I've ever had." Wes said.

"Like you haven't been to worse? There was once a time I sat with you like this for two hours straight and even you being the chatty one didn't have a simple topic. Compared to that I think this is okay. You're lucky your lips moved tonight because if they didn't this would have been the last time we ate out." I said and smiled out of a flicker of hope. He was the reason I spoke that night. He was one of the few reasons I ever spoke.

"Ate out? Shouldn't we call it a date?" he asked.

"No we shouldn't for the sake of three reasons. One, this dinner isn't for the purpose of initiating a romantic relationship, we're each paying for our share, like two separate individuals... like friends. Two, no one asked anyone out, we both had this planned a month ago. It's been a sort of tradition for our Thursday nights. And lastly if I did go on a date with you I'd have more than this on my plate because, there's no way I'll pay good money for a meal the size of a rabbit's foot."

"Now this is the girl I've been searching for all night." Wesley smiled as he took another gulp from his wine glass. His fingers held it in the most admirable and sophisticated way.