He walked her home.
He was initially going to give her a ride but she had insisted on sobering up from the cool air.
As if she needed it.
Her alcohol tolerance was high. She'd just wanted to walk with him on a starry night.
Throughout the whole walk, he seemed a bit off as if he had, just now, made an earth-shattering revelation. As if something hit him like a heavy ton of bricks.
A far cry from his usual calm and composed self.
Given his reactions - from the light widening of his mahogany eyes to the guileless fluttering of his dark long lashes - whenever she got close to him, she'd think he had never been close to a woman before.
Did she spook him somehow?
By the time they reached her building, Lily was left with question upon question.
As she gave him a parting smile before entering, she could have sworn there was a hint of rosy patches nestled on his cheeks. But they were gone before she could fixate on them, leaving her questioning whether they really were present.
But given the disturbance among the callousness that floated in his eyes back in the park, Lily was confident he was no longer as unaffected as he had been in the past.
So she chose to be optimistic.
Entering her room, the first place she strode to was the bathroom. After a long day, submerging herself in lukewarm water was extremely rewarding. She usually liked to use jasmine-scented bath bombs but this time she chose lavender.
Crazy how much it relaxed her muscles and calmed her mind.
Lily thought she was going to die, or at least, get very close to it when she first spotted him following her. But if she reacted too strongly, that might make him suspicious. So she pretended to not notice it and then acted like it didn't matter.
His eyes pierced through her the whole time in that bar. She could feel his gaze on her when she was dancing with her target for the night. For one inexplicable second, she feared he might interrupt them and mess up her plan.
It had happened before.
Men tended to be possessive of her whenever she was dating them. She didn't like it. But changing her boyfriends like clothes didn't help much - all were the same.
While she always firmly made her boundaries clear, she didn't take any serious steps because she never dated any of them long enough for it to create any major conflict.
Maybe she couldn't understand their emotions properly. That didn't matter. She couldn't properly explain it but whenever it happened, she felt restricted and suffocated.
She had spent seven years of her life feeling that way, and another four years trying not to feel that way.
Was she wrong for being utterly tired of it?
No, she wasn't.
And she didn't care if she was.
She was only pleasantly surprised when Blaise was just carefully watching her.
And she liked it.
She had decided to let him off easy for stalking her after that.
When he had asked her why she gave the money to that homeless girl, she had entertained the thought of lying and telling him it was just her wanting to help the poor and the needy. That looking towards the girl tugged at her heartstrings.
Her mind had flashed back to that girl, awfully skinny with no shine in her eyes. For a moment, Lily had the thought of time travel being possible for that girl had reminded her of herself, under the care of her so-called uncle. He and his depraved followers had torn down a girl's earnest trust and shattered her innocence - splintering it into a million scattered pieces.
Pity, they didn't watch out for how sharp the broken edges were.
Being faced with such a vision, how could she walk away?
Lily had thought of the helpless little girl she had been, with no one by her side willing to offer a hand. Fighting the feeling of meeting her past self, she wanted to help this girl at present when no one else did. Sitting at the streetside, at that time of the night, who knew what could've happened to her? What sort of men she'd have caught the eyes of? By doing this, if there was a chance of Lily diverting such a fate from the future of another girl, Lily had believed it wouldn't be a waste of her time.
Obviously, she couldn't tell Blaise all that. But the lovely lies which, otherwise, smoothly sailed off her tongue did not come out. She had settled for a half-truth.
After all, she really did not need more money.
They frequently talked, over the phone or face to face, the next few days. She always invited him whenever she wanted to set things on fire, or con someone.
He'd follow her anyway so she felt her calling him was a better choice.
She wasn't sure if she'd like it since she had never included her previous boyfriends in her plans. But she was unexpectedly rejoicing in this.
Blaise could fade into the background and let her do her thing.
He wasn't loud or aggressive, and neither did he find the need to exert dominance or whatever it was men with fragile egos did.
With him, she never felt threatened. Her authority, her power and control never felt threatened. He was quiet and mild and he always went along with her.
After making plans over text, Lily turned off her phone and went in search of Selene.
She was perched on the light velvet sofa with a disturbed aura. Her lower lip jutted out the tiniest bit while her chubby cheeks were a little puffed. A snowy blizzard was happening in her eyes - looking at them would give a person shivers.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked in surprise. "Who bullied you?"
Selene slowly glanced at her with a withering look. "Maybe I bullied them, instead."
Her tone was monotonous as always and her features smoothed back into expressionless.
Lily didn't press further. Selene would tell her of her own accord when she was ready to.
She went to the topic she was going to talk to her about. Days with Blaise were a treat but she couldn't forget her main purpose.
"I wanted to ask you to work on Alfonzo next. You need to be extra careful this time. Santano must be pissed because I burned his warehouse. He lost a lot of money."
"Santano is the next one."
Yes, he was. After two years, her revenge will reach completion.
Anticipation caked her thoughts and her lips hooked in a serpentine smile.
"How I will enjoy his fearful expression when I finally get to him. He will see how it feels to slowly tear down a person's shields step by step, leaving them for last." Lily peered at Selene with eyes full of wrath and madness. "I hope he trembles, Selene. I hope he falls on his knees and begs me... like he made me do continuously for seven freaking years."
Selene's eyes were the coldest winter. "I will have to hack the CCTV system so I can watch it live."
And she knew. Lily knew Selene was going to stay with her till the end.
I'm not the fondest of this chapter. My writing definitely took a turn for the worst here.
On the brighter side, we're going to be watching Lily terrorizing another person, soon! Just you wait, Alfonzo...
BTW, what are your thoughts on our main couple's progression?