Adam gave an unsure chuckle as he watched me, "are you sure you're okay? That's your fourth glass of wine. You can't still be nervous, can you?" he asked me and I gulped down the rest of the drink in my mouth, suddenly realising that I was drinking too much.
"Hm," I hummed as I set the glass down, my eyes flashing everywhere as I had a sickening feeling in my stomach. I was sitting on the edge of my seat, afraid of my phone for some reason. I was drinking a glass for every call that I ignored from Kores. It was like he knew, and it was like he knew that I knew that he knew. "Oh, er," I cleared my throat and heard my phone vibrate in my purse. Fifth call. "er, ye-yeah."
"Are you sure?" Adam didn't seem to be buying it, his expression was one of concern. His eyes flashed to the purse, the sound of my vibrating phone was powerful enough to make him pay attention as well. He paused for a moment, "your phone's ringing again? Are you not going to answer it?"
I didn't answer him, I just looked at him, and he looked at me. I saw the suspicion in his eyes, the wonder of just why I wasn't answering my phone. Probably a boyfriend, some lover that I was cheating on, or a boy that I was entertaining looking for me; at least, that's what I would think if I was on a date and they didn't answer their phone.
I looked at him, unable to explain the sinking feeling in my stomach as I blinked. The buzz of alcohol making it such that the emotions that I was experiencing hit me like a train. I don't know what he saw on my face, if he saw the panic, or the way that I was suddenly...afraid. Just like I had been, he turned his head and looked over his shoulder, looking around the place. Adam looked back at me, "are you okay? What's going on?" he asked me, and I couldn't explain it even if I tried.
I swallowed, unable to stomach the prawns that I'd ordered. "I have to use the bathroom," I said in a heavy breath, picking up my purse and standing up from my chair. I didn't say another word to him, I only found myself walking towards the bathroom, fighting the tears that threatened to fall, the pounding heart and the way that it felt like things were about to go horribly wrong.
I couldn't understand why I felt like I was doing something wrong with Adam. I suddenly found myself regretting coming here tonight, I felt like I was in trouble. I fished for my phone, as I was on my way and my trembling hands gripped onto it. I entered the bathroom, pushing the door using my shoulder and as I walked into it, I tossed my purse carelessly onto the counter before I began to panic.
I began to hyperventilate and pace up and down as I looked down at the screen.
5 missed calls.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," I began to panic, unable to breathe or calm myself down. What am I going to do? Why the hell am I panicking?
I looked at the phone as if an answer would magically appear. What was I going to tell him? I was at the movies with Ama? Yeah...that sounds good. I was watching a movie and my phone was on silent, super sorry. "Yeah, yeah, that makes sense," I stammered to myself as I rushed to message Kores.
As I was typing, I heard the sound of the bathroom door opening but I didn't care to look up. I was still trembling over my phone, hating how I seemed to be spelling everything wrong and autocorrect refused to do its job. I only froze as I was looking down at my phone, and a pair of shiny man shoes entered my line of vision.
My head whipped up and I was about to scream, but I was met with a man in a black and white suit, and he held out a phone towards me. "What the he..." I couldn't even speak, my words got caught in the middle of my throat as I looked at the man fearfully, wondering what a man who seemed to be over 6 feet tall was doing in the ladies room. I thought of the worst, was he going to rape me? Kill me? I hadn't realised that the bathroom was empty.
"Mr Kennedy would like to speak to you," was all that he said. I felt a chill run down my spine as he still held the phone out to me.
My knees were shaking. Kores' surname was Kennedy.
I was confused beyond words.
What the hell was going on?
Against my better judgement I found myself reaching for that phone, and I took it in my hands, slowly bringing it to my ear. "He...hello?" I croaked into the phone, and I prayed that this was some sick joke. I prayed that the man standing in front of me was a killer instead, that this was some ploy of his to get to me. For some reason, I'd rather deal with a serial killer than deal with Kores.
I couldn't understand why I thought that way, but I found myself thinking that.
"Wife, you've been ignoring me," hearing those words, I felt the world crash and burn around me, and it was as though the worst possible thing that could happen, happened. I couldn't speak, couldn't think, all I could do was just stand there, "it wouldn't happen to be because of the little date you have with Adam Du Plessis, would it?" his voice croaked out to me. He sounded so casual about it too, the fact that he knew about me being on a date.
My blood ran cold, "ho...how do you-you know about that?" I found myself stammering, unable to break my eyes from the cold blue eyes that belonged to the giant man who stood in front of me. He didn't meet my eyes, but the way that his face was so hard and set in stone, I could feel that he wasn't a good person. "What the hell is going on here?" I continued, feeling all sorts of crazy emotions, but mostly a deep sense of foreboding.
"How could you go against our vows, wife, against our union? Evelyn, did you forget that you're mine?"
You know that moment when you're watching a horror movie, and something happens to the main character before they die or before something terrible happens. That sinking look on their face, the sheer recognition of oncoming danger in their widened eyes...I was a spitting image of that.
His words were dangerous, his tone was dangerous. He sounded...deadly.
"Let me tell you what's going to happen, wife," he paused and I swear that I heard the very voice of the same waiter who had been waiting on Adam and I, ask him what he would like to order, before Kores continued his statement. "I'm going to kill Adam, and you're going to watch. I'm going to make it slow, and painful, so that you never forget the sounds that he made. I'm going to take my time, so that the nightmares that you have will haunt you for hours. Come out, wife, I don't want to get blood on your prawns."
The call cut and I began to cry, because I couldn't wrap my head around what was going on. "You stay the hell away from me!" I screamed as I threw the phone at the giant man's face, I didn't stop to see whether it connected or not. I just began screaming and took off, heading towards one of the stalls to lock myself in there and call police or whatever, but the man was quick.
He grabbed me by my waist, causing my dress to ride up my legs, but I didn't care. I began to scream and fight, "help! Help! No! HEEELPP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I screeched trying to fight in his arms but nothing was working.
He walked me to the doors of the bathroom, and the world that had been there before I entered, was now completely gone. The entire hotel was empty, only the men in suits that had been standing around the place remained. Right there, at the table that I had been sat at, sat two men, one was Adam...and the other was Kores, I was sure.
My resolve had broken in the arms of the man as I was brought out into a deathly silent place.
My eyes connected with sable eyes that I hadn't physically seen in ten years, but they had haunted my memories and dreams. I'd forgotten almost everything about him, but never those sable eyes.
All those years ago, those sable eyes had a certain kindness in them, they looked playful and childish. There had been moments though, when his eyes would get...dead. He would almost become a whole new person, the way that his small face would harden. I couldn't forget that about him either.
Right now, oh my...time had done him well. He was still pale, like he'd always been when we were kids. It's like he avoided the sunlight, but the colour worked for him. He had a bowl cut hairstyle, unlike anything I'd ever seen before and he had a thin moustache right above those light pink lips of his that were stretched in that signature grin of his. His eyebrows were perfect, as was everything on his face. He was like a work of art as he lounged in the chair that I had been sitting in, legs sprawled, a gun on his waist that flashed under the lights. He had a piece of straw between his teeth that he was toying with.
He stood from his seat as I appeared, being held by the man. Kores clapped and then opened his arms wide as if giving praise to an actress on a stage, "you are even more beautiful in person, time has done you so well," he said with a drunken grin, that dimple in his left cheek becoming evident as he strode towards me and the man who had been holding me up, let me go. I stumbled due to my weak knees but Kores had somehow crossed the distance between us and caught me before I did.
I sucked in a breath as I felt his hands on my body, felt the way that his hand was placed on my hips, keeping me up. My eyes connected with his, and suddenly I felt like that little girl. I saw the boy who'd taken the bee sting out of my finger, saw the hero that I had always thought of him to be. I saw the boy I'd kissed and called my husband.
The world fell away, and it was just the two of us. I felt it there, a shift, a feeling, every bit of my being shifting towards him, and him receiving every bit of me as if he expected no less. He'd gotten taller too, he stood at 6 feet and the way that he flashed that dimple at me, I couldn't help but feel my knees buckle from under me yet again.
He gave me a look that was nothing short of adoration, nothing short of absolute awe. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was the look of love in his eyes...as if I was the actress in a 1960's film, as if I were Marilyn Monroe, and it were his duty to worship me.
I felt him slowly caress my cheek with the back of his knuckles, "my wife..." he breathed out, slowly tracing my skin with his knuckles that felt so rough and damaged on my smooth skin. "How could I have ever gotten so lucky?" he asked me, his voice coming out low and in awe, the huskiness of it as he stood so close to me and the way that my body seemed to come alive.
His eyes looked between my own, "well, I'll worship you later. For now, onto your side piece," he suddenly said and then slid his hand into mine, holding my hand and began striding in front of me. I ran to keep up with his long strides as he took me back to my table.
He took me to my seat and put me in it with the kind of grace of a royal.
He kissed my exposed neck, his eyes looking directly into Adam's as he done so. I felt myself shiver at the feel of his lips on my neck and I sucked in a breath, smelling his cologne. I felt him breathe in as well as he lifted his face and put his lips to my ear, "I'm looking forward to this, wife. You're about to understand why they call me my mother's son." He chuckled, "take this as...the first act."