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𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑠' 𝑝𝑜𝑣
I wiped my hands with the damp cloth before reaching for my phone in my back pocket.
Honestly, I was hesitant to leave the house earlier. After what happened with Aurora last night, I spent all night staring at her resting face as she slept, fearing that she would somehow sneak out of bed and wander off to her office— or worse. . . the alcohol cabinet. Although I put it all off last night, I can't lie and say that I wasn't hurt by the situation. Yes perhaps she had a bad day at work, but I didn't enjoy seeing her overwork herself in the way that she did.
Before I could think about the situation more, I cleared my mind and instead powered on my phone.
I checked for any updates with my two favorite girls. Ariella had sent me a few GIFs that she found entertaining from her iPad that she received on Christmas. I responded back with a few of my own that would hopefully make her giggle a bit.
Just as I swiped out of Ariella and I's conversation, Aurora sent a morning text along with a selfie of her blowing me a kiss while still in bed. Her hair was messy and thrown all over the white sheets that she laid on and the sun shined so brightly on her perfectly, smooth skin.
I smiled at the picture as I hearted it.
God, was I so in love with her.
I question myself daily about how I was able to attract her.
"Are you going to take my order or not?" a familiar voice interrupted my thoughts.
I looked up, shoving my phone back into my pocket with a sweet and apologetic smile until I saw who was on the other end of the counter.
I held in the sigh that desperately wanted to escape.
"Hi! I hope your morning is going alright. What is it that you would like to order?" I put on a fake smile.
As much as I wanted to twitch my eye in annoyance at the brunette in front of me, I remembered that I had more important things to do than banter with a jealous ex.
Evelyn gave me a cheeky smile, adjusting her designer coat onto her petite body, "No need to be all nice, darling. I know how you feel about me."
"I'm not being all nice for the hell of it, darling. Unlike you, I'm not an immature person who can't seem to get over something that you, yourself fucked up." I gave the woman a tight smile, "Now once again. . . what can I get you to
order?"
She scoffed, causing me to frown when getting a whiff of her cigarette breath. I swear this woman only came here to throw me off. Was she succeeding? Possibly.
"I'll take a small Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai and a slice of Panettone." she stated with a roll of her eyes.
"That'll be nine dollars and thirty seven cents."
Evelyn wasted no time in handing me a ten dollar bill, her manicured red nails glistening underneath the light above us.
"Keep the change." she pouted, "You could use it."
I bit the inside of my cheek before moving away from the counter to prepare that jealous cunt's order. As I placed her items in the paper bag my thoughts ran of ways to destroy it all; stomp on the bread before handing it to her, switch the sugar in her coffee for salt, etc. However me being the better and bigger person, I decided against my thoughts and prepared her order as I would do any other customer.
When handing her the order, I slipped the sixty-three cents right into her hands as well.
"I'm sure you could use the extra money to save up for new hair extensions." I grinned in her face.
"You're such a—"
"Next!" I shouted to the next person in line, disregarding the glare from Evelyn.
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I entered the doors of the Romane residence later on that evening. It was already dark outside only at six PM. The house seemed pretty quiet as I took off my shoes and coat by the door. To guess, Ariella was most likely upstairs entertaining herself with her new toys and Aurora was probably somewhere in her office locked up.
My eyes fluttered closed at the possibility. Since I was nearby the office, I checked it to find the door wide open and the room empty. I sighed in relief. I made my way upstairs, hearing Ariella chat to her stuffed animals about a "Prince Charming." A smile crept onto my face as I passed by the girl's untidy room.
It took me a while to find Aurora. After leaving her office I checked the master bedroom and bathroom before realizing that I'd have to actually look through the many rooms of the home to find her.
When I found her she was on the ground surrounded by canvases and paints. She was in the room that Ariella had once showed me and asked to play piano in. Aurora didn't see me until she heard the sound of me sighing.
There was a glass of wine to the side of her.
"You're back." she grinned, stopping the stroke of her brush on the canvas that she was working on.
"Yeah." I mumbled, tearing my eyes away from her as I ran my fingers through my hair.
The blonde tucked her hair behind her ears while standing. She carefully avoided the mess on the floor and walked over to me. She was wearing an oversized hoodie, which had its sleeves rolled up, and pajama shorts with a pair of socks to keep her warm.
"I miss you." she mumbled with a tiny smile.
I didn't meet her eyes.
She made the move to cradle my face, but I shook her away in disappointment. The blonde looked at me with hurt, and I wanted to do nothing but pull her into a hug at that moment. But I didn't. Because she had went against her own words again.
"What's wrong? Did I do something to hurt you?" she whispered to me in a childlike tone.
"You're drinking." I firmly stated, glancing behind her at the glass of wine on the floor, "Again."
Aurora frowned and took a glance behind her before a look of realization took over.
"No I'm not." she argued, "I was—"
"We just talked about—"
"I wasn't drinking!" she snapped.
I jumped at the sudden outburst and subconsciously took a step away from her.
If I thought the look on her face before was heartbreaking, I didn't know what to think of it now. She looked to be in shock— disbelief even. Her eyes were wide and it looked as if tears were about to spill from them. She looked defeated almost.
"I was using the wine to paint." she said in such a low tone that I nearly didn't hear any of it.
To confirm her words, I moved to look at the half painted canvas on the ground.
It was beautiful.
And it was me.
The painting was indeed painted with wine. The purplish hue of it catching my eye immediately. Aurora had painted an outline of my face and my god was it accurate. From the color of my eyes to the dimples in my cheeks.
Once I noticed the scrunch of my eyebrows and gaped mouth, I realized that the painting was a capture of me receiving pleasure. My cheeks all of a sudden felt warm.
I turned back to face Aurora but she was gone.
I felt terrible. The incident from last night obviously dimmed my trust in her. This small interaction just proved that to the both of us.
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