I woke up to my alarm, immediately sensing I wasn't alone in my apartment. Rhys was there, sleeping outside my room.
Usually, I feel groggy when waking up at 4 or 5 am, but not today. I couldn't remember ever sleeping with a random person in such close proximity before. But then it hit me - in Paris, Rhys and I had slept together in the same bed. Memories of those nights flooded my heart, and I knew I was blushing.
This realization saddened me. My bed was queen-sized; I could have asked him to sleep with me. It could have been nice. But the sexual tension between us was too intense. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off him, and if I had given in, he would have too. He was very fond of me.
Lost in these thoughts, I tiptoed into the living room to find his sofa empty. However, an interesting laptop with three monitors caught my eye on the dining table. Maybe another Volkner tech abomination, who knows?
But then, stress overflowed me as I remembered my upcoming office issues. I had no idea what Maria had told the NHS director, or how to explain my three-week disappearance to Scott and the others.
Pushing these thoughts aside, I decided to take a shower and start my morning routine. As I began blow-drying my hair, I heard my apartment door opening - Rhys had arrived. I stayed in my room.
I heard him moving around the apartment, turning on the kettle, and opening the fridge - who knows what he was doing. After changing into my work outfit, I stepped into the kitchen and was stunned.
Rhys was wearing short shorts, with a headphone around his neck - and nothing else. Hairs of his head was wet, and a very visible bulge protruded from his shorts. I had seen his back naked, but never almost naked from the front. He had peculiar tattoos all over his torso, black tendrils mirroring each other on both sides. So these were the tendrils I had glimpsed through his shirts all this time.
I realized I had forgotten to breathe. My hormones declared war against me, and I felt butterflies in places I shouldn't.
He noticed me being flabbergasted by his beauty.
AND THIS MADE HIM BLUSH!!!
I wanted to scream.
Was I sweating?
I felt uncomfortably wet.
"I...I went for a run," Rhys tried to explain, trying to save me from embarrassment.
I nodded, tearing my eyes away from him at the coffee machine. I wanted to reach it but felt that if I got closer to him, he would know how I was feeling for him. It felt like I needed to stay away from this man at this very moment.
"Do you need coffee?" he asked, confusion palpable in his voice. I nodded robotically. He glanced back at the machine and said,
"I need a shower. Is it okay if I use..." Before he could finish, I nodded vigorously, as if my life depended on it.
He quickly ran to the shower, sparing me further embarrassment.
I mean... he definitely wants me to be with him. I wouldn't mind. But I could never have random sexual one-night stands with random people. It was impossible for me to build up such a relationship with anyone.
With robotic steps, I made my way to the coffee machine, poured myself a cup, and sat at the table to drink it.
I had to clear my mind and my thoughts before returning to the office.
_______________________________________________________________
I was very surprised to see Scott behaving as if nothing had happened—absolutely nothing.
He spoke to me calmly, conducted morning rounds in the wards and cabins with us, and assigned tasks. Silently, I followed his commands and worked alongside him. We had a few outpatients for surgical evaluations. Since it was my first day back after vacation, I wasn't going to assist in surgery or lead any. Instead, I would handle outdoor patients in the clinic and manage post-operative cases.
The day went smoothly until the drama unfolded during the lunch break.
We had a doctors' cafeteria that provided free meals for those with monthly subscriptions. As I approached to take my lunch, the servers informed me they had orders not to serve me cafeteria food.
It felt as if the entire sky had fallen over my head. People around me started whispering in gossip. Suzy sat across from me, looking confused.
Fuming with anger, I grabbed my phone to call my manager. However, I was surprised to find a single text from John.
"Call me when it's your lunchtime; we have your lunch." My anger turned into unfathomable confusion as I called John and demanded an explanation for who was responsible for cutting off my lunch in my own cafeteria. He didn't respond over the phone. Instead, to my horror, I saw him walking down the hallway to the cafeteria with a butler who served me food—some salad, brown rice, and two big chunks of fish fillets.
I gave John a horrified look; he seemed puzzled by my reaction.
"Rhys didn't tell you anything?" he asked, and I shook my head in confusion.
"Eat; we'll tell you when we get home," he ordered, scanned the surroundings, and left me alone to eat.
Everyone in the cafeteria looked at me with confusion. If I could have sunk deep into the floor, I would have felt much better.
"What's happening?" Suzy asked, and Anita, another friend who migrated from India as a doctor, also inquired from the next table about what was happening.
I shook my head to answer her; the day had been too hectic, and I was too hungry. Without any second thought, I started to eat my lunch. Suzy couldn't shake off her worries; she asked me again,
"Who's Rhys?"
Anita turned back to me, her curiosity piqued.
Now, what should I tell them?
"My... my boyfriend," I mumbled. Suzy's eyes shot up to her forehead.
"Your boyfriend!! YOU GOT A BOYFRIEND!! First, you were MIA for 3 weeks, now you have a boyfriend!!" Suzy almost yelled at me in a whisper. Anita overheard and came running back to me.
"OH. MY. GOD! Kay! Finally!! You got a boyfriend. Congratulations!!" Anita exclaimed, and I gave her the most uncomfortable smile.
"Did he send you all the food?" Suzy asked me. I shrugged a bit.
"So, tell me more about him. What does he do? Where is he from?" Brett sat beside me and asked.
Oh god, not Brett! NOT BRETT!!
Brett had been pursuing me for the last 7 months before I had met Rhys, aka Sameer, back in Italy. But I had never liked or cared for him. Not just Brett, there were many guys who wanted to take me on a date, but I had refused. Many people thought that I was gay or asexual. The more I wanted to keep my personal life private, the more it was getting exposed by my own kind—the subcontinental South Asian people.
"Is he handsome?" Anita asked me.
"Maybe he looked like God himself; otherwise, who could have wooed Kay?" Brett sneered at me, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his remarks.
"Show me his pictures," Suzy demanded. I struggled.
"I... I don't have any pictures of him with me," I admitted.
"How long have you been dating?" Anita asked me. I shrugged a bit.
"3 weeks," I lied.
"Oh, is this the one you wanted to meet?" Suzy reminded me of our conversation back when I was supposed to leave for Paris. I shrugged at her and tried to brush off her statements.
I was successful because our pagers rang; we needed to attend to operation theater number 6 for an emergency appendectomy with abscess drainage, as all other resident surgeons were busy.
And we trainee juniors were left to deal with such cases.
_________________________________________________
Three weeks after returning from a lazy vacation, my legs couldn't tolerate the pain of standing up for a few hours in surgeries and patient management. I started to feel shooting pain in my calf muscle, in my ankle, as Suzy and I walked to the garage after our shifts had ended.
I could feel the chill in the weather; the autumn breeze was greeting us.
"Suzy, I forgot to tell you. I have my own car now," I tiredly told her. Suzy was visibly confused.
"Now, you're telling me your boyfriend, who sends you food, also sent you a car?" She demanded to know. I let out a big sigh.
As we walked towards our cars, I saw Suzy's jaw literally drop on the streets.
"A Bentley? A fucking Bentley? You're riding a Bentley now?" Suzy was furious. I was embarrassed by her reaction. John was standing in front of the Bentley
"It's not mine; I just use it," I shrugged.
"Are you dating into the Mafia? Who the fuck gives his girlfriend a fucking Bentleyon the 3rd week of dating??" Suzy was more upset than I had ever seen her, but I couldn't help but cackle a bit.
"I wish it were true," I told her, and her face contorted with even more confusion.
I decided to leave her alone to deal with her unfathomable emotions and walked to the Bentley—a blue Bentley that I was given by the Volkners to use for roaming around the city.
______________________________________________________
I thought my days with Rhys in my own apartment would drive me crazy or would almost make us want to throttle each other, but it was surprisingly normal. At least for the first week. Normal beyond what I had expected. Most of the time, he minded his own business whenever he stayed home.
The sad part of it all was that he never tried to initiate any sort of conversation with me. It wasn't like he was avoiding me; it was more like he just wanted me to initiate any sort of conversation before he delved into every single detail of his part of the story.
It was as if he waited the whole day for me to ask him how his day was, only then would he turn into a silly chatterbox.
And he would talk a lot. I never thought a man would talk so much. From what happened in meetings to what someone did to someone else, he never missed a single detail. Most of it was business conversations that flew over my head. I tried to nod along with him.
The first weekday of September arrived, my day off.
Rhys was busy on his laptop, taking up the entire dining space with his makeshift office. Now, we both ate on our sofas while watching TV.
"My day off is tomorrow. Wanna go watch a movie?" I asked him while unboxing dinners from the containers—dinners that came from Caelus London hotels. We had been eating Caelus foods since Rhys arrived.
"I have a meeting with MI5 tomorrow," Rhys casually explained. Flashes of James Bond movies came to mind.
"MI5? Or MI6?" I asked him. He smiled at me, his eyes glued to the screens of his laptop behind his reading glasses.
"MI5 is British Home Intelligence, MI6 is Foreign Intelligence. We're talking about a big submersible deal with the British Navy. It's about them," Rhys casually explained.
I served us dinner on the tea table in the sitting area, where two of my sofas were. Rhys left his computer and walked over to me.
"We can watch a movie after I come back from work," he said, taking a plate of dinner off the tea table and sitting on his sofa, which also served as his bed at night.
A pang of guilt graced my heart; I should have brought a bigger sofa-bed for him.
"What movies do you like?" I asked him. Rhys took a bite of his carbonara, gave me a look, then shrugged, "Anything."
"Anything? No choice?" I asked him.
"I'm not a big movie person," Rhys admitted. I nodded at him while taking a big bite of my fried chicken. The fried chicken wings were delicious, although the dinner combination was quite weird—carbonara, salad, fried chicken wings, strawberry shortcake, etc.
"You like movies. What's your favorite?" Rhys asked me.
"I have a billion favorite movies," I admitted.
"A billion? Is there even a billion movies out there?" Rhys asked playfully.
"Do you have any idea how many movies I've watched in my whole life?"
"How many?"
"I've never watched a movie more than twice, except for three movies. And I almost watch one or two movies every night," I told Rhys, one of his brows rising.
"What are those three movies?" he asked.
"Interstellar, Coco, and The Godfather," I told him, making him visibly confused.
"Hm, I've heard of Interstellar and The Godfather, but what's Coco?" he asked.
I almost darted off from my seat to him.
"Bruv!!!! No!!! Don't tell me you haven't watched it!!"
Mischief danced around his blue eyes as he shook his head. I slapped my forehead.
"Rhys, you are missing the most beautiful animation movie of our lifetime!" I yelled at him. He started to smile heavenly.
"So, you're telling me it's a cartoon movie?" he asked.
"It's more than a cartoon movie!!" I yelled at him, the passion evident in my voice.
"Then I have to watch it!" he admitted.
"Oh! Please!! It will change your life," I begged him. He was smiling ear to ear at me.
__________________________________________________
The next day, when I woke up, I knew Rhys was gone and wouldn't be home before 5 pm. He had an appointment with his therapist.
Without him, the apartment suddenly felt hollow. It was as if the life of the apartment were gone. I calmly walked to the kitchen area to see the dining table empty, all of his work papers neatly kept on the tea table in front of his sofa, where he slept at night.
Breakfast was ready and already on a plate. To warm it up, I had to put it in the oven and turn it on. I opened my fridge to see a glass jar of chia seed smoothie with various fruits that Rhys had left me. This was something he ate almost every meal, and I had grown to like it as well. Today he had made it with just mango and yogurt, and it tasted fantastic.
Before Rhys came home, I had decided to go on a little shopping spree. John went with Rhys, so there was another Volkner security left to guard me. But he was not the only one there; I knew Rhys had deployed at least 100 men outside my apartment.
The guy who had replaced John was named Randy, a black guy almost 7 feet tall. Randy was perfect for me to go on a shopping spree with.
So, with Randy, I went to the Wembley IKEA store. After brainstorming and measuring for hours, I bought a corner sofa bed with storage, an extra soft mattress to go on the sofa because I knew Rhys loved a soft bed. Four extra pillows, some sofa throws, a chest of drawers to go with the sofa where he could store his regular clothes, as I knew his professional attire was kept in the hotel and the butlers brought them every morning. A gaming chair where he could sit properly when he worked, and a small bookshelf to tuck his papers away when he didn't need them.
All these cost me a month of my salary, and I was beaming with joy.
I knew Rhys would be very happy.
Before he could arrive, Randy and the group of security men redecorated the dining cum lounge area into a beautiful detached bedroom.
Rhys had told me to be ready at 6 pm as he would take me to a movie, and I happily obliged, wearing the very same red dress I had worn on my first day in Como, Italy. I knew it would make him happy.
Around 5.30 pm, while I was still getting ready, the opening doors in my apartment told me that Rhys had arrived. I left all my makeup and rushed to the lounge to see his reaction.
His mouth widened as big as possible, and I couldn't help but chuckle. His eyes jumped from furniture to furniture, and he was beyond mesmerized.
"At least, my Queen, you had decided to have some mercy on me?" he teased me playfully. I burst into laughter, seeing him this happy. His eyes finally fell on me, and he remarked,
"I love the way you recycle your dresses."
I was perplexed.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Yeah,... I mean, look at you. This was the same dress I saw you in Como, the night we first met. The only other woman I saw recycle her wardrobe was Maria."
His statement left me so astonished that I was on the verge of the biggest laughter I had ever laughed.
"Rhys, I am not a 'not-a-billionaire' type of trillionaire like you or your parents. I am poor; I have no other way but to recycle my clothes."
His brows furrowed, and he brushed his gaze over all the furniture.
"How much do all these cost?" he asked me. I decided to ignore him, but he rushed to me and gently held my arm.
"Kay, how much did you spend for me?"
The worry in his voice was evident. It melted my heart like warm chocolate
.
"I spent enough to make me happy," I calmly said.
He let go of my hands, and I went back to my room to finish my makeup.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Our car halted before the Curzon Camden cinema hall, but the hall seemed surprisingly empty. I wasn't allowed to open my car doors, as Rhys had commanded. I calmly sat in my seat until he came to my side and opened my door to give me a hand.
Holding his hand, a musk of Oud graced me again, making my heart bubble with unrecognized happiness. Feeling mischievous, I decided to tease him a bit.
"Why do you wear black all the time?" I teased him. He looked around, glanced at his own clothes, and answered, "So that the blood of my enemies is not visible on my clothes."
A chill ran down my spine when he said it, but it also aroused me. Was I discovering a new kink that I had harbored?
"If I were you, I would have worn white," I added.
"Why?" he asked as I held his arm, and we walked inside. A guard came to us and started to escort us to a theatre. I replied, "Because the blood of my enemies will be visible on my clothes, and I will happily wear it, like a queen wearing her crown." I playfully replied, and Rhys looked at me as if he had never heard anything more morbidly beautiful.
We were seated in an empty theatre, and I became panicked.
"Why isn't there anyone here?" I asked Rhys. The mischievous grin was still present on his face.
"Someone who wants to wear her enemies' blood on her clothes like a crown—isn't it cowardly to get scared at an empty movie theatre?" Rhys mocked me. I looked at his face to read what was there.
He was happy and excited beyond anything anyone could ever imagine.
The big screen in front of us came to life, starting with a Disney logo and Mexican-themed songs.
Coco.
The screen was playing Coco.
I turned to Rhys once again for answers, but he was quiet and proudly looking at my face.
"Did you rent the hall?" I asked him. He smiled at me, showing off his perfectly aligned teeth.
"No, I rented the whole theatre, each hall, for 4 hours," he calmly replied. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Showoff!" I couldn't stop myself from saying this. His body started to jolt with every streak of laughter.
"At least I am not showing off to someone with my 1-month salary," he calmly said. I was watching the movie and turned back to him.
"Good. Now watch the movie."
The movie was great until the last part, when Hector was telling Miguel who he was and his relationship with Coco. I knew this part would always make me tear up a little, but I turned to Rhys to see his reaction.
Both of his cheeks were soaked with his own tears—silent tears. In the darkness of the theatre, I could see the whites of his eyes turning red. There was something in his eyes—something that was not involved with the movie's plotlines.
I held his hand. "You alright?"
Rhys calmly removed my hands from his hands. I could feel the thunderclap ringing in my ears. In a million years, I had never thought Rhys would do such things. With a heavy heart, I decided to ignore him and watch the movie.
My tears wouldn't stop when Miguel started to sing for his grandmother, Coco. I thought Rhys would hold my hand to console me, but he didn't.
The lights turned on as the movie ended, and I started to wipe off my tears. I turned back to him to see him being completely normal, as if nothing happened, as if he had never cried to begin with. But I knew I was a mess, my tears stained my cheeks.
John and Randy escorted us back to our vehicle, which Rhys was driving, with other security cars behind us.
Rhys was quiet for the first minute of the ride, then he asked me, "Kaya, do you believe in afterlife?"
First of all, he never called me Kaya. Ever. Second of all, why on earth would he ask me such a hypothetical question? I was confused beyond my human mind, and I had no idea what I would answer.
"I grew up Muslim, so I have read a lot of things about the afterlife," I mumbled, trying to process an answer to curb his curiosity.
"Hm," he didn't answer with anything more or less. I became agitated.
When we walked into my apartment, Rhys asked me, "Kay, I want to sleep," indicating that I should leave him alone.
"But we haven't had our dinners yet."
"I am not hungry," he said as he took his clothes to the only shower in the apartment. I decided to ignore his tantrum and quickly unload the dinners on the plate and put them on the dining table.
Rhys got changed and walked out of the shower, going straight to the bed under the thick white duvet that I had put on the new couch. Full head inside. I rushed to him.
"Rhys, your food is getting cold."
"Kay, let me sleep."
It made me furious.
"What happened?" I asked him. He uncovered his head and asked me,
"Would you leave me the fuck alone? Please?"
He covered himself again.
I was so pissed at his behavior that I could feel my ears getting hot.
Fuck him and his temper tantrum; I don't give a single shit about him. I had zero time to deal with such idiotic behaviors.
I decided to dump his food in the trash but stopped beforehand. What if he wanted to eat after I left for my room? Then I subsequently stopped and took my own plates to my bedroom to have a peaceful dinner on my balcony.
_____________________________________________________________________
As I sat on the dark balcony, consumed by anger beyond my imagination, the chilly autumn winds sent shivers down my spine.
Rhys's mother had died.
I came to this conclusion. Neither he nor any Volkners ever told me this fact, but today at the movie screening, his behavior, his question about the afterlife gave it away.
I thought Rhys loved me. Even if he lied about loving me, I believed that at least he liked me. Wasn't I important enough for him to tell me the truth? That the death of his mother had been haunting him for a long time?
Either Rhys never liked me enough to tell me the truth, or he had no intention of being with me in the future.
All the memories of us having dinner at the Jules Vern hotel flooded back. I remembered what he asked me that night. But everything he did afterward indicated the opposite. That he didn't want me, he was just pitying me. That his mishap put my life in danger, so he was just helping me—nothing else.
Nothing else.
My feelings didn't matter to him.
Nor Little Kay's.
I wrapped myself tighter with my shawl, tucking my feet under it as well. I felt sleepy and very grumpy. My shift would start tomorrow evening, so I had tomorrow morning to work on my unfinished tasks.
.
.
.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
.
.
.
God knows when I closed my eyes. My heart jumped in fear. The glass door behind me was trembling and vibrating with the sound. The ground beneath me was shaking as well.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
It felt like a million bombs had been blasted somewhere nearby.
I let out an inevitable scream. A scream for my life.
Those bangs finally stopped, replaced by the holler of a million human crying and yelling floating in the air.
All this happened within a few seconds, and I could hear my heart beating so loudly that it reverberated in my eardrums. People on the streets came forward and gathered everywhere, while Volkner guards were heading towards our building.
God knows when I stood up, but before I could react again, a warm arm hugged me and pressed my head to its chest. I had no idea when Rhys came to me and hugged me so tight that it felt like he was trying to glue me to him.
"Stop shaking, babe. Stop shaking... it's okay... I'm with you. You're okay..." Rhys chanted, almost whispering, while rubbing my head and back gently. I was trembling with the noise, and the sound of people crying floated around us. The sirens could be heard from the roads.
Rhys gently brought me inside my room, where almost 20 Volkner guards were gathered, all looking almost pale.
"What happened?" Rhys asked them in a tone that I could not recognize.
"Sir, an accident happened on the Northern Underground line. A whole metro blew up. Lots of casualties. We haven't suspected any foul play yet," Randy spoke up.
Both Rhys and I gasped loudly at the same time.