TWELVE | APOLOGIZE
ROMAN HAD FINALLY MADE IT HOME, WAY MORE SOBER THAN HE WAS EARLIER THAT EVENING. After ten minutes of aimlessly wandering around the huge hotel parking lot, he had come across his car. He was quick to get in and speed off, but not even after five minutes of driving, he knew he was too drunk for that. Roman had pulled over and stayed there in his car until he sobered up a bit.
Now, it was way past nine and he had just arrived back home. Eleanor had been blowing his phone up like crazy and quite frankly, Roman wasn't in the mood to talk to her at the moment; or even see her for that matter.
"Roman, honey? Is that you?" A worried woman came around the corner.
With a heavy sigh, he closed the front door behind him and stood there waiting for her. "Yes, it's me," Roman said sluggishly.
"I'm so glad you're home now! I was getting so worried when you weren't answering my messages." Eleanor threw her arms around him as she rambled on. "Hey, have you been drinking?" She sniffed him, the scent of alcohol present.
"Yeah," Roman wasn't in the mood to try and lie to her, he simply just wanted to go lay down.
She let go of him and let out a huff, "Please tell me you didn't do anything stupid?"
I mean, I drunkenly kissed our teenage neighbor because I was upset that you're having an affair with Clark Campbell. Does that count as something stupid? He wanted to say but knew it probably wouldn't be in his favor to admit all that.
"I don't believe I did," Roman answered instead, looking down at his wife with a convincing smile. He didn't want her to know that he knew the truth, not yet. The Italian had decided to wait it out, and strike when the moment was right.
Eleanor smiled up at him as she stepped closer, pressing herself against her husband's frontal. He looked down with a raised brow. A devilish smirk was plastered on her lips as her slender hands rubbed up and down his chest slowly as she started kissing his neck, "I was so worried about you." She seductively whispered into his ear.
Roman was not having it, not this time. All he could think about was her and Clark Campbell together, kissing each other, making love to each over.
"Eleanor, I'm not in the mood. I'm tired." He sighed, pushing her away. The Italian was trying to let her down lightly.
His wife pouted, "Baby, I've missed you. For a while now, it feels like there's something unsaid between us. Like we've been distant." She said innocently as if she didn't know. "I don't want that," Eleanor said as she placed light kisses against his skin.
Roman rolled his eyes at her, he didn't want this. He sat there, wanting to push her off of him. He wanted to tell her that he knew. He wanted to tell her that he never wanted to speak to her again for hurting him like that. But, he couldn't.
Roman couldn't find it in him to tell the woman who has been with him through thick and thin that he was done with her. They had so much history together, he felt like they were stuck with one another whether they liked it or not.
He needed to find the strength to confront her. He needed to lash out at her, yell at her and tell her how upset he was. However, he couldn't do it. Roman was weak when it came to Eleanor, which she knew, so he just stood there quietly as she kissed him.
"You know I only love you." She mumbled against his lips before placing a kiss on them. Roman's jaw clenched as he felt himself get furious at that little statement that was meant to be meaningful.
Eleanor continued to kiss his lips, not noticing how Roman had turned red and hot with anger. She was oblivious to his mood swing as she took his hands that were now on his sides and placed them on her hips. Her kisses getting rougher and more demanding.
Roman had enough of it. He knew that she didn't love him, at least not truly loved him. She had cheated on him and was still cheating. Roman had loved her fully, but she didn't love him like how he loved her. She took his love for granted, and a tiny part of him knew she wasn't deserving of his love and loyalty.
He roughly grabbed her hips and started to kiss her back with dominance. She moaned into the kiss. However, much to her surprise, Roman suddenly pushed her off of him. And he pushed her hard, harder than he had intended to.
He was fuming with anger as he looked down at the woman on the floor who he once thought was the most beautiful thing in the world. Roman used to look at her as if she were an angel that he somehow got lucky enough to call his own. Now, he was disgusted with her. How dare she say she only loved him.
Eleanor scoffed, "What the fuck, Rom?" She looked up at him with confusion.
"You cannot say that to me and just-" He exclaimed before pausing. He had realized what he was doing. This wasn't like him. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
"What is going on here, baby?" Eleanor asked, sounding worried. She still laid there on the floor, looking up at the towering man over her.
"No-nothing." He said, reminding himself that now was not the time. "I think it's best if I sleep on the couch tonight." Roman quickly said, trying to avoid looking into her gleaming eyes. He walked off before anything else could be said. He had to get out of there.
Eleanor was like a drug to him, she was his weakness. But now, like everyone else who starts their journey to quit their addiction, he needed to be far away from his and resist the temptation. Or, he'd need to find something else to fill the empty space in him that his addiction once held.
♥︎
Roman's wife had left early that morning to his surprise. He expected her to fight more for him, or at least try to reason with him and figure out what had come over him last night. Instead, after his little outburst last night, she left him alone and went up to their bedroom without another word.
He kept his word and slept on the couch, it wasn't ideal but he couldn't share the same bed as her last night. Distance from her was a good thing for him at the moment, Roman tried to remind himself. He knew eventually he'd tell Eleanor everything, but first, he needed to know if there was any chance that their relationship hadn't turned to complete shit. Maybe there was still something there? Roman wasn't sure which one he wanted it to be yet.
It was nine in the morning when Roman got up, he had decided to work from home that day. He needed time to process some things, and he knew he needed to take care of one thing before he could move on from it.
He couldn't act like the kiss with Evelina hadn't happened, because it did. Roman knew that was all on him, too, he was drunk and hurt. The teen was there for him when it happened, and he found some comfort in her - maybe in the wrong way, though.
Getting up from the couch with that thought in his head, he winced. He knew he needed to apologize to Evelina, it didn't quite settle well with him knowing he just made out with her and didn't apologize for it.
Roman groggily made his way to the large kitchen, starting a pot of coffee for himself. He needed the energy. He also changed into something casual, planning to go over to the Marino's house after his drink. Roman had put on a pair of jeans and a plain tee shirt, he didn't have to look professional for her.
After downing his coffee, he set out to walk over to the neighbor's house. He thought about what he was going to say to her, it was a little awkward to bring it up but he felt like he had to talk about it with her. Roman had felt bad about the whole thing, he wanted to blame it all on him being drunk, but maybe that was only half of the real reason he had kissed her.
The walk next door was very brief, and before he knew it, Roman was in front of the huge door to the Marino's house. He was nervous, he didn't apologize for much nor did he admit his wrongdoings. However, Roman was about to do both of those things.
He rung their doorbell and waited anxiously, Roman's hands were tucked into the front pockets of his pants and he shifted on his feet. The large door was swung open moments later, an older lady dressed in what looked like scrubs answered.
"Yes?" She said impatiently, she looked worn out.
"Uh, is Evelina Marino here?" He said sounding unsure, the lady looked already pissed off and he didn't want to make it worse.
The lady, who he assumed to be a housekeeper, clicked her tongue and eyed him. "You wait here." Was all she said before slamming the door back in his face.
"Well then," Roman mumbled before waiting a few minutes before the door was swiftly opened again.
"What, Roman?" She snapped, sounding annoyed.
"I," He looked up from his shoes and was at a loss for words for a moment. Evelina stood in front of him in a skimpy looking bikini, her hair was damp which let him know she was in the pool moments before. Her curves were on show, and for a second, Roman drank them all in.
"Yeah?" She leaned against the door frame.
"Oh, I needed to talk to you." He came back to reality.
"About what? Yesterday you just kind of ditched me there." Evelina spoke coolly, obviously feeling salty about being left alone at some hotel out of the city. "My phone had died so I couldn't call someone I knew for a ride, I had to take a taxi home from the middle of nowhere back to the city!" She exclaimed.
"I- I know and I'm sorry, I need to talk to you about that. I want to explain myself, I feel bad about all of that." Roman tried to coax her.
"Fine, come on." She rolled her eyes as she stepped aside to let him into the house. Evelina guided him to the large backyard where there was a good sized pool back there as well as a beautiful blooming garden. Evelina took a seat on one of the cushioned pool chairs and Roman took a seat next to her.
"I'm sorry for kissing you yesterday," He said bluntly. "I was drunk and upset, you were there for me and it just felt nice to have someone there to comfort me," Roman said quickly with a sigh, being genuine about how he felt.
A small smirk had made its way onto the adolescent's face, which confused Roman. "What?"
"I'm not even mad that you kissed me, I'm mad that you just left me there." She explained. "In fact, it was kind of nice," Evelina said at him, catching him off guard. "I mean, you have to admit it's nice to have someone there for you when you're hurting the most, right?" She gave him a flirtatious smile as she placed a manicured hand on top of his resting one. "I wanted to be there for you yesterday."
Roman hadn't expected a response like that, and after registering everything she said, he didn't know how to feel about that kiss because he didn't entirely find himself feeling bad about it anymore. After all, they say when you're drunk you speak the truth.