Chapter Twenty Two - Alena's P.O.V
Feeling myself being squeezed and soft kisses being left on my forehead, I slowly drifted my eyes open to find Derrick inches away. "Good morning," I sighed, still sleepy.
"Ew babe, I missed you, but not your morning breath." He pinched his nose and made faces, moving away from me.
"Haha, very funny Derrick. Well, don't worry cause you're not getting any kisses anyway." With that, I rolled out of bed and walked towards the bathroom to freshen up for the day.
"What? No! You just need a little brush babe-" he came running after me, but I closed the bathroom door before he could make it in. "Aw, Lena please open up!" He knocked on the door, trying to grab my attention. I just left him to beg behind the door as I splashed my face with water. After drying and moisturizing my skin, I combed through my hair, and brushed my teeth. Afterwards, throwing on some quick natural make-up before opening the bathroom door again, to find Derrick still standing there.
"Better?" I breathed into his face.
"Much." He grinned.
"You know, if you're going to spend the rest of your life with me, you're going to have to get used to that. I'm surprised that you aren't already."
"I think I was, I just got kind of used to being without it for this past couple of days so now it was, a rude awakening..." I gasped, lightly smacking his chest with the back of my hand. No matter how hard I could've hit, he would just laugh like it was a tickle. I was no match to his large figure any day.
We both proceeded to walk out of the room and head downstairs to the kitchen. Coffees were already on the counter with a note underneath them. "Just a little morning treat & a thank you ♡" was written in Jessica's handwriting, and I just smiled. They are both too sweet. Assuming that the note meant that they weren't here, I called both of their names, receiving no response.
"Looks like it's just the two of us," I smiled, looking up at Derrick. His arms snaked around my body for his hands to rest at the small of my back. I brought my hands up and rubbed his biceps and shoulders. Within a moment's time, I was pulled into a soft kiss. I really did miss this, but as much as I felt at home in Derrick's arms typically, something just felt really off today. I still couldn't shake yesterday's nerves.
With that in mind, we didn't kiss for long. Soon we parted and went to sit in the living room with our coffees. Bentley joined us, happy as ever. I missed that little guy so much.
I hadn't even noticed him do it, but Derrick put on some soft music to play throughout the living room. I sat looking out the window at the morning sun. The trees were all practically bare, once colorful leaves gathering in the grass. The sun was so bright that if you didn't know any better, you would think it was warm outside today.
"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Derrick asked, his fingers brushed over my cheeks, making me turn my head and face him.
"Too much to even explain." I murmured, giving him a soft smile.
"You know I'm here to listen, my love." He smiled, taking my hand and tracing circles with his thumb in attempt to relax me. "This ring says exactly that, that I am here to listen to you always, I'm here for you baby." He traced over the rock on my ring finger.
"I know, I'm so grateful for that." I truly was, but sometimes there are battles we have to fight ourselves, and this was certainly mine. "I'm just really stressed about going back to work, I've been gone for a little while and I'm not looking forward to playing catch-up for some time. Also, it's going to be kind of hard to have Bentley here while we're both at work, he's still such a puppy he's going to make a mess. I think I've just been biting off more than I can chew lately and it's starting to catch up to me now." While all of the things that I said were valid concerns of mine, they were absolutely not what had me so dazed. I know that Derrick knows me well enough to see through that, but he seemed to understand my current stress enough to know that it wasn't worth digging deeper than what I was giving him.
"Alena, you are incredibly hard working, and while going back might be a little much at first, I am confident that you'll be back in the swing of things in no time. And as for Bentley, we can put him in doggy-daycare for a little while and have him trained. Then he's not here to wreck the house, and in time he'll be able to stay home without wrecking the house. Don't let that be something that stresses you out babe." I appreciated his faith in me and his practicality. I wish I could be as honest with him as I should be. Knowing how rational he is, like how he is now, I should be. But I just can't.
"Thank you, sweetheart. You are my rock." He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
"And you are mine."
"In what world? I'm pretty sure that you're always the one being called for help; you are always the one to pick up my pieces and show me the light at the end of the tunnel."
"Alena, you are my light at the end of the tunnel. I don't care how many times you call for help, I will always answer. No matter how many times you fall apart, I will pick up your pieces."
I was speechless. What was I to say? All I could do was start crying.
"Sweetheart, why are you crying?"
"How did I get so lucky as to have the universe send you to me?" How could I have this and absolutely destroy it before my very eyes?
"My love, it was you that was sent to me. If you hadn't come to our party that night, and sat at my bar just to ask me for a milkshake, we wouldn't be here right now."
"I guess that's right, Derrick the basement bartender." I gave a small laugh at the memory.
"The day that you finally stopped referring to me that way was perhaps our first milestone as a couple, and we weren't even dating then." He laughed. It's so crazy how much has changed since then, how much we've grown since then.
"Oh shush, I still like it actually, maybe I should bring it back."
"Please don't. Your morning breath is one thing, but that nickname is seriously a deal breaker." I love joking around with him like this. Derrick truly is my rock. As crazy as everything is right now, I cannot imagine it all without him.
—
Soon enough, Jess and Liz walked through the front door.
"Where were you guys? And thank you for the coffee by the way." My tone changing completely with each statement.
"Just had some errands to run, and anytime." Chimed Liz. "Thank you so much again for letting us stay here. I could not imagine having to stay with my parents right now."
"Did you just see them?" Derrick asked.
"Yes," Jess responded, "We both went to visit our parents, we knew they'd be devastated if they found out we were here and didn't stop by."
"I love them, don't get me wrong, but there's a reason why I live in an entirely different region of the country now." Liz sighed.
"Well, that's why you guys are always welcome here." I smiled, opening both of my arms for them to come sit next to me on the couch. They both walked over and sat, one on each side of me, and I embraced my best friends tightly. How fortunate I am that even after college and living far away for so long, I still have friends who know me better than I know myself.
Shortly after, Derrick stood up and turned to us. "I think I'm going to go for a run. I would offer to take Bentley with me, but I honestly think he's too small to keep up." We laughed.
"That's fine, you can just let him out in the backyard for a little while, I'll let him back in shortly." I insisted. Following that, he went upstairs to get changed for his run. Before leaving, he came back into the living room and gave me a quick kiss on top of my head. "I love you, be safe."
"I love you too, and I always am." With that, he put in his earbuds and headed out the door.
"How are you holding up? Did some alone time this morning help?" Jess turned to ask me.
"I genuinely can't tell. If anything, it might have made things harder."
"How? Why? Did you guys fight?" Liz questioned.
"No, I think a fight would've almost made things easier." I looked down at my lap, "I don't deserve him, girls."
"Alena, you deserve to be happy, and he makes you happy." Jess urged. I only wish it were that simple.
"I know you probably still don't want to talk about everything, but if you do, you know we're here." Liz assured me. "Also, there's something that I think we all kind of forgot about that we should probably mention..."
"What's up?" I looked at her, confused.
"We booked flights to California... we leave in six days..."
"Oh my god, that's right! I completely forgot." I could not believe I would forget such a thing, but with everything else that's been going on I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised with myself. "What am I supposed to tell my boss? I just took a week off, they aren't going to give me more time off so soon. I can't."
"Aw Alena, come on! What happened to being spontaneous? Maybe a few days on the sandy beaches will help you clear your head a little." Liz suggested, urging me to reconsider.
"I would love more than anything to escape to the West coast with you girls, but there's absolutely no way that work will allow it." Disappointed, I apologized to them. "Please, don't let me hold you back though, go and have fun!"
"That so defeats the purpose of all of it, we were supposed to be getting the gang back together!" Although Jess was making an effort not to make me feel guilty, she was visibly disappointed in such news.
"I know guys, I'm really sorry." But you'll be flying out from Glenn, right?" I asked, referring to the John Glenn International Airport. They both nodded. "So, that means you can just stay here until you have to leave! That gives us six more days together!" I tried to be positive, but they still were not satisfied. I truly did feel awful, but I just couldn't put my boss in such a position. "Honestly, I'm just grateful to have you guys whenever I can get you, thank you for everything." As I spoke, I squeezed them tight again, bringing smiles back onto all of our faces. With everything going on in my world right now, I just need to be grateful for what I do have.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: hope all of you had a wonderful holiday! It's so nice to be home and finally having the time to cozy up & write again. Also, thank you to those of you who vote/comment, it truly warms my heart to see that you guys are enjoying this story and my writing. You guys are awesome and are the (number one) reason I came back to finish this!
Hoping to get more updates to you all soon. Have a happy New Year everyone!