Chapter Twenty-Two: When The Lion Must Submit

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Matteo

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Matteo

"So are we really about to keep walking around this park in silence, or are you going to talk to me?" Kashera poked as she stopped our walking.

She came and faced me with her arms crossed as she sank easily enough into her hip. Her hair flowed with the fabric of her loose white and black polkadot pants set that blew in the wind. Her dark red lips held a straight line as her thick, well arched eyebrow rose in waiting. Her enchanting brown eyes bore into mine and all but pulled the need to talk to her clean out of me. I wanted to keep walking in this silence, but I knew that it wasn't necessarily a comfortable one. It was filled with the waves of my rambunctious thoughts and worries of protecting her.

Last night was still on my uncomfortably tired mind. After our conversation in the car, we'd made our way into the tense house. Once Kashera found Brooklyn and Kat huddled up in her room, they were adamant in not separating for the rest of the night. In the end, they all slept in the refuge of Kashera's bed while I slept in the guest room refusing to leave them alone again that night. I literally couldn't bring myself to do it.

In a matter of hours two of the most important women in my life were almost ripped from me, and though I appeared to be my normal cautious ass-hole self on the outside, on the inside I was a panicking mess. My head was in disarray: murderous on one end, mournful in-between, and cold-hearted on the other. I couldn't find a balance between them. I was shifting through the motions trying to keep it together for them, but I knew that the moment I stepped out of either of their presence I was bound to screw something up.

Yet, regardless of my proximity, I couldn't sleep to save my life. I was waking up constantly through the night in odd time increments. Eventually around four a.m I gave up on the idea of sleep altogether and threw myself into working out and working on papers.

When the morning came, I begrudgingly took Kat home after promising Kash that I'd see her for lunch, but even then she could sense that something was up with me. I really didn't bother trying to hide it from her at that point.

That's what led us to here walking around the park down the street from her office for lunch. We'd eaten, made small talk, but nothing of our usual spontaneous and easy conversations. After that, because we had the time and the day was nice, she insisted that we walk around the park. I said yes of course because I couldn't say no to her often, and despite my scattered brain I still felt a hell of a lot better being in her presence.

Yet and still I knew that I wouldn't be able to last long before she finally pushed us to talk. Things happened last night, and I couldn't keep walking around avoiding the elephant in the room. I promised to protect her, but the truth of the matter was that unless I was in her presence I couldn't do it to my fullest capacity and that was weighing heavy in my soul with every waking second. Taking a breath, I took her hand in my own and began walking.

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