The conversation

I see him in a very good mood lately; this friendship with Edith had definitely paid off on his mood and his vision of life. I wonder if the daily visits are to blame, I wonder if my sudden ignorance to let him be alone with her is giving him this sudden happiness. If that´s the case then it would bring me such joy to see him finally experiencing love. It´s a shame that this has a expiration date. The invites have been sent and according to what I have heard, it would be the celebration of the century.

His fiancée has being on a trip to France for the last month finalizing the wedding preparation. Meanwhile he´s being hiding himself at that guest house every morning as if that place it´s his only escape. I thought that this girl would be different and smart enough to avoid falling for him. I need to warn her.

-Good afternoon, Mrs. Willes. May I have a word with your daughter?-I asked politely after she answered the door when I knocked.

- What are you doing in my house? - Her face looks troubled; she knows who I am and what I do. There was a time when she was in every single meeting, society party or cocktail gathering. She knows about me and my cleanser responsibilities.

-I need to speak to your daughter, it´s concerning a charity event that I would like her to participate in. –I lied. I had to, I just couldn´t resist the way she looked at me.

She calls Edith and leaves us to our charity nonsense.

-Good Afternoon, Miss.

-How can I help you? - She asked.

-You know who I am, right?

-Yes, Edward has told me about you. - She looks nervous.

-What have you heard about me?

-Just the basics in one word. - She seems more relaxed.

-  And?

-Security.-She was sharp

-Exactly, I ensure the Woods security at all times but today, I´m not here for them. I came to talk to you.

She looked bewildered but not intimidated.

-I see, again how I can help you?-  her tone was firm.

She invited me to sit and then I had to set all records straight.

-He will be married exactly three weeks from now to Deborah, this marriage is merely for business because of family tradition mostly but yet it will not be undone because of you. I have seen how important you have become for him but this won´t change the decision made. He would not be yours completely. Are you going to settle for being his mistress? I have read about you, your work is really important to you. Once it comes out that you´re in an extra marital affair your career would be over. This is not a threat, this is me giving you a picture on how would it be. Please end this now before you can get really hurt. - I finished begging her to consider my plea.

- I understand everything that  you´re saying to me  and the logic in me tells me you´re right but what can I do with my feelings when my heart has finally found it´s match. I will fight for him until there are no more strength to fight anymore. - She´s determined.

- You have no idea what they´re capable of doing to keep their status. Senior is determined to close this deal as he does on his work empire. In the end Edward will do what he was told to do. Senior is in control of his universe and I will be sent to eliminate the problem. I will discredit you, I will  forced  you to disappear and I honestly don´t want to do this to Edward. My job will not be complete until I buy you out or hurt you in a way that will make you quit on him. Trust me, I´m really good at my job, do not underestimate me just because you see me old. Again, I want you to see and understand my point. - I had to say it.

She stands up from the sofá and walks towards me and kneels.

-I can see who has the power now, not Senior but you. Can you help me? For once in your job duties, can you champion the harmless victim that loves your boy unconditionally? I know you care for Edward and if you do, you will also care for me . We love each other to a point that we´re willing to risk it all to protect our love. Please don´t let them separate us, if I have to endure this marriage to be near him I will. If I have to settle for second in other to save our love I will. I will manage to keep balance even when it seemed insanity to the world. That´s how I love him. I don´t need his money, I don´t need to make a scene to prejudice his family I just want him.-She finished me.

Talk about a strong character. Talk about devotion and determination. This would be harder than I thought. She´s not going anywhere and I needed to decide her future: destruction and alienation or protection and salvation. This one will be a hard one to beat; I knew it since day one.

-Edith, I don´t promise you anything but I will think about it. Good day. - I said, standing up and leaving her in the floor with a sense of defeat.

The Watcher.

TO BE CONTINUE

The Storm has arrived

        -         -It´s been an interesting week for us, don´t you think?

        -        I agree Mr. Woods.-I looked at him intently and smiled.

        -        Are you smirking at me Ms. Willes?-He sounded challenged.

Oh dear God, what an amazing week. I cannot believe this is happening to me, I finally found a friend but I no longer want him as my friend. I want him for me and, I don´t want to share him with anyone.

           -What´s going on? Why you look sad out of the sudden? What did I do wrong?-He sounds concerned.

           -Nothing wrong Edward, I just don´t like it when you leave. That´s all. –I said and my tone is even sadder than my face. I look at him and he seems surprised.

           - Really?

           -Yes, I like the time we spend together.-I say shyly.

He reached my hand; he takes it and interlaced it with his. He pulls it up until his mouth touches my palm. He looks at me with worry eyes as he´s afraid but then makes up his mind to kiss my hand and close his eyes when he does so. I have never felt such electric current hitting my body and going all the way to my heart. This is beyond friendship now and it will bring a storm. I have nerve being in a storm before but I certainly love the rain.

         - Edith ,May I kiss you? - He stabs me in the heart with his sweetness. Someone that has never being known for such feelings.

         -Will you hurt me Edward? - I say in a quiet voice.

        -I don´t want to and I will give my soul to avoid that Edith but I can´t promise you I won´t.-He finished me.

         -Ok. – I said yes with my head.

He kissed me.

I have never being kissed like this before, such warmth in his lips, such  lips full of juicy corpulence and such penetrating tongue. He wanted me; he wanted to devour my mouth and conquered my soul with that kiss. He succeeded. The sound of the thunder distracted our feast and we had to run towards my guest house to cover from the rain.

         -Edith, I can´t let you go. That kiss just proved my point.-He said heavy breathing.

Words can barely come out my mouth and I simply sealed him with my conquering and demanding kiss. I possessed his mouth and I simply pour my soul out to comply with his statement. When we part I stay looking at him and he says it.

         -Edith,  I´m going to make love to you.

          -Yes, Edward you are.-

I wasn´t going to pretend anymore so I have accepted that the storm arrived and I was going to dance in it. I was going to fight for this man until my last breath and against anyone who would try to deny me from him.

 Edith.

TO BE CONTINUE

My dull day after seeing him

I closed the door and my heart doesn´t find neither rest nor peace. This was supposed to be a quiet relaxing walk around the house. This visit to my parent’s homeland was to give me inner peace and prepare for my next mission visit to Africa, I always come here to recharge my batteries and prepare for the upcoming adventure. I don´t need all this trouble now but I too need a friend for sure. This doesn´t feel like a friendship birth, it feels like a very hard complication. I´ve been alone for so long that I can´t neither recognize nor differentiate one from another, love or friendship I mean, I have built my walls so high because I just don´t have the time anymore. Last time I went for love it was really hard so it´s safer to focus in others and help them in anyways I can, that´s the only type of love my heart could accept or deal at the time but now I feel it jumping eager to know  what I’ve been missing.

I decide to go a turn on the TV and prepare some breakfast, I enjoy cooking it relaxes me. I can´t stop thinking about Edward´s hand interlaced with mine. I closed my eyes and I think on how soft his hands feels touching my fingers and making my soul feel that the right palm it´s connecting to mine. I’ve never felt such softness and it doesn´t match the towns gossip about him not having a heart and that he just enjoy playing around. Those hands felt lonely , they felt empty but  I barely know the owner to have a final conclusion so I will see him again. While submerged in my thought the door slams hard and I know she´s home.

-Daydreaming?- Direct as usual.

-No, just… thinking. Do you want me to serve you omelet?- I ask her.

She stares at me and stays quiet. She gets closer and says it.

-Who did you find? Who?

It´s not news to me that she knows me  the same as I know her, two drops of water looking each other into the mirror. I can´t hide anything from her  but this time I will try.

-No one. The walk was short and peaceful. Do you want breakfast or not?- I look directly to her eyes to try to lie and apparently it worked.

- Ok. Please.

The conversation finishes there and we both go into our daily routine, the daily routine when I visit her. I like traveling but I always end up coming back home to her, after my father passed away she needs me more than ever. Ruth can be quiet sometimes but we both need to hear each other’s voice to know that everything is going to be alright with the world.

The afternoon comes in slowly and not fast enough, we have the usual visitors that like to drop a bomb or two about the latest town news. Of course this is how I hear about Edward and his family because no matter whatever happens in England; The Woods are the closure topic of the gossip.

-So enough about Maggie and her crazy husband, did you hear where the wedding would be?

   Her annoying tone of voice makes me roll my eyes.

-What wedding?- my mom says annoyed by Savannah´s question.

-The Wedding of the year, Edward Woods and Deborah Langley?

-Oh right, you obsession. Got it!- My mom says and I can´t suppressed my laugh.

-Ruth, I’m not obsessed I just like to keep you posted. I know after loosing Michael you lost interest in all the society stuff but I’m your friend and I will keep you inform of all the things until you get back to our club´s meeting.-Savannah finishes.

Of course she had to bring my dad´s passing to the table (that bitch). I´m angry now and not laughing anymore but my mom as polite as she is tries to brush it off.

-Thank you dear for your thoughtful initiative but none of those topics interest me anymore.

-I understand Ruth. - She says while drinking her cup of tea… oh them and their tea!!!

In moment like this I hug myself and my dad for loving me so that he wanted me to have a life outside of this bubble and appreciate other cultures so I would understand the shallowness in my own and I could try to be different.

There was a time when Ruth lived to the social events and participate in Charity along with my dad, they weren´t as well known as the Woods but they had their share of recognition. Then my dad had cancer and all the so called friends disappeared and the ones still remaining wanted to come visit and see if we were finally broke. I manage to maintain my dad´s business and with my constant work with non governmental entities we have maintain our status, and helped people in need through the fundation. but not because we care about none of recognition but to honor my dad´s memory, to feel we have him closer to our hearts.

This and some other reasons is that getting close to Edward feels like if  I´m going against nature, I have found myself in the work that I do and mixing with Edward would damage what I have achieve so far.

Savannah leaves promising to bring the ladies tomorrow for tea , I roll my eyes and wave  her goodbye as my mother closes the door.

-Why do you keep receiving that vulture in our house?-I demand her

-I know but she´s the one that comes here every day and even if I have to hear all that drama it helps me not to feel alone when you´re not here, it´s not easy being alone.-She smiles and make me feel guilty.

-Do you want me to stay here and stop working?- I´m shocked

-No, silly but I want you to understand my point too.-She answers.

-Ok, I understand.-I breathe

I go back to my room and lay on my bed thinking about what she said to me, It´s not easy being alone. I realized that I don´t want to end up alone either and that tomorrow morning I will see him again and for a brief moment I won´t be alone I will be with him.

Edith.

TO BE CONTINUED

The watcher

People call him the Black Prince, I have always wondered why. Edith knows this, she knows everything that is to know about him, she has sat with her friends and listened to Mr. Woods’s gossips and dark secrets. Why is she interested?   I know she´s smart, I have heard about her too, She´s constantly traveling and nobody has seen her with another man. Some say she´s a lesbian others say she´s frigid. 

People and gossip, the web they like to grow but once it reaches them life is unfair.The things I need to listen in each party, walk to the park, shopping for items and accompany him in meetings.

I see that he´s bored, he´s not interested in building an empire like his family, I have seen him contemplating the simple lives of the less fortunate. I have seen him longing ¨normal¨ as if normal would bring him happiness. This meeting dulls him; I can tell he wants the day to be over just to see her again. That´s what she represents, his journey to ¨normal¨.

This afternoon we stopped a different store, wait… This isn´t a store, this is a library. I was more shocked than the driver. He went to the mission´s section, lots of books about hunger and medical needs in Africa. Does Mr. Woods wants to feed the hunger? Since when he´s interested in this. He gets several UNICEF pamphlets and walks out the building with a grin. He´s planning something, something that will dazzle Edith until she doesn´t have any other option than  to succumb to his charm. 

His art is a perfectionate science where multiple sacrifices had being made and I had to clean several messes, this will not end up good for her. Usually it never did to the others and he seemed well kept but then again Edith doesn´t seem like the others so this could end badly for both. The sad part is I will have to keep my distance until I´m called in  to pick up the pieces and clean. This is something I definitely don´t like to neither do nor enjoy but that´s what I get pay for and my job is to keep him secure.

Dinner was quiet at the house or should I say the castle, who am I kidding, this isn´t a house. I live in a house and my house is just a couple of feet away from here, this is a castle and all his life Edward have lived here and doesn´t know anything besides this castle and my house.  Senior has instructed me to keep him away from the nearby houses to avoid any complications and yesterday I failed to fulfill that promise, I let him walk alone and ride towards Edith, I know I will have to pay for this mistake but seeing him so carefree and  reaching ¨normal¨ it was worth it. As usual we talk before he goes to bed:

-What do you think?- Our conversations always start with this question.

-You know that I don´t like to interfere.- I reply softly.

-I know you don´t like it but in the end you always do.-He sets the record straight.

-I saw you searching for Missions and Africa info? You´re  searching about her in the browser, don´t be mad but I get paid to know all of this. You´re to be married with Deborah in less than 2 months, that won´t change it´s a sealed deal and it won´t be broken. Senior won´t allow it and I won´t be able to protect neither you nor her of the disaster. She has a fulfilling life in her work and contrary to what people say about her sexuality I honestly think she liked you. What I don´t know if she´s willing to be scattered just to experience those feelings with you but by the look on her face it seemed that she might so be careful, this one is different from the others. She has a brain and a great heart.

-Brutal as usual.-He said smiling.

-You won´t change your mind about seeing her tomorrow, right?- I asked with hope.

He looked down and then to the right outside of my house window and smiled. There I saw it, He was going after ¨Normal¨ and no one was going to  stop him from trying not even me that implore him so I wouldn´t have to clean any more consequences but I was totally blind for not understanding what this encounter meant to them. Only after all this years and all what has happened I can see it clearly.

Love is worth fighting for even  when  people think that it´s too risky.

TO BE CONTINUED

Edward Woods finds ground

I can´t believe that I just had my life shaken by a normal country girl and her ways of spitting the truth without hesitation. What a magnificent creature, why I get to meet her now? I´m one month away from my arranged wedding , this is another confirmation that I shouldn´t be married.

I don´t understand my parents and their wish to maintain the status and the family name within the power society they have always lived up to but why do they think they can choose for me? What´s worse, how was I so blind to agree to it when I don´t even neither know nor love this person I will married? I was clear to my parents that this arranged marriage wouldn´t stop me from living my life and being with which ever I wanted to and that girl should be aware of it. That sounds so cynical, how can we play with such thing to our convenience? What about the lives that would be affected? What about the lives that would die in the process of this painful decision?

Then I meet Edith and can see her soul through her eyes, I need to know more about her. I need that kind of purity in my life to purge all the bullshit I’ve been exposed my entire life; but how can I do this without hurting her, without being selfish and forcing her to live with my burden?  At least I can have her as a friend but this isn´t what I want. I want her.

Tomorrow I will hold her hand again; they were so soft and inviting. What would we talk about? I wish not about the gossips of my relationship with Deborah, which is nonexistent. Our families are rich and have being related for the past 7 generations, which makes her a perfect match for me according to Richard, I mean my dad.

There´s something about her.I´m curious. I open my computer and search her name: Edith Willes, England. I’m expecting that the browser won´t get me neither far nor too many results but I´m surprised. She´s everywhere. She´s a doctor. She´s not British, this can definitely complicate things. Normally spends her summers in USA and the rest of the year travels to different locations for missions across the world. Has a family house in England and France but apparently her life is traveling. She isn´t predictable, I like this. So, how does she know about me?

I have to go to that boring meeting now and I can´t continue with my search, which has left me thirstier than before. Another boring day at the office that I wish it will pass fast so I can see her tomorrow. I wonder what´s she´s doing now.

TO BE CONTINUED