Page 37 of Allured (Love and Burlesque #1)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
ALEK
Glittery threats.
E mma shuts off the TV and takes the microphones from me and Vivian. Angrily, she points at the couch with a silent command to sit our asses down. We do, of course. I’ve trained enough with Emma to know she can pack a punch.
“If y’all are done wrecking my shit.” Em winces at the coffee table that now has a large hole in the middle of it before she looks back over at us, “Ezekiel is coming over to talk to you.”
“Me or her?” I ask, pointing back and forth between Viv and me and letting out a laugh when I meet my sister’s eyes.
“Oh, is his wife coming too?” Viv asks in between chuckles but stops for a second to see my reaction to her question. Goddamn, my sister could be an asshole but at least she was funny. I can’t help but keep laughing. If I wasn’t here with my girls, I think I’d be crying into my pillow at home.
“Ayy, we got enough margaritas to offer one to my boyfriend’s wife?” My question makes Viv laugh so hard that she falls off the couch. I don’t know the specifics of anything but I can tell my sister needed to let off steam too. Our laughs and antics have always been what helps us heal and there’s no one I laugh harder with than my little sister.
“Y’all are fucking on it tonight. Alek, drink some water and sober up so you can talk it out with Ez,” Emma commands, throwing a water bottle in my direction. If I wasn’t still so drunk, I’d confront her for throwing it to my face. But some water does sound amazing after singing for so long.
“Fine,” I grumble and open the bottle of water.
A knock on the door is the only thing that stops me from fully downing the sixteen ounces. Shit . He’s here already. I’m going to have to confront him about this and I’m hurt . I can’t hide that.
Emma steps out of the living room and toward the front door of the apartment. I keep my eyes on the door as it opens and suck in a breath when I see Ezekiel standing there. He’s disheveled and wide—eyed but walks in with confidence.
Viv glares, peeking from the floor beside me, protective of me as ever with all her five—foot self. If I had said that aloud I know I’d get a smack on the side of the head as she corrected me that she’s five feet, five inches tall. I calm her by rubbing my hand over the arm she has laid over the couch cushion.
“I got this,” I whisper over to her.
“Viv, let’s go, we’re getting milkshakes,” Emma announces, her hands full with her purse and Vivian’s fanny pack while she waits for my sister at the door.
“Oh fuck yeah, let’s go.” Viv hops off the couch super quickly for being as drunk as she is.
Upon passing Ezekiel, she grabs his forearm and tugs him towards her so that she can say something I can’t hear into his ear. He only offers a small nod in return but it makes Viv happy enough to smile and leave without another word.
“Do I wanna know what she said to you?” I ask, after hearing the door close and lock behind Ezekiel.
“She said she would glue glitter into my entire wardrobe if I didn't make things right with you,” he explains as he sits down on the couch, leaving a decent amount of distance between us.
“She’ll fucking do it, Ez.” I turn so that I am facing him. My body slouches against the soft cushions as I move back slightly, too afraid of how even now I want to wrap my arms around Ezekiel and pull him onto my lap.
“Well, I suppose it is a good thing I am here to explain myself. Threats of glitter aside, I know that I need to apologize for hurting you, Alek.” Ezekiel’s eyes shine as he speaks, glassy in a way I’ve never seen them.
“What about hurting your wife?” I ask, worry in my tone for the hurt I could have caused to her.
“My ex —wife, Alek. Elizabeth and I have been romantically uninvolved since the beginning of this year and officially separated in June. With the issue of our combined finances and inheritances, our divorce took longer than we had expected. Today is the day that it is official,” Ezekiel begins to explain. I sit still, listening and trying my best not to sway from the pitcher of margaritas Viv and I shared earlier.
“It was never something either of us wanted to announce to the world until things were properly severed, though those close to us have known our marriage was over for quite some time,” he continues. He only stops when he sees me open my mouth to say something.
“Why the hell wasn’t I one of those people, Ez? I think you’re kinda close to a guy when you’ve put your dick in his ass.” My words are a little harsh and I know it but the usual people—pleasing filter is gone right now. I need answers.
“As crass as you make it sound, you are correct. I should have told you but I selfishly kept the information to myself out of fear and from feelings of failure that plagued me at the time. It is no excuse, but when I first met you, Alek, a relationship was the furthest thing I felt I needed at the moment. I look back now and consider myself a fool for many reasons; namely, for thinking the immediate connection between us was forgettable. Even when I tried to erase you from my memory.” A self—deprecating laugh escapes him as he runs his hands down his face and pauses for a moment.
“You are inevitable as death itself and you came at a time when I was so low nothing short of a rebirth would have saved me.”
Oh, fuck this man and his beautiful words.
“Ezekiel, I wish you would have trusted me to understand, just like I trusted you with my past when I fucking cried my heart out to you,” I speak the words softly, a lot of the fire I had in me has died down from my initial reaction when I ran away from his old lady neighbor.
“I know a simple apology will not earn back your trust, Alek. I had planned a special night for us tomorrow. I was going to reveal everything and show you exactly who I am and what I have been going through for the past few months. I was going to show you a house that was empty of so many possessions and memories, spaces I was hoping we could fill together. I was going to show you my journal entries about you and tell you how healing it has been to write about our love.”
Feeling painfully sober now, I let a trickle of tears fall down my face. Ones that had been gathering since the moment Ezekiel stepped into the apartment.
“Sweetheart…” His voice cracks and so does the dam struggling to hold back my tears. Fuck, I don’t want to be crying right now.
“Alek, please let me hold you,” Ezekiel asks and I just nod in response.
He wraps me in his arms, his body now pressed to the side of mine as he guides my head to rest on his shoulder. Crying has always been cathartic for me, but ever since my teens, I had only done it when I was by myself. I hated letting other people see me as anything but fun and flirty.
Crying doesn’t feel bad with Ez. Not when he’s holding me so tightly the physical pressure relieves the emotional turmoil I’ve been keeping in. The truth is, when I first heard that he was married, I knew, I fucking knew he didn’t have a relationship with his wife anymore.
There was no way the Ezekiel I knew would have lied when he bared his soul with his confession of love while he was still married.
What made me spiral this afternoon were the stupid doubts that crept into my mind any time I would think of the what—ifs or question his love for me.
As I sit there, Ezekiel’s lean arms stay wrapped around my frame as he lets me soak his shirt with tears and let it all out. I know there’s nothing this man wouldn’t do for me. It may take some time to quiet the voices questioning our commitment to each other but they are practically gone at this moment.
“Ez.” I sit up, wiping at my face with my t—shirt before looking my boyfriend in the eyes. His sapphire irises stare back at me, hanging on my whisper of his name.
“I’d like to see it all now. Your home. The journal. The spaces you want me to fill. Show me.”