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Sebastian:

It took everything in me not to fuck her senseless. She needs all the sense she can muster with whatever situation she’s currently found herself in. But, fuck . Alina Timber only grew more beautiful and feistier in our time apart and I’m fucking drooling just thinking of how her pussy felt upon my fingers again. That’s exactly where Alina Timber’s pussy belongs. In my fucking hand, being worshipped for all that she is and ever was. I truly hope whoever I bashed in the dick is permanently unable to use it after what he did to my girl.

My girl .

How easily I’ve slipped back into old habits.

Isn’t she who I’ve always wanted though? Who I’ve compared every girl to. Held every other to her standards, knowing they could never surpass them.

I feel the need to save her and protect her, yet I know in my gut there’s no way for me to do so without her resenting me. She’s never been the girl to just let others do things for her. She hates asking for help, at least she did back then, and I don’t see her exactly filling me in on everything up front. Especially after I slut shamed her in the car and embarrassed her in the bathroom.

I rest my forehead against the fridge in front of me and sigh heavily. What the fuck am I going to do? The thought of allowing Alina to leave here and return to that shit pile is devastating, but I won’t make her stay if she doesn’t want to. That’s not the kind of prick I am. Apparently, I’m just the asshole who verbally harasses their ex because they’re not the person they’ve dreamed them to be the entire time they’ve been apart.

Ok, ok. I am a prick.

I hear the floorboards creak as bare feet descend a couple of stairs. “Bash?” My name from her lips is like a shot of heroin to my vein as she appears before me, hair wet and towel tightened around her chest.

“You need clothes,” I assume, and she nods her head, her cheeks getting redder as she debates whether or not to say whatever she’s thinking. “Ok,” I nod quietly and follow her back up the stairs to my room. She moves to the side and allows me to breeze past her to a dresser that holds all my grungy clothes. I grab a pair of boxer briefs, sweatpants and a baggy shirt, handing them to her as she holds one arm out to me.

“I don’t wanna go back tonight.” She won’t look at me as she says it. I’m stunned she’s even admitting this to me at all. “It was so easy to be on autopilot before and pretend it wasn’t happening.”

“And now?” I ask breathlessly. I’m an idiot for hoping, but I can’t help it.

“And now it’s not.” Not with me here. That’s what she isn’t saying. But I see it in her eyes as they finally rake over my body and roam my face in search of all the love she’s been devoid of. She’s feeling too vulnerable though and turns away quickly, retreating into the bathroom as if I hadn’t just been inside of her perfect cunt minutes before. That’s fine. She deserves any sort of privacy she wants. Especially if it’s something I can freely offer her without paying. I don’t expect her to immediately shed all her burdens. But we’re heading in the right direction if she isn’t wanting to crawl back to that death trap. I sit on the bed and await her exit from the bathroom, cursing the fucked up Bengal Bar.

Alina:

He’s waiting on the bed when I leave the bathroom wearing all of his clothes. I must look frumpy as hell. He’s taller and larger than me so I’m swimming in his things, but it’s a feeling I remember loving back in the day. Being in Bash’s sweatshirt, lounging on the bed while he played the guitar for me. I loved our time together. And those exact memories are making it impossibly hard to want to return to my actual life.

I weighed my options in the bathroom. Either way, I’m in trouble. It’s already Sunday and I’ll be safe the next four days from having to see Luke, at least for work at The Bengal. It doesn’t really matter if I return or not tonight, as Albert was my last scheduled client. I was just gonna go back to see if I could score any stragglers, as well as assess the damage Bash did. That all sounds incredibly shitty compared to basking in the limelight of the rockstar in front of me.

But now that I’ve made my decision, I feel out of place. There’s so much standing between us, I’m not sure Bash and I can ever recover enough to resurrect what we had back in high school. He looks tired. The spark he once carried is gone, wasted away with all the empty bottles he’s upended and countless needles he’s fed his veins. Maybe we’re both so broken, it’s finally plausible to think it’d work between us.

I wanna see this man smile like the boy I knew back then. I decide I’ve been scared long enough and summon up some of the courage the girl I used to be possessed. I walk towards him and lift his chin gently, so he has to look into my eyes. I’m about to speak when he does so first.

“Stay with me,” he whispers, and I crumble, straddling him immediately and sinking into his arms. His fingers desperately hold me to his body as I breathe in his scent with all my might, afraid it’ll be the last time I get the chance to. We stay like this for a few minutes, connected heart to heart, enjoying the same shared space again. It’s everything we both need and as we pull away from each other, there’s a lightness between us for the first time since reconnecting. It feels so good I wanna cry.

“Let’s get some food,” he says timidly. I move to get off his lap, but he quickly snatches my jaw with his slender fingers. His long lashes are almost kissing his cheeks, his eyelids are so heavy. And for a moment, I see that kid I met in detention on my eighteenth birthday. His lips meet mine with a gentle press and his thumb pad swoops over the crest of my cheek softly. I’m whimpering as he breaks into a subtle smirk, lifting himself off the bed with my body in his arms. I’m carried down the stairs to the kitchen.