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“Why the f**k are you here?” Lola yelled at Lena as soon as she saw her walk into the store. “You were supposed to stay home and rest.”
Lena shrugged and went into her little office in the rear. Lola stayed very close behind. “I’ve gotten better. Yes, I’m still weak, but trust me, Lola, it’s not going to kill me.”
Lola snorted. “You’re one of the sweetest people, Lena, but that doesn’t make you any less stubborn. It’s as annoying as diabetes, you know.”
Lena didn’t say anything. She merely slipped behind her desk and started to move the modest stack of paperwork about without any real purpose. Lola stood quietly the whole time, with her hip against the desk.
Lena had a feeling she needed to say something, and it may be very important. And after a few long minutes of stillness, she was proven right.
“About…” Lola said, clearing her voice. “Last night, Lena, what you asked…”
Lena stopped. At last.
“Yes,” Lola said with a sigh. “I like him. I like Damien. But then again, who doesn’t? But you know what? It’s not that all-consuming, novel-worthy kind of like-like. Oh, how do I explain it?” She stopped for a second and wrung her hands in frustration.
Lena listened patiently and never interrupted.
“Have you ever had a crush on one of those cheesy, hunky heroes in the movies or TV shows or something? Like, you freaking want to have someone like that in your life, and you daydream about it a lot. This feeling is not real, and it’s more because of the fact that you live the idea of being loved by someone so impossibly wonderful like that. Yeah, that’s what I feel. I’ve been the witness to how Damien healed you, how he takes care of you, the way he looks at you. Lena, I want someone to look at me like that. Because come on, look at me. No matter how much I try to deny it, it’s true that I’m bloody getting old. I just ripped off a grey hair this morning,” Lola informed with wide eyes as if she was struck in fear just by the memory of her grey hair. “And even though I say I’m fine alone, I am, but that’s not what I want when I see Damien looking at you.”
Lena’s facial muscles froze, then let go and turned into a frown. Looking at you…  Lena shook her head, saying no to the plan. “Damien only sees me as a friend, Lola,” she said slowly. “And maybe what you want so badly is already just an arm’s length away. You just need to open your eyes and see it.”
She thought of Ryan and realized she shouldn’t take things any further. It was still too early. And things might go wrong before they even start.
She smiled to herself as she saw Lola’s face wrinkle up in intense contemplation.
It was the finest thing she could do for her pals.
The next morning, the sun shined on Velden in the brightest way, making it seem like there was no evil anyplace on Earth. But Lena was smarter than that. There were layers of darkness behind the dazzling brightness, waiting for the next careless move of an unsuspecting victim.
Kellen followed her like a good little boy whenever she left the safety of her apartment. And she decided to keep her thoughts to herself about it. Kellen was aware that she was aware. When he walked into her apartment just a few minutes after she had last night, it was clear in his eyes. It was strange how calm they both were about it as if there was an unwritten agreement between them.
Lena had generally stayed quiet because of the weird sight behind Kellen’s calm eyes. She knew him well enough to recognize that the feeling was pain, and the amount of it seemed unbelievable.
For a long time, she had been able to read Kellen like a book, both when he was happy and when he was sad. Things had changed a lot, yet she knew that certain things remained the same.
She had been injured, shattered, and beaten in the past, but none of it could make her heartless, especially when that heart had belonged to the same guy for so long and so completely.
She also thought it was stupid to kick someone who was already bleeding a lot.
Lena walked up to Damien’s apartment door, which she knew well. She took a deep breath and then knocked on the wood surface with her knuckles, first softly and then more firmly.
When the door opened a little bit, she saw a woman’s face, maybe in her late fifties. Then the door opened all the way.
Lena had no idea that wrinkles could make someone seem so good. The wrinkles on the woman’s face gave her skin character, and the lines around her eyes and lips made her look quite kind.
There are some people in the world who will always make you feel good about yourself. These folks are a vacation from the poisonous world and its constant attempts to pull us down.
One of them was Damien’s mother, Sophia. Lena learned about it in the following few minutes when the mother took her into her son’s house. In a hurry, Lena sat down at Damien’s dining table with a happy Sophia and a platter of freshly made cookies and hot tea.
Lena smiled and remarked, “You’ve really taught Damien well, Sophia.”  “He cooks like a pro.”
She laughed as Damien’s ears turned a little pink.
Sophia winked, nevertheless, and seemed proud. “I know, dear, I’ve raised him well. Now my life will be complete only if he takes charge, marries a nice girl, and has the grandchildren I’ve been dreaming about for so long.”
“Mom!” Damien yelled as the redness swiftly spread down his cheeks.
Lena smiled, which showed that she was having fun. “That would be great,” she said in a mocking tone.
But then, for a brief moment, Damien and Sophia looked at one another, and their features became serious. It was impossible to tell if she had made it up or read the moment wrong.
Lena gazed down at her hand as she dipped a cookie halfway into her teacup. She didn’t know that she had been eating the cookie like this. She had done it before, as a youngster, and she had done it at the wrong moment.
She raised up the wet cookie with a look of shame on her face, but it broke in half and fell into the tea, spraying some of it around. Lena was horrified to see the melting cookie piece slowly sink.
She moaned as she heard others laughing around her.
Sophia’s voice was soothing as she said, “It’s okay, dear.”  “Being yourself is fine, so you should never be afraid of it.”
Damien reclined back in his chair in a way that made him feel better and smiled at Lena as she glanced up at him.
“I won’t be scared,” Lena replied as she reached for another cookie and dipped it in the tea the way she liked it.
Sophia clapped her hands. “That’s just great!”
Later, while Damien was taking Lena home, they stopped at the closed door.
Damien looked across the kitchen, where his mother was fumbling around after saying goodbye to Lena. “Will you go to the next hearing of the case?”
Lena nodded. “Yeah. The lawyer was saving me for last. I guess he’s making the case more interesting by putting the witnesses and evidence in this order. Anyway, I just hope this is the last hearing. I can’t wait for that woman to get a proper sentence for everything she did to me,” she said, taking a shaky breath and looking to the right. “To Kellen…, to us.”
She looked back at Damien’s face as she heard him remark, “That horrible thing will get what she deserves, Lena, and her father too. The monstrosity runs in the family, and it needs to be stopped.”
Lena agreed completely. Her lips were squeezed together in a tight-lipped grin of anger and hope.
Even if her history had broken her heart, it couldn’t poison it. It had made her stronger in ways she was beginning to see, little by bit.
Lena headed to the boutique after seeing Damien. She was determined not to let Lola do all the work and get tired. Lena recognized that while the girl seemed like she was full of energy, she was really a very sweet and sensitive woman.
The core is going to be softer if the shell is firmer.
Lola literally threw Lena out of the store when it was almost eight, and it was becoming darker outside. She told Lena to go home right now.
“Did you forget that you have a radiotherapy session tomorrow night? You need to save your energy, Lena. Or do you want me to call Damien, who only has one arm, so he can drill some sense into your pimply head?”
Lena flew out of the store right after that, of course.
Lola had already phoned for a cab. But, as usual, it was taking its own sweet time to get there. The authorities definitely needed to pay more attention to Velden’s cab service.
Lena stood on the sidewalk and rubbed her arms. The wind was a little chilly, and it hurt her skin. She gets chilled very readily because of her health problems. Dr. Robert had said that it would stay the same till her body was fully healed.
She looked to the left and right to see whether Kellen was still there. After that, she rolled her eyes. Of course, he was. She thought he could be maintaining a considerable space between them and trying his best to be covert.