Love At Last

FORSAKEN AFFECTION

*LILY’S POV*

It was yet another exciting day with Ryan. We – Jacek inclusive – visited the movies, malls, zoo, ice-cream parlors, play parks and what have you. It’s already been weeks in this heaven and if it were a dream, I wished to never wake up from it. We held hands and chatted happily, looking like a real family. Whenever Ryan held Jacek in his arms, I’d always imagine myself as his wife in a proper home if the unfortunate incident didn’t occur.

“Aaahhh,” I beckoned Jacek to open his mouth for me to feed him his ice-cream and he complied. “Good boy. Do you like it?” I asked him while rubbing the back of his head.

“Mmhh,” he affirmed with his mouth close while nodding as he couldn’t speak because he had something in his mouth.

“Jacek?” Ryan called out, causing Jacek to face him. “Here you go, lil man,” he cut a portion of his cake and fed him. Watching them felt so glamorous. “You like it?” he asked the little one, smiling and he just nodded; his mouth was stuffed.

We spent the entire date taking turns to hold Jacek and sometimes, we kept him in the center, and each took a hand. I forgot to add, we also wore matching outfits – grey sweatshirts and pants, with white Nike sneakers – that made us look like a real family. Some people even showered us with compliments, telling us how beautiful we looked as young parents. After what seemed like forever, I had the family I always fantasized of before me. Of course, taking pictures was a given – we took pictures, lots of them.

After the long date came to a painful end, Ryan drove us home and carried Jacek in his arms, inside. On getting in, it turned out that Nana wasn’t around so I asked Ryan to stay over for a while.

‘A while’ turned to ‘an hour’. We got caught up in our conversation that we didn’t notice how fast time flew. Owing to the fact that Nana wasn’t around, we took advantage of the peace and quiet there was in the house.

*Door bell rings*, could that be nana? If that was indeed nana, she didn’t need to ring the doorbell, she had her keys. ‘Maybe she forgot them?’ I thought.

“I’m coming,” I cried out and headed to get the door. I opened the door and my jaw dropped. I’d completely forgotten about this guy – Cayden!

“Cayden?” I called out.

*CAYDEN’S POV*

It’s already been two weeks of the same routine – get ready in the morning; work, go to clubs at night; drink and get drunk, pick up ladies; have sex with them or better still, pay them to warm my bed then throw them out the very next meeting. It’s been a tiring routine, I must say. I decided to let Lily be and face my life – which now felt really boring – and my work. I didn’t call her and she didn’t call me for two whole weeks! How could she have completely forgotten about me just like that?

This morning was not different from other mornings I had for the past two weeks. I woke up with two sluts gracing my bed. I paid them to just warm my bed for the night so it didn’t feel so cold as I was already frozen inside. “Get up!” I woke them up in a feisty manner. “Get your things and get out!” I kicked one violently on the leg and got off bed.

After ridding my house of all the filth – the ladies – I focused on cleaning up the messed up living room to get my day started properly. The life I was living was really tiring but I had no choice if I didn’t want to go completely crazy as they helped me fight depression to a reasonable extent.

It’d been two weeks since I last saw Lily so that day, I summoned the courage to go see her later in the day. I avoided Lily like a plague but didn’t think she’d also do same. I was trying to give her space, apparently, she ought to reach out to me first but here I was trying to reach out first again. I was shocked by Lily’s actions.

Some hours later – around 3:00pm – after I finished submitting some reports and doing some work at home, I paid Lily a visit in her bakery. I missed her so much.

On getting there, I saw the last person I expected to see – Jarod! He was already on his way out when I met him at the entrance of the shop. He had a few bags with him like he came to pick a few things. I ignored him and wanted to continue on my way, when he blocked my path and pushed me to the side to pave way for others who might want to get in.

“What did you come here to do?”

“It’s not any of your concern, okay?” I tried to walk past him again but to no avail as he pushed me back again.

“Did you get tired of waiting for Lily and decided to come here?” he jeered.

“Can you please move?” I was annoyed.

“Why? Did I push the wrong buttons or is Lily choosing her baby daddy over you too excruciating a pain to bear?” he jeered and burst into laughter almost immediately.

“What?! Father?!” I was in total wonderment. Was Ryan really Jacek’s dad?

“You didn’t even know?” he asked with every bit of sarcasm swelling from his tone. “Have a nice day, lover boy,” he tapped my shoulders in a daring manner and walked out on me, still laughing.

“Jacek’s dad?” I muttered to myself. I was completely frozen as to what Jarod just said.

I wanted to storm in and ask Lily all the questions I had but seeing the number of people who walked in and came out caused me to wait for a better time. I told myself that Jarod was a total psycho and that I needn’t pay him any attention. I decided to wait in my car for Lily until later when I presumed she’d be less busy to talk to her and get answers for myself.

I sat around in my car, windows all wound up making the only source of ventilation to be the cooling system – the AC. Minutes later, I dozed off and since my car glasses were all tinted, it wasn’t really a problem.

Moments later, I woke up and checked the time; it was already three hours seeing how the time was past five already. I immediately got off the car and dashed inside the shop only to find a few staffs cleaning, and the others were arranging.

“Hello,” I greeted them and they responded accordingly. “What about Lily?” I inquired.

“She didn’t come in today,” a voice cried out.

“She didn’t?”

“No,” they all concurred.

It felt like a déjà vu with a little twitch. The only thing that felt the same with last time was that Lily wasn’t at her shop, she was with that fellow and now I hoped and prayed that wasn’t the case this time around.

“Okay, thank you,” I thanked them and left.

I headed straight to Lily’s house.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

I hit the doorbell to alert the residents they had a guest. In no time, Lily opened the door and I felt a rush of excitement which ended suddenly after Lily ushered me in and I saw Ryan! Ryan again?

“Lily?” I called her looking all disgusted.

“Umm…Cayden?” she was lost for words.

I immediately held her by the hand to drag her outside.

“Woah! Woah! Woah!” He exclaimed and stood up in her defense. “What are you trying to do?” he tried to take Lily from me.

“It’s okay Ryan.”

“You sure?” Lily nodded. “If you say so,” he yielded. “Be careful,” he warned me.

I took Lily by hand and dragged her outside.