*THE HOLLEN SERIES 03*
????????????EPISODE 17????????????
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*?? MORE THAN FRIENDS ??*
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Zenia’s POV
His words stung.
His words stung like a swarm of bees attacking you with their stringers because you’ve destroyed their beehive.
________
I silently cried as I got into a cab and took out my phone to message my sister throu-gh my pouring tears and the tormenting che-st pain.
Me: Can you plz come over. I nee-d u.
Big Sister: Where r u now?
Me: Cab. Omw home.
Big Sister: OK. I’ll see u soon.
__________
I placed my palm on the security scanner before walking into the door. I flopped down on the chair, wiping away the tears which kept on coming.
My che-st ached like if a ton of weight was pressing against it.
My breath shortened and I thought I was in a horror movie, being suffocated by the killer with a pillow over my face.
Myl-ips quivered and I anxiously stared at the door, waiting for it to bur-st open and reveal my sister. She was the only person who actually knew how to comfort me. A sisterhood indeed.
______________
Jasmine arrived ten minutes later. She rushed straight for me and pu-lled me up into her arms for a bear hu-g.
“Baby, are you okay?”
I shook my head from side to side. The words were caught in my throat and I found it rather difficult to speak at that moment.
Jasmine allowed me to sit and she sat beside me, bl-owing out an exasperated sigh as she stared at me. Another wreck.
“I’m not even going to ask what he said because judging by your tears, I can alre-ady tell he was mean to you.”
I nodded my head yes. Words not surfacing as yet.
She blew out another breath and pu-lled me against her che-st, her full pair of brea-stacting as a pillow for my crying face.
“It’s okay Zen and it’s okay to cry. Let it all out baby. Let it out and let it go.” She petted my hair before ru-bbing my back gently.
I was relieved that I could always count on her for comforting me in my time of weakness and nee-ds.
After an hour, we were laughing at the animated movie, Finding Nemo, and greedily stuffing our faces with popcorn and sodas. Just like what we used to do back at the ap@rtment, before she got into a relationship with a billionaire.
Then it crossed my mind suddenly. I quic-kly shot up and ran into my be-droom and retrieved my digital notepad from un-derneath my pillow.
“Look at these,” I said to her as I sat besides her again in the living room.
She took the notepad and stared at the first wedding dress design.
“OMG!” She squealed. “This one is beautiful.”
She scrolled over to the other.
“THIS IS THE ONE!”
She scrolled over the final design.
“No no no. I love this one more. No, wait a moment let me decide.”
Marlin, the clown fish, had alre-ady found his lost son and the movie had ended but Jasmine was yet to make a final choice on her wedding dress.
“Help me decide on one Zenia,” she begged for the umpteenth time but whenever I selected one, she differed.
“Just pick one Jasmine.”
“I want them all.”
“Well let’s hope you don’t get married three times,” I joked.
“ Ha Ha! I don’t know which one to choose. Why do you have to make such beautiful dresses?”
“That’s what I do. Create beautiful things to beautiful people.”
We shared a hu-g and turned back to the television.
“The bloody movie is over alre-ady?”
“Yep. What else shall we look at?”
“mo-ana or br@ve.
Select br@ve, I love the Irish accent. No, on second thought, let’s watch mo-ana, I love the song from the crab.”
“Jasmine! What is it with you and ma-king decisions?” I rolled my eyes in annoyance as I selected mo-ana.
“Back to the dresses.”
“Ughhh,” I growled and looked heavenward.
“Don’t be a drama queen and help me pick a dress alre-ady.”
“I thought I alre-ady did that. I picked the second one.”
“Why not the first one or the third one?”
Is she serious right now?
“Because the first one would let you look fat and the third one would let you look like you have two a-sses.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and I gave a small chuckle and stuffed my face with more popcorn.
“Okay. We’ll go with the second dress.”
“Finally!” I re-leased.
_________________
As a distraction and healing method, I used the time into creating my sister’s wedding dress.
After taking her b©dy measurements, I shopped for the fabrics and materials into perfecting my very first big project.
I had never made nor designed a wedding dress but when Jasmine told me she wanted me to do it instead of buying one from a boutique, I was honored and up for the challenge.
________
It was the beginning of another week and I hadn’t seen EJ, nor heard anything from him and I was not about to pursue.
If he was waiting for me beg and crawl back to him, then he’ll be waiting until thy kingdom come.
As the days had went by, I felt better. I worked on the wedding dress at home in the evening and I worked as normal in my boutique. Ashley never asked questions about him and I was grateful for that. I didn’t want to talk about him as well.
I was not about to let EJ break me from my performance and capabilities.
One Wednesday, Madison c@m£ into the boutique with a wi-de smile displa-ying on her glossyl-ips.
“Hello Zenia, how are you?”
“I’m great Madison, and how are you?”
“Oh don’t try to fake it, I heard you and EJ broke up.”
“Ummm, who’s EJ again?” I asked, arching my eyebrows and mirroring her smile.
She looked at me like she had never seen me before. Well, she hadn’t seen that side of me.
The fu-ck-it side.
“I actually c@m£ to get a two piece bikini but I can see you’re all out.”
“Yes Madison. We’re. All.Out.”
“Okay.” She turned on her heels and went out the door.
Shaking my head, I went back back to work.
~
That evening, I was almost complete with Jasmine’s dress. I had one more golden detail to add to the sleeves of the dress.
Fitting in over a mannequin, I stepped back to admire my work.
Smiles of satisfaction and triumph creep to myl-ips.
I really hope she likes it.
My cellphone rang on a nearby table. Without looking at the caller ID, I placed it to my ear.
“Hello.”
“Is this Zenia Blackman?”
“Yes this is she, who’s this?”
“My name is Jeremy from Hands On Magazine. I got your information from a magazine columnist who published some of your clothing lines.
I’m very much interested in seeing some of your designs as well.”
OMG!! OMG!!
Jeremy from Hands On is speaking to me.
“Thanks so much for calling Jeremy, we can schedule a day that’s convenient to you.”
“How does Friday sound? 1:00pm.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Thanks Zenia. See you soon.”
“Thank you Jeremy.”
I did a happy dance after hanging up.
My phone rang again and I thought Jeremy had forgotten to tell me something important.
He did forget what designs in p@rticular he wanted to see.
“Hey,” I answered, without looking at the caller ID.
“It’s EJ.”
My heart raced around my che-st.
*THE HOLLEN SERIES 03*
????????????EPISODE 18????????????
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*?? MORE THAN FRIENDS ??*
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Zenia’s POV
“It’s EJ.”
My heart raced around my che-st. I hadn’t heard his voice in over a week.
My head was telling me to hung up but my heart was curious to hear what he had to say.
“What is it?” I asked in a tone that would definitely make him realize I wasn’t so excited for his sudden phone call.
“Can we talk?” His voice c@m£ again.
“About?” I was keeping it as short as possible.
“Us.”
My heart re-leased wings and some bu-tterflies danced around in my stomach.
“We’re done, remember?” I recalled his words to him, ignoring my flying heart and the bu-tterflies fluttering in my stomach.
There was a long pause from his end and I was certain he was thinking de-eply about the next thing to say.
“Zeni…”
“Goodbye EJ.” I hung up.
~
I couldn’t forget the hurtful words he said to me when I took the liberty of going to his office to have a face-to-face conversation like grown people.
He was so disrespectful, cold-hearted and ha-rd-headed.
His words cut me like a knife but I had put a band-aid on that wound and I was in a better place, doing better things.
______________
Switching off my phone completely, I took a shower, washed my hair and got dressed into a simple outfit.
After all, I was only going across the street to get myself something to eat.
I was seeing less of my mother lately and I was certain was she meeting up with someone, going on dates and what not.
~
I stepped out in the busy street. The sun was just leaving the sky, being chased by a large dark rain cloud.
My legs carried me over to a small Subway outlet. I was in the mood for a freshly prepared sandwich with lots of dressing.
I pushed throu-gh the door and joined a short line, waiting for my turn.
“What would you like to have?” the server asked.
” Foot long Italian bre-ad. Chicken teriyaki with American cheese. For veggies, lettuce, tomatoes and cuc-umbers. Oh, throw some pickles in there too.
And for my dressing, sweet onion, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, hot sauce and honey mustard.”
“9.99.”
“Can I pay for that for you?” a voice asked right above my shoulder. His minty breath made the hairs on my skin stood up.
I turned around slowly and met a friendly pair of dark blue eyes. A plea-sant smile showed on his ki-ssablel-ips. His face looked like it c@m£ out from the perfect R0m-n-ce novel and his light stubble beard contributed to his overall handsomeness.
He wore a simple black T-shirt but by the way it hu-gged his upper region, it was easy to tell he was lean and kept in shape with a printed six pack. A faded grey jeans and grey chukka boots completed his looks.
“Would you mind?” his voice asked again.
“Huh?” I asked stupidly. I was mentally drooling over this guy.
“Can I pay for your sandwich?” he asked again and it was then, I captured his accent. He was British.
“Sure.” I gathered my hor-mones and stepped aside while he paid for my sandwich and ordered his.
~
“Thank you.” I threw on one of my sweetest smiles. Just for him.
“You’re welcome. So are you having your sandwich here… or you’re leaving?”
I was in love with his voice. He sounded like the smoother version of Jason Statham.
“I’m having it here actually.” At the very beginning, I was having my sandwich to go but I couldn’t leave without getting to know this Perfect Art from God better.
“I’m Anton, by the way.” He held out his hand to me.
“Zenia. Nice to meet you.”
“It’s a plea-sure, Zenia. I love your name.”
Don’t you love me too?
“Thank you.”
We walked over to a table and took seats opposite each other.
“So, what made you paid for my sandwich?” I asked before unwra-pping and bi-ting into my delicious sandwich.
“We have a lot in common with our sandwiches. I love tons of dressings too.”
We shared a light laughter and I took in his features.
” From your accent, I can tell you’re British.”
“Correct. My mum is an American but my father is from England. They recently got a divorce and mum moved back to America. I’m a shared custody case so I’m here with her for the summer.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright. That’s life I guess.”
“Well I really hope you enjoy the summer here. America is a nice place.”
“Are you kidding? It’s so boring because I don’t have a friend. I’ve here two weeks going, and I’m yet to make any friends.”
“You just made one.” I win-ked my eye at him and saw the blus-h crept on his face.
“I’m very thri-ll to hear that Zenia.”
~
It was only s-ensible to exchange numbers with a new friend so we did just that.
He lived in a hotel within two miles of the penthouse so distance wasn’t a negative factor in this new friendship.
~
“See. I live right up there. Right at the very top.” I pointed to the penthouse as we stepped out from Subway.
“Beautiful. Listen, Zenia. I really hope you don’t think I’m some desperate guy who’ll cling onto you but I’m very happy to become your friend.”
“I would never think like that,” I answered him as I put my phone on silent. It was off for the evening and I had a bunch of text messages coming in.
“You’re a very popular woman,” Anton said as he studied my movements.
“I’m a fashion designer.” I covered.
“Really? That’s so good.”
I mentally growled when I saw a text message from EJ.
Sli-pping my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, we crossed the street.
We shook hands and was about to wave each other off then the clouds couldn’t hold the rain any longer.
Rain busted down with a vengeance and everyone on the street ran for the nearest shelter.
I took Anton’s hand and ushered him into the lobby.
“Wow. Rain on a summer day?” he rhetorically asked and we shared another laughter as we attem-pted to dry ourselves off from the droplets which had captured us outside.
“Follow me,” I commanded.
~
We headed upstairs to the penthouse suite. I ushered him inside and handed him a towel.
“Thank you,” he answered. He stood in the living room, drying off his hair while I sat on the couch and dried mine.
A knock c@m£ on the door.
I peeled myself off the couch, threw the towel over my shoulder and walked to the door.
“I’ve been calling and texting you continuously. What were you doing?” EJ asked as he moved pa-ssed me and walked into the room.
He stood still when his eyes caught Anton’s.
His hands bawled into fists and although I was behind him, I saw his jaw clenched.
“Who the fu-ck are you?” He directed to Anton.
The unfriendly tension from EJ was alre-ady thick and steaming.
TO BE CONTINUED…..