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CHAPTER 21 - ANNA
I had no memory of what happened, or how long I was gone. I remember Appy shouting and rushing towards the men to hit them, and one of the men hitting her back, with a slap that sent a shiver up her spine and sent Appy to the ground and bleeding from her head. After that, I don't remember. I was hit and tied up and thrown in a car, but I can't remember anything else until I woke up in the backseat of a car with Marcus driving, and fell asleep again.
Now, there was a headache, a heavier fog than usual in my head, a grogginess that impacted my body as well as my head. Waking up, with Marcus next to me, like nothing ever happened, I couldn't be sure if this was a dream or the other part was, or both or neither.
I was glad to be here, I kissed him lightly on the chin, and was so thankful he was here and I was here. I must love him, I thought. There's no other explanation for it.
I was sure of it in every fiber of my being, and it felt like a weight off of me. My body had known it long before I did, but it was the truth, I couldn't argue with it anymore. Only saying it would be the hard part. That word was as heavy as a boulder sometimes.
His breathing sped up, and his hands moved from his sides to his stomach, then over to my thigh. This was how he woke up, though I had never watched it, his hands slowly searching for his own body, then for mine as sleep released him.
I kissed his lips and mouth, wanting to be the very first thing he saw in the world. He kissed back, and pulled me onto him before he even opened his eyes. They smiled at me, danced at me when they saw me, and he gave me a bear hug and moved his mouth away to groan and stretch.
"What was that for?" He asked.
"Nothing," I answered coyly. Too early to hurl my boulder at him.
"No fighting me off this morning?" He asked dreamily.
"You'll be fighting me off," I told him, and immediately regretted it when his eyes darkened, the laughter out of them.
"Why don't we eat first," he said, disappointingly, and moved to get up.
"Stay, I'll make it," any excuse to stay busy. I pulled the cast iron pan off the wall and set it on the wood stove. All this nervous energy that should have been released with him in the bed, had me going overboard on the cooking. Throwing the eggshells at the garbage and swinging my hips to the sound of the sizzle.
"Music?" he asked me, and went over to the record player.
"Something upbeat," I smiled at him. Something HAPPY, or else I was going to burst.
"Italians do tragedy a lot better than upbeat," he teased and thumbed through the records coolly.
Here is where I would usually say something cutting or sarcastic, but I let it go. He almost seemed surprised I didn't have something to say on that either, but he found a record and put it on silently, I waited for it. Perfect.
It was a swing from the 50's one of those guys whose voice swung and sounded exuberant. Backed by a jazz band that played happy upbeat melodies that you had to tap your foot to.
The scents were truly heavenly, there's that thing, flow or whatever, when you're feeling good and everything comes easy for you. Cooking came easy, music came easy, good mood came easy. I finished and brought the plates over to the table for him, he had made coffee already, and the sun coming up over the lake in front of us, I was going to burst.
"This is good, what's in it?" he asked.
"Eggs, it's a secret recipe," I teased. He laughed and went back to eating. My god, I wanted to jump on him and nibble his chin. And take him on the table. I thought I was going crazy I could barely contain myself, but I knew I had to. Our dynamic, was he was the aggressor and I fought him off, if I had to play the game to keep him interested, then I would. But I wanted him to make a move so badly.
My over eagerness seemed to turn him off earlier, in bed. And anyways I wanted him to be the aggressor, to take me on the table instead of the other way around. To be on me, over me, his weight on me, crushing me.
Something about him seemed down today though, like he was pre-occupied with something. “How is Appy?” I asked.
“She’s fine. Bump on the head but fine. How are you?”
Ready to burst. “I’m fine, I think. A little groggy, but unusually happy.”
“I see that.”
“I don’t want to pry, but are you going to tell me what happened? Why it happened?”
He stared at his food, and said lowly, “Later.”
This is again where I would usually pick a fight, pester him with questions, but ‘later’ was good enough. Everything could wait.
I finished and walked over to the bed, waiting for him to grab me. "Want to finish what we started this morning I asked him, as seductive as possible.
His face went dark, and he looked me in the eyes, there was a moment of hesitation, a brief one, "We need to talk Anna. There's no good way to say it, so I'll just say it.” He looked away.
He paused before he continued, that pause was a boulder. “You should leave. I'm done with you, you need to leave, today. I'm going out and I expect you to be gone when I get back. Gianni can take you wherever you want, he's driving Tess to Las Vegas today so she can leave as well."
"What?"
"This is the end." he said and walked out.