Milanka sleeps like the dead, still as still can be, and she never moves. When I lay my hand on her during the night, she doesn’t even make a noise. When I get up and get ready for work, she doesn’t stir.

Her alarm goes off on her cell when I’m dressed, and she reaches for it with her eyes closed. Kissing her on the cheek, she wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me to her. Milanka pulls me down, so my body’s on top of hers, and I have to do everything in my power to not get hard. I think of dead dogs, grandmas, but it’s no fucking use. A simple touch from her drives me mad, but she isn’t ready for me yet. She needs to heal. Her body was put through so much, as well as her emotions. She releases me, so I stand and walk out to make her a coffee. I’m buttering the toast as she walks in and she smiles.

“I think I want to marry your bed.”

My hand freezes as well as my body. She notices but doesn’t comment.

“You made me coffee,” she gushes, placing it to her lips.

Is that something else she wants? Marriage.

Should I have asked her that? Fuck this shit.

“I have to go to work. Your car is out front, and your keys are on the counter.”

She nods her head with her coffee cup to her lips and her eyes closed.

“Bye,” she mumbles, not even paying attention to me. She’s improved. Is that even a word for someone in her position? Improved? Or better. I don’t know which, but she seems happier this morning. She doesn’t have a dark look covering her eyes as she’s had in the past. A simple smile from her, a touch, it’s all I’ve ever needed. Even if she wasn’t happy for the rest of her life, I think I could suffice with just those two things.

What does that make me? Does it mean I don’t love her the way people speak of love?

Pulling up to work, I see him, standing outside, leaning against the glass window. He spots me straight away, a smirk touches his lips as he walks toward my car. Derrick isn’t welcome here anymore, he should know this, yet here he is like we are friends.

“Brother,” he greets me with a smile.

What I want to do with that smile.

If he knew, he wouldn’t be smiling that’s for damn sure.

“What do you want, Derrick?” Locking my car, I make my way to him, intending not to give him much of my time before I walk away.

“I want to work for you.”

“No.”

“Don’t ignore me, Connick.”

Trying to walk past him, he stops me with his hand on my arm. Looking around, I see too many people are here, too many for me to do what I want.

“You will remove your hand from me, Derrick. Now. Or it will be the last time you use it.”

He drops it and scratches his face. “You took Milanka, like she was yours. You took this business as if it were yours. You can’t share at all?”

“I suppose you expect me to share her as well?”

His lip twitches. “Only if you wish.”

I get close to his face. “You will never have her. Ever. She is mine. My business is mine. I don’t want to see you again, Derrick. That isn’t a threat, it’s a promise. If I see you again, I promise you, you may not be able to walk away.”

“She’s pregnant.”

“Who do you have, Derrick?”

“You have your people, I have mine. Is it yours, Connick? Because we both know how much she loves sex.”

“Yes, Derrick, sex with me is what she loves. She loves it when I slide in and out of her. How she tells me I’m the only one for her. How no other men have fucked her as good as me. How does that feel, Derrick? That she doesn’t even think of you. That you don’t even compare to me.”

Derrick spits in my face, then his fist comes up fast as he aims for me, but he misses as I move and he hits midair, throwing himself to the side.

“You haven’t won, Connick. You think you have, but you haven’t won.” He walks away disappearing down the street, mingling in with the crowd of people.

Walking into the office, Cherry looks behind me. “You’ve seen him?”

I stride straight for my office where she follows me in. “Yes.”

“I told him to leave, he thought otherwise.”

“He won’t be a problem.”

“If you say so…” She pauses and waits for my acknowledgment before she talks again. “How is she? Is she any better?”

“She is today.”

“Good. Don’t be a dick anymore with her. I have a feeling it’s the last chance she’s willing to give you,” she states as she walks out, leaving me to my own devices. Milanka doesn’t message me throughout the day. She doesn’t even call. Milanka isn’t a needy woman, far from it. I, on the other hand, have tried to call her twice, with no answer. She mentioned she was going in to work, and she even had the new camera I bought her with her this morning, sitting on the counter with some other things.

My father calls. Derrick, of course, called them or went to them after our visit today. It’s the last thing I want to listen to after the day I’ve had, because all I want to do is get back to Milanka. To see why she didn’t answer me today, to find out if she missed me.

“You know better than to antagonize him. He goes straight to his mother like the little man he is,” my father says.

“He needs to stay away from me. He needs to understand that, Father. I won’t have him around, fucking with my life.”

“He loves this woman you have. Is this it?”

“That’s not only it.”

“Squish it, Connick. I don’t want to hear another word of it.” He hangs up on me, which annoys me when he does it. I quickly think that it must annoy those I do it to as well. I don’t give it a second thought, though, as I leave the office for the day. It’s tiring sitting behind a desk in front of a computer all day, and this is why I own a gym. It’s on nights like these that I go to the mud track. Nights where I want to talk shit, and listen to them talk shit. But I want Milanka there with me, so I go straight home to her sitting on the steps of my house with her camera in hand. She looks up when I stop, smiles, then lifts her camera clicking it a few times before I reach her.

“Good day?”

“Very good. I love it. Today we met with this couple. She had been attacked one day on her way home from work. Her face was burned so badly that her skin was red and puckered. But when they touched, Connick, you could tell he loves her because he didn’t look at her, he looks inside her. It kind of reminds me of the way you look at me, even when you’re mad, you look inside me, not at me.”

“It sounds like a beautiful day. I’m so glad, Milanka.”

She stands to click the camera again at me. “We have plans tonight. Can you invite some of your friends?”

My hand swings around her waist as I pull her to me. “I don’t have any friends.”

“Fine, I invited Harlin and Cherry anyway.”

I contain my groan of annoyance, but she catches it anyway and laughs into my chest.

“Should we go then?”

She pushes back off me. “Let me change.”

Milanka’s camera is passed to me before she takes off inside. Sitting down on the same step she just vacated, I flick through it, pictures of me first then it goes to the photos she was speaking of with the couple. Each photo is different, yet you can clearly see his love for her. He’s touching her face with gentle strokes across her scars.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Milanka’s voice breaks through, and I stand up in front of her. She’s dressed in tight black jeans with a halter top. Passing the camera to her, Milanka smiles and walks past me to the car. I open the door for her and she climbs in. She’s too busy looking at her camera to pay attention when I climb in, and all I get from her is where we need to go, then she concentrates on her photographs and flicks through her pictures slowly one by one.

Arriving at the restaurant, she places the camera in her bag and opens her own door, sliding out. I shadow her like a helpless man that has been following her all my life, yet I haven’t.

Everyone is there when we enter, even a man she works with. Von. He sits next to her friend Serena, and they all smile and kiss her cheek with a quick hello to me.

“It looks like no ass kicking is needed now, Mils. You look so happy.” Harlin lifts her lip at me then turns back to Milanka.

Placing my hand on her leg she follows covering mine with hers.

“No, not today. I’ll put that on hold, though, just in case, thanks.” She laughs, and I love it, the sound of her laughter is music to my ears. My eyes stay on her, and only her, for most of the evening. She talks to everyone equally, never leaving anyone out. She holds my hand every second, apart from when she eats. Milanka smiles and makes conversation, even when she doesn’t have to. No one asks her about it, no one asks about us either. They just leave it be. Which is for the best, because we still need to figure out exactly what we are. And I don’t think there’s any rush for that, at least I hope not. Harlin starts mumbling, and I know she’s had way too much to drink. We’ve been sitting here for almost three hours now, and we are some of the last customers left in the restaurant. Von kisses Serena, and they say their goodbyes. Harlin mumbles again, and I only just make out that she’s getting up to leave. The only person left is Cherry, who’s watching us intently.

“I’m happy for you, you know. You always held yourself back, never went anywhere near serious. She is something serious.”

Milanka turns to look at us, missing what Cherry has said and suggests we all leave as well.

“She can’t have sex, Connick. She needs to stop bleeding.”

Cherry knows all about Milanka, she’s read all the files I have on her. She knew I followed her, and exactly when it became more. She’s warning me because of what’s happened, and how Milanka is now. I think she’s wrong. I don’t think Milanka wants sex. Especially not after what’s happened to her.

“Thank you,” Milanka says, walking to my car. Her lips come down on mine, soft, tender lips that taste like wild berries. She lingers, and I get a shock because she never goes for the lips. Yet, I won’t stop either. As I’ve said, any part, any touch, I can steal from her I’ll take, and if it’s those lips, I will die a very happy man to have them on me.