Appearances
**Sarah**
Kael's proposed truce was fulfilled, and he turned out to be surprisingly different from what I had imagined, much easier to deal with than the man I first met in his apartment. Although we hadn't had the conversation I expected, I ended up agreeing to the agreement he proposed.
Kael believed he could get whatever he wanted, regardless of the means. However, I didn't want to simply accept everything he wanted to do with me. Faced with the idea of "enjoying" Kael's money, I decided to spend it on frivolous things that didn't interest me, just to pass the time, even though I wasn't a materialistic person like Rachel, for example.
I went shopping and visited the beauty salon, taking care of my appearance as if I were the shallow woman he expected me to be. However, this was just a way to make time go by faster, not to please the man who had negotiated my life with my sister.
This was also a way to escape and not be trapped inside the apartment, avoiding thinking about negative things. My huge closet was gradually filling up with clothes and accessories that I barely had the opportunity to wear, but I kept buying them anyway.
Another thing that hurt me, although I didn't admit it to anyone, especially to Kael, was that he didn't always sleep in the apartment with me. Sometimes, he would be absent for up to three consecutive days, and our communication was reduced to some short messages only to convey necessary information.
Even though Kael always let me know about his presence or absence in the apartment, sadness would overcome me when he chose not to be with me. I missed the closeness of his body during moments of passion, and even more so when we would sleep wrapped in each other's arms after a night of intensity. On nights when I knew he wouldn't come, I desperately sought distractions from the disturbing thoughts that constantly haunted me, especially when I was alone before going to sleep.
To avoid conflicts, I always sought to have evening plans that wouldn't cause tension between us, and I would always inform Kael about my outings, although he seemed not to care. I didn't want to be a submissive woman completely obedient to a man, especially someone like him, but I knew that challenging him or getting into a power struggle wouldn't be a good idea. I would be the only one harmed in that story. My sister had sarcastically warned me about this from day one, but I knew she was telling the truth. Kael wasn't someone to be underestimated or to test his limits.
Rachel was still a delicate subject for me. Despite that, we remained in contact even after Rachel used the money she received from Kael to travel abroad. I questioned the reasons for this purposeless trip, considering our current financial situation, but she always dodged the question. She must have been enjoying herself and spending our money without thinking about the future.
However, as she wasn't willing to give me a better explanation, the distance made it impossible to convince her to do so. My focus was solely on getting through the end of the month without compromising my emotional stability, which would certainly happen if I fell in love with a man who clearly wanted nothing more than a few nights of pleasure and with whom I would soon lose all contact.
So, I tried to occupy most of my time and continued searching for a stable job, so I could sustain myself without resorting to "alternative" sources of income like my sister did. My friendship with Ryan was growing stronger each day, and I genuinely believed it wasn't solely based on the fact that I was his boss's lover at the moment. He became a constant companion when I went out at night since during the day he was completely at Kael's disposal.
At first, I thought he was by my side to keep an eye on me, at his boss's request. However, this suspicion gradually lost strength as I concluded that Kael didn't seem to approve of our closeness.
"Do you have any friends?" Kael asked, showing great displeasure.
"To be honest, no," I confessed, feeling a bit embarrassed.
We were lying down, and I was commenting on a movie I had watched with Ryan the previous afternoon.
“She's always going out with Ryan” He explained, seeming genuinely upset about it. “You should make some girlfriends. It'll be more interesting than wandering around with my assistant all the time.”
I looked at him, feeling the hurt approaching the surface, but managed to control myself in time to prevent him from noticing how much it hurt me. I felt hurt that I had already spent three Sundays in that apartment, serving as his lover, and Kael hadn't spent any of them in my company, unlike Ryan, who, even though he seemed to have a fixed lunch appointment, always invited me to go out in the afternoon.
"I'm going to take a shower," I said, disentangling myself from his arms and walking to the bathroom without looking back.
I always had a lot to say, but I knew I shouldn't share my feelings with someone who could use it against me. In the shower, under the hot water, I held on to the thought that I would be free from Kael and all the emotional turmoil he caused me in a few days.
This thought comforted me as I looked at the clothes, trying to decide what to buy this time. Since that night when I left him in bed and went to take a shower alone, sadness had accompanied me. I closed the door so he wouldn't try to come in, as he always did, but when I came out, I realized he had left, something that had never happened before because he always stayed to sleep with me.
Since then, his responses to my messages have been short and curt limited to a simple "OK." All I can do is hope that the remaining four days until the end of this complicated relationship pass as quickly as possible.
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