Flowering in bloom.

She finished the tour she was making around the house, trying not to think anymore of the mess that her life had become. She went up to her bedroom ignoring the maid that asked if she would like some juice.

Sitting in front of the mirror, she refused to give in to tears that had become a constant companion over the years. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she looked older than her age.

She had bags under her eyes. Her black hair lost its shine. She had become careless over the year and had put on some unwanted weight which Aden never cease to remind her of, but she had lost the will to do anything about it.

She had always been a simple person but in the last few years, she had completely stopped bothering about herself and how she looked. Her eyes were sad and her emotions were in turmoil. She had lost friendships and had become a loner. Simply put, she had stopped living.

She did not recognize the Imara that looked at her from the mirror. She looked nothing like her name. Her grandmother had given her that name which meant flowering in bloom. She had stopped flowering!

Several times over the years, she had gone down memory lane trying where she had gone wrong. What could she have done differently to avoid the life of misery she had lived so far?

Time and time again, she had come to the same spot. The day everything changed was the day she had neglected her grandmother's advice and believed what her friend said to her. she had listened to their lies that sex before marriage was nothing significantly different from sex after marriage.

After all, she had Aden loved each other and planned to get married, they reasoned. She had been stupid enough to believe them that sex wasn't such a big issue in the power dynamics of a relationship.

Her mother died when she was seven. Her father remarried and their relationship had never been close. She spent a lot of time with her grandmother whom she loved dearly and it was her who taught her anything meaningful that she knew, that was until she went to college and made new friends.

Aden looked exactly like what his name meant ; handsome! He was popular in school and it was a privilege to be noticed by him. He was the captain of the college football team and the head of his fraternity. He was every lady's dream!

She still remembered very clearly the day he spoke to her for the first time. She was with friends at the cafeteria. In his usual self assured way, he asked if he could join them.

She had been very shy and unable to meet his gaze. All through the meal, she felt him looking at her but could not bring her face to meet his. He caught up with her after lectures and they started dating.

Maybe it was because he gave her the attention she craved from her father who never had time for her or it could have been because he complimented her and made her feel good about herself, she wasn't quite sure.

All she knew was that Aden became her knight in shinning armour and she was ready to do anything to keep him.

Three month down the line. Aden started asking for more than friendship. He wanted sex. She rebuffed him in subtle ways trying hard to not hurt his ego. She had heard Aden was sleeping around but so far she had not caught him in the act.

She confronted him once about it but he denied it. A part of her wanted to believe him even though she felt he was lying.