9

Six months since he last saw her. Six months since he felt her touch and heard her voice. It's so unfair how whatever forces of the earth plan to separate him from both women whom he cares about the most, each of them unreachable in their own ways. The most painful one though could be the fact that one of them is unreachable only to him.

His life is now back to square one. Not that he had any plans for his life, but the only plan he had has already vanished away. Sometimes giving up is the only choice left to choose. If there is another choice, then that's probably worse.

Rachel, on the other hand, has become an over-worker during the day and a crying baby during the night, especially when she thinks she could be the reason why Caleb's grandma is no more. She was doing better even though she was going to die very soon. To think he must be lonely breaks her heart even more.

Him crying in her arms was her desire at that moment. Now she desires to be with him too. Just one chance to help him relieve the aching he feels inside would leave her heart a bit lighter. Only after the incident was she hundred percent sure that he was the one who stole her heart. But maybe she realized it a little bit too late.

Every day she passes outside the small house he bought after his grandma passed away. There are times she saw another woman getting inside the house. Extreme jealousy was understandable but she knew him already. Sex was that one thing he could use to get away from his problems.

Another day at work and she is in her hard-working mood. Emily, one of her business partners enters the room and is quite annoyed after seeing Rachel's behaviour.

"Until when are you going to torture yourself like this Rachel?" She asks rolling her eyes and putting her hands on her hips.

"And why do you think I am torturing myself, Emily?" she sighs in disbelief.

"You wanna tell me you have been on a diet? That is so not true."

"Just because I am a bit skinnier than before, it doesn't mean I am stressed or have any problems."

"So things between you and David are going quite fine I assume." she fakes a smile.

"Since when do you care about my life affairs?"

"The moment I saw Cay."

Her hand stops writing. Her heart skips a beat.

"I know I sound crazy since you are married but let's be honest. You have a thing for this guy. And it seems like it's the same for him as well. I saw him eyeing you when I was giving a speech on my wedding and the words hit him really hard." She nods to herself.

"Let's not talk about him please, besides we are not even best friends. let's keep our relationship focused more on business."

"Wow!" she gives a round of applause.

"Thank you for reminding me. You never seem to have a best friend anyway, so I am planning to be one. Plus I hope this deal ends with more than just business success." She winks at Rachel before she exits the room.

Silently she is thankful at least there is someone who cheers for the couple that will never come to reality. Imagining what her life would look like before if she met him a little earlier makes her smile a little. Maybe, she would be living the type of life she wishes to have at the moment.

The thought suddenly makes her heart a bit heavy. Her husband made the best days of her life come to reality, but then part of her thinks maybe it is now better if she thinks of what is in reality rather than what is not. The questions, however, bother her mind. Is what she is thinking real or is it just an imagination inside her head? One thing is real though, him. Another thing, he has taken her heart away.

Her thought is suddenly driven out of her head when someone knocks on the door and gets inside without any permission. She doesn't look surprised when she sees who it is.

"Since you wanna talk about business, how about we discuss one?" She smirks.

"You have a new idea?"

"Hell yeah!" she throws her proposal under the table and crosses her arm.

***************************************************

"You haven't been in bed till this late before," she says.

"It's my day off work. I wanted to make most of it on bed, with you." He smirks.

"I heard you are a good cook at work, yet I have never tasted your food," she says as she gives him a small kiss on his lips.

"On that special day, I will cook for you."

"Should I expect a surprise?" she smiles as she comfortably lies her head on his chest.

"I guess."

"Caleb."

"Hmm."

She raises her head and looks at him straight in his eyes.

"What are we?" she asks.

That is one question he is never able to answer.

"What do you want us to be?"

"You know what I want us to be, Caleb."

"I am not ready to..." He sighs, not able to finish the sentence as it's hard for him. He doesn't wanna hurt her. If he tells her what he feels that's what will happen.

"It's okay. " she fakes a smile.

"Just give me a chance to wait." She caresses his hair.

"For you to be ready to let go of your past."

"I wish it was easy." Most of the things he did in his past are senseless but to think how his actions made him meet some unforgettable events, he laughs to himself. Remembering the fight he got himself into because of her, and the most unforgettable one, for the first time he expressed his feelings for a woman.

"There you go again." she rolls her eyes, envying the woman inside his mind. He never really said anything about his past, but his reactions show clearly that there was a woman in it. A woman who has left him with triggering memories.

"What is it this time?"

"You don't realize it, do you?"

A little bit of confusion passes in his head. She gets up from the bed and goes to the kitchen, silently shading a small tear from her left eye. It hasn't been long since she met with him yet she feels so much passion that not even she knows where it has come from.

She knew him and what he did yet her heart and now even her mind didn't care about any of that. Despite that, her heart is bleeding from the pain of being rejected by another man, again. The first was her father, then her childhood sweetheart who became her husband. she gave up until she set her eyes on Caleb. Turns out he is one of the men who will reject her in the near future, or maybe he already has.

She goes to the washroom and looks at herself in the mirror. She is beautiful, a bit tall for a girl with 170 height she thinks. Perfect body, great education, and a small company she created with her own hands. She is a whole package. According to her mother, a woman of her kind can get any kind of man she wants whenever she wants. So why not her? Why can't she get the man of her dreams at least this once? Some moments later Caleb joins in. looking at her looking herself in the mirror, he hugs her from behind.

"You look beautiful in my T-shirt." He says in a husky voice. He always becomes 10 times of an appetizer when he speaks in this tone. What makes the environment even hotter is the reason why he speaks this way. His hands trail down her thighs as his face leans over her neck, giving it much attention as he always does.

"Cay..."

"Shh..., I will tell you when to scream. For now, keep it inside.

"Mhm..." she nods, not knowing if she will be able to make it till he says so.

Caleb presses his lips on hers, rubbing them gently before she signaled she wants it rough. His hand trails back to her round butts caressing them intensively. He trails kisses on her neck as he recklessly tears the shirt she was wearing. His one hand goes to her beautiful chest, giving it much attention. The only thing she can do is cover her mouth with her hand. The rule is to not scream. Slowly he carries her naked body to the king-sized bed and there he fulfils all her body desires.

**************************

"So you are suggesting we should hire some models for the product to be used?"

"Is that a question or an answer?" Emily rolls her eyes.

"So do you think I should make a presentation for this proposal?"

"Yeah!"

"The bags are part of fashion right?" Rachel asks as she takes a look at the designed bags on her laptop. Emily nods as she crosses her arms.

"Okay, I agree with this. We should make preparations for the show. It's gonna be the first time experience. I hope we do better."

I knew you would like it. she smiles.

"The thing is your ideas are always clever, but you, on the other hand, are not.

"You have no idea how crazy and genius I can be at the same time. Remember this statement." she winks and steps out of the office.

"I wonder what she means by that," She sighs and continues to work. No matter what Rachel says, Emily suddenly became one of those best friends she barely had back in the old days.

A short ringtone rings on her phone, probably a new message from someone. She takes it from the desk and reads the message that just popped up. She rolls her eyes when she knows the texter, non-other than David.

Come to my office now.

She has no choice but to go, if not he will come here and it will be quite hard to get him out. It takes five minutes for her to arrive and without knocking she enters the room.

David's attention is now all on her, scanning every little detail about her body.

"You know I hate it when you wear exposing one. Did you have to wear such a short skirt? Are you here as a stripper? Huh!"

"Yes, David. I came to work as a stripper. I want to seduce every manly guy in this office, while you and Melisa do all the work. Happy?" she rolls her eyes.

"Is that a way to answer your husband?" He smirks.

She looks at his face, down to his sitting body in great disgust and silently goes out of the office. The new behaviours of hers keep irritating him. At least before she seemed pissed off at what he did to her. These days she only does everything about him in disgust. She doesn't even bother fighting with him. She doesn't sleep in the same room most of the time. There are times when he speaks to her, but she is not even listening. Her mind always seems to be somewhere far from reality. All these give David boiling blood. He is not here anymore yet he affects her way too much. At least he thinks that way.

Days kept passing by and Caleb was doing quite fine with his job as a chef. For a long time, he only had two hobbies apart from sex. Cooking and drawing. Now cooking is given some light, coming back to drawing, only his secrets and sorrows are aware that he is so damn talented.

As of today, which was a working day, things were pretty tough. Lots of customers and a lot of burnt food. One of the trainees accidentally burnt almost everything in the kitchen and they have done a lot of cooking all over again. The main chef got so mad and no excuse was allowed to be made over the mess that just happened but finally, at least the day was over.

For now, it was time to change shifts. Caleb quickly changed and went straight to his house. Just before he reached far, Sean, his co-worker from afar was heard calling Caleb's name as he runs as fast as he could. Cay stops and turns around the minute he hears his name being called.

"What's up, bro? Is everything okay?" he asks with a concerned look.

"Oh, am okay." He pants hard.

"I just wanted to give you this." He hands it over to her.

"It's an invitation. They want models that can work with them. I think you are a perfect fit for the job. "

He smiles for a while. "So you run away all this time just to give me this? I am not trained to be a model."

"You only need to have a willing heart. They will take care of the training for you."

"Thanks, Bro. I will think about it.'

Then his journey continues. After 30 minutes of walking and getting fresh air, he finally reached his house.

Getting near it. He realized there is a car that always packs near his house. Part of him tells him to go and take a look at it, but part of him demands him to just go home and mind his own business, which is what he does.

As he keeps making a step forward the other part of his internal conflict gets heavier. On a count to 3, he turns around and steps towards the car. Slowly he knocks on the glass part of the door. In less than five seconds, the glass part goes down, exposing a yawning girl. His heart suddenly stops beating

Rachel? He whispers