Solace

*

"You think this will look good on me?" I ask as I look at my reflection in the trial room mirror.

"It looks amazing on you." Adam says as he smiles. I go to him and kiss him.

"Mmm. You smell so good. I love this new strawberry liquid wash you're using."

"You do?" I grin widely. "Remember we got it on sale? I got to stock it up." I say adjusting the straps of the dress.

"Maybe I should take a picture and send it to Natalie" I ask him hesitantly.

"You sure about that? That girl is bad news. You know she hates you and she's pretending to be your friend."

I look at him in disagreement.

"Alright, up-to you." He says and raises his hand. I click a pic and send it to her.

Adam was helping me pick out a dress for this fresher's party we had to attend. He already had a tux he was going to wear. I was imagining him in a tux, Adam would look so good.

"What are you smiling about?" he asks.

"You in a tux" I say and wink at him. I hear the notification beep and the expression on my face changes.

"She did it, again didn't she?" Adam asks.

My eyes were filled with tears. "She said it makes me look old."

"Oh, come on, Sof. She's jealous. Why do you take shit from her? Do you like the dress?"

"Do you?" I ask, sniffing.

" What I think doesn't matter. What anyone thinks doesn't matter. It's your dress." He says with his hands on my shoulder. He hugs me and wipes my tears. "And yes, I love it Sof. It looks great on you."

I look at him and smile.

And it did. The dress looked amazing. The fresher's day was so much fun. I ended up dancing all night.

"The club can't even handle me right now!" I shout at Adam from across the dance floor.

He laughs and points his finger towards me in encouragement.

It was as simple as that. I didn't need anybody's approval on what I wore or what I wanted to do. If I liked something, I made sure I didn't take shit from people on how they thought it wasn't good.

I was my own judge. Adam made sure of that.

*

I snap out of my memory with Adam as I hear my phone buzz. Ivan was calling.

"Hey! Haven't slept yet?" he asks.

"Not yet." I say.

"Guess who's at your door with dessert?"

"What? Seriously?" I hear the doorbell ring. I rush to it and find the very adorable Ivan there.

"You got me ice-cream." I say and look at him in awe. I almost forgot what it felt like to be with someone. To be taken care of. I made a mental note to not get used to this.

"I hope you like chocolate. Well, who doesn't?" he says and looks at me.

I nod my head. "What?" he says in protest. "Well. That's alright. Not a problem. I'll just get other flavours. I should have known. Hence, I came prepared." He says and opens the bag that has four ice cream tubs, chocolate, vanilla, black current and pistachio.

"My favourite is chocolate." I say and look at him, I got all emotional and my eyes welled up.

"Sof, no, no. You weren't supposed to cry for that." He says and hugs me.

"I'm so emotional, sorry" I say embarrassed.

He kisses my forehead and sits on the couch.

"Oh, let me put them in the fridge, I don't want it to melt and taste weird." He says and rushes towards the fridge.

"We'll share the chocolate tub?" he asks me and grins. I nod in agreement. Poirot was at his heels. He loved having Ivan around. It was very unusual for Poirot to warm up to people, but he liked Ivan. The feeling was mutual.

"He can't have ice-cream" he says.

He sits down on the coach and takes my hand and directs me to sit on his lap. I do so and he kisses me.

"I don't want the ice-cream anymore" he says and I laugh.

He opens the tub and gives me a huge chunk of ice-cream scoop. I take a small bite and give it back to him.

"I like how you didn't take whatever Bryan said to heart." He says and I nod in agreement.

"I have to tell you something." He says and looks at me seriously. "I am producing a film that Catherine is acting in. I couldn't help it." He shrugs.

"Does it make you uncomfortable?" I ask him.

"No. No, but. I thought you would be."

"Why would I?"

"After all that Bryan said, I assumed you would. Look, she means nothing to me right.."

"Iv. I know." I say and hold his hand. It seemed to have calmed him down.

"You know, I like being able to touch you. There were times when I wanted to hold you close, tell you

that things would get better, be there for you. I was afraid you'd hate me if you knew who I was." He

says seriously.

"I would never." I say and look at him. "You have really beautiful eyes, Ivan. I've always liked them."

"Did I ever tell you that your eyes reflected what you felt? I could tell if you were happy, sad, lying about things just by focusing on your eyes. They glisten, when you're happy. That's my favourite." He

says and I flush.

"And your hair, it smells of fresh strawberries. It's my favourite." He continues.

"Really? It's my favourite too." I smile.

"You're my favourite, Sof." He says and leans forward to kiss me.

"Mmm. Chocolaty." I say and we laugh. It was these little moments that I appreciated the most.

We spent the entire night talking, till we fell asleep. The best kind of nights.