38.
August 26th, 2020
“You slimy tumor of a woman!” Zaira yelled as she struggled against my hold.
I groaned behind my mask as I held onto her waist tighter, and helplessly lifted a shoulder at the bookstore attendant when she glared at me.
Corona virus. COVID-fucking-19. The life-threatening pandemic had hit the world all of a sudden, had disrupted our regular lives and turned us into very different versions of ourselves. It had put a stop to so many things, to almost every essence of our normalcies.
The last few months had been a task, to be honest. The changes that the virus had brought in my lifestyle – they weren’t something I was ready for, or had even dreamed of experiencing. Shoot forWaves That Hold Ushad been temporarily called off, and every single one of my TV appearances and interviews for the movie’s pre-promo had been cancelled as well. I had to shut down myUndertheWoodsHQ and office, and the only way I had been able to keep my employees paid was through my own pocket, and the decent online sale I’d been able to make.
My parents were constantly on edge about my health, whilst also worrying about theirs, and even though I had more time to spend with them due to the lockdown, the fear of accidental close contact or anything else that might cause harm to them – it heightened my precaution radar by a solid one-thousand.
The beginning of August, though, had brought in a lot of changes – for the better, thankfully. Things were opening back up, and I was to go back to filming in the next few days. I’d planned on reopening my HQ soon, but I had to make sure I had the right safety facilities available for my employees before I called them back into work.
Zaira and I had gotten a lot closer during the quarantine period. We alternated between spending at-home time in my penthouse for a week, and her apartment the next. My parents were smitten with her, and even though the situation we were dealing with didn’t allow for them to have a lot of in-person meetings with her, they still made sure to video call her every chance they got.
I’d tried my hardest to grasp onto every little thing Zaira did and said during our candid, one-on-one moments, and learning her every move, the various shifts in her behavior, the way she reacted and responded to certain things – it had all been a privilege, in a way. She had so many layers to her being, and I’d felt nothing but satisfaction and awe while unwrapping and learning every curve of them.
“I’m going to kick you in the cunt so fucking hard, that you’ll end up flying to the Caribbean with a palm tree up your ass!” Zaira yelled.
Fuck me six ways to Tartarus.
The small number of customers in the store all turned and gave us a weird look.
Zaira and I had had a lovely brunch with Kenzie, Shane, his wife Anna, Kenneth, Amara, her best friend Sloane, Jake (Sloane’s husband), Dylan, and Conner. It’s the first we’d met in person since the pandemic had hit. We’d stuck to video calls and texting during quarantine, but it was Kenneth’s birthday, so Amara had ordered us all to gather atJacque’sCuisinesfor a quick celebration.
I’d noticed the changes in Zaira’s behavior a few minutes after she’d had her mojito, and because I knew she didn’t exactly consume alcohol, and also that it wasDylanwho’d given her the mojito in the first place, I was damn sure it was him who’d done something to her drink.
When Zaira had seen a bookstore on our way to my place, she’d asked if we could go in for a quick browse. She wanted to see if they had some collectable toy she was looking for, and because I couldn’t say no to her, I’d indulged her wish.
Big. Fucking. Mistake.
The store didn’t have what she wanted, and when one of the employees had apologized for being out of stock in that respect, she had simply…erupted.
I shouldn’t have listened to her in the first place, so her outburst was partially my fault. I should have taken her straight home the moment she’d began giggling and hiccupping out of the blue after we’d left the restaurant. I should have stirred her away from other humans the moment she’d started talking like a valley girl on a Saturday night. Man, I should’ve just said no to her request when she’d looked up at me with her big, pleading eyes.
“You bit–” I covered her mouth from over her mask before she could curse at the bookstore employee again, and just when I thought I’d have to drag her out of the store kicking and screaming, Shane and Anna came rushing in.
“What did she do now?” the former questioned as he looked from me to Zaira. I’d managed to text him in between my attempts of taming my girlfriend, and I was so damn glad he’d perfectly understood the meaning behind my fractured plea for help.
“Isn’t the situation self-explanatory?” I told him as I struggled to hold a stubborn Zaira.
He glanced between the arm I had around her waist, to the hand I had over her mouth, and then at the fuming employee in front of us. “Do I wanna know the gory details?” he asked me.
I tried not to laugh as I said, “Nope.”
He ran a hand over his bald head and looked at his wife. “Deal with the people here while I work on the exit?”
She nodded. “You got it.” She threw a wide smile at the customers and bookstore workers. “How about we have a little chat, why don’t we?”
“Come on, move it,” Shane told me.
I turned Zaira around in my arm so I could look at her. “I’m going to move my hand away from your mouth, and you and I – we’re going to quietly leave here and go home, okay?”
She blinked up at me.
“Zaira? Do you understand?”
