Page 32 of Bastian

“When something is really funny. I promise you, kid.”

I nod, swallowing hard.

I doubt that day will come, but he doesn’t. Ever the optimist my Benjamin.

“Thank you for checking in.” He does. He keeps in touch through email, and sometimes, not often he runs off and meets me in my office. Hiding from view, not wanting to be discovered. He won’t have to do this anymore.

I am done hiding.

Benjamin drops another kiss on top of my head, making me feel like that lonely teenage girl again, then steps back, walking towards the door, but before he steps out, he looks back at me. “I’m only a call away if you need me.”

Sighing. “You’ve already done so much. I'll take it from here.”

He nods and turns back to the door, but my voice stops him. “Benjamin.”

“Yes?” His voice comes out rough.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“What you’ve done for me behind your boss’s back,” I tell him with my broken heart in my hands. He’s the only person that gets this. The only one. Now. The one who’d been able to pull me through some of the hardest and darkest days of my life.

“Anything for you, kid.” With that, he steps outside, exiting my office and leaving me to deal with the truth of all he said.

I’m heartless and cold, but I can never bring myself to be that way with my best friend.

My Viking.

My protector.

BASTIAN

GODDESS AMONGST MEN

“I wish I could open my chest and show you everything.” — B

The words I so cruelly threw in the face of the woman I love most on this earth replay in my mind like an obnoxious loop meant to torment me.

Meant to suffocate me.

Betrayal hurts most when it comes from the one you trust most.

The words hurt, yes because they are so painfully true.

I am aware I have no right to feel angry or, fuck it, maybe I do because my most trusted man has witnessed me losing my godforsaken mind every day since Arianna disappeared. He was right there with me when I fell into a pit of regret and despair when I couldn’t find her because she made herself unreachable.

Untraceable as if she was a figment of my imagination. She disappeared from my life as if she was never there, to begin with.

My nights were cold and dark, with no sliver of her beautiful light.

I made the stupid mistake, with only good intentions, yes, but a mistake nonetheless, of pushing her away so she could find herself and be all she ever wanted before she was thrust into the chaos that is my life.

And all along Banning knew where she was.

He had all the answers, and he just let me wallow in self-pity and heartbreak. Something she never knew. What I didn’t tell her.

The painful truth.

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