Page 111 of Blossoms of the Heart
Chapter 23
Phoebe
* * *
This was me making small steps.
Or, maybe in my case this was a big step.
It was six o’clock. I stood outside Tai’s house. My idea to surprise him. Mitsuke gave me his address.
I spent a lot of time thinking last night, and I while I was shit scared to be venturing into territories I knew could blow up in my face, I wanted to try.
People kept telling me to try. To not set out with failure in mind. To live.
Today was the first in a while that I felt alive.
I woke up this morning and the air felt different. It was silly to think like this but it was like I’d gone back in time to my birthday eleven years ago and I was that eighteen year old again who’d just had the best birthday present ever.
The guy who she was crazy about had just told her he felt the same way about her.
Tai, had me at that point and it didn’t matter what more he had to say, knowing he returned the deep feelings I felt meant everything to me.
What happened next with Mom was awful, but I was going to gloss over that and pretend it never happened.
I was going to gloss over the last eleven years too and try my hardest to block it out.
Thewhat happened nextwas now. I was going to try and pretend it was now.
I’d pretend until it killed me because honestly there was some ounce of my fears pushing against that wall of positivity I always struggled to put up.
Things were so bad for such a long time that I didn’t know how to enjoy the good.
But I wanted to, I wanted to with Tai.
I looked over the well-kept, very artistically designed beach house. His bike was parked out front, but so was a midnight black Ferrari.
I loved that his personality was in everything.
Hugging the bottle of wine I brought to my chest I rang the bell. Since we didn’t get to drink together on the beach my first night I thought it seemed fitting.
I was dressed similar too with a beige body con tonight and my hair down. Mitsuke had curled the ends into loose romantic curls.
When Tai opened the door and saw me his handsome, handsome face instantly lit up.
I forgot my manners completely when I zeroed in on the fact that he was shirtless and wearing nothing but a towel draped around his neck and black sweat pants that clung to the ridges of muscles in his powerful legs.
He looked like he’d been working out because his hair looked damp and sweat trickled down the peaks and valleys of his abs. Hadn’t seen him with his top off in years, and Lord… he looked a million times better than I’d conjured up in my fantasies.
More tattoos added to his perfection. Joining the character for fire was an Aztec tribal tattoo that took up most of his shoulder and the whole of his left pec. I was completely absorbed in the intricacies of the design but what caught my eye more was the Chinese dragon on his lower abs and the words “to thine own self be true.” written in Latin.
Oh God I was drooling and somehow my hand had found its way to the flat of his stomach and I was mindlessly running my finger over the dragon’s tail.
“Want to go a little lower?” It was his voice that made me stop and take note. I widened my eyes and my senseless activity. “Pretty certain I have another tail that would enjoy being stroked a lot more.”
My cheeks… blazed, and I actually could feel my skin turning red. Particularly as I recalled the feel of his cock in my hands yesterday when he placed my hand on it. He was so casual about it too.
“Hi.” Okay maybe I’d digressed too far back into my eighteen year old self. I needed to bring my mind forward just a little, to account for the part in my life where I had brains and a little guts too. “I didn’t mean to come by unannounced but I just wanted to see you, and bring this.”
