A week after the video was released, Liesl was standing in the middle of a bright and airy condo with Janka and Elsie.
“It’s perfect.”
“It really is.”
She looked at the realtor and smiled, “and it’s a rental. It’s not for sale?”
“Exactly.”
“A secure building with this much light and the owner doesn’t mind if I use one of the rooms as a studio to paint?”
“As long as there are no structural changes, the owner doesn’t mind. Anything structural, like making rooms bigger, smaller etcetera has to be run by our rental company.”
“Sounds good to me,” she looked to her friends. “I should take this right?”
“Yes. Unless you want a repeat of yesterday.”
She’d had brunch with the girls Sunday and when she’d gotten back to Fred and Meredith’s she’d walked in on them fooling around in the living room. Seeing her brother naked holding only a throw pillow in front of his junk was now going to be a traumatic memory she’ll have forever etched in her brain. She shuddered as she forced it to the deepest recesses of her brain.
“How soon can I move in?”
“Twenty-four hours. The rental company insists on a deep clean before anyone moves in.”
“I can move in as soon as tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
She looked to the girls, “looks like I’ll need the afternoon off then Janka. I need to buy a new bed.”
“Not a problem.”
Elsie smirked, “maybe you should wait for Isaias to be back in town. He might want to help pick out the bed.”
“I’m sure he’ll cope considering it’s my bed and not his. It’s not like he’s going to sleep in it every night.”
“Liesl,” Elsie nudged her playfully, “you have slept a total of three nights in the room at Fred’s since you met him. It stands to reason he’ll want to test your mattress.”
“Can we talk about this later?” Liesl shot a glance at the stoic expression on the realtor’s face.
“Oh right,” Elsie nodded as if she understood Liesl was hesitant to discuss her relationship with Isaias in front of a stranger.
The realtor laid a bunch of documents on the counter and told her to take her time reviewing them. She and Elsie took turns reading each paper. While Elsie reviewed the contract, she let her mind wander.
All she needed was more of the paparazzi press hounds chasing her because a realtor leaked info about her sleeping in Isaias’s bed every night. It had finally started to die off since they hadn’t been seen in public together since the day, he’d carried her out of Janka’s gallery. His sister had given him hell for egging on the journalists and making things potentially worse for Liesl. Since then, his plan had been to keep her at his house with him. All of their meals together and time spent together had been at his home.
On Friday night he’d gotten a call which led to him telling her he had to fly to LA to personally deal with a project. He’d asked her to stay at his home until he returned but since he couldn’t tell her how long he would be gone she’d felt uncomfortable staying there indefinitely without his presence. She’d gone back to Fred’s Saturday morning despite him voicing his irritation with her.
He had been quite annoyed and had made it clear. He wanted her safe and protected. He strongly felt the only reason Merlin had backed off since the day he’d answered the phone in the gallery was because Merlin knew she’d been staying with him at his home. He wanted her to stay there where his security team would have full access to keep her protected if necessary.
She thought it was more likely they had humiliated him by talking about his lack of sexual prowess and he was licking his wounds. Merlin was a proud, arrogant man who liked to believe he was the best at everything and when his ego was wounded, he would go off and sulk in corners and give her the silent treatment. She had once beat him soundly at a game of chess, a game he had taught her to play, and he’d not spoken to her for two days. In the end it had been up to her to cajole him back to her and she never beat him again in the game. At the time, she felt she was keeping the peace. Now she realized she was so desperate for his affection she would sacrifice her own pride to keep him happy. She wasn’t doing it anymore.
Isaias might not like when she didn’t do what he wanted her to, but it didn’t mean she had to give in to his every demand. They had known each other only a few weeks and, in her mind, it was much too soon to stay in his home for an extended period if he was not there.
She felt this relationship was progressing rather quickly and she wasn’t silly enough to think it meant forever. Isaias had never considered marriage and children with any of the women he’d dated in the past. This was likely a fling for him and while she was falling harder for him every single day, she knew it was only a matter of time that this relationship, like all of his past ones, ran their course.
She also had never had a relationship like this before. She’d dated and had boyfriends, but she and Merlin had waited three years to sleep together, never getting beyond heavy petting and making out until their wedding night. He’d been so thrilled with the fact she had never been with another man he had vowed to her he would respect her chastity by waiting for her until the time was right. She had never told Merlin of any of the sexual things she had done with ex-boyfriends before him. She had given and received oral, had done more than one hand job, and had once almost lost her virginity only be disrupted by the guy’s roommates coming home early.
Merlin never knew of any of those things though. He had not wanted to hear a single detail of her being with any other man and to her it was sweet. Now, she knew it was jealous and irrational behaviour to insist, for his own peace of mind, he was the only man to kiss, touch or make love to her.
It was far more likely the reason Merlin was giving her space was because he no longer wanted her since another man had touched what he had once considered purely his. It had been him who had insisted they wait until their wedding night. In retrospect, she wondered if he had been cheating back then as well.
Liesl considered she was moving from a relationship with progressed at a snail’s pace to one moving at lightspeed. While the physical intimacy with Isaias was far better than anything she could have even fantasised about with Merlin, she was still struggling to trust Isaias blindly as she had her ex-husband. She felt guilty Isias was paying the price for Merlin’s cheating by her inability to jump in. She was listening to every word and comment Isaias made, including the ones about past relationships. She wanted to trust he’d never cheat on her, but it was hard.
She had found herself the night before stalking the internet and tabloids for any word on him and what he was doing in LA, but it had been all quiet. Then she’d felt so guilty about checking on his whereabouts and making sure he wasn’t with someone else, when he’d called at midnight, she’d ignored the call worried he’d hear guilt in her voice for checking up on him.
Now as she looked around the condo, she realized she hadn’t told him she was going apartment hunting today. She had responded this morning to his good night text with a smiley face emoji, but he hadn’t responded to it at all. There was a three-hour time zone difference, and it was only eleven local time, and it was possible he was either working or still sleeping. Maybe, like her, he was evaluating, and was taking a breath. The thought made her chest ache, and she sniffed as she considered it was unfair of her to begrudge him doing what she did, yet it rankled.
She pursed her lips and as Elsie pushed papers to her with the okay to sign, she signed her name with a flourish.
“To more new beginnings,” Janka said with a wide grin.
