Chapter 28: Chapter 28
Vida
Vida’s Apartment, Planet Earth
Her thoughts betrayed her as she stared at the ceiling of her apartment, there was a disturbance in her very existence as she tried her best to find sleep. But it would not just come to her. She lay in her bed, blankly trying to under what was going on. Her guest, a man that came straight out of her dreams, was on the sofa close by. A coffee table was set up to make a mark of separation between them.
Vida thrashed around in bed as her thoughts lingered, sleep would not come as she fought against the voices that were biting at her mind.
It was as if regret suddenly decided to show up and start biting at her being as she tried to comprehend what was going on. Was it naivety that made her trust this person that was lying and sleeping on the sofa that she had set up a while ago. This stranger who had somehow landed in the midst of a bustling New York City was now in her own apartment, sleeping peacefully.
“Stupid!” Vida’s thoughts screamed at her, “Just because we had wet dreams over this person, we let them walk all over us.”
But that sense of comfortability was something she had not felt before. It was as if she had known this person all her life and she had been waiting for his arrival all this time.
“It must be destiny” she muttered quietly to herself while her brain blared out the opposite.
Colter suddenly moved from the couch and Vida tensed up, she glanced at the location the man was in and in the darkness, she felt their eyes met.
Her shame and embarrassment reached a peak and she drew the covers to her face.
“He was still awake!” Vida thought wildly, “Why is he still awake?”
In the abyss of the darkness that was her room, Vida pondered so many questions and thoughts that it was hours later before she noticed that she had fallen asleep.
---
Colter
Vida’s Apartment, New York City
The prince tried to find comfort in the small space that he was given, this was different from the abandoned rooftops that he had stayed in weeks ago, but it was far too short for his stature that he had to bend himself inwards in order to find even a semblance of comfort.
Yet this discomfort was not in his thoughts, his brain was occupied with something else, like the woman who lay awake pondering recent events, he too was disturbed.
“No one should be this kind, Ecanus or not” Colter thought to himself, trying to find a reason why Vida was so kind to him. “She’s far too comfortable with my presence, as if she has known me all our lives.”
The prince moved a bit, and in that moment, he heard Vida make slight movements, thinking her to be asleep. He tensed up and listened to see if she would say anything. The silence gave him what he needed and his thoughts started off again, creating paranoia.
“Even in my world, there wouldn’t be people that will easily let people in like this” Colter’s inner voice told him, as he fought the urge to move around in this small chair.
Vida had trusted him, yet here he was barging in and taking advantage of her hospitality. Yet, like the woman that lay in the bed near him, they had this sense of familiarity that could not be explained. But his thoughts also betrayed him.
He remembered the words his father had told Samuel as he apologized in front of many people, the words that Samuel had told him when he visited him in Tralfagar.
The moments they spent earlier buried themselves in his thoughts, he was an Ecanus and to fall in love and be involved with a human would surely only lead to a major reckoning.
He thought of how Samuel had looked as he told the story of how he ripped out the heart of Hazel, the human that he loved with all his heart and the effect it had on his person as she came home.
“I am leading her straight into tragedy” Colter whispered to himself in a panic, “I cannot find the will to slay her and take her heart like a fucked up trophy to bring home.”
All their dreams aside, her kindness had rubbed off of him. How she laughed, how she smiled. Even dealing with Harry Fletcher, she had no second thoughts in leaving that man behind to talk to him.
She went out of her own way to talk to him. To bond with him. To be with him.
That was what haunted the prince as he lay staring at the very same ceiling that Vida looked at in these moments.
His hubris believed that he was only here to explore the new world that he found himself in, but in his deepest thoughts he knew that he stepped into the portal because he thought that Vida was on the other side.
“I think I’ve fallen for her.” Colter muttered to himself in the complete darkness, unaware that Vida was also awake, “If that happens, I think I’ll just stay here for the rest of my life.”
---
Vida
Vida’s Apartment, New York City
She woke up with a yawn, hurriedly wiping her eyes, she stared at the location where her couch was and found that it was empty.
“Well shit.” Vida thought to herself, irritated, “Did I drink too much?”
She didn’t have to go to work today, so she had the whole day to herself. It was a Sunday and Burn’s was closed.
The aroma of food suddenly wafted towards her nose and her mouth watered, with a panicked glance at where Colter had slept, she realized everything that happened was real and it wasn’t a dream.
Stretching as she got up, she followed the scent of the food and found herself being greeted by a beaming Colter.
“Good morning, Vida!” Colter told her as she walked into the kitchen, Vida smiled and nodded while her thoughts ran with these words:
“It actually happened!”
Colter had prepared eggs and toast for her, as she contemplated what happened he heard Colter say
“I also made you coffee. I don’t know how your stuff works so I just made it my own way”
Everything was set in the table and all she needed to do was sit down and start eating.
“Colter, you’ve only prepared food for one person” Vida chastised him and she was met with a somber grin.
“Do not worry about me.” Colter replied to her, in that moment he had made a motion to leave her.
Instinctively, Vida stopped him. Her hand had found itself gripping onto Colter’s arm as she stared at him.
“Please, where would you even go?”
The man had beamed at her sheepishly and scratched his head, “Oh Vida, don’t worry about me.”
Vida frowned at this but before she could even continue the doorbell rang, they both stared at the location where the sound had come from. The sound of a doorknob twisting was heard and there was footsteps.
“Vida!!!!” a familiar voice called out from the hall, “Let’s go out and get wasted!!! We don’t have work today, don’t we?!”
It was Tessa Rodriguez, being overly familiar with Vida, she had barged into the kitchen and found both of them there. Her eyes widened at she pointed at the two of them with her mouth wide open.
“What the hell?!” she shouted pointing a finger at Colter, “What the actual fuck are you doing here, Mister Homeless?!” She advanced on Colter who backed away without a second thought, her anger was now emanating.
“Tessa!” Vida shouted getting in between her and Colter, “It’s fine. Calm down!”
She noticed that Colter had his arms raised up repeatedly saying that he didn’t do anything.
“We went out yes, but there was rain and he had no place to go.” Vida told Tessa who only rolled her eyes.
“So, you took him in like a lost little puppy?!”
“No!” Vida retorted.
“So not a puppy, but doggy, like doggy style?!” Tessa blurted and Vida blushed.
“Nothing happened Tessa!”
Tessa snorted at her, still unconvinced but Vida closed in on her and said:
“Nothing happened. We went out and the rain fell, he didn’t have a place to go home to, so I offered him a place to stay” Vida had muttered to prevent Colter from hearing.
“Oh honey” Tessa answered with a sigh “You can’t keep him like a pet, someone out there might be looking for him. He’s a grown person and what he does and what happens to him is not your responsibility”
“I know, Tess!” Vida said with a groan, “But I felt it. He does not have anyone. No one is looking for him. He’s all alone.”
Tessa snorted at this revelation, “So now you’re some kind of fortune teller? Cool, since he’s staying with you, why don’t we make him earn his keep and help you pay the rent for this overpriced apartment?”
“That’d be unfair for him wouldn’t it?” Vida replied slightly annoyed at how Tessa was taking things.
“No such thing, darling” Tessa told her calmly, “If he’s up for it, then he’d be willing to do this to stick around.”
“So what do you expect me to do, help him look for a job?!” Vida asked Tessa incredulously , Tessa only answered her with a smirk.
“Come on, Tess!” Vida complained, “It’s hard enough as it is to find a job in New York.”
Tessa grinned at her, “Well, we can always ask Peter to hire him.”