Memory Lane [Open]

[Taitum Marshall]

Taitum paused at the door. Her words made him growl under his breath but he pressed his lips tightly. She'd just made him sound like a total coward. Didn't she know that she was getting a get out of Jail free card right then? If he stayed it would just turn into a catastrophe. They'd get immensely close and he'd want to own her.... Or... he'd mess up. Taitum hadn't been in a relationship since the transfere student from Kocher when he was fifteen and that had only been for six months.

That was how far his knowledge of relationships went. It took him a long time to decide what to do. A long time of hovering. If he went in there... Oh God. She had no idea how badly he wanted her. If he went in there it would not be for an apology. They both had a clear head now. It wouldn't be a drunken mistake. It would be some sort of fling if she wanted to and he could go back to his original plan of stalking her but things would have changed. She would just be his object of desire.

He'd want to kill her Reece if she ever touch him in an intimate way again. He knew that. He needed to be careful. He needed to leave. It was for the best. Without calling back to tell her he was leaving, Taitum opened the front door and headed toward where he'd parked his car taking swift steps to get away as rapidly as possible before she even realized he was gone. He hoped it would hurt her. Hurt her enough to stay away from him. She started all of this! With her kisses and her whispers in a drunken stupor for it.

He bet she wouldn't even touch him being sober...The thought made Taitum even MORE angry.

[Aracelli de Rosales Salamanca]

Normally, there’d be nothing in the world that would compel Aracelli to leave her apartment in the state she was in. A soft, grey, baggy sweatshirt that had seen better days, tattered jean shorts and a head full of wet hair, messily pulled into a ponytail was not how she wanted the world to see her, but this was important. So when Taitum’s boots didn’t appear in the kitchen after another minute, she raced outside to her small porch. She leaned over the railing, watching him descend the steps and sighed. There was a part of her that wanted to scream her apology, that wanted him to realize that she was sorry she’d made him angry, and to thank him for staying with her. The other part of her said that he didn’t want to be around her anymore. That was fine, she could deal with it either way.

If he looked back, he’d see her gripping the iron railing and looking down at him with a sad expression. Aracelli stood there until he drove away, then trudged back into her apartment, locking the door behind herself. There was no way she was not going to find a way to apologize to him, absolutely no way that he was going to get away with just walking away from her like that. There was far too much left unspoken, and it needed to be said. Finding the right time, and the right place, was going to be the trick.

Weeks later, when Christmas came around, she saw his car sitting outside one of the local bars, and trying the doors, found one unlocked. It was the work of a moment to put the expensive bottle of red wine on the seat with its attached card. The card was simple, just I’m sorry and Thank you. No name, no real indication of who it was from. It was up to Taitum what he would do with it, but now she had offered her apologies. Even if he didn’t know it was from her. She knew she’d done it. That was enough. She took the rose she’d gotten earlier that evening and brought it close to her nose. Much like the rose that had appeared at the dance studio, the wine would be a mysterious gift that would lighten someone’s mood and help make their Christmas brighter.