91

Now that Hector had been gone for a while and I was getting more and more nervous, I sat down at the small kitchen counter, lost in thought, and looked out the window in front of me.

Everything in me seemed to have changed in a very short time and I recognized neither myself nor my current life.

While I should have settled in by now and should have had patients, I was sitting in a strange apartment owned by a man I didn't know, while a stranger was probably rummaging through my underwear drawers.

But that's not all. In addition, my landlord was a disgusting pig that I should have reported.

"This is pure chaos," I told myself, dropping my face into my hands. I no longer knew how to endure all this confused situation. Didn't know what to do next and least of all what to think anymore. There was absolutely nothing left that made me see anything clearly.

Frustrated by the fact that my life was getting more and more out of joint, I looked up again and landed right on one of the pictures of Emilio and the woman I didn't know. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of him and for a moment I was in a kind of trance.

I felt his lips on mine again and felt a pleasant tingling of goosebumps up my arms as I longingly remembered how gentle he was on me and my body despite the fact that he seemed such a dominating man.

"What are you doing here?" I asked myself, waking up from my rigid state, and let my wistful gaze wander over to the bathroom door to remind myself one more time of what Hector had said.

He didn't have any nieces and that one statement made me doubt Emilio and everything he had told me so far. Maybe I was just naive to think that he wanted to help me. He probably also saw in me only a victim of myself and took advantage of my vulnerability...

How was I supposed to know...

Impatient and shattered again, I frantically got up from the small stool and started pacing back and forth across the living room. I decided to just tell him my opinion to his face. I didn't want to be a victim who suddenly had his life ruled as if he no longer had a say. My plan was to go home and look for a new apartment where I might feel a little more secure.

The prospect of becoming dependent on Emilio just for the sake of protection felt like a stupid cliché, and it was bad enough that we've had three encounters so far, all of which have been utter disasters.

I spotted my shoes standing next to the sofa and hurriedly put them on, adjusting his shirt and sweatpants to my body in preparation for my rebellion against him.

Determined but not rebellious... That's exactly how I would do it! And if he really liked me, he would tell me the truth about the pictures and the bathroom stuff and with a lot of imagination on my part, we might even have real dates.

Anyway, I liked the idea and when I suddenly gave a really inappropriate, goofy grin, I heard a key in the door and took a deep breath of excitement to stare wide-eyed towards the hallway.

Emilio entered and stopped at the very corner of the room to study me thoughtfully. His eyes seemed to have lost their luster and somehow I had lost all my courage at the sight of him.

Paying no attention to anything else, I lost myself in its darkness and even though I knew how deep was the abyss that was about to take me, I could not help but abandon all my intentions. Suddenly I didn't want to leave him anymore. Didn't want to confront him anymore and didn't want to think about all the unsolved lies either. I just wanted one thing... To know if he was okay.

"Emilio?" I breathed his name softly and walked the few steps that separated us towards him and while he slowly raised his eyes to look wistfully into my eyes, I suddenly recognized a shadow next to him and stayed away stand jerkily, startled.

"I can't think straight without knowing if you're safe," he said softly, and as soon as he finished his sentence, he stepped closer to me, followed by a really big black dog of its breed was unknown to me. He looked like a mix between a German Shepherd and a Doberman Pinscher. Kinda dangerous yet beautiful... just like him...

"And that's why you brought your dog here?" I concluded his statement and looked at him questioningly until he smiled softly and ran his hand through his black hair.

"It's your dog, Isalie," he explained, and I just stared at him open-mouthed for a while before my eyes fell back to the dog, who was staring at me curiously.

I always wanted a dog as a child but my father wouldn't let me have it and now I stood here, broken and more lost to myself than ever, while Emilio fulfilled a dream I had long forgotten.

"What's his name?" I wanted to know, slightly overwhelmed, and carefully crouched down, causing my new companion to slowly come towards me. He smelled my hands with interest. He kept glancing up at me and suddenly sat right between my knees to snuggle up close to me.

"Arco," Emilio said, sitting down next to us on the sofa to watch us both with a smile on his face. I gently stroked Arco's fur, but my gaze stayed on Emilio. It didn't escape me that the expression in his eyes still looked very broken and it occurred to me for a brief moment to address his obvious sadness, but I decided to let it go.

He certainly wasn't a man who liked to reveal himself, so I'd wait. Waiting for him to open up to me.

"Arco is a lovely name," I smiled sheepishly, lowering myself from a crouch on the floor to boldly leaning my back against the couch, right between Emilio's legs. I resolutely sought his closeness, which admittedly was really good for me and while I continued to spoil Arco with stroking, I leaned my head back on Emilio's leg and suddenly felt with a racing heart how he gently began to stroke my hair.. .

This man would surely be my downfall. But it's better to go down happily than to live without him.