By Chance In Oxford

20. Athena

 Dinner was calm and beautiful, nothing like the lonely filled with fear dinners I used to have with my dad growing up. Ophelia told stories, Lorenzo laughed like until he cried for the first time ever since I had met him. We shared a moment that I would never come to take for granted, something that felt like a real family sitting at a table together laughing, loving, and embracing the fact that they all had each other. It went by fast, the food was incredible, making Lorenzo even more attractive that he could cook. Before we knew it the night was over and Ophelia was heading home in a hurry. She hugged Lorenzo goodbye before he headed into the kitchen to start washing dishes then pulling me outside and shutting the door gently. I walked her to her car, staring back at me as the bright moonlight shining over the dark scenery. She whispered, "Keep him close Athena, I can tell he loves you, the way he looks at you like he has regretted every moment of his life before meeting you just because he is so upset at the universe for not putting you in his life earlier. I trust in you, I see the spark, this is your second chance, it's a second chance for both of you. A second chance to take something so bruised, tattered, scarred, and seal it up tightly. I have so much love in my heart for you already, Athena." I hugged her close before watching her drive away and entering the house again. Lorenzo was just finishing loading up the dishwasher as I walked into the kitchen, walking up behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist slowly reaching towards his lower stomach, whispering into his ear I flirtatiously spoke, "Meet me upstairs when you're done with that." Walking away I heard him grunt and begin finishing his task at a heightened pace as if he was annoyed that he couldn't be upstairs with me already. Opening the bathroom door I filled the tub with water after making sure to shut the drain. Looking in the well organized bathroom I found him well stocked, prepared knowing I was coming, feminine products, a hair dryer though I don't use one, skincare products, shower products, and my favorite rose bubble bath soap that I had back at my place, with a clear bag of freeze dried rose petals sitting next to it, he knew me so well already, some of my favorite things in the world and he already had them here, well stocked so I didn't have to lose out on necessities and things I loved when I moved in with him. I poured a good amount of the soap into the steaming water and watched as the rose petals floated around becoming hydrated again. There were candles of all different heights set around the tub which were lit already and from my place, almost as if I was right back at my place again, taking away any non-existent feeling of homesickness that could ever cross me. I connected my phone to the Bluetooth speaker chandelier that Lorenzo had showed me he had installed upon moving in when he was giving me a tour of the place and after it had worked began playing some of my favorite classical pieces. Classical music gave me life, of course it had always reminded me of my mother no matter what, but far beyond that it had made me shine, made me happy, made me feel like everything in my body was on fire, in a good way. It was soft and quiet as I heard droplets of rain falling down on the skylight above the shower in the bathroom, which was gorgeous as well, tall, wide enough to fit 20 people, floor to ceiling clear glass doors, dark emerald green subway tile, and gold fixtures throughout with a giant rain head sitting above. Staring at myself in the giant mirror I began removing my clothes, slowly but surely, piece by piece leaving it all on the floor walking closer and closer to the tub. Getting lost in the dim almost fully dark lighting I found myself wrapped up in something smooth and warm, it was him. Shirtless standing before me, in nothing but sleek black underwear. Turning me around until I was facing him he stared up and down at me, just me, nothing covering me, sending enough chills down my spine to make me want to instantly grab a bathrobe or put clothes on to cover up what I knew I lacked. I knew I didn't look like the other girls, girls that he was probably meant for, both physically and economically. I was taller than most, my hair was part curly part straight, my face isn't as perfect as them, no long eyelashes, perky large lips, a perfect chest, perfect arms, perfect legs, perfect hands, a perfect small nose, and as I stood there in my emptiness I realized that a girl like me wasn't meant to be with a guy like him. It was like putting an old beat down car that had been in 5 accidents, covered in dust, cracked windshield, with dirty seats in the same garage as a perfect shiny new sports car, with a bright shiny coat of yellow paint, crisp, perfectly tinted windows without a speck of dust on them, clean smooth leather seats, and a roaring engine, a thing of beauty next to something far from beauty, society says they shouldn't be together. But I wanted this so bad, what could I do? I couldn't focus on anything else though when I watched his eyes lay on it, and then it hit me when he stared at it, my scar. Just to make my insecurities worse he was staring at a 7 inch long, 3 inch deep scar across my torso. Small wrinkles of skin wrapped around it as it stuck out like a sore thumb. Starting out as the tone of my skin tone then turning a light gray color and by the time you were in the middle the scar was a deep purple, red color. It was years ago but I'll always feel like it was yesterday with this scar. No matter how badly I want to forget I can't. Doctors said the scar will look like this for the rest of my life because of how bad the injuries I sustained by the stabbing. I didn't want him to look anymore. I wanted him to look away, I wanted him to walk out of the room to let me cover it up with a bandage so he wouldn't have to look at it, so he wouldn't have to see truly how broken I was, so he wouldn't have to continue to remind me that I wasn't like the other girls. The girls people who lived in houses like his, drove cars like his, had assistants like his, had bodyguards and chauffeurs like him, had power like he did, were supposed to be. Instead though, he put my worries to rest, he shut up the alternate version of myself, the demonic one that sits on my shoulder constantly taunting me and providing me with reasons I will never be good enough, and he did something that I never thought a boy like him would do, he did something that made me see his true colors, that made me fully understand what kind of person he was, how he was raised, and what his heart was made of, and I can confirm it wasn't stone. He carefully placed his hands on my waist and moved his left hand towards the scar, with his thumb, he traced along the entirety of the scar before looking back into my eyes, I saw the pain, the sorrow, the heartache that he had felt for me and what I went through, and he didn't even have to say a word for me to feel his sympathy, just a few seconds of eye contact did all the work for me. He carefully got down on his knees right before me and when I thought he was doing something I had always hoped to wait until marriage for giving me worry I would have to stop him he did something incredible. Keeping his hands in the same position he leaned forward and began kissing the scar. So gently and lovingly like a mother kissing her child's boo boo goodbye. I had never been cared for before, not the way he had just done. He stood up again and whispered in my ear saying, "You are beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, I love every part of you, even the scar, that's beautiful too. Don't ever hide it from me, ok?" He removed the underwear and I took my chance at staring at him for once, and let me tell you, I could get used to this scenery, it was better than anything they had in England. His skin was shiny and smooth, not a small fleck or flaw in it, every part of him chiseled and muscular with tons of definition. Towering over me he was supposed to be scary in theory, but all I wanted to do was be nestled into him, and have him cradle me for the rest of my life. I raised my heels off the ground to reach him and slid my hands over his large back, it was hard, rock hard, but warm, and soft to the surface. I whispered, "Beautiful, is only a word that could be used on you." After saying that he led me carefully into the tub. Him sitting first, then taking me hand and pulling me slowly into the steamy water that felt like a warm hug from your mom after a long day of pain and mean kids at school. I stepped on the slippery porcelain tub in between his long legs and sat in his lap, my back pressed against his chest. His hands wrapped around me onto my bare chest dowsing me with the warm water. He took my hair into his hands and slowly began pulling it together to bring it out of his face. His arms then rested on my lower stomach and we just sat there. I was shivering, so he pulled me closer to him, kissing my ear, but not because I was cold or because the water had shocked my skin, rather because my body had never experienced what it just had before. Shivering at the fact that until today I didn't know something like this existed. Shivering because I wanted more, I wanted to feel, I didn't want to put the fire out, I wanted to make it bigger. We sat in silence before I broke it saying, "You never told me about the nightmares." He replied, "I know I didnt, I would have hoped to keep it that way. It's not a big deal, I've had them since I was a little kid, what was a living hell just became a normal routine and now I don't really worry it happens it's whatever, but they have stopped, I haven't had one since the night before I started dating you, my love." I answered, "I get it, that it is something you don't want to revisit but always know that I am here for you, and that if you ever had any nightmares I would be there when you woke up and no matter what happens I am here to love you and I don't ever want you to cover things up or think that you are too weak to have a certain feeling or be affected by something like nightmares." "I thank you for that, more than you'll ever know. I love you.", he said. "I love you more.", I said. We sat in silence for the rest of the bath, occasionally letting out heavy breaths, small giggles, affirmations, and kissing. The way his hands felt against my body, gosh, after tonight you could have convinced me, easily, that I had died and entered heaven. When the bath was done he got me out of the tub and carefully placed a towel around me drying me off before gesturing me to sit on the sink. He wrapped a towel around his waist while his chiseled abs were dripping in the steaming water, glistening off of his complexion. He drained the water and threw out the rose petals before blowing out the candles and getting everything all cleaned up. He kissed me for a few minutes before lifting me off the counter and grabbing my hand, taking me into the bedroom, it was way past bedtime, around 1:00am and we needed to get to sleep, as much as I wanted to spend every moment awake so I could be with him, I couldn't fight the tiredness. He walked over to the giant walk-in closet and grabbed a pair of black spandex shorts from my apartment, then he walked into his closet and pulled out a giant black t-shirt for me to wear to sleep. I got changed, he brushed out my hair for me and then we climbed into bed. The sheets were cold, but not in a mean, lonely kind of way, not when you had someone entangled in you, this type of cold was peaceful. The stars were bright and the moon was watching over us through the large glass casing around the bed. We sat there for a few moments before he popped the question, "So my princess, I've been meaning to ask you something and I think now is a good time before I forget again. My dad and his new wife, girlfriend, whatever she is are forcing me to go to a ball they are hosting, they need my name. They asked me to be there in sponsorship of the new plans for their company. It's like an unveiling of all the things they are adding to it, they asked me to come, I of course said no but they told me that if I didn't agree that they would get my mother's grave sent to Italy and I would never get to visit her unless I went to Italy which I don't want to do. Instead of a 5 minutes drive to see the women who gave my life I would be talking about a day's worth of driving, maybe more. But it's not about the driving, I would drive across oceans if it meant I could see my mom, it's about her sentimental meaning to me and the fact that I want her close, and the fact that I love her. So, I agreed, I told them I would go but only if I could bring a woman along with me, if she agreed of course. So I was wondering, if you would be that women and come to the ball with me, it's in a few months so we have time to prepare for it, it's just this experience is going to be so hard for me, having to see my dad for the first time in years, his new wife, his business, his friends, Italy itself I can't go back and see all the things that make me terribly unhappy. I just want you to be there with me, as my person, the person I can show off to everyone else. I mean I understand if you don't wan-" I cut him off before kissing him and saying, "Of course I want to come, I'll always do anything with you, you know that. I just need a dress. Besides, a ball sounds fun, I've never been to one before, a new experience, you know that always calls to me." "Dress, done, we can manage that easily. Thank you, love. It's hard you know, I hate that man, I hate everything about it, and don't want anything to do with him or his business, and wait until I find out that my allies find out I'm going, I'll be eaten alive. For my mom though, I would put my life on the line, she deserves to be protected and visited, and cared for, all things my dad can't do." "It's ok, you don't have to worry about it anymore, it will be fine, we cross the bridge when we get there. We will be ok.", I said. He sighed as we began switching positions, me laying on my left side, him laying on his right, our chests pressed against each other, my face nestled in his neck. Slowly I reached my leg around his thigh wrapped in a different pair of the really nice black underwear and placed my hand on his back. I began slowly drawing circles with my nail, gently scratching his back. Rocking him to sleep by shushing him and letting him know that it would all be ok, I heard sniffles coming from him. Was he crying? "You love this, don't you!?"I said, referring to me scratching his back, which I continued to do because clearly it brought him an immense amount of pleasure and happiness, to the point of tears. "No one has ever touched me like that, I've never sat and been given TLC like someone actually cared for the little things like if I got a hug today. Yes, I do love it.", he said. Continuing the scratching pattern until his breath slowed and I knew he was asleep. His skin tucked into mine, in this giant house, filled with our things joined together I knew I was right where I had always wanted to be, where I had dreamed to be, but this time, peace was my reality. This is home.