Chapter 31 - Amelie

I woke up to a voicemail full of missed calls. I jumped out of bed in a hurry when I saw the time. Likewise, I was completely late for Lowe's. I don't usually sleep this long. I was two hours late. It wasn't normal. As I jumped out of bed in a hurry, I felt a terrible pain in my body. I almost felt like crying. My vagina was completely sore and burning, and my anus wasn't much different. What was going on?

I picked up my cell phone and checked the last voice message. "Shit, Amelie, what's wrong? I'm on my way," it said. It was Dorian, visibly worried. From the way he spoke, he sounded rushed. Maybe he really was rushing off. I sighed deeply. A few minutes later, I heard a noise at the door. I opened it. "You're all right. Good," he said, hugging me quickly, tightly, and thoughtfully.

"Am I supposed to be in danger?" I asked, still hugging him, not understanding anything. My life was confusing enough during the day, but getting even more confused when I woke up was even worse. It was a terrible feeling as if I had no control at all. "I think I just overslept," I said, stopping the hug. "Don't worry," I said. Immediately afterward, I expressed pain.

"What's wrong?" he asked, staring at me as he closed the apartment door. "You don't look very well. What happened?" he asked, looking deep into my eyes, wanting to understand. "You don't sleep late like that, Amelie," he said. I really didn't have such a habit. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd woken up so late.

For a moment, I thought about lying to Dorian because I didn't want him to know and feel bad about what had happened. However, given the nature of his work, he would probably already know. I sighed before answering and sat down on the sofa calmly and slowly. "I'm all sore," I said. It was clear that he understood perfectly what I meant by that sentence. "I didn't want you to know, because I didn't want you to feel bad about being me," I said, signaling the quotation marks.

"Do you remember anything, Amelie?" he asked me, interested in the answer. The intonation of his voice suggested that he knew something. I hated not remembering. It had only been a few hours since EVE's last activities, and I still couldn't remember anything. I told Dorian that I couldn't remember. He was used to it anyway. "Do you want me to tell you?" he asked. Deep down in his eyes, I knew what he was going to say, but I let him. "You, I mean EVE, had sex with Carbon yesterday," he said, expressionless. I thought it was strange of him, even though I had expected a certain aversion, given the nature of his feelings for me. It seemed to have been worse than he'd said.

"And…?" I asked, signaling that I expected him to keep talking because I knew there was something more. "And who else had sex with her, Dorian?" I asked because I knew that Carbon wouldn't be her only partner that night.

"It doesn't matter, Amelie," he said, looking away. "He did it," he said, still not looking at me. My body felt heavy as I heard those words, and I thought the worst. I remained silent, stunned. Then he turned and looked at me, trying to understand what was going on. "Amelie, no, he didn't do anything that EVE didn't want him to," he said, explaining himself. "I'm sorry if it sounded like anything else. I'm sorry," he said, hugging me. I was about to cry, thinking that something bad had really happened.

"What exactly did he do, Dorian? My body has never looked like this, even with EVE having several partners. What happened?" I asked, even more confused. Nothing seemed to make sense of the situation. Then Dorian told me what had happened. He told me about how EVE had acted in the club, how she had caught everyone's attention, and especially how everyone had seen her enjoy herself. "My God," I said after I'd finished listening. "Did Carbon really manage to get EVE to do that? Not even Axel?" I asked. Of course, I knew that EVE was involved with Axel, and it was also quite obvious that he was interested in her. I knew.

"From the looks of it, not even Axel could do all that to her," Dorian said. "He was also there when we saw it. In fact, he was the one who broke down the door, Amelie," he went on to say. Internally, I thanked him for not showing up at the club, as I didn't know what face I'd be looking at. "I can only imagine how he felt since I had to leave shortly afterward," Dorian said. At that moment, I remembered that Dorian was a sensitive person, despite appearances and attitudes saying otherwise.

"Did you have an anxiety attack?" I asked. "Did they come back?" I reinforced the question. If Dorian was going through any difficulties, I wanted to help, especially if it had something to do with me or EVE. The last thing I needed was to see him and Axel dealing with things that were perhaps out of my hands. I noticed that Dorian was silent until he answered me. My concern only grew. "Dorian, talk to me. Are the seizures back?" I repeated. Finally, still hesitating, he said yes. "Shit, Dorian. I'm sorry, but don't hide things," I said angrily while blaming myself for what was happening. He'd been free for a while. Now, because of me, the crisis has returned.

"Amelie, it's not your fault," he said. "I know you think it is, but it's not. You don't control any of this, so it's okay," he tried to tell me. Dorian always tried to make me feel good about things. I needed to thank him more. "What I can tell you is that it was hard, but it's over now. I mean, we've just started everything, what if I mess something up?" he asked, visibly annoyed. It wasn't in Dorian's nature to worry like that.

"Dorian, you would never ruin anything," I said, moving closer. It didn't seem to do any good to say what I was saying. "I know your feelings, and you know mine. If anything goes wrong, it will definitely be my fault and EVE's, not yours," I said, hugging him.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said, returning the hug. "But all this has made me wonder if I'm enough for you," he said. Dorian was shy. I wish people could see more of that side of him, but all he showed everyone was violence and seriousness. Maybe he should loosen up more. Who knows, possibly things would improve?

"What do you mean? You're different, Dorian," I said, clutching him even tighter, as if he were my paradise as if I never wanted to leave that embrace. "You're not going to ruin anything, stop talking," I said, still trying to calm him down. To my surprise, he laughed lightly.

"It seems I'm giving you more and more reasons to take me to therapy, doesn't it?" he said, staring at me, still laughing. "I'm sorry, but even that won't make me go. I promise I'll be fine and stop worrying you, Amelie," Dorian said, putting his fingers to my lips. "I don't want to cause anything to spoil everything we're going to experience."

"Well, think about it. We could do couple's therapy together," I suggested, thinking it was a good idea. I'd always wondered what those sessions would be like. I was already interested in Dorian going to a private session, but one as a couple wouldn't go amiss either. "I think we'd have a lot to discuss, you know?" I said, teasing him.

"The answer is still no," he said, a little more seriously but still with a relaxed expression. "And what do you want with these touches, Amelie?" he asked me, also touching me. We hadn't had the full experience yet, and I was hungry for it. I could tell he was too. I got closer and closer, kissing him. "Amelie, we can't," he said, stopping me. "Your body is too bruised. I'm not going to hurt you anymore," he told me. He seemed really concerned about what I was going through.

"Ah, Dorian," I said, sighing into his arms. "Why did we wait so long for this? We could have been together a long time ago. I blame myself so much for this," I said. I didn't know I was thinking about it so much until I said it out loud. It was really getting to me.

"I didn't do anything either, Amelie. Don't worry about it. We're both to blame," Dorian said. "When you recover, we'll take all this time back. I promise. Now, are you okay to work?" he wanted to know.

"I need to talk to Axel," I said. There were a lot of apologies to be made.