Chapter Forty-four

It had been a month since Paris took her to the salon and they had been good friends. It was either Gwen was at his place, or he was at Marni's, talking or watching a movie with Wendy. He had tried to reduce the romantic treatments he gave her, and she noticed it, disliking it as that was one of the attributes that attracted her more to him.

Gwen stood from her chair, putting away the hot water bottle on the table, feeling the cramps like thousands of needles pricking at her stomach. Her legs were weak, and she felt a whirlpool of emotions. Periods we're annoying, she winced, gripping her abdomen and crouching.

When the piercing pain stopped, she strutted to the door and pulled it open, walking out of the apartment and locking it with her spare key. She took a few steps to Paris' door and rapped on it, leaning on the doorway and awaiting his response.

After the third knock, the doorknob was twisted, and she was faced with Paris who appeared in a pair of Pajamas.

"Hi," Gwen said without life, making her way into the house and sitting on the chair with her back touching the backrest. "Armani is out on a date and I think she's in love with him." Gwen crumpled her face in disapproval and shrugged with a clearer expression. "Whatever, you got chips?"

"Yeah, I do but-" Paris closed the door and joined her on the couch with a skeptical look. "You lost me there. Who is he she's in love with?"

"Oh," Gwen giggled. "Never mind, I was just kidding." She shoved the talk aside and rubbed her lower back, hoping the gentle touches she left on it would ease her pain. "Got chips?"

Paris affirmed, walking to the kitchen and returning with two bags of chips and a container of Pringles.

"Ah!" Gwen jumped up, glowing like the sun as she excitedly snatched them from his hands and hugged them against the swell of her breast. "How did you know I love pringles?"

"It's a gift." Paris smiled weirdly, baring his gum, and she set her lips into a grin line as her legs felt weaker than usual.

She stared at the floor, still cradling the snacks to her chest as a sad feeling crept into her system like slow poison. Her hormones were messing with her, and she made a mental note to make them pay for it.

"Sweetness," he called, gently grabbing her chin and inclining it towards him so he could meet her almost empty eyes. "What's wrong."

"I don't know..." Gwen's shoulders fell and a frog camped in her throat, replacing the big lump that lived there when she was sad for free. "I think it's my hormones, I'm on my period and I just want hugs and chocolates." She explained ever so slowly, craving to sit on something conformable.

"Aww, poor thing," he whispered, pulling her into his chest and wrapping his warm hands around her like a blanket. "Sorry, it'll be fine soon."

Gwen nodded over his chest, sniffing his scent and wishing to rub her nose on his bare skin. He smelt so good it was enough to turn her on or so she thought.

Abruptly, his phone rang, and he withdrew from the hug. Gwen rolled her eyes and ranted in her head, wondering why anyone would call at this time when she needed his warm hugs more than anything.

He grabbed his phone, and she watched his every move, taking note of the way his muscles moved and the way his hair was pushed back occasionally by his feminine-like hands. Her eyes involuntary race down his groin and she struggled to make out the size of it as it was hidden behind his shorts. She pulled the chips open and stuffed one in her mouth, reclining on the couch and chewing the crunchy goodness noisily, studying his facial expressions and wondering why at some point he smiled so hard.

"Yeah, I'll be available tomorrow morning." He sat beside Gwen and crossed his legs as his smile radiated like the sun and warmed her heart. She drifted her gaze to his lips and ran her tongue over her bottom lip, wanting to refresh her memory of how good his lips tasted.

"But I love the way you laugh, it's contagious." Paris complimented but Gwen felt he was flirting with whoever was on the line and somehow, she didn't welcome this newfound hobby of his. "I saw you like two minutes ago, how can you be missing me already?"

Gwen cleared her throat, feeling a little annoyed. She was there to visit but he was busy on the phone with someone else–not cool. She chewed a potato chip aggressively and cleared her throat again.

"Uhm," Paris met Gwen's gaze and mouthed an apology to her. "I have to go now; I'll call you before I go to bed. I promise, muah!"

He detached the phone from his ear and looked at the phone screen, smiling to himself as he watched the call end and placed he placed the gadget on the table, turning to face Gwen. She stuffed her face with pringles and mirrored his smile, switching up moods faster than a cheetah running.

"Paris has a girlfriend." She teased, wiggling her eyebrows and pointing at him with a Pringle in her hands.

Paris grinned, leaning into his chair and Gwen frowned. Why wasn't he objecting?

For clarity, she teased him again, "Paris has a girlfriend."

Paris chuckled, not giving her a yes or a no answer. He tapped his foot on the floor and Gwen felt all the air leave her lungs but shoved the thought off and considered it a joke.

"How's your girlfriend?" She inquired.

"She's fine, clingy as a cat," Paris replied, scrolling through the tv channels.

"You have a girlfriend?" Gwen put her eating on hold as the chips suddenly tasted bitter and she forcefully swallowed the one she had chomped.

"Yes," he said, fixating his gaze on the tv screen, still scrolling down the channel list.

"Since when?" She asked. Her throat ran dry like a wasteland, and she put the Pringle back into its container.

"It's getting to a month now." He responded dryly, avoiding her eyes as they drilled holes into the side of his head.

Gwen swallowed down a ball of jealousy and abstained from flipping because she didn't have a right to.

"Is she beautiful?" Gwen asked, getting filled with negativity.

"Yes, and I love her a lot. I never knew what I was looking for had always been in front of me till the day she confessed," Paris explained but it irked her and pricked her heart with a pang of jealousy. Her jaw ticked as anger wracked through her body and she sealed her lips, only redigesting his last words and getting hurt again.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Were the only words that seeped out of her lips when she parted them to take in unnoticeable deep breaths.

"I was waiting for the right time." He answered and risked a glance at her face. "Aren't you happy for me?"

"I am." She lied, feeling her heart being sliced into fifty pieces, and stepped on one by one. "I am."

"Yeah, the relationship has been going well and-"

"I'll be returning to Armani's." Gwen rose, feeling numb to the piercing cramps that tortured her delicate body.

"Are you okay?" He questioned and she forced a smile with wobbly lips, bobbing her head.

"Yes, I need to go get pills for my cramps."

"I'll go get it." He insisted and she declined, sitting him back on the couch.

She trudged towards the door and glanced over her shoulder, "congratulations." She managed to say then exited the apartment with a heavy heart.

Gwen plodded down the hallway, chest heaving as her nostrils flared. Her heart cramped at her discovery, and she couldn't stop it. She wanted to be far away from him, didn't want to see his face or even hear his voice.

Pulling up short in front of Marni's door, she banged ever so harshly on it, glancing from side to side with hopes of not stumbling into Paris.

"Armani." She rapped on the door with a heavy heart.

The doorknob twisted and was pulled away from Gwen's sight, the scent of coffee welcomed her. Wendy invited herself into Armani's apartment without sparing her best friend a glance. The young woman flung her neck scarf on the chair before storming to get herself a glass of something to cool down her chest. She grabbed a bottle of water and a glass cup, rolling off the bottle cap, she poured the contents into a glass cup as her face hardened at the words that echoed in her head.

I love her a lot.

It echoed and bounced on the walls of her head, ringing like a bell as it slit her heart into fifty pieces. She squeezed the bottle and it cried, making a popping sound.

"Woman, what are you doing?" Armani drew her out of the pool of misery she had been drowning in and she looked down at the table when she felt a cold liquid, racing down her legs and wetting her black pants. She had filled the glass to the brim, still adding more contents and letting them cascade down the glass's body. Gwen was too carried away to notice, but thanks to Marni. "What's wrong?"

"Shit." Gwen moved back, dropping the bottle and trying to wipe her pants with her palms.