Leonardo

Zemira wanted a low key birthday celebration. With the new hotel beginning its functioning, she had her whole day filled with meetings.

Since my return from the rehab, Zemira seemed to be in control but the reality was a mirage.

She was unravelling.

Every call from her office made her turn to a bloody shade of purple.

She was falling off her therapy schedules, client meetings and even food intake - going the New Yorker style and grabbing anything from the fridge before heading out every day.

I was worried.

With my recovery already occupying her mind, the rest piling up all other available space, I could see Zemira burdened.

She needed help, one I was incapable of providing. I was never a businessman, never wanted to be. Even after many readings and evaluations of her hotel proposals and plans, I could come up with nothing.

Back in the day, Antonio and my father managed everything related to business. I was bestowed with a very good assistant who handled things for me. Practically, spoon-fed me everything I needed to know.

So in a desperate moment, when I thought the only way I could help Zemira was to distract her, I called for help.

Help in the form of friends.

Kiera and Jake arrived a few hours before Zem made it back from the office. Haley was heading the Miami division with Grant so her appearance was only possible through a video call.

Sam, however, arrived the earliest.

He was the first to bring the cake, although I had one baked for my girl.

"Buddy." Sam placed the champagne in the fridge, making a few adjustments to the yoghurt boxes and Zem's Kale salad boxes. "What are we planning for music?"

We?

"I am planning nothing," I began, ensuring I dragged Sam's boxed cake to a side and putting up my not-so-perfect-in fact-an-absolute-disaster-cake on the counter, digging candles around. "We'd have somber music but I don't want people getting annoyed with music."

Sam must have understood my apprehension. I never quite liked the guy.

Even though I knew he was only Zem's friend and even if he liked her more, I shouldn't have been bothered but I was.

I had no reasoning for the why of it but every time I saw him, I wanted to punch him...lightly.

Maybe because Samuel was a reminder of my mistake.

I'd left Zemira in the hope that she'd move on. She didn't. She stayed right where I left her, wombing more love for me than I could ever imagine.

In the process, she also made new friends and derived her happy self out of the pity pit she fell into.

I was proud of my baby, for what she accomplished and how she handles her depression. She was an inspiration - my inspiration.

Through the tough days when my body detoxed whatever I had stuffed in the name of painkillers, it was her sheer willpower that made me continue at the rehab.

Had it not been for Zemira, I would have escaped from life a long ago.

She made me want to be a better person. She made me want to make her the happiest woman.

"Buddy." Sam cleared his throat, his fingers tapping at the countertop. "What are your plans for after the cake cutting?"

"Talk, dinner," I began, realigning the happy birthday hat on my dog. Romeo refused to wear it, even for just an hour. "Zem's meeting her friends after so long. I don't want to drive the get together anywhere else and destroy the evening."

"Destroying." Chucking, Sam knelt on the floor, tugging at the band around Romeo's head.

My unfaithful dog wagged his tail as if he was getting boned. Useless Romeo.

"We won't be destroying anything, Leo," Sam said. "Zem loves to go out and try out new places. In fact, in Miami, she had a whole list of 'underrated' places she wanted to try. So I think-"

"Not needed." My arm flung up, moving in tandem to my head shake. "This plan is Kiera approved. I don't want to mess with it."

"Kiera," Sam straightened, the smile on his face widened. Shoving a hand down his blue denim jeans, he fished his phone. "Then you've nothing to worry about. I'll talk to her."

Anger - that blistering boil in my blood spewed out.

"How about you butt out."

Crap.

Sam's smile diminished. The veil of doubt over his brown eyes when he first entered my apartment - admonishing me for making my princess stay in a crappy place than in places where the walls were made of gold - set in.

He didn't say anything, which was worse because it made me want to talk.

And I sucked at making up stuff from thin air.

"What I meant was-" I began.

"It's okay, buddy." Sam's outward palms stopped me from continuing. "I get it. It's Zem's birthday and I shouldn't have taken over."

Silence- worse than anger were those moments when Sam and I looked everywhere but each other.

The clock ticked, Romeo's tail thrashed on the creaking floorboard and at one point, I could hear myself breathe.

The torture continued when Sam began typing on his phone - soft taps from his keypad now an added sound to the silent lament.

"I've asked for a cab." Sam got off the bar stool he sat in, moving towards the coatrack. Once more, he glanced over his shoulder, "Tell Zem I wasn't able to make it. I'll merge on a call with Haley."

Everything happened so fast- him draping his Burberry coat, fidgeting with the steel knob before pulling the door open.

"Wait," I hollered to his retreating figure. Sam's moments stilled. "Don't go, Samuel. I'm being a jerk."

Something about me accepting the truth made him turn. With a slow, almost killing pace, Sam shut the door but remained still at the entrance.

"I felt like you didn't want me here," Sam said, fidgeting with coat buttons. I could feel the tension between us - him wanting to stay for his friend but being forced out because of her boyfriend. "If it makes things better, I have no interest in Zemira... that way..."

The funny thing about detesting someone was how you perceived them.

I had always considered Sam to be a podcast anchor with disheveled hair, a sassy attitude for everything and a strong liking for my girl.

When I saw Sam at Zem's office, that perception broke. Yet, detest remained.

Sam wasn't anything close to what I assumed to be and that irked me more. Plied with guilt that he came when I left, that I shouldn't have left Zemira without confessing my love to her, made me act bitter.

"I'm sorry, Samuel," I began my apology. Zemira had accepted whoever I had in my life -not that there were many. It was time I rectified what I destroyed. Almost. "It's not that I doubt you. It's just something that I needed to sort out and I might have projected it on you."

With slow, surefooted steps, Sam approached, taking his seat. His head tilt - go on- affirmed me to speak further.

"You can call it my ego. I felt suddenly out of place when you started managing everything..." I raked my fingers through my hair. "I shouldn't have acted like a jerk."

Sam smiled when I looked up, his eyes crinkling as he began laughing. "Buddy, I'd have acted just the same." He dragged my cake towards him, eying all corners before placing it back on the counter. "And you aren't the first to let me know, I'm too much."

"Still, I shouldn't-"

"We both want what's best for her," Sam cut me off, taking his coat off and moving back to the black bag which per Kiera's instructions were filled with streamers and balloons. "So let's get decorating before Kiera rants about how we didn't follow her instructions."

"Some friend she is," I said grabbing the balloons while Sam took out the messy mesh of streamers, tying a few on Romeo's bushy tail. My dog went ballistic on it, trying to nab the neon color strands off him. "Kiera put everything on our head and I'm sure will only make the last-minute appearance."

"I know, right," Sam nodded, trying up ends of some, ruffling something out of the bag. "And god forbid if she arrives now and sees that we did nothing."

Right on cue, the doorbell rang. Sam and I shared a look.

"Catastrophe," Sam whispered to himself while my eyebrows bridged in amusement.

Moving towards the door, I turned around to Sam's flushed face.

Why was he overreacting?

The doorbell chimes were replaced with incessant knockings. Kiera's muffled voice emerged from outside.

"Open the damn thing up, fucker."

Right then I knew, I had invited a beast into my abode. I turned the cold steel knob, dragging the door to open.

It was just Kiera. It was just Kiera.

Suddenly, the sweet, protective Kiera looked like a monster who wanted to devour whoever came in her way.

With the door fully opened, Kiera stared at me, reddened eyes and flaring nostrils. Jake, who stood behind her shrugged his shoulders, clenching his teeth as if he was sorry for what I encountered.

"Why the fuck do you live here?" She asked, shoving me out of the way and moving inside.

Romeo growled, unhappy with his master being treated as a slave.

After a few months of getting used to, Romeo grew accustomed to Zem ordering me around. No other person could - at least according to him.

Kiera bent near Romeo, a hand lent out for his sniffing pleasure. As soon as the fluff ball began wagging his tail, Kiera's happy, cheerful expressions returned.

She pulled something - beefy in smell and appearance and gave it to him. My dog bit into it, running into his room with a happy wag for our display.

When Kiera straightened, I realized the monster was back.

She only put up her happy act for my dog and that unresourceful pet of mine didn't see. He was lured with a treat.

"Still waiting for your answer, Leo." Kiera tapped her feet on the wooden board, the sound deepening with every silent minute. "You've got some kind of a discount here?"

Jake tried nudging her, placing a hand over her shoulder but Kiera was determined.

Since coming to know about my initial apprehension in meeting Zem at the hospital, Kiera resorted to the method of violence - sending me long, abusive voice mails and texts.

I never told this to Zem but somewhere, I felt as if Kiera's initial dislike for me had resurfaced.

Why wouldn't it? I hurt Zemira and broke her heart - more times than I could imagine.

Any faithful friend would assume I was toxic. I too would assume the same.

"Kiera," I moved closer to the fire-filled eyed girl, palms displayed outwards. I came in surrender. "I know you're mad, you have every right to be. I did wrong with Zem. But I'm mending it. I swear, I'm trying my best."

To my lucky stars, Zemira didn't inform Kiera about my latest rehab stint. Because that would have been the final nail in my coffin.

From my peripheral vision, I could see both Sam and Jake keeping an eye on me while trying their best to appear working.

Kiera didn't bother looking at her happy helpers.

She faced me, seared me with her intense gaze before grabbing my elbow and dragging me outside my apartment, shoving my body into the hallway.

"Careful," I tried lightening her mood, rubbing my wrist to display I was tender. Nothing. She didn't smile, let alone laugh.

"You," her index finger poked me, shoving me against the wall.

Her voice echoed in the silence of the hallway, muffled by the noises of televised shows streamed from the neighboring rooms.

"You are an ass, Leo."

"I know."

"You hurt her."

"I know."

"You almost killed her."

My head hung low. "I know."

"You don't love her."

My eyes, head, snapped up. "I do." I moved closer to where she stood. Kiera didn't move back. She squared my face, evaluating the truth in my words. "I love her. I agree I've hurt her but I do...I swear love her. She's my sanity, Kiera. She's my..."

"What?"

Nothing.

Some things didn't require a full sentence. Attaching something to 'my' would make it limited. Even saying Zemira was my universe limited its significance.

"Zemira's my..." I smiled, realizing how a cheesy sentence would make my stomach flutter with happiness, anticipation. "She's my..."

Kiera's eyebrows bridged. "Are you having a stroke?"

"No, you idiot." I couldn't help smile. Justifying what the simple word 'my' meant made me grin like some lovesick teenager. "You won't get it."

At that moment, I wanted to run to Zemira's office. Like in the movies, I wanted to confess what her absence made me realize. What I meant when I made a promise to her - never to be the reason for her tears.

I chose a different path instead. I chose to justify.

"You might think I don't love Zem but I have nothing to justify for it. All I have is a promise, Kiera. A hope that I'd do my best every day to keep her happy, strive to be my best version only for her. Because she deserves the world, yet chose me instead."

Something about a man, sappy and in a full-blown confession mode appeased Kiera's striking anger. Sated, a soft, appreciative smile drew across her face. She blinked constantly, rolling her eyes and looking at the dingy hallway we stood in.

"You need to move out. Soon."

I nodded, extending my hand outward.

Kiera knew what I asked for. She'd known all along. I'd confessed to my mother a few days back and Kiera was roped in on the plan later.

Kiera placed the Tiffany box in my hand.

My grandmother's Sapphire ring, modified to those cluster diamond ones which Zemira usually wore, rested in my palm.

I opened the box, Kiera aligning beside me, awing at the beauty that would rest on my girl's slender finger.

"Don't fuck it up," Kiera whispered. "Else I'll toss you off the roof."

"I've got a lifetime of making up to do, Kiera." I closed the box, coiling my arm around her shoulder and moving her back inside. "I won't start with a lousy proposal."

~
Omg omg omg

Leo is going to propose 🫶🏻☺️