Paint Me Saved ✓ Book 1

31. The fault in trust falls

Zemira

Timing - it was a sneaky little bastard. 

Like all aspects of life, when things seemed calm and the timing seemed perfect, it was only the calm before the storm and the perfection before flaws appeared.

Leo's moved-up deployment dates appeared as grim clouds of uncertainty to gobble my sunlight of joy. The news gripped everything we planned and sucked it into a void.

For the past few days, our apartment tossed away the silken symbol of tranquility and donned the bulky garb of chaos. Every day closing in on a month, Leo and I drifted apart. The forces of the universe that brought us together and fused us into each other's lives, roared with determination - now wanting to rip us apart.

The miserable reminder of being alone once Leo would leave crept into my thoughts. It filled me with fear and robbed my chance for a happy future. Like two people who were destined to meet and part ways, Leo and I were drawing the journey to its completion.

Leo didn't gauge the reality that his selfless acts brought me closer to him. He remained unaware of the hook that landed on me or the reel he had me in and how every day I was tripping, etching closer to my fall.

Watching him brood every day, peering at the horizon as if he wanted to drink up the view before leaving, broke me. What hurt more was my inability to confess that I was him to stay.

Our interview – another live one – was set from our apartment.

Leo combed through every question a few times before approving it. After Antonio's debacle on live television, Leo had always played cautiously. 

According to him, this interview was bigger than Oprah's for which I tried hard, not to roll my eyes.

I felt like a mindless woman, gambling my luck at another interview after being burnt once.

Maybe I was doomed. Or maybe I could be saved.

That was the thing about trust falls - you would jump nevertheless. You would toss your body off a cliff, hoping the faith you have in your partner would save you. As was with trust falls, I too jumped with the hope of being caught.

Only one could break my fall. Only one could save me.

We sat on the couch, hand in hand for the cameras. Leo and I epitomized the perfect couple. I smiled at the cameras but felt a pang in my chest. 

I lost control of my heart to a man who was leaving me. Leaving comfort and peace behind, subjecting his soul back to the ravages of human destruction.

The interviewer shifted in her seat, checking herself in the mirror. She tossed her blond locks over her shoulders and crossed her slender legs. She batted her lips, smearing the red lip color to be evenly distributed. 

After a tight head nod to her makeup artist, she lent her mirror and smile away.

Leo and I shared a look and every time our eyes met, I was transported back to the times we had at the beginning - those peaceful moments when nothing else mattered. Those tranquil times when future worries seemed tiny from the horizon. In retrospect, I should have prepared myself for doomsday.

"Here's the thing." The interviewer glanced at both of us, smiling. "Leo had vetted our questions so there's nothing like a Jack in the Box situation but there'll still be some hard-hitting questions."

I looked over to Leo whose hand rested over mine. He gave it a gentle squeeze, his lips drawing into a thin line when he nodded. I trusted Leo to know better, do better, so I nodded along.