Under My Skin

42 | remember to smile

Chapter Fourty-two:

Blaine did call Ria.

But only after four days had gradually trickled by, and by that point, Ria had permitted the stubbornness to seep through her pores and settle beneath her skin like liquid cement hardening to solid concrete. And despite the increasing frequency of his calls, they placed few cracks within her rigid reserve.

The days seemed to roll by as swiftly as hours, and before Ria knew it, three weeks had lapsed since Sihem's arrest and Blaine's subsequent release.

She'd moved back into the house with Reid for the current time being, but home was more than a dwelling and that place no longer felt like a place of amenity to either of them. She intended to save until she had accumulated enough wealth to rent a central London flat. She didn't have long to wait on that front.

She flung herself into work headfirst. And initially, it was a welcome and gratifying distraction because soon, Ms McQueen awarded Ria the promotion she'd been craving for the last ten months. She was one step closer to getting into the law Bar and fulfilling the goals she and Rayhan had spent timeless nights discussing. Yet, when her name was called out, she should've been thrilled, it should've partially filled the vacuum left in her chest where her heart had previously resided, but it didn't. Instead, thoughts of Blaine continued to cloud her mind.

Her relationship with Reid remained stagnant; they were little more than ships passing each other across the harbour. They exchanged a few words here and there, and even then, Lydia nearly always facilitated them.

Reid was trying. Or at least he believed he was trying. He'd invited Blaine over to the home several times in an attempt to mend broken bridges. Still, Ria's frustrations grew exponentially with the action. She'd hide in her room whenever she could hear his voice resonating from downstairs, and perhaps that made her juvenile, but she didn't care.

She'd begun to convince herself that being alone was merely a societal fear. Because at least being isolated meant nobody could deceive, disappoint or desert you. And, today, she'd choose eternal loneliness over constant betrayal and hurt.

But that afternoon, as she typed away, working on her third assignment for that month, she was disrupted by Lydia's incessant knocking against her doorframe. And nothing could have prepared Ria for Lydia to reveal that she and Reid's wedding date was four days away, and they had no intention of postponing this time.

"You can't be serious," Ria replied, gobsmacked, her mouth flailing agape. "You can't still want this despite everything Reid's done?"

"Ria, why are you acting like this is news to you? We always knew this was coming!"

Ria released an exasperated sigh as she turned her attention away from her laptop. "But that was before we found out...everything! Wanting to be in a relationship with him is one thing but wanting to marry him now...it's crazy! A marriage is forever, Lydia. You're going to be trapped with him forever!" Ria uttered the words at a slowed pace as though she were explaining the Pythagorean theorem to a young child.

"I know what a marriage is." She snapped. "I love him, and he loves me. And love is unconditional. If you're genuinely in love with someone, that love doesn't end when they make a mistake. You continue to love them despite the bad."

"That's nice. Did you get that one from a fortune cookie or something?" Ria sniped, sarcasm dripping from her words.

Lydia plunged onto the edge of the bed, tossing her head back in irritation. "I get that you're hurting, Ria. But we can't keep treading on eggshells for the rest of our lives. Life moves on; whether you want to move with it or not is your choice. The worst is over now, and maybe, you'll soon see this is a good thing. It'll take your mind off things. It'll give us something to celebrate, you know? And, God knows, we need something to celebrate right now."