Restless
1513 Words
The estate was unusually quiet for a Saturday.
Oscar stood on the balcony outside his room, one hand wrapped around a mug of black coffee as he looked over the property below.
The morning should have been productive.
He had meetings to review, reports waiting for approval, two acquisitions nearing completion. Enough work to occupy three ordinary people.
Yet somehow his attention drifted elsewhere; he hasn't seen Vivian in days now.
That shouldn't have occurred to him, it shouldn't have concerned him but for some reason it did.
His gaze settled on the pool below only to land on Vivian.
She had just stepped into the pool in a black swimsuit, dark hair sticking to her face as she floated lazily through the water, sunlight dancing across the surface around her.
He should have looked away but he didn't. He'll, he couldn't.
His eyes took in everything about her for a minute; her hair, the way she leaned back on the wall of the pool with her head raised to the sun, tilted to the side and exposing a necklace he couldn't forget even if he tried.
She's had that since they were kids. For a moment, she looked exactly the same. Not the woman who argued with him, not the woman who drove him insane with her lack of reaction to his antics, not the woman he spent years trying to forget.
Just Vivian.
The girl who used to smile at him from the front row of lectures.
The girl who stole fries from his plate because hers somehow never tasted as good.
The girl who used to send him messages at two in the morning because she couldn't sleep.
The girl who used to scream and cry whenever there was a thunderstorm. He'd recalled a night he had to drive all the way to her grandfather's place and comfort her else she wouldn't sleep that night.
Hell, he'd been reckless back then seeing how close he had been to an accident that night.
Oscar's grip tightened around the mug.
His jaw flexed.
No.
That girl didn't exist anymore.
Not after what happened.
He looked away immediately, refusing his greedy eyes what it wanted to admire and drink in.
She had always been eye candy for him and seeing how quickly his crotch tightened at the sight of her, she sadly still had that effect on him.
The balcony door slid shut behind him after he had forced his steps away from her.
Problem solved.
Or at least it should have been.
Oscar crossed the room and opened his laptop.
He had things to get to, a lot to deal with and if he could just busy himself with something more useful and meaningful, that would do him a great deal of good.
For about forty minutes he worked in silence until he realized he had reread the same sentence seven times.
His expression darkened. Great!
He shut the laptop, the sound echoed through the room.
Ridiculous.
A grown man distracted by someone swimming.
Oscar walked toward the bookshelf and pulled out a strategy book. He opened it, read through three pages and retained absolutely nothing.
The book joined the laptop on the desk as he swung it in irritation. Bloody hell!
All he wanted was a f*****g hour to concentrate and work but his body and his damned mind seemed to have other plans.
His irritation deepened on realising he could be fighting a lost war. He checked his phone but there was nothing urgent to deal with.
He checked it again minutes later and still nothing.
He tossed the phone on the bed, running his hands through his hair slightly. This isn't good.
This isn't good at all. He couldn't force himself to go through the day's work, knowing new contracts need to be read carefully.
The last thing he wanted to do was sign a contract that would be detrimental to his company. He'd worked way too hard to make Onyx's Corp and Onyx's Tech what it was now.
He couldn't afford any mistakes.
The day dragged on and by evening he had attempted to work from his room, the library, his home office.
Then the downstairs lounge but none of it helped.
Every time he settled somewhere, his mind wandered back to the pool.
Back to her and the things he didn't want to remember.
Oscar hated memories. Especially the good ones. The bad memories were easier.
It grounded him and reminded him why he was here, why he was mad and why he needed to stay mad.
The good memories were dangerous because they reminded him of the man he used to be.
The fool.
The i***t who had loved someone enough to build entire worlds around her.
His gaze shifted toward the far wall, staring at nothing in particular.
At least it seemed like it.
That room had been across his bed back in his grandfather's house, the one nobody knew existed. Not even his grandfather
Lining the walls had been hundreds of photographs of her; Vivian laughing, Vivian reading, Vivian eating, Vivian sleeping in the library after studying all night.
Vivian standing in the rain complaining about the weather. Vivian dancing in that small rain even after complaining about how frequently it rained on campus.
Vivian.
Vivian.
Vivian.
It had been pathetic. Obsessive even.
Embarrassing. At least that's what he'd told himself later.
Back then it hadn't felt embarrassing, it felt like his personal show room of every version of Vivian he knew.
The memory made his stomach twist.
Oscar looked away sharply.
That room no longer existed and so did the photographs.
The night he learned the truth, he'd burned everything. Every memory he could physically destroy.
He remembered standing there watching the flames consume years of his life, watching her smile disappear beneath fire, watching the walls turn black, watching the smoke fill the air.
It still hadn't been enough because clearly, the memories remained imprinted in his brain.
And that was the problem.
No matter how much he destroyed, he remembered every picture that had been on his wall back then.
A faint splash outside caught his attention.
Oscar immediately stood, annoyed at himself, at her, at everything.
He walked toward the window before stopping halfway.
What exactly was he doing? Checking if she was still there?
The realization irritated him. He turned around immediately.
Absolutely not.
He wasn't a lovely sick college student anymore. He wasn't that version of himself anymore.
The one who waited outside lecture halls just to walk her home. The one who memorized her coffee order.
The one who bought flowers because she'd casually mentioned liking them once.
God.
He had been unbearable.
Oscar rubbed a hand across his face.
The worst part?
He'd enjoyed every second of it.
A bitter laugh escaped him. Pathetic.
Hours went back and he still couldn't get his s**t together. He didn't even go down for dinner because he knew she would be at the dining table.
Hell, he didn't want to see her. One glimpse had turned his world upside down. Imagine what would happen if she sat a few seats away from him.
Oscar shuts his eyes.
No.
Soon, the entire mansion became quiet and Oscar lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
Sleep never came.
One hour passed and then two and still, nothing.
His mind seemed to be on a mission to punish him tonight as it kept drifting from one lustful thought after the other.
And the annoying part was, it was centered around Vivian.
He turned onto his side and then his back and then the other side.
Nothing worked.
Eventually he sat up, fuming at God knows who. The sheets fell away as he stood, not sure what exactly to do to ease whatever this was.
Because in his head, it was pure madness.
The city lights glowed beyond the windows as he approached it. Oscar felt exhausted, his gaze lingered on the glass.
For years he'd convinced himself the past no longer mattered.
That he'd moved on and that he was smarter now.
Then Vivian walked back into his life and suddenly old wounds started acting fresh again.
The realization made anger rise inside him.
Good. That was the emotion he needed right now.
He remembered exactly how it felt.
The feeling of standing there realizing someone you trusted completely wasn't who you thought they were.
His hands curled into fists.
Never again.
He would never hand someone that kind of power over him ever again.
Not Vivian. Not anyone. Especially not Vivian.
Oscar closed his eyes. Yet despite everything, another memory surfaced uninvited.
Vivian smiling at him from across campus, grabbing him by the collar and kissing him first. Vivian whispering that she trusted him.
His jaw tightened immediately as he recalled how soft her lips had felt on his..how intoxicating it had been to kiss her.
How excited he'd been when he got back home that day.
Oscar shuts his eyes, tonight is going to be one hell of a night.
- Writer
