Through the Lens

Chapter 2

With a long stretch, Lydia turns in her bed but gets hit by flesh. Alarmed, she opens her eyes quickly, maybe too quickly because she squints at the light that seeps in through the partly opened window.

"Ahhrrggghhhhhhh" She groans as she suffers the aftermath of the impact of the light on her eyes.

"Are you okay?" A voice says from beside her, which makes the flesh she felt earlier make sense. It was Reuben.

"Yeah I'm fine." She replies almost snobily. Flashback of the previous night floods her head, as she moves to leave her bed. She pulls the comforter with her as soon as she realizes she's stark naked. She picks up her clothes scattered on the floor. Looking around for her any other clothing littered on the floor, she sees a pair of grey socks.

"These are yours?" Lydia asks Reuben who is now seated on the bed with his boxers on.

"No, I don't own a pair of grey socks" he replies with a scrunched up face.

"Whose are these then?" Lydia asks no one in particular. She knows it belongs to one of the men she brought home on some occasions. Despite her wild experience with men, she has never found a man she could commit to like Abel.

Reuben on the other hand, dresses up as fast as he could, making sure his jealousy isn't showing. He genuinely is attracted to Lydia but she has made it quite clear that nothing could happen between them.

"I'm going to shower." She says while discarding the socks into the bin and entering the bathroom.

As she enters the bathroom, the thoughts of Abel fills her head as she hasn't found anyone that she could love as much as she loved him. Despite it being years after they separated, she still feels a pang of pain in her heart whenever she remembers him.

With a loud sigh, she continues to finish up showering and cleaning up. As she walks back to the room, she discovers the room was empty which makes her give a sigh of relief. Hooking up with Reuben is one thing, another thing is facing him the next day. If it were to be other guys, she could easily move on from it, but she works with Reuben and has to see him almost everytime for work. Putting everything behind her, she dresses up in her favorite sweatshirt (Abel's college sweatshirt) and puts on a black leggings and she moves to the sitting room so she could make herself coffee. As she opens the door, an email notification pops up on her phone. She unlocks her phone and opens it. She notices it's from Reuben.

"This should be the contract" Lydia says to herself. She pours herself coffee and goes back to the sitting room.

Plummeting on the sofa, she opens the document and goes through it. She sees a part of it that says "Portfolio". As she scrolls through the portfolio, a feeling of familiarity overwhelms her. The way her heart beats fast and she gets excited could only mean one thing. She scrolls further to check if the photographer's picture is there, but nothing of such is indicated, just his works.

Still scrolling through the documents, her mind drifts off to the first time she considered to be a model.

"Come stay under the shade babe" Abel screams to Lydia who was enjoying the feel of the summer rain on her skin.

"No!!!Come join me, it's fun" she says laughing, not able to contain her laughter.and happiness

"I'd rather be dry than wet and itchy" Abel replied with a small laughter while shaking his head.

"Don't be such a party popper" Lydia pouts but eventually recovers as she spread her arms wide and turn around in her short summer dress smiling. They had been at the library because Abel had to make research on the assignment he had to hand in the next morning. Abel stands under the shade admiring the woman he calls his. He couldn't help but be grateful for the gift of her in his life. Bringing out his phone, he snaps her as she plays around in the rain.

"Abellllll stop taking my pictures" She says after catching him snapping her pictures. She wasn't always comfortable with camera around but Abel has made it really comfortable for her.

"You don't have to be perfect before being photographed. Besides babe, you're my muse." Abel says trying to make her reason.

" Says the person who doesn't like his pictures taken.."Lydia says as she moves closer to him.

"At least let me see the pictures?" She says while peering to look at his phone but can't see it because of her height compared to his.

"Fine shorty Queen " he says as he ruffles her head playfully which earns a playful scowl from her but she still checks the pictures.

"Awwww" she says almost tearing up. Only Abel could snap her and she'll feel so much love coming from the pictures. She moves to hug him but Abel moves away from her.

"As much as I would love to hug you right now my Queen, I can't." Abel says while scanning her up and down.

"I'm wet not dirty!!!" She stomps her feet and throws a tantrum like a little child.

"Of course you are wet" Abel replies wriggling his eyebrows at her suggestively.

"Wha...ohhhh!! You p*****t!!!" Lydia says bursting into laughter.

" Come here baby" Abel says with laughter as he pulls her into a hug.

Lydia can't help but smile at the memory of that moment. Wiping away a stray tear, she decides to take a nap.

Lydia sleeps all through the day and when she woke up in the evening, she decides to go to the club to cool off. Lydia has always hated being alone. One would think she's a social butterfly but her circle is really small. Except for her work friends, she doesn't have any friends. At a very young age, she was abandoned by her mother at the orphanage, and she had spent her years moving from one foster house to another until she became an adult.

As she applies the last touch of make up on her face, she picks up her phone to put a call through to Reuben. He didn't pick up the first time but he did on the second try.

"Hello?" Reuben's voice sound like he had just woken up

"Hello. I'm sorry did I wake you?" Lydia says in a hurry feeling bad already.

"No it's fine really. What's up?" He says as he moves to sit up on the bed.

"So, I've gone through the contract you sent to me, and I have decided that do it. I thought we could meet up at the club to review it together?" Lydia says into the phone while closing her eyes tightly. They both know the contract is just an excuse.

"That's great news Ly. Alright, see you soon" Reuben says after a few moment. Lydia takes a good look at herself in the mirror picks up her car key and her purse and leaves the apartment.

After few minutes, Lydia arrives at the club and goes in. As usual, she walks into the club as she's a VIP at the club. She heads straight to the bar and requests for tequila to get the night started. While waiting for it, she sits by the bar and looks around. Quickly, her head flashes back to a particular blonde that is making his way out of the club.

"Could it be?" She asks herself as her heart beat faster and a knot appears in her stomach.

Pushing herself off the chair, she almost falls but doesn't pay attention to it. She walks towards the entrance as fast as she could. She literally feels like her heart is about to jump out of her chest. What if her suspicions are right? What would she do?

She looks around to look for that particular head she has run her hands through several times; and she'd love to do so again. As she gets to the door, the particular head turns around a bit and her suspicions were right, Abel is back. Just in time, she receives a text from Reuben that he had an emergency and wouldn't be available. She remains transfixed in a spot and can't move an inch as her body is too heavy to move.

A lot of questions run through her and she's definitely feeling lots of emotions; happiness, anger, fear. The one thing she could note was that the butterflies were back in her belly; only Abel could do that to her.

Just as she's able to move herself into the car, she receives a text from an unknown number. Opening it, a picture she had almost forgotten she took appears on her screen;the one she and Abel took as a couple in college.