An open flame by Shanice, C Ward (essential reading .txt) 📕

so much to talk about now, Tobias, the holiday thing she was trying to discuss and this Richard guy that she had been seeing. Very odd for her. Pushing all my thoguhts to the back of my head as Ms. Fryer approached me, ‘Can I help you dear’ I smiled up at her and placed my book on the counter top, ‘Just returning this, I took it out on Monday and I was wondering if I could take another one out today?’ Ms Fryer nodded pulling the book closer and squinting through her glasses, she opened the cover stamped the first page and put it on the pile behind her, ‘Yes, taking another book out will be fine dear, thank you for bringing this one back, just remember to log the book out before you take it..’ I nodded at her so to agree without speaking, smiling warmly at me she wished me a good day and headed back off to her task. Heading towards the escalators I rode up to the top floor looking through the aisles of books, science fiction, horror, thriller, mystery, romance I didn’t know what I was looking for, picking one book up after another, reading the blurb, putting it back down. Sigh, this was a daunting task, I loved my books, but finding one that enticed me was difficult. Especially as I enjoyed multiple genres. I headed down the Horror/mystery aisle, picking up the furthest book I began to read the blurb, ‘Grace Alban has spent twenty years away from her childhood home, the stately Alban House, for reasons she would rather forget. But when her mother's unexpected death brings Grace and her teen-age daughter home, she finds more haunting the halls and passageways of Alban House than her own personal demons’   Sounds good I thought, I haven’t read a ‘scary book’ in a while, and I don’t have much to do, so why not, looking at the front cover it was called The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb, didn’t look like much just a house covered in ivy. I headed back down the main stairwell deciding I needed a bit of exercise and using the escalator was probably very lazy. Ms Fryer was no longer at her desk, some young blonde girls with too much makeup piled onto her face peered at me as I approached the desk rolling my eyes towards the floor I placed the book on the desk, ‘I’m taking this one out- just need you to log it out, please’ Jess as her name tag implied with a hand drawn tongue face, stared at me holding her hand out for me to place the book into her hands, sighing I placed it firmly into her grip, she walked away towards the computer to file the serial number and date. How rude of her I thought.  After a brief ten minutes of drumming my finger nails on the wooden counter top watching the flow of pedestrians flow around me, Jess returned my book without uttering a single word- so much for good customer service I thought. Shoving the book into my bag as I paced out of the library I thought about what to do with the rest of my day. Perhaps I’ll just head home, read or watch a DVD. I decided to head home, see if Leila had returned or not- plus I wanted to check my phone as id left it at home on charge, I wonder if Tobias had a good flight out. It was 2:30 by the time I got home, I spotted Leila on the sofa in her silk cream PJ’s with wet hair, so she must have been fresh out of a shower. Leila always insisted that a Sunday is a pyjama day. Sometimes I had to agree, Sunday is the one day of the week where we get to be lazy, ‘Hey Leila’ I greeted her stalking towards the kitchen setting my bag on the hallway floor on my way, ‘What time did you get back this morning?’ I asked, I heard her switch the television off and walk into the kitchen, ‘About 10ish, I figured you’d be at the library, never known anybody read so much in my entire life’ she stated with a hint of humour in her tone, ‘So what did you guys get up to ?’ I asked rummaging through the fridge looking for something light to snack on, ‘Oh, just this and that, watched that movie, it was alright to be fair, he seemed a bit bored, we went back to his place, had a lot of sex, he has so much stamina, its unreal, I can barely keep up with him and im a sex crazed maniac so that’s saying something..’ looking up at me she smirked, then gestured towards herself ‘..Im just so worn out, I could sleep all day, so how did your shopping trip go with your mom yesterday?’ I rubbed my forehead slightly and pulled away from the fridge with a peach yoghurt, ‘Oh it was alright came back with more things than I needed, shoes clothes, you know the deal’, she nodded almost sympathetically as she settled on the barstool and then looked up at me cocking an eyebrow, ‘who are these from?’ pointing at the roses, flushing I turned to the cutlery draw to fish out a spoon, ‘erm, Tobias he’s a guy I met Wednesday night, I’m sort of seeing him now, we had dinner Friday night and then he came over yesterday- we er, yeah we spent a lot of time together it was nice, he’s nice, lovely actually’ I replied with my back still turned shrugging at the end of my sentence so not to seem to eager, after the silence that followed I turned to face her, with my cheeks still burning red her mouth was gaped out and she was staring at me with astonishment which quickly turned into a grin, she jumped up ran around the breakfast bar and hugged me, ‘oh get you aye, we both found somebody just as we finished college, lucky us aye!’ oh I guess her and Richard were getting serious then, bless her, she never really like anyone enough to see regularly so I guess im really happy for her. She pulled away and sported a girlish grin, ‘so, have you guys done the deed yet, I can’t wait to meet him, what is he like?’ I shook my head sarcastically at her whilst rolling my eyes, ‘What are you like’ I said sarcastically waling off to the balcony we sat down and I could see in the corner of my eye that she was very eager to get this information out of me, I sighed, giving in ‘Well, he’s very handsome, he’s bold, masculine, stubbly, I guess he’s tall, dark and lean, his hair is a dark brown, quite long and it falls so gorgeously around his face- very muscly, Grey eyes, he is just insanely gorgeous, the type you only see in movies, and he’s mine well I guess he is’ I shrugged, taking another spoonful of yoghurt and swallowing, ‘Yes, we have had sex, mind-blowing sex actually, his stamina is unreal he can go at it for hour, climaxing at every turn, I’ve never known anything like it..’ looking up at her with widened eyes to exaggerate my point, ‘.. he’s twenty four and he’s in marketing.’ I finished holding my hands up to resign from sharing anything else, not that I have much else to share. ‘Wow’ she muttered, she fanned herself jokingly, ‘I definitely have to meet him then, he sounds totally made up’ she laughed and nudged my shoulder, I grinned at her. Talking about Toby reminded me that I needed to check my messages. ‘Be right back’ I stated and headed off towards my bedroom, tossing my yoghurt into the trash bin along the way, closing my bedroom door I walked over to my bed and unplugged my phone from the wall.  2 new messages. One was from Toby and the other from my mom. ‘Hey gorgeous, hope you slept well, missing you already, can’t wait to see you again, I want to take you out for a meal Monday evening, 8:00, I’ll pick you up at your place, see you soon, T xo’ I sent a quick message back wishing him good look on his business trip and that Monday night would be perfect. Opening the message from my mom, my heart stopped and panic flooded through my veins, ‘Hey babygirl, why didn’t you tell me you were seeing Tobias Reed? It’s in the Ok! Magazine babygirl, and article on him and a mystery girl at bodega bar, you look beautiful in the pictures hunny but why didn’t you say something? Xx’ My heart kick started into action and the taste of blood filled my mouth, why would OK! Magazine want to make an article of Tobias, he’s only a marketing director, he isn’t like some millionaire or celebrity, is he? I began to panic, gathering my beairngs the best I could I told my self that I was panicking for no good reason. ‘Hi mom, I’ve met him like three times, we really like eachother and we’ve hit it off, what do you mean there’s an article in the Ok! Mag? Why is he so important? X’ Putting my phone on my bed, I ran my fingers through my inky black hair, marketing directors aren’t that big of a deal are they? Perhaps he just has a super-rich family- I don’t know, I’ll have to wait and see what my mom says. No, I can’t wait for that. I headed towards my desk and fired up my laptop which up until recently was only used for assignment criteria for college work. Opening up google I typed into the search bar ‘Tobias Reed’ My heart lurched to a stop as soon as I pressed enter. 5.

Looking through the endless lists of photos and articles and Tobias, his family and a woman, Fiona Stratbern- Stratbern industries I thought to myself, she was evidently beautiful with thick red curly hair and bright emerald eyes, she had a sprinkling of freckles around her cheeks and a tight button nose. I envied her instantly, even though she was just a family friend these pictured showed a light to her that I made me feel sick to the stomach, his hand draped tightly around her waist her leaning into him and smiling warmly at one another. Continuing to scroll down the articles I felt panic boil in my blood. Oh no, no, no. My legs turned to jelly, I sank deeper into the desk chair. I had made a vow to myself to never date a guy who was rich, successful yes, but stinking rich no. I see how money can possess a man, after all my dad Robert James being #7 richest man in the UK with a net worth of 4.9 billion I know first-hand how controlling and needy these guys are, how they have no time to deal with relationships or even their children for that matter. So I never wanted to date a guy