"It's cold outside, like when you walked out of my life"

~ Giveon_ Heartbreak Anniversary

"Dammit Quinton, could you just tell me where she is?", I lost my cool when he kept on playing games with me and I wasn't in the mood

It's been a week since I last saw Layla and to be honest, I felt horrible about the things I said to her, more especially how I said them. I really didn't mean for things to accelerate this far because I didn't go over there to make her feel small or bad about the decisions she took. I had to respect them because that's what she wanted, and I'm afraid I may have made things worse.

When Dylan arrived back home, he was so sad which was a first because he was always beaming with happiness whenever he came back from Layla and when I asked what was wrong, he told me that Layla was crying and locked herself in her bedroom all weekend and that Lelo came over and stayed the weekend to look after him. Dylan said he felt bad because there was nothing he could do to make his mother feel better, and I felt terrible knowing that I was behind all of that, if I hadn't said some things to her, she wouldn't be in that state.

"Why do you want to know?", Quinton deadpanned and my hands tightened around the steering wheel as I was packed outside her apartment complex, her apartment was dark and her car wasn't in the parking lot either meaning she wasn't home

"I need to talk to her about something", I said after taking a few breaths to avoid taking the rest of my frustrations out on him

"Yeah, I think not", he was about to hang up on me, but I stopped him

"Listen, I know you know what happened"

"Yeah, she told me. Can I just take this moment and tell you that you're a jerk?"

"

I probably deserve that, but I really need to talk to her"

"To finish what you started?"

"No. My intentions are genuine, believe me", I was and sounded desperate, and I could hear him draw a breath from the other line.

"Fine, I'll text you the address", he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "But trust me Damon, if she calls me again tonight, crying. I will personally shoot you", he spat with venom dripping from his voice and I believed him, he owned a gun after the whole Daniel incident and I never took him for granted when he spoke about it.

"Okay, thank you", I said, and he hanged up. Seconds later a text from him with the address came through, and I turned the ignition on.

"Just walk down this passage sir, the third door on the right is where you'll find her", the security guard told me and I shook his hand, thanking him. I didn't have to do those sign-in procedures they do because of who I was. I won't lie, it felt damn good.

I walked towards the door and I heard a heated argument, followed by a very hard and loud slap. I peeked in a little to see Layla, was standing opposite this guy with his hand on his cheek. She must have slapped him. Why am I not surprised? He must be glad it wasn't a punch.

"I'm married to the most successful man on this earth. He's sweet, charming, funny and ten times the man you certainly could ever be. He's also an amazing father to our son and there is absolutely no way I could make them up because they're real, and they're a big part of my life", she paused for a second to catch her breath, she was definitely fired up with this conversation. "Yes, I'm not going to lie my husband has his flaws but so do I, and that has never stopped me from loving him. There I said it, are you happy?"

I'm really flattered

The closer I looked, I could see that there were tears in her eyes as she said all off this, I just wanted to go in and hug her that very second

"I'm still in love with him, okay?", her voice broke a little as she shrugged her shoulders a little and my heart eased a little from hearing that. "I know he did some things, but I'm not a saint either. I just wish I could take back some of the things I did and said to him so that my life could go back the way it was. I want my old life back because I miss it. I miss him".

She covered her face with her hands and started crying and this guy pulled her in for a hug, comforting her

What the actual fuck?

"Oh Layla", his hands ran up and down her body. "It's okay"

This guy was totally asking for it. I felt my hand tightening in a fist as all my senses were already clouded, leading me to storm in there and add a punch to that slap. The audacity!

"I wasn't aware, I'm sorry", he knelt in front of her when she sat back and looked at her in the eyes. You know what, fuck everything. This guy is definitely getting it. I thought folded my shirt to my elbows and walked inside, ready to charge at him. He will feel my wrath today -

"If you really love him like you claim you do, then why aren't you fighting for him?"

I stopped in my tracks a little when I saw her shrug her shoulders a little

"I'm afraid there's nothing left to fight for"

No Layla, do my say that

"Okay wait", he reached for the landline line and handed to her. "Dial his number so that you can talk to him"

I'm right over here

She groaned a little and turned to look away from him. "You still don't believe be exists, do you?"

"Now I do", the guy smiled warmly before he put the landline back on the receiver. "So, what's his name?"

I walked towards them, neither of then aware of my presence. Layla turned to face him to say something, but I beat her to it.

"Damon Kingsley", I said and both their heads snapped in my direction to look at me. "My name is Damon Kingsley"

Their jaws dropped a little in surprise before the guy stood to his feet

"Holy Molly", he exclaimed breathlessly as he looked over at Layla and then at me. "You're her husband?"

"Yeah, I am, and I'm sure you can see for yourself that I exist, and she didn't make me up", my gaze fixed on Layla to see her eyes were all puffy red as she wiped off what remained as tears on her face and then stood up

He laughed. "No kidding"

"I need to talk to my wife, do you mind giving us a moment, Mr...?", I rose my eyebrow at him

"Winters. It's Michael Winters", he took my hand in his for a handshake, a very clumsily excited one. "And yeah sure, I was about to head out", he walked to a desk behind Layla's and packed his stuff.

"I'll see you tomorrow Layla", he said walking to the door. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Kingsley", he grinned, and I nodded before he disappeared into the dark. I turned my head back to look at Layla, and she stood on her feet.

"What are you doing here?"

I heaved a sigh. "I'm here to apologize"

She smiled shyly."You don't need to"

"I want to-"

"Damon, you don't need to apologize to me, because you're right, I shouldn't have left things the way they were. I am selfish", she shrugged.

Now I felt bad

"I shouldn't have said that-"

"It's okay really. You made me realize that you're not at fault here, I was and for that, I'm sorry", tears started flowing down her cheeks.

"I abandoned you when you needed me most, and I even left you even after you had a panic attack and lying on a hospital bed because of me", she was crying as she said this, struggling to say, and I walked over to her and engulfed her in a hug

"I'm so so sorry", she cried onto my chest and I tightened my grip around her a little, stroking her hair gently and held her for a few more minutes until she was no longer crying. I titled her face up so that she

can look at me and grabbed her face in my hands.

"I'm also sorry", I apologized, and she nodded a little as I wiped her tears off with my thumb, and she wrapped her hands around my waist and placed her head on my chest again, exhaling slowly

Damn, she smelled so good

I wrapped my arms around her again and kissed the top of her head. This felt good, having her in my arms again.

"I need to see you get home safely", I whispered, and I could feel her nodding before she broke away from me and packed her things in her work bag. I followed behind her closely as we exited her building and waved goodbye to the guard who let me in.

"I'll be right behind you", I opened her car door for her, and she got inside her car, turning on the ignition seconds after I closed the door for her

"Are you hungry?", she asked when she walked out of the kitchen to the lounge where I was sitting, and I shook my head

"It's getting late, I think I should head back", I said and her face dropped in disappointment. "I just wanted to make sure you get back home safely"

"Could you please spend the night?", she asked and my lips parted in surprise a little

"Errrm", I scratched the back of my head nervously. "I really don't think that's a great idea-"

"Please, I just don't want to be alone tonight"

Uh, I don't know Layla. This request is out of the blue a little, and you know it's been a while since I've been close to you like that, I'm not sure if it's appropriate....

"Sure", my mouth blurted out nervously despite the argument I was formulating in my mind and watched as she locked the front door and walked to her bedroom, motioning with her head that I follow her and I did

In her bedroom, I stood by the doorway, simply watching her as she changed into her night clothes, which were very silky and mostly lacy and wondered if it would be weird if I asked to take a shower, I normally did before I went to bed but tonight, it would be a cold one

She walked to her side of the bed and opened up the duvets, she paused to look at me, already catching my eye on her as I was carefully studying her every move, it was hard not to

"Is there something wrong?", she asked, and I shook my head. "Then why are you standing there?"

She got inside the covers and when she saw I wasn't saying anything, she patted the empty space next to her on the bed and I walked towards the bed, took off my shoes and then climbed on the bed to lay next to her. She smiled a little when she watched me adjust my pillows so that I could sleep soundly.

"I'm sorry I don't have anything comfortable for you to sleep in"

"It's okay. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine", I said with a reassuring smile, and she nodded before placing her head on my chest and wrapped her arms around me. I was taken by surprise. I was expecting some kind of pillow wall between us and her facing away from me. But then, this is Layla we're talking about, always unpredictable.

I gently wrapped one hand around her, whilst the other played with her hair because it was hard to keep my hand off her, no matter how hard I resisted. It's been two years since I last held her like this, but she surely proved to have an effect on me.

"Damon?"

"Yes?", my eyes were closed, so hearing her call my name, was more of a dream

"Do you still love me?", she asked and my eyes quickly opened, widening in response. That's not a question you can ask a man whilst you're laying on his chest, because my heart will start beating fast and shit, then she'll have her answer. But luckily for me, the answer to that question was very simple.

"I never stopped loving you Layla", I breathed out and felt her lift her head so that she could look at me, then we stared into each other's eyes for a while before I broke our contact, my eyes dropping to her lips and then to her eyes again

"So you don't hate me?", she asked, and I shook my head slowly then closed my eyes once more to resist the temptation. I knew I just couldn't.

"I could never hate you, trust me I tried, but you're the first woman I ever truly fell in love with. It's hard to hate you or forget about you because despite everything, you're still my wife".

She placed her head on my chest again and sighed.

"Did you mean it?", I opened my eyes to look at her once more and found her eyes already staring at me in confusion

"Mean what?"

"What you said to Winters?", I asked, my hand travelling down her body to caress her lower back, and she nodded her head

"Every word", she smiled a little, and I couldn't help but to reciprocate her smile before she lifted herself up so that she rested her head on my shoulder

"Thank you for agreeing to sleepover", she said yawnly and I could already sense she was falling asleep

"Sure thing"

I turned to the other side, hoping to feel his warm body besides mine, but his side of the bed was empty

His side of the bed?

I mean the side I lend him for the night, was empty and my heart literally dropped

He was gone

I woke up to see if there was a sign of him around, but there wasn't. He was really gone, and my dumb ass actually wished I would find him taking a shower, or making breakfast or simply just watching Tv, waiting for me to wake up so that we could talk, like adults.

But he left me

I don't even know why I'm hurt by all of this. Whatever happened last night, was just a moment. It clearly didn't mean anything if he couldn't even wait to get away from me because it's not even 6am yet.

Typical Damon

I reached for my phone under the pillow and Shoot! 13 missed calls and 2 messages from Quinton, I forgot to call him yesterday since we talked almost every night before I went to bed

Quinton, [10:28pm]: What's going on?. Why are you not answering my calls?

Quinton, [11:49pm]: Layla, I'm going out of my mind here, at least let me know you're okay

If I call him now, he's definitely going to throw a fit

Me [05:38am]: I'm sorry, I had an early night yesterday. I'm fine thou, I'll call you tonight okay?

I text back and switched off my phone, he was definitely going to call me back within seconds and I wasn't up for talking today, maybe I should even call in sick at work today, don't think I'm even up for people, especially Michael since he knows about Damon

I'm so hungry because I didn't even have dinner last night. Maybe after eating something I'll feel a bit better. I thought as I walked to the kitchen to make myself breakfast, and by breakfast I mean cereal.

As I poured the milk inside the bowl, I noticed something unusual lying across the counter and I took my first crunch, walking towards it to see it was a small gift box, with a neatly folded ribbon on top of it

I placed my bowl down and picked the box up to see what's inside and when I opened it, tears filled my eyes as it was a diamond necklace I once drooled over when I was going through a magazine edition

Now I was holding the exact replica of the necklace my mom had in my hands. He remembered. There was a sticky note attached to it that at the bottom that read:

Happy anniversary, Mrs Kingsley, the only woman who will have my heart forever. My One And Only♡.

Love, Damon