Tandy made her way down the stairs, planning to wait patiently to see who Jessica brought down so she could scrutinize him, but mid-way through her waiting, Kevin walked over and pulled her back into a conversation with Malisha and her useless nephew, Timmy.

“I don’t like him,” Tandy whispered, hoping Kevin would spare her the conversation.

“Don’t even think about it.” Kevin whispered back “You can’t leave me alone with these people… do you see how Malisha looks at me? She looks like she is going to eat me.”

Tandy laughed and whispered, “It’s called lust… it means she wants to fuck you.”

“Can I?” Kevin asked faking expectation on his face causing Tandy to laugh and direct a pitch at his waistline.

“You know what…” Tandy thought and joked “You can go ahead and sleep with her… your dick probably won’t be able to stand anymore when she is done with you.”

Kevin pulled Tandy close and wrapped his arms around her “That is why I stay faithful to my soon-to-be wife.” He basically sang the last few words, making Tandy think Kevin would have a better chance at becoming a musician than a Business Mogul.

“And I stay faithful to my s-”

Before Tandy could complete her statement, she saw a brown boy from the corner of her eyes and swung around instinctively, widening her eyes to take in the sight of everyone in front of her, but she saw nobody that even resembled a dark-skinned individual.

“Tandy… Tandy! Are you okay?” Kevin asked desperately, feeling a bit of pain from the nails Tandy had dug into his skin.

“Oh my Gosh!” Tandy realized, quickly pulling Kevin to a nearby sink “It’s bleeding, I am so sorry… I just thought… I thought… nothing… I am probably tired from lack of sleep or something.”

Tandy washed Kevin’s blood inside the sink and wrapped his hands with the handkerchief from his suit’s pocket.

‘What the fuck came over me?’ Tandy thought, finally remembering something ‘I forgot to take my daily snort… no wonder I am fucking hallucinating…’

“Wait! Something is happening over there…” Kevin said, holding Tandy close as they both observed what Timmy was doing some little ways over.

Tandy and Kevin watched intently as Timmy whispered into the ear of a little girl, probably one of the orphans whose schooling was funded by the Outreach Center.

At first, it was difficult to tell exactly what was happening since Timmy just held the girl and the girl inconspicuously tried to brush off his hands.

At that point, Kevin had already figured out the ins and outs of the situation “The poor are always at the mercy of the rich… and soon the rich will be at the mercy of the powerful.”

There was a silent exchange of words and the little girl looked scared, spurring Tandy into action as she dragged Kevin along to use his background if necessary.

“I won’t sleep with a loose girl like you… how dare you ask me to do such a thing, you Harlot.” Timmy yelled angrily and righteously.

pa/ta

Tandy flinched when Timmy slapped the girl across the face, sending her stumbling onto the ground. Tandy quickly separated her feet from her heels, fully prepared to run over but her mind blanked the next moment.

Utter shock…

Major utter shock…

Absolute longing and undeniable love…

Overwhelming excitement and happiness…

Incomprehensible love and beyond intense obsessiveness that bordered on insanity…

Tandy’s mind spun and she stumbled back as if a force field was separating her from ‘him’…

The man she loves… the owner of everything she is… the person she dreamed about every single night… As if to mock her entire range of emotions, Tandy felt strong arms wrap around her waist, steadying her body that was unconsciously about to fall to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked, confused.

One moment, he was expecting Tandy to beat someone down and the next moment, she could barely keep herself standing.

Tandy regained some of her faculties and suddenly felt disgusted with everything… disgusted with herself… disgusted with the world… disgusted with the wrong arms that wrapped around her body…

‘Fucking disgusting!’ Tandy thought, surprised by her own unfiltered thoughts ‘What am I thinking…. He is…but… he is my fiancé.’

It was as if all the lies she had told herself over the past year were ripped apart in front of her eyes:

maybe I can be happy – rip

Tyrone would want me happy– rip

I am happier with Kevin– rip

Moving on is best– rip

Helping people will make Tyrone proud – rip

Tandy’s mind swam in confusion but somehow still remained focused on the dark-brown-skinned figure swerving his way through the crowd towards Timmy.

Timmy continued his ravings unhindered “I can’t believe we are funding this place and it's raising children to become wh-”

Timmy could not finish his statement as the next moment, everyone noticed a strong hand perfectly gripping his neck like a man’s hand around a chicken’s neck, which was ironically, figuratively, and literally a good way to summarize the situation.

“You like picking on kids bro?” Tyrone asked in a low soothing voice that sounded as beautiful as it was terrifying.

Tandy almost fainted on the spot just from hearing his voice, but instead, she pulled Kevin aside and hid, observing everything at a further distance to confirm that her mind wasn’t just experiencing a really realistic hallucination.

Also, though she didn’t want to admit it, Tandy was afraid that Kevin would recognize Tyrone, or even worse, Tyrone would see her in Kevin’s arms, which she would rather commit suicide than let happen.

Just as Tandy’s mind was about to stabilize, Jessica dashed through the crowd and grabbed Tyrone’s hand in an effort to keep him from choking Timmy to death.

Even if Jessica’s action could be considered necessary, in Tandy’s mind, the mere fact that Jessica touched Tyrone, HER TYRONE, could be considered far too intimate.

Tandy’s teeth ground against each other like she wanted them to shatter “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“You want to fuck? Here?” Kevin asked surprised but somewhat excited causing Tandy to finally remember that he was there and she was instantly embarrassed at her own attitude of fawning over Tyrone when her fiancé was right next to her.

She was no longer a child… she had grown up quite a bit over the past year… enough to know that she and Tyrone probably wouldn’t have worked. Yet, Tandy felt like it would be a mistake worth making… a mistake she still wanted to make regardless of Kevin or not.

An overwhelming feeling of guilt overcame Tandy and she fought between the choice of someone she absolutely loved (Tyrone) and someone who had been at her side through her worse moments (Kevin).

Despite Kevin’s nagging, Tandy watched carefully as Malisha intervened and Jessica pulled Tyrone up the stairs, away from Timmy and the rich folks Tandy knew Tyrone hated. She knew everything about him after all.

Kevin inquired again seeing that Tandy was a bit spaced-out “So you wanna fuck here or?”

Tandy held her head, feeling dizzy at the thoughts entering her mind “I… Uhm… I think we should leave… I am not feeling well right now…”

Kevin frowned “The party is just starting… and you wanted to talk to your new friend… what’s her name? Jessica was it?”

“Yeah… I’ll just head home and you can stay here and build some connections for other charitable projects in my place…” Tandy mentioned but going home was the last thing on her mind as she exited the banquet, disappearing into the darkness before Kevin could follow her.

Two Hours Later------

Kevin eventually headed home when he couldn’t find Tandy who remained hidden inside a random car she had ‘creatively’ opened.

Seeing that Kevin and all the other guests were leaving, Tandy hopped out of the car and walked back into the Outreach Center without anyone being the wiser.

Despite spending a lot of time around the high social class, Tandy didn’t forget that she used to walk the Boston Streets with Tyrone and he thought her how to not be seen when she didn’t want to be.

Tandy walked up the stairs and down the hall, fully intent on finding Tyrone’s room but she ran into Jessica wearing a negligee who obviously had the same idea that she did – a good fuck can make a guy forget almost everything.

“Tandy? What are you still doing here… everyone else is leaving… do you need me to call you a cab or something?” Jessica inquired suspiciously.

Tandy shook her head, pretending to be tired and a bit drowsy “Is there somewhere I can stay tonight… I am really tired and there is a farewell ceremony tomorrow so I just wanted to stay and not run around a lot…”

Jessica hesitated and showed Tandy towards her room where she could stay for the night ‘Tandy is rich after all so she doesn’t need to steal anything from me…’ Jessica thought.

Tandy thanked Jessica when she finally had a room and a bed to process the life-altering events of the day, but Jessica did not stay long and quickly exited the room to complete her ‘plan’ to seduce Tyrone.

Tandy barely held back from telling Jessica everything and making her claim on Tyrone clear but she realized that she would be the last person on Earth with a claim for Tyrone, given the fact that she was engaged to be married.

“Why does everything have to be so complicated.” Tandy yelled and remembered a time when Stan told her about moments “Maybe this could be a new moment for Tyrone and me… maybe I can catch this moment and we’ll make it work…but Kevin is so good to me, it would break his heart…”

Tandy spent the better of an hour thinking about all the ways she and Tyrone had messed up their relationship and in an entire hour, she realized that apart from some yelling and obscenities, Tyrone didn’t really do anything to ruin their relationship.

Everything was her fault… what she did and what she didn’t do when it needed to be done…

And that’s exactly what she wasn’t doing now … she wasn’t telling Tyrone she was happy that he was alive… that she was sorry that she didn’t come to visit him after hearing about his parents…

She wasn’t asking him how exactly he did survive and why he didn’t come back to her… she would have run away with him without thinking about it for even a second.

There were so many things to say… too much even and maybe one night would not be enough… maybe even two nights would not be enough since the second night would be reserved for them making love.

“Staying here is not going to solve anything…” Tandy mused, pushing open the door, walking down the hall, and coming to a stop in front of the door where the gloominess was most concentrated.

Just as she was about to knock, Tandy heard it and it struck at her heartstrings but not so much that it changed how she felt for Tyrone.

“Jessica succeeded huh?” Tandy whispered with her raised hand frozen in place “And I showed her the tongue technique he likes… wasn’t I just shooting myself in the foot by talking to her? And I gave her birth control pills… I am not just shooting myself, I slaughtered myself…”

However, the longer Tandy listened, the more apparent it became to her that Jessica wasn’t inside… it was someone much older and much rougher and… someone she recently met.

Tandy’s eyes opened wide and she fought against her better instincts to kick the door open and slaughter the old MILF she knew was on the other side “Fucking Malisha Goa!”

Tandy didn’t particularly mind Jessica and Tyrone sleeping together since Tyrone was not the type to sleep around, but Malisha Gao fucking Tyrone meant that he was either extremely desperate and being taken advantage of or he had somehow become someone of loose morals after their relationship ended.

Both scenarios didn’t bode well for Tandy and by the time she had stopped thinking, there was a fumbling at the door that had her running away to hide just around the corner.

Still, she peeked from her spot and watched as Tyrone bid farewell to a clumsily walking Malisha.

‘From her walking, I can tell that his huge size has frown some more.’ Tandy mused, imagining a time when it was only her that Tyrone made love to.

After Malisha left, Tandy felt Tyrone’s eyes scan over her location as he asked “Are you gonna come out or can I go back to sleep?”

For a moment, Tandy thought that she had been found but thankfully, she wasn’t the one Tyrone expected to see judging by the arms wrapped around his waist.

Tandy mumbled sadly as she watched the girl shedding tears into Tyrone’s back “Jessica… her heart has probably been broken already…”

Tandy listened to Jessica’s and Tyrone’s conversation for what felt like an eternity. When she heard that Tyrone wanted to be just friends with Jessica, she smiled victoriously but when she heard the story of Patricia Nowels, she felt sad since Tyrone shared something with Jessica that he never shared with her.

By the time Tyrone and Jessica were finishing their conversation, Tandy snapped out of listening mode and got into running mode, dashing down the hall into Jessica’s room, hopping into the bed, and pretending to have slept through everything.

A few minutes later Jessica entered the room a bit peeved “I know you were listening so… you don’t have to pretend to be asleep…”

When Tandy didn’t move, Jessica sighed at pointed at her feet “When you came up here, you didn’t have on any heels but now you do… are you going to keep pretending or come clean?”

Tandy fidgeted on the bed and sighed at her own stupidity “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop… it’s just… I heard the moans and went to check it out and came upon a story instead… I didn’t want to pry.”

“It’s okay… I think it’s great that someone other than me heard it since I am not experienced with such dark stories… this Outreach Center is all I’ve known and as far as I ever traveled.”

“There is beauty in the simple things…” Tandy replied, hiding her own emotions with a gentle smile “Knowing too much about the world… partying, drugs, cheating, fake friends, abandonment issues… I have experienced it all… and let me tell yah… I would trade places with you any day. You don’t know how bad I want to, especially now!”

Jessica sighed “People say money solves problems… with your money, I wouldn’t have to pine after Ty… I would just pay for whatever he wants and buy him out of the trouble he is in…”

“I don’t think money can buy that guy.” Tandy joked but caught her slip of tongue and changed the topic before Jessica could ask “What makes you think that he is in any trouble?”

Jessica shrugged and gave a weak smile “I know he is or was in trouble because I was there when he came out of the forest… he was exhausted, nearly to death. Dehydrated and had animal bites with maggots growing out of his wounds. It was a very nasty sight to see but he just continued walking, and then crawling… whoever left him out there, left him to die… so I know he was in trouble then.”

Tandy’s breathing hitched and she put her head into a pillow, trying desperately not to scream or think about what happened to Tyrone on that day, a year ago.

Jessica quickly changed the topic seeing Tandy’s downtrodden mood “So you’re married?”

Tandy looked down at the ring on her finger “Engaged… but I am not so sure about it anymore. Things are complicated, I am not sure what to do.”

Jessica sighed, joined Tandy on the bed, and hugged her “I am used to the simple things in life so I know what I want… you just have to ask yourself what do you want…”

“I don’t know what I want…” Tandy replied in a defeated manner.

Jessica shrugged “Then figure it out!”

“I-”

Tandy started to speak but a wave from Jessica silenced her “Tell me about it tomorrow during the farewell ceremony. If I don’t sleep now, I won’t be able to wake Ty up tomorrow. My phone is on the table over there if you want to message your husband.”

“Fiancé.” Tandy corrected and then thanked Jessica who was fast asleep.

Tandy played with the phone a bit but never messaged Kevin in the end. Instead, she very sneakily put Jessica’s phone into her bosom, hoping Jessica wouldn’t notice it was missing until her plan was set in motion.

The Following Morning -------

Tandy woke up early in the morning before Jessica or anyone else in the Outreach Center could wake up.

She exited the room, walked down the hall, and stood in front of Tyrone’s room for an extended period of time without doing anything in particular.

Just the feeling of being near him evened out her emotional state and she could sense, somehow, that her presence also aided in his nightmare.

“So we both have nightmares huh?” Tandy asked nobody in particular before she exited the Outreach Center and started her run back home.

Running helped her come to terms with some things but the run was not nearly long enough and soon, she had already arrived at the hotel Kevin booked, already inside the elevator about to stop on her room floor.

Exiting the elevator, Tandy didn’t even pause as she made her way into the room, she knew that Kevin would leave the door open for her since it wasn’t the first time she spent the night outside.

Usually, she would spend her nights alone doing drugs but this time, she felt a bit of shame knowing that if Tyrone had given her the chance, she would have cheated on Kevin no doubt.

“You’re home,” Kevin stated, sitting on the couch and watching television.

“Something like that,” Tandy replied, slipping out of her dress and heading to the shower to wash away the exhaustion and confusion of the previous night.

Five minutes into the shower, Tandy felt a pair of hands wrap around her waist and she knew it was Kevin. Yesterday, if he had embraced her so intimately, she would have given him a kiss but today, she just couldn’t stomach the action with her mind undecided.

Kevin started kissing Tandy on the neck, but she pushed him away in discomfort “I don’t feel up to that sort of thing… I just want to shower alone… I – I – I feel confused and not in a good mood…”

Kevin paused in place, admiring Tandy’s naked body but also a bit peeved since she had never rejected him before, at least not like this.

“Is there something I can help with?” Kevin asked, brushing his hand across her hips but holding his head the next moment as Tandy grabbed him by the neck and smashed him into the shower tiles.

“I said not right now.” She yelled angrily, only vaguely aware of what she had just done “I’m sorry… my emotions are kind of in flux right now… I just need time to readjust myself to everything around…”

Tandy would have made more of an effort to apologize but she knew that Kevin wasn’t so soft that he couldn’t take a few hits. Actually, Kevin was a skilled fighter but preferred to let Tandy feel more powerful because of her traumatic childhood and abandonment issues.

Kevin shrugged, standing back onto his feet, holding his head, and exiting the bathroom “I am going to get dressed for the Farewell Ceremony at the Outreach Center… then, we’ll stay here for an extra week before leaving for Costa Rica for our wedding.”

Tandy resumed showering but glanced at Kevin lingering near the door and asked “Do you know why I picked Costa Rice for our wedding?”

“I have to admit… I couldn’t figure out why in the past but I think I know now… It’s the flowers right?”

Tandy shook her head in disagreement “It’s because Costa Rica has active volcanoes… I want to get married at the top of one so if anything you do disappoints me; I can just push you inside one… that has always been the reason I liked volcanoes.”

Kevin awkwardly shut the bathroom and went to get dressed, the thought of Tandy throwing him in a volcano never once crossed his mind but it was in line with her eccentric personality when it came to relationships.