Chapter 19: chapter 19

He took the flower from her and kept mum; it’s been a long time since he felt so good. After that incident he blamed himself for everything; if she didn’t trust him that day and refused to come out with him that wouldn’t have happened to her. Her trust in him caused her such a misfortune; he looked at the cheerful girl who was jumping around him happily.He himself had no idea what he was thinking when he pulled her hand;    Little Bee didn’t expect this sudden ambush and went crashing into his chest. “Ouch, it’s hard. Do you eat stones? I...” She complained but the man turned a deaf ear towards her as he hugged her head close to his chest. She was struggling at first but stopped when her ears picked on a rhythm; she halted at once and listened attentively to his heartbeat. His heart was thumping rapidly inside his chest and for some reason Little Bee developed nostalgia over it.The man held her in his arms and spoke in an especially mellow tone, “I won’t let anything ever hurt you; you won’t regret trusting me.” Little Bee had no idea what got into him all of    a sudden and neither was she paying attention to words; she buried her ears deeper into his chest and listened attentively to his beating heart.His heart went like ba- dump, ba- dump, ba- dump and ba- dump.She let out a giggle pulling out the lost man back to his senses; he looked down at her and pulled her away from him slowly. Why did he hug her? He had no memory of it; he darted his gaze at her to find her already staring at him. Clearing his throat he went    back to his usual arrogant demeanor, “What are you laughing for?” he demanded coldly.She pointed at his heart and replied, “Your heart... It still beats the same as my dream.”“Oh, here we go again!” Ryan rolled his eyes as soon as she mentioned her crazy dreams; Bee nodded and replied, “I am not lying. Why won’t you believe me?” The man was in a pleasant mood and thus didn’t confront her; he knew she was a good girl and would never mean any harm to her. Treating her words as blabbers he held her hands and started making his way towards the house, against her protests and pleas.“You have strolled a lot for today, let’s go home.”“Says who, I didn’t even see the trees properly!” She protested.“Is that so? Do you want me to leave you alone here for the wolves to feed on you?”“You are so bad! Give me my flower back...”“Shut up or I will beat you up!”“This isn’t fair.” The girl hung her head as she got herself pulled out of the forest by the man.…That afternoon something important came up and Ryan along with his squad had to leave all of a sudden. Bee was reading a comic by the window as she saw the group leave; even though the situation looked to be a little tense Ryan was as calm as ever. Little Bee had her eyes stuck at the man till he disappeared behind the closed doors of his black Porsche. Other than Bee, the maids and a few bodyguards there was no one left in the house.The girl read the comic for sometime before involuntarily dozing off; by the time she woke up it was already evening and Ryan was yet not back. Yawning and massaging her eyes she got down the stairs to inquire if they knew anything about his whereabouts.The reply that was given to her was that they had no idea where he was and that it was normal for Ryan to be out of the house. There were even times when he would stay out overnight. Bee was a bit disappointed to learn that chances of him coming back at night were slim; there weren’t even Jack or Rose to help her kill time.She went back to the room and dropped on the bed, “It’s so boring to be alone...” She looked at the clock which was ticking like some snail. Stretching a sigh she got up, determined she said, “I am gonna entertain myself, yes!”The next second the girl was seen jumping over the bed, dancing and singing tone-deaf as always. Her ‘entertain myself session’ lasted for fifteen minutes before she descended down the stairs with a hung face. A maid who was listening to her singing and dancing sniggered before asking, “Is singing no more fun, Miss Bee!”“It was horrible; I tripped off the bed and dropped the plan of continuing it.” She admitted slowly before flopping on the sofa and turning o n the TV. Learning that she fell off the bed the maid asked with concern, “Miss, are you hurt! Should I call the doctor?”Bee thought back of the time when she fell; it was her blanket that conspired against her by wrapping itself around her legs and making her stumble off the bed. She was stuck in the space between the bed and table and had to face Hell and Heaven to release herself out of it. She was badly hurt but still nodded stubbornly, “Hah, I am not hurt. It was just a little accident, I am as strong as a bear.”“Are you sure, Miss Bee?” The maid asked again and Bee showed her thumbs up saying that she was perfectly alright.The TV was broadcasting random news channels and she found it really uninteresting. All of a sudden she remembered Arthur and her little face got clouded with nostalgia and misery.It’s been more than three days since her contact with the outer world has been cut off; she had not heard from any of her colleagues in the past few days. She turned off the TV and hugged her knees; she didn’t even get to say a goodbye to anyone. She was not even sure if she was gonna ever meet them again in this lifetime.Everyone must be worried about her, especially Arthur. What are they doing back there; were they too missing her in the same way she was missing them....That night in Seductress was normal; loud music, blinding lights and the pungent smell of alcohol made the night as alive as always. Arthur looked like a mess as he sat on his stand and remembered the things that unfolded in the past three days.