"Diana?" I heard Theo's voice filling the room.
"Stay here." I told R—
"Are you embarrassed?"
"No, you're naked." I scoffed playfully.
"Theo." I walked into the room and saw him standing in the living room.
He was looking down at the disarray from my earlier frolic through pound town. The coffee table askew, the ruffled, papers and miscellaneous coffee table items all around, and haphazard carpet. I cleared my throat.
"What happened?" He said turning around.
"What do you mean I scratched my head."
"Are you, are you having seizures again?" He reached out to touch my face.
"What? No. Theo." I swiped his hand away. Not for years. "Where is my key?"
"You're acting weird."
"Where is my key?" I demanded.
"Is... is someone here?" He deflected.
"Theo. My key." I tried again. I didn't want to know why he had a copy, I just wanted him gone.
"You fucking slut." He lowered his voice and stepped into me.
"I'm gone for less than 6 months and you start shacking up with the first person you see." He became accusatory. "Where is he?" He trudged around the apartment.
"How about WHERE THE FUCK IS THE KEY. Maybe I shouldn't say my key since you fucking made a copy!" I spun around.
Just then R— appeared in the doorway, like a shadow, with his sweatpants on.
I could see that he was in protect mode and I felt so turned on I forgot what he was defending me from as he stood there.
Theo realized I was looking over his shoulder and quickly turned around.
"Oh," he began, "there he is." Theo was irate.
"Yeah here I am." R— replied calmly.
"You're the one fucking my whore girlfriend."
"IM NOT YOUR GIRLFRIEND!" I seethed.
"Shut up." He said over his shoulder. "I'll deal with forgiving you."
"Why don't you just give her back the key man." R— was still calm. Eerily calm as he folded his arms. I recognized that calm and knew he was in danger of doing something he'd regret out of rage.
The same look my brothers get before they absolutely lost it.
I stood between them.
"Theo." I said my back to R— holding my hand out for him to keep his distance.
"Listen you fucking nympho, I have accepted you and your slag fetishes." He ridiculed me. "I will deal with you later but for now keep your whore mouth shut."
R— grabbed me by the arm and pulled me behind him. Dammit this was out of control.
"Why don't you watch your mouth and give me the key."
"She's a fucking whore man." He continued to belittle me, "why are you protecting her?She's probably been tied up by every man in the tristate area.."
"Say that word again."
I felt my heart pounding and my cheeks flush with shame. He thinks I'm a—
"What? whor—"
Theo interrupted, by a fist through his teeth. He fell backwards on his heel as as commotion ensued. They rolled around for a moment and struggled knocking over my work table and a few other things.
"Stop!" I pleaded, " STOP."
They continued to grunt and brutalize each other as I tried to make them stop with out getting in harms way.
Finally R— stood up and backed away. Theo did as well huffing and puffing, his face all bloodied...he never liked to lose. He dug around in his pocket and threw the key on the ground.
"Is that all of them?" I questioned.
He twisted up his face like he wanted to call me something else, but stopped and left. When the door shut I knelt down to pick up my tables and all my things with tears in my eyes, R— went to lock it.
He turned around and said nothing. I didn't look his way. Theo had a way of making me feel so small. When we first began dating he taught me how to please him. Yet I showed him all my things and he shamed me for it. He was my only other sexual partner besides R—. I had other experiences, but not penetration. R took my virginity years before I met Theo now he was back. Giving me more firsts.
I stopped thinking when I felt his hands on mine. He picked them up and held them while on his knees in front of me.
I looked at him hesitantly, "You're crying." He stated, reaching to wipe my tears. His eyes were concerned as I tried to wipe them first. "Oh...yeah." I sniffed moving away.
"I can't imagine what you think of me now." I Sighed timidly. Surely if a man with more outlandish fetishes thought I was strange, it must've been true.
"You must agree... that I'm—" my voice broke. "I mean earlier, you looked so horrified." I cried more. I could feel him staring at me. My hands began to shake at his scrutiny.
I felt more naked now than I had all month. He got up from the ground and I half expected him to leave. Instead I heard him shuffling around with my records. Billie Holiday had been on there for the last month. But when here voice poured out that song I felt something wash over me.
"It had to be you..." she sang.
"Come here." he beckoned me.
I stood and walked over to his open arms.
"I meant what I said, I've known you for longer than he has." He wiped my face. Before pulling me into his chest. We begin to sway just as we did the first time.
"I want to be with you, for better or for worse." I felt tears squeeze out as he spoke I planted my forehead in his chest and laughed through my tears.
"Look at me." His voice was tender. I looked up and he gave me a kiss on the forehead slowly. "I want to be with you every night and every morning. I want to eat all my meals with you, I want to read beside you, cook beside, lay beside you, I just want to be with you." He stopped dancing and we stood still. "It doesn't matter what that asshole or any other asshole says."
My heart began to pound in my chest, but I had not a word to say. "I've been trying to tell you for weeks..." he sighed
"I love you." He dropped my hand and reached into his pocket for something.
When he pulled it out he was holding a key. "That's a hell of a segue into giving me back my key." I joked a little.
"It's not your key," he smirked.
"I've known you for seven years and in that entire time I have never met anyone who makes me feel like you do." He faltered. "I want it all."
"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I grinned, sheepishly.
He let the key chain fall from his hand and on the end of it hung a ring,
"I'm asking you to be my wife."