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Endless Love

Chapter 12

By DawsonSmallsonPublished 2 years ago 7 min read
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Endless Love
Photo by Alexandru Zdrobău on Unsplash

Lyla awoke sometime midday, and went to her phone, vaguely remembering the faint buzz before she was whisked off to sleep. On it were a list of texts from her friends, including Alex; she wanted to read that one most of all. The ache she felt when she left had slowly creeped back in, and she determined she would check her messages after she had put food on her stomach.

She slowly peeled herself out of her bed and headed down the stairs. These things felt familiar to her, the bed she had cried on with Serena when she made her first C, and the stairs she took her prom pictures on; also with Serena. When she reached the bottom, she headed to the kitchen, but was stopped by an unexpected picture.

Her mother wrapping her arms around a man on their back porch. Lyla had never seen this gentleman and her mother had never mentioned him, at least she didn’t remember if she had. She waved the scene away from her mind, and continued the task at hand. She found her favorite cereal right where it always had been on top of the fridge and began her usual routine.

Moments later her mother walked in with a handsome man; he was quite tall, and muscular - she had assumed he did some sort of heavy labor to develop such definition. When her mother spotted her at the table, she pulled the man over to her, and she could see now that he had a kind face, and a scruffy beard. He had brown fluffy hair, worn hands, a button nose, and small lips, and Lyla put the pieces together that this was her mother’s new boyfriend.

“Lyla, I want you to meet Rick. He’s my boyfriend,” she beamed up at him. Rick reached out a huge paw of a hand, and Lyla took it. He then pulled her into a gigantic bear hug, “careful sweetie he’s a hugger. He’s a sweet guy, too,” she nodded over to her. When she was released, she smiled at Rick and swapped pleasantries, then went back to eating her breakfast.

During that morning, Lyla’s mom asked Clark over to get to know Lyla a little more since he had left early the previous day, and he obliged. As they waited for him to head over, Lyla went upstairs to read her messages that she had ignored that morning.

Serena: Hey love, your little boyfriend is still here, he said he’s leaving tomorrow. But we’ll see.

The Gals: We miss you already! Can’t wait to see you when you get back.

Alex: I miss your beautiful face, and kissing your beautiful face. Mostly the kissing

Lyla pulled her phone to her chest, and butterflies surged to her stomach. She really missed Alex, and even though they had just met, she felt very close to him. After all, they had kissed, and almost went farther than that. After she quelled the strange feelings that had stirred in her body, she headed back down the stairs, and Clark had shown up by then.

He took Lyla’s hand and kissed it, and led her to the back porch. They sat down in some tanning chairs - right off the side of her family’s pool. They spent the rest of the morning getting to know one another then Clark said he had more business to attend to, and this time Lyla asked if she could join him. He liked the idea, so they made their way through the house, and through the grass over to his house.

She didn’t know what to expect when she went over to his house, especially since the outside looked as normal as hers did, but when she walked through the doorway, it was like she had walked into a mansion. Lyla had never expected that this is what her next-door neighbors’ house had looked like when she was growing up, and all amazed her, the gold accents on the trims, and the matching gold furniture.

After Lyla got swept up marveling at the house, she had realized she had fallen behind; she had barely noticed Clark walking behind a corner, so she ran to catch up to him. By then she had completely lost him going down a short hallway, but she heard his voice so she followed the sound into a room up the hall. She could hear him on the phone with a familiar voice, and it didn’t take long for her to realize, “Dad,” she gasped.

A moment of silence filled the room, then her father spoke up, “I can only assume that was Lyla speaking, because to my knowledge, she’s my only daughter,” her father jokingly spoke. Lyla was not amused, and when another awkward moment of silence passed he spoke again, “Lyla, hunny, how do you know Clark?”

Of all the questions, she had not really expected that one, but she guessed that anything to do with business was important to him, “He’s mom’s next-door neighbor, and I followed him back home, because he had work he needed to do. How do you know Clark?”

She heard a small chuckle from the other side and then, “well, I know him, because I’m his boss. We’re in business together; I’m the CEO and he’s my CFO.” Lyla did not know what these terms meant, but she knew that meant that they were really important people in her dad’s company. After a few more minutes talking to her dad, she stormed out of the room and made herself comfortable in Clark’s living room.

An hour had probably passed before Clark emerged from the room, and by then Lyla had wandered off around the house, looking for hidden secrets, or any dirt she could find on Clark. She found he had a basement that was stocked with extremely expensive wines, and that he had a small gym built in one of his guest bedrooms. She also saw that most of the rooms that filled the house were tailor made just for guests and looked like royalty should stay there.

Clark had only looked for her for a few minutes before he found her sitting in a very peculiar room, still lifes of partially naked women filled the room. They were in black in white, and Lyla knew the term for this type of photography, boudoir, which looked as sexy as the photos on the walls did. Lyla had been admiring the art, seeing the pleasure emitting from their bodies as someone had snapped the photo, and the goosebumps that rose on one model's body showed the realness of the shot.

“This was a past hobby of mine,” Clark said, finally filling the silent room. Lyla jumped only a bit, and turned to him, a puzzling look settling on her face. “I was into boudoir photography before I became partners with your dad, but work started taking up too much of my time, so I stopped,” he confessed, then ran his fingers along the edge of a picture he had not gotten around to hanging yet.

“You were so good at this,” she whispered, as she gave the room another sweep. She took the outstretched hand that was placed before her and followed him back out to his living room. They talked more about his love for photography, not at all getting into the type of photography it was. Clark had also explained the premise of her father’s company, which still didn’t quite make sense to her, so he gave up trying to get her to understand.

Sometime that evening, Lyla sent off a text to her mother letting her know she was okay, and that she was still at Clarks, to which her mother replied with one too many heart faces. Clark then offered her some wine and started the fire that sat across from them encased in a brick chimney. The intimacies of their conversation heating.

Young Adult
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About the Creator

DawsonSmallson

Hi! I would love if you would read my stories; I have spent years writing in journals, but now I have place to put them and I get to share them with you! I only do fiction and fantasy, and I really enjoy doing romance. when ch13 drops R18+

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