I thought about what a nice guy Dominic was and how hard it must be for both of them to keep this a secret from Daniel. After hearing what Natalie had to say about the way Daniel had acted towards her, I wondered what it could be that made him like that. Could he have been the black wolf who attacked Natalie that night when she found him injured. Because she saw him at his lowest and maybe he was ashamed of this and that’s why he struck out at her? My thoughts were going to far into overdrive now, I needed to take a step back from these extraordinary accusations. I was going to have to be brave to be near him, but perhaps the date was a good idea as I could dig out some truths about Daniel, find out more about him? If I confronted him, would he come clean about who he truly was? Would he admit that he’d been stalking me?
‘Oh my god Grace!’ Natalie snapped me out of my thoughts. ‘Your lip is bleeding, are you ok?’
I touched my mouth and saw a droplet of blood. ‘Erm yes,’ I said, embarrassed, ‘I have a tendency to bite my lip when I’m thinking.’
Jenny ran over to get the first aid kit, just as the door to the café flew open. Who walked in was the last person I wanted to see me looking like this. Of course, Ben would choose this moment to appear. I watched him as he circled around the room until he spotted me. When he saw my injured mouth, his expression changed to a look of worry and he walked over, hurriedly. Jenny had already donned gloves and was dabbing at the wound with an antiseptic wipe. Then I held the cold compress she handed me against it, trying not to look Ben in the eye. I was even more embarrassed about this stupid habit.
‘Grace what’s happened? Are you ok? Did anyone hurt you?’ So many questions! Natalie could see I was mortified.
‘Yes, she’s ok. She just bit her lip. All under control.’
‘Oh, Grace, be careful. You can’t be damaging those pretty lips of yours.’
I half-smiled, shyly and the cut stung. The bleeding had stopped but I could feel it swelling up. It was weird how he suddenly appeared like that. How it looked as if he was looking for me when he came in. How relieved he’d seemed to have found me before he noticed the bleeding. Had he been following me? Or us? I had no idea, but felt equal amounts of flattered and creeped out about it.
‘Grace will you please look at me,’ he said, sweetly.
I still couldn’t meet his gaze, softly he put his hand to my chin and slowly lifted up my face so I could look into his eyes.
Apart from seeing him in my dreams, this had been the first time I’d been up close to Ben since the first day of college and he was even more good looking than I remembered. As I gazed at him, I was not able to look away. Then, without warning he leaned in and tenderly kissed my lips. My lip healed in an instant. I put my fingers to my lips to feel them and they were as good as normal, no more sting or swelling.
‘I’ll see you later,’ he said smiling at me. I was speechless.
I hadn’t realised that Natalie and Jenny had moved away to the counter and left me and Ben to it. I watched as Ben walked to the door, glance over his shoulder at me, and left. I whispered, ‘Please come back.’
‘Grace, do you want to order?’ Jenny called.
‘Oh, yes, sure thing,’ I stuttered, flustered. ‘I’ll come over.’
When I got to the counter, I asked for a large peppermint latte and a BLT on brown. Jenny and Natalie looked at each other. ‘What?’ I asked.
‘I ordered the exact same thing!’ laughed Natalie.
‘Wow!’ I said, ‘that’s a bit weird! How much do I owe you, Jenny?’ I dug in my bag for my purse.
‘It’s fine, on the house. A friend of Natalie’s is a friend of mine.’
‘Oh, bless you, thanks so much.’ I really was touched.
I was really glad to be making new friends. I looked at Natalie as we walked back to our table. She was actually very beautiful, and I admired her for coming out in public considering the damage to her face. I really felt sorry for her, for everything that had happened to her; being used by Daniel, being attacked. I was glad she’d found some comfort with Dominic, but it was such a shame she was having to keep it quiet. I wondered if she had any other secrets that she could share with me, perhaps to help me discover more what had been happening to me or if everything was all in my head. There was so much I wanted to ask her, but I would save my questions for another time.
I took a sip of my latte and my stomach made a loud growling noise. Luckily, just then Jenny appeared with our sandwiches. I took my first bite and then realised I’d eaten the rest of it before Natalie had taken her second bite.
‘Woah girl! that is the quickest I have ever seen someone eat!’ Natalie was, rightfully, surprised.
‘Erm… yeah,’ I was again embarrassed, ‘I haven’t really eaten anything over the past few weeks, I think my body is trying to catch up.’
‘I must say, Grace, you do look quite skinny. Must be because you’ve been poorly.’
‘I was bed ridden, or so I think I was.’
‘What
