Chapter 15 #2
She blinked, coming back to reality. His beautiful, pecan-brown eyes were staring directly into her soul. There was something about his stare. Something she hadn't seen in a human being's eyes since her mother passed away.
Compassion. Real empathy.
Zena forced the prettiest, most convincing smile she could muster and lied straight to his face. “Yes. I’m fine.”
“Why are you lying to me?” He asked softly. “Your eyes are saying everything you're trying to hide. Did you jump into that pool to hurt yourself?”
Zena lowered her head, unable to hold his piercing stare. She watched the water drip from her ruined dress onto her bare feet. She took a few shaky breaths. “No. I fell.”
“Still lying…” he murmured, stepping closer. “You didn't fall. I’ve been standing back here watching you out here alone for a while. I saw the look on your face before you stepped off. You did that on purpose.”
Embarrassed and terrified of being seen, Zena pulled his blazer tighter around herself. “I… I should go back inside to the showcase.”
“Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad,” he said gently.
He reached out, his warm fingers finding her chin and gently lifting her face until her eyes met his.
His face only inches from hers. “Even on the worst, darkest days, we all have something worth living for. Worth breathing for. Tell me… tell me just one reason why you want to live.”
“Huh?” Zena stammered, her heart fluttering.
“Tell me just one reason why you want to continue to walk this earth.”
“I… I don’t have one,” she whispered, the truth tearing out of her as her eyes welled with fresh tears.
She had never felt so low in her entire life. Not even after her mother’s sudden death, which had completely thrown off her entire world. But this pain? was indescribable. She felt entirely useless. Unloved. Like she was a piece of meat for sale.
“I know you’re hurting right now,” the stranger muttered. “But I promise you, everybody has a reason, or someone out there who would miss you if you were gone.”
How could this stranger know that? Nobody in that building gave a single fuck about her. Still, Zena closed her eyes and desperately checked her internal mental rolodex, hunting for a single name, a single person who would genuinely mourn her. She came up short.
Every single time.
“While you’re thinking about it, I want to share something with you,” he continued, his grip on her chin tender.
"I've been exactly where you're standing. Earlier this year, I lost someone incredibly special to me, and I had days when I straight-up didn’t want to keep going. I started making some bad decisions. I almost gave up on everything... But I kept pushing, because I knew my mother would have given me hell if I quit. It’s hard, but it eventually gets better. And after all that dark shit? I moved forward. It wasn’t the pace I wanted, but I did it. Grief and all.”
He stared her down, and for once she truly felt seen.
“I care, shawty. I barely know you, but I care about your life. Get the help you need. You deserve to live. You deserve to breathe.”
Zena’s face was covered in tears. She was so overwhelmed by the grace of his presence that she couldn’t even form a sentence. Her lips trembled. She had never received such genuine kindness from a soul in this industry.
“Say I fall forward!” He demanded a small smile, breaking through his expression.
Zena nodded quickly, wiping the water and tears from her cheeks. “I fall forward.”
“No. Say it like you mean it. No matter what happens, say that until you believe it.” He took her hand, his large palm warm against her freezing skin, and began gently leading her away from the pool toward a private, secluded service exit of the building.
“Now come on, let’s get you out of these wet clothes and I’ll get you a safe ride home. ”
Zena felt a wave of gratitude. She didn’t know how she would have been able to face what was inside in this condition. They walked close together. As they moved, the scent of his cologne wafted into her nose. He smelled incredible.
That’s when it hit her, like a bolt of lightning. The fog parted, and she remembered exactly where she had seen his face before.
“I remember you,” Zena gasped, stopping in her tracks. “You were at L—”
“What the fuck is going on here?” an aggressive voice boomed from the end of the corridor.
They both halted. Zena snapped her head around to see Tate storming down the hallway, a grimace twisting his features. His eyes darted among their soaked clothing, the stranger’s blazer on her shoulders, and the closeness of their stand.
“Why the fuck are your hands on my girl?” Tate snarled, stepping directly into the stranger's face and grilling him.
They stood toe-to-toe, but Zena's savior towered over Tate by a few inches, his posture unbothered by Tate's street bravado.
“Be easy,” the man said, his voice dropping into a calm tone. “Your girl just accidentally fell into the deep end of the pool, and I had to jump in and pull her out.”
Zena quickly stepped between them to break the rising tension before security got involved.
“Thank you,” she said softly, turning to the man, sliding his blazer off her shoulders, and handing it back to him. He accepted the garment, his gaze lingering on her.
“You sure you good, shawty?” He asked one last time, ignoring Tate.
Tate sucked his teeth loudly, aggressively grabbing Zena’s upper arm and yanking her away. “Man, come the fuck on! We out.”
“I will be,” Zena called back over her shoulder, her eyes locking with the stranger one final time as Tate dragged her down the hall.
While her memory couldn’t recall his name from that night, she knew one thing in the depths of her soul. God had sent one of his angels to pull her out of the dark. And from that moment on, she vowed never to take her life for granted again.