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The ocean was too serene and beautiful And nothing inside of her felt serene

And now, Dante was in his hoain, he would be rude, or if he would get all “I have deflowered you and ain If he would want her Or if he would leave the house rather than face sleeping with her again

She rolled her eyes and tiptoed down the stairs, headed for the kitchen and the rest of the chocolate ice cream

She opened the freezer and let the cool air wash over her face She felt confused And lonely She didn’t knohy the loneliness was hitting so hard now When Shyla had died, it had been hard So very hard But Ana needed her Ana had needed her from that moment and every moment since then and there had been no time to dissolve

There was still no time to dissolve And in the absence of total dissolution, perhaps there could be an ice-creae and a few tears

“I was looking for you”

She turned and closed the freezer, forgetting the ice crea end-of-the-day rumpled Which for Dante meant he’d discarded his jacket and had obviously run his hands through his hair a few too many times Otherwise, he remained well pressed, his black tie in place, his white shirt tucked into white slacks She had the overwhele to ruffle him

To really find the man beneath the layer of rock and stone he kept around himself To find out who he really was

She’d seen glimpses of it When he spoke of hisafter they’d slept together And in each of those moments, there had been so much Tenderness, love even, when hissadness and fear that tore at her insides

The fear she sahen he looked at her and Ana Dark, endless She wished she could watch it for a moment, to try to understand it But he always covered it too quickly, taking control again as soon as he could

She felt coood, the ugly She had a feeling she could never reach the good if she didn’t uncover the bad, too Expose it to the sunlight

A few days ago, she would have rejected the idea Because Ana was her world And Ana was still her world But Dante was starting to be a huge part of it, too Not a separate part, or a bigger part, or even a smaller part He was folded in Impossible to extricate

And that was just da

“I figured you had lots more work to do Since it’s Saturday and you put on a tie”