Chapter Twenty-four

222 19 15
                                    

okay first of all...sorry about the delay in posting! I'm not the most consistent but this time round it's been super hard for me because I've been feeling a bit stuck with the story. tbf I considered quitting a lot. i started writing xo when I was in high school and now i've graduated and have a fulltime job lol wtf?! buuuuut I need to finish this purely because ik atleast one person is waiting for a finish and everyone hates unfinished books. i want to write more anyways so theres that too.

also been dealing with writers block (i started this chapter on VALENTINES DAY) and a broken keyboard but both of those are fixed. forgive me is chapter is rough, im just now getting back into the swing of things :)

**

My main love language is acts of service. I love it when people pay attention to me and do little things to help make my life easier. Dane, when he wasn't so preoccupied with himself, could be quite good at this. He would always pick up my hair supplies when they were running low or cook my favourite meal anytime I was feeling low. When things were good between us, they were really good and that's one of the things that made it so hard to leave. The fact that I knew how perfect things could be with him. But one thing was slowly becoming more and more apparent, Dane wasn't the only person who could do things for me.

On a Wednesday evening, after work I was surprised by a beautiful bouquet of red roses and red wine. At first, I thought it was Julian and a big goofy smile became stuck on my face but when I realised it wasn't, I was even happier.

it gets easier <3 also i've booked a spa date in 2 weeks - you deserve it 

- love abiiiiiiiixxxxxxx

I guess another consequence of being in such a turbulent relationship for so long was that sometimes it became easy to forget the impact that love from friendships had. It was easy to take friends for granted because they seemed to always be there and it was easy to forget how much a good friend could legitimately be your rock. When I called Abi I was already in tears and soon she was also in tears and although it seemed so girly and stereotypical it felt so good. It felt cathartic. She knew what it was that I was going through without me having to explain it but also, she reminded me how I was there for her when her and Jordan broke up and that us girls just had to stick together. And it was beautiful. Romantic love was not the be all and end all. It was nice to have a partner, but it was also nice to have attentive, empathetic friends. We didn't speak as much as I would've liked but that was because we both were adults who both had lives. And in the grand scheme of things, that didn't really matter because we both knew that the love that we had for each other was always, always there. Ever since my friendship with Aaliyah broke down all those years ago, I guess I became a bit guarded with who I became friends with but I was glad I let Abi in. So glad.

I put the flowers on my instagram story but Abi gave me specific instructions not to tag her. She wanted to know if Julian was the jealous type and although I thought it was slightly cruel, I wanted to know too. Things were going well with Julian. After the weekend at his, we had been chatting here and there. Julian wasn't a massive texter, he preferred phone calls but these were often sporadic and short. He did explain, that he was bad at being on the phone during the week and sometimes during the weekend too if there was an event or special promotion going on at the restaurant and although I did want to speak to him more, it was easier to just let him do his thing because he communicated with me. It was such a simple concept but slowly I began realising that maybe I wasn't clingy, maybe I just needed a partner who spoke with me.

mindblowing. 

Anyways, when I had posted the story, Julian hadn't text me back from the day before. No big deal, he had sent me something funny on Instagram so I knew he wasn't ignoring me and he was organising the launch for his restaurant in Manchester. He hadn't watched my story straight away and I didn't expect him to because he was working but when he did, he messaged me straight away.

The Blossoming: XO Trilogy (BWWM) incompletedWhere stories live. Discover now