Mysterious Love - T.H. (discontinued)

11.

It felt like weeks had gone by since that horrifying night for Elena. She went home and couldn't focus on anything except for what she was being forced to do. Her mind kept revisiting that memory when she did anything and it kept her awake all night. She'd close her eyes to sleep but all she would see was that man's terrifying face. She remembered the sense of hopelessness she felt when he told her that someone was going to die or suffer either way. She remembered her heart sinking into her stomach and the sweaty feeling she had. Elena remembered the whole thing all too well and couldn't fall asleep or function because of it. It was like a nightmare that haunted her whether she was trying to sleep or not.

What felt like weeks was actually a few days. Those few days were the longest days of Elena's life. She constantly felt like her bones were pure rubber and that someone was watching her, even if she was alone.

With Elena feeling uneasy, Tom and Lia were unbeknownst to what was about to happen. They had no idea about the whole poisoning situation and Tom still had no clue about the wedding. The threat only made Elena delay the whole conversation with Tom even further and she worried what that man would do if she doesn't inform Tom about the whole wedding. She knew that he'd figure out anyway but she'd have to tell Tom, too.

Lia and Tom were getting along much better than when Tom initially moved in. In fact, on some nights, one of them would sneak into the other's room for the night. None of them minded and only allowed the other one into their room with open arms. Other nights, they both wanted to be alone and they'd just fall asleep with nobody beside them. As much as they'd crave for each other's embrace, they needed their own space too.

You'd think that the two were already a couple but none of them confessed their feelings. None of them knew about each other's feelings and they only knew about their own. No sign of affection has ever spilled out of their mouths such as the three word phrase that would seal it all. They remained as friends but Lia's men even knew that it was more — and they aren't one to care about these things either.

Tom and Elena would cuddle each other or give each other shoulder massages but nothing else ever happened. They pretended as if they were just friends who might have slept with each other one time but that was all.  The thing was that Lia and Tom had their feelings grow further, yet, they never told anyone about it.

Meanwhile, Elena was suffering with that night that haunted her but told nobody. She didn't even tell Chrystal about it either.

Elena and Tom would go to work as usual, serving drinks, cleaning glasses and tables, and mopping the floor. They would talk to each other but never visited the category that Elena's mind was permanently thinking about, secretly. They acted as if nothing was going on in their lives and went on normally as if nothing every happened recently.

Lia wouldn't do much at the bar and would only drop by when she needed something. She went back to not visiting that bar that much and opted for her personal office or her office at the place that her friend, Zendaya, was the manager of. Lia's office there was the coziest and prettiest so she would always drop by there instead of her other places.

Essentially, Lia was too caught up with work to help Elena out with telling Tom. Tom was too busy with work. Elena, busy with the thoughts from a few nights before. Everybody was too busy to help the other out, but that was also a barrier. All of them being kept busy was what prevented the topic that they wanted to talk about the most, to be spoken about to one another.

With all of that going on, Tom still had the time to realize that something was definitely not right about Elena. Nothing about Elena seemed right to Tom since she ditched him in the break room and told him that she went to the ladies. He didn't buy a single word she had said because he could tell that she was lying. He knew exactly what was going on but he didn't know what exactly it was, that Elena was keeping from him. He guessed a thousand things but not all at once. He'd come up with an idea every now and then but would always leave it unfinished, knowing it was too bizarre to be the true reason. He knew she was keeping something but was persuaded that it was less serious than the things he had came up with. If only he knew how wrong he really was about it all. This was much more serious than what he could even begin to imagine. If only Elena could scream it in his ear, she would. She'd yell it in his ear a million times, panicked and wanting him to never forget what she can't erase from her mind. She needed him to react accordingly and wanted repetition to be the thing that persuades Tom into thinking like her. This was wrong in a billion different ways and she swore that if she could go back in time, she'd stop herself from ever being associated with a mob.