In Omnia Paratus Book 3

Tell me about it

"I can't see you." I said wheeling my suitcase around the airport.

"I'm at the Starbucks..." Richard moaned down the phone.

"It's New York, there are literally 15 Starbucks here. Can you find me? I'm at the arrivals door." I pouted.

"Of course I can find you... this why you let someone know you've landed, so that I can meet you there in the first place." Richard sighed.

"I was too preoccupied getting my luggage to text..." I laughed.

"Oh I think I see you..." Richard said.

"Really? I can't see you, where are you?" I frowned looking around.

"Right here." He said from behind me and then before I could hang up, he pulled my phone away from my ear and kissed me.

"God I missed you." I pouted.

"I missed you too." He moaned. "By the way I was in that Starbucks..." he pointed to one that was just behind me.

"Ahh..." I laughed.

- - - - -

"I honestly have never missed you so much." I smiled up at Richard as he had his arm around me as we walked up to his apartment.

"I'm so glad you're here." Richard smiled at me as we went into his apartment.

It was nice for a New York apartment. It would probably cost him the price of my house at home to rent this place but it was still nice.

He gave me a tour of it, a large bedroom and bathroom, a living area as well as quite a big kitchen.

"So this is where you've been living all this time huh?" I smiled sitting down on the sofa and he sat next to me.

"Yep, you like it?" Richard smiled.

"It's amazing. It's weird that you like live by yourself like this but also... we've been doing that for ages already at school." I laughed.

"Yeah it's not too different from university and Ashford but there isn't a cafeteria... but there is delivery services so I eat." Richard smiled.

"I'm glad you're doing ok." I smiled at him.

"How about you? You doing ok?" Richard asked looking into my eyes and I just looked away.

"Yeah not bad." I nodded.

"You sure? You talk if you need to, you know that." Richard said going to get us a drink from the kitchen.

"Yeah of course I'm actually doing good though you know? I'm eating properly and functioning as a human being." I laughed.

"I'm glad to hear it." He said handing me a bottle of water and then kissing me gently.

"I wanted to ask you something and you don't need to answer now, but I need it off my chest..." I explained.

"Go for it." Richard said.

"Um what is it 7 or 8 months since I, well you know..."

"Yeah." He said with a concerned look on his face. "About that long."

"Yes well uh I wanted to ask something about when I went into that unit for a few weeks."

"Is Everything ok jen?" He asked.

"Yeah yeah fine. My therapist she asked me a question the other day and I couldn't answer it because I didn't know..." I said nervously looking at him.

"Right." Richard frowned.

"Do you know what happened? I mean I didn't tell you, I didn't tell anyone... Lily told my dad with the help of Matt and I was away for two or three weeks." I said.

"Well uh lily told me the main gist of it, don't worry." He shrugged.

"I need to ask you a follow up question..." I said.

"I think I know what it's going to be." Richard hummed.

"Do you want to hear it from me?" I blurted out to him.

"I—"

"My therapist... she said it might be easier for me to comprehend what happened if I talk about it you know? And you're the only one I trust. But I get it, if you don't want to hear it I'm fine with that." I said quietly.

"Do you want to talk about that? I'm not sure bringing all that up again is going to make things better..." Richard frowned.

"That's fine, I don't need to say anything. Let's forget this conversation even happened." I smiled at him gently.

"No you misunderstood Jen, I don't mind I really don't..."

"If there's one thing I can say it's that I don't know what lily told you but nothing that happened those few months ago had anything to do with you." I stated clearly.

"Jen unfortunately I know that's not true but I don't want to get into it..." Richard said.

"What?" I frowned at him. "It wasn't about you Richard."

"I know what you told lily. She Tried to tell me as much as possible about what happened and you told her how I didn't call you or make any effort to see you that week, I was off with my friends even though you called and tried to ask for help." Richard hummed.

"Rich, I was out of my mind when I spoke to lily. I literally could hardly string a sentence you think that was true?" I sighed.

"Frankly yes because I was on the other end of that phone call and I'm not going to lie to myself, I heard the panic and stress in your voice but I ignored it when you told me you were fine." Richard admitted.

"Even if you stayed on the phone nothing would be different. You were a good at least 30-40 minute drive away it would have just meant you finding me not Lily." I demanded.

"No that's not true as well. I was a 10 minute car ride away. I was at university jen I lied to you. I was drinking beer with my friends when you called." Richard explained.

"Right well I didn't know that so..." I laughed at him why did he want the blame for this.

"Look I don't want to discuss to be perfectly honest with you jen but if you need to I can of course... I do have a few questions though that if you're up for talking then I wouldn't mind asking." Richard explained confidently

"Perfect ask away." I crossed my legs as I sat next to him on the sofa and I kind of faced him more front on.

"Why didn't you let me see you while you were in that place for 3 weeks? I mean I never asked at the time..." he hummed.

"I didn't see anyone but lily and that was twice a week at most. There was a reason I was in that place and I didn't want anyone to see me in there. Lily came against my wishes and we spoke for 20 minutes? I think." I explained.

"What happened in those three weeks?" He asked.

"I don't..." I mumbled.

"You said you didn't mind talking about it." Richard smiled but I knew he'd never force me to do anything.

"It was the worst few weeks of my life Richard and I'm not kidding." I breathed.

"Can you tell me about it? I mean you don't have to..."

"Yeah I guess I can tell you about it. This isn't going to bum you out for the rest of my trip though is it because I didn't mean for that..." I laughed.

"No I'm interested it's not a sad thing I'm just curious you know?" He smiled.

"Where do I start?"