The Beauty in Eternity

Chapter 103.

Amara's POV:

The door opens and Steve walks through. It's still early morning, the girls are all packed up and ready to go home. He opens his arms, expecting them to run to him... but they don't. His eyes land on Dahlia who is sitting contently on Mason's lap—they linger there for a second. "We want to stay here," Isabella says, and Steve chuckles lightly.

"Too bad, Izzy." he smiles.

"Stay." Dahlia repeats, smacking her hands down onto Mason's arms which secure her.

"I feel the love, girls. I really do." Steve shakes his head with a laugh.

Izzy comes closer and wraps her arms around me. "Visit soon." she says softly.

"Promise." I smile, doing our little ritual.

Dahlia climbs into my lap and rests her head against my chest, closing her eyes. Nap time, I see. I watch as Isabella makes her way over to Mason, pausing before giving him a tight hug. He hugs her back, without any hesitation. I can see the surprise on Steve's face, and maybe even a little anger—but he smiles anyway, for his daughters sake.

"Will you come back and visit with Mar?" she asks him.

"If you want me to."

"—I do want you to."

"Okay, then I will." he tells her softly.

She smiles before making her way over to her dad, as do I. I carefully hand a now sleeping Dahlia to Steve and give Isabella one last kiss goodbye. "How are you?" he asks me.

"I'm okay. I loved having them here."

He kisses my head and squeezes my arm gently. "You really do have to visit soon, okay?"

"I will. I promise."

"Back to work tomorrow, I assume?" he glances over my shoulder to Mason.

"Yep." he nods reluctantly. I know he can't think of anything worse than looking to Steve as a boss.

"Good."

I close the door behind him and take a deep breath in. The quiet seems strange now. I walk to the fridge and open it, looking for something, anything to eat—I think we forgot to actually feed ourselves this morning. "There's nothing there," I groan. "They ravaged this place."

Mason chuckles and makes his way over to me. "We can go to the store." he suggests as he leans against the counter. The idea gets me excited. Which is really sad, come to think of it. I don't know why it's the simple things with Mason that make me so happy. I think it's the normality of it—shopping with your partner. Among all the craziness, there's that piece of normalcy.

—————

As we wander around the store at a snails pace, like every time Mason and I go shopping together, I hear my name. I look up from the cart to see a face I didn't think I'd ever see again—Jen, more commonly known as my therapist.

"Amara! You look amazing. It's lovely to see you again." she says softly with a wide smile.

"Jen, thank you," I return the gesture. "It's lovely to see you too."

"I couldn't find the fruit ones, will these do?" Mason interrupts as he returns with a box of cereal. He looks up to see Jen, and her face drops completely—making a confused look appear on his face.

It was at this moment I realised. I can see her processing. The accent, the tattoos, the down to a T description that I gave of him countless times solidifying who is standing in front of her. The very man she helped me grieve when I was positive that he was dead. Breakdown after breakdown, sobbing into her leather chair and begging her to make the pain stop. To say she looks shocked is an understatement.