To Caress My Day

On a Monday night in early March, Twigs deliberately stayed up later than she probably should have to video call her boyfriend. After what felt like forever, she was finally given an instant to spend some time with Seth, and if it required her to stay up past her scheduled bedtime then she would damn well do it!

Within her cold trembling slender form, Twigs could feel a glimmer of warmth the second the call started and opened to Seth’s bedroom in his Beverly Hill Mansion. He was presently getting himself ready for work while filling her in on what he’s been up to since they were last able to talk to one another. Twigs sat there soundlessly in her robe and messy bun, watching him, taking every detail in because she had missed him so dreadfully since their last video call back on Valentine days. She was so immersed with simply viewing him that she didn’t hear a word he said for the longest until he brought up Las Vegas.

“So anyway, one of my coworkers recently let me know he’s getting married to his highschool sweetheart.” Seth updated her as he pulled on a gray T-Shirt, and then went back into his walk-in closet to select a pair of jeans to wear next. “They’re both planning their bachelorette and bachelor party to be in Las Vegas at the same time, but in different locations.”

“That sounds cool.” Twigs answered faintly, letting the sound of his voice wash over her like a warm weighted protective blanket. It was growing to be an essential compulsion to hear his voice these days. It seemed to be the only quick fix to keeping her from weeping. Between physically needing her man to be here with her, and the recently confirmed news of her mother’s Thyroid Cancer, Twigs was a ticking time bomb waiting to discharge. Her brain kept screaming at her that her mother was going to certainly perish from this disease. Every single day! She had been on the brink of losing her sanity a minute before Seth texted her to let her know he was available to video call soon.

“I don’t plan on staying too long. Can’t really at a time like this when work needs me so I’m probably gonna stay overnight in Vegas. Unless of course somebody manages to get me drunk off my ass then depending on how that goes it might be two nights instead.” Seth chuckled to himself as he tugged on his jeans. Because his girlfriend seemed awfully quiet on her end, he spared a fleeting glance in her direction and froze on the spot. There were tears rolling down her face, tears that she didn’t at all seem to want to withhold from him if she at all knew they were there. Seth’s smile dropped as he rushed over to crouch down in front of his laptop that was open on his nightstand. “Tahliah, honey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing is wrong.” Twigs deluded with a smile to match, shaking her head. “I’m just fine.”

“You’re lying.” Seth pressed, his tone becoming stern due to her prompt deceit. “I can see you crying right in front of me.”

Crying?

Placing her fingers on her cheeks, Twigs felt the tears Seth had referred to, and mentally cursed herself for not having detected their escape earlier. Using the back of her hands, she blotted them from sight while issuing a whispered apology for their presence. “I-I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to hear an apology from you, Tahliah.” Seth expelled her reply with a wave of his hand. There were more crucial matters to unearth, such as why she was so upset in the first place and what he could do to make everything better. “I want to know what's going on.”

Stalling for more time, Twigs went silent. She clashed with herself on whether or not she should report to Seth about her mother’s condition. Knowing her boyfriend the way she did, he wanted to do anything within his power to save the day even if that meant paying for ALL of her mother’s operations himself.

Lord knows Twigs didn’t want to burden the man she loved with something as horrible as Cancer! He already had to go through it in the past with his own mother, and she couldn’t fathom how he had handled it then, nor if he’d even wanna go down a similar road like that again for her sake.

“Tahliah, baby, please.” Seth whispered tenderly, leaning further towards the screen with brown eyes emanating concern for her. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Twigs had no idea what was going to fly out of her mouth when her lips parted at his plea, but what did turn out not to really be a lie after all. “I just…I just miss you so much, Seth. It’s really hard, you know?”

“God, I miss you too, Pixie.” Seth exhaled with both relief that her adversity wasn't something far worse, and with crippling depression because he felt the exact same way. He found his days were much painless when he was too preoccupied to even think of his next meal. “I kinda wanted to leave this as a surprise to you, but…you look like you can use a pick-me-up. I’m planning on dropping into London to see you soon. In fact, I’ve been doing a lot of overtime to make sure that can happen with no interruptions.”

“Really? You have?” Twigs managed to gasp out, her tears threatening to return but for a different reason. These were joyous tears.

“For fucking years it feels like, yes!” Seth jested with a laugh that didn’t reach its full potential. Seeing her somber had reduced his spirits, and made him feel raw with the anguish of being without her again even after having leveled it out. “I told you this year was gonna be a busy one for me.”

Twigs nodded in remembrance, her fingers pulling at the hem of her oversize cream sweater. “I didn’t think…it’d be this busy.”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be.” Seth grumbled to himself, rubbing a hand over his weary face. “But nevertheless I’m determined to make this work. To make us work regardless of how busy I get. I have zero intentions of throwing in the towel on our relationship anytime soon, Tahliah.”

“Neither do I!” Twigs swore to himself passionately, wiping another round of fresh tears from her wet cheeks. “I don’t want to give up on us either. Busy or not.”

“And yet I can tell it has taken a toll on you.” Seth noted as his eyes swept over her frail form shrouded under a thick cream sweater, and her usually defined curls a frizzy dull mess plopped in disarray on top of her head. “Call me selfish if you want for what I’m about to say to you, Tahliah, but I have to say it. Don’t give up on me. Please, baby, I need you to wait just a little bit longer. Can you…can you just stretch your patience a bit more past your limits for me?”

Twigs closed her eyes to shut his face out. It was so desperate and in so much agony it made her want to fall off the bed from the blow of it. He thought she was on the brink of giving up on him, but he was so far from the truth. She missed him dreadfully, but not to the point of wanting to sever their relationship. Her lie is why he was in the state he was in now, why he was thinking she was gonna leave him.

“I promise, Seth. I promise I’ll try and make it just so long as…” Twigs cleared her throat to banish the watery tone away. “Just so long as you take me into your arms the next time we see each other and not let me go until you have to return to America.”

Seth tried to manage his typical infectious grin. “I promise you, Tahliah, that our clothes will be shed off the moment we’re together again, and we will not leave your bed until it’s time for me to go back to America.”

Twigs couldn’t contain the laugh that burst past her full lips as she threw her head back. “Jesus, Seth! Is that all you think about?”

“No, I think of everything else too!” Seth childishly defended himself, his spirits soaring skyward at the melodic sound of her laughter. “Your melodic voice that’s like a grand orchestra to my ears. The sound of your laughter that has created dozens of new planets alone. Your smile that can light up the solar systems. Your mesmerizing body in and out of clothes…damn, I’m getting hard just thinking about you.”

Once again, Seth had Twigs laughing, the tears in her eyes glittering with a rejuvenated jovial purpose.

Parting his lips to proceed onward with his mission to chase her misery away, Seth’s phone went off in an alarm that notified him that his time was up. He had to get to work or else he’d be late. Letting out a groan that their day was back to being a gray rain cloud without each other, Seth rambled in irritation. “Stupid fucking clock moving too damn fast every single time I’m trying talking to you, but remains slow as hell whenever I just so happen to be stuck in a goddamn meeting!”

Twigs understood his meeting, and nodded in concurrence. “Yeah…it be like that sometimes.”

“I love you so much, Tahliah.” Seth told her passionately. “Hold on for me. I’m coming soon.”

“I hope so, and I love you too.” Twigs said forlornly as they wished each other a good day. As soon as the video call ended, and she was back to staring at her laptop’s background, her shoulder slumped in depression as she let out a sigh. She missed him. Her world always went back to being cold without him.