To Caress My Day

A good hour passed before Seth finally emerged from his hotel’s bathroom…with his pants still undone from needing to urgently relieve himself earlier. Still under the effects of god knows how many drinks tonight at the Bachelor Party’s conquest throughout Las Vegas, he stumbled from that spacious room, through his ritzy bedroom, and then into the opulent living room area. On the opposite end of the couch where a quiet Avery was perched plopped Seth with a dopey grin on his face as he stared longingly at her from across the couch. His eyes were very lustful and expressive. “Mmmm, Pixie…how I’ve missed you.”

Frowning at the peculiar pet name that he never called her in the past when they were together, Avery lowered her champagne flute from her lips. She was not about to take advantage of any drunk guy on some one-night stand in Las Vegas. Hell no! One, she wasn’t in love with her ex-fiance anymore. Two, she was extremely in love with Clinton. “Seth, you do know it’s Avery you’re talking to, right? Your ex-fiance, the one you’re no longer together with. We haven’t been in a relationship for a long time now.”

“Avery?” Seth repeated, his brows rising in unison as he gazed at Avery with newfound wonderment in his eyes. At her nod of confirmation, he accepted the blurred figure in front of him to be his ex-fiance and not his future wife. It was a good thing he didn’t act on his first instinct and settled to draw out the passion in him first, or else he’d have already been on top of her. Turning slightly towards Avery with a new approach, he flashed her a cordial grin as he greeted her in a pleasantly amiable voice. “Heeeey, Ave! How are you? God, I haven’t seen you in…in ages!”

My god, the man was so drunk he didn’t recognize her when he first walked in! Avery was astounded to see that he didn’t even remember ever running into her here in Las Vegas, to begin with. Not seeing the harm in playing along with this resumed and innocent chat, she smiled at him. “I’ve been fine, Seth. My business is doing wonderful these days too and…”

Avery had to stop herself there. Even with the alcohol flying through her system, her gut was telling her not to casually drop Clinton’s existence on Seth. He was, after all, the very man she was having a hidden liaison with and was the reason she jilted the acclaimed Family Guy Creator in the first place. She yearned to be officially Clinton’s, no longer Seth’s anymore. So she did the unthinkable.

“And?” Seth murmured as his body began to lazily dip down the couch. He had to angle his head back towards her as his body declined downwards just to be able to look at her through eyes that were barely open anyway.

Avery’s heart was battling it out against her gut's instinct to keep tight-lipped…and was prevailing. She had no idea how Seth was going to bear the news even now that they’d been separated for so long. But she had to take that leap. Tentatively, she divulged everything, her anxious eyes latched on Seth’s features as dread compiled in a nauseous ball in her belly. She was fixated on the expressions that would display themselves on his face once she dropped the news. “And I’ve been…seeing someone new. Someone that I’ve grown to care deeply for and cherish very much.”

Seth was mum for a while, the words taking their time to sink into his slowed alcohol-riddled brain. When it finally registered though, he finally responded to the unexpected information with a gasp of surprise followed by a grin. As bizarre of a sight as it was, Seth was undeniably overjoyed at the tremendous news. “You are!? With whom?”

Taken aback by the absence of jealousy on his part and what it could mean, Avery stuttered out her lover’s name, uncertain of what else to answer with. “C-Clinton.”

Seth’s grin faltered before he tilted his head back on the couch to place just where he heard that name before. It sounded so familiar! No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t identify the face of the guy with that name. With a shake of his head, he gave up and conceded. “I uh…I don’t think I know the guy…I can’t picture his face.”

Amused, Avery rolled her eyes at her pitiful Seth. As alleviated as she was now that her ex finally knew about Clinton, she wasn’t about to go into the backstory of their love story. No doubt those elements would provoke an outcry in this hotel room and rightfully so. Deciding to swap gears to listen to more of Seth’s mystery girlfriend instead, Avery inquired. “So, how have you been doing?”

Seth chuckled to himself. He couldn’t help it whenever the warm rush strewed throughout his body every time his mind went to Twigs. Turning his eyes to the million-dollar Las Vegas vista in front of him, he stretched his arms wide to it and declared. “I’m doing awesome!”

Laughing softly at how goofy he was acting, Avery began to drill deeper for more info. One way or another she was gonna find out something about his girlfriend. “And your career with FOX Studios? How’s that going?”

“It’s going great!” Seth replied to her before turning his head to grin at her like a child that won their first-ever prize. “But what's best of all is that I’m in love, Ave! I’m in love!”

Startled by his admission and how little it took to get to this fascinating piece of his life, Avery stared at Seth like he lost his mind. She didn’t think he’d be in love only months after their breakup! She supposed now that he was utterly intoxicated she could try and get a name out of him on the woman accountable for winning his heart. She didn’t want to visualize the face of this exceptional woman, she wanted to glimpse it for herself. Turning on her side of the couch towards him, she leaned over a bit with a conspiratorial grin and whispered. “Okay. So what’s her name?”

“Shhh!” Seth suddenly hushed her with a finger over his mouth. Sitting up, he quickly scoured over his couch in his hotel room, checking around for anyone who could be eavesdropping on their talk. He didn’t catch Avery doing the same thing too, wondering what he was looking for when they were both alone in his hotel room. Verifying for himself that they were indeed alone, Seth leaned over a bit and whispered to her with a hand cupped over one side of his mouth. “She’s a Goddess.”

Having been almost at the fringe of her seat in anticipation of an answer, Avery slumped back in defeat onto the couch, looking insulted at the outcome. Here she was thinking she was about to finally get some juicy details on this unknown woman, and all she got was ‘she’s a Goddess’. The man was undoubtedly inebriated talking about some utter nonsense! But…just in case, she had made sure. “Are you being serious right now?”

Seth nodded before he dropped the most significant bombshell of the night with a grin that could outshine the sun. “I’m gonna marry her!”

Gaping at him again because he had once again lost his mind, Avery leaned over in her seat to whisper to him like two girls sharing some deep-seated secrets during what was supposed to be an innocent slumber party. “Marry her? As in take as your wife and you as her husband?”

Seth nodded, unable to brush the fanciful grin off of his face. He was sure he looked hilarious but he couldn’t help himself. Twigs made him feel this way! Like a schoolgirl in love for the first time.

“Have you asked her already?” Avery inquired, feeling her heart race at the idea of her ex-fiance marrying someone else. She wasn’t bothered that he was gonna walk down the aisle with another woman that wasn’t her. No, she was concerned that he might be moving on too damn fast and would end up broken-hearted or possibly destitute if she turned out to be a gold digger after his money! Yes, they were no longer together and so he wasn’t her problem anymore but…she gave four years of her life to him so turning her back 100% on him was not feasible right now. People have come and gone in her life, but not Seth, never Seth.

Seth shook his head, his smile finally wilting for the first time since he sat down with her. Averting his eyes, he chose to gaze at his pricey view of Las Vegas as it scuttled down below in the night rather than for her to see the crestfallen look on his face. He hated considering the cons of marrying Twigs. They only helped to dampen his mood. “No.”

“Is she ready for a major commitment like marriage?” Avery asked Seth, beginning to sift here and there in his mind to narrow down to the key answer. She discerned she was getting closer to it, all she had to do was carefully move her pieces on the chessboard and soon enough she’d checkmate him.

Closing his eyes, and leaning his head back, Seth exhales a wearied sigh. “I hope so.”

And hope was all Seth could do at this point. He’d BEEN ready to get married to Twigs. Hell, it might have been from the first moment he saw her at that cafe in London! But getting married was a two-way street. It didn’t matter that he was ready, they both had to be in order to make such a big commitment. Because of who he was and that he was famous, it made taking that dive complicated for Twigs. She’d always lived a confidential life, but being with him would bring every paper trail on Tahliah Barnett Debrett out into the open for the whole world to judge and pick apart. Seth loathed it too! He wanted the world to see her as he did, the embodiment of perfection and love.