The sharp trill of her ringtone broke through the song, her phone vibrating angrily against the countertop. “Hold on, hold on, I’ll be right with you!” she told it, easing the last pie out of the oven. Setting it gently on the counter, she grinned, the smell alone making her stomach growl. One hand swept up the flour she’d spilled while the other grabbed her phone, thumb jamming against the screen accepting the call. She’d missed the warning at the top of her phone — DO NOT PICK UP. The series of capital letters in place of his name would have been warning enough if she’d bothered to look at the screen.
“Hello?” Celeste sang into the phone pinning it against her ear with her shoulder. Her hair tumbled past her shoulder, sweeping across her face. She nudged it back with a flour covered hand, nose wrinkling at the fresh white streak, she’d been doing so well too. Celeste dusted her hand off on the front of her apron, before pinching the hair between her fingers, rubbing them together to dispel the flour.
A voice broke over the other end of the phone, their breathing too heavy for her to make out their initial words, “Sorry?” Celeste paused, brow furrowing. Her head lifted long enough to pull her phone away from her face to read the name. DO NOT PICK UP.
“Romi I-” she started, the phone pressed back to her ear. Celeste was open-minded, caring, loving, compassionate, and yet there were still two numbers on her phone that came with a warning. The first was her abusive ex, for obvious reasons, the second was Romil Oza. Though she wasn’t one to argue, something about the male always seemed to push her towards that extreme.
Before she could finish her sentence, Romil was speaking again, there seemed to be an issue with his breathing. The tone of his voice was what made her listen; at least it had until it was cut off.
“Romi! Romil!” Celeste’s voice rose as she rushed from the kitchen, wincing as her hip banged against the counter in her haste. She growled, “Romil, answer me!” when nothing came from it, she ended the call, keys in hand as she burst through the door of her apartment and out into the hall leaving a trail of flour behind her.
Romi fought his way through the fog pulling him under and said up with a gasp and a hiss of pain. Pressing a hand to his side he tried to locate his phone again, he didn’t know if she was coming, he wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. Romi knew that he asked a lot of her, especially when what his brothers were into, what he was into for them, was illegal and caused things like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen, his life turning out like this but they needed his level head in their business because it kept them all from being locked up. Pushing himself from the booth, Romi stumbled his way behind the bar and grabbed a towel, tugging up his shirt he pressed it to slice that arched over his ribs and seemed to still be pouring blood. It was supposed to just be a simple exchange, but nothing was ever simple in this life.












