"What are you telling me to do?" It was very early in the morning and she was confused. Callan was hauling her up from the bed and right into the bathroom. He passed her toothbrush to her, took his from the rack and started to brush his teeth. Orla fumed in anger but she didn't squabble over it, she brushed her teeth and went back into the bedroom. "So, what now?" Her eyes burned into his.
"I got some clothes for you. You are working out with me this morning." He finalized, stooping to buckle up his sneakers. "Come on, go get dressed." He nudged his head towards her closet. "I have noticed that you don't work out and maybe that's why those nightmares keep recurring. I did some research while I was away.”
Everything Callan was saying to her sounded funny and strange. She studied his expression to grasp the humor in his face but he was dead serious. No smiles, no jokes.
She sighed and said. "Research about what?"
"About why you keep on having constant nightmares." He said it so easily before he could take back his words. He didn't want to give her the impression that he cared about her, but too late, she got that already.
"I don't understand what you are trying to do, Callan." She pulled her closet open and the first pieces of clothing her eyes caught were a pair of sports trousers and a matching sports bra. "I don't even know what to do." She muttered as she picked them up.
She had never engaged in workouts all her life. The highest she had done in exercising was to perform in school sports when she was in high school and she didn't last in the volleyball team because she was too weak to handle the high energy from players.
"I have to be at work before 9AM." She gave him a side glance and their gazes met. "You have to hurry up and meet me in the gym." He placed his hands on his sides and sighed when Orla didn't respond. He moved closer to her and closed the distance between them. "Don't run away from me, I just want to help." They looked into each other's eyes for the longest time before they broke their gaze and Callan left the room in anticipation of Orla in the gym.
Her irregular breath returned to normalcy immediately after Callan stepped out of the room. Her eyes remained on the door, she was trying so hard to understand what Callan was doing and why he had suddenly changed towards her.
He wasn't one to care about her, but whatever the reason for the sudden change was, she loved it and didn't want it to end. But even as she wished that Callan would always care about her, she knew deep down that whatever it was would be transient. No one had ever loved her or cared about her for too long. They always stopped after a while.
She donned her clothes and fitted the sneakers into her feet. Striding towards the mirror side, she took a proper look of herself before she walked out of the bedroom to join her husband who had been waiting for her.
"Come over here," Callan gestured to her when she walked into the gym house.
That was her first time there and she was still in awe of the setting of the gym house. Everything was in order like a standard gym.
Orla marvelled at how everything in Callan's house was so perfect. Whatever he did, he did so well and that was a big inspiration to her.
She matched between the exercise bike, treadmill, set of barbells and dumbells, and rowing machine and finally she was in front of Callan.
"Good," Callan's eyes scanned Orla from up to down.
Her ginger hair was packed in a bun and tightly knotted with a headband that matched the pink colour of her outfit. The sports bra covered only her chest and her boobs and all other parts of her upper body were bare. The trousers were a bit bigger than her but not too obvious and down to her pink sneakers.
She looked casual, like a regular girl preparing for her early morning workout session with her fitness coach.
"What do I do?" She asked when she was right in front of him.
"We will start with soothing Yoga, do you know that?"
Orla scoffed, she didn't work out like other girls but she sure knew a lot about workouts. "I do but I don't work out, Callan."
"Does it matter if you don't?" He queried, his eyes ogling her body. "What we are doing is yoga, the exercise won’t stress you out. They will help you relax and calm your nerves."
"Callan, I don't think I need this." She protested, wiggling her head in irritation.
"You do, you do need it." He hated that she always had to argue whenever he tried to help her. "I want to teach you the basics now and you will continue it when you want to sleep at night. You will do this morning and evening every day, let's see what happens after a week." He said sternly, ignoring her inaudible grumbles.
He had searched online and yoga was one of the therapies to reduce the chances of getting a bad dream. He didn't know if that would work, but she could try and he so badly wanted to help her.
He had seen the fear that gripped her when he walked into the house the night before, how she held him as if her life depended on him. He was terrified and he wanted to do something to stop the dreams that kept haunting her.
"And you have to talk about it, Orla." He said when she looked at him. "Maybe not now but I will listen to you whenever you want to talk about it. You can only overcome your fears if you list them out or tell other people who are willing to help about it. Let's start with yoga and with time, I will get you a therapist or…" He paused, nibbling his lower lips.
"Or what?" She squinted, equally biting her lips.
Callan smiled briefly. Shrugging, he said. "I can be one to you if you'd let me."
At that moment, she knew she couldn't trust his words, he was acting too cool, far different from the Callan she knew.
"What's the first step?" She asked.
"Yeah, corpse pose. Ape my pose." He laid on his back and stretched out his hands by his sides. He straightened his legs and looked back at Orla who was battling with stretching her legs. He figured that it wouldn't work that way, so he backed off and decided to put her through the process.
After Orla had successfully gotten the pose, he sat close to her and looked at her as she stared up at the ceiling.
"What do you have on your mind?" He asked and she said nothing, her eyes intently on the ceilings. "What do you see? The people who haunt you in your dreams, can you see them?" She shook her head and secretly smiled.
What was he doing? "No, I can't see them."
"What do you see then?" He asked again.
She suddenly turned her eyes to him, enlarging them to scare him off but he didn't waver. He held her down and looked into her eyes. "What do you see, Orla?" His voice was soft, soothing her heart.
"You, Callan. I see you, just you and only you." They fixed their gazes on each other, their hearts heavily beating.
Callan reached for her hair, brushing his fingers through her head.
He inched closer when she moved her head up to meet his eyes. "What do you see?" He repeated.
"Callan," it came out as a whisper. "I see Callan."
The emotion was so strong he couldn't control it now. He held her face and looked into her eyes, "Slow girl." He had never been that attracted to anyone in his life.
He tried so hard to Quench the fire of desire that burnt within him, but all efforts were futile. He gingerly pushed away the tendrils that covered her pretty face and shut his eyes. He might later regret what he was about to do but right now, it felt like the best thing to do.
Orla bit her lips. She already figured that something more would happen and before she could process what it was going to be, Callan pulled her closer and covered her mouth with his.
She felt the wetness of Callan's lips on hers, totally numbing her senses. It was hot, something more than hot… It was sensual.
She looked into his eyes, capturing the plea for him to go on and without thought, she fully gave in, letting him kiss her the way he wanted to.
It began simple and innocent, igniting her soul with vigorous flames. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss with the little skill that she had about kissing.
Her heart was throbbing, so hard, too hard but it didn't matter now. Kissing Callan was something she had fantasised about for a long time after their wedding and it was finally happening.
The fact that Callan took her unaware set her heart aflutter, causing butterflies to erupt in her stomach.
She gave in harder, relaxing and giving way for him to totally consume her lips on his commands. It got more intense, and heated and she absentmindedly let out a moan, but Callan pulled away.
He hopped to his feet and said, "There is something else and…" He knew he was fucked at this point. It was risky, he was falling for this tiny woman and there was no way he could stop himself.
"What's that?" Orla asked, blinking her eyes. Her heart was still beating hard, She never thought Callan would kiss her, but now that he had, she wanted more from him.
Callan looked at her, "Balanced breathing, that's the next exercise." He ran his fingers through his hair and heaved a drained sigh.
This woman was doing too much to him but she was irresistible.
He wanted more just as she did.