"DON'T YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW UNPROFESSIONAL IT IS TO RECIEVE FLOWERS FROM YOUR BOSS?"

Chrissy came into my view at once. I was in our shared suite toying around with the tiara Aro had gifted to me less than a week ago. Her question caught me off guard. A short shiver ran down from my head to the base of my spine as her words sunk in.

No, I didn't, actually. Plenty of bosses have given me presents in the past. Sure, not a fancy vase with flowers, but something for my work. Oftentimes a parting gift.

"It's not that big a deal, Chrissy. Plus, I don't even know which boss they came from." She gave me a haunting look. "The note was stolen."

An exasperated sigh came from my ex-girlfriend as she pounded her hand against the wall a bit too harshly.

"No note, vase of flowers. We could've figured this all out by now without your running away from the problems I point out. How do you find this -" Chrissy paused for a second, "- pleasing behavior to surround yourself with?" she asked rather cruelly. "River, you cannot possibly find any of these men making a move on you as attractive. They're old, likely married, and trust funded since their birth."

"They're not old. Aro's likely the oldest and can't be older than thirty," I pointed out.

Came her second remark on their attractiveness even I hadn't glossed over in my brain. Why does that matter so much to Chrissy? Does she fear I have feelings for my own bosses? All three of them, or just one.

"You're giving me the look." I could tell she dreaded every word that was flowing from her full lips. "Like last time. That damned expression again. Face all stupidly flushed with the twinkle in your right eye. Damn you, River."

"I don't have a twinkle in my eye," I denied. "None at all. I don't have feelings for my bosses, Chrissy. Yeah, they look like Greek gods, but so does everyone else who works with me."

Chrissy let out another sigh. I could tell she was holding herself back from saying something offensive.

"You don't even realize it yet. It's so obvious to everyone around you except for you that you're starting on a path that..." She looked down at the ground before returning to glare at me, "...will end up getting you in the same position as you were in six months ago."

My chest tightened at the mention of our past. Using that against me, it really hurt. That stung. Not being able to escape someone who claims to love you, who says they want the best for you. When that person drains every ounce of your self worth while saying they're making you into your perfect self... That isn't what this job is.

"I'm not going to be trapped ever again, do you understand?" I seethed.

A losing argument, this was, and I didn't want to be a part of it any longer. So what if Chrissy didn't believe me? A spout of her paranoia is just like a weed that will be pulled up with a logical wind. I'll just wait and give her that air to calm down. I need it myself.

"I need air," I whispered. "I'll talk to you later."

---

A DAY PASSED AND CHRISSY FELT MORE ANXIOUS THAN EVER.

To be fair, she didn't have much energy to do much that day. But in the corner of her mind she remembered the argument, examined how River acted. She'd gotten too used to reading people.

Chrissy knew, though, that she was right. There's no other explanation for her friend's bosses' behavior than this. Why else does someone send flowers to a young girl? Who gives someone an expensive tiara for no reason?

It felt like a spiral. Meddling in River's private life wasn't what she wanted to be doing. She hated invasion of privacy. Having grown up with helicopter parents, she knows how it feels. It's belittling to your character to have another act like they get to be in your personal space at all times.

Even with that, this is a question of safety. How long would River be safe? When will the shadow creeping at every corner take her back into it's lair?

What makes it worse is that they're in another country. In any other circumstance they'd be in America, where Chrissy could simply walk across the street and find Carlisle in his office to ask for his wise old soul for advice. Now, they're both stuck across the ocean to figure out things for themselves.

But it didn't have to be that way.

Having gained some courage, Chrissy stumbled over to the small but bulky phone that laid on her nightstand and opened it up. It didn't take much effort to find the app used to call Carlisle and turn that baby on.

There it was, Carlisle's number on her speed dial. How many times had she had to call him six months ago, when this was all happening? Too many times. Plus, he had knowledge of Italy. He mentioned a few times that he'd spent time in Volterra, near the heart of the city.

She hoped she wasn't intruding on sleep or anything important. Then again, Carlisle's up at all hours of the night for some reason. She'd never seen that man head out to go to sleep in her short time knowing him. Neither had River.

Right, she had to tell him about what was happening with River. That's her top priority. The girl over her head.

What happened with their last boyfriend, the man who Chrissy was still trying to block out, ruined River's sense of judgement more than anything else in her life. And now she's repeating the pattern, going down the path of no return with men who Chrissy isn't sure have what's best for her at the front of their minds.

Oh, the original tragedy happened during their freshman year of college. Two bright eyed students with amazing futures in front of them. That first semester River and Chrissy met at a coffee bar and immediately hit it off. Within two weeks they'd confessed their feelings for each other. God, by the end of first term they'd both done everything possible while maintaining 4.0 GPAs.

Who would've known that a night out to a college party would've brought them both to the house of one of the professors at their school. He'd been kind enough to pick them up when they'd been pass out drunk and making out every chance they could get.

Older, rich men lose their appeal after maybe the first few months of dating them. The richer, the longer, but it all dies away if they're shit. Money can't give you a loving personality.

Though, Chrissy couldn't deny that the honeymoon phase of their three way relationship didn't give her a high. Love, affection, gifts worth a fortune each time. Dinners, all of that sort. It was a secret, of course, because their boyfriend was a professor at their college. Astronomy, able to work at night.

Maybe he was better with his students than he was with them. But how could someone so revered during the nighttime bliss be such a domestic terrorist during the day?

A shiver ran down Chrissy's spine as the memories rushed through her. She almost couldn't keep the black phone stable in her small hands. Every instinct told her to run as she remembered. These were things to be left in the past.

She would never let herself or River go through that again. She'd rather die than let her get mixed up inside of another emotional black hole that eats through your soul and sanity.

In Chrissy's mind, River's pattern of behavior had to be a result of what happened to them. Looking for someone similar, comforting to the inner darkness. Chrissy wouldn't be able to look at those three men after today, the eerie nature of their being setting a flame to her haunting paranoia. 

It had to have taken at least half an hour for Chrissy to slow her heartbeat enough to be able to not drop to the ground the second she tried to make a move. Her slim fingers wrapped irrationally tight around the phone; her knuckles were pure white. As they loosened, the dark-haired woman let out a deep breath.

"You've reached the line of Carlisle Cullen, how may I help you?"

---

Hello everyone! I got back from my summer camp experience on August 5th, but I came back really sick. The last night of camp I had to be in the infirmary because I had a bad fever. I'm doing better now, but I hate the stuffy nose that I currently have.

Now we're going through at the end the stuff I wrote at camp on tiny papers that came from a notepad I bought at the camp canteen during one of our cabin's canteen runs. There's about 1700 words worth of that, so not so much, but it's something.

Hope everyone has been enjoying their summer!

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