Rules of Intercourse (3): Breathing On Your Skin, It’s What I Need

Dr. Diego Martinez was following Ashleigh for almost 5 years. She first came to him after her emotional breakdown. She was in a very fragile state and had completely shut everyone out of her life; he practically helped her build her person back up from the dust left from the incident. It was the perfect scenario to obtain the purest of eligible bachelors that Diego was, and Ashleigh of course jumped on the occasion. Don’t get her wrong, she isn’t evil, completely, she just can’t look away because it is said to be incorrect to stare!


Ashleigh watched a redheaded woman leave the doctor’s cabin. She was pale, with little freckles on her cheeks and nose. The woman had wandering eyes, her shoulders were hunched forward, and she held her hands together and took quick shallow breaths as she walked passed Ashleigh. It was as though the frail creature were a child separated from her parents in a mall, shaken and afraid. She made Ashleigh feel uncomfortable. Although the presence of the fragile woman boiled the red river flowing through her body, the sight of the delicateness pricked her like sharp thorns, and so Ashleigh kept staring, completely spellbound. This woman embodied everything Ashleigh hated, everything she loathed in women, yet she could not take her eyes off of her. Soon enough, Ashleigh’s breathing started to match the fragile creature’s, she felt the blood being pumped faster and faster through her vessels. Her breathing started to accelerate, her lungs were about to explode,

- Miss Slayton, are you alright? Miss Slayton?

The receptionist held Ashleigh by the shoulders and shook her until she snapped out of trance. Once Ashleigh became conscious about her surroundings, she quickly got to her feet and gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

- Are you alright Miss??

- Yes, yes I’m fine. She looked around for the little delicate being she was fixated on, I’m perfectly fine.

She said as she noticed her walking out of the doors. Ashleigh finally took a deep breath and walked towards the doctor’s cabin and knocked softly on the door.

- Come in.

She entered the room and closed the door behind her, locking it. Dr. Martinez got off his chair when he saw the pallor of her face and made his way through the office and got to her side. He held her by the hand and led her to the chair in front of his desk. As she sat down, looking out the window, avoiding eye contact with him, he leaned against his desk right in front of her, arms crossed. There was a long silence; she was trying to mask the emotions on her face with every fibre in her body, trying to keep her calm, composed face. While she was wasting her energy trying to hide something beyond her control, he was watching her, contemplating her, taking her in. He could see through the illusion of normal she tried so hard to maintain, he could see right through her. He slowly moved his hands closer towards her then he placed them on the armrests and leaned on to her. He looked at her with his big brown eyes, he took a deep breath and with his divinely melodious and accented voice, he asked her,

- What happened, Ashleigh? What’s bothering you?

- How do you do it Diego? Going through these depressive states of mind over and over, year after year... Don’t you get tired?

- Why is it affecting you so much? This is my profession; this is what I have to do, help those who cannot help their minds.

Ashleigh could not believe that Dr. Martinez didn’t understand why she was upset, why she couldn’t breathe in the waiting room. She looked at him gazing into her blue seas and quickly looked away, out the window once again. Diego stayed exactly as he was, hunched over, holding on to the armrests, imprisoning Ashleigh in her seat. He stood there, listening to the raindrops, hitting the glass violently, fuse to her breathing. He examined her as she swallowed hard and he saw the stress on her forehead, the apprehension in her eye movement. Diego was mesmerized; after all these years, Ashleigh was the same mystery as she once used to be. As always, the sincerity of her emotions was questionable, he was amazed at how she never let him decipher her. When he realised she was beginning to get uncomfortable, she was beginning to shut him out, he gently moved away from her. In that little opening, Ashleigh bounced off the chair and walked towards the far end of the office as to flee from him. Her palms got moist; she wondered when the fun part would start and she would have to quit the front, but she needed to go all the way so she thought it would be better if she trembled while saying,

- I cannot go back there. I don’t want to be that person again, I just can’t be her. All the years in the dark, under everyone... I can’t... she said with the shaky voice of a patient.

Martinez walked up behind her, his hands in his pockets; he was standing a foot away from Ashleigh. He drew a deep breath; he thought she was almost breaking through the shell,

- What can’t you do, Ashleigh? Why must you keep this mask on? Why can’t you let go of all of this? Why is keeping this face so important to you, Ashleigh?

With every question, his voice raised higher and higher. He grabbed her arm and turned her around, forcing her against the wall. Holding her to the wall he looked her in the eyes, bewildered. His breathing was uneven, he was nervous, but this wasn’t about her anymore. He needed to know, why wouldn’t she couldn’t commit to him,

- Tell me. Why are you doing this?

Diego lost all sense of professionalism the second she walked into the room. At that moment, Diego was just a man, a man with passion in his blood, anger in his eyes and an evasive hope in his arms. In those two inches between their bodies were miles worth of distance. For now.