Hello Travelers. I am Arie, your humble Keeper whose task is to create and oversee the overall universe of this blog, and the various galaxies housed in it for your own personal jollity and amusement. So you can think of this little blog as both mine and your escape into another realm.
Just for a little background, I am an author who not only enjoys writing, but I am also a psychology girlie. So when I’m not writing you can find me researching and investigating our modern day humanistic inner workings and psyche, while also doing the work to soon become a licensed therapist to help other people of the population.
Below you’ll find different links to different modules that will help you navigate your many travels here and elsewhere.
Happy Travels, Friends.
d i s c l a i m e r & b l o g r u l e s
t a g l i s t p o r t a l
N A V I G A T I O N
visit: days of our love
days of love follows the growth and cultivation overtime of your relationship with none other than the enthralling austin butler.
visit: 4evermore
4evermore follows the journey of dallas dubois and terry richmond throughout their love affair of a lifetime.
To all my moots and favorite writers since yall can't be there in person for my b-day function next weekend just know virtually here on tumblr we throwing something on the grill and turning up!!!
If I forgot anyone, I'm sorry about that (hopefully I'll come back and update)
summary: now faced with the one person dallas has expertly avoided for the last six years, she now must face him, her feelings, and another unwelcomed guest all at once.
pairing: terry richmond x dallas dubois (oc!)
content: ANGST, tension, allusions to childhood trauma, mentions of funeral practices.
note: be advised that while this is considered a main part, there may be references or connections made to weekly interludes that may contain information important to the storyline.
a/n: evening! apparently i don’t know how to queue things right so for the foreseeable future, i’m just gonna do it manually! so i know this update is overdue, but here we are lol 🤷🏾♀️✨hope you enjoy!
p.s: please feel free to comment, like, reblog, or send a letter with any rambles, questions, and more.
Throughout the years, Dallas DuBois had come across a few times where she'd thought of what it might have been like to see Terrance Richmond again.
And out all the scenarios she could've conjured up, with most of the situations being either dramatic or borderline illegal, she had never ran a scenario of running into him during a chilly spring evening while picking out flowers for his Uncle's funeral in comfort travel attire she always wore when she knew she was journeying on a plane ride to get her monthly cracking.
Yet here was, staring at him in all his glory, practically seething at the one thing she couldn't deny.
He looked good....really good.
And that was as far as she was going to let that thought go, not even allowing herself to begin physically describing what he looked like now, instead she began mustering the training she gotten from her chosen career and prepared to cupcake her way through what she planned to be the shortest and most awkward conversation she'd ever have in her life. Just as after all this time he had the audacity to utter...
“ Hi.”
Feeling a special part of her left eye twitch at hearing him speak, Dallas mentally reminded herself to fix her face as she responded, “ Evening.” Dallas nodded, her grip on her keys suddenly tightening.
“ Wow.” He breathed, “ It’s been a…long time..”
“ Yeah it has.” Dallas nodded again, “ Maybe not long enough.” The slightly bitter tasting words sliding off of her tongue before she could even catch them.
She watched a wince—quick but noticeable, of discomfort flash across his face that almost immediately sent her into a short guilty grasp to try and steer the brief interaction back to a more civil tone.
“ I mean. I hate that the reason we ran into each other and that you’re here is for ya know…” She couldn’t bring herself to repeat what they both knew didn’t exactly feel real yet.“ I’m really sorry to hear about Mr. Eddie. He was a good man. He’ll be missed.”
“ Thank you.” He spoke “ I appreciate that.”
“ But I understand what you meant.” He offered her a knowing smile, “ I agree. That it’s a shame that this is the reason we finally see each other after what…six years?”
“ Give or take.” Dallas acknowledged, “But that’s not important. What’s important is that you’re here for Mr. Eddie.”
“ I am.” Terry agreed, “ I’m here to do my duty of honoring him and helping Efrain tie up any loose ends he may have had. But knowing Uncle Eddie I doubt there’s many.”
“ So really I might be looking to tie up a few of my own that I’ve been meaning to get to. That I haven’t quite caught up with yet.” He added, eyes peering and searching her face for the slightest reaction or indication that his statement could chip a small piece of well executed stone face.
But Dallas wouldn't budge. Simply for the fact that she refused to be anyone's loose end to anything. Especially because of how hard she had worked to tailor her life into what it was now.
“ Well I’m sure most of it is in the past.” Dallas shrugged, attempting to actually shrug off any feelings she could sense on her part trying to creep into the conversation, “ Wrap up what you still can and let the rest of it lie where it is, so you can keep moving forward. No sense in dwelling on any of it.”
A statement Dallas wasn’t exactly sure who she was making it to….him or her.
“ I don’t tend to.” She followed up, still attempting to seem as unbothered as could be with the whole interaction. “ I don’t dwell on the past.”
When in reality she knew she could still feel almost every nerve of her body beginning to heat like it was on a low burn at the mere proximity of them being this close together, and she hated it.
Because even after almost six years of trying to hate him, avoid him, and erase him from her mind. Her body still never forgot, unknowingly all those feelings and memories that lied dormant beneath her skin were now starting to warm up at just the sound of his voice and a quick glance into those swirling blue-eyes she wouldn't allow herself much of a look at.
“ Never?” His curiosity piqued, as he took a subtle step forward toward her, just as she took a more noticeable one back.
“ Nope.” The young woman made sure to add a pop to the ‘ P’ within the word for emphasis as she casually turned to touch and examine a bunch of lilacs that sat beautifully within their pot. “ No use for it. All the past does is bog down your future. Keeps your things from growing. Creates dead ends.”
She picked up a singular tiny pink rose from a nearby table, examining the way it had already begun to shed some of its petals, no doubt in an effort to bring forth news ones. More mature ones.
The sight of it made her smile.
“ Even the plants wilt and let go of the past to keep growing, Terry. And so should we.” She placed the rose back, and turned to him nodding, “ No one benefits from holding on to things. Sometimes it’s better to let things go…for good.”
“ Dallas.” The sigh released from his mouth sounded tired—like it was six years worth of trapped air that was finally able to escape his lungs, “ I know you don’t wanna hear anything I have to say, but if you have some time. I know I have some things I need to ex—”
His words are cut off, just as his other half makes an appearance, coming from the direction of where Mrs. Cheryl’s office was in the very back of the store.
Nefari Simms then stood in front of Dallas Dubois in the flesh after almost a decade since they’d been within two hundred feet of one another. A fact that didn’t bother Dallas at all, given she could’ve gone another decade without being in the presence of the girl whose cheery masked cruelty in school, had once been enough to take the breath from Dallas’s lungs.
But that was then, and this was now.
And now, here the young mortician stood tall and proud, no longer the same young girl Nefari had tormented once upon a time.
A point that was noticed by the former cheer captain, as she took in the complete difference in the girl she’d once bullied, with a twinge of something hitting her stomach as she assessed the new…features and changes Dallas’s body had naturally ushered in over the years.
With some features and changes Nefari too had seen happen with her body since their school days, only some of hers had come with a receipt attached.
“ Wow. Little Dallas Dubois.” Her eyes moved faster than her lips raking over Dallas’s appearance, “ I didn’t even recognize you.”
“ Talk about transformation. You look so…different.” She giggled, teeth clenched while her lips struggled to touch together naturally, “ So beautifully grown up, girl. Like the ugly duckling into the pretty little swan.”
At the statement, Terry’s teeth clenched as he grabbed Nefari’s hand, like he had many times before, slyly giving it a subtle squeeze as if to say Relax.
“ Not saying you were ugly girl.” She quickly held up her opposite hand in an attempt to clean it up, “ Puberty was rough for most of us.”
“ However, look at you now.” Nefari laughed with little joy, “I see you, girl! Living proof that you can in fact do a complete 180 in life.”
“ Awe well. Maybe not all of us, Neffie.” Dallas batted her lashes, almond French tips desperately digging into her palm, “ Because you haven’t changed not one bit. I’m sure if they needed more cheerleaders down at the school, you would be able to slip right back in that uniform, girl. And it’d be just like nothing had changed. A real life Norman Osborn.” Dallas joked, ignoring the look Terry pinned to the side of her face at her last statement. Given only those two understood the reference she’d given.
But if she did know, Nefari didn’t make her knowledge of the dig known, instead she grabbed a shovel of her own to use, “ Oh stop.” Nefari smirked, “ I mean I might be able to stick a leg or two in it. But still I haven't changed much. If anything, the biggest change since then is that I’m about to transform from a high school sweetheart to a wife here soon.” The woman wasted no time lifting her left hand for showcasing.
Immediately at the view of Terry’s late aunt’s shinning oval cut wedding ring, Dallas could feel a small part of her stomach churn, with a fleeting thought of what the jewel would have looked like on her own finger coming and going just as fast as it took for Dallas to re-cover from the intrusion.
“ Oh.” Dallas's eyes flickered to Terry then back the ring stuck in her face, “ I hadn’t even heard. Congratulations. Finally set that date huh?” Dallas raised her eyebrows, knowing she’d struck a sore spot in the woman standing across from her.
Since it was always a running joke around town about what would happen first, The Savior’s return or that the Richmond Boy would finally marry that Simms girl he’d proposed to years ago at his open house.
Dallas had been sure to bet on the return of Jesus’s revival tour first, since it for years had seemed like a more sure bet. But now, she was unsure.
“ Well we had always agreed on a long engagement in the first place.” Nefari spoke, moving a hand to touch at Terry’s chest, “ We wanted to make sure we did things when we felt the time was right. And with everything going on, we just thought that it might bring some joy to the family during these times.”
“ Is that right?” Dallas smiled, with not a hint of glee present amongst her shining teeth, “ Well how soon should I be expecting an invitation to this event. I mean I’d hate to miss Savannah Community Highschool’s 2012 Spring formal king and queen tying the knot. Should be quite the affair.”
Her words having more of an empty meaning to them than a Lays chip bag after being sat on.
No weddings would be attended on her watch.
Yet she was amused when Nefari played along, “ Oh girl of course you’ll get an invite. It wouldn’t be right not sending one to you. Can’t forget to invite Terry’s favorite mentee from school! ” Nefari’s eyes danced with amusement of her own now, “ Save the dates should be going out the week after the service. And the date is looking to be July 8th.”
“And I know you two were in the middle of catching up but I’m gonna have to steal him, girl. So we can—
“ Oh it’s no problem, Neffie.” Dallas held up hand, happy to finally be released from whatever the fuck this was.
“ Really. We were all done catching up anyway. Just about tied up all we needed to.” Dallas on her perfectly practiced smile,“ He’s all yours.”
“ Mmmhmm. Don’t I know it. My bear.” Nefari grinned, taking a moment to run a hand across his chest to his face, “ Well it was nice seeing you. I hope we can catch up with each other at the service if it doesn’t get too crazy. You know I’ll be running round’ and making sure my family is taken care of during this time. Especially my Terry.”
“ Well as much as I would have loved to, I actually won’t be able to make the viewings or service due to me having a week long business engagement out of town that just can’t be rearranged.” Dallas shrugged, slowly moving toward the store’s side door.
“ Are you serious?” Her attention cut to Terry who had spoken his first words since Nefari’s appearance into the conversation, “ You really won’t be there.” She watched his face contorted with frown lines etched in somber disappointment.
Dallas did her best to ignore it.
“ Afraid not.” Dallas confirmed, “ As much as I’d love to be there and support. Unfortunately, duty calls. But I’ve already told Mr. Ducane to provide you all with any and everything you could need.”
“ Well thank you, Dallas. We appreciate that.” Nefari's head tilted, but still Dallas never took her eyes away from Terry’s that she could recognize were pleading. “ Right, Terry?”
Pleading for her to be his friend in his ailing hour, but Dallas wouldn’t fall for that.
Not this time.
“ Right.” He spoke, “ We appreciate the hospitality, Dallas. Thank you.”
“ Of course. The least I could do for Mr. Eddie. He deserves that much.” Dallas said, a hint to her voice she hope he’d caught.
“ But I gotta' run to catch my flight tonight. But again should you all need anything, don’t hesitate to call and reach out to the home. Someone will take care of you. Good seeing you two.”
“ Oh well. Safe travels to you, Dallas. And thank you again.” Nefari spoke as the couple began to move away.
“ No problem.” The young mortician waved, “ Don’t think of it! Just focus on getting through this difficult time, so the two of you can heal and go on to start the next chapter of your lives together.” Dallas glanced at Terry before reaching for the shop side door handle, “ Only looking toward the future.”
Southern shade at its finest. Bless ur heart never truly means bless ur heart I fear. And let me fuckin find out ur from Savannah ! I grew up there. Nobody ever mentions Savannah in stories 🥹
you are absolutely correct! if someone is telling you ‘ bless ur heart’ just know that they absolutely just paid a southern Etsy witch to execute your downfall!
so i’m not from savannah! but i did visit some as a child and it was always a great experience! but i think that’s amazing and so special that you grew up there. its such an interesting and little put up town! the people are cool and its so fascinating to talk to them! and i always would imagine stories being set there as a kid just walking or driving around, so when i wanted to write a hometown second chance romance. this setting was a no brainer 😭
now is everything accurate, absolutely not! did i try though, of course! ✨🫶🏾
