I groaned as the bright ray of morning beated against my eyelids.I haphazardly threw my arm across my eyes and rolled into the back of my couch, trying to hide from the obnoxious sunlight. Due to the fact that my couch was much too small for my much larger frame, I was barely able to get any sleep last night with my feet dangling way off the end of the couch. My entire body was definitely aching from this damned couch. I wondered if the other two had a good night's sleep. I hoped they did, especially after all the stress they had gone through yesterday. But, at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they freaked out from waking up in an unfamiliar environment today. My mind drifted off, considering several things that I could potentially do to try to help ease their nerves. Maybe I could make them breakfast...But I had nothing in my apartment...Should I hop out to one of the nearby grocery stores and quickly pick up some stuff? But if they accidentally woke up while I was ou
Shit, this wasn't how I wanted her to find out. If it were up to me, I would've never wanted this situation to happen in the first place, for her sake. She didn't seem like someone who liked to the center of attention and I didn't her to be unnecessarily bombarded by paparazzi just because she was seen with me. But what's done is done. I let out a heavy sigh as I quickly turned my phone off, blackening the screen. When I turned around to glance down at her, she was still staring at the blank screen of my phone with her eyebrows completely scrunched up and her thumbnail locked between her teeth. I gently pulled her finger out of her mouth, not wanting her to hurt herself from chewing on her nail. I softly apologized, "I'm sorry, Ms. Belcalis. I should've been more careful." Her hand tightened, squeezing only two of my finger in her little hand. She looked up with bright violet eyes, quivering as tearing threatened to spill. "I-I... Um... Y-you..." I lightly brushed the tears out o
"So, do you have any woman in your life yet?" Huh? My hands stilled on the chopping board, not expecting such a sudden question from my mother while I was helping her prep the ingredients for tonight's dinner. I thought I had already finished all her questions when I first walked through the front door. She had already asked me about my work and my date with Mellisa's daughter. I thought she was already satisfied with the answers when she dropped the questions and told me to help her with dinner instead. My mother continued stirring the pot and repeated, "Do you think your own mother wouldn't notice the leaked picture of you with some woman? I know that Joseph is good, but my PA is better." I silently cussed in my head and looked back down at the half-chopped vegetables on my board. I didn't expect her to catch the picture so quickly when it had only been on the internet for less than 5 minutes. "So, who is she? You never date unless I force you and always go to your events with
I don't think I have been as nervous as today since I first met one of my father's business friends back from when I was still only 14 years old. I had changed my outfit 3 times already and fidgeted with my cuffs more times than I could count. Would she like the outfit? It was just a simple button-up shirt along with an oversized coat and some slacks. It wasn't all that different from my usual outfits or full-on suits for work. Would she think that I didn't put too much effort into my outfit and looked too boring?No, no, no. I shouldn't be thinking like that. Ms. Belcalis wouldn't be a person like that. I nervously glanced down at the bouquet of flowers in my arms. I ended up grabbing a set from a flower shop along the way out of instinct: a bouquet of lilacs intermixed with a few strands of lavender because of how they reminded me of her eyes. But did she even like flowers? It was such a cliché gift for the first date. A book probably would've been better for her... I had never
Stopped at a red light, I glanced over to my passenger passed out on side of my car. Miss Danary was completely tuckered out after our date, falling asleep almost instantly the moment I started driving.She had spent the last couple of hours exploring the bookshelves at the café and telling me all about her favorite books and pointing out the ones she had a home. She was so excited by the collection of rare books and new up-and-coming ones that she barely even sat down to take a single sip of water. She dragged me from one shelf to another without any resistance. Leaning against me as she reached for certain paperbacks on the higher shelves. Talking to me with barely any stutter. It was almost as if she had forgotten her fear of being around men. It was the complete opposite of her usual timid demeanor. It was like I saw her for the first time, the real Miss Danary beneath all her protective walls. However, our time was cut short when she realized that it was already 3 PM in the
"Sir, is there something going on that I don't know about? You've been working since morning without even stopping for lunch."Joseph peered down at me concerningly with his tablet pressed tightly against his chest and a coffee cup held out in his hand. He set the coffee down on my desk with a worried glance at the stacks of files on either side of me. I graciously accepted the cup and reassured, "It's nothing. I'm just trying to go home a bit earlier this week." I've been trying to finish my work faster so I could leave work with Danary and go to her house to visit Liam in the evenings. It was something that had quickly become routine since the night Liam asked me to stay with them. Even though it was just having some home-cooked dinners together, I didn't want to give it up for a bunch of paperwork that could be done at a different time. It just felt much more heart-warming to eat a meal that we cooked together than sitting in my cold office to eat by myself, even though those bo
Croissants. Croissant donuts. Pain au Chocolat. Baguettes. It wasn't exactly the type of sweets that they preferred...Danary asked me if I wanted to join her and Liam on their weekend trips to a library, to which I eagerly accepted. Apparently, there was a lecture that Liam was interested in at the Morgan Library and Museum in midtown this week in particular, so she told me to wait in front of this french bakery shop near the library as a meeting point. I had gotten here a bit earlier than planned and decided to look around the shop to pick out a few snacks, but I couldn't decide what to get them. Liam and his mother tended to like fruity desserts, which this bakery shop didn't exactly have, leaving me confounded. Instead, the bakery had a lot of freshly baked bread, but I didn't know what type of bread they liked. Sourdough, wheat, or just normal? Soft or crusty? Lighter or darker bake?Maybe I could get them baguettes, butter, and some specialty jams... They had freshly in-hous
Days have passed since Benedict found out about my budding relationship. Although nothing had changed between Danary and me, I felt more stressed than ever before. I still went to her house in the evenings for dinner and helped Liam with his university-level problem sets, but I was never able to bring myself to ask about her past. I feared that she would try to leave me once I reminded her of the person with whom she still held attachments for, so I buried it deep down inside of me and tried to pretend that everything was fine. Even though my body itched to hire a private investigator to look into her past and figure out who it was, I cared too much about her to invade her privacy like that. She would only hate me if she ever found it. Instead, I kept myself as busy as possible so that my mind wouldn't wander in the middle of the day. Meetings stack upon one another such that there was always someone new wandering into my office to give me a report. Paperwork for finalizing overse