“Work call?” Elliot asks from behind me as he enters the kitchen. I turn around and the first thing that manages to divert my attention is how hot he looks in just his pants. It should be illegal for him to look this good shirtless.

I lick my lips absent-mindedly and my breathing pauses, “err…where’s your shirt gone?”

“Would you rather I wear it back on?” he asks as he saunters closer to me. I think he's deliberately doing this. He knows the effect he has on me. He leans over the kitchen counter with his back. He does a one over on me till his eyes reach my almost tomato red face, “but something tells me you me like this.”

My cheeks turn unbelievably hot as if that was possible.

“Gosh! I can’t believe you just said that! You’re so full of yourself,” I’m flabbergasted and very obviously, so turned on.

“Yeah,” he elongates the word. “Nothing that I don’t already know,” he adds.

I roll my eyes.

“Come here, you’re too far away,” He orders.

“I’m right beside you,” I can’t help but cringe at how cliché that sounded.

“But I want you right in front of me,” he grabs my hand and pulls me over. “Where I can look at you, anyway I want to,” he whispers, his words filling the space in between our lips as he looks me in the eyes.

“Now tell me, what was that call about because your body is so tense,” he says as he rubs circles on my back.

“Oh! That. That was nothing. Things are getting strict around N.N.P.O so that was my staff informing me to spend time over there,” I try to laugh it off as I evade his eyes.

He pauses for some time.

He turns his head sideways and loosens his grip on my waist, “okay.”

“You know, that’s not what I expected from you,” he says, his tone clipped.

“What did I do?” I ask him, I know I’m so shameless.

“Lying to me after I completely bared myself in front of you is not a class act, Charlotte,” he says, ruthlessly.

I am speechless. All I can do is just open my mouth and close it back up because as of right now, I have two choices- Either I tell him the truth or continue to lie to him which is going to push him away from me. After all, he knows I am lying.

“Just because you decided to trust me and open up to me does not give you an entitlement to expect the same from me. I didn’t force you to tell me anything, you did it because you wanted to. If I didn’t force you, don’t I deserve the same treatment?” 

He looks at me with a wounded expression.

“I am so sorry, I just assumed you trusted me. I thought that when you trusted yourself to drive me to my house, trusted to stay at my place, trusted to take care of my drunk self, trusted to bring me back to your place that you...you would trust me enough to tell me if you’re in some kind of trouble,” he speaks frustratingly. His agitation wakes some proportion of shame inside me.

I look down because that’s the only way I know how to react.

“You won’t look at me? Now of all the times?” he places his arms on my shoulders softly.

“Charlotte, I don’t know …how to say it because I’m not great at these face to face situations and I’m not great at verbal words, but….all I want is for you tell me if you’re in trouble because I just …,” he stops.

“You what?” I look up at him. His meaningful and emotional gaze has words behind it that I cannot read, words that I want him to tell me, words that can break my protective shield.

“I just started believing in the prospect of happiness..like I’m not sure if that even exists for me, If happiness even exists for me but…whatever this joyful freaking bubbly emotion thing inside of me that I feel whenever I’m with you, even if we’re having a fighting banter, serious or non-serious, any form of happiness that I’ve felt in the past few days has been because of you and I don’t think I’m ready to lose it. Hell, I know I’m not ready to lose it yet.”

I stare at him amazed.

“Wow! Umm Elliot. I didn’t think that ..umm..that’s how you think because to me it just looked like I was the one blowing this thing out of proportion in my head. After all, I have a habit of overthinking and considering every small thing as a sign. Like, for example, when I first met you, that was before you uttered arrogant insults at me,” he starts to laugh and that makes me stop for a second.

“Yeah, you did insult me but that can’t change the fact that the first thought that I had after seeing you was, how the hell did mother nature hide this man from me!” I can’t believe I just told him that.

“Really,” he replies cheekily.

I close my eyes and nod, a smile on my face.

“What else did you think?” he asks as he twirls me around so that my back is against his chest, his right arm wraps around my upper chest and he brushes his lips against my neck.

“It’s embarrassing. Why don’t you tell me what you thought about me? Except for the fact that you thought I was fake,” my tone was accusatory. I feel the rumble of his chest followed by his loud laughter.

“Gosh! Your face was priceless when I said that. I can’t even-” he continues to laugh.

“Hey,” I scolded him.

“Sorry, you were just too cute babe,” he places a kiss on my neck and I instantly go calm against him. I lean back into him and bend my head to another side to give him more space to kiss my neck.

“Be mine,” he said softly.

I open my eyes in alarm from their partially lazy state.

I’m so surprised at his declaration.

I stand still. I don’t turn around.

He places a kiss on my neck and instead of calming me down, it makes numerous butterflies go crazy in my stomach. I feel nervous because I don’t know if I’m ready to answer his question, yet.

“What do you mean, be yours?” I ask him, my voice and hands shaking. I know what he's asking me but I really need to know he meant what he said because those two words have completely fucked me inside.

“Be my girlfriend,” He repeats.

I suck in a breath.

“No,” I reply.

He stops his movements and turns me around to face him. Instead of being mad at me, a curious expression adorns his face, as if he was expecting this from me.

“Okay. But why don’t you want me?” he asks.

“I want you, Elliot,” I reply.

“Then why can’t you be with me?” he asks me, smiling.

“Elliot, no offence but relationships are all about responsibility. You just got out of your relationship with your fiancée, how am I supposed to think that you’re ready to be in another one?” I ask him. This is my genuine fear.

“You’re right, Charlotte. There’s no way for you to know, there is no way for me to know. But Charlotte, my whole relationship with Pearl felt very fragile, tentative, and forced. I thought that making a person happy is what relationships are about. Whatever she wanted me to do, I did. Because that made her happy but in doing that I somehow kept on getting far from who I was as a person, what I wanted, what made me happy that was until I met you. Your passion for your work, the way you gave your speech so confidently, and how hard you multitask to get all your jobs done made me realise that hustle makes me happy. If I’m not a hustler, I am nothing. I used to be that guy, unpredictable, fierce, high on new ideas but all that changed since I changed everything about me to make her happy,” he stops.

I don’t think he realises the impact his words have had on me. Because all that he said about me, is what I’ve been thinking about him.

“Did you just copy my thoughts to impress me?” I ask him.

“What do you mean?” he looks at me confused.

“That is exactly how I see you, Elliot. I lied when I told you what I thought the first time I saw you,” I answered him smiling.

“Well then, what are you waiting for? Tell me,” he laughs.

“I thought, he’s just my type,” I speak softly and the smile that lights up his face is enough to make my day. His face appears so peaceful like a pleasant evening on a sunny day after a drastic rainfall.

He places his left hand on my cheek and with the right hand he removes the strand of hair from my face, “baby, then why do you deny me?”

“I won’t deny you anymore,” I smile.

“My answer is yes,” I mutter softly.

“so, you’re mine?” he confirms.

“As long as you’re mine,” I repeat.

“Glad we’re on the same page with this one. You made me have a total eclipse of the heart when you said no,” he laughs.

“I’m sorry, you just caught me off guard,” I laugh as well.

It felt so good to see him laugh so freely because he let himself loose very few times in the time that I’ve spent with him. I know I sound snobbish and possessive but I want to be the person who makes him laugh.

“I think we should clarify some things on our sanity’s behalf,” he says after thinking.

“Let’s lie down first and then talk. I’m tired of standing for so long,” I say tiredly.

“Come on, it hasn’t been that long,” he teases me as he follows.

“Yeah, just because you have glorious muscles, doesn’t mean everybody has a stamina like you,” I grumble.

He snorts a laugh, “ please tell me what are glorious muscles? Like what even is that and who has them?!”

“They are big beautiful muscles and you have them,” I lay down in the bed and he got inside the covers. He pulled me closer to him till I was engulfed in his heat.

“Snuggling is so great. Rule number one, when I’m sick, sad, angry, happy, tired whatever, always cuddle me up,” he says.

I can’t help but laugh at his cuteness, “ always,” I give him a mock salute.

“Rule number two-no hiding stuff,” he raises a finger at me, reminding me that I have yet to tell him about the suspicious stuff that’s been happening in my life.

I nod genuinely at him because I believe that it would be great to get the tension off my chest.

“Rule number three- no hooking up with other people, that includes flirting too,” I say.

He laughs, “although I hardly do random hook-ups but okay, that goes both ways. I won’t want any mad man touching my woman,” he says.

My stomach warms at the hotness of his words. He called me his woman, who won’t be flattered by that?

“I don’t have random sex and I haven’t dated anybody in two years so take a guess,” I say.

He raises an eyebrow at me, “ so for how long did you date this ex of yours?” 

“I dated Ryan for a couple of months,” I avoid the topic because nobody likes to talk about their ex when they’re so over him.

***
Author's note
I genuinely feel like very bad days are going on.
Not a lot going on at the moment, but still so much.
I am genuinely waiting for some good news but its like wherever I look, sad stuff is happening.
Yeah, just one of those days...
But hope is the best thing.
Things will get better.
Love, Leena ❤❤
Bye-bye, until next time.