Aaron's POV

After getting the food packed that we had ordered, I rush out of the place to make my way to office. I know what I said didn't come out right, or was entirely wrong and hurtful in the first place, but why did she have to leave me in between like that? Her words just made me snap a little, especially the fact that she said it's too early. We haven't been official, but this goes way beyond the commitment. Hell, if we're being honest, she kissed me just a day after we met.

It didn't mean anything back then, but now when I look at it, that was the beginning of events between us. The difference in our beginning was, everything didn't go uphill from there. It went way down, and my hopes way up, but we made it till here. We both deserve the credit for that.

When I reach our floor, I immediately make my way to the front desk and I'm surprised to see that she's not there. Did she leave for home already? I frown but let the relief set in when I notice her stuff is still there. I walk down to the coffee machine room, knowing her well enough that she'll be seeking the comfort of bittersweet caffeine. A sigh escapes my lips when I see her there but just a second later, my expressions turn into a scowl.

A young man is standing by her side, awfully close than I would approve of and her face doesn't give away a single emotion. I clear my throat to make my appearance known, and as soon as I do, she startles, almost dropping the cup from her hand. Her eyes meet mine and the look she gives me is enough for me to know that she's mad, extremely mad.

"Dee, can I talk to you?" I call out and she nods, excusing herself from the guy.

I hope for her to walk to me, but she passes by and leads her way to the front desk while I pour wholes through her back. She lost her right to be mad the moment she started flirting with another guy within ten minutes of our fight.

"Talk." She orders, plopping down on the chair and fixing her eyes on the computer.

"Look at me."

She gives me a snarky look, crossing her arms across her chest. "What's that?" she points at the carry out bags in my hand.

"Food we ordered."

She scoffs, "Thanks for caring about the food."

"When you order food, you either eat it then or have a take out. You just don't rush out of the place after making an order." I say and I notice how she almost smiles at my words.

Alright, this girl is definitely bipolar. I have no doubts in that anymore, one minute she's mad and the other she's smiling at the things I say.

"I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean to bring you down in any way." I apologise, leaning down on the table a bit.

She studies my face for a moment before looking away, "I'm hungry." She mumbles.

I sigh, knowing well enough that she took my words to her heart and she's just diverting from the topic to avoid arguing here. Her hands reaches out for the food and I give it to her.

"You aren't going to eat right here, are you?" I scowl and she shrugs.

"What's the problem in that?"

"It's highly unprofessional."

"When have I ever done things in a professional way?" She points out.

"Alright, come." I take ahold of her hand and lead her to the break room, ultimately the place where I found her with the strange man. He definitely doesn't work in finance, I would have known him otherwise.

I bring two chairs and keep the stool in between them, placing the food there and ask her to take a seat. She doesn't argue and sits down.

"Bagel, scrambled eggs and bacon for you, and same for me." I speak as I keep it in front of her and offer her a plastic fork.

She rolls her eyes and stands up to make her way to the cupboards. She pulls out few dishes and hands them over. I nod, serving the food and she sits back down.

"I didn't know we had that stuff in here."

"Not many people do, this used to be a full fledged pantry room until people just started going out during their break." She shrugs and I acknowledge her words with a nod. "That door," she points out in the back and I look, "after we're done we can keep the dirty dishes in there. Someone's even hired to clean all the stuff, there's a whole sink and some other things."

"Oh." I say and then we start eating. After minutes pass by, I finally ask, "Who was the guy?"

"Works here."

I give her a 'duh' look, of course he works here. What else could he possibly be doing here? She ignores me and concentrates on her food.

"He's definitely not in the finance department." I speak, urging her to talk more.

"Yeah, he's one of the many editors here."

"Oh. What did he want?" I ask, trying my best not to sound like a creep.

"To get into my pants, Aaron. That's what men want from me, or from any other girl on this planet. Live with it!" She snaps, putting her fork down on the plate, making a cluttering noise and backing off in the seat.

She rubs her temples and I can tell that she's beyond annoyed at the moment but that doesn't make it okay for her to snap at me. Yes, I snapped earlier too but I already apologised.

"I think I'm going to go back to the front desk." She says, standing up and I reach out for her wrist before she can leave.

"Didn't I apologise already? I meant it, I'm really sorry."

"I heard you. But you see, the second I open this mouth, trash comes out and people start disliking me. That's just who I am."

Her voice is slithering with anger, conveying her taunts pretty well. I didn't mean what I said back then, Diana can be rude but it still doesn't make it okay about what I said to her. Though I clearly believe that she's overreacting.

"I don't know about other people, but I don't. I don't dislike you, hell I like you Diana, a lot more than you can imagine. Could you please just let go of it? I really do feel bad about what I said." I tell her honestly.

My words immediately soften her expressions. I have never really told her how truly and deeply I feel about her and for someone as shut down as Diana, I think I need to word those feelings once in a while.

I stand up and keep my hands on her shoulders, pulling her closer to myself. "Forgive?" I pout.

She sighs, "Forgiven. And for the record, I really do like you too, if it isn't obvious."

"Oh, it wasn't until now." I joke.

"C'mon, I'm nicer to you than ninety nine percent of the population. That has to count for something."

"It does." I smile at her and she returns it.

After finishing her food properly, Diana goes back to the front desk and gets busy with few files so I leave her alone as I return to my own cubicle. I think of going back to Mr. Wilson's office again for the file which was returned, but then I just keep it aside for now. Just as I'm about to finish saving a document, my phone starts buzzing and I pick it up.

"Hey bud, Connor this side."

"Oh, hi Connor. What's up?" I ask, still typing a bit.

"Do you have a minute? It's regarding the apartment." He says, dragging my attention completely to himself.

"What about it?" I say, stepping away from the computer.

"Yeah,so I'll give you a guy's number, his name is Steve. Just call him and set up a time this evening. He'll show you some amazing apartments available on rental purposes, all within your budget. Few of them come furnished, some don't. Just have a look around with the guy and see how it goes."

"Okay, thanks a lot." I smile through the phone, truly grateful for his help.

"No problem. I'll just text you his number." He says.

Just as I hang up, Diana shows up in front of me and gives me a small smile, "Listen, I just came to say that I'm leaving. Lucy's taking over." She says and I nod.

"Bye, see you tomorrow." I wave and she smiles before leaving.

I still haven't figured out why she leaves so early than anyone else, not just on specific days but daily. I can stalk her, but I don't want to be a creepy boyfriend. I want to know all of the things she's been hiding from me, but time will serve the secrets itself. She'll tell me when she's ready, which I'm hoping will be soon. There's only so much patience tolerance I have.

Steve asks me to meet him at five, so I leave the office a little early. It takes me twenty minutes to reach the destination and I realise that I'm ten minutes late, hoping it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Hey, you must be Aaron." A guy calls out and I turn around to greet a middle aged guy with extremely short hair.

"Yes. Steve, I assume?" I say, shaking hands with him.

"Yeah. Come, it's right this way." He smiles, leading me to the building.

The lobby looks pretty fine but as soon as I enter the apartment, my mood falls down. Another disappointment. He shows me around few more apartments in the buildings nearby only to make me feel like a jerk each time I decline.

"I'm sorry if it's too much of your time." I apologise and he shakes his head.

"Don't worry about that. It's my job, at least you're polite. Others can't stop pointing out each thing that was wrong with the place they didn't like." He assures me as we step outside of the building.

"That must be a headache for you." I joke and he grins.

"There is this one apartment left, but it's a five minute drive from here." He says.

"That's not a problem, I've got my car. Let's go." I say and he follows behind me.

He gives me the direction before we reach the place and get out of the car. As soon as I do, I realise that the building is vaguely familiar. I shrug it off as we enter and take the elevator to the second floor.

The keys jiggle in his hand as he opens up the apartment and I step inside, immediately feeling an overwhelming emotion of satisfaction after a gloomy day.

"It comes fully furnished, you can add or change it however you like. That wouldn't be a problem." He says, noticing my face.

The living room isn't huge, and there's only a single bedroom but that's how I like it. It gives the warm cozy feeling as soon as you step inside.

"Can we discuss the rent pay?" I turn to Steve and he smiles, almost sighing with relief.

After we discuss that, he moves to another conversation, "You'll have to sign the lease tomorrow. I'll get the paperworks done. You can move immediately after that, or whenever you like." He says and I nod.

"Sure."

"Ah, don't mind me asking this but is your decision by any way influenced by the fact that you have a friend living in the same building?"

I frown at his words in confusion, "Friend?"

"Connor, I mean. He lives on the fourth floor. I thought you knew that." He says.

Well, that explains why this building seemed familiar. I've been here once for the party that Connor threw. However, this new information shouldn't bother my decision anyway, should it? I need to stop thinking about this before I talk myself out of it. I've already seen a lot of apartments and this is the best I liked.

"Ah, I knew that. It just slipped my mind." I give a small smile and he nods.

I say goodbye to Steve and make my way back to the house, my parent's house. It isn't mine anymore, I'll be living a life free of their strangling hopes from tomorrow onwards. I plan on doing it as immediately as possible.

My rest of the day goes in the blink of an eye. I reach home late, have dinner in my room and doze off.

..

I start packing the stuff that I own and want at my place into the boxes. There's not much that I want from this home except my clothes. All of my clothes, and a few of the photoframes, along with my favourite table lamp and my books.

As much as I'm satisfied with the whole furnished thing, I also want to change a few things. Especially the mattress, I need new mattress and a dishwasher, along with some dishes.

Damn, I really have to go shop. Without thinking, I pick up my phone and dial Diana's number. She doesn't pick up at once, so I try again and yet no answer. I frown and try the office front desk. It's eleven in the morning, she couldn't be anywhere else.

"S.M. Publishing, how may I help you?." She speaks as soon as she picks up the phone and from her tone I can tell that she's distracted.

"I wanted to know if Diana Rose can lend me some of her time and come to house shopping with me." I speak with a smirk.

"Let me take a wild guess as who's on the phone. It wouldn't be Pete, would it be?"

What?

"Who the hell is Pete?" I immediately scowl at the phone, although she has no idea about it.

"Good morning to you too sweetheart." She laughs and I sigh with relief.

"You're not funny." I huff and she laughs a little more, "But seriously, do you know any Pete?"

"Naah, but I do know Peter Parker. He's hot." I can sense her smiling as she talks.

"So? Yes to shopping or no?"

"Pick me up from the office?" She says and I grin.

"See you in thirty minutes."

Well, that and fifteen more minutes because I couldn't reach on time. And Diana being the impatient person that she is, she wouldn't stop calling me after each second that passes.

As soon as I stop by the sidewalk, she hops in with a mad face, "Fifteen minutes late." She points out and I give her a puppy smile.

"Traffic sucked. Sorry." I say and lean forward to kiss her and she immediately responds back.

A jackass makes us jump apart when he wouldn't stop honking behind me. Diana laughs and pats my shoulder lightly, "Let's go."

"So, I finally settled on an apartment and I'm moving out today." I say.

"Oh, that soon? But it definitely explains the boxes in the backseat." She says, peeping behind.

"Yeah. It's not much because it comes furnished but I need to buy a few things. Pillows, mattress and food to eat so I don't starve myself to death."

"Food I understand but why do you need the other stuff if it comes furnished?" She frowns, picking on her nails.

"Don't bite on your nails," I scowl and she keeps her hand down, "And because I have no idea who lived there before, I can't sleep on someone else's mattress. God knows what things happen in a bedroom, which again explains the pillows." I speak and I notice how she tries to hide her smile, "What?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"It's just, I did the same thing when I shifted in this apartment. It came partially furnished but I had to add on things to make it feel like home."

"Exactly my point. Also, I need to buy a dishwasher and few dishes that I can wash in the former."

She just nods and when we reach the place where she has led me, we park the car and she leads me in to the Target store.

"You go have a mattress of your choice, I'll take ahold of other things." She says and I nod.

It takes me a while to finally settle down on a mattress and then I start roaming around to find Diana. When I do spot her, I almost choke at the amount stuff she's carrying in the trolley.

"What the hell?" I speak when she approaches me. "You do realise that I'll be living alone, right?"

"Yes, which is exactly why you need all this." She points down.

I examine the stuff. She got me a few bedsheets, pillow covers. I can spot three cushions below everything and then there's a lot of dishes and food. None of it looks useless to me. She knows what she was doing.

"I didn't know you could come this handy while buying all this stuff."

"Uh, well, when I was moving, Marcel and Shelly were out of town and Ella and I hadn't even met by then. So I had to do all the things myself." She says, looking down at her feet and I smile.

"Thank you,"

She meets my eyes, "You're welcome. Now, let's go get you a dishwasher."

I laugh and hold up a frozen pizza from the stuff, "I don't like it."

"Well, half of this stuff for me to have whenever I come over." She grins and I smile at the thought.

"Which I'm expecting will be often." I say, testing my words around her.

"Err, yeah. Let's hope so." She smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes.

After buying everything that we could possibly get out hands on, we leave the Target. "All of this wouldn't fit in the back seat with those boxes." Diana says.

"Let's keep it in the trunk of the car." I say, motioning to open it and we put the stuff in there.

After settling down the stuff, we get in the front seats and take off to my new apartment. I'm supposed to sign the lease by three, which will be in next five minutes and I'm going to be late.

I park my car, leaving the stuff behind and lead Diana to the building but as soon as we hit the door, she stops walking.

"Is that where your apartment is?" She frowns.

"Yes, is that a problem?" I ask, nervously.

Diana's POV

Of fucking course it's a problem. He can't move here, not within the same building with Ella and Connor. This is my safe place, and Aaron living in the same building can really mess things up.

"Uh, no. You go upstairs, I just have to make a quick call." I say before backing out, giving a fake smile which I'm sure he notices.

As soon as I'm alone, I dial Connor's number and he picks up in just the second ring, "Hey Diana, what's up?"

"You tell me what's up. I told Aaron to contact you so that you could find an apartment, not ruin my life." I scream.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He sounds surprised.

"He chose an apartment in your building, Connor. Your building, do you understand what that means?"

"Oh, fuck!" He curses and I can tell he slammed something on the other side of the phone.

"Yes, fuck. Fix this! He cannot live here."

He doesn't speak for a minute but when he does, his voice is calm, "I thought you were going to tell him anyway, what different does it make? He chose this apartment after my guy showed him ten. C'mon Diana."

"I will tell him on my own when the situation is right. It isn't going to happen right now. And I want to be the one to tell him, I don't want him to find it out of nowhere. The guy will have a heart attack or something." I say and Connor chuckles on the other side.

"Chill, alright? Nothing will go wrong. I promise you that. Just let him take the apartment, you cannot control everything in his life." He tells me.

"How can you promise that to me? You don't know how future events might unfold."

"Do you trust me?"

I sigh, "Yes, of course I do."

"Then trust me on this too. He'll live here and he wouldn't know anything until you decide."

I want to trust Connor on this, but I can't. Neither can I tell Aaron to quit the only apartment he liked after seeing so many.