Chapter 31
It almost felt too surreal to be true. How did it even happen? One moment she's convinced he hates her and the next he kisses her and asks her to be with him.
With him.
The godly creature she could have only dreamt of. With looks like that, the world was his. Yet it was her he wanted to be with. She didn't get it. There was nothing she could offer him, she knew. But there was no way she'd deny him.
Yet doubt lingered in her mind. Once he'd grow bored of her he could just fire her and send her away, and he'd never have to think about her again. She knew it wouldn't be that easy for her and it anything like that happened it would break her.
These thoughts plagued her and would sometimes sour the high she was riding from their kisses.
Like this morning, when she opened the door to find him waiting for her. "Morning, beautiful."
"Sébastien," she greeted back, flustered. "Hi, um, good morning," she replied while cringing at her lame reaction. He'd called her beautiful and she'd said hi. But he didn't seem to care in the least as he smiled and reached out to pull her towards him before dipping down to kiss her on the lips.
That definitely woke her up despite the early morning hours as her heart sped up to unhealthy speeds. But if she was going to die this was the way she'd want to go.
She instantly kissed him back and their lips slowly moved over each other. Her arms went around his neck for support while she felt her knees go weak. His tall frame stood as steady as ever while his hand stroked her hip.
When he let go she almost whined from the loss of touch but she managed to refrain from it.
"Have breakfast with me?" he asked. His brown eyes were slightly unfocussed as they looked at her and she was sure she looked the same way.
"Yes," she replied absent-mindedly, distracted by the way his hair had slightly fallen forward and was almost touching his brows.
His hand moved from her hip to her hand before gently taking it to lead her toward the main dining area. There were already two plates set and she hoped Lauren and George would forgive her for picking Sébastien over them. It wasn't that they were bad company, they just had unfair competition.
His plate was set at the head of the table, but he grabbed it before sitting down and moved around Ava.
The plate was set down next to hers before he pulled out the chair and sat down on it.
It didn't go unnoticed by Ava that the chair hadn't been as close to her before as it was now, but she didn't comment on it.
Instead, she savored every bite of the delicious sandwiches in front of them until she was absolutely stuffed. Sébastien ate a lot slower than her, seemingly not being in any rush to finish it. Only the sounds of their cutlery was heard throughout the room, but the silence wasn't awkward.
Every now and then his knee would bump against hers when he moved and she swore that at one point he was doing it on purpose. Not that she minded. She might have done the same thing once or twice.
The silence was only disturbed by the dinging of her phone. Confused she fished it out of her pocket to see who texted her since Sébastien obviously hadn't.
'1 text from: Everly'
"Oh, it's Everly," she explained, feeling some urge to tell him it wasn't anyone she shouldn't talk to. She'd seen plenty of fights between couples just because of texts one of them received and she wanted to make sure that didn't happen to them.
"You don't have to tell me," he said mildly amused at her attempt to explain the only time she ever received a text in his proximity. He probably already knew he was the only one interested in her.
Maybe that's the reason, she thought. Maybe he was a very jealous type so he chose her so that he'd know no one else wanted her so he wouldn't worry.
"Right," she replied before looking back at the phone to open the text.
'Hi girl, I heard you're back in town. Book club is on?'
It was a Friday again which was when she'd usually have her day off but she'd decided to work anyways since she hadn't managed to get much work done that week and she liked to make up for it.
"Everly is the girl from the library, right?" he asked before taking another bite. The question surprised her, she was sure she'd only mentioned Everly once, maybe twice. It was a small detail to remember and it warmed her heart that he had.
"Yes, that's the one," she confirmed while watching him eat. His strong jaw entranced her as the muscles moved over each while he chewed.
"So you're going today?"
"No, I'm going to work today. I've already taken too many days off this past week."
"That was my fault, you can still go to the library today."
"No, I really shouldn't. I'll feel bad because I'd be a really bad employee if I don't do anything."
"You know," he started tentatively, as if he were testing the waters before continuing. "You don't really have to work anymore. I can provide for you, you're my girlfriend."
The offer came out of nowhere and threw her off.
She'd never had a break like this but she knew she could never take it.
If she didn't work she'd just feel useless and she knew it would almost be painful to her to see George and Lauren work their asses off just so she could sit and do nothing all day.
"No, no. I don't want that, I have to work. And I'll work today, too. Nothing has to change about that."
"I'm just saying that you don't have to. You can do whatever you want," he explained.
"I want to work. I really do. Please, let it go," she almost begged. She couldn't imagine sitting around and being useless and to be honest, the thought scared her. She'd never had a time in her life that was free from responsibilities and structure and the freedom frankly scared her.
"Fine," he sighed while leaning back in his chair. "I'll let it go if you go to the library to meet Everly today."
"Why?"
"Knowing you, you won't even try to see her until next week. Friendships require an effort to maintain, and you haven't seen her in weeks."
That made her pause. She hadn't considered that despite her and Everly being good friends, even that could water down the friendship into nothingness if they didn't meet up.
"You're right," she admitted defeatedly. "I probably should. But I'll go back to work when I come back, and you can't stop me."
He smiled at his victory before slinging his arm around her shoulder to pull her into him and kiss the top of her head. "Good, I'll take you."
"You don't have to, you're probably busy," she replied. He'd told her he still had work to do but he'd do it from home and she didn't want to distract him from it.
"No, I'm not. I have things to do in town anyway," he said while removing his arm from around her to get up.
"No, you don't," Ava said while looking up at him. The small act of defiance scared her and for a moment her heart stopped beating. Maybe she'd crossed a line with this. She should've been move careful.
But he wasn't angry, just confused. "How do you even know that?"
Relief flooded over her at his non-reaction as he didn't seem too angry she spoke to him that way. She still regret it and reminded herself to watch her mouth.
"Because I know you," she explained, causing him to smile down at her. "I suppose you do."
Before he left the room he turned around, "Come find me when you want to leave, and don't think about walking there."
"Thank you," she smiled back, feeling lucky to have someone like him care about her the way he did.
It was odd that someone was looking out for her and perhaps for the first time in her life, she didn't feel alone anymore. She had someone to help her now, and to protect her. And she liked it.