Chapter 19
Elias rolled over, arm coming in contact with the empty bed.
He felt around before slowly opening his eyes and discovering that he was alone.
Glancing towards his en suite, he found the door open and the light off.
He rolled onto his back and exhaled, rubbing his temple, before throwing his arm over his eyes.
A couple of minutes later, he got out of bed and entered the en suite. He relieved his bladder, washed his hands and face, and brushed his teeth. Elias made the bed and exited the bedroom, stopping when he found Eri coming down the hall.
“I was coming to wake you,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him. “I made breakfast.” She studied him for a few seconds. “You thought I left.”
“Can you blame me?” he asked.
She sighed, releasing him. “No, but I told you I’d be here.
” She turned and headed down the hall, but he stopped her, wrapping his arm around her waist. It wasn’t his intention to make her feel bad.
It had been easy to see she did the night before, and he could admit what he said could have come off as him being a dick.
“I didn’t mean to sound like an asshole, Eri.”
“I know. Come on before it gets cold.”
Elias followed her into the kitchen, going over and pulling the curtain back, glancing out of the window. While it wasn’t storming as badly as it had been the previous night, it was still raining steadily. So much for stopping at seven.
He joined Eri at the table, where she placed a plate with bacon, eggs, and pancakes with puree and strawberries cut into little hearts on top of them. He chuckled.
“You like it?” she asked.
“It’s cute, Eri.”
“Mm, okay.” They ate in silence for several minutes until she broke it. “My clothes should be finished washing after breakfast. I’ll dry them and then head home.”
“It’s still raining,” Elias pointed out.
Eri shrugged. “It is, but not as bad. I can make it home.”
“I’d feel better if you waited.”
“It’s fine. It won’t take me long to make it.”
“Do you have plans today?” Elias inquired, and she shook her head. “Then why are you in such a hurry to leave, Eri?”
“I’m not…I don’t feel like being punished all day.”
Punished? He wasn’t punishing her. If she was referring to what he’d said in the hall, he apologized for that. He hadn’t meant for it to come off the way it did. Elias thought for another few seconds when he realized what she meant. He reached out and tipped her chin up.
“I’m not punishing you. I don’t want to. All I want is for you to spend the day with me, Amate. Will you?”
She bit her lip as she thought about it. “Yeah, I will.”
They continued to eat, and when they finished, Elias did the dishes while Eri went to put her clothes in the dryer.
He hadn’t had any plans, even without the rain, other than lounging around the house for the day.
Elias didn’t care what they did as long as she was there.
He could admit that he missed her even while being upset with her.
“Do you have an umbrella?” Eri asked as she returned, and he looked over his shoulder at her. “I left my phone in the car, and I was supposed to let Avian know when I made it home, though I didn’t go there.”
“There might be one in the hall closet, but you can use mine,” he told her, turning his attention back to the task at hand.
She shuffled out of the kitchen, and a few minutes later, Elias assumed she hadn’t found an umbrella as she returned to the kitchen with his phone in hand while he dried the last of the dishes.
Eri made the call, placed the phone to her ear, and a few seconds later, she was pulling it away.
Elias couldn’t make out what Avian was saying, but knew she was fussing at who she assumed was him.
“Avi, calm down,” Eri said, bringing the phone back to her ear.
Voice now in a normal tone, he could no longer hear Avian, and he exited the kitchen.
He grabbed a throw blanket from the hall closet and went into the living room.
Elias scrolled through a streaming app before settling on a new movie that had been recently added.
Eri joined him several minutes later, and since he was stretched out on the couch, she went to sit on the loveseat.
“We both know you remember where your seat is,” Elias said, stopping her. “Or are you trying to punish me, Amate?” he teased.
She placed his phone on the coffee table, and he pulled her to sit between his legs, her back against his chest, before starting the movie.
“It’s a horror movie, but don’t worry. I’ll help you hide when it gets too scary for you.”
“As long as there isn’t a bunch of mutilation, and jump scares, I’ll be fine.”
Elias hummed in acknowledgement, wrapping an arm around her waist as the opening scene started.
“Can we fast forward through this?” Eri asked forty minutes into the movie as a torture scene began.
“This might be the best part, and you want to skip it?” Elias asked teasingly.
Eri glared over her shoulder at him. “You just want me to be scared.”
He chuckled as he slid his arm from around her waist. “I don’t think we should skip it, but I will distract you,” he replied, turning her to straddle him. She released a surprised gasp at being manhandled, and before she could respond, his lips were on hers.
Elias had missed kissing her. Missed the taste of her lips and the way her tongue always went pliant under his. The way it followed wherever he led.
He kissed her slowly. Savoring and reacquainting himself with her taste. For a brief second, Elias found himself irritated. Why would she deny them both this for so long? That thought, that emotion, was quickly stamped down by the soft moan she released against his lips.
Elias drank it down like he needed it to survive, and maybe he did.
Maybe he’d only been going through the motions for the past two weeks.
Maybe her lips, the taste of her on his tongue, were truly what fueled him to live.
It was a dramatic ass thought. One he’d never say aloud and knew wasn’t physically possible.
But it was the only explanation for how, while upset with her, irritated at her actions and himself for not pushing when he should have, he’d felt like he had only been going through the motions.
Eri gripped the hair at his nape, and his hand slipped under her shirt. His fingers ghosted over her side and up her back. A small shiver rolled through her, and Elias deepened the kiss, pulling another moan from her.
Her hips rolled slowly, and his hands slipped down to grip them, stopping her. He pulled away, and she followed him. Elias gave her another kiss before separating.
“It’s over,” he told her, gesturing towards the television.
Eri glanced at the screen. “I’m sure there’ll be another one,” she replied, shifting and laying her head on his chest.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“Are you busy next weekend?” Eri asked, running her hands through Elias’ hair.
The rain was slowing to a stop, and they were on movie number four as they waited for the food they’d ordered. They had switched positions at some point, Elias lying between her legs, head on her chest.
“I have a couple of sessions, but nothing too crazy. What’s up?”
“I wanted to do something.”
“Sure, Amate. What do you want to do?”
“You’ll see,” Eri responded.
Elias looked up at her. “Aren’t you on spring break this coming week?” Eri nodded. “Stay with me for the week.”
She contemplated it for a minute. “You sure you want that?”
“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t want it.”
“I need to go home and get some things.”
“We can go together later,” he replied.
Eri was going to see her dad on Wednesday for his birthday, but aside from that and working on a project for her final, she didn’t have other plans.
She didn’t mind spending the week with Elias.
If she were being honest with herself, she preferred it.
They’d spent two weeks not speaking to or seeing one another, and she missed him.
She hadn’t suspected they would jump right back to where they’d been because they both were hurt. She’d hurt him, and she could use the week to start proving to him she’d meant what she said.
Eri turned her attention back to the television as she continued to lazily run her fingers through his hair.
They were currently watching a C-rated movie with bad special effects.
Instead of finding something after the first movie went off, they allowed whatever was suggested to load.
She was sure that, with this being as bad as it was, they wouldn’t be doing that again, but neither of them felt inclined to change it.
For her, it wasn’t about what was on the screen.
She was enjoying spending time with him, being in his presence.
The saying you don’t know what you have until it’s gone was accurate because Eri hadn’t realized how much time she spent with him, how often she talked to him until she hadn’t been able to for a while.
There was a knock on the door ten minutes later, and Elias got up to answer it.
“Oh. Um…well, hi,” Eri heard a feminine voice say.
“Hey,” Elias responded. “Thanks,” he then said.
“Trust me. It was my pleasure.”
Eri rolled her eyes, and the door closed a few seconds later. Elias returned with a bag and a drink carrier.
“Oh. Well, hi,” she mimicked the other woman. “Trust me. It was my pleasure.”
Elias chuckled. “Are you jealous, baby?”
The butterflies in her stomach took flight at the endearment. “Do I need to be?” she questioned with a quirked brow.
Elias set the food and drinks on the coffee table and tipped her chin up. “Never.”
Eri hummed. “I mean, I can’t really blame her. You answered the door in all your tall, broad, shirtless, tattooed yumminess. In gray sweatpants, no less.”
He chuckled again before dropping a kiss onto her lips. “I’ll be sure to only wear sweatpants for you.” She glared at him playfully because she knew he was teasing her, but she would in no way object.
They removed the food from the bag and ate while they finished the movie.
Eri put her toiletry bag in the suitcase and zipped it up after making sure she had everything she needed.
She turned the light off in her room and rolled the suitcase behind her.
Elias rose from where he sat on the couch and took it from her.
She grabbed her laptop off the coffee table and packed it along with the charger and her tablet in her backpack. When she zipped it, he took it too.
“Did you get everything you need, Amate?”
“Yeah. If I forgot something, I’ll come back and grab it.”
They exited her apartment, Eri stopping to lock the door behind them. When they were in the car, pulling out of the parking lot, she turned to him.
“Can we stop and get frozen yogurt?”
“Yeah, we can. Is there a place you prefer?”
“No. We can go to whichever one is closest to your house.”
They pulled into the parking lot of the yogurt shop fifteen minutes later, and as they headed inside, Eri tiptoed around puddles. The rain had stopped a couple of hours earlier, but everything was still wet.
“Oh, baby, look. They have a peach mango soufflé flavor,” she stated, pointing at the board announcing the special flavors of the month.
Elias wrapped his arms around her. “Baby, huh?” he teasingly whispered in her ear.
“I can just call you Elias,” she rebutted, looking over her shoulder at him.
He kissed her. “Nah, I like baby better, and I can think of a few other things you can call me.” The smirk he gave her was telling, and Eri felt her cheeks warming.
“What flavor are you getting?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Since you aren’t on the menu, strawberry.”
They moved to the counter to place their order. When the total was given, Eri reached into her crossbody, grabbing Elias’ wrist when he passed his card over her shoulder.
“No, I’ll pay for it. I wanted to come.”
Elias signaled for the cashier to take his card as he pulled Eri back into his chest. “When have I ever let you pay for anything?” he asked.
“You haven’t but—”
“And what makes you think I’m going to start now?”
Eri huffed as she leaned back against him because she’d learned that it wasn’t a hill worth dying on, since he never seemed to change his mind. But she supposed she might as well enjoy it. She knew plenty of women who would be overjoyed never to have to pay for anything during a date.
The cashier returned his card, and they moved to the side to wait. As they did, Elias slipped his hand under her shirt, circling his thumb around her navel. Eri was sure it was an innocent act, probably even unconscious on his part, but the simple touch had her melting into him.