Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
The alarm pulled her from a sleep that hadn’t quite been restful. She had gone to bed barely three hours ago, and the little sleep she got was shallow and vigilant.
Seeing Alderian by her side, silent and comforting, relaxed her noticeably.
“There you are,” she said, smiling.
“You know, working overtime,” Alderian responded, raising an eyebrow with a hint of a smile on his lips, though she noticed he looked preoccupied. “Did you finish your video last night?”
“Yes… I had to get creative with some scenes, but I think I got a pretty good result in the end.”
“I’m glad. You have some classes now… will you go, or do you prefer to stay and sleep a little bit more?”
Augustine checked the time on her phone.
“I really want to sleep, but I don’t think I could do it, anyway. And this is the last class before the exam. There are things I still don’t understand, so… Ugh, I hate this!”
She took a quick shower and dressed in silence while Alderian waited for her in the living room.
Today he seemed reluctant to leave her alone. Despite herself, she had to admit that his mere presence gave her a sense of security that was hard to explain.
It wasn’t such a good idea getting used to him so much, knowing they had a type of relationship that didn’t follow conventional rules.
Ready to leave, she took a deep breath before heading to the door. Alderian stepped into her path.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, surprised.
Alderian took the end of the Silver Thread and gently pulled her toward him, leaving them only inches apart. Augustine held her breath, expectant.
“Are you still scared?” he asked in an intimate whisper. She felt her skin prickle with emotion.
“Scared isn’t the word… I’d say I’m on high alert… but calmer than yesterday. It might seem silly to you, but my way of calming down is by doing, not thinking… Those last-minute changes to the video helped me feel a sense of control, even if it’s just an illusion.”
Alderian nodded in silence.
“It doesn’t seem silly to me at all. Yesterday I wanted to comfort you, but I didn’t know how to do it. I have to confess that my first impulse was to get rid of Milán.”
“But… can you even do that? Aren’t you an angel? I thought those kinds of thoughts didn’t cross your mind.”
“Don’t think too poorly of me. The A’aruin are not very different from humans. We are on the other side of the same coin. I am also capable of feeling anxiety, hate, worries—”
He broke off mid-sentence.
“And love?” Augustine concluded.
Alderian smiled without answering. He delicately released their Silver Thread, but Augustine didn’t step back.
Although Alderian wasn’t physically there, she felt him closer than ever.
“Just tell me if you’re afraid… tell me if you want me to teach him a lesson,” he said.
His tone was calm, and that made it somehow more threatening.
Should she perhaps be afraid of what he could do?
Augustine bit her lower lip, strangely excited.
“I will,” she whispered, trying to contain her heartbeat.
The walk to her classroom passed in silence. A tacit agreement between them, a shared complicity where words weren’t needed, had settled in before leaving.
She sat next to a classmate who always seemed to shun contact with others, including her. Since the first year, Augustine had tried to establish a relationship with her without much success, although now they sat together from time to time.
“Hi, Sara,” Augustine said while taking out her notes.
Sara didn’t answer, but gave a slight nod without looking her in the eyes, which was habitual for her.
Augustine looked around discreetly and glimpsed Amanda and David sitting together in the front rows. She was laughing adorably while he tried to tickle her.
Further away, she saw Bruno. They hadn’t spoken since the night at the bar, and she felt a wave of regret for her boldness that night.
Milán was in a corner, at the back of the room.
Wow, he looked horrible.
He seemed sick, exhausted, and very different from his usual self. What could have happened to him? Whatever it was, she was glad for it.
Bruno approached her as soon as the class ended. “Augustine, can we talk?”
The night at the bar, they had almost crossed a line from which they couldn’t really return, and she knew it. Although she had been intentionally provocative, she hadn’t expected Bruno to show interest in her at all.
She bit her lip, nervous.
“Sure, let’s talk. Where do you want to go?”
“How about we leave campus? I wouldn’t want us to be interrupted.”
Alderian remained standing by her side, watching the scene as if absent. He didn’t look at her directly at any moment, and she assumed that, deep down, the situation did not surprise him. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked her out, after all.
They walked to a cute coffee shop near the university. It was small with a charming aesthetic, the kind of place you see on Instagram blogs.
“I was looking into it and this place has great reviews,” Bruno admitted, smiling satisfied.
Augustine observed him discreetly, trying to hide her nervousness. His tanned skin, his deep eyes, his impeccable presence. She knew every one of his features perfectly from contemplating him in secret in the past.
She had had a huge crush on him a few years ago, although she’d never dared to say anything at that time. He had a girlfriend, and she didn’t want any trouble.
But now he was in front of her, inviting her to a coffee that wasn’t just as friends, and looking at her with those dark eyes that had seemed so fascinating to her before.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Bruno asked directly.
Augustine almost choked on her coffee at his unexpected strike.
“No,” she admitted.
“So who was waiting for you at home that night?”
She hadn’t imagined that a silly excuse would have lingered in his mind for so many days.
“My cat,” she lied, faced with the impossibility of answering with the truth.
Bruno looked into her eyes for a moment and then smiled, relieved.
“So it was your cat—”
Augustine felt embarrassed. She didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Alderian.
“Augustine, what I told you that night, it’s really what I wanted at that moment…
and I still do. You completely captivated me, but these past few days I realized that maybe I’d been feeling like this for some time now.
Forgive me if I rushed things with you when we were alone… you were so… irresistible to me.”
Bruno was really nervous. She knew him well.
Actually, he wasn’t a smooth-talking man. In fact, his sweet awkwardness when speaking in public had been one of the things that had first caught her attention.
She hadn’t imagined he could reveal such an intimate side to her, though she vaguely remembered that at the bar, his gaze had also held desire.
“It’s okay, Bruno. If you invited me to apologize, there’s nothing to apologize for. We’re both adults, and nothing happened between us, anyway.”
“But I want something to happen,” Bruno hurried to clarify. “We’ve been classmates for a long time, and I really wish to get to know you more. But not only that… I want to be special to you, and for you to look at me as a man, and not as a classmate anymore.”
If this conversation had happened a month ago, Augustine wouldn’t have even tried to resist those eyes filled with longing. It was a passionate declaration, and it came from someone to whom her heart was not entirely indifferent, even now.
However, now she didn’t know how to respond, caught between an unexpected confession and a silent witness.
Augustine felt her face burning.
She blinked rapidly, looking to her hands resting on the table, not knowing where else to look.
What should she do?
“Bruno, that night, I was a bit drunk. I was reckless and provocative, in a way that isn’t usual for me.”
“I know, and I loved every moment of it. I want to see more of you being free, without any restraint. Since that night, I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Do you think it’s possible for us to make this something more than just a drunken mistake?”
He took one of her hands in his, which were large and strong—hands that care, that caress deeply.
“This is very sudden for me,” Augustine said, gently withdrawing her hand. “Can you give me a few days to think about it?”
Bruno smiled. “Think about it as much as you need… and after you’ve thought about it, please come to me. I’ll be good to you.”
She knew all too well that Bruno would be good to her, having seen the kind of boyfriend he had been in the past: attentive, affectionate, and loyal.
Bruno skillfully steered the rest of the conversation to less awkward topics, even making her laugh a couple of times, and Augustine could imagine what her life would be like if she accepted his declaration.
Except for one thing. She couldn’t stop thinking about Alderian.