The Troubleshooter

2- Confession

Nico POV

I'm early.

I'm never early.

But Lili has been avoiding me. It isn't that I haven't seen her, but that I never see her alone anymore and I am not entirely sure why that is?

There was a time, not so long ago I would look forward to space from Lili but not anymore. Since that night at the hotel in Sheffield she's taken root in my mind. Like ink dropped in water, the thoughts of her have spread until they have encompassed my entire being.

After that night I couldn't spend enough time with her, any spare moment I could find I spent with her. I even sought out ways to create more opportunities, avoiding taking jobs too far afield so I could come back to see her. I even gave her a key to my place, I literally bought a fucking plant just as an excuse to give her my key to ask her to water it and encourage her to be around more.

Somehow despite us not having sex I have never felt closer or more exposed with a person. She knows everything about me and she didn't run.

Then suddenly with no warning her walls went up and I was shut out. At first I thought it was losing Marco, but her key had reappeared in my apartment before that. I don't even know when she left it.

She doesn't take my calls or return my messages and I fucking miss her! Everything about her, even the soft snores when she would fall asleep watching a movie. Movies are all boring as fuck without the warmth of her body resting against my shoulder.

I've resorted to scheduling pointless meetings through work to see her, so far Matt has shadowed all of them so I can't ask what happened. He'd kick my ass if he knew I was interested in Lili. But he's gone back to England now. She's already had her personal assistant try to reschedule.

I lean against the wall outside her building smoking my cigarette. I already went inside but the receptionist said she's not here yet.

A car smoothly pulls up In front of the building and Lili steps out of the back before it drives away.

She looks amazing. Her fitted work dress showing off her long toned legs. Damn I want them wrapped around me! I don't know when I started seeing my best friend's sister as sexy but now I can't unsee it.

"Mx Muratori" she greets me. So cold I suddenly need a jacket. That name feels unfamiliar coming from her lips. Nobody greets me formally but it's somehow worse coming from her.

"Since when am I Mx Muratori to you?" I ask following her across the lobby and into the elevator.

"Since I am your employer and you requested a meeting." She replies bluntly.

"Lili,"

"Miss Canossa while we're in the office please." If I wasn't sure that something was wrong before I am now.

"I saw Matt and Sophie had the baby" I comment, trying to get a reaction but Lili just nods in agreement.

I follow Lili in silence to her office waiting for her to take a seat before I take mine opposite.

"So how can I help you Mx Muratori?" Lili asks, lacing her fingers together on the desk Infront of her.

"I want to know why you're avoiding me" I ask. Getting right to the point.

"I've been busy," she says, casually gesturing to the room around her.

"Bullshit. You've been avoiding me before this and you know it." I argue, "I didn't even hear from you on my birthday. You haven't missed my birthday since I was eleven, Lili! I thought, well I thought we were getting on?" I ask, feeling a bit pathetic.

"We do get on Mx Muratori, our families have a history and I have no intention of ending our association"

"Stop it" I grit through my teeth

"Stop what?" She asks, with a small frown.

"Calling me Mx Muratori."

"I apologise. I believed I was using your preferred title and pronouns, aren't I?" She asks. I scowl not replying. She knows exactly what I mean, she's deliberately being difficult.

"Fine, if you don't want to talk I will." I sigh getting up from my seat to look out of the window. "I don't know what exactly changed your attitude towards me Lili, but if you aren't going to tell me then you had better get used to this face because I'm going to be booking every spare second of your time until you decide to give me another chance"

"Another chance at what exactly? What is it that you want from me?" Lili demands. I stride across the room towards her spinning her seat to face me and boxing her in with my arms.

Our faces are so close I can feel her breath catch. The temptation to close those few inches and steal her lips is so strong, I want to taste wine from her lips again like we did that night. And I want so much more, but I know she won't give me permission right now.

I can see the resistance on her face, but it's not disgust. The way her eyes flick to my lips tells me she wants it but for some reason she's holding back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you… this time" I promise, "but I'm going to find out what's wrong. I'm going to fix it, and then I think I'm going to marry you"

The words shock us both, but the moment they leave my lips I know they are true. Fuck! I want to marry Lili.

I don't know when I started to fall for her. Maybe in a way I always loved her, but I know now that I don't want to share her, or lose her.

Lili's expression is unreadable, her eyes wide and locked on mine as the silence surrounds us.

"Get out of my office." She growls suddenly, Anger etched across her face. She looks scarily like Matt.

"Lili?" I straighten up in surprise. I know what I said was a surprise but I didn't expect this anger.

"Of all the people?!" She starts to shout. "How dare you! How dare you treat me like this?! GET OUT!"

A/N

Mx- is a title chosen bi non binary people there are a few ways to pronounce it, where I live it sounds like mix.