Wait For Me

31 | stay with me

❝ 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒂
𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒆
𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒕
𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕? 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆? ❞

𝑻𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒂

* * * * * * *

T H E A

After dinner, Ellerie asked me if I would make cakes with her. So that exactly what we're doing right now. "I want to put pink sprinkles on my ones." She says as she washes her hands.

"You can put whatever you want on them, we have lots of different toppings." I tell her and she smiles happily, swaying side to side as she impatiently waits for me to get the icing ready.

I allow her to mix the rest, watching as she stirs it so fast that she almost lets the bowl slip from her hands but quickly manages to save it. "Woah! That was close!" She giggles and I chuckle, glancing over at Rio as he watches us intently, leaning against the counter.

She gives me the bowl back and I place it on the work top, making sure we have everything else that we need. Ellerie helps place the cupcake holders into the individual slots of the baking tray.

"You have a bit of icing there," Rio says as he points to my nose. I lift my hand and try to wipe it away when he shakes his head. "No, not there." He mumbles as he stops directly in front of me.

I furrow my brows, wondering how I've missed it when I wiped the exact spot he pointed to. "There," he says as he smudges a lump of icing onto my nose with his finger.

I gasp, my eyes closing at the unexpected action my mouth falls open as I stare at him with narrowed eyes.

Laughter fills the room and it takes me a second to work out where it's coming from. A deep, warm laugh, one that I've never heard before.

It's coming from Rio.

He's covering his mouth with his hand so I can't work out if he's smiling or not but it sends a warm, fuzzy feeling through my veins.

"You're an idiot," I mutter as I swipe a mass of icing onto my finger and run at him, watching as he acts on instinct and runs in the opposite direction, moving around the island so I can't reach him.

I let out a playful groan and try throwing him off by pretending I'm going to go one way but actually go the other. However, Rio being Rio seems to know exactly what I'm thinking and moves the opposite way again.

Ellerie giggles at us, cheering while extending her arms in the air. "Go Thea! Go Thea!" She chants and Rio glances over at her with a disheartened expression.

"Hey! You're supposed to be my sister!" He yells and she throws her head back as she continues to laugh.

I take this split second I seem to have been given where Rio loses concentration from talking to Ellerie and run around the island towards him. He catches me from the corner of his eye and jolts, too quick for me to reach. Damn it.