For Jakob

30: heart in hand

T H I R T Y

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Jakob's POV

I unlocked the front door, letting her walk in first before I followed behind her.

I couldn't justly describe how I was feeling, though I knew that it was akin to feeling on top of the world.

Tonight had been perfect, and now that everything I had planned was over, I could finally let out a sigh of relief.

The only downside to tonight had been that grating voice in the back of my mind.

The one that wouldn't stop telling me that Eliana wouldn't want me.

Trying to shake off that sinking feeling, I locked the door behind us.

She kicked off her shoes by the front door, smiling brightly at Prince as he charged up to us.

"Prince!" she said excitedly, bending down so that she could pet him, "Guess who got flowers and you didn't?"

My mouth twitched and I held back a smile.

Prince barked and she glanced up at me teasingly, "I think he's mad you didn't get him flowers."

I looked down at the dog that was too busy trying to cuddle up to Eliana to care about anything else in the world.

"He'll get over it."

She laughed, standing up; she had her flowers in one hand, the other still scratching Prince's head.

"Coat?"

It was as though it was physically impossible for me to string up a proper sentence when she was looking at me.

"Oh! Yes, of course," she held the flowers out to me so that she could take off her coat.

Handing the flowers back to her in exchange for the coat, I turned around to hang it up in the closet.

The sight of her coat hanging right beside mine, in my house made me feel lightheaded.

With a tight jaw, I turned back around to her, trying to keep calm at the sight of her in that dress.

She looked at her flowers, and slowly at me, "Would you mind if I put these in some water?"

I shook my head, and then tilted it in the direction of the kitchen, "Lead the way."

She beamed and turned around to walk over to the kitchen, Prince and I followed behind her.

Only one of us had their tail wagging.

If I did have a tail though, it would have been two.

"Do you have a vase Elijah? Shall I just put them in a glass?" she asked as we entered the kitchen.

I did actually have a vase; evey since Adler and Ms. Faye had gotten together, I had had a surplus of flowers in my life.

It made Ms. Faye happy when she saw her flowers displayed in my home.

That in turn, made Adler very happy, which worked in my favour because he wasn't annoying at work for once.

I opened the cupboard and grabbed the empty vase, handing it to her so that she could arrange the flowers as she pleased.

As she worked on that, I refilled Prince's bowl, making sure everything was clean and that he had eaten all of his dinner.

I finished my task before she finished hers, which worked out well because I could lean against the counter and watch her as she put the flowers away.