The Pretend To Be Agreement

Chapter Fifteen

Grace

My feet were killing me, my stomach wouldn't stop grumbling and making odd noises and one of my hands was holding three different shopping bags from two different stores while the other was intertwined with Will's. The mall was freezing because of the air conditioning and I'm still confused as to why it was one since it's the middle of October.

I was holding Will's bags as he took a business call, trying to listen to in on it. From what I could tell from Will's angry mumbling, it didn't sound well. It seemed like he and the other person on the phone were in the middle of an argument, and I knew he was having a hard time trying to keep his voice down.

The grip he had on my hand tightens as whoever was on the other end of that phone call was getting onto his last nerve and was reaching an edge. From the corner of my eye I see him nod, even though whoever's he's talking to couldn't see it, agreeing to something and then hanging up reluctantly.

With his jaw clenched he grumbles, "Son of a bitch."

"Everything alright?" I ask, wanting to come off nonchalant.

He shakes his head. "No. It's nothing, really."

Squeezing his hand back, I stop us both. "Now, I know that's not that true. I'm going to pressure you into telling me, but if something's bothering you, I'm here if you want to talk."

He frowns, looking down at his shoes like a little kid that's just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Rubbing the top of my hand with his thumb, he sighs, hesitant to want to answer. Shifting in discomfort he starts to walk forward, letting go of my hand, but I don't let him. Keeping my grip on his hand I pull him back hard, not wanting him to just walk away from me. He still doesn't meet my eyes so I raise my hand and put up to his chin, forcing him to look up at me.

Our eyes lock, but doesn't surprise me when I see angry and guilt hidden in those beautiful gray eyes of his. As people pass us they give us weird looks, but the only thing I cared about was him. Was Will.

"Will, I'm right here. And running away from me, from what you don't want to talk about, is going to do you any justice. We can talk about this later if you want, but I'm going to let it go until it's off your chest." I offer, letting my hand fall to his bicep, squeezing it to reassure him.

He tilts his side to side, biting the inside of his cheek from what I could tell. "Okay, fine. Now, can we get going? I'm starving."

"I can agree with you on that." I say back, walking ahead of him.

As I'm walking he does something I hadn't expected and he grabs onto my hand, tugging me back into his arms, causing him to let out a quiet squeal. This surprised me as I had thought I had annoyed him, but I guess not. The moment was sweet, but ended shortly as flashes started to go off in front of us.

Will let go of me, but laced his fingers through mine as he glances down at me and I shrug. We were going to have to face them at some point. Earlier, after we had left the jewellery stores, I had spotted a group of middle age men wearing all black and had cameras that hung around their necks, and they were obviously the paparazzi. I had guessed they had been notified by Jordan, whose a famous guitar players, when he had sent out a tweet that we here.

We had lost them ten minutes ago, but apparently they had caught onto us.

As they continued to take pictures Will leads us towards the escalators, pulling me along gently as we went. They follow us, shouting for us to look their way, but keeping his face hidden by the cap, Will pulls me into his side.

I would say I was getting better at handling these situations, but I still felt running and hiding, not wanting to face the men with the cameras.

It didn't take long until were riding down the escalators, leaving the paps behind on upper level of the mall.