Date Me, Mr. Archer

twenty five | the ignoring game

I wasn't a stress eater but seeing Miller Jones again somehow redid my organs and my habits. As I was reaching out to get another cupcake, Kyst's arm wrapped around my wrist and he pulled me behind him. I stumbled on my feet and he sighed before reaching beneath me and picking me up in his arms, bridal style, before he jogged into his mansion, ignoring the stares from his guests.

"What are you doing?" I whisper-yelled, awkwardly waving at one of the employees from the office who had raised a suspicious brow in our direction.

When he didn't bother replying, I looked around, realising he'd just entered his mansion and into a room. Except, it wasn't a room. It was a pantry. Rows of cabinets stacked upon one another on the opposite side of the door as he shut it with his leg, placed me down and pushed me towards the cabinets.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, grabbing the jacket that had been hanging off his shoulders and throwing it on the ground.

"Me?" I asked, confused. "What did I do? You were the one that stiffened the moment I asked you about lying."

"You don't get to accuse me of stiffening when you yourself were staring funny at Miller from the moment he entered." His voice lowered in intensity and he took a step further, causing me to stumble backwards. "What was that, darling? Did you just realise you're in love with him?"

I stared at him. Like really stared at him. At his high cheekbones that could cut stones and his chiseled jaw. The hoop hanging off his left ear and how his ocean eyes stared at me with so much ferocity. Did he actually think I was staring at Miller because I was in love with him when in reality I was actually realising why I could never be in love with a man like that?

"This is ridiculous," I scoffed, pushing past him to get out.

He grabbed me by the elbow and slammed me against the cabinets as his chest brushed against mine. He was so close I could smell his fresh citrus-y smell on him but there was also something else. Me. I could smell myself on him from when he had hugged me earlier or pulled me against him.

That knowledge alone drove me delirious and then Kyst was towering over me, both his hands on either sides of my head as he looked down. "What is ridiculous?" he taunted. "Is it ridiculous that you looked at him like he stole the moon and the stars for you? Or is it ridiculous that you ignored me when I called you because you were too busy gawking the life out of my friend, your ex-boss, who as you claim is in love with you? Oh, or you think it's ridiculous that you had to run away from him and stress eat because he wouldn't spare you a single glance?"

I couldn't do much than just stare at him and realise how obsessively possessive he got over something as trivial as me just looking at my ex-boss. And he had called me? Why hadn't I realised that? "Kyst that's not—"

"No, you know what? You go ahead and ogle your ex-boss and I'll go and hook myself up with one of my highschool friends that I've invited," he spoke with a calm that I knew he didn't feel. He was assuming things on his own but before I could even tell him that it wasn't like what he was thinking, he was already backing away from me and slamming the door shut behind him, leaving only the pungent smell of his perfume and regret thick in the air.

||

"Vienna Bell." A deep, masculine voice from behind me uttered and my hold on my champagne tightened as I turned around, getting punched in the face with my ex-boss's chest as the smell cedarwood and bergamont surrounded in the air.

I took a step back, sneakily risking a glance at Sully and Savannah standing by the snacks' counter, engrossed in a deep conversation with Kyst, their brows furrowed as Sully pointed his finger haphazardly at Kyst's chest and Sav smacked his bicep with her purse.