Flirting With Death

Chapter 19

Demetri's POV:

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"Psst, Demetri. Hey Demetri, you in there?" I hear Mackenzie's very loud whisper through the crack of my office doors, causing me to automatically roll my eyes. I decide to ignore her, wondering how long it'll take her to barge in here with all her sass and sarcasm. It took her approximately seven seconds.

"I know you can hear me," she scoffs as she barges towards me, her ruffled hair swaying above her face, making it difficult to see whether she actually wanted to kill me this time, "Why do you choose to infuriate me this way, it's not difficult to simply answer me."

I scoot my desk chair forward, intertwining my hands before looking up at her with the sweetest smile I could muster up. By then, her expression had contorted from a manageable frown to a look of deep frustration, "I'm oh so sorry, I must've missed the sound of your incessant voice traveling through the walls of this entire house," her mouth dropped in shock, as though she had been sincerely hurt by my words, "by the way, you might want to learn how to whisper."

"I will have you know, I whisper just fine - in fact, I am the best whisperer there is." she turns her head away in the most dramatic way possible, but it took less than a second for a small smile to break out on her face, which then turned into a big grin as she looked back at me.

Damn, that smile.

I quickly shook my head of that thought and silently thanked the fact that she couldn't read my mind.

I cleared my throat, realizing that we were just smiling back at each other, "Uh, so, how's the whole getting back to life thing going for you?"

"Well, I'm still here, if that gives you any indication what my answer might be."

She looks away, her grin fading, "Fourteen days left," she strolls around the room before coming to a quick halt, "It's not forgiveness, I'm sorry but I can't forgive my father for what he put us through, I just can't-" I stopped her rambling.

"Mackenzie," I pushed myself off my chair and quickly made my way to her, grabbing her face by both hands, "Hey, look at me."

It took a moment for her gaze to shift from the ground to me, "We went through this, this can't be forced, it has to be true forgiveness, and that dimwit isn't anywhere near your forgiveness right now," her eyes flicked down again.

"But I just-" I pull her face closer to mine gently, and my hands automatically push away the strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face.

"But nothing, you have two weeks left, we'll figure this out."

She stood there staring at me, and I suddenly realized the distance between us was as thin as air. I tried to pull away but something in my head wouldn't let me, something was telling me to pull her closer. I held her cheeks in my hand and the silence in the room was deafening. I could hear her slightly gasp as I took another step closer.

My grip on her face became a little stronger as I felt her breath on my lips, and the gravity of the room suddenly felt ten times heavier.

I don't understand what's wrong with me, what is this, what am I doing?

I watch as her eyes drift from my eyes to my lips, and for a moment, I let myself have something that I haven't had in decades: a weakness.

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Mackenzie's POV:

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