My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

31. The Big Bad Wolf

 Chapter 31

            When I wake up, it is still dark.

            Everything is quiet in the house, only a thin stream of yellow light pooling onto the bedroom floor.

            When I shift my weight and look over, Coda is gone, his side of the bed rumpled.

            Sitting up, my stomach feels weird, like I beginning to feel nauseous, my head spinning. Taking a moment to catch my senses, I wince when my feet make contact with the cool floor.

            There isn’t a sound in the house aside from the soft shuffle of my feet as I approach the kitchen where the light is.

            Tip-toeing down the stairs, it isn’t until I round the corner that I stop-

            Coda sits at the kitchen counter, his shoulders hunched and his elbows onto the table. His head is bent over a steaming cup, his figure still.

            I stare at him for a long while, my heart aching with a feeling that I can’t really place because it takes me back to a few days ago, when I first saw him in this position.

            It was the vulnerability that I was seeing in him that made me uncomfortable- not because I expected him to be strong for all the time, but because of the opposite-because I wanted him to be able to tell me that he was scared, that he wasn’t okay.

            So much of his time was spent on making sure I was okay and none of the time was spent over him allowing me to take care of him.

            I didn’t want him to only allow himself to vulnerable only when he was by himself-when I was gone.

            Maybe he wants to be alone a small part of my head whispers.

            I bite my lip, shifting my weight from one foot onto the other before I finally take the first step into the light.

            I don’t give myself a chance to back away as I approach Coda slowly, unsure.

            His shoulders tense-sensing my presence- but otherwise, he doesn’t move or lift his head.

            Taking the seat next to him, my knees brush his thigh as I place my hands on my lap, unsure whether or not to touch him.

            He is so quiet.

            We sit there for the longest time and I’m not even sure what to say or do to make him feel better.

            I lift my hand to place on his shoulder but withdraw it on the last second, hesitantly settling it back on my lap.

            We wouldn’t even be in this situation if it weren’t for me. I didn’t even know why the papers were so important-why they were important enough for Cordero to threaten to kill me.

            It felt surreal, like this situation was some idea from a melodramatic movie. I was waiting for the director’s cut, the signal that this was all some sick joke.

            “Ridge used to shake his leg whenever he was nervous too,” Coda murmurs, a soft smile on his face.

            I freeze, my leg freezing mid shake. I didn’t even realize I was shaking my leg.