Mindful Beauty

20) Her Safety

Ella, inclusively, waited an additional thirty minutes to see if maybe the woman was running late or lost, but there were no signs of either option, so Ella ended up deciding to just call it a day and leave.

Just as the young woman was approaching her car, she noticed a tall and handsome figure leaning on it.

"Fancy meeting you here," Ella quipped, leaning up to kiss him briefly as a greeting.

Damien smiled in return, pulling on the lapel of her white suit jacket to tug her back to him. "I heard that there was a beautiful doctor around here who needed saving." Damien chuckled, and Ella quirked a brow in question. Damien looked down at her tire, revealing the flat object that was ruined.

"Ay, no." Ella cried quietly, pouting as she kneeled to inspect the damage.

"Yours isn't the only one, so someone must've dropped something earlier." Damien pointed out at the other two vehicles that were a few parking spots down. "It's fixable, though. Don't worry." He soothed when he saw her cute pouting as she frowned at the tire, searching the other ones.

"I know, it just seems like today isn't my day." Ella sighed, kicking a spare rock across the lot with her heel. "Why are you here, anyway?" Ella turned her attention back to her boyfriend.

"To save you, of course." Damien teased, watching as Ella scoffed playfully, tucking a curl behind her ear as she looked around. "I wanted to invite you to dinner."

"I'm gaining weight, Damien." Ella groaned, following his ushering to his car.

"We can hike for our next date." Damien promised, opening up his passenger door to his car. He had already called someone to take care of Ella's vehicle, so there was no need for them to wait outside.

"Agreed." Ella buckled up, waiting for Damien to round the vehicle.

After being undecided about what to eat for twenty minutes, the couple concluded that they would eat at the first liked restaurant they saw, which just happened to be a wings place. There, Ella managed to convince Damien to attend to the camping event, though the convincing took place with little to no effort.

Damien would find himself defenseless whenever her eyes focused on him with that shiny and happy gleam as well as that dazzling smile of hers. With almost a drop of a hat, he agreed. It would help him keep an eye out for her anyway.

"Thank you for dinner and the ride home." Ella was getting out of Damien's car thanks to the door he was holding open for her.

"You paid for dinner." Damien grumbled. His plan was for him to pay, but Ella had sneakily "gone to the bathroom." In reality, she left to go pay for the bill, much to Damien's dismay.

"Thank you for inviting me to dinner." Ella rephrased, kissing his jaw as he sighed, falling prey to her endless charms.

"Thank you for accepting." Damien hugged her to him. Ever since she had mentioned her specific soft spot for hugs, he had also found himself in a very similar predicament, the only difference being that Damien was truly only fond of hugs when they were with a specific, raven-haired, Spanish girl.

"Text me once you've arrived home safely." Ella pulled away, fighting back a yawn of exhaustion.

Damien agreed, kissing her softly before wishing her a goodnight. He waited until she was inside to turn away, but his phone rang with Selena's contact.

Ella, meanwhile, as soon as she entered her home, something felt weird. Off.

Slowly backing away, she realized her alarm system had been deactivated. That alarmed her since she was never one to forget about that, and as far as she knew, she had paid her bill.