"Sebastian? What are you doing here?" I questioned as I looked him up and down with curious eyes.
Completely ignoring my question, Sebastian just smiled at me before sauntering his way into the house through the gap I'd left through the door. It's like the boy thought he owned the place.
Closing the door, I quickly turned around to face him. "By all means come in," I spat sarcastically.
Sebastian chuckled, then let his eyes draw to the vase of water in my hands. "Why are you holding a vase?"
I paused at his question before quickly realizing this was a good chance as any to brag to him after he mocked me for not having any plans for valentine's day.
An instant smile slipped to my lips, a bragging one. "Oh right, some guy that's super into me, delivered me some roses just a little bit before you came," I explained as I gestured over to the flowers on the hallway table.
"Really, into you, huh?" Sebastian repeated, his eyes shining amusedly. Without being asked, he strolled his way over to the table in the hallway. He let his finger graze softly over the petals and adjusted them so they sat more upright.
"Hmm, they're nice, lucky you," he mumbled as he continued to inspect them.
Knowing Sebastian, I figured he was being nosey and trying to look for the name attached so he could make fun of the guy.
After a moment of silence, he turned back to face me. "So, do you like them?" he asked. His expression was stiff as he spoke, but there was a level of curiosity dancing behind his eyes that distracted me.
It took me a second to collect my words. "Yeah, of course, what girl wouldn't? I don't think anyone's ever gotten me flowers before," I admitted with an honest smile.
His lips twitched slightly upward. "Any clue who they're from?"
"Actually, no, they didn't say who they were. They just left a cute card," I explained with a small shrug. "You can read it if you want," I said gesturing over to the flowers.
At this point, I was shamelessly trying to rub it in how much flower guy liked me. I didn't want Sebastian to continue to think I was this lonely girl with no prospects.
Sebastian stepped closer and plucked out the little note attached to the flowers, and scanned his eyes over it. He let out a light snicker before meeting my eye in amusement. "Your pathetically whipped fool, huh? At least the poor guy who gave you this knows what he is. I almost feel sorry for him."
My heart squeezed tightly, knowing he was likely trying to make a dig at me. Not at all surprised that Sebastian was making fun of flower guy for being a sensitive human being, I looked him over with irritative narrowed eyes. "Why would you feel sorry for him?"
"Because he's probably going to get his heart broken," Sebastian explained simply and boldly.
A harsh breath escaped my lips. "I hardly see how I could break his heart."
He let out a scoff, that almost sounded like it could have been a laugh. "Trust me, I think you're more than capable of that, trust me. Besides, I only said I almost feel sorry for him," he said in correction.
"Why only almost?" I probed.
"Because if you break his heart, it's technically his own fault. I know people say it's not a choice who you choose to love, but it kind of is. Think about it – you can't fall in love with someone unless you spend time with them. And if he can't bring himself to distance himself from you then that's his problem," he said, suddenly oddly wise for what started off as such a simple conversation.
I pondered over his words in silence for a few seconds before my mind suddenly pulled me back to my original question.
"Wait a second, why are you even here? I thought you had a date tonight?" I asked as I looked him over in question.
He had just casually strolled into my house without a word of explanation at why he was even there. That was weird behaviour even for Sebastian.
"Yeah, I do have a date tonight, I'm just in the process of sorting it out," he explained with a smile, his eyes once again shining in that playful light of his. Again, my stomach twisted painfully in that now familiar way it did whenever Sebastian seemed to mention having a date.
My lips tugged into a frown before I had the sense to stop them. "How the hell are you going to sort out your date from my house?"
Again, completely ignoring me, Sebastian wandered past me and down the hallway, and through the entrance to our kitchen.
"How about I make dinner while you chose a movie for us to watch?" Sebastian called out from the distance.
Genuinely concerned for his state of mind, I wandered after him with a deeply furrowed brow. Slowing down as I reached the kitchen door; I leaned my side against the wood frame of the door and observed with highly confused eyes as Sebastian started sifting through my kitchen cupboards like it was a completely normal thing to do.
Then wandering over to the fridge; he started looking through that too. "You don't mind stir-fry noodles, right?" Sebastian asked, as he casually glanced my way.
"Erm...no," I answered slowly.
"Excellent," Sebastian said as he started pulling out all kinds of veggie packs from the bottom of the fridge.
Wondering if I had entered an alternative universe in which I'd invited Sebastian over to my house for a movie and meal, I continued to stare at him in blank confusion from the corner of the kitchen. Sebastian looked so natural about the whole thing, it started to get to the point where I was wondering if I was the crazy one.
"There's no point watching me cook. Why don't you go and choose a movie in the living room, I'll probably be done in just over twenty minutes," Sebastian called out softly again as he poured some oil into a pan.
Shooting him a weird look, I slowly backed away and headed over to the living room. Once there, I flopped down onto the sofa, unsure of whether I should be mildly or severely concerned that Sebastian had just invited himself into my house and essentially told me he was cooking us dinner.
Figuring I shouldn't dwell too hard on somebody wanting to cook for me for free, I decided to push all confusion aside.
Deciding to busy myself with sorting out the flowers, I went back to the hallway and carefully placed all my roses in the vase I'd already prepared. Smiling briefly down at the cute message again on the card, I suddenly looked up sharply as I remembered I still hadn't opened my final valentine's day card.
Quickly making a beeline for my bag that I'd dumped in the corridor, I quickly fished out the remaining unopened card before walking back to the living room with it.
Sitting down, I wasted no time in ripping it open, eager to finally see what was inside. The decoration on the card was beautiful alone, and it was covered from top to bottom with small little flowers. In a big sash across the middle were written the words,' To my Valentine.'
Opening the card, I scanned my eyes over the writing. Inside was written, 'To Phoebe,
I've never enjoyed nor been the best at writing letters, but for you, I'm willing to try. I'm willing to try because you're special to me. I won't lie – I've spent an embarrassingly long time trying to think of the best words to say to you, so I've decided to keep it simple. I like you, Phoebe. I like you a lot. Much more than I'm clever enough to write in words.
Anyway, if you're smiling right now, I know I did my job right.
Love your pathetically whipped fool.
Staring down at the letter with what had to be one of the most embarrassingly big smiles known to man, I read the card over once more from top to bottom just to make sure it was real.
It was the same guy from before. It was practically killing me now that I didn't know who it was.
Surely, it couldn't be Jordan. He'd already written me a valentine's card, and he hardly knew me to have already developed such intense feelings.
Pushing the curiosity aside, I quickly packed up the card and put it back in my bag before Sebastian could see. The last thing I needed was for him to make fun of the card.
Remembering Sebastian had instructed me to go find a movie, I picked up the remote and switched the TV over to Disney-plus so I could find a good movie for us to watch. I was going through a really big Disney movie obsession at the moment, so Sebastian was watching one whether he liked it or not.
I must have spent a whole fifteen minutes or so debating between wanting to watch Lion King or Tangled as the next thing I knew; Sebastian was strolling his way into the living room with two steaming bowls of stir-fry noodles in his hand.
Instantly alerted to the smell of food, I sat up straighter in intrigue.
"Okay, so what movie did you pick?" Sebastian asked curiously as he placed the two bowls of food down on the coffee table before me.
"Erm...I'm currently stuck between Lion King and Tangled so you can decide if you want," I offered.
"Lion king," Sebastian said without missing a beat.
I raised an amused brow. "Why so quick in your decision?"
"Because, Phoebe, I live with a four-year-old little sister, who watches the movie on repeat. I practically know every line of Tangled off by heart," he bitterly scoffed.
I snickered as an image of Sebastian gruelling his way through his 50th watch of Tangled sprang to mind.
Sebastian soon let out a sigh before throwing himself down beside me on the sofa.
Given the size of the sofa, it immediately struck me as odd that he'd chosen to sit directly beside me. Dangerously close. When I and Ava hung out, we normally took up a sofa each.
Making it even worse, Sebastian adjusted himself slightly till the sides of his legs were pressed up right against mine.
My skin seemed to burn from where he was pressing against me, and it was suddenly all I could seem to think about. Then making things words, I sucked in a sharp breath, starting to take in the masculine smell of his shower gel, shampoo, or whatever that was surrounding me.
Sebastian leaned forward and grabbed the two bowls of food. "Here," he said as he passed one to me, along with some chopsticks.
Glancing down at the bowl it was undeniable that it both looked and smelled delicious, but as I looked back at the chopsticks, I paused. Chopsticks and I didn't exactly have the best relationship. It often consisted of me trying and failing to get any food in my mouth, then swearing at the chopsticks and going to get cutlery.
The only reason we had them in the house was because Max liked to eat with them sometimes. Feeling too embarrassed to tell Sebastian my embarrassing truth, I just mumbled thanks.
As I pressed play to start The Lion King, Sebastian glanced at the screen while casually starting to tuck into his pasta.
I, on the other hand, was barely listening to the starting song, so focused on trying to not let the bit of chicken I grabbed, slip out from between my chopsticks. Just as it got to be an inch from my mouth, it slipped right from my grip and fell right back into the bowl.
You've got to be fucking kidding me....
On my third failure to shovel the first bit of food successfully into my mouth, Sebastian reached forward to pause the movie before turning my way.
"Everything, alright with your chopsticks?" he asked, his eyes shining with amusement
Realizing the jig was up, I threw the chopsticks down into the bowl with a heavy sigh. "Well, obviously not. I can't fucking use them," I snapped.
"Yeah, I gathered that...," Sebastian chuckled. "Here, this is how you hold them," he said demonstrating with his own. "You hold it like a pencil, a third from the top. Ring finger against one chopstick, and your thumb and middle fingers move the next," he explained. "And then voila, you can pick up your food," he said, demonstrating by picking up a noodle.
Expecting him to raise the food to his mouth, my heart jumped in surprise as he leaned his way over me and lifted his chopsticks up to my mouth. Stupidly, I just turned to look at myself, my eyes no doubt wide and shocked.
"Well, open your mouth," he urged.
I'm not sure what possessed me to do it but my mouth soon opened, and the chopstick slid smoothly into my mouth. My face instantly burned like fire as he gently pulled the chopsticks clean from my mouth.
I could hardly look him in the eye, as the strangest of feelings rushed through my stomach. What the hell was he thinking, didn't he know this was the kind of thing people did when they were on a date?
As I started chewing, Sebastian looked at me with a smile. It was soft and genuine. "Good, right?"
I nodded in honestly. "Now you try," he urged.
For my next go with the chopsticks, I surprisingly seemed to get the hang of it and I was much more successful in getting food to my mouth. Who knew a five-second tip from Sebastian could be so helpful?
Twenty minutes into the movie, the two of us had abandoned our empty bowls on the coffee table and were silently enjoying the movie while making the odd joke.
When I was at my most engrossed, I suddenly felt something gently brush up against my hand. Looking down, I saw to my confusion that Sebastian had moved his hand toward the very edge of his thigh so that his fingers were brushing up against mine. Figuring it was just an accident, I went back to watching the screen.
That's when I felt Sebastian's hand drift completely over to my thigh, and rest over my fingers. Then while still looking ahead, Sebastian started to gently play with the ends of my fingers.
At this point, I had no fucking idea what was happening in the movie, and all I could seem to think about was his touch. Did he realize what he was doing? Throwing Sebastian a look, I quickly confirmed that he was still watching the screen before sharply looking away.
Getting a little bolder now, he dragged my hand over to his lap and turned it over so it was palm up. Then starting to move his finger in circles, he traced lines, and drew swirls up and down my palm.
My heart was thumping wildly away, confused at the way he was making me feel. As Sebastian's fingers moved to briefly intertwine with mine, my heart jumped once more.
Okay, yeah – there was no way I was going to be able to focus on this movie.
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Hope you enjoyed xx
And ha if you've read my other book, and thought Mia was oblivious. You've seen nothing!
Next Update: Thursday