❝Overthinking is akin to sketching the outline of a masterpiece; the ideas are vivid on paper, eager to be brought to life. However, each stroke, when pondered too intensely, can lead to bewilderment, causing one to lose their way within the piece, unsure of how to navigate back to the original vision. Just like overthinking.❞
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Two days. It has been two days since she moved in with Elijah. So far everything he had told her was true. He spent most of his day out, and he comes back to his place late. In other words she didn't really see the man too much. As he told her, the only time Aurelia sees him is earlier in the morning when she's waking up to start her day. They would have very short conversations, while she drinks tea and eats the toast she made with the bread in his kitchen. Everything is perfect and comfortable for her, but why did she feel so lonely? It didn't feel like she did when she was living with Jackie, but it feels like she's living with a ghost. Is it too much to ask him for some quality time?
"Relia!" Aurelia looks at her laptop screen, seeing Cameron and Sabrina watching her. "Girl, are you okay?"
Right. She called her friends to let them know her situation. Aurelia had already told Cameron about what was going on a few weeks ago, but she never really updated him on it. This whole time she pretty much kept her thoughts and worries to herself, that is, until she called Elijah. Even after telling the man everything, from start to finish, he didn't seem that surprised by what she told him.
"Sorry." Aurelia apologizes to them both, watching them smile again, but she could feel their concern through the screen.
"Did you get a renovation or something?" Cameron comments on the room, the guest room she's staying in with a big window and a pretty view on her right. "Where are you?"
Aurelia looks down trying to muster up the courage to finally say what was on her mind to her two best friends. "I'm living with someone else."
Sabrina's face twists with confusion. "What do you mean? Why?"
"I already told Cameron, but I've had a lot of issues with my previous roommate, Jackie." Aurelia says somewhat confidently, watching Sabrina and Cameron nod their heads. "I went to the student housing board just as Cameron suggested, but when I went there, the board leader was on leave, so there was much for them to do with my situation."
"The fuck?" Cameron cursed, rolling his eyes before crossing his arms. "It was still early into the first week of classes for you. They couldn't help?"
Aurelia avoids their faces this time. "I wanted another week. I wanted to give her another chance, but then her boyfriend, and herself, were super rude and mean to me. So, i called someone, i met, and now I'm living with him."
"Can she fight?" Cameron asks, his anger flaring up. "Because if she can't I don't give a fuck, her and her little chump ass-"
"Him?!" Sabrina cuts Cameron off, causing Aurelia to finally look at her best friends. "You're living with a man?"
Cameron looks confused for a second before he gasps dramatically. "Word? Is he more attractive than me? Because I don't know how to feel about that."
Sabrina groans. "Cam shut up! This is serious. She's living with a man she just met."
Aurelia tilts her head a bit. "I didn't just meet him, but yeah, I'm slowly getting to know him."
She values her best friend's opinions, and so far she's getting mixed reactions. Cameron isn't saying much about her moving in with Elijah, but Sabrina seems so concerned, as if she made the wrong decision. Even though she downplayed everything she went through when telling the story, she was certain that she got the one point across. The one point that there weren't any other options besides this one.
"Aurelia, you know I'd never judge you or your decisions," Sabrina sighs, already giving signs that she's going to speak her mind loud and clear about all of this. "And I know you wouldn't make decisions like this unless you have to, so just be careful."
That's it? Aurelia was sure that she was going to get an earful from her best friend, but she's more relieved that she trusts her with the decision she made.
"Well, honestly," Cameron starts speaking again. "It's clear that this guy, whoever he is, got deep ass pockets. Look at her room. We can't even see all of it, and the design itself looks expensive. Aurelia, did you get a sugar daddy?"
"W-What?" her eyes widen as she quickly shakes her head. "I know he's well off, at least, that's what he told me, but no he's seriously just a good person, someone I'd definitely consider my friend."
Her best friend sighs again. "Whatever you say, baby. You ain't fooling me though."
"Stop teasing her, Cameron, can't you see you're giving her a heart attack." Sabrina scolds, causing Cameron to make faces making Aurelia laugh.
It seems like it's been forever since she talked to her best friends like this. She knows that they are busy, and she is too, but she would love to have more moments like this when they are all together having conversations about any and everything.
"Well, I have to go, Relia. Remember what I said okay?" Sabrina tells her. "See you Cameron, love you both!"
Camerons yawns. "I should go too, I need to sleep, I got an early class. See you, pretty princess, love you."
Aurelia says goodbye to Cameron and Sabrina before closing her laptop. A small pout forms on her lips as she tries to keep her tears down. She didn't know how much she missed her friends until now. Moments of stress, moments like the one she's currently in, she would cuddle up to Sabrina or Cameron, venting her frustrations. However, she doesn't have anyone like that here. All she has is the pillow she sleeps on at night.
"Hey," a knock on the bedroom door causes her to flinch before climbing out of the bed quickly. She didn't know why she got startled, but it made her look suspicious when Elijah opened the door. He raises an eyebrow at her behavior before smiling a bit. "I won't be back tonight."
There goes her plan to get to know him more. "May I ask why?"
The male chuckles and walks further into the room. "No need to be formal, Aurelia. You're my roommate, not my secretary."
"Sorry."
"Don't be," he shakes his head and leans against the door frame. "I find your politeness cute."
Cute?
"But, if you must know why. I'll be going out with some friends, and I don't want to come back tipsy, or drunk, I wouldn't want to scare you with that side of me." He explains, avoiding her eyes, making her think that some of what he's saying isn't completely a lie. "Not that I'm a messy drinker, but when I'm out with friends, my drinking becomes a bit heavy. If that makes sense."
Aurelia didn't really grow up around heavy drinkers. Her parents weren't drinkers at all. The most alcohol she witnessed her parents drink was wine and champagne but they always drink a glass and never showcase themselves being drunk. She had no idea what the male meant, but she still nodded her head and grip at the thick blanket of the bed she's sitting on.
"So," Aurelia says softly, causing the male to bring his gaze back to hers. "Does that mean you will be showing up tomorrow night?"
He shakes his head quickly. "God, no. I won't be working tomorrow, that's the only reason I'm going out drinking. I was going to have a few of my non-drinking coworkers open up at the same time tomorrow, so I'll be here tomorrow morning, the early afternoon at latest."
"Okay." She nods again, but it was her turn to avoid his eyes.
Elijah steps closer, sitting on the empty spot beside her. "Mind if I sit?"
"You're already sitting, aren't you?" She mumbles quietly causing him to laugh at the same volume.
"I know I haven't asked in a while, but," he leans forward, resting his elbow on his knee. It is clear he is trying to make eye contact just as he did before, but it was hard. Especially with her heart thumping against her chest as it is at the moment. She's sure the male could hear it. "How are you? I know it's still early in the week, but you're so quiet sometimes that I forget you're here. Is everything comfortable for you?"
Aurelia nods her head, slowly turning to face the man. "Yes, everything is fine."
"I can normally read people well," He chuckles. "And I have a hunch that something's troubling you."
She slowly turns her head again, focusing on the pretty bouquet sitting nicely on the expensive modern dresser just a few feet from the bed.
"Are you regretting agreeing to stay with me for a week?" He asks bluntly, his tone soft and deep, as if he has no intention of offending her. "It's understandable if you are. Living with a man you hardly know is a bit scary, and that's why I'm giving you all the space you need until you're ready to get to know me more. Okay?"
Aurelia stays quiet, the silence surrounding them causes the room energy to shift. Elijah stands slowly from the spot of the bed, not saying anything else. He walks towards the open door to the room, smiling at her before, slowly closing the door. Just before he closes the door completely, Aurelia takes the leap of faith and tells him the truth.
"It's not true!" She blurts out, watching the male slowly push the door open a bit. "It is true that I hardly know you, and that moving in with you for a week was not a normal decision for me, but I'm not regretting it. It's only been two days and having the short conversations that we have today and yesterday morning is helping me get to know you more and more. I just wish..."
Aurelia looks down at her shaken hands. "I just wish I had more time to get to know you. Especially since you've been helping me a lot recently."
Elijah's smile never falls from his face, as he stands in the doorway of the room. "Well, how about, tomorrow night? You know if you're not too tired from class and your job, we could go walk around or eat out somewhere. What do you say?"
Even though he's not wording in a way to make it sound like a date, Aurelia knew for certain this smooth talker is asking her out. After thinking about it for a few moments, she finally nods her head. "Yeah, sure."
"It's a date then." He winks at her before closing the room door.
She knew it. She knew the man was asking her out indirectly. Even though it's hours away, Aurelia is nervous. What if she is too tired to go out. Would he be upset about it? No. She shakes that negative though trite out of her head. The man has shown her plenty of times that he doesn't get mad about the trivial things like that. He seems like the type that would just reschedule or pick another day where she's not busy.
With all this thinking, she finally realized that she wasn't even thinking about the possibility of being asked out when she picked all afternoon classes, as well as the evening shift at the cafe. Good thing it's part-time and it closes at seven, she wouldn't be working too late. It is a cafe.
"What will I wear?" She asks herself as she looks at her open suitcase with the clothes spilling out on the sides. "It's just a casual thing right?"
Aurelia continues to have conversations with herself, until she gets a notification on her laptop. Since her phone is broken, she has been using her laptop for phone calls and messages. Of course this was neither. It was Sunny, her department head, sending her reminder about the event. She hasn't really given her piece a name, and since Elijah's compliments, she couldn't look at it without replaying everything that he said to her. His words made her shy, but they also made her confident. More confident in the piece than she was when she was in the process of painting it.
Seeing the email did send a rush through her, a rush to work on her unfinished project for Arthur's class. It wasn't late, at least not to her. With no classes today, now would be the perfect time to paint, and get other things done while she's alone and her surroundings are quiet. Aurelia is in pale yellow shorts, and an oversized t-shirt. One she didn't care about getting paint on. As she slides on her houseshoes, Aurelia grabs her laptop, and walks out of the room, choosing her music as she descends down the hallway. Once she found a song, she puts her headphones over her head, while holding her laptop carefully, and walks up the stairs to the loft space where Elijah set up, himself, for painting.
Before she moved in with him, he showed her around, and she just couldn't believe he was allowing her to use his art space to paint. The area is spacious, and it was enough room for them both if one day they wanted to paint side by side. Like that would ever happen. Aurelia knows if that were to happen, she would probably get too nervous and run away. Far away.
Sitting her laptop on stool, Aurelia presses play on Simmer by Mahalia as she sets her paint up to use. Once everything is set up, she starts painting, while singing and dancing along to the songs that were on her painting playlist. Sometimes when she's really focused, she loses track of time. Just like now. Aurelia allows her pencil to guide her across the colorless canvas, her emotions dancing its way on the canvas. As she takes a step back to admire her progress, she finally pulls her eyes from her canvas and looks towards the large windows. It was getting dark a lot faster than she expected. It was surely turning into the colder season by the second.
"Should I add color?" She asks herself as she stares at the canvas of two masculine figures coming together. No facial features, nor were there certain attributes. The canvas that started with two circles is now forming into something. She doesn't know what it is yet, but if she keeps at it, it'll surely be something beautiful. She just needs to be confident.
Finally coming to an agreement with herself to not add color, she starts to clean up the paint she put out. There would be no use to waste it, since she didn't use it, so she tried to salvage as much as she could. As she finishes cleaning up, she leaves the area with her laptop and walks towards the kitchen with it. She had some work to finish and she noticed it was getting dark by the second.
Sitting her laptop on the counter, as the next song plays, she walks towards the refrigerator, grabbing a water bottle to drink. As she stands in the empty kitchen, blasting music in her ear. She didn't hear the front door open. Elijah's elevator up to his penthouse had a hall that separated the elevator and the door to the penthouse, so when the front door opened and closed. Aurelia had no idea, due to the loud music in her ear.
Humming along to the song, she opens the fridge once again, grabbing the cherry tomatoes. Her music stops and a long whistle fills her ear.
"Well," Andrew grins, his hands in his hoodie pocket. "This was unexpected."
Aurelia holds her hand over her chest as she panting softly. "You s-scared me!"
He laughs, amusement oozing out as he eyes her down. "I scared you?"
He walks around the counter, approaching her slowly, causing her to walk backward, her back hitting the refrigerator. Aurelia had the tomatoes and water bottle tightly in her grip as the male trapped her between his torso and the fridge.
"Shouldn't I be the scared one here?" He asks, his tone soft, but his voice smooth and monotonic. "A stranger is dancing and singing in my kitchen. Eating my food and drinking my water."
"W-Wait a minute–"
Andrew stares into her eyes as he brings his finger up to his lips. They were so close that Aurelia forgot to breathe. The heat rising between them as the same finger that was on his lips, were caressing her arm, hardly touching it. "Shh, no need to explain, it's clear Elijah brought you here to keep us entertained right?"
"What?" She blurts out, pushing him back. "I'm here because he offered a room for a week! And by the way, I bought this stuff with my own money."
The male's smile fades a bit before a sigh pours from his lips. He steps away from her, walking towards the couch in the living area. Andrew falls back onto the couch, making himself quite comfortable.
"Well," he pulls his beanie over his eyes. From where she was standing, he seemed like he just got from the gym or something. She could tell from the beads of sweat rolling down his face when he was close to her.
"Don't mind me, Angel. Continue what you were doing." He yawns, putting his hands behind his head.
Aurelia still had the items in her hands, they were close to her chest before she placed them down. She didn't understand. She knows Jackie may have told her that Elijah and Andrew know each other, and the way Aiden spoke to Elijah that night, she's sure they were really close friends. Why didn't Elijah tell her that he lives here too?
Is there something more going on that she doesn't know about?
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