"Phoebe!" My palm slaps her shaking shoulder as she loses it in yet another fit of laughter. Her hundredth fit in the past hour at least. My eyes roll of their own accord while she attempts to reel in her chuckles as much as possible before responding.
"What?!" She rubs at her shoulder. "That man seems so interested in you!"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,"
"I haven't even met the guy, but he doesn't seem like the type to enjoy idle conversation with just anyone,"
"Yeah well, my assumptions about him have always been wrong about him, so I wouldn't count on yours being right either," I take a bite of my now cold sandwich and she does the same with one of her cheeky smiles adorning her face.
"You don't seem against the idea of him liking you,"
Food nearly gets caught in my throat, but I manage to swallow before coughing dryly at the suggestion. "I'm not against it, 'cause in no world or parallel universe would it ever be true, Phoebs!"
"What makes you say that?"
"Please, you know who the guy is even without having ever seen him person,"
"Well, duh, he's a famous millionaire, if not billionaire, he's on a page of a magazine I look at on a weekly bases,"
My brows scrunch together, "weekly?"
She simply shrug and takes another bite of her sandwich, "I get bored sometimes,"
With another roll of my eyes I continue: "He's a man who wants nothing to do with the likes of me,"
"Has he ever said something like that to you?"
I go to open my mouth and respond, but end up with nothing but a puff of air coming out. My mind plays through the memories of last week and his words end up playing around in my head, bringing a surprisingly smile to my face. "I'm thankful for you."
A hand waves in front of my face with a knowing look meeting me once I snap back to reality. "He's taken, Phoebe," I finally say.
She scoffs, "yeah, by two people,"
"What is that supposed to mean,"
She looks up at me from the grass she's been picking at, "It means that if they wanted to get to know someone else, they would,"
"Just because it's the three of them, doesn't mean they're gonna go around dating everybody,"
"Exactly," she points at me, her sandwich long forgotten at this point. "That relationship should be built of so much trust and incredible communication, so if one of them is already showing interest, better believe the other two already know about it,"
I gasp at her, "okay, this convo is over, 'cause it's nonsense, none of them see me like that, Phoebe, we're friends,"
"Yeah? Does Aiden see it that way too?"
I groan and drop my head. "Aiden and I are figuring things out, 'kay?"
"You haven't spoken to him for a week, or rather, you've been ignoring him,"
How does she even know about that?
She smirks and starts packing her things, "I know a lot of things, dear friend of mine,"
I chuckle and she follows with a small puff of laughter of her own before waving at me and jogging across the field to go to her next class.
"Best believe the other two already know about it."
Some guys playing a game sprint past me, shocking me out of my stupor enough to get me up and ready for my own class starting soon. Right as I'm about to stand up after packing all my things, my phone buzzes in my pocket. Fishing it out of my jeans, I quickly scan the message, only to see Elias' name on my screen.
'Hey, would you wanna come over this weekend?'
I scratch at the back of my head, a million different ways of responding filtering through my head. Why would they want to hang out? Especially during their free weekend? Do they need help with something again?
'Do you need help again with something?'
His reply almost comes instantly. 'No, silly, we just wanna hang out!'
I almost stumble over my feet in my attempt to walk and text. Which I clearly miserably failed to do. I take a seat by the steps leading up to the door and think over my options. I told Aiden I didn't want to do the whole dinner at their place again anytime soon, it was just so awkward and uncomfortable for me. But... after that heart-to-heart with the owner of the place himself and this invite coming from Elias, I feel hesitant to just flat out say no...
Should I ask Aiden if he'd be okay with it?
The realization dawns on me that I'm currently texting with Elias again. Something we've been doing a couple times this week. I even initiated the conversation the other day because I wanted to know how the rest of the suits were doing. I feel like there's this new rift between Aiden and I that I'm creating and I don't know how to stop it... He didn't do anything last week, but after that one-on-one late night conversation, my hesitation to get close with Aiden started creeping up on me again. As if nothing has been resolved at all these past few weeks. Then again, maybe nothing has.
Once again, Axford's words breach my thoughts. "He knows he has a lot of making up to do, so do things at your own pace, Nathan."
Inhaling slowly through my nose, I type in my response. "What time should I come over?"
It's Saturday morning, the day I'm supposed to be going over to his place again. Something I've been previously trying to avoid at all costs, ironically enough. With the sunlight shining past the open slit of my living room curtains, the room is lit up gently with just enough light to see the guitar in my hands. One strum after the other, a new melody is coming together as I let my wild thoughts and concerns run free and eventually dissipate with each brush of my fingers along the strings.
I decided last night that I would get up early enough to give myself some time to play around with my music again. Some me-time to calm my nerves and settle my doubts for the day. I'm meeting up with them after lunch, per my request. Last time, dinner was just so not relaxing and as open as Axford and I's conversation was, I still don't think I should push it with another meal at his place.
With one final recording of the piece I've been working on all morning, I set my things beneath the coffee table and start getting ready for this unusual hang out. Ugh, what am I even doing?
"Are you sure about this?" I ask shakily into the phone as I stand by the entrance of the still as clean as ever lobby.
"Only if you want to, I can still come down and get you, Nathan, it's not a problem at all" Elias says as he starts shuffling around..
"It'd make things easier for you..." I hesitantly say, hoping that logic will make this easier, but nope. "I don't know, it's not like I come here often at all,"
Silence follows after my words and I think I heard him sigh a little. Could've also been just me hearing things, there's quite a few people around me after all. I don't know. Is he upset? Did I say somet-
"You're right, I just wanted to let you know that Kalen suggested it,"
"He did?"
"Yeah, he figured he could trust you enough to add your name to his visitors list at reception, he would still have to open the door himself anyways once you reach his floor,"
"I trusted you with this suit."
With a sigh, I reluctantly decided to just do this and take slow strides in the direction of the younger guy standing behind the counter with an uncomfortably straight posture. "So, my name's on the list?"
I hear a small chuckle and my cheeks heat up at a rapid speed. "Yes, I double-checked myself yesterday, he added you to it last week, signed with his signature and everything,"
"I just say my name,"
"Your name and who you're visiting,"
"Okay,"
I can hear the smile on his face already and for some reason that little fact has me smiling on the inside, replacing some of the nervousness coursing through me. "I'll see you in a minute, Nathan,"
He hangs up and I quicken my stride a bit to get this over with. I don't even know why this is so nerve wracking. I mean, I just have to say my name and Axford's name. That's it. With one hand on the counter and the other fiddling with the front pocket of my jeans, I bring out a friendly smile as he finally looks up at me from my screen.
"How can I help you?" He doesn't return the smile.
"Um, I'm here to see Kalen Axford,"
This time his mouth opens slightly, but he stops himself as he slowly turns to grab a file from behind him where binder after binder are lined up on the black shelves.
"Mr. Axford?" He repeats, despite already holding his files in his hand.
"Yes, my name's Nathan Brooks,"
He eyes me slowly before flipping through the papers and stopping on one with the title written in bold: Visitor's List
I gulp and watch his eyes scan the names and his eyes pause at a name closer to the bottom where he slowly sighs and nods as he closes the binder. "Very well, top floor," he doesn't spare me another glance, so I simply let him get back to his job and focus on the fact that I'm actually on his visitor's list...
A/N: I can't apologize enough for this rather lackluster update! I'll be very honest and say that it really is only halfway finished and very unintentional on my side. I have this, my exams and a lot of things needing to get done at once, so I'll have to come back to this another time. In the mean time, I didn't want to give you all nothing, so I hope half of chapter 17 will suffice for now. I'll either upload the second half later this week or somehow make up for it next week. I have plans for the way this story will progress though, so please stay tuned and thank you for your patience with me! <3