.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
"I miss you."
"I miss you too baby." He coos back through the receiver. He sounds exasperated by my constant need to hear his voice.
"Look I have to go again, but I've sent someone over so that you won't be stuck inside all day again."
Oh his baby sitter. Yeah, I know he said they were a tour guide, but I knew better. I'd avoided whoever it was he wanted to look after me the first few days, but I guess game was over. "Ok." I say my voice is soft. I don't want to get off the phone with him but at this point it's inevitable.
"I love you Naomi."
"I love you too."
And then the line goes dead—that's when I heave a heavy sigh. This could be one of the reasons he treated me like such a child because I acted like one. But when I was around him; when I talked to him I couldn't help it. I'd never felt this way. The feeling was indescribable.
Not even ten minutes later I hear the elevator doors sliding open and when I look up there's a woman stepping off. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know who she was. "Mrs. Bieber." Her accent thick and I'm taken back by how she'd just addressed me. Justin and I weren't married. He didn't want to marry me; he'd regretted it.
"Mrs. Bieber?" I raise my eyebrows.
"Oh yes Mr. Bieber told me you were his eh, his wife? And I am to address you as that." His wife? Maybe this was just his way of being even more overprotective than he already was. Letting everyone know I was his. I don't argue against it; I simply nod and change the subject. "Uh yeah, so where are we off to?" I really just wanted to get this over. I was pregnant and my feet were swollen half the time. He just really didn't know what it was like.
"Mr. Bieber gave me his credit card. I'm to take you wherever it is that you want to go."
I roll my eyes because when it came to Justin it had become like second nature. He'd already done so much and I was still very overwhelmed with it all. I don't think I would ever get used to this treatment, but I was going to take him up on his offer. I was going to go shopping for the baby. We still had so much shopping to do.
"Baby clothes? Are there any places for them?"
"Plenty. If you're ready to go I can show you all of them. We have a driver outside ready to take us wherever." She smiles widely every tooth in her mouth on full display.
We were in the first store or boutique I should say and just as I was about to ask her what she thought of an outfit I'd found I'd realized I hadn't gotten her name. My mind was all over the place and I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she called me Mrs. Bieber and Justin had told her to it felt odd, but odd in a good way.
"I'm so sorry. It was rude of me not to ask but I never got your name?"
"It's fine. I should've introduced myself. My name is Lena, I work for your husbands Paris magazine." Husband. I wish that were real. My heart practically flutters at the thought.
"And you don't mind being away from work to be here with me as I look for baby clothes?" It just seemed odd to me that he'd send someone from his own magazine rather than hiring someone or just letting me roam the city myself. There's a thought. I stifle a laugh.
"God no Mr. Bieber says I'm one of his most trustworthy employees and assured me that I would be rewarded greatly for looking after you." I sigh because of course he did. And of course I was still right about her being a baby sitter. That man could be so insufferable .
:::
By the time we leave the boutique, there's several bags in hand, I'm winded and not to mention starving. I could really use a place to sit where there was food. "Are there any places to eat around here? I could eat a horse right now." I let out a lowly chuckle.
At first Lena's eyebrows knit together in confusion–I assume it's because of my metaphor–but then her face softens and she says something in french to the driver and then we're driving
The restaurant she'd chosen is small and it makes me feel bigger than I really am. We're lead to sit at a table smack dab in the middle which is great because I didn't think I could fit in a booth, but we didn't have to be here for long the baby and I just needed something at least for right now. I'm sure she would be kicking for more later.
As we wait for the waiter there's no tension, but we're both awfully quiet I don't know what to talk about? Maybe I could ask her questions about Justin? I'm sure she's known him longer than me which meant she would know more about him, but then I'd feel like I was invading some sort of privacy. Then again he's had no problem whatsoever invading mine.
"So what else has Justin told you about me?"
"Oh not much. Mr. Bieber just says you two are married. Though he did forget one thing." She chuckles and I see her eye my belly. Oh! I smile.
"He didn't tell you I was pregnant?" She shakes her head, "No, but it may have just slipped his mind. When Mr. Bieber comes to Paris he has more work than usual because he's not here as often as he is at his U.S. based office."
"And how long have you known Justin— Mr. Bieber I mean?"
"Three years. He is really amazing." She pauses and starts to look really in thought and maybe seconds or minutes later she opens her mouth to speak. "But I hope that you don't think there's more to our— our ugh relationship."
I blink rapidly three, no maybe four or was it five times? I don't know I guess I really hadn't thought about it that way. If they'd had some sort of past together. If I was the first person he'd hired and had a relationship outside of work with. I couldn't ever imagine Justin with anyone not even Barbara. It'd hurt too much, but the sad reality was there have been others before me.
I quickly shut my mouth.
I didn't want her to think this was some wife. No. Girlfriend. No. I don't know what I was, but I didn't want her to think that I had brought her here for some jealous inquisition.
For the rest of lunch we talk here and there, but after I had decided to stray away from questions regarding Justin I didn't have much to say and I didn't want to pry in her life and well there wasn't much going on in my own. I was jobless, pregnant and following the man I loved to Paris on a business trip. Nothing more nothing less.
God, I really needed to sort out my priorities.
:::
"Let me help with those baby." Justin greets me when I get off the elevator into the penthouse suite. I honestly didn't expect to be greeted at all; I thought he would still be gone.
"I've got it." I say having already told Lena and the driver the same thing just moments before
"Naomi..."
"Justin I've got it. I'm pregnant not handicapped you don't have to treat me like a baby."
"You're my baby." He simply says with a smirk on his face.
I reciprocate that very smirk before brushing past him and sitting the bags down
"What'd you get?"
"Just things for the baby." When I turn around I jump because he's so close to my body. How I didn't feel his breath on my neck was a mystery.
"I've missed you all day." And I've missed you too I think, but I'm sure he already knew that
"Mhm. You know Naomi you look so beautiful right now." He says as he traces his fingertips up and down my jawline. It sends chills up my spine. Very familiar chills. I knew where he wanted this to go and maybe deep down I wanted to go the same exact route. I'd missed us being together, but I still felt so different. I couldn't explain it.
"The room?" At first I think it's a command but I quickly begin to realize when he hasn't yet moved that it's a question. He's asking me if I want to go to the room. I stare placidly into his eyes and nod as if I were under some spell. Briskly he grabs my hand and intertwines our fingers and we make our way to the room leaving the bags in the foyer.
"Right here." Justin says patting his hand on the spot where he wants me to sit. I slowly climb on the bed. Just when I think his first move would be to strip me of my clothing–oh yes I was thinking that far ahead–he attacks my lips with his own. I'm enthralled in his kiss. In his touch. It felt so good and so foreign. I had missed it all.
He drags his lips down until he's at the nape of my neck where he starts sucking and a moan escapes my mouth. "You are so sweet Ms. Parker." And that's when I'm quickly reminded of today when Lena addressed me as his wife
"Lena addressed me as Mrs. Bieber today." I say and I feel his lips curve into a smile against my skin. He peers down; pulling his lips away from my skin.
"Interesting" He says before placing his lips back onto mine.
I pull away, "She said you told her to call me that."
"I may or may not have told her to. Is that a problem?"
"Yes, I mean no. I mean. We're not married."
"I'm aware of that but I want you. I want you as my wife." Oh god. My breath hitches where was this coming from? I bring my hand up to my chest; my heart was racing already. Slowly he brings his hand to mine the one over my heart and caresses it. "What I'm trying to say is that I want to marry you." He wants me to marry him? Is that why he'd brought me here...to propose to me?
"I got that part. It's just—didn't you say that you regretted asking me to marry you. That's just not something one forgets Justin." It definitely wasn't something that I could.
"I was stupid. I had been drinking."
"So will you regret it again if you go out and drink again? I just don't want you to feel like you made a mistake. I want you to be sure."
"Naomi I've never been so in love and sure about someone and something in my life." And I know that should make me want to jump in his arms, happy and kissing him all over but there was something nagging in the back of my mind. Something that needed to be said.
"I...just promise me. Promise me that you won't leave me again. Because I just don't think I would survive another heartache like that. I was so hurt and even now I'm still reeling from it. You don't know that when you left you took a part of me." I hated that I sounded so needy
...but that was just it. I did need him.
"I knew you weren't telling me the truth when you said you weren't sure if I damaged you. I've done and said so much shit and I'm sorry and I'm trying. I never wanted what we have to be like this, but..." He pauses and let's out a deep sigh, "I promise, you won't have to worry about any of that ever again." He licks his plump lips staring placidly in my eyes and if i'd never believed a word he's said before I believed him now. It was his tone, it was the seriousness in his face, his entire demeanor. He wanted this and so did I.
So much.
"Then I will. I will marry you..."