All I saw was red as I held the card between my fingers. He stared at me for a minute, obviously thinking about whoever it was, that gave him their number.
Faint memories of a gorgeous redhead plagued my mind, but I wasn't quite sure about how her and the card were related. Somehow, I just knew it.
"So will you explain, or should I just assume?" I egged.
"It's nothing really. She put that in my pocket today when I went...."
Wait huh? "You went to see her?"
"You're not listening, I said I was picking up your stuff at the club and she happened to be there."
"Why didn't you leave? You didn't have to talk to her." I was furious. "And you didn't have to take her number!"
"I was waiting on your coat."
"And you thought it would be fine to just ask for her number?"
"Amber it's not like that." He sighed, clearly annoyed.
"What was it like then?" I asked him, standing directly in front of him.
"She's the club owners daughter, I didn't think much of it when she handed me the card." Aubrey added, "she just put it in my pocket."
"Yeah, right! You're so innocent huh? You 'didn't think much of it'." I air quoted with my fingers, to prove a point.
"No I didn't. I love you, not her, not anyone, you." He tried to convince me, but I was not easily swayed.
"It doesn't seem like it." I tore up the card into pieces. I was still fuming. Why did he keep her number?
"I do." He sighed, exasperated. "If you can't see that, you must be blind."
I folded my arms with a huff. I wasn't sure what made me react that way. We weren't even together. "If you loved me you wouldn't do something like that." I said, stomping my foot.
"You're right, I shouldn't have kept her number, but...You deny me, and deny me, and all I want to do is show you that I care. But you don't do anything to help me. I need to know if you want this too."
"You're deflecting!" I yelled, throwing my arms up in frustration.
"I know but I'm not lying, I don't even know where we stand." His hands ran over his face, then fell onto his lap. I knew what he was trying to do, but for some reason I could help but empathize with his frustrations.
"I just agreed to move in with you." I countered, and he shook his head.
"That's not fair, I forced that answer out of you, using sex." After the last word, his lips curled up into a half smile. "To get any answer out of you is really difficult."
"Well maybe you should have Sarah move in with you then, since I'm so difficult. Maybe you could call her right now!." I wanted to talk about someone else, not me.
"Relax." He calmly stated, taking my frustrated hands in his.
I was significantly calmer, but my face remained stale. He still had some explaining to do.
"Sandra, Sarah, whatever her name is. She's no one to me. I probably shouldn't have kept her card, but I wasn't going to use it anyway. I'm sorry that I did." I would've never been able to just admit to my mistake like that. "I hope you know, that you're all I see, no one else, just you."
"Okay." I turned my face away from him, willing myself not to smile. Even if his apology was not as I'd hoped, I could tell it was genuine.
We're crazy.
"Listen. I love it when you get this passionate, it shows that you care about me more than you let on." He stated. "But you have to show me that you care too, it can't be just one sided."
"Of course I care about you, Aubrey." I tell him finally letting his touch consume me. "But let's not let that happen again."
I really was being a bitch to him, not telling him that I loved him enough, taking every opportunity to remind him that he left. I shouldn't have. When he returned I should've been there for him, he was going through as much; if not, more than I was.
I decided then that I'd stop putting up a fight against the inevitable, and go with the flow.
He released my hands, and I laced my fingers through his curls . Leaning down, I placed a kiss to his lips. It was so easy to let my guard down, and let him fill my thoughts.
"It should be harder." I admitted.
"What?" He asked. Sometimes, I forgot that he couldn't hear my thoughts. We were so in tune that I sometimes just thought he could read my mind. His arms snaked around my waist, and I almost sighed at how good that felt.
"After all this time, it shouldn't be this easy for us to be like this."
"Is that a bad thing?" He asked and I shrugged. I wasn't entirely sure.
"I mean, I guess it is, but my resolve just melts away around you. I don't like it." I stared down at him and watched as his smile grew significantly.
"Oh really..." he hummed, "you mean like when I kiss you... here?" He kissed my collar, and only then did I remember that we were completely naked.
I giggled feeling his beard on me and nodded. I really missed him, more than he'd ever know.
His smile was so bright and inviting that I couldn't stop myself from kissing him. His hands were rough on me, and I was excited all over again.
Abruptly he pulled away, kissing down the span of my neck. "Aren't you hungry?" He asked after realizing that I said that I was. My stomach grumbled as if responding to the words.
"Starving. Aren't you?" I responded.
"Nah, I already ate." His wolffish grin distracted me from his crude joke, until his head tilted back in laughter, and I joined him.
Aubrey's POV
My t-shirt looked absolutely stunning on her as she sat across from me. She gulped down orange juice, and took short but thoughtful glances at me. Her makeup free face reminded me of how much I loved her flawless skin. Stunning is what she was.
"Yes?" She smiled, referring to my staring.
I open my arms, needing to hold her again. She took a bite off bacon, and stared cautiously at me. Her hesitance didn't go unnoticed, until she walked over and encased herself in my arms. I kissed her forehead and she sighed.
"Aubrey..." she said, something about her tone, off.
"What's wrong?" I immediately asked, my voice laced with concern. I knew immediately whatever was coming next wasn't going to be good.
"Nothing, nothings wrong." She clarified, looking up at my worried expression. Her fingers reached up to touch the wrinkle in my forehead, almost as if she was trying to smooth it away. "I was just thinking of how much I love this." Why would that make her sigh?
"Soon, it'll be an everyday thing, when you move in with me." I tried to engrave those thoughts into her thick skull.
"That's what I'm worried about." She began, "are you sure you want to just abandon your entire life for me?" Not this shit again!
"Where is this coming from?" I asked, venom in my tone.
She lowered her eyes, staring at her feet.
I brought her chin up to look at me, "hey, I'm not abandoning my life. You are my life." I said.
"It just feels, I don't know, like you're doing this for me. I don't want you to resent me in the future." She said, making sure to avoid the intensity in my stare.
"What are you on about? Why would I resent you?..." She should be the one resenting me still. "You didn't have a problem when Chris moved for you." I said as soon as the thought occurred.
"He didn't live with me, and he was going to move regardless." She defended. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she finally returned my gaze.
I rolled my eyes at how quickly she came to his defense. "Yeah but he was close to you.... Do you want me to go back to Texas?" She shook her head, "Toronto?" She hesitated then shook her head again. "Good, because there's nothing for me where you aren't."
"What about your music career? Aren't things just starting to get good?" She asked. If she's worried about my career, she's got another thing coming.
"That's nothing. I can work on it from here. I still have my connections, and I'll remain anonymous... simple.."
Amber's POV
"Nothing could ever be that simple, especially with us." I reminded him, "your mother is in Toronto, and your dad Aubrey, you just rebuilt a relationship with him. You have a huge support system back home..." before I could fish my pint, he interrupted.
"I'll miss them, but we can visit, or they can come here..." he assured me. His words were spoken so quickly that they ran together.
"Aubrey.. I just want to know if you've planned this out... that you're not just doing all of this to win my affections."
"I already have your affections." He clarified.
"Exactly, so we shouldn't be in such a rush then to settle down. I'd hate to know that I'm the reason you hate your life in the future." My anxiety was at an all time high.
"Stop talking, because you're making me mad." He said, "how could I ever resent being with you? You aren't forcing me into anything....I love you and I'm going to do what it takes to be near you. But if you don't want me here," he paused, "as I said before just say the word and I'll leave." His hands moved down to my shoulders, and I poker faced. I couldn't let him know that I didn't want to think about ever not being near him. I couldn't let him read me.
I didn't want to be away from him, but I had to ask questions just incase he was doubting himself.
His thoughts seemed clear. I smiled, acknowledging his words.
....Two Days Later....
"Wait so you're telling me that he offered for you to move in with him, again." Kelly clutched her books to her chest.
"Yeah, well I kind of agreed, but I'm having second thoughts."
"Why the second thoughts? You love him, he loves you, he's willing to move across the world to be with you, why object to that?" Kelly asked, pulling her hair out of the bun it was in.
"I don't know... it's complicated. Nothing is ever this easy for us..." I began, taking a moment to think about how hard it had been.
"Because you make things harder than they need to be. You've missed him every single day since he left, and now he's here, and you don't want to move in with him." Her thick accent making the words seem more profound.
"I'm also worried about what my parents would think."
"You're not concerned about your parents? You have a scholarship, you work an amazing internship from home, might I add. You're young, in school. I think they can let this slide." She made a compelling argument.
"Kelly, I don't know." I scratched the back of my head. She was making sense, but I genuinely didn't want to think so hard about it.
"Just do it for a week first. You can see how different it is, and then go from there."
"I-I..." I tried to think of something quick to say.
"You don't need to make excuses." She chastised, and I buried my head in my hands.
Chris's POV
The liquor burned my throat as I took another gulp. The cheap shit didn't even give me satisfaction anymore.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and stood taking a step toward the bed.
"Are you alright?" She asked, staring at me.
"I'm fine, stop asking me that." I slurred, placing the bottle down, and throwing my weight onto the bed.
She squealed, before crawling onto my body. She was so fucking annoying.
I pushed her away, and watched as she rolled her eyes before speaking.
"She's not even all that." She confessed, her accent thick and obnoxious.
"She's everything to me." I clarified, suddenly feeling like I needed another swig of the nasty brown liquid, which burned my throat and numbed my pain.
So much fucking pain. It was intolerable. I couldn't begin to excuse my actions toward her, or the fact that she was back with that fucking prick, Aubrey.
"I think she doesn't deserve you." She said, pulling me from my wild thoughts.
"And you do?" I ask sarcastically. If she thought that she deserved me, she had another thing coming.
"I don't think you respect me the way that you should. Remember I'm doing this for you.." she reminded me, swinging one leg over my torso.
"I'm paying you." I shoot back.
"Yeah, but I don't need the money." She reminded me, grabbing my cock in the process.
"You'd rather ask your father for the money to pay off your drug debt?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Fuck off Chris, I'm just saying, that I don't need your filthy money, I came from money. But I'm doing this shit for you more as a friend." She stroked me while emphasizing on the word 'friend.'
"Yeah... whatever you say." I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling.