october 29th
london city airport, england
THE SECOND I GOT OUT of the airplane, my mother started calling me. I skipped the first times, but when I figured she wasn't going to stop, I picked up.
"Are you out of your mind!"
"Hello to you too, mom."
I grabbed a Snickers from my bag and started eating it after picking up my suitcase. I stood there for a couple of seconds merely focusing on my surroundings instead of my furious mother. Last time I was here, Lily-Rose exactly knew the way to the right exit and there were quite a few here. My mother went on and on about how I couldn't drop out of university and things like that. Everything she said immediately left my brain, because no fucks were giving about what she wanted. As Xavier reminded me of, it was my own future I was working for and I didn't want to end up doing something I didn't enjoy, even if I had to disappoint my mom.
When I saw a lot of people walking to one direction – not the One Direction, I wish – I decided to follow them.
"I gotta hang," I said to my mom before locking my phone and putting it into my pocket. Oh, how she would've been screaming to probably Tom when I ended the call. Although I disliked him, I felt a bit sorry for him at that point.
I followed the crowd of travelers and ended up seeing Xavier to my surprise. He was scanning the people and seemed to be searching for me. I walked closely behind someone else so he wouldn't see me. Every time he saw something that could've been me, his eyes got bigger, but when he realized it wasn't me, his brows furrowed. I took a swift right with my suitcase and quietly walked up to him. There was a tall, intimidating man standing behind him in a black suit with his hands wrapped behind his back. He must've been Xavier's bodyguard.
"Hi," I said to him.
"Oh, hello. I didn't see you coming up to me, but the pleasure's mine."
I pulled him into a hug, but he didn't move a muscle. I pulled him a bit closer so that he would react, but he still seemed to be turned to stone.
"Awkward..." I mumbled when I let go of him.
Then he suddenly grabbed my hips and kissed me. This time, I was turned into stone. All I could think of was that poor bodyguard who had to watch this unforeseen action.
"People were looking at us. I hope you don't mind," he whispered against my lips when he unconnected them.
"Warn me next time," I said.
"Not everything has to be planned out, love." He kissed my forehead and then spun me around to make us look like the cutest couple ever. People around us were indeed looking at us, some were even taking pictures. Overall, they seemed quite pleased to see us together.
As we headed towards the exit of the airport, I slowly stroke my fingers against the front of his hand and then intertwined our fingers. His hands felt soft against mine which made my body temperature increase. Every single touch made me feel some stupid way. I was such a fucking hopeless romantic and it was disgusting.
Xavier didn't look at me and instead stuck his nose even higher into the air.
When we got into the car, I took the lead.
"You have some explaining to do, sir," I said.
"And what may that be about?"
"Maybe you leaving me in Dallas? By the way, the laptop arrived, you shouldn't have done that. Thank you."
"I was afraid you wouldn't be over that by now considering your previous relationship. And no problem."
"I want a fucking answer."
"Stop cussing, I'm Christian."
"And I'm Autumn, now stop bullshitting and give me an explanation. First you started acting weird and then you just left? None of it makes sense."
Xavier sighed deeply and stared out of the window.
"Oops, I got ninety-nine problems singing bye, bye, bye," he quietly sung and to my surprise he didn't sound bad at all. Was there anything that man couldn't do?
"You're raping my favorite song," I said.
"If you wanna go and take a ride with me, better hit me baby one more time. Oh!" This time he sung louder and the moan he added to the end of the line got me feeling some type of way. To be more specifically, it got me feeling some kind of way in my pussy.
He looked at me with a mischievous smile decorating his face.
"You look like you just got an orgasm. I don't remember it was that easy."
"And you look like you want another hit in your face," I said.
"I told you I'm Christian. I'm into that, duh."
"No, then it's the other way around. Christian likes hurting Anastasia, but he doesn't like to get hurt."
"Then I'm Anastasia," he cleared his throat in order to talk with a high-pitched voice, "I've been a naughty girl, Christian. I need to be punished."
I couldn't keep my laughter and burst out.
"That was the last thing I wanted to hear you say. From this point, it can't get any worse."
"Oh, trust me, it can. Have I told you about the time-"
"Save it, please," I quickly interrupted him.
"Has anyone ever told you that your laugh sounds like a dying seal?" he asked.
"Has anyone ever told you to shut the fuck up? I liked you better when we were about to have sex."
"Your comebacks are awful, really. And obviously I'm nice to my victims, it's my way to manipulate them. You fell for it too." He talked so casually about it that it lowkey scared me. As if he did this on a daily basis, actually, he probably did.
"How does the world not hate you yet?"
"I manipulate them too, duh."
"Xavier the manipulator. The fact that it rhymes, says enough about you. Anyway, you're avoiding my question. I still want to know why you left."
"You'll find out in a couple of months."
He took me to his father's company and introduced me to some people. After all the formal meetings, we ended up in his office where I just sat and read through the magazines of BRO-S. There were lots of handsome men in the paper, so I didn't mind reading it at all. When I saw an interview with Tom Holland, I almost started drooling.
"He's so cute," I said.
"Oh, stop it," Xavier replied.
I looked up to find something to insult him until I saw a line of blood slowly coming out of his nose. He was so busy working on his laptop, that he didn't feel it streaming over the skin just above his upper lip.
"Xavier," I said, "your nose is bleeding."
"What?" He looked at me for a second, then felt his nose and saw a print of fresh blood on his white blouse. "Shit."
I stood up to offer him help, but he rejected it immediately by giving me the stop sign with his hand and rushing out of the office. A couple of minutes later he came back with tampons up his nostrils.
"It happens regularly," he said dryly.
I did my best to hold my laughter.
"Nose bleedings can by caused by a lot of things, are you having a cold maybe? Or do you do use cocaine?" I walked to him and touched the bridge of his nose. He slapped my hand away and sighed with he tampons in his nose.
"Just- just don't touch it. I've been sneezing quite some times today, so that's probably what has caused it."
I pulled the tampons out and saw that it had stopped bleeding.
"You said it happened regularly."
"It's nothing important, Autumn. However, tomorrow we'll be having a brunch with my family. I want you to convince them that you really like me and that we're in an actual relationship. If you don't fail, I'll pay you."
"I like- well, okay. That'll be fine. What are we doing tonight?"
"Avoid each other. Keeping up with you all day is hard."
He sat down on his chair again, so I sat down on his desk. An idea popped up, but I didn't dare to ask him, so I just kept smiling at him. He didn't even bother to look at me and just kept tying on his laptop.
"You're looking at me as if you're Ted Bundy and I'm an innocent girl," he said, still without giving me a single glance.
"I thought maybe we could watch a movie."
He slammed down his laptop and started unbuttoning his blouse. I carefully watched him expose his perfect upper body and of course the V-line, but tried not to be too obvious.
"I'll translate all that aggression into a yes," I said.
He took off the blouse and threw it away before placing his hands beside both my legs and keeping a little distance between the tips of our noses. His green eyes looked straight at mine causing the background music from the radio in his office to be emphasized. The words of Close by Nick Jonas was everything I heard. Every other sound completely faded away except for the music and his breathing.
'Cuz space is just a word made up by someone who's afraid to get close.
I want you close and close, ain't close enough no.
I imagined us saying those words to each other. He would be the one using space as an excuse to keep our distance, while I'd want him close to me. I'd want him to take down the strong walls built around him, I'd want him to open up about anything.
His hand made its way up my thigh, leaving a trace of warmth and passion on my skin. I grabbed his shoulders, but instead of pulling him against me, I pushed him away.
"You need to get yourself checked, sis," I told him, "your sexual frustrations are getting on a whole 'nother level."
He seemed quite surprised by the rejection due to his frowned brows. It was unfortunate that he didn't seem disappointed or hurt, instead he looked at me with an upcoming smile. The corners of his mouth subtly curled up, but before exposing a full smile, he quickly walked to a closet in his apartment and took a new blouse from it.
"There are new Christmas movies on Netflix," he said as he buttoned it.
"So we're just going to ignore what you just did? Something's really wrong with you."
"I tried to get in your pants, but you rejected me, so why should we discuss it?"
"Why- why would you do that?"
"I'm just horny, don't feel flattered. If you were my assistant, I'd do the same."
"You whore."
"It's called a man. And you can't blame me, I hadn't had sex since our session." He put on his jacket and then turned to me. "What about you?"
"So, what Christmas movie are we watching tonight?"
He laughed.