"Clover!" Ethan said into the phone, and she could just tell he was grinning. "I got my stitches out today!"
"Oh, right! How'd that go, babe?" Clover hums in response, walking into her empty condo.
"It was fine. I'm gonna have some cool scars," he bragged, earning a laugh from her. He only had a few stitches-some on his forehead, and some more for a cut on his arm. "They looked at my ribs and said they're healing fine too. Faster than expected, actually."
Clover smiles smugly to herself, "told you bed-rest was a good idea."
Ethan just chuckles in response. All her babying did pay off, he almost missed it. She'd been pretty busy this week, coming to see him mostly between meetings. Since she'd taken the previous week off, she had quite a bit to make up for though. Plus, with planning for the masquerade, there was a lot to do.
Now it was 11, she was home for the night, and of course Ethan knew about what time she'd get off work, so he'd called immediately. He'd been waiting all day.
Him and Grayson had filmed something, and Clover was too busy to stop by in the afternoon anyway, so they hadn't talked much. Sure, he saw her yesterday, but he missed her voice.
"Hmph," he sighed into the phone. "Do you think you could spend the night tonight?"
"...yeah. I'll be there in 20."
Clover hung up the phone, pulling her shoes back on and grabbing a small bag of things for the morning. She rushed to Ethan's, making it in 15, and lets herself in. Ethan told her where the spare key was a few days prior.
"Clover?" Grayson snorts as she walks inside. "Keep it in his room, not the couch this time, yeah?"
"Oh my god, shut up," she laughs, bumping shoulders with him as she walks by. "Where are you going?"
Clover smirks slightly at Grayson, who would typically be getting ready for bed but is about to leave. "...you shut up."
"Have fun," she teases, walking down the hall toward Ethan. Grayson was obviously going to meet a girl. "Babe?" Clover calls in a sing-song voice.
"Clover!" He breathes, perking up as she walks into his room, trying to get out of bed.
"Mm-mm, stay in bed," she's shaking her head, motioning for him to lie back down. He listens, a small frown on his lips as he sits up against his headboard.
"But I-why do I still have to be on bed-rest?"
Clover smiles, straddling his lap and falling against his chest. "So I can sit like this."
His stubble lightly rubs against her, hands running all along her skin. "Missed you. Thought about you all day." Ethans words are muffled, but they make her smile. "Grayson had to yell at me to stay focused while we were filming."
Listening to him talk about his day, she relaxes against him, starting to fall asleep on his chest. Until she feels him chuckling.
"Mm, what?"
"I don't think you've heard anything I've said in the last five minutes. If you're tired we can go to sleep, Clover," Ethan says, forcing her to sit up slightly and look at him. "You look exhausted."
"It's been a long week," she mumbles, rubbing her eyes with a pout. "But I'm not that tired yet. Wanna spend time with you."
"Clover." Ethan's eyes roll, but he leans forward to plant a kiss on her lips. "I'm content with just cuddling you while you sleep all night. I don't want you to stay up because of me."
She felt bad anyway, she wanted to stay up and actually hangout with him. But her eyelids kept fluttering closed, and she could barely sit up now that she had a few minutes of calm she felt just how tired she really was.
And Ethan was smiling at her, assuring her it was okay, so she gives in. "...m'sleepy."
"I know," he laughs again. "You're cute when you're tired. You can't sass me."
Clover pouts, but doesn't retaliate. "Can I wear one of your hoodies?" She asks, tugging on the sleeve of the one he's wearing already. "Please?"
"Yeah, just... I'm wearing this one," he shakes his head. "Lie down, I'll take care of you."
"Be careful with your ribs," she mumbles, rolling onto the other side of his bed. Ethan climbs up, grabs one from his closet, and then turns to help her out of her clothes. She's not much help, but she lifts her arms when he asks, and he gets to admire her, so he doesn't really mind. "Thank you."
"Now, let's get some sleep, hm?" Ethan says, lying down beside her. He's not that tired, but she's out within minutes.
Smiling contently, he traces his fingers along her bare side, wondering what he'd be doing without her.
-
"What do you mean we have to show up separately?" Ethan whines, buttoning up his shirt. "You're already here, just let me drive you."
"If Evelyn sees us arrive together, I think she'll know somethings up," Clover laughs, pulling him in for a kiss. "My Uber is here, I'll see you there. But remember, I'm working. Drive safe."
It was the night of the masquerade, and Clover was nervous.
What if Ethan decided he couldn't handle what she did? What if they got caught? Things had been so good lately, she didn't want anything to go wrong.
Clover arrived a little bit early, changing into her dress in the back room with some of the other girls. They're all talking, wondering what clients are gonna be there.
"Clover, do you think that Grant guy is coming?" Lil asks, wiggling her eyebrows. "He's cute. I liked teasing him last time."
"I'm not sure. But he is cute," she laughs. "Zip me?"
"If he is here, would you mind if I stole him for a bit? My clients have been so boring lately, no one wants to let me to make them squirm," as Lil is helping Clover zip, she's ranting about one of her recent clients.
Clover shrugs. "Go for it! It'll be funny,"
She wasn't too worried about Lil messing with him. That was her specialty. Plus, she had a feeling he'd get a little bored.
Slipping on her mask, Clover walked out of the back room and was met by the very lavishly decorated ballroom floor. She was immediately stopped by a client.
"Is that you, Alison?" He smiled, reaching for her hand to kiss it. Most clients knew her by her middle name, for simplicity.
So Clover danced with him, and immediately after was approached by another client to dance, and that's how it was for a while. Multiple clients vying for her attention, to dance or talk.
The whole time, she's sneaking glances at Ethan though. And a lot of the time, he's looking right back.
Under the mask, she can't really tell how he's feeling. Hopefully he's fine, but she has to be able to talk to him to see.
At some point, he's talking to a few of her other clients. Ethan's laughing, seemingly having a good time, and it makes her smile. She just wants everything to go good.
Breaking away from her dance with Brian, she looks toward Ethan again. This time, he's sitting at a table, with Lil and another girl, Ainsley, sitting on either side of him. He's blushing-it's not hard to see despite the mask-and Clover can tell he's stuttering, both of them have a hand on his bicep.
"Grant?" Clover grins, skipping over to his table. He breathes out, looking to her, and then gets more flustered.
"A-Alison, it's-hi," Ethan gulps. It feels so weird for both of them to revert back to using middle names. "I uh, met your friends."
"I hope they've been nice to you," she hums, taking a seat.
"We've been very nice," Lil reassures, leaning to whisper in his ear. "Wanna dance again, honey?" Ethan isn't quite sure how to say no. "Alright, we can take a hint. We'll leave you with Alison for a little while."
He lets out a sigh of relief as they do, standing up to grab Clover's hand. Instead of dancing with him, she drags him through one of the back hallways.
"They-they're forward," he chuckles. "I promise I didn't do-"
"I trust you, E," Clover smiles, surveying the empty hall. "You're extra cute when you're flustered. They were just messing with you."
The blush slowly fades from his cheeks as he looks her up and down, even letting out a low whistle. "You look... so beautiful..." he's lifting off both of their masks to kiss her.
She hums into the kiss, hands wrapping around his tie. "I can't wait to get these clothes off of you." Ethan chokes at her words, his blush returning. "You wanna come back to my place tonight?"
"Wait, really?" He grins. "I haven't been there yet."
Originally, he didn't go because she wasn't supposed to share personal information. But if everything went well tonight, there was nothing stopping them.
Clover just nods, planting a few soft kisses along his jaw. She was purposely driving him crazy.
"I know you're working, but I wish I could just dance with you all night," he sighs, holding her tightly. "I've been watching you dance with all these other guys, and... honestly, I'm a little jealous."
Clover's face falls, but he doesn't see. That's not what she wanted to hear tonight.
"But... even with the mask, I can tell you're not looking at them the way you look at me."
And her heart is fluttering, so she's leaning in to kiss him again. Hard. Ethan's into it, but he can't help but chuckle against her lips.
"What was that for?"
"I just... I really like you," Clover whispers, their foreheads pressed together. "It's really nice to hear that you don't mind my job, s'all."
"Your job could never make me change my mind about you, Clover," he bites his lip, looking around the hallway. "But I think we're pushing our luck here. We should get back."
That's the last thing she wants, but she takes her mask from his hands anyway. After one more kiss, of course.
She finds herself dancing with another client as the evening draws to a close, drunk rich guys contacting their drivers to make sure they're still outside. Her eyes find Ethan, spitting some fancy appetizer into a napkin and scrunching up his nose, and she smiles.
As the dance ends, she looks over to Evelyn, sitting on her computer in the corner, answering emails. Clover is walking over before she even knows what she wants to say.
"Evelyn?" She asks, taking a seat. "I've broken some rules."
Her boss' eyes widen, closing the laptop and leaning in closely. "Clover, what do you mean you've broken rules?"
Clover is so tired of this. She likes her job, but she likes Ethan more. There's gotta be some compromise, or something else she can do.
"I like a client," Clover sighs dreamily. "Grant. Ethan. And I can't pretend that I don't."
Evelyn gapes, glancing around the quickly emptying ballroom. "You know how bad that is. How long have you had these feelings?"
She hums, thinking. There were early signs of them, before they'd done anything. It seemed like it was always meant to happen, looking back.
"A while. You can... you can fire me, or whatever, but I wasn't going to keep lying about it." This wasn't just something she needed to do for Ethan, but for herself as well. They could never be in a real relationship if they had to worry constantly.
"Throwing away this job for a man?" Evelyn sighs. "That's not like you."
Evelyn genuinely cared about Clover. She wanted her happy, but she wasn't sure if this was a good idea. But Clover didn't care.
"I think I love him."
"...have you told him yet?" She asks quietly. Those are big words.
Clover shrugs. "No. But we-we've been spending a lot of time together, outside of meetings. I was thinking about telling him tonight, actually. But it didn't feel right, not when I was still hiding it."
Her boss shakes her head. Clover was smiling the whole time though.
She loved Ethan, she knew she did. That made whatever happened worth it. Everything else could be figured out later.
"Well I'll see what I can do." At that, Clover tilts her head. "Clover, you're one of our best employees. This is a huge breach of contract, but I don't want to lose you. I'll talk to the higher-ups. If you stay on, you will be harshly reprimanded."
"Thank you, Evelyn." That was more than she expected. It was only because Evelyn was so fond of her.
"Now... go talk to him. He looks uncomfortable."
Clover grins, pulls her boss in for a hug, and stands up to go see Ethan. She slips out of her heels and leaves them in the middle of the floor, running toward him and wrapping her arms around his neck.
The ballroom was pretty much empty, only other employees-and Ethan lingering on the edge. He caught her, eyes wide as she ripped off their masks.
Clover smashes her lips onto his, smiling into the kiss. "I love you."
"What?" He breathes. She almost laughs at the look of confusion on his face. "Wait! Oh shit, that's-fuck-I love you, Clover."
Ethan took a second to process it, and he would've felt bad that he did, but her face still held a huge grin. In fact, she thought it made the moment more perfect. It was just the kind of Ethan reaction she loved.
"What about your job?" He asks, biting his lip. "I think the secrets out,"
"I... talked to Evelyn. Told her how I felt. That's up in the air, but right now it doesn't matter. C'mon, babe, let's go home!" Clover grabber his hand and began dragging him away, not before running into Lil on their way out who winked at her.
"You're still barefoot," he laughed, already loosening his tie with his free hand. Clover didn't care. "God, I love you."
A/N
ugh i love flustered, soft ethan
epilogue is next! and then.... that's it :(