"I've never had Olive Garden before." I said, a serious expression plastered on my face as I watched Austin's eyes widen with nothing but horror.
"What?" He exclaimed in pure astonishment, as if I must have been living under a rock to have never tried his favorite place to eat. "What do you mean you've never had Olive Garden before?"
"It's fake Italian food from a basic chain restaurant." I shrugged, desperately fighting the smirk from finding it's way onto my lips and blowing my cover as I obviously toyed with him.
"How could you say that without trying it Lena?!" He nearly shouted, almost looking offended.
"Just like you said you didn't like sushi before you tried it?" I raised my eyebrows and smiled matter of factly as I stifled my laughter.
"Fuck." His expression instantly fell and he rolled his eyes towards me. "You're fucking with me aren't you?"
"Of course I am! I fucking love Olive Garden." I snickered as he shook his head and laughed with me.
"Alright you've proved your point, you really had me going there for a second." He frowned. "Well get ready cause I ordered us so much food." He pulled his phone out of his pocket to track the delivery.
I gave him a short nod. "Hey I'm gonna go change since we aren't going out." I started to get up from my seat on the bar stool to make my way up the stairs and slip into something much more casual.
But Austin's hand gripped onto my forearm, stopping me in my tracks.
"Keep the dress on Lena. You look stunning."
His sweet words always found a way to send butterflies straight to my stomach. I gave him a small smile before I spoke.
"I'll keep the dress on but you have got to get me out of these heels." I groaned, pointing to my uncomfortable shoes that I wouldn't have been able to get on without Austin's help.
He chuckled quietly and before I knew it, he scooped me from the bar stool, into his arms and threw me carelessly over his shoulder.
"Austin where are we going?" I called out, the blood rushing to my head as I hung upside down, quietly giggling.
"We're going to the living room." He said patting my butt softly before he plopped me sideways onto the couch and took a seat next to me.
He pulled my legs over his lap and began effortlessly loosening my straps. He carefully slid my heels off of my feet and placed them onto the ground.
He ran his cold fingers gently along my warm heated skin. They trailed from my ankle all the way up to my thigh, his eyes following his hands as they smoothly moved their way up my body.
His eyes slanted towards mine as I gave him an amused smirk.
"What?" He asked quietly.
"You're obsessed." I raised my brow, my lips tugging upward and the fiery tension between us burning as strong as ever.
"So what if I am?" He shot back with a sly smile, his fingertips tiptoeing along the underside of my knee.
I felt my cheeks flush at his subtle confession and suddenly my teasing confident demeanor quickly dimished at his unexpected words.
"Always blushing groupie."
I cleared my throat, attempting to refrain from getting lost in his intoxicating gaze, but I couldn't help myself.
We sat still across from each other, stupid grins owning both of our faces.
We probably would have sat there for hours, endlessly staring into each others eyes if it weren't for the doorbell ringing to let us know that the food had finally arrived.
"I hope you're ready for the best meal of your life." His eyes sparked with excitement as he let go of me and made his way towards the front door.
I ran my fingers through my long hair as I watched Austin close the door shut and bring the bags of food over to where I was sitting.
"What did you get us? Chicken parm is my favorite." I said I rubbed my hands together in anticipation.
"Get out. That's my favorite! I got it extra crispy." Austin said as he began taking the food out of the bag.
"It's the only thing I ever get from Olive Garden. I wasn't even hungry when you ordered but now I'm starving." I chuckled as I anxiously grasped for the plastic dish in his hands.
"Wait wait woah hold on there you little gremlin. You're not gonna have a breadstick first?" He chuckled at my eagerness as he took a seat next to me and propped my legs onto his lap once again.
"The breadsticks are not my favorite. Mediocre at best." I shrugged.
"Well that's because you haven't tried them Post Malone style. I swear you'll change your mind."
"What's Post Malone style?" I asked curiously as I chuckled at him.
"Not to sound like a complete arrogant asshole but you didn't see my segment with Jimmy Fallon when we went to Olive Garden? C'mon groupie, I thought you would have come across it with all the googling you've been doing on me." He flashed a quick wink.
"I only made it through the first page of search results before I got bored." I shot him a wicked grin.
He slightly frowned at me as he pulled a breadstick out of the bag and held it in front of my lips.
"Take a bite."
He watched carefully as I obliged, chewing slowly while he began to open a packet of butter. He grabbed a plastic knife, smearing a small amount on the tip of the breadstick.
"Okay now try this."
I took another bite, savoring the contrast of the cold butter against the warm breadstick.
"Wow. That's actually fucking amazing." I said with widened eyes.
"You're welcome Lena. What would you do without me?" He gave me a boyish grin and squeezed my thigh with his hand.
"I think I'd manage." I rolled my eyes upwards.
"Maybe. But let's be real, your pussy wouldn't." His innocent smile quickly turned devilish within the matter of seconds.
"Austin!" I lightly slapped his arm as I gave him a disapproving look, only causing his smirk to widen.
I finally placed a forkful of chicken into my mouth with one hand while I scrolled through the 'continue watching' section on Netflix with the other, looking for The Office.
"Whose Netflix account is this?" I asked, returning my gaze to him.
"Mine, why?"
"Should we continue watching where you left off on Sons of Anarchy?" I couldn't help but tease as I desperately stifled my laugh and pointed to the screen.
"Oh you got jokes? Real funny Lee. Real fucking funny." He rolled his eyes giving me a slight scowl as I hinted at his jealously towards Charlie.
"You're so hot when you're mad." I teased, mimicking his own words from when I was trying to scold him.
"Stealing my lines are we?" He raised his brow.
"Just a little." I stuck my tongue out. "I'm gonna go get us something to drink. What do you want?" I realized just how stupid I sounded as the words left my mouth.
Austin dramatically placed his hand over his heart as if I had took it out of his chest and broken it two.
"God damn Lena. And here I thought you knew me better than that."
"I'm sorry! That was absolutely ridiculous for me to ask." We began to laugh together as I pulled my legs from his lap.
"Bud Light it is." I stood up, placed my food onto the coffee table and began to make my way to the fridge as I heard Austin's voice from the living room.
"I'm gonna run upstairs, I gotta take a piss."
"Okay." I called out as he was already headed up the staircase.
I grabbed two ice cold beers from the fridge and shuffled around the drawers for a bottle opener as my annoying inner self echoed in my head.
What in the hell do you think you're doing Lena?
I let out a sigh, knowing I l was being as irresponsible as ever. Blowing off a night out with the rest of the team while Austin and I carelessly rendezvoused in an empty house.
I mean what exactly were we doing? Having a late night dinner together like this was some sort of date?
We had the entire place to ourselves to do anything we fucking pleased.
And instead of him using his full advantage of this opportunity to take things all the way between us, Austin was freaking feeding me breadsticks and cracking jokes.
I felt him tugging harder and harder at my heart strings every time his eyes caught mine.
Every touch. Every kiss. Every laugh.
My jumbled mind didn't know what to think.
But one thing was for certain. His pull on me was unlike anything else. I was falling deeper into this endless rabbit hole and I couldn't claw my way out even if I wanted to.
To be quite honest, right at this moment, I didn't care. Because I was completely and utterly enraveled in the indescribably beautiful connection I was forming with him.
And as much as I didn't want to admit it, Austin made me happy.
A feeling I didn't think any man could ever make me feel again.
As I pushed my thoughts to the back of my mind, I softly sang to myself while I continued to rummage for the bottle opener.
"Never thought something so beautiful could
Haunt you, haunt you, haunt you
Better off this way but
I want you, want you, want you
Sometimes I just wanna fucking
Call you, call you, call you
Never thought something beautiful could
Haunt you, haunt you, haunt you"
I finally came across it in the very last drawer and I began to pop the caps off of the two beers.
I was so wrapped up into my own little world, that I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw two strong tattooed arms wrap around my small waist.
"Holy fuck Austin." I exhaled as my heart pounded rapidly in my chest. "You scared the shit out of me. I didn't even hear you coming down the stairs." I breathed as I turned to face him.
"Just when I think you can't get anymore interesting, you keep proving me wrong." He muttered, his eyebrow raised as if I had some explaining to do. "Why didn't you tell me that you can sing like that?"
I shook my head at him, my cheeks red with embarrassment. "Cause I can't." I quietly chuckled. "I just sing to myself, I'm not very good." I shrugged it off.
"Are you kidding me? You sound a hell of alot better than I do. And I only sound decent cause I use auto tune." He laughed as his fingers traced circles into my back.
"I do not! You're just humoring me." I rolled my eyes as I playfully pushed him. "And you have an amazing voice Austin, don't sell yourself short."
"I'm serious Lena. You're really fucking good. Why didn't you ever pursue it?" He asked curiously.
"I don't know. I never thought I sounded good enough to make a career out of it. I just sing while I'm in the shower or doing the dishes or something. It's never been something I took seriously." I went on. "I enjoy singing and all but getting on stage in front of thousands of people every night? I'm way too introverted for that. I don't know how you do it."
"I might not show it, but I'm a fucking nervous wreck before every show." He shook his head, looking down at me.
"Shut up, you are not. You always look so calm and put together."
"Well on the inside, I'm silently freaking out to myself. I always have to drink a couple cold ones beforehand to get rid of my nerves. If I don't, I don't think I would be able to perform. But then I worry that I'm gonna drink too much and fuck up the entire show. And that makes me wanna drink even more." He chuckled quietly.
"You literally drink during the show Austin." We laughed together in unison.
"I can't help it, I'm fucking shy and it helps me loosen up." He shrugged. "Well anyway, I hope you know that a Circles duet is definitely being added to the set list." He teased, placing a small kiss onto my lips.
"Austin no, absolutely not. I would literally die of stage freight!" I whined as he continued to grin at me.
"Okay okay, I won't drag you on stage in front of all those people. But you have to promise you'll atleast sing for me."
He held out his tattooed pinky as he waited patiently for my response, his deep blue orbs dancing with hope.
I rolled my eyes upwards and returned a smile as I hooked our pinkies together. "Fine Austin, I promise."
"Looks like groupie's got herself a groupie." I winked.
He pressed a soft kiss onto my forehead, a sweet gesture he had never done before.
"Lena, I was your number one fan long before I knew you could sing."