~Ayla's POV~
I was the only one in bed still when I woke up.
A little bit confused at first, I sat up and crawled to the end of the bed, glancing into the bathroom and then into the living room to see if Soren was here. However I didn't see him, so I assumed that he had left the room. Maybe he had gone to get some breakfast from one of the restaurants that the resort had, since it was pretty early in the morning.
It was early enough still that I just flopped onto my back again, rolling over onto my stomach with my cheek buried in the pillow. I yawned and stretched an arm out across the bed, able to take up as much room in bed as I wanted to now that Soren wasn't here. With one leg lifted so it stuck out of the blanket I sighed in content, letting myself begin to drift back to sleep. As I was in the middle of drifting back off to sleep, I suddenly heard the sound of Soren's smooth voice. "Jesus." He muttered.
Having thought that he was gone, I was naturally pretty freaked out by the sound of his voice, making me snap my eyes open. I saw he was stood in the doorway between the living-room and the bedroom, holding a bag of something in his hand as he looked at me with raised brows. "What?" I mumbled, frowning. "I thought you left. When did you get back?" I asked, confused.
Soren held up the bag that was in his hand. "I just got back. I went to grab some breakfast." He answered, setting the bag down on the ottoman bench at the foot of the bed. His eyes assessed the way I was sprawled out in the bed and he smirked in amusement. "Clearly, you took advantage of my absence." He added, chuckling to himself. I just groaned and buried my cheek into the pillow some more. "I'm tired." I mumbled back, shutting my eyes.
He chuckled softly and retreated into the living-room, taking his food with him so that I could sleep a little longer. I truly did try to fall back asleep again, but I found it hard when I knew that he was only a couple feet away, and that he was completely awake. It was probably because him being up this early whilst I slept made me feel lazy, which I didn't like feeling. For some reason, that always made it hard for me to fall back asleep.
I sighed and tossed and turned for a while, before I eventually sat up and huffed in complaint. I climbed out of bed and glanced in Soren's direction, eyeing the back of his head of dark, messy hair. He seemed to be eating his food so I didn't want to interrupt him, but I also wanted to shower really bad. Unsure what to do in the meantime I just wandered into the bathroom, heading into the toilet to empty my bladder, being sure to wash my hands afterwards. Then I returned to the bedroom, beginning to look through the dresser drawers for something to change into once I could actually shower.
Thankfully Soren scared his food down pretty quickly, so I grabbed my change of clothes and stalked into the living room, gently tapping him on his shoulder. He glanced back at me, raising a brow. "I was wondering if you could leave. I need to shower." I asked, and he nodded, standing up from the chair with his trash in his hands, which he tossed on his way out of the room.
Before I headed into the bathroom I waited for a while, wanting to be sure that he wasn't going to just come walking back in, and then I undressed after I turned on the shower. The steam fogged up the glass and steam flowed out of the shower when I opened the door, stepping in beneath the hot stream of water. I had already put my shampoo, conditioner, and the body wash that I had brought with me in, so I didn't have to use the tiny bottles that they provided, thankfully. There was no way that those tiny bottles would last me a week, not with the amount of hair I had on my head.
I showered pretty quickly, not wanting to make Soren wait to come back, and then stepped out. I dried off and wrapped myself in a towel, making sure once again that Soren hadn't come back before I quickly began to get dressed in my shorts and tank top that I lounged around in a lot. They were pretty comfy.
Soren came back after I texted him, kicking the room door shut behind himself as he entered. His blue eyes focused on me as I sat on the couch, towel drying my still damp hair. My gaze flitted over to him and I watched him lock the door, some sort of drink in his right hand. "What's that?" I asked out of curiosity, pointing to it. He glanced at the cup in his hand and held it out to me. "Try it and find out." He said instead of answering, causing me to give the drink an uncertain look. I leaned forward and took a little whiff, suspicious of the beverage, only to find that it smelled sort of fruity. "Is this juice?" I asked, sitting back down on the couch again.
Seeming to realized that I didn't want to try the drink without knowing what it was, an amused look briefly crossed his face. "It's some sort of juice, yeah. Think they called it a virgin punch." He said, the odd name making me blink in surprise. I peered up at him and was a little bit taken aback when he plopped down beside me, holding the cup out to me. "You can have it. I prefer alcoholic drinks, not juice." He said, our fingers brushing when I gently took the cup from him. I took a sip and, sure enough, it was fruity as ever and was also most certainly not alcoholic in the slightest bit. Still, it tasted pretty fucking good to me. "Mmm," I hummed, causing him to snort.
"Don't tell me I'm about to witness a repeat of last night. It'd be sad if you orgasmed over drinks, too." Soren teased as he stood up from the couch, an amused glint in his eyes.
A huff left me and I simply flipped him the finger, continuing to sip on the juice until the cup was inevitably empty. "So," I murmured as I set the cup on the coffee table in front of me. "What are we doing today?" I asked, curious. I mean, we were at a resort! Sure, we weren't in a real relationship but I also didn't think it'd be necessary for us to just sit in our room for the entirety of the week just because he and I were only in a fake marriage together. We could still go places and take advantage of us being here, after all.
"Um," He mumbled, frowning at me as if I were stupid. "You know we don't actually have to do shit together? Nobody we know is here to see us." He told me, raising his brows. I simply shrugged my shoulders, giving him a careless look. "And?" I asked, maybe a little too sassily. "I don't wanna walk around the resort alone." I told him, huffing. He eyed me closely, looking uncertain. "Would you quit looking at me as if I'm some sort of unpredictable monster?" I asked him as I crossed my arms over my chest, frowning at him. "Sorry, it's just weird. I was expecting you would want to avoid me as much as I avoid you." He said, earning another huff. This man was truly frustrating. "What are we doing today?" I repeated, shooting him an expectant look.
The tall man groaned and ran a hand through his already messy hair, messing it up even further. "Well, I was thinking of going around to the different restaurants today. This resort supposedly has really good food. I had planned to go alone, but I guess you can join." He told me, causing me to smile in satisfaction. "Great! I just need to find my shoes." I said, locating the spare pair of converse I had brought and slipping my feet into them.
Though he was clearly still uncertain about hanging out with me we left the room together, his long legs making it a little harder for me to keep up with him. I let him lead the way since I had no idea where to even go, passing by several other people that were staying at the resort as well. It was as he and I were walking that I noticed that they had a couple of different bars and even nightclubs here. "Ayla!" Soren snapped me out of my thoughts and I whipped my head over to him, realizing that I had drifted off into my own little world. "Come on." He said with a sigh, grabbing my wrist in his before he dragged me into a restaurant that I could smell the scent of pancakes of even from outside. I glanced up as we walked in, trying to catch the name, but I missed it because he yanked me in too fast.
We got inside and I came to the conclusion that this must've been a breakfast restaurant, which sounded pretty damn good to me right about now. Soren led me through the restaurant and over to a table that was sort of off to the side by one of the open wall windows, the two of us facing one another when we sat down. There were already menu's on the table, so I began to look through it, having trouble picking what I wanted because everything sounded so good. He, on the other hand, seemed to already have found what he wanted. I eventually managed to figure out what I want, and right on time, too, because the waitress arrived when I shut my menu. He and I placed our orders and I pushed my menu to the side, the two of us left in an awkward silence.
At first I had planned to just leave him alone, but then I figured it was enough of that. Sure, he didn't seem to really like me but I didn't think he hated me entirely, either. Not only that, but we were to live together when we went back and I sort of needed to be able to at least start a conversation with him before I could even begin to feel comfortable with that.
However, there was one problem—he was texting on his phone again, his head turned downward to his lap in a way that made it abundantly clear that he didn't want to talk to me. I hesitated and then let out a breath. "Do you live alone?" I asked him, the sound of my voice making him lift his head to look at me. It felt embarrassing to have to push for his attention like this, but I had no choice. He was on his phone a lot, I noticed. "Yeah. I live alone." He answered simply, not adding anything more to the conversation I was desperately trying to start. Obviously he had no interest in conversation with me, but I didn't let that deter me. "We're not going to have to share a room at your house when I move in, right?" I asked, chuckling a little nervously at the thought.
Soren continued to type like a madman on his phone and then looked up at me, raising his brows a little. Then a slow smirk formed on his lips. "You're quite stingy when it comes to sharing a bed, aren't you?" He mused, tucking his phone into his pocket. I gave a sheepish shrug of my shoulders. "I-I don't mind sharing a bed with someone, but you and I are basically strangers." I explained, and he gave me a look. "Oh, so me taking up a lot of space because I'm big has nothing to do with it, then?" He hummed, to which I pursed my lips at him and yet didn't answer, which made him chuckle. "Mhm, that's what I thought." He muttered.
"But to answer your question," He began, crossing his arms as he leaned into the table a little more. "I have a second bedroom in my house, so it's totally yours." He said, earning a sigh of relief from me. I guess it wasn't necessarily that I thought I needed my own room to live with him, but it did make me feel better. Plus I was sure that he was glad that I was going to be in my own room and not taking up space in his, too. "Do you live in the city?" I asked, but he shook his head, to my utter surprise. I had sort of pictured him as the type of person that lived in the city. "My house is kind of up on this big hill that overlooks the city. It's a little bit of an odd drive up there, but I really like it." He explained, and I tried my best to picture it in my head but I was sure it was way off. "Don't strain yourself too hard thinking about it." He teased me, seeming to notice the look on my face.
"You'll see it when we go back in a week." He added casually, glancing up as the waitress came back with our drinks. There was another woman behind her that had a circular tray with our food on it, which she set in between us before they both left to attend to other customers. My stomach grumbled as I looked at the food in front of me. "Smells so good." I mumbled to myself as I grabbed my food. I had ordered a stuffed French toast that was stuffed with a vanilla ricotta and cream cheese filling, topped with strawberries and powdered sugar. I grabbed the syrup and drizzled it over the food before I dug in, beginning to scarf it down in a somewhat similar fashion that Soren was eating his rather big omelette, which he had gotten with a side of bacon, toast, and some sausage links. Yes, this man could certainly eat a whole lot.
Our conversation died down into nothing, but I found that I didn't mind this time. Even though the conversation we'd had was short and very base level, it still made me feel a little bit better. At least he'd actually spoken to me.