Chapter Seven

Aurelia’s POV

Work resumed at 4pm and I was out earlier to make it to time. 

Going to work today, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting Kieran.

Or maybe I was.

After the careless gift he had sent this morning and my note bck to him, he had sent anothr paackage. This time, a box of white chocolate and a lengthy letter of apology.

It relieved me to realise that he hadn’t grown cold feet and that I was really not alone.

Maybe he truly loved me.

But I was scared. The last time I gave my heart to someone, it was shatterd to pieces. 

Hell, I was still trying to recover from that heartbreak.

Mum had been the one who stopped me from sending back the second package. She grabbed the basket with a smile.

“I love lilies…and white chocolates are the absoluute best.”

Before I could protest, she had vanished with the package.

But it gave me the privacy of going through his letter. Reading through it, the weight of guilt fell on my chest. I could see Kieran’s intesntion boldly written on the page of the note I held. Yet, there was that grippling fear that held me back. 

That fear that found its way into my life the night fatehr died and expanded to my mind when I saw Dimitri with another woman.

I didn’t tear the note. It was too lovely to read to throw away

In your eyes, I see a forever that I am willing to lose myself in…

That statement from this note flashed in my mind repeatedly as I made my way towards the bus stop. 

As I stood there waiting for the bus to arrive, I noticed a familiar car driving towards me. Maybe it was because I could smell him from a mile away. 

Kieran sat at the back of the car, wearing an expensive suit and a new haircut that made me breathless. He was like a walking god - the physical actualisation of all the men I had dreamed of from mum’s novels.

And that was what made this look like a dream I was going to wake up from and thrown into a harsh reality I wasn’t ready to face.

He stepped out from the car, his face solid without an expression. The air charged the moment his feet touched the ground. I could feel the eyes on us. 

A common bar attendant like me, getting attention from this man - one of New York’s finest billionaires. 

It was enough to make me blush.

I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or happy to see me. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark shades. But his scent was intoxicating, enough to remind me that he was crazy about me.

My obsession for you is a disease I’m happy to have…

That was the way he had penned it, and even now, ans he walked towards me with the lines f his note flashing in my subconsciounesss, I felt my body go warm.

He stopped in front of me. 

“You haven’t considered my proposal, have you?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “I have a job…that I love.”

He took my hand. “Then tell me, which do you like? Brown or white chocolates? Lillies or roses?”

It was intriguing to see a man who was interested in getting to know me and even hold me nder the watchful eyes of the publc.

Kieran was a business celebrity. News followed him around. So, I knew it was a bold move holding me in public like this. 

But whatever we had didn’t have any label.

I was his mate, yeah. But I was undecided if I wanted to go down the journey of love again. And Kieran made it impossible for me to come to a conclusion because when he was around me, all I thought about was the way his scent pulled me towards him magnetically and how good his lips had tasted that drunken night when I got down with a stranger. 

I pouted my lips at his questions. “I don’t take chocolates…I’m allergic to them.”

The bravado on his face fell and I saw his brows descend, almost covered by the dark shades he still wore.

“I’m sorry,” he voiced. “I could never imagine a lady would be allergic to chocolates.”

Which is why it is wrong to assume.”

“Forgive me,” he begged.

How could I remain angry over a honest mistake?

“But you didn’t send back the white chocolates.”

I wanted to tell him that I had thrashed the entire package. Maybe that would finally show the precarious state of his heart towards me. But I felt like I had hurt him enough for a day.

“My mum isn’t allergic to chocolates and white chocolates are her absolute favourite.”

He beamed. “At least, I may have gotten through the heart of your mum.”

A smile broke from my face. “Oh, it was laced with something to make me fall in love, wasn’t it?”

He inched forward. “You’re already in love, Aurelia.”

It was the way he spoke with so much certainty and confidence that made a chill run through my spine. He was so close to me that I could feel his breath against my skin.

And suddenly, it was just the two of us in the center of the universe, with the world revolving aroud us. 

I could see his blue eyes underneath the shade, could read the message they told, and the lyrics of his breath, the tune it played. It rhythmed with the pounding of my heart against my chest, a perfect love song.

I didn’t realise he was holding my hand until he squeezed it.

“I don’t care who hurt you in the past, Aurelia. I'm never going to be like them.”

But wasn’t it what hurt about a heartbreak?

You’d never know that the person is ever capable of leaving or looking at you like a stranger until you wake one day and realise that all the promises had been nothing but a joke. 

i wanted to let go from his grip but he clasped his hand around mine so tight that I couldn’t.

I heard the hiss of the bus a few feet from where we stood. That was when I realised that I was standing outside.

“There goes my bus,” I aid in an attempt to let him unclasp my hand from his iron grip. 

But he said, “I didn’t come here to watch you get into a bus. If you want to work at Club Soda, I would drive you there myself and watch you until you get tired and consider my proposal.”

I rolled my eyes. 

“A fine, rich man like you should have a girlfriend. Maybe a human girlfriend.”

“I only want my mate - you, Aurelia.”

I watched as the bus started , a reminder that I was going to run late if I ket up with this conversation with a man who appeared at work whenever he liked. 

“I can’t be late to work,” I finally said.

He nudged towards his waiting Bentley. “Then, hop in.”

It was not as if I had another choice. Unless waiting for a second bus was appealing or I could trek the long distance. None was going to be good for my paycheck.

Kieran ushered me into his car and I slid in, faazed by its interior decoration even though it wasn’t my first time in the car. The first time I was in the car, I had pretended to have fallen asleep so I couldn’t have a conversation with him. With my eyes shut in pretence-sleep, I couldn't appreciate the beauty of the interior. 

The leather of the chair was plush and screamed comfort. Kieran sat beside me. His hand fell to my stomach and I almost jumped in fright.

“Don’t you ever think I don’t want you…or our pup,” he said. “I meant every word I said during our date, Aurelia.”

Don’t be a fool to trust him, Relia.

That was my fear speaking - the only voice I listened to these days.

The ride started. Smoothly, the car rolled towards my place of work. The car fell into an uncomfortable silence and I threw my face to the window, keeping my mind free from its wandering thoughts by glancing through the cityscape. 

I was ten minutes earlier than usual. 

All I needed was a Bentley, I thought chuckling quietly.

Kieran was by the side of my door before I could open it. He chaffued me out. Club soda was already a hive of activity and heads were turning as the Bentley came to a stop with the young and famous Kieran Armstrong coming out.

It took an eternity for me to step out. 

I shouldn’t  have agreed to this. I was drawing unnecessary attention to myself and all I ever wanted was to quietly  blend in this city of humans.

The spotlight? - nah - but Kieran was dragging me right into it. 

“I’ll appreciate coming here in a public bus next time,” I said between clenched jaws. 

His silence spoke louder than anything he could ever say. I could feel his resolve and even hear him clearly under the silence of his voice, saying, “I would never let you walk alone. Never again.”

His sentinel cleared a path through the evening crowd. I stopped in front of the door, cuing for my escort to find his way back to his Bentley and drive off to his rich penthouse somewhere in Manhattan.

But he halted. 

“Don't you want to go in with me as a couple?”

Go in? 

Was he hell-bent on making me lose my job?

“This is my workplace,” I said, edging on annoyance. “You can’t just walk in with me, holding hands.”

“You wanted committment, didn’t you?”

I pursed my lips. “We aren’t even a thing!’

He frowned and I regretted saying it because of what he did next.

“Is that it?” He asked. “You want us to be a thing before you can take me seriously?”

I was shaking my head, trying to diesel whatever thought was germinating in his head when he got on one knee, his hands pulling me close to him, and his lips kissing my tummy.

Cameras flashed, whispers turned into murmurs, and glances became stared. I stood there, Aurelia Brentwood, the lady who had always avoided the spotlight, now the center of attention as they watched Kieran’s unsilicted display of love. 

I was helpless under his hold but I was seething. 

I never said I wanted this. Hell, I wasn’t even ready to open my heart to love. 

Why the heck was he doing this? What did he want them to think? A billionaire on his knee, kissing my tummy.

Isn't it how they all came with good intentions, sweeping you off your feet and making you fell like you mean the world to them, only to be thrown aside when the feeling has died.

Without enough courtesy to even say anything.

No. You get to find out that your man - the one you live and breath for - had moved on for months while you stupidly lay on the bed each night, dreaming about him, waiting to be in his arms again. He was already with another woman and now, when he looked at you, his eyes are like that of a stranger. 

Wasn’t it how it would end with Kieran too? A bar attendant could never have a place in the heart of a billionaire, at least, not permamently.

And I was tired of temporal things.

My eyes brimmed with tears I didn’t want to shed, at least, not to him, not to this crowd gathering around us with their phones, picturing this moment.

“I hate you!” I managed to say, pushing him off me and storming out of the arena.

Maybe, I should have said, “Kieran Armstrong, I reject you as my mate.”