Sofia’s POV
“Can you tell me a little about Mexico?” I said to Ryan after a few minutes and he glanced up from my phone that he was currently helping me reset some things on the– a phone which I had no idea was going to be that complex to operate.
It was past two p. m in the afternoon and I had asked him this afternoon if he could help me with a few things on my phone. He had agreed immediately, sinking into the same couch I was sitting in after I had patted it on invitation, when he had wanted to remain standing while operating the phone.
He had disagreed at first, and tried to argue but ended up giving in, he was sitting almost too tensely on the tip of the couch, making me wonder about this whole thing between them and Luca.
Speaking of Luca, I could already feel my cheeks start to heat up, and my mouth dry up as I remembered all too vividly how he had raked his intense grey eyes over my whole body, but still not touching me.
It had felt like he was brushing his finger over my whole body ever so lightly, the way he had touched my wrist, two days ago in the hospital, and as ashamed and embarrassed as I was, when I think about it now, I had felt goosebumps appear over whole my skin this morning, right there in the entrance of our bedroom.
My heart had been beating extremely fast when I had finally flown out of the bedroom, this morning, to the extent that I had to seriously try hard to calm myself down as the thought of me developing a heart attack all because of the little encounter we had – without no kind of physical contact– echoed in my head.
I shook my head and blinked once, when Ryan started to talk beside me– pulling me out of the thousand of thoughts floating around in my head, like it always does.
“Well, technically, I was born in Australia.” Ryan started to say and I glanced up from his fingers moving over my phone – to his face, to find him still staring intently at my phone screen.
“Oh? That’s a good thing, right?” I asked and watched as he shrugged one of his big shoulders ever so slowly.
“It is, I guess. It also isn’t. It all depends on the way you see it and what point of view you’d like to understand it from.” He continued and I blinked once before staring back down at my phone. He lifted the phone and handed it to me, which I took from his head, a fast second later.
Our fingers brushed lightly, his nails which I just noticed were really long – lightly scraped my thumb but I ignored the fleeting jolt I felt from the tip of my thumb and instead focused on the work at hand, which was me figuring out the complexity of my phone.
“Can you tell me about those two particular points of view? I am sure I would be able to understand it perfectly from both points of view.” I said to him as I thumbed my phone open and noticed that there was now a small square shaped thing on the Home Screen of my phone.
I clicked on the dark square shaped box and it opened to reveal different arrows, buttons and other quite confusing things.
“I’m sorry, Mrs Ricci but No, I cannot.” He replied after a few seconds and I pursed my lips as I nodded my head once, it was of no use. No matter how hard I try to get the body guards talking, they only respond for a few minutes before shutting down. I had tried this same thing with Ethan, trying to see if he’d share a few things with me, but Ethan was so much worse than Ryan, he had told me that it wasn’t sporophyte for me to be asking that question of him. When I had insisted, he ended up giving in, but stopped after answering the first question, which was a simple ‘where were you born?’
My reasons for trying to get closer to my body guards was because I was trying to see if we could develop a bond together and get to know each other more and become really familiar with each other – that way, I won’t be getting bored out of my mind, every damn day, since I literally only spend the days with Sarah , Matilda and my two bodyguards.
“What is this square shaped box thing called and why is it here?” I asked Ryan after a few seconds of me examining it over and over again. He leaned towards the phone a little and pointed to the dark box before starting to explain, “That’s your assistive touch.”
He paused for a few seconds, and when I nodded my head in understanding, he continued, “It is mostly activated when a person’s iPhone keys, like the hole keys, the swipe button which would let you move from a particular app to a different app without completely coming out of one.”
“But there’s nothing wrong with my phone, all the parts of it are working perfectly well.” I started to say as soon as his words sank into my head and I watched as he nodded his head once before continuing, “Yes, which was why I said some iPhone users. While some, like your own case for instance, activate that option to enable them to be able to make use of the phone in a more easier way, and way less complex way.” He explained and I tapped on the dark square shaped box and it opened again, revealing the same thing it had done before.
I clicked on the app switcher and watched as all the whole apps which had been left open on my phone– moved backwards, all that’s left for me to do is to click on one, which I did immediately and it did take me to where I expected, without any stress this time.
“Oh, thank you so much. I could have never thought of this, thank you!” I said to him with all earnesty before lifting my head up to stare at him. He nodded his head once and assured me that I was welcomed before glancing back down at the phone and lightly tapping the phone screen with his index finger.
“But then, if you want to make a screen record, it is going to be visible in it that your assistive button is turned on.” He said to me and I stared at the phone screen confusingly before glancing up at him from the screen of the phone to blink at him as I echoed out the first thought that popped into my head. “Um, what’s a screen record?”
Ryan stared down at me silently for a few seconds at first, before he cracked a small smile – the first smile I’ve ever seen him wear since the day he had become my bodyguard.
Dare I say he appeared really cute in that particular moment? Cute in a bunny way.
Weird, right? I know, I know.
“A screen record can be carried out when you tap on the button and it records whatever it was that was currently showing on your screen, at that moment.” He started to explain, his mouth moving fast, voice a quiet rumble as if he didn’t want anyone else to overhear what it was that we were talking about.
“You do have a screen record app on your phone right? I could show you how it works, if you don’t mind.” He said to me and I nodded my head before shaking my head almost immediately – remembering that I wasn’t completely sure if I had it on my phone, or not.
“I am not all that sure, but I can check right now.” I said to him as I started scrolling through my long rows of apps, wondering why the phone had to come with so many apps that most appear completely useless.
“Just swipe to the right and type in whatever app it is that you’re looking for, it saves time and unnecessarily stress.” He said from above my head and I felt a little color start to flood into my cheeks at how dumb and slow he must be thinking I was now since I couldn’t even figure my way around a phone without requiring assistance.
“Thank you.” I whispered quietly as I did as told, typing in the name of the app I was looking for– which turns out that the app wasn’t available on my phone at the moment.
I was grateful he was currently assisting me with it, because I was sure I’d end up running crazy assuming I had kept on continuing to figure my way around it.
I went directly into the App Store before he could suggest that same thing and started downloading the app, I knew what it was, since the attendant at where I had bought the phone from, four days ago, had explained a few basic things about the phone, and the App Store and it uses had been a part of it.
Once it completed downloading, Ryan took the phone back and set the newly downloaded app while I carefully watched all what he was doing, trying my damnest to not feel like a dumb and slow person at that very moment.
He showed me a few examples of a screen record, navigated through the phone more and more, and showed me how to deal with a few more things before finally handing the phone to me and rising to his feet, the very next second.
“Thank you so much, again. I really appreciate it, really.” I said to him as I got up on my feet almost immediately, clutching my phone carefully in my left hand while my right one was currently feeling completely numbed out.
“You’re welcome, ma’am. I am just doing my job.” He replied immediately, clasping his hands behind his back as he stared down at me, making me feel as small as possible.
“Would you like a drink before you go back outside at least? It’s just me saying thank you. You’ve helped me so much with this particular thing that has been making my head pound ever since I got the phone and I’d really appreciate it if you agree to have a drink, at least.” I said to him as I moved my weight from foot to foot, feeling my small skirt move around my thighs. My mother and aunts had shipped so absurdly for me, getting me only skimpy clothes, a huge contrast to the type of clothes I wore when I was still unmarried, and at my father’s house.
Ryan had started to shake his head even before I could complete my sentence, making me mentally huff and stomp my feet on the ground in irritation.
“There’s no need to stress, ma’am. Like I said, it is nothing. You feeling this much gratitude is more than enough.” He explained and surprisingly cracked another small smile at the end of his sentence, which lasted for only a tiny second, compared to the first one I had seen him wear some long minutes ago.
“Alright, if you insist.” I finally sighed out, taking a few steps backwards and wincing when my sudden movements had jarred my arm which was in a sling– around a little.
“Are you alright, ma’am?” Ryan asked almost immediately and I nodded my head instantly, not wanting him to start to worry about me again when he was literally just helping me with my phone, moments ago.
“Yes, I am. I just jolted a little too hard.” I replied to him with a wave of my good arm, dismissing his worry even though he still looked a bit worried.
“Please make use of your afternoon dosage of drugs, to reduce whatever pain you’re still feeling.” Ryan started to say after a moment and I nodded my head immediately as I turned around and made my way out of the living room, up the stairs and into the mine and Luca’s bedroom.