Sofia’s pov
“Actually, I- I…”
Ryan stammered, which made me glance up from the bracelet to stare up at him. This was the first time I’d hear him stumble over his words in a really long time.
We were currently standing in the kitchen. I had been blending my usual shake when he had come to join me in here after patrolling around the house.
“You were saying something?” I asked when he remained silent after about a minute.
“Actually, I never foresee the fact that I’d come to care for you this much.” He spoke and before I could get a word out, he continued.
“As a friend, that is. I’ve never really been able to connect with people until you came around, and I just want to let you know that I do not take your friendship lightly.” He continued and I felt squeez warmly in my chest as I grinned up at him.
“I can relate to most of what you’ve just said. I definitely do not take your friendship lightly as well.” I responded honestly, meaning every single word.
“So, will you accept the gift? I know it’s not enough–”
“What? It’s more than enough!” I cut into his sentence even before he could finish speaking.
Ryan chuckled lowly and slowly nodded his head.
I let out a long breath and nodded my head. “Yeah, I’ll accept it.”
And I’ll definitely have to lie about it should Luca ask about it.
“That’s awesome.” He responded with a nod of his head, hands clasped behind him as he spoke.
We didn’t exchange a word after that, nor did we actually agree to it vocally. But, it was like we could both read each other ‘s, because we began to inch towards each other at the same time until we were both hugging.
It felt tremendously nice to finally be hugging me after so long, and he smelled just like I remembered.
“I like the bracelet, it’s pretty.” I murmured into the hug and Ryan hummed in response, hands tightening around me a little.
A fleeting second later, a throat clearing loudly made us tear out of each other’s arms in an instantly while regarding the kitchen’s doorway with wide eyes.
There stood Matilda, staring from me to Ryan and back to me once again. My heart is currently racing and I could already feeling an embarrassed color starting to settle into my cheeks as I averted my gaze from Matilda’s to glance st my feet instead.
I hadn’t been doing any thing wrong with Ryan, but that’s what it probably seemed to her right now.
It’s hard keeping a friend that isn’t the same gender as myself…
“Actually, I was just leaving!” Ryan announced and I glanced up at him, and then at Matilda to give a nod of my head.
“Yes, he was just leaving! He came to give me something important and that’s all.” I mumbled and then I turned back to the counter to pour out my batter from the blender.
“I’ll be going, ma’am. Please send for me if you need help with anything.” Ryan’s voice was stiff as he spoke, and my stomach was curled right as I nodded my head at him, just as he exited the kitchen, leaving me with Matilda who’s yet to say anything.
Matilda moved to the sink and began to do the few dishes in there, along with the blender which I had just made use of.
“You don’t need to do those, I planned to take care of all of them once I’m done with my milkshake.” I called out to her but she waved me off, like I had actually expected.
“It’s no problem.” She reassured me when I attempt to get her to leave it once again.
As she washed the dishes, an awkward silence settled over us, making it hard for me to swallow the milkshake which I’d have gobbled down finish on a normal day.
Once Matilda was done with the dishes, she moved to cleaning the counters, even though I had planned on taking care of that too.
She was still yet to bring up what it was that she had walked into, making it lie heavily in the kitchen.
With a long sigh, I poured the content of the milkshake after a few more minutes of trying to swallow the content down to no avail. I took care of my bottle and kept it away, and then I turned around to regard Matilda who’s currently chipping away on some carrots.
“Aren’t you going to bring it up?” I asked, that being the first word that’s being said in here in almost thirty minutes.
Matilda glanced up from what she was doing to stare at me for a moment, and then she shrugged while responding. “I didn’t think you’d like me to bring it up.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Cut it out, Matilda.”
She turned around to face me fully after dropping her lord and carrot, and then she continued. “You really want me to drop it and actually say what’s on my mind?”
I squared my chin. “You’ve always said your mind since I knew you, I don’t except today’s incident to be an exception.”
“Today wasn’t an accident. It was such a huge, dangerous slip up, and frankly, I expected you to be more careful than that, especially knowing who your husband is. Doing that with him right here in his house…” She paused for a moment. “I’m just thankful I was the one who walked in and not your husband. And of course, I wouldn’t ever dream of telling him something like that, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
The breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding slowly eased out of my chest and I exhaled deeply in relief.
“Yeah, you’re very right. But, you know I wasn’t actually doing anything bad with him, he’s only a friend…”
Matilda cut into what I was saying this time. “Are you sure, ma’am? Because, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s this particular look that he gives you. I might not be young anymore, but I know a platonic look when I see one, and that one in your bodyguard’s eyes most certainly isn’t.”
As Matilda spoke, I let out a long sigh while feeling a little bit irritated, because now it’s back to this damn talk about a particular look, which Angelo and Kayla had somehow noticed as well, but I’m still yet to see any supposed look so far.
Matilda suggested I talk to Ryan about it but I was quick to discard the thought because not only do I not want to make him uncomfortable, I also do not want him to get the wrong message from me and think I like him romantically or something.