“What was that all about?”
“Market survey?”
“Market survey? He asked as his voice rose.
“Yeah, I wanted to know what they thought about us together”
“And why were you promising to buy them lunch?”
“Because they made me happy,” Ophelia said. “Where did you go?” she suddenly remembered that the reason she got into a mini squabble with those girls was because he left her.
“To get this,” he said dangling a paper bag in her face. She had not noticed him holding it since he came.
“What is that?”
“Sit” he said pushing him to the bench.
“What is that?” she asked again as he took out the box from the paper box and opened it to reveal a pair of slippers.
“You bought slippers?” she asked looking down at the box and back at him.
“Yeah” he said taking off the heels from her leg and sliding the slippers into her legs. He did the same for both feet and then carefully placed the heels into the box.
“Aww, that’s so cute,” One person from the bystanders said.
“I always knew he was the perfect boyfriend material,” another person from the crowd said fondly.
“Oh my god, I’m so jealous” another voice rang through the air.
“Why are we in this bookstore?” she asked leaving him confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you are already perfect at this storybook boyfriend thing, Is it because you are born rich? Are all rich men like this?” she asked as she tilted her head. “Of course, I have been with lots of them and the majority of them are dickheads” she continued murmuring to herself.
“What are you going on about?” he said standing up with the bag dangling from his hands. “Shall we go?” he asked stretching his palm to her. She stared at his hands intently.
“You are good, even better than I expected” she murmured taking his hands.
“Do you want to impress the people or should I tone it down a bit?” he asked as she stood face to chest with him. She could swear that if she leaned in just a bit they would be hugging. He was looking down at her and his expression was soft as if he was staring at a puppy.
“Or you can take a notch higher”
“Really?” he asked bending so they could be eye to eye.
“Yes,” she replied trying her best not to gulp as she looked at his lips. ‘I don’t like him, this is a normal reaction of a girl who has not been on a date in ages’ she said in her mind trying to convince herself.
There was no way this man made her heart flutter just by this bare minimum of actions, maybe she was sick and needed to be looked at. Her train of thought was interrupted by his lips slightly grazing hers. There was no way she was calling that a kiss.
She wanted to scream at him and hit his chest severally for kissing her, but she understood the words in his eyes, the unspoken words he said to her. Instead of screaming and fighting him in the chest, she leaned in and returned the kiss.
The gasp around her from the people not willing to believe that they were together was all they needed to pull away, she rested in his arms as if she belonged there. “Let’s go” she murmured in his chest.
He took a deep breath and stroked her hair, she pulled away and held his hands before they left the bookstore.
“You did not get any books?” Cade asked as they sat in the car.
“Maybe another day, I will have someone pick it up and deliver it to you,” she said absentmindedly as she watched the road.
“Why don’t you deliver it to me instead?” he asked and her head whipped to him in confusion.
“What, why? What do you mean?”
“What is so wrong with that?” he asked tilting his head.
“Why would you ask me to deliver it to you?” she asked shifting uncomfortably.
“I thought we were putting up a show?” he asked.
She stared at him wondering why her brain refused to process what he was saying yet her mind kept replaying what she had just encountered in the bookstore. The kiss scene. She did not think this was fair on her, he caught her unawareness, and he had enough time to prepare himself so he was not affected by it.
“Don’t do that next time” she said cutting off his speech. Since she had not been listening to him she could not tell what he was going on and on about before then.
“Do what?”
“Kiss me” she let out and a hiccup followed. “What I mean is kiss me without my permission, lets plan everything we are doing for the public beforehand so that none of us is left shocked” she quickly verified.
She was not sure if her verification was of any help because he had a sly smile on his face. “You know what I mean” she murmured as she tried to avoid eye contact with her.
“Okay then we plan whatever it is we want to do beforehand, no spontaneous events and that applies to you too,” he said and she nodded.
“Of course,” she said as quickly as possible.
“So I was saying that I think it’s a good idea for you to be the one to bring the books to my office” Cade said bringing up the earlier discussion they were having.
“Why?” she asked wondering why he would even want the books in the first place. She had barely spent any time with him but he was already perfect. She wondered what storybook he jumped out of.
“Well, if you deliver it to my office I think it would be a stronger story, I mean people have termed me as a workaholic, if you show up to my place of work and they see us together, like I a skipping work to be with you, we can have a better advantage” he explained.
His explanation made sense so she agreed, “As for PDA” she began and trailed off, she did not want to bring up the topic but she wanted to be sure.
“Just the barest minimum would do, we would be at an office space, not a zoo” he said and she nodded with relief.
“Let’s do Monday then” she suggested and he agreed.