As they walked to the car, Ophelia thought of the reason Cade was taking her there. It was late at night why did he need to bring her out? All her questions flew out her head as soon as he opened up the boot of his car and sitting in them were bags from the store they had visited in the afternoon.
“What are these?” she barely managed to get out because of the shock she felt. She was not expecting that from him honestly if he had pulled up with a puppy she would have not been as surprised as she felt now.
“These” she said rushing to the bag and taking out the contents from one of them. “These,” she said turning to him again with her mouth ajar in confusion. “They are the clothes from the store” he nodded his head like a proud dad who was pulling a moment with his children.
“They are” he said and she jumped on the spot with joy.
“These are the clothes from today” she said again and he nodded. “But how?” she asked going to rummage through the bags as she began to discover the shoes and bags in them. “Shoes? Purses?” she gasped in confusion.
“I asked the manager of the store to pair each dress with a shoe and bag or purse that would compliment it”
“And you bought them all?” she asked and he nodded. “All twenty-three dresses I tried in the afternoon?” she could not believe it. It sounded too real to be true.
“Yes I did”
“But why?” she suddenly asked. She was happy but things happening like that for her felt a lot too strange.
“Because you liked the clothes but refused to pick them,” he said. She felt her heart melt. Was this something that a person who claimed not to believe in love should do? She wanted to question but thought of the possibility that the moment could be ruined by his comment so she just let it be.
“Oh my gosh” she exclaimed putting her hands across her mouth in shock. “When you asked me to come with you to the car I thought you had brought home a new pet or something like that, I did not expect you to show up with twenty-three clothes, pairs of shoes and purses” she said turning to him.
“I just had to get them. You have to have them if you like them” he said and she could not agree less. She might have been forced by herself to go back and get some of the dresses just because she would have kept dreaming about it.
“But don’t you think it’s quite a lot?”
“I could not tell the ones you liked more so I had to get them. You looked happy as you wore them” he said.
‘Was he looking at me?’ She asked herself. She was a hundred per cent convinced that he had not been paying attention to her while she changed into the clothes and that was part of the reason that she had decided not to take any of them. If the clothes did not strike him as perfect why was she taking them? Even though she was telling herself that the clothes did not need to look good in his eyes, she still wanted it that way.
“Oh my, thank you so much” she said turning back to the bags and pulling them out to check them one by one.
“You are welcome, just think about this as a present for you starting work” he said. He wanted to take the pressure that she might feel from receiving it, even though she did not act like it was a big deal at all.
“I thought you were going to make me do one weird thing with one of your wishes but it seemed like I was the one who benefitted instead” she added checking the purse. She had not had the chance to check purses while they were at the store so she was glad that the manager at the store was able to match her taste a bit.
“I thought you wouldn’t come with me unless I used that”
“I don’t know what to say” she said turning to him again. “Let us go, I would finish up with dinner so you can eat. It would be a way for me to say thank you for the dresses” she said turning into the doorway and going inside.
She stopped and turned back to him, he was standing there staring at her as though he would not move. She whistled and waved her hand at him beckoning him to come. He nodded and made his way to her by jogging.
Cade stood in the kitchen awkwardly as Ophelia went back and forth with the meal. With the way she worked, he knew that she had the basic knowledge of cooking even though it was not everything. “Are you just going to stand there like you are being punished?” Ophelia asked after a while.
“What?”
She turned to him with a knife in hand and he unknowingly gulped. “Did you just gulp? Out of fear?” she asked and he shook his head. “But I saw you do that” she added and he shook his head again.
“I thought I’d look like a princess with a knife but you seem to think I look like a villain. I wonder what my origin story would be” she added with a sinister laugh and head tilt.
“Stop that”
“Why? Is it scary?”
“Very”
“Okay,” she said dropping the knife for a second before picking it up and mirroring a killing pose from a movie for him. “Don’t worry you do not have to watch me. I would just be here cooking, I have no plan to go up after you and drive this perfect knife through your heart”
“Now you are making me want to stay here more” he said pulling a chair and sitting.
She let out a laugh before turning back to the board before ger and cutting off the vegetables. “You are different Cade”
“Don’t you dare say you fell for me because I am different”
“Are you crazy?” she asked a feeling lingering deep within her.
Was it disappointment? Was it anger? She could not tell but she knew that it left a bitter taste deep down in he throat and she did not like it.
“Who says I am falling for you? I can assure you that you’d be the one with that tale”
“Says you”
“Do you want to bet?”
“Another bet? I’ll pass”