Page 117 of The Plan

“I cannot go late.”

“Well, then, you better hurry.” Without another word, she finishes her syrup with a side of pancakes, as do Sire and I. I take our plates and go to wash them as Isa runs off to get dressed.

“What are you doing?”

“The dishes?” Sire looks at me like I just said the most insane thing ever.

“I can do them.” He reaches for the dishes in my hand, but I move them from his reach.

“You cooked, let me cl—”

“No.” He takes the dishes from me and places them in the sink. I ignore him and turn, but he moves me away from the dishes. He leans in front of the sink and pulls me by my waist so I’m standing between his legs.

“So…” He has a smile on his face that I can’t look away from as he rubs small circles on my waist. “Do you have anything to tell me?” He sounds like a happy kid. I let out a sigh and take a step back, out of his touch.

“Sire, when I said ‘let me sleep on it,’ I didn’t mean I’d literally take one night to think about it.”

“What is there to think about, Vid?” He says it like there's no reason I should be questioning us getting back together. I try to come up with a reason to give him but can’t think of one since he wasn’t even using me… He never lied about anything.

I only offer him a weak shrug, wanting to tell him,again,that he shouldn’t want to be with me, but I know what he’d say. I just need to believe it.

He looks between my eyes and then shakes his head like he thought of something. “Look, I’m willing to wait for you, however long you need, but it can’t be like last time. You’re either all the way in or all the way out.” I know he’s talking about how I wanted to be with him last time but refused to call him my boyfriend.

I don’t say anything in response and try to walk off to think, but he pulls me back to him. “What was that?”

“What?”

He smiles down at me and shakes his head. “We need to work on your communication skills, my love.” I feel my brows furrow and take a step back, but he keeps me close with his hands still on my waist. “And you need to stop walking away from me.” Our faces are inches apart, and I tell myself to pull away, but my body doesn’t listen.

“That ends right now. Got it?”

My eyes are glued to his lips as he speaks, and I only nod my head softly. His lips curve into a smirk, and when my eyes meet his, a playful look is dancing in them. “Remind me why we shouldn’t just get back together?”

His voice is just above a whisper, and hesnickerswhen I look back down at his lips. This time, I force myself to lean back just a bit because our faces are dangerously close.

“Because…” I start.

He turns his head to the side, and I shake mine. “Because it’d be weird,” Is all I come up with.

“Whatwill be weird, Vidia?” He leans down, and I can’t bring myself to pull away. “We talked things out. It’s not like we’re just jumping back into things. You’ve been back for months, and I think we eased our way back perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, well—” Whatever excuse I had shrivels up and dies in my throat as he looks at me like he’s undressing me with his eyes.

“Well?” He leans in even more, and our lips barely graze before I suck in a breath. Every alarm in my head goes off, and I turn on my heels. “Uh uh.” He turns me back around just as fast and sends me a pointed look. “What’d we just say?”

No walking away.I cross my arms in defeat because I hate this new rule. I don’t like all this confrontation, and I think I should be able to walk off and cool down. Not everything needs to be talked about.We need to work on your communication skills, my love.Ugh. I hate that he’s right.

“Why do you look like you’re getting angry?”

I squint my eyes at him, but he only returns the look. He lets out a sigh when I don’t reply and kisses my forehead. “I feel like you’re struggling to trust me, but we’ll work on it.”

I let out a sigh and uncross my arms. A part of it is trusting him, sure, but deep down, I know he wouldn’t have used me. These past few years, that thought was always in the back of myhead; I was just too scared to find out on the off chance that it was true. Now, though… It’s the guilt that keeps me from letting him be mine again. I don’t feel like I deserve him, but I give him a nod and tell him I’ll work on it.

“I have to get ready for work.”

“Call out. I want to spend the day with you.” He sounds hopeful as he turns his head to the side.

“I can’t. I have a meeting, and you spend every day with me.” I remind him I’ve practically been living here the past few weeks since the break-in. I sometimes sleep next door at Hazel’s, but if I’m still at Sire’s and it’s getting late, I just crash here. He thinks I haven’t noticed he’s been making me stay over on purpose, but I have. I just don’t mind.

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