old fashioned || karl jacobs x reader

4: talk too much

I wore that sweatshirt far more than I'd like to admit. I tried not to wear it around Karl because it only made me feel even more embarrassed about the fact that I liked how comfortable it was. I mean, it was just a simple, fleece-lined, Hanes sweatshirt yet I found it far more comfortable than anything else I owned. I wore it to bed, serving as its own comforter as the fall weather began to pick up. Luckily, Karl didn't see me much during the day so I avoided that tension of knowing I was wearing his clothes and being allowed to.

And as fall did pick up, so did my relationship with Jay. It took merely days of us texting back and forth and seeing each other virtually every morning for whatever we had to escalate. Jay was charismatic and knew what he wanted, even more dangerously, he knew how to get it. The words he left me with danced around my mind for hours on end, reminding me of how they made me feel and how they struck me. Jay knew this, obviously, because I'd walk into Greenville Coffee with a bashful look even if I had been entirely upfront with him the night before.

"We should hang out," Jay blurted while fixing my coffee for me, "like outside of the coffee shop."

My eyebrows perked up, suddenly intrigued by the offer. "Any ideas?" I hummed as I leaned my body against the counter.

He shrugged, eyes entirely fixed on the brewing liquid. "Maybe," he teased.

"Maybe?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to spoil it."

A surprise was what he was preparing, which I couldn't tell if that was frighteningly elating. "When?" I pushed down the feelings of excitement to play this face of stability and tranquility.

"How's tonight?"

I couldn't help but jump at the abruptness. I had no reason to refuse, if anything I had been waiting for this moment ever since I started talking to Jay.

"That's perfect."

"Great, I'll get you around six." The brewing stopped and he took the cup, fixing the top onto it and gesturing it towards me.

I was smiling ear to ear, much to Jay's amusement, as I took the coffee from his hand, fingers brushing against his briefly. "I'll see you then," I hummed and left the shop with a satisfied look on my face.

—

Coming home from work, I immediately began getting ready to see Jay. This would be my first date (?) with him, though I wasn't quite sure what we were. He was nice and funny, so automatically qualified as boyfriend material and I was sure he wanted to be my boyfriend. It felt so much like high school, getting all giddy over spending time with someone I had an interest in. We were simply hanging out, it wasn't anything to get so worked up over, yet I was so incredibly excited.

I had changed out of my work clothes and into a dark gray sweater with a pair of black jeans. As I picked through my clothes, my fingers brushed over Karl's sweatshirt. As it did, my stomach tensed, my heart pausing as I was reimbursed with the feelings it gave me. It hardly smelled like him anymore, upsettingly. I needed him to wear it again and give it back to me just so I could smell the vague, floral scent of his shampoo rubbed off on it and the sweet fragrance of his candles that lingered on the fabric. I could still smell the burning wick in the sleeves if I pressed them against my face and thought hard enough.

Physically, I had to force my attention away from the sweatshirt and back to the matter at hand. With my clothes on, I inspected my appearance in the mirror, finding myself fairly pleased. The time was inching toward six, so I picked up my room. Again, I found myself before the sweatshirt in my closet as I hung something up by it. Why had it captured me so? It mystified me how such an insignificant token had begun to control me. Dictating my sleep and paranoia before leaving my room should not have been things I welcomed, yet I continued to wear the sweatshirt as if I had this bind to it.