Contractually Yours

27• The feelings on the surface

🔹️🔹️Evan Sanders🔹️🔹️

"Here, let me help you." I crouched down on one knee in front of Crystal who was struggling to slide her feet in the boots. With my help, she wore them and stood up to check the fit while I smiled at her, still on my knee.

It was then, when a man with short salt and pepper hair walked by us. "You both look like a lovely couple." He said. "You remind me of my wife and I in our young age. Oh, I miss her so much." He smiled sadly and I looked at Crystal, expecting her to tell him that he was misunderstanding.

But she didn't.

She didn't tell the man that we weren't a couple. That she was married to someone else. Instead, she smiled back at him. That made me wonder about a lot of things.

"Did she not want to admit that Adrien was her husband? Was their marriage still nothing but a contract to her? Was she not happy?

Or did she just not mind if people thought of us as a couple?

That thought caused a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Deep down, that thought made me..... Happy.

I watched Crystal while she shopped for herself and Hannah. I found it so adorable when she fussed about things in confusion. She said that she had barely gone shopping and that she mostly bought things online. Crystal was nothing like the women I had been with. Self-obsessed and greedy. Crystal was humble and dignified and that wasn't it.

When I first saw her, when we danced together at Ethan's wedding, I was mesmerised by her beauty. Her doe eyes, that tiny pointed nose, those plump lips and those fucking dimples. I had drowned in them. Everything about her screamed perfection and simplicity but she had never flaunted it.

I hadn't started liking Crystal when we first met. I wasn't looking forward to meeting her again. I didn't care that she was in trouble and I didn't want to help her. I wasn't disappointed when she had declared her wedding. I wasn't upset when I saw her getting drawn towards her husband. I didn't wish for her to work with me. And I never thought of her as more than a friend.

Now, that's all a big, fat lie. All of it.

But I know my limits. I know that I am supposed to stay only as a friend. That I need to respect her marriage even if it is just for a show. And I know myself. That I would never be able to commit myself to someone. That settling down with someone was out of the question for me. And that I could never be a perfect man to a girl.

But I couldn't stop myself from being drawn to Crystal.

Somewhere between my trail of thoughts, I looked up at the mirror in the clothes section while Crystal looked at a pair of dresses in her hands. Her back faced the mirror and her head tilted towards my side. Our positions were such that in the mirror, it seemed like she had her head leaned on my shoulder. Without thinking, I took my phone and captured a picture of us through the mirror. I put the phone away when Crystal turned around and my sudden reflex made her look at me suspiciously. When she was away I looked back at the picture.

Man, we looked cute.

I drove Crystal back to her house after filling our stomachs at the food court. When I helped her carry a few bags to the penthouse, we were welcomed by an exasperated Adrien who was clearly not pleased by my presence. I had no intention of making things any more awkward than they already were so I decided to leave but Crystal asked me to wait as she had something that she wanted me to give to Hannah. She went inside her room leaving Adrien and I alone.

I looked around his house quietly, chique but too simple for a billionaire like him.

"Thanks for accompanying Crystal." It was him who broke the awkward silence. I looked at him and he clearly didn't mean what he said. He was just being nice so I responded nicely too.