bodyguard - ON HOLD

2 - Svea

this starts a bit after the last chapter ends, just by a few minutes. the only things not included between the end of the last chapter and the beginning of this one are: finding her apartment, getting in and taking a shower and blah blah blah, and that's pretty much it.

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Isa's pov | 11:52am

Grabbing my phone, I go into contacts and find Svea's number quickly, then call her. She picks up on the third ring, but I can hear her messing with it to put it on speaker.

"Hey," She says once she's put herself on speaker.

"Hey. Wanna go to our spot?"

"Yeah, sure. Right now or?"

"Now works, I'm going to grab lunch and I'll meet you there,"

"Okay, sounds good," She hangs up, and I pocket my phone as I walk into my make-shift kitchen and dining room.

Pulling a few thin slices of turkey from a pack in my fridge, I shut the fridge door and go to my front door, sliding my boots on with my mouth full of turkey.

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Isa's pov | 12:00pm

"Wow, you're not waiting at the top," Svea says as she walks over to me.

"Yeah, I wanted to race," I say with a smirk, letting her get in the tree then starting to climb as soon as she's standing on a branch.

"I hate you!" She yells as I'm a few branches above her.

We both laugh after she yells that, as this is not exactly uncommon with us.

Once I get to the top, I move out of her way and sit on a branch, hoping she doesn't try to kill me.

"Okay, why did you want to meet up?" She asks as she stands on a branch across from me, and leans on one behind her.

"I was bored," I say with a shrug.

She rolls her eyes at me, being used to those answers from me.

"Since your life is boring, I've had a few guys ask me out in like the past week but normally it's only like one every two weeks so this is a bit weird. Anyway, I rejected all of them and now they probably hate me," I can't help but laugh at that, as it's been happening since she was fifteen.

"No one ever asks me out, this isn't fair," I joke, not really caring as I could go get myself a hot Italian guy.

"Yeah but we both know you want an Italian, and there aren't any here."

Grinning, she just rolls her eyes at me, but there's a hint of a smile on her face.

"Doesn't help that almost all five or six of them were probably around your age, and they were all around the university," She says, meaning the Stockholm university, but for the most part, it's just known as the university to anyone in the area.

"I know there's something else though and it's why you're rejecting them, what is it?"

"Okay, don't kill me for this, but, I like Vidar," She looks at the branch in front of her, tracing the bark with her finger.

"You guys would be perfect together," I get excited, already wanting to plan a wedding for them.

"Really? But we're complete opposites. He's chill and fun and an extrovert, I'm quiet and an introvert, he wouldn't want me with all my problems."

"Every girl he's ever dated was more on the quiet side, he likes you for you, not for you minus all your problems. And everyone has problems anyway, so if he wants someone without problems he can stay single forever," I tell her.

"Can you call him and ask if he'd date me?"

Turning on my phone, I call Vidar, and he picks up in the middle of the first ring.

"Hey," I say, putting it on speaker.

"Hey, did you forget something here?" He asks, and I look up at Isa, both of us confused and trying not to laugh.

"No, why?"

"I don't know, we went climbing this morning and you only call after that if you forgot something."

"Ah, yeah no. This is a bit random, but do you like Svea?"

He goes silent for a good minute, but he didn't mute himself as I can hear his breathing, definitely quiet, but it's there.

"Maybe," He whispers, but I don't say anything, acting like I didn't hear him. "Isa, at this point I should just say I'm in love with her, she's gorgeous, is an amazing person, amazing co-worker and climber and grounds person, and, I don't even know, if I say everything, then I'll be going on about her until I die."

Looking up at Svea, she has one of her hands over a mouth, and she's about to cry.

"Wow, I thought you might've had a small crush on her, but, I didn't expect that," I tell him, grabbing Svea's free hand in mine and gently squeezing it.

"Do you know if she likes me? I want to ask her out but she probably likes someone else," He admits, and she chokes up, so I cover it with a cough.

"Whether she does or not isn't for me to tell you. Just, if you really like her that much, ask her out. Will you really regret it that much if she rejects you that you'll wish you never even had the guts to ask?"

And he's silent again. Svea still has her hand over her mouth, and a few tears have rolled down her cheeks, but not many.

"I, uh, I gotta go."

"Yeah, yeah. Ask her out sometime, or just go talk to her, got it?" He hums before hanging up, probably not liking those emotions, as he isn't good at dealing with them, or any, at that.

Svea hasn't moved, and she's crying now, silently. Her eyes are wide, and I can't even tell whether she's happy or sad or something else. Moving one of my feet onto the same branch hers are on, I let go of her hand and pull her into a hug. She pushes her face against my shoulder, soaking my shirt with her tears.

I don't say anything, mainly because I don't know what to say, but I could make it worse and that's not what I want. After a few minutes, she pulls away, wiping away the few tears left.

"He's lying, there's no way that that's true. We're kind of close but not that much," She tells me, a glint of confusion in her eyes.

"How close would that be? I should probably know but that's not happening soon for me."

"Um, like, we can cuddle and like do couple things as friends but we've gotten really close to kissing multiple times and so maybe he does like me and he's not lying but I don't know," That comes out way too fast, and so I'm quiet for a minute while trying to process all that.

I wipe away the tear that rolls down her cheek, cupping her cheeks in my hands.

"You think you're not good enough for him. Stop that, you're incredible and I love you, okay?" She nods, pulling me into another hug.

"I love you too, and thank you," She whispers before pulling back.

"Anytime, why don't you go over to Vidar's, I need to set up a few jobs," I suggest, and she nods, already starting to climb down.

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another short chapter, but the next continues right after this one.

i also rushed through this as a bday post :)