Impress Me Not: The Architect

Chapter 15

He couldn't believe this.

He couldn't believe that he had gotten pulled away from getting groceries to do this. Was it nice to help out? Of course, it was. He just wasn't expecting anything to get forced to do something like this. He was especially not expecting to get forced into a bridal shop just to figure out what was wrong with a dress.

Wasn't this a girl thing?

Okay, he was gay, but that didn't mean that he was going to be the best with design. He was an architect, and he knew how to dress himself. But that didn't make him an expert on this. It just made this all the more awkward with Casimir treating him like he was some sort of fashion genius.

Darling.

He had called him darling.

He wasn't just hearing things in that grocery store, was he? He was almost positive that the man that had complimented him the first time, insulted him the next, and complimented him countless times after, had now hooked his hand under his arm and called him Darling.

Did he just get put into some sort of weird 50s movie remake? What kind of 80s romcom was this? And why was he one of the main characters?

He didn't do love. He went out with a few people and had some fun, but he didn't fall in love. That's where his father went wrong. Valentino was gay anyways, he wasn't going to have kids, so why worry about finding love and settling down? He had his whole career to keep him happy. That and his family were all he needed in life.

And this guy was just getting in his way of all that.

"Why are you following me?" Valentino tried walking faster into the grocery store to lose him to no avail. The man was set on catching up with him.

"I promised you that I would pay for your groceries," Casimir said. "Nothing more and nothing less."

"Well, don't worry about it," Valentino grabbed the basket that the girl was still watching and walked further away. "Don't you have to get back to your client?"

"Oh, don't mind that," Casimir waved off. "Pamela had to leave in a rush after setting up payments for it anyway. She had some important matters to attend to and we were running out of time."

"That's why you were pulling me out the door?"

"Exactly," he smiled at him. Valentino was starting to grow fond of that dazzling smile. "That's why I absolutely have to repay you for your help."

"How could you not see that the front was bare?" he asked, rushing down some more aisles to grab the things he needed. He was dead set on getting his shopping done so that he could do absolutely nothing that weekend. It was the only one that he seemed to have left to do absolutely nothing with, and he was going to enjoy it.

And he was going to stop enjoying the fact that this man was still following him, dammit. His own emotions were betraying him. And here he thought that they were all on the same side.

"It was something that happens when you wind up looking at dresses for hours," he told him, reaching up to grab something for him. "I would have most likely figured it out later today, or tomorrow, but we were on borrowed time."

"I see," he frowned. "Well, whatever, you don't have to buy my groceries."

"Of course, I don't have to," Casimir wrapped a hand around his waist. "It's something I want to do. I put you through an embarrassing situation, after all."

If he didn't get that arm away from his waist, Valentino was going to lose it. He was already dealing with his own mixed emotions about the man, he wasn't going to deal with the physical things that the man was doing to his body.