NINTH FLOOR | 18+

XXII. L O V E Y O U N O T E S

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V I O L E T T E
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The warm water cascaded down my back that was prickled with goosebumps. My eyes were closed as I thought back hard to when he got his hands on me and how he whispered sentences that made no sense to me. Maybe he had gotten his hands on the wrong woman or maybe he was just drunk but the way he had confidently punctuated each sentence told me otherwise. He wasn't drunk and he didn't have the wrong woman at all.

I immediately opened my eyes when the memory of the dark alley got my chest heavier and thicker. I needed to tell someone but it most definitely can't be my father because with that would come a plane ticket right back home that's if he didn't come himself to grab his precious daughter. I would have to deal with it later because right now I needed to focus on coming up with a story to keep my bodyguard at bay of my whereabouts for the night.

I closed off the shower, now very much smelling like his shampoo and dried myself with the towel he had left behind with the pair of clothes. Draping the shirt over my head, I immediately sighed in relief when I saw how it ended midthigh because there was no way the boxers were going to stay in place. I dried my hair to the best of my ability before looking at myself in the foggy mirror.

A mess. That's how I would describe myself. A mess that no matter how hard you tried to fit in a box and close it shut, it would always burst at the seams. And I knew for a fact that Ruben Efrain hated messes from his overly organized desk to the ironed suits of his, he kept everything in order. In this world of his, he had a place for everything except for me.

Shaking my head, I walked out of his bathroom and then out of his bedroom. Following the sound of him moving, I found my way to the kitchen. I remained at the entrance of the kitchen, and instantly tried to suppress a smile when I saw Ruben trying to figure out how to turn the stove on.

"Fuck." He groaned as he frustratingly ran his fingers through his now tousled hair and shut his phone down that had a woman giving basic directions on how to make spaghetti for beginners.

I tiptoed my way into his kitchen and before I could continue to watch him struggle, he turned around seeing me.

"Hey." I said foolishly before sending him a gentle smile.

"How are you feeling?" He asked back as he turned his back to the stove completely.

"Better." I replied before moving closer to him.

"How's dinner going?" I asked, knowing very well the man didn't even know how to boil his spaghetti without growing frustrated.

"Umm yeah about that, maybe we could order in." He suggested and I smiled a little too big for him to not have noticed.

"What?" He questioned as I nudged him over softly before glancing down at the quarter filled pot of water.

"You know you need more water to cook the spaghetti in." He just rolled his eyes at my correction before grabbing the pot off the stove and filling it up with more water.

"Like I said we should just order in Violette." Before he could continue, I grabbed the pot of water from him and placed it on the stove before turning it on. He almost seemed irritated at the fact he couldn't have figured something so simple out.

"It's fine. I can cook for us." I said as I walked over to his fridge and sighed in relief when I saw it fully stocked. Grabbing the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients, I made my way to the kitchen counter. As I laid down the ingredients, his hand wrapped around my wrist. I looked up at him with confusion as he shook his head.

"You don't have to do that." I just smiled at him a little brighter before shaking my head.

"I know I don't but I want to." He dropped my wrist, giving up before making his way to the kitchen seat and sat down.

"Let me know if you need any help." He said as he opened his laptop and started typing, always a workaholic.

And that's how our next hour went by. With him shooting glances from his laptop over to me and me cooking while catching his gray eyes already on me. As I finished stirring the last of the sauce into the spaghetti, I glanced back at him, waiting for his attention.

"You need something?" He asked as he closed his laptop shut and got up from his seat.

"Where are the plates?" I asked as he made his way to the end of the kitchen, to the cabinets in the corner.

He opened the cabinet and there were all the plates one person would ever need. I slowly made my way to where he was standing and reached out into the open cabinet while his eyes stayed on me. I got on my tippy toes to reach out for the plates on the top shelf and sighed when I couldn't reach up to them. I tried once again but this time I looked over to him to see his face trying to hold back the amusement as his lips struggled to stay down in a frown.

"You know it's not illegal to smile." I said as I tried for the last time to grab the plates and groaned in defeat.

"You know it should be illegal to be that tiny." I looked at him, rolling my eyes before turning towards him with my hands propped on my hips.

"I am not tiny Mr.Efrain." And this time he couldn't keep himself from laughing at my tantrum.

"Says Miss Five Foot Nothing herself." And besides my feeble attempts of my own, I couldn't help but start laughing at myself.

I turned around shaking my head with a genuine smile on my face. I had to grab those plates and with that in mind I jumped up to reach but before I could try again, a pair of hands planted themselves on my waist to keep me from moving.

"Stop doing that." He whispered into my ear softly and I instantly leaned back into him without any thought.

"Why?" I managed to ask as his hands tightened on my waist.

"Because that damn shirt is riding up high enough for it to be considered appropriate." My eyes immediately widened when I realized what he meant. I had so foolishly skipped the undergarment part of this attire completely, not thinking even once. I tried to pull away from him but he immediately snaked his arms around me and pulled me tightly against him.

I closed my eyes, melting into him. Saying to myself that I would only stay like this for a bit, one second or one minute. One hour. One day. One week. One year. But, one lifetime sounded pretty tempting.

"You smell like me mixed with a mix of yourself." He said quietly against my neck as softly let his lips flutter just the surface of my skin. So close to kissing but yet not close enough.

Before I knew it, I had my hands on top of his and I don't know how long we stood there just wrapped around in each other but I didn't want him to ever pull away from me because deep down when he did he would never want to put his hands on me again.

"I never learned to cook because my mom never knew how to either." I opened my eyes slowly, paying attention to everything he was confessing to me.

"She always had someone else to do it. And the little boy in me used to be jealous of those kids that had their mom pack them their lunches with those love you notes on the side."  I slowly rubbed my fingers on his hand as he hid himself in the crook of my neck as if ashamed to have admitted that to me.

"God it sounds pathetic." He groaned as he tried to pull away from me. I immediately turned around to look at him with his eyes dropped down, his lips dipped in a frown.

"It's not though." I replied as I hesitantly at first but pulled his hair away from his face.

"My dad used to say that not everyone is capable of loving and my mom once replied that it's not that someone isn't capable of love, it's just they aren't capable of loving you."

"Maybe start looking for those love you notes from somewhere else Ruben. Sometimes we get them from the least expected." I said as his gray eyes for the first time had looked the softest shade. The little boy who wasn't taught how to love, that's who Ruben Efrain is.

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I literally don't know where this was going but I guess it went here. Anyways how is everyone doing?

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J. Iris Grace

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