This time, I'm serious

All in your basket

Jas awoke, knowing it was later than usual. Even so, she felt him against her. She was in exactly the same position as she'd fallen asleep. He hadn't moved. The whole night, she'd been sleeping on his arm, and he hadn't moved. As she shuffled back, she looked up at him and saw he might not have slept much, either. He looked a little paler than usual, and subtle dark circles under his eyes, but instantly jolted when he realised she was awake.

"Hey!" he whispered, pressing a kiss to her head. "You're awake!"

She nodded.

"How are you feeling? Better?"

She shook her head no.

He nodded in acknowledgement and then frowned at her.

"Okay. Well, it's a new day now, so we're not doing anything else until you are."

She wished she could just go back to the day before. Where she'd woken up in the daybeds, with everything being perfect between them. Covered in hickeys. Breakfast in bed. Where the seed of doubt hadn't sprouted yet. Or the day before that, where they'd made up after their falling out and they'd just basked in their happiness.

"I just hate that we can't have a proper conversation without the cameras all over us."

Bruno's face suddenly brightened.

"Yes we can"

He leapt out of the bed and pulled her up. He grabbed the cover, and immediately started pulling her downstairs and into the living room.

He threw their cover behind the couch and leapt over it, reaching out his hand for her.

She grinned at him, letting him steady her as she slipped over it with him. He grabbed a few cushions, as well as the throw blanket on the couch, pulling them down. He spread the throw blanket on the floor, placed the cushions on top of it, and motioned for her to lay down. When she did, he lay down next to her, spreading their bed cover over the top of them.

He turned to face her.

"There. Safe, quiet, and completely private. It's just you and me. No one else."

She felt like she wanted to cry at how sweet he was. The lengths he would go to to make her comfortable.

"Whatever it is, you can talk to me. No judgement zone."

He smiled at her, his warm smile hiding the immense worry she could see hiding behind his eyes.

The least she could do is be open with him.

She sighed.

"As Juliet was leaving a few days ago, she said some things about you. About your feelings for me. I told her to go fuck herself, but she got under my skin. And I've been hearing things and seeing things that weren't there because of it."

"What did she say specifically?"

"That's the thing. She didn't actually say anything . It was all about how she said it. She implied you were using me for money. My family's or the 50 thousand. And that all the sweet stuff you do is only for the cameras."

He looked shocked. They sat in silence for a bit.

"Well, before we go any further, can I put on the table that that's absolutely not true ... But what else happened that made you think that it might be? I'm just trying to follow your thought pattern here."

She nodded. "The comment you made about the case of money. About always making sure you have a backup source of cash. And then Tiff said something about getting with you being harder than breaking into Gringotts. And then Kelly kept accentuating words like spoil and invested ... almost like she was trying to drop hints. And I never believed it, but for some reason it's just gotten to me."