My Million Dollar Boyfriend

Chapter 53

Claude rang the bell of Raoul's apartment a few more times but no one opened the door. Sometime later, he heard a heavy fall and the door click open.

Claude carefully pushed the door open and saw Sydney groaning on the floor. "What the fuck happened here?" he whispered as he saw Sydney scrambling to get up.

"Ow, my back," Sydney moaned as he looked up at Claude with a pout. "You could've helped me off the ground!"

Claude dropped his bags next to Sydney and helped him get back up. He grabbed the bags and went to the kitchen to drop everything on the counter. "Where's Raoul?" he asked and heard the bathroom door open.

"Here," he spoke as Raoul frowned at Sydney who was searching through the bags Claude brought. "Finally awake?"

Sydney took out the pack of milk as he glared at Raoul. "It's not like I had a choice. Claude kept spamming the doorbell for a few minutes," he replied as he turned his glare to Claude. "How are you even awake so early? And why isn't Florence together with you?"

"Syd, it's 2 PM," Claude said with a straight face and pointed at Raoul. "And that dumbass bitch begged me to make something to eat for you too."

They turned to look at Raoul who nodded. "That's one of the few useful things he can do," Raoul said and tried to keep Claude in the kitchen while he was packing up the groceries. "Just a joke, bro. Please don't go."

Claude forced his hand out of Raoul's grip. "See?" he said to Sydney who giggled. "Florence had something to do with Adrian at home so they left a few hours ago."

"Oh, that could explain it," Sydney whispered as Claude already had an idea about what he was talking about. "Has he responded to your texts yet?"

He shook his head as he started taking everything out of his bags. "Not yet, he hasn't been online either," Claude said with a relieved voice. "But it's kinda weird."

"Why is it weird though? Some people don't instantly reply to texts," Raoul said and Claude and Sydney looked at him with doubtful expressions.

"Haven't you noticed that Florence is always on his phone? Mostly to play one of his games but every time I text him these past months he replies very fast," Claude explained with Sydney agreeing next to him. "But today? It's already been three hours since he was online and his game account isn't online either. Something's up."

"Maybe his phone ran out of battery?" Raoul suggested but they knew that that wouldn't make sense if he was at his parents' place. "Or Adrian stole it," he joked, which made Claude chuckle with an uneasy feeling. It got quiet and they stared at each other with an uncertain look in their eyes.

"...I'll try to call him later. Maybe he's just busy right now," Claude said and rolled up his sleeves. "I'll start on lunch. If y'all wanna eat as soon as possible, you better help."

Sydney slowly backed away and stopped when he saw that Claude and Raoul had noticed him. "I'm just going to shower! Yeah... you don't want it to smell like booze in here right?" he asked and ran to the bathroom.

Claude turned to Raoul who was grabbing some plates. "He can't cook for shit, huh?" he asked as Raoul nodded. "As expected."

After their lunch together, Claude decided to leave early to visit his family. He took the metro while wondering when Florence was going to buy a car for them since he hadn't mentioned it in a while. When he arrived home, he saw only Soraya lying on the couch.

She raised her head and grimaced when she saw Claude standing there looking lost. "Oh, it's you," Soraya said disappointed. "Did you at least bring something?"

"Fuck no," Claude replied and sat on the part that Soraya wasn't covering. "Where are the twins? They should've been home around this time."

Soraya shrugged. "I heard them talking to mom about buying something after school," she said, laying back down. "It isn't my problem, to be honest." She looked at Claude staring at his phone screen. "What's so interesting to stare so intently at your phone? Are you waiting for a text from Florence?"

"Yeah," he answered with no shame and turned his phone off with a deep sigh. "I'm scared that something happened to him. He hasn't responded in a few hours, which he never does. Only when he's too busy with work."

"...And?"

Claude turned to her with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean "and"? That's already a sign to be worried," he said, making Soraya squint her eyes to try and make sense of Claude's reason.

"Doesn't he have to work? It's normal not to look at your phone while you're busy with, I don't know... a fucking photo shoot," she replied as they glared at each other.

Claude rolled his eyes as he checked his phone again. He let out a groan when he didn't see any new notifications. "But that can't be it! He's at his parent's place right now. Adrian did say that they had to go for a brand deal thing their mom was talking about, but that isn't a good reason to ignore me!"

Soraya sat up and put her hand on Claude's shoulder. "Bro, you're obsessed with Florence," she stated, which made Claude frown. "Like, overly obsessed with that pretty boy. But you two are in a relationship so it happens to the best of us I guess."

His frown deepened. "We're not together though. Yet," Claude corrected her and started a mobile game up. "I'm still waiting for him to confess to me. After that, we'll go abroad to visit the rest of our family and I'll introduce him as my gorgeous husband. I can't wait to see the faces of our homophobic aunts."

Soraya shook her head with a small smile as she watched Claude laughing menacingly next to her. "Why don't you confess to him yourself instead of pushing his buttons?"

He eyes her with a dumbfounded look. "I'm telling you Sora, if you could see some of the expressions he makes, you would get it," he said, with a smirk. When his game loaded, he saw that Florence was online and sent a message to him.

Soraya was curious why Claude was just blinking at his phone with no expression and reading the text Florence sent to him. Their eyes met as their focus darted to the screen and back to them. "I understand why you were so worried..." She stood up and stretched her body. "Well, good luck with that. Are you down to go out and eat something?"

A/N wattpad offered me a contract but I have to write 500 words per week for 2 years erm... I did sign up but what's the chance they'll accept me though. Anyways, August just started, so I'll try and do weekly updates again. Till next week, I'm too tipsy. Goodnight and don't kill mice

-Rey