Unguarded Hearts

Chapter 8

Wrenley's POV
It's 6:00 am and I'm awake. In fact I've been awake all night thinking about a 6 foot, somewhat decent looking guard, with an accent. Stupid Matteo, and his stupid hand, and his stupid freaking smile. Which I definitely saw as I ran out of the room. Well more like tripped but you get what I mean.

The smile was quite nice, I would be a liar if I said otherwise. However, it also belongs to a man, who in the short time we've known each other, has been nothing but rude. Though he wasn't rude last night. No last night he was well... I don't know what he was but it doesn't matter.

Hearing a ring, I look to see that Chris is calling once again. I let the call go to voicemail and he leaves another message that I'll delete without listening to. It feels good that the man has barely been on my mind besides his constant bothering. Yet, it's just another reason to be wary of anything new coming.

Honestly, I can kind of understand why Chris may have not felt fulfilled in our relationship. Chemistry was something more that our characters had rather than a feeling we actually experienced. I think that I've always wanted that dream meet cute and fairytale relationship after seeing a shortage of it growing up.

Meeting at work, where we play two detectives in love, well that was a meet-cute I overly romanticized from the beginning. It meant things like chemistry, or the lack of it, were put on the back burner. My mind had already been made up and I simply told myself that it was a thing that would take time. You know, like two years worth of it.

Based on how my body seems to react to hand holding from Matteo, I think that absence of spark was a larger deal than I made myself believe. A spark that clearly has nothing to do with how many moments spent together. Not when I'm feeling it after days of being near the darn guard. And we're getting off track.

Regardless of our lack, my past relationship was something I got caught up in like a tornado. It felt like all of my time was spent in trying to make someone who was never satisfied, happy. He was the sort of man who always had a comment on how I could be better. Whether it be with work, or just in general, nothing I did was good enough. It meant that I was falling into the fictional world of acting a lot, just to feel content with both myself and the life I was living.

The thought of that happening again but with someone I feel a passionate draw to, it's terrifying. More so than being stuck in a body of water with only hungry carnivores for company.

Goodness, it seems this fun morning is just filled with fears and revelations. I guess that's what happens when you spend the whole night overthinking about the touch of a hand. A hand that I have to admit was not bad, decent for a hand.

And that.. decency is the reason I'm going to keep things nice and civil between us. No heated arguments, no fantasizing about body parts, just nice formal discussions. I really do believe I can do that, really. No time to get caught up in an another man who makes me want to hide who I am.

Looking out the window, I see that the sun is slowly making its way overhead and decide that I might as well start getting ready. There's going to be a parade through town today for Phillips coronation and I get the very high honor of walking behind Phillip and Hannah. They actually asked a lot of essential Aurelian workers, officials, and even businesses to be in it. Meaning, it's sort of a big deal and one that requires different clothes than the pajamas I'm wearing.

I guess it's time to prepare for marching and being on my best behavior.

....

I'm in a carriage! I am in a CARRIAGE!

Phillip, Hannah, Matteo, and I are all riding to where the parade starts in a small old timely carriage. Apparently, they only use this thing for big events, which sounds like a waste of resources to me. I know that if I owned one of these things, cars would become a thing of the past.