Enraptured

Chapter 23

Croissants. Croissant donuts. Pain au Chocolat. Baguettes.

It wasn't exactly the type of sweets that they preferred...

Arabelle asked me if I wanted to join her and Theo on their weekend trips to a library, to which I eagerly accepted. Apparently, there was a lecture that Theo was interested in at the Morgan Library and Museum in midtown this week in particular, so she told me to wait in front of this french bakery shop near the library as a meeting point.

I had gotten here a bit earlier than planned and decided to look around the shop to pick out a few snacks, but I couldn't decide what to get them.

Theo and his mother tended to like fruity desserts, which this bakery shop didn't exactly have, leaving me confounded. Instead, the bakery had a lot of freshly baked bread, but I didn't know what type of bread they liked.

Sourdough, wheat, or just normal? Soft or crusty? Lighter or darker bake?

Maybe I could get them baguettes, butter, and some specialty jams... They had freshly in-house made jams ranging from strawberry to apricots to—

"Demetrius? I didn't expect to see you here. What are you doing in midtown?" A pair of green eyes popped up in front of me. Sebastian waved energetically at me as he blocked my field of vision with his big old messy head of hair.

I sighed and straightened up back. "It's nothing."

He eyed me skeptically. "What do you mean it's nothing? You always refuse to come to midtown with me, saying it is too crowded with sight-seers."

I stayed silent, unable to make any good excuse, and pretended to be debating between the different selections of jams on the counter.

"Hey, stop ignoring me! I haven't heard from you since you ditched us at the market two weeks ago."

I shrugged as I picked out a baguette, a jar of strawberry jam, and another jar that was fig-flavored. "I've just been busy."

Sebastian deadpanned, "You weren't even home all last week. I would drop by in the evenings, but your apartment would always be empty and Lukas had told me you left the office already."

Tossing a twenty to the cashier, I grumbled to Sebastian, "You're making it sound as if you're my girlfriend."

"IF I WASN'T, THEN WHO WOULD TAKE CARE OF YOU?"

I rolled my eyes at his dramatic behavior and pulled the shrieking man-child out of the shop, away from the other patron's staring eyes. Once we were outside, I lowly hissed, "I don't need you to check up on me all the time. I've just had some personal things going on lately."

"What short of personal—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sebastian was cut off by a familiar sweet little voice calling out my name from behind me.

"Demetrius, I'm sorry for being late." Arabelle was huffing lightly as she tried to catch her breath from running over to me. She was holding onto her usual cross-body bag in one hand and Theo's hand in the other.  "Did you have to wait long for—" Her eyes widened when I turned around to face her. "O-Oh, I-I d-didn't know M-Mr. H-Harlow was here."

Sebastian whipped his head back and forth between the two of us. "Wait, you and her? That can't be right. You and sweet little Arabelle? A date? And... and... and... You have a child already?!?"

I winced at his high-pitched screeching and walked over to Arabelle.

She was trembling a bit from Sebastian's rude pointing and was gripping the strap of her bag a bit tighter than normal. Even Theo seemed to notice his mother's rising anxiety with the way he protective stood a little more in front of her as to block her from Sebastian as much as he possibly could.