Paid Love (Dr.Strange x reader)

Chapter Eighteen

You were munching your way through the dinner, Stephen had prepared for you two. You tried to keep your mouth full to have an excuse for the constant silence there was between you two. You hadn't talked with each other since before that shower incident and you weren't exactly trying to change anything to that.

"The doors here are pretty loud, aren't they?" Stephen then suddenly pointed out. Maybe he knew and thought about how to best bring it up, therefore his silence.

"I guess so..." you responded carefully. "Why?"

"I think you didn't close the door of my room properly earlier when you went. I then heard the door close abruptly. The draft, you know."

Okay, He doesn't know. He thinks it was a draft. Nothing more.

"Oh, maybe. I'm sorry."

Phew...

This is when you looked up, only for you to see that Stephen was already looking at you. His eyes were searching for any signs that would betray you. You had to press your legs together under the table at that.

"You didn't happen to hear anything, did you?" he then asked.

You looked back at your plate, not being able to look at him because of the pictures of earlier plopping into your head. "No."

"Are you honest with me? You know-"

"The agreements and rules, I know." You rolled your eyes, thinking of ways to best avoid this and shut him up. "What should I have heard?" You looked back up at him, innocently.

He was now the one looking away. "Nothing." You could have sworn you had seen the lightest shade of pink on his cheeks.

"Seems like someone didn't want to be heard." You teased him.

"It's nothing." And this is how you shut him up.

You were glad to see you weren't the only one uncomfortable with this situation. To be quite frank, the situation was more uncomfortable for Stephen than you, because you had to admit, the tiniest space in your brain liked what you had seen. To know that someone thought about you in this way was... flattering.

Was it though? Or was this Dylan speaking in your head? Dylan, who had taught you over the years how to oversexualize yourself. Taught you that you were only good for one thing. Was this actually a red flag?

"...Have you seen it maybe?" You raised your head, falling out of your thoughts.

"What?" you asked.

Stephen was used to it by now and simply smiled while repeating. "My watch. Have you seen it?"

"I think cloaky knows."

"Why should 'cloaky'" He still wasn't used to you nicknaming his cloak of levitation cloaky, though. "know where my watch is?"

"Because it took it as I wanted to look at it closely."

"I see." He seemed to understand and the slightest corner of his mouth lifted.

"Why is this watch so important?"

"It's not really. Not anymore." It felt hard to believe that. And who was this 'Christine'? "I meant to repair the glass and store it away for good, but now that I can't find it..."

You simply had to ask. "Who is Christine?"

He seemed taken aback, even worried maybe. "I thought you might ask that..." He thought about how to respond and you waited patiently. "She was a colleague of mine."

"Colleague?"

"Well, we were more at some point but it didn't last very long."

"Why not?" You weren't sure if you wanted to know more about his ex and their past relationship but your curiosity took the better of you.