Lightning & Thunder

Chapter Twenty

"So when do you want to move into our room?"

Olivia froze mid-chew, her fork scraping against the plate in awkward silence, pushing her food around as she thought of when she would be comfortable.

"If you're not comfortable yet then we ca-"

"-No, no, it's fine." Olivia interjected around her mouthful of spaghetti. Her hand rushed to cover her mouth, remembering last minute her table manners.

She briefly waited for Raiden to comment or insult her on it, but he never did.

"I can sleep in there tonight. It's not like I have any items anyway."

Oh how those words could not be truer. It was embarrassing how much she stunk at that point, sitting in her own stink for two days. She didn't have anything else to change to-just the white gown that she woke up in, and the random hoodie he gave her.

The one she was still wearing to try to cover any of her stink. She didn't think it was working very well, but Raiden hadn't commented on it yet. Thankfully.

Though a small part of her hoped he would, because she needed a shower.

"Right. I'll lay out some clothes for you to change into, and then we can set aside a day to go shopping. I'm not really good at that, though...would you mind some of the girls going with you?"

"The girls?"

"My sisters and cousins. They usually hang around the private areas of the house but I told everyone to steer clear so you wouldn't be spooked."

Olivia stared at Raiden. "I'm not an animal."

"I didn't say you were."

"You sure made it sound like it."

Raiden put down his fork. This time he was the one to give an exasperated look. "Look, Olivia, I don't know what you went through before you came here. You obviously weren't in the right state of mind when we found you-and quite frankly, I'm still not confident that you are in the right state of mind even now- don't be offended, I just didn't want to scare you."

Olivia was quiet as she continued eating her spaghetti. She didn't want to admitit, but that was really sweet of Raiden to do. He didn't have to do that, and yet he still did.

And here she was getting snippy at him because she didn't want to seem weak.

But she was weak.
She really couldn't be getting mad at him for anything.

She owed him now.

She swallowed the food she was chewing. "Sorry." She said softly.

His face relaxed a bit. He shook his head. "No, no, you're good. I know this is a lot for you to get used to. I was hoping we could set a day where you could properly meet the pack and my family, just so you wouldn't feel overwhelmed with it all."

Olivia nodded her head. "That sounds good."

More awkward silence. The sounds of their forks scraping, the spaghetti slurping, and the darted glances at each other were loud. They spoke volumes that only one of them wanted to address. Olivia could definitely feel the awkward glances from Raiden. She knew he wanted to ask her more things. She knew he wanted the full backstory from her, probably a step-by-step playlist of what happened. He probably wanted her to open up immediately, to just give in like she did the night before.

It wasn't going to happen.

Not yet, anyway.

Olivia had to remind herself that this was going to be her future husband. It was the deal-but-not-deal that they made. They didn't explicitly shake on it, but they mutually agreed: she's going to marry him to get away from Bessell.