Burning Heart // CL16

Eighty

"All yours," I whisper quietly as I walk past him, massaging over my chest like I normally do whenever the familiar tugging pain becomes almost overwhelming. I don't make it far though, Charles hand darts out to grab my other wrist to stop me and I look over at him, jaw tense as he looks at me.

"Why do you do that?" He asks and I just look at him confused, turning to face him dead on but he doesn't let go of my wrist, aware that I'll run away to the safety of the bed at the first opportunity. That's not even a sentence that makes much sense to me but somewhere in my head I've now got it twisted so that if I can make it out of this bed in one piece then I'll be able to convince both of us that I don't love him. However, if his thoughts are the same then I have a feeling that he'll be trying to do the opposite of me. "With your hand... you keep on doing it."

The moment he mentions it I freeze, dropping my hand to the side as he waits for an answer.

"Heartburn," I mutter, refusing to break eye contact with him. "It's just heartburn... come on. We need to go to bed," I tell him and he nods, finally letting go of my wrist as he takes my place in the bathroom and I take a couple of tentative steps towards the bed, breathing easier when he closed the bathroom door behind him. When I get to the bed I pause confused, staring at it like it's a magical creature I'm about to prove to the world. I'm back to massaging my chest as the anxiety returns without his presence and that's where Charles finds me a couple of minutes later when he leaves the bathroom.

"What's up boss?" He asks, pausing next to me at the foot of the bed and I drop my hand as he stops next to me. I look to my side, eyes meeting his for a moment before looking back at the bed.

"N-nothing, I just didn't know which side of the bed was yours," I mutter as I try to analyse it as though that will give me an answer. Unlikely as the bed was clearly made earlier in the day so instead I wrap my hands around myself, like I do when I'm anxious and in need of comfort as I wait for him to answer.

"Right side..." he mutters and I nod, walking round the back of him to the left hand side of the bed, removing a couple of pillows before pulling away at the sheets and sliding in. Once I was sat there I just looked up to see Charles still stood at the end of the bed, watching me as I cringed in his eyesight. "I-I"

"This is so fucking awkward," I interrupt him, trying to break the silence as I double check the baby alarm on my side of the bed and turn back to him, still standing at the end of the bed fully dressed still with his arms crossed. His head is tilted to the side as he looks at me like I'm a puzzle he wants to see clearly. "Charles, come on - it's late. We're both tired and you need to sleep so will you please stop fucking staring at me. You're making me self conscious," I confess, my voice half a whisper and also half a warning.

It works, he snaps out of whatever state he was in but doesn't do what I expect next. He pulls off his team top and pushes his shorts down his legs so that he's stood in only his boxers. I bite on my lip as I keep my eyes firmly on his, noticing the way he was challenging me to look down, the anger gone from his eyes as he was waiting for me to break. He switched position slightly, coming around to my side of the bed as he leaned on the bedpost, keeping his arms crossed as he looks at me like I'm holding something back.

I am but I'd rather he couldn't tell that.

"Why did you not just try and find the loop hole?" He asks as he looks at me and I just look back at him confused. "Just called this a date night?" He explains and I look away from his curious eyes as I fiddle with the baby monitor in my hand. He doesn't move again as the room falls silent and I just avoid the question that had crossed my mind. It wasn't far off but it was also just a regular night - albeit it started weird when he kissed me on the lips and is ending weird so maybe it wasn't that regular.