Quandary | Noah Sebastian |

four

A/N: I know y'all are probably thinking "why does she like sambuca but not anisette cookies??? Aren't they the same???" Yes, but I'm basing it off myself bc I'm weird and love sambuca, but not those cookies 💀

"Thank you for this," I sigh, relishing the feel of Noah's fingers massaging into the back of my head. I found myself smiling as he ran his hand along the length of my hair, sending a tingle down my spine when he plays with a strand of it.
"No need to thank me, Liv. I just want you to get the rest you deserve since you've been working so many hours," he replies, sincerity heavy in his voice.

Tears start to fill my eyes, partly from the affection that I had missed and partly from the regret of pushing him away for as long as I had. I pick my head up to look at him, and seeing my favorite smile on his face caused my heart to swell. His smile falls into a smirk as he pads his thumb across my cheek, surely wiping at the red stain from the frosting, and I laugh from our earlier interaction.

He starts to guide my face towards him, and I sit up to close the gap between us. Our mouths connect; I couldn't help the immediate smile that formed on my lips as I began to fill with elation. I grasp onto his shirt, lying back against the cushions with him on top of me, my leg wrapping around his side comfortably. I just wanted him as close to me as he could get; I selfishly wanted to drink every last bit of him that I had missed due to my foolish actions.

I feel my heart flutter when Noah rests his forehead against mine and continues to glide his thumb over my cheek delicately. His eyes glistened under the orange hues as he gazed at me with such adoration, embracing me as if I would float away if he let go. "I've missed you," he says softly.
I flash him an apologetic smile, and I feel myself start to deflate from the guilt of how much distance I've put between us as of late. "I know, and I'm sorry. I just...I don't know what I was thinking," I huffed out a dry laugh.

His face drops, and he loosens his hold on me as he stops caressing my cheek. I furrow my brows at him, opening my mouth to ask him what was wrong, but he asks me his own question first, jerking his face away from mine. "Liv, have you been drinking?"

Fuck. My heart sinks to the pit of my stomach, and suddenly I feel like I can't breathe as the fear starts to settle in, unsure of where this would go.

"No, why would you think that?" I countered quickly, knowing I would hate myself later for lying to him.
"I can smell Sambuca on your breath, Olivia."
"Oh," I muttered, racking my brain for a way to cover it up. "I had an anisette cookie before leaving the bakery," I tried my best to delude him with a chuckle, but he was no fool. He knew that I was lying.

He shakes his head at me and pushes himself away, sitting at the far end of the couch with anger radiating from him. I could see it by the way he composed himself; his mouth was pressed into a fine line while his jaw ticked, looking straight ahead. "You don't even like those enough to sell them at your bakery," he says dully.

Of course, out of all the things to remember, he remembers that minor detail.

"Noah, I-I'm sorry," I say as I sit up, my heart pounding with apprehension. "Please don't be upset with me."
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. "I'm not upset that you had a drink," he finally says, turning his attention towards me. I let out the breath that I didn't know I was holding, relieved he wasn't mad. "I'm upset that you just lied to me, Olivia. Slipping up is one thing, you know I'd be there to help you through that. But lying about it?"

As quickly as the relief came, it vanished—my chest tightens and my throat starts to burn from holding back my cries, ashamed of my behavior. He was right, there was no reason to lie to him.