𝓤𝓼 𝓐𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭

- Chapter 9 -

Noor was standing in front of her closet for the last fifteen minutes trying to figure out what to wear. Cillian had invited her to his house for a dinner, at some point she was confused if this was officially a date, the way Cillian asked her was different of the previous times. He stammered alot and was nervous and she bet if she was facing him he would had pinky cheeks from blushing. The thought of this being a date made her had butterflies in her stomach. Drowned away with her thoughts and anxiously feelings she didn't notice Lisa's entree into the room.

"Did you find out what your gonna wear for your date?" Lisa said trying to cut Noor's thoughts which made her shrugged.
"absent-minded as usual." Lisa smirked.
"it's not a date ...or maybe it is .. I don't know." Lisa stood next to her, looking at the closet "remember that black dress we bought and you never wear." pointed out at long cotton dress that still had the price tag on it. "omg no no " Noor shook her head.
Noor was elegant person but she never liked dresses, she always thought she's one of the girls that dresses weren't meant to her.
"why not!! back it up with sneakers and a jeans bolero. it will perfect choice if this turned out to be not a date even tho I doubt it." Lisa giggled.
While it was hard to convince Noor, after many tries she settled on the outfit Lisa recommended, looking at the mirror and feeling pretty, a feeling she was not used to.

-

standing outside Cillian's house, it was located in a calm neighborhood by the coast and not very hard to find. She ran the doorbell and it took seconds for Cillian to open it, he was still wearing the kitchen's apron on his black shirt. He greeted her "hey.. come in." She entered getting a quickly glance on the simple fancy house inside before she turned around noticing he was checking her out which made her blushing.
" you look lovely." he said as he placed a sweet kiss on her cheek and softly nudged her inside.
"um this's for you .. I honestly didn't know what to bring but I guess you can't go wrong with white chocolate."as she handed him the chocolate bar.
" well I prefer the local white chocolate bars over the ones in the airport's so it's very much needed.. thank you." continued as he clapped his hands
" you can have your seat on the dinning table or you can see me live putting the final touches on our meals tonight."
She placed her sac on the sofa and followed him to the kitchen " woah you said you cook but I didn't expect a chef level .. I may start getting jealous now." impressed by the dishes, he grinned
"I hope it tastes as good as it looks, come on"

-

The dining table had candles and beautiful glass vase with white and red roses in the middle. As she saw the simply decorated table, her nervousness peaked that could be a real date she thought.
They chatted on many topics and Cillian once again brought up how much he hated doing interviews and answering same questions hundreds times " it's part of the job I deeply hate." he was still sad she wouldn't be in the London's premiere.
" ah I gave the tickets to my friends , they were thrilled because those were VIP tickets.. kept asking me where did I get them from."
"And what did you tell em?."
" my co-worker in the pharmacy won ten tickets in a one round gambling game and gave half of them for me. "
" Jesus and they buy it!." he chuckled
" well they're so excited to see you and the whole cast so they're really don't care where did I get em from " she giggled.

The dinner went smoothly beautiful, including some long stares from Cillian every couple of minutes, that left Noor blushing and stammering when that deep blue eyes glanced over her more than five seconds.

"the food was so good omg I'm full." Noor said which made Cillian flattered by her compliment

-

Cillian stood up to put some music "this's a very special playlist of songs I've been collecting for tweenty years." he approached her " you dance?." as he extended his hand asking for hers
" I had never danced." she admitted embarrassed.
"then Miss Noor ,would you make me the luckiest man to have your first dance with me?." he leaned dramatically towards her like a prince coming from some fairytale story. she couldn't hide the smile on her face,hold his hand, standing up.

He swung her little which made her giggle,as there was jazz song playing, he knew what the next song would be so he softly nudged her to him as the next song started playing it was I Love You For Sentimental Reasons By Nat King Cole. Letting her hand rested on his shoulder,holding the another one so gently while resting his other hand on her waist sending shivers to her spine,
the two started swaying beautifully to the rhythm. both softly smiled. But She was looking through his shoulder to anywhere instead of his face,his ocean eyes. While Cillian dipped his nose in her hair admiring the flowered scents coming from it. He whispered into her ears "Can you look at me please." The way he kept asking her made her weak, made it to hard for her not to obey him.She raised her head, letting her dark brown eyes met his deep blue ones for seconds before she blinked and looked away again. He was close , so close that his breathing was causing her chills. She felt so many things that it scared her so she let go of his hands.

He run his fingers through his hair , took a deep sigh before he rested both of his hands on his waist "Noor you need to stop running away." in a low but stern voice. She turned to face him "running away from what." As he approached steps closer to her " from this.. from us." she stepped backward
" I'm not running away from a thing."
"then why you dropped off the dance after I asked you to look at my eyes." she murmured " don't know." Cillian shook his head " No you do, you do .. you're just afraid to admit it even to yourself."
She chuckled " you really think you know about my feelings more than I do?" trying to mock him.
"Oh I definitely do .. sorry to break it to you love but you're a bad liar. "
"I'm not a liar and I've no feelings for you.. i wanted to be friends that's all nothing more but it seems you took it as wrong signals." as she sat down on the chair .
"Jesus Noor .. stop it please.. stop pushing me away .. I know you've feelings for me I can feel it. You've to stop holding them inside you because.. because I feel the same." he kneeled down to face her again , cupped her cheeks with his big hands and continued " stop denying the chemistry we've had since day one .. we could have something beautiful.. just let me happen to you." It was at that moment, when she bursted in tears, Cillian hugged her and softly patted on her back, once she calmed a little he said
"I understand your concerns, the age - gap , the spotlights.. I understand everything but I promise you to protect you from all of this, I promise to make you happy like you deserve to be."
she moved away from him again "it's not about this.. it's about me I I.. " she struggled continue talking between the sobbing as he stood up and furrowed his eyebrows "do you have someone in your life?." which made her answered swiftly "No."
"Alright then maybe I'm just having mid-life crisis and I thought.. Jesus " he rubbed his face feeling embarrassed.
" please don't say this - I just i don't know .. why me ? ..what's in me that it attracted you Cillian .. maybe I'm interesting for you because I don't look like the women and models in your work and I'm different from the girls you meet daily but once that attraction fades and the magic disappears..you would find out I'm a very damaged person and you'll leave... and I don't think I would handle a broken me when I'm not even recovered from the things that had happened to me before." her voice was trembling.
" you don't trust me.. you don't trust my feelings." he was little disappointed but that didn't stop him from fighting for her " you've trust issues and that's fine. After I come back we would spend more time together this will help.. Noor I've my insecurities too, I'm not perfect either but we can work on them." and he hold her cold hands " together "
"it's not my only flaw Cill." almost whispered.
"what about I accept you the way you are." Cillian leaned his forehead to hers and mumbled again " just give me a chance."

"give me a chance please." she took a deep sigh and nodded slowly before a smile painted on Cillian's face. He gave her forehead a gentle kiss, hugged her tightly and she buried her face in his chest enjoying the moments they were having.

A/N:
I don't know if it's odd to say but this has been my favorite chapter so far.