Meeting You Again

Chapter 23

"Ayla. You cannot make someone choose you. He doesn't like you, he hardly cares about you. He only wanted you to better his family name. You put in so much effort and gave every kind of love, only to get nothing in return but rejection and feelings of unworth. He doesn't regard your emotions. He didn't choose you, and he never was going to, and you can't change that. But you are special. You are kind, warm, and perfectly enough on your own. You deserve someone who will treat you just like that. You deserve attention, quality time, roses, words of affirmation, surprises, and love that gives you all that naturally. You don't deserve to be chosen Ayla, you deserve to choose on your own. You deserve so much so give it to yourself to stop stressing over that one bastard boy because he is not worth all this expenditure of emotion. Be fair to yourself and let it go. Spend the rest of your life happily with a man, someone like me, not a boy. The past few months together weren't so bad, right? Imagine the rest of our life like that together."

The deep and powerful voice of Tariq made me ponder intently for a moment. I saw Tariq moving closer to me and before I knew it, I was trapped in his embrace. His warm breath hovered over my shoulder, sending tingles to my neck and straight down my back. Our bodies were tightly pressed against one another, my face tightly wedged right beside his neck. His warmth seemed through the clothes I was wearing, and the sound of his strong, steady heartbeat thundered so loudly and vividly, I felt it vibrating right through my chest. His smell encased me and transported me to another location. A location of warmth, warmth I was numb to and hadn't experienced in so long. He's right. I haven't been this happy in so long. Imagining the rest of my life with him...it'll make me happy. I know it will. He's my Tariq. And I'm his Ayla.

God knows how I wanted to stay in this position for longer. But my neck hurt a little, and I think he did too, as we both started pulling away at the same time. What was I supposed to say after this? This meant...we were official, right?

I looked anywhere but his eyes. If I did, I was going to get sucked in again. But I could feel my face slowly become red. We've never been that close before, have we? I think Tariq understood I was shy, because I heard his deep laughs reverberate through the air.

"Oh! That's right, we still have to put your clothes through the washer." Thankfully, he moved away a bit and took me to wash and dry my clothes.

The dull noise of the dryer churning vibrated through the atmosphere, providing us with a calm area.

"Do you want to spend the night over?"

Excuse me? This...isn't it too fast? I mean we, we just became official haven't we? I think he understood my perplexed gaze because he quickly spoke again with a red tint to his face.

"Sorry, not like that. It's just, it's already pretty late and I don't think it's a good idea to send you home now. You're going to be all alone and given what happened today, I think it would be better for you to stay with someone tonight."

What should I say? Do I stay? Do I leave? I know if I told him I wanted to leave he would drop me but, I also didn't really want to stay alone right now.

"Where do I sleep?"

He looked at me with his dark eyes, shining brightly like a little puppy.

Unfortunately, the other bedroom in the apartment he was using for storage, so there was only his room that we could sleep in. He thought for a while and spoke, seeming very intentional with what he was saying, like he was holding something back.

"I'll take the sofa, you sleep on my bed."

Instantly, I refused. This was his house. How was I supposed to take his bed while he took the sofa? It was supposed to be the other way around. Besides, thinking about sleeping on the same bed that he normally sleeps in, surrounded by his scent in every direction...my heart beat faster just thinking about it.