Teach Me Something // LH44

Chapter Seven

"So what now?" I ask Lewis as we stand in the kitchen area of his flat. I had been successful in avoiding doing any arts and crafts and we'd ended up just talking again. We talked for ages, we talked until we had finished the lemonade and snacks Lewis had brought out for the makeshift lunch. We'd had an impromptu photoshoot after Lewis dramatically brought me a bouquet of flowers that he'd dug up in another lame attempt at delivering a line but that was the most active thing we had done. Now it was dark, Rory was still chilling outside in the warm temperatures and we were both twiddling our thumbs with what to do now.

"I mean I'm hungry but I need to eat something healthy and boring, however, I wouldn't force you to do the same," Lewis says as he opens his fridge and pulls out what looks like a meal designed to be reheated. I pull it towards me to look at more of the information on it and realise I don't understand half of the words in it. "Does something like that work for you or would you prefer to order food? And you can absolutely order whatever you want - on me," he offers, sliding his phone which is open on Uber Eats over to me.

"As inviting as tofu sounds... would it be okay with you if I did order food?" I ask him and he laughs. He pushes his phone across the counter to me as he pulls the tofu-filled dish back to himself, promising me that he is okay with whatever I want. I look through the different restaurant options and he makes himself busy walking around the kitchen. When I next looked up I could see there was a glass of water in front of me as Lewis rested on the side of the kitchen, his eyes on me in a way that I knew meant he hadn't just glanced at me as I looked up but had been watching, inspecting something about me.

"You paid for it yourself didn't you?" He asks and I can't help the wry smile of confession that covers my face along with a feeling of confusion in my stomach as to how he guessed. "You paused and looked up, as though trying to remember something. Given that the menu was right in front of you, I took a guess." He explains as he points between my eyes and uncrosses his arms, his muscles flexing in the tank top he'd changed into when he had spilled his drink on himself during the tour of his flat, which I now knew included a hot tub on the second terrace and a gym further back on this floor. That was when I noticed the music, slow and wordless, something to match the low lighting throughout the kitchen and open area.

"Nice music," I comment with a smirk, standing back up straight as my nails tap against the kitchen top which was so cold I was deciding in that moment that it was marble. "And yes I do have to... you've driven me around the last two days so you don't need to buy me food," I promise him and he narrows his eyes at me, shaking his head and sighing before walking around the island I am standing on the other side of.

"How am I meant to impress you when you do everything for yourself?" He muses, leaning onto the island as his eyes meet mine.

"You're trying to impress me?" I ask him, the answer not really needing to be said but I was caught off guard by his willingness to say it. I lean forward to rest on my forearms, matching him as my head turns to the side and I try to analyse him the way I know he is still trying to read me.

"Of course I am, what did you think I was doing?" He asks amused and I shrug because it was truly a great question.

"Honestly I've been trying to figure that out... all I know is I've got marks on my arm from where I keep on pinching myself because I've not been successful in figuring out why... I moved onto how are you here," I shrug, feeling like we've already had this conversation three times. Yet it keeps coming up because neither of us seem to get the answer from the other that we want. It's like we're both trying to solve individual puzzles and we're convinced the other has the piece we need to complete the picture... but neither of us is giving it up. "Is this a weird friendship? Is it a random weekend, day, or month? Will I never see you again? Why are you here in the first place?" I fire the questions at him, another attempt to get the piece.