In The End

I see Red

"Smashed it." Axel triumphantly celebrated as Eden and Nate disappeared down the drive and I closed the door.

"We sure did." I smiled and offered Axel a high five, to which he immediately responded and clapped my hand. I yawned and headed into the living room and to collect the glasses.

"You want another drink?" Axel asked, following me back out and towards the kitchen.

I nudged the kitchen door open with my hip and slid through as he caught the door and pushed it further open. "You know what I really want?"

"What?" He paused, a look of uncertainty furrowed in his brows as he watched me place the glasses on the counter.

"A glass of ice cold water."

"Coming up." His face softened as he collected a clean glass from the cupboard and filled with ice water from the fridge.

"Thank you." I offered politely as I began loading the dishwasher.

"I'll erm, I'll take the dining room then if you've got here covered?"

"Sure." I didn't break from my task to engage in any small talk as I rushed each item in the machine, and I didn't notice he'd slipped it until I stood and collected my water front he counter next to me.

It didn't take long to restore the kitchen back to its original form. With the dishwasher running, everything packed away and the sides wiped clean, I wandered into the dining room to check how Axel was getting on with the clean up in there.

"Need any help?" I softly asked, sipping my second glass of water as I walked further into the dimly lit room. He'd put out the large candelabra in the centre of the table, but the wall candles still offered a soft glow. The remanence of desert had been removed and the table decorations Isabelle left out were all neatly stacked at the end of the table, everything else looked like it had still never been used.

"No, I think we're all good in here. I'm just gonna take these decorations through to the kitchen and we're done."

"Cool, don't make a mess." I smiled. "I'm just gonna take a seat for a moment my feet are killing from these boots." I pulled out the end chair and dropped into it, feeling an instant rush of relief as the pressure of my toes pushing against the stiff leather eased off. Within a few minutes Axel was back with a tub of caramel chew ice cream and waved two spoons in my direction.

"Shall we eat some good old sugary dairy now?" He slipped into the chair I was resting my foot against causing me to wince at the sudden movement.

"I gotta get these fucking boots off." I almost yelped, but before I could move he'd bent down unlaced them and was gently easing them off, trying his best to avoid any further discomfort.

My audible groan of relief filled the dark quiet room as I wiggled my free toes.

"These are a fucker to breaker in." He mumbled as he placed them next to my chair, then grabbed my ankles and placed them in his lap.

"What are you doing?" I shifted, awkwardly tugging down the hem of my dress which may as well jut be a T-shirt at this point.

"Giving you a foot rub." He announced with little care at the intimate act.

"Axel you..."

"Just shut up and eat your ice cream Liv." He sternly cut me off, and rather than fight back, like a good girl I popped the lid and picked up a spoon. "These expensive?"

"Huh?" I paused mid chew at his obscure question.

"The tights, are they expensive or of any value?" I hadn't noticed that he was relaxed back in the chair watching me whilst continuing to add pressure to the balls of my feet with his thumb.