Sitting In Traffic

Chapter 14- Esoteric Jokes

To say that Riley was guilty about the hug with Max and their small moment together at the bar in Australia was an understatement. She couldn't get it out of her mind, it was days later and she could still feel his arms wrapped around her. There was an undeniable chemistry that started to appear between the two of them again. Riley stopped trying to purposely avoid him, and Daniel noticed that.

Whenever Max was over, Riley was in the room too instead of hiding away. If they were going out for dinner Riley was tagging along. The only time she ever shut down is when they were both reminded of 1 thing. Arthur and Kelsey are still in the picture. Riley hadn't even thought about getting back together with Max. But Daniel started to see a small turnaround between the two of them.

"Arthur I don't want to go" Riley told Arthur when he was zipping his jeans up in her room. Riley was lying on her bed in a dress, trying to convince Arthur to let her stay home instead of going to a party his friends invited him to.

" Chérie come on" He said, taking the hand she held out for him and using it to pull her up. "We'll just drop by"

"I wasn't even invited" Riley told him. She felt like she wasn't welcome there, and she didn't want to sit around and have no one to talk to all night. But Arthur had already decided she was going, and Riley knew that.

"We're a package deal" He told her, leaning into the small kiss she placed on his lips. "We'll stay for an hour then leave"

"Fine" She sighed, following him out of the room.

Riley saw Daniel and Max sitting on the couch of the living room when she exited the hallway. Max's eye's were glued to her when he sensed a sadness that entered the room at the same time she did. Daniel felt it too, he had been feeling it a lot recently, whenever Arthur was over, there was a sense of loss following Riley around.

Max knew not to say anything out of the ordinary with Arthur in the room. So he kept quiet, when all he wanted to do was hold her, find out what was wrong, to try and make it better.

Riley followed Arthur out the door, and headed down the hallway with his arm around her. They made there way to the lobby that was being lit by chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. She sighed quietly when they exited the building and got into his car that was park on the road side.

Arthur held Riley's hand as he drove through the road's of Monaco. She tried to anchor herself down to the ground, and shake the anxiety she was feeling that Arthur had failed to notice. Riley did not want to be at a party and spend the night around people that openly didn't like her. She hated that Arthur was making her go.

There was a reason Riley wasn't directly invited, they didn't want her there to hold back Arthur. She didn't realize she was. Because she wasn't. Wanting Arthur to be loyal in their relationship isn't holding him back, it was common sense.

Riley got out of the car when they arrived, she could already hear the blasting music from outside. She was able to make out loud laughter as they walked through the driveway to a door that was left open by the last person who walked in.

"Do you want to drive tonight?" Arthur leaned down to say in Riley's ear, so she heard him over the commotion around them.

"I guess" Riley shrugged. She didn't want to, but she also didn't want to be a buzzkill for him. "Drink what you want I don't care"

"If you don't want me to just say so" He told her with furrowed brows.

"Arthur I don't really care" She told him, "I'll drive"

Before Arthur could say anything in return, turning something that was simple into a argument they were joined by his friends, who as expected were surprised to see Riley there. Riley sighed, feeling Arthur's arm drape over her shoulder while everyone started talking. It was in french, so Riley didn't understand a word that was being said. Normally Arthur made an effort to switch conversation to english, but he hadn't yet.