Boss with Benefits

Chapter 4 - Your Colors

"Dad, how did you and Mom meet?"

Taking his eyes off the newspaper, the man guided them down to his son who was standing next to him, his green eyes sparkling with the childlike curiosity that his parents loved so much amongst everything else about him, as his hand tugged on his pants. With an adoring smile on his lips, he leaned down to pick his son up and put him on his lap, chuckling when he saw his son's current favorite picture book in his hand.

"The book got you curious, huh?" He stroked his fingers through the little boy's auburn locks. "Well Rody, we met at work one day and just knew we're fated mates."

"Fated mates? What's that?" Rody titled his head, the intrigue in his eyes growing more intensely as each second passed by.

"A fated mate is someone you're connected with on a level that's beyond words, where it feels like not only your feelings are one, but also your heart, your soul, and your entire being." He hugged Rody closer to him. "It's a bond I feel blessed to have the opportunity to share with your mom."

"Oh..." Rody stared at the picture, his eyes wide with wonders before turning back to look at his dad. "Then how can I know someone's my fated mate?"

A sigh escaped his dad's lips with a lovestruck look in his eyes as he gazed dreamily at the woman who was preparing breakfast nearby, basking in her figure that shone as brilliantly as the golden light that was embracing her, before taking the book from Rody's hand and flicking it until he found a specific page.

"It's hard to explain, but you just know, just like Cinderella and the prince." There was a fond smile on his dad's face when he pointed to the illustration of the dance between Cinderella and the prince, as though recalling the memories of that day. "One look at each other and they knew they were meant to be, that was how I felt with Mom. She's still as beautiful as the day I saw her, when I just knew in my heart that one day, I'd be playing my guitar to ask her to be my wife."

"You just know, huh...?" Rody mumbled to himself with his eyes on the empty spot next to him on the bed, narrowing as his dad's words continued to ring in his mind.

Perhaps when given the chance, he should ask his dad to elaborate on it to give an answer to the perplexing emotions in him, some form of closure, to put an end to their cycles of confusion.

Rody wasn't sure how that conversation flooded back to his mind after such a long time of putting it aside, in a corner of his mind where it couldn't easily be seen. Perhaps, it was the room he was in, one drastically different from his own apartment, its dark gray walls almost matching the hair of this place's owner, Vincent himself. Perhaps it was the bed he woke up on, its sheets as soft as his voice that spoke Rody's name with such sensuality in it, the blanket that was covering him with its warmth as crimson as the blush that tinted his fair skin as Rody held him close and their body connected together in a passionate rhythm. Or, perhaps it was the conversation they had together, the words Rody gave Vincent as he kissed his hand and the expression on Vincent's face that, if Rody dared say it, exhibited similar emotions as the ones that were running through his mind at that very moment.

If "just know it" was the clue, did the small sting in his heart when he thought about Vincent falling into someone else's arms count? If "just know it" was the indication, would it include his hesitation when he had to face the reality that he wouldn't be the person Vincent wanted to be bonded to?

If it was, then Rody had to be the most laughable person ever, how he felt the rumored fated mate connection with two people yet couldn't be with either of them.

Unlike his parents, there wasn't a spark in his heart when Rody first laid his eyes on Manon that day when their shoulders accidentally bumped in each other at the coffee shop that Rody used to work at, but life made up for it with the way his eyes couldn't take themselves off her even after she had disappeared behind the walls of the building, his gaze following the way her light brown hair fluttered amongst the cool breeze, the warm sunlight of early spring bestowing upon her a glow that made her look as if she was an angel beyond the white fluffy clouds that donned the beautiful blue sky above. And perhaps, she felt the same too, seeing as her chocolate brown eyes would sneak glances at him even after leaving the shop, thus leading to her frequenting the shop more often and him getting to work earlier even though morning shifts were never his thing, resulting in their very first date when she, when paying for her coffee, slipped him a piece of paper with her number on it.