Stay With Me- Lando Norris

25. I'm running back home to you

The crash of Lando arriving back to his apartment had woken Aimee in the darkness. He'd been texting her every hour to make sure she was okay at home on her own, but the texts had been getting harder to understand as he'd had more and more to drink. She was pleased he'd been out celebrating his well deserved win, but it had left her wondering what state he might return home in.

Her question was answered by the quiet giggling as the door to her bedroom opened.

"Aimee, are you awake?" He hissed in the darkness.

"I am, did you have a good night?" She sat herself up, reaching over to flick on the lamp beside the bed. The clock beside her was showing it was a little before 3am. She squinted at him as her eyes adjusted to the light.

"It would've been better if you were there." He grinned, kicking off his shoes as he walked towards the bed. "I missed you."

"Next time." Aimee smiled softly. "There's going to be plenty more wins."

He leant down to hug her, and at this point she realised he was dripping wet.

"Ewww. Why are you soaking wet?" She laughed, swatting him away from her as he tried to sit down.

"It's raining and I walked home." He shrugged, as though it was obvious. Even in his drunken state he was far too embarrassed to admit he'd been so desperate to get home and see her that he'd been too impatient to wait for a taxi and walked home through a downpour.

"You're not getting in here with me like that." Aimee laughed, still pushing him off as he tried to sit down.

"Okay." He shrugged, and before she could stop him he'd stripped down to his underwear and climbed into bed next to her.

"That wasn't what meant." She laughed, shaking her head. She didn't have the heart to kick him out though. She always slept better with him there.

He seemed to hesitate for a minute before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. "I missed you."

Aimee froze, and before she could think of anything to say in response he was already asleep, snoring in her ear.

The things he'd said, the way he'd acted, had confirmed to her that this growing closeness between the two of them she'd been feeling wasn't all in her head. He was feeling it too.

And it scared the absolute shit out of her.

She'd been trying to push the feelings down, convince herself they didn't exist, that they were just the product of this very weird living situation they found themselves in.

But maybe Tom had been right after all, maybe there had been something between them the whole time?

The thought was terrifying though. Somehow, she'd ended up in a situation where her friendship with Lando was pretty much all she had. She needed to put some distance between the two of them before she managed to ruin it for herself or she was going to be completely on her own.

Surely it just wasn't worth the risk?

But as she laid there in the darkness, listening to him snore, she couldn't help but allow her mind to wander and consider the possible future scenarios that might exist for the two of them.

She considered a possibility where it all worked out for the two of them. Where he returned the feelings she so desperately wished she didn't have. Maybe an alternate universe where none of this with Tom had ever happened. Where she wasn't so unbelievably messed up by the whole thing that she wasn't sure she could ever face the thought of being in a relationship again. An alternate universe where her body wasn't scarred for life with a permanent reminder of what Tom had done to her.

She knew for a fact that Lando would never do what Tom had done to her. He'd been nothing but supportive and caring the whole way through, and she doubted she'd even have made it this far if it hadn't been for him.

But the idea of letting someone in? Terrifying.

She still hadn't told Lando the half of what had gone on between her and Tom. It wasn't through a lack of trying on his part either. He'd tried at every available opportunity to get her to open up about it in an attempt to make her feel better, but she just couldn't find the words. If she didn't talk about it then she could simply pretend none of it had happened.

That was without taking into account her physical injuries. The bruises were slowly starting to fade, her ribs not protesting quite as much with each movement. She'd got plenty of rehab to do once the cast came off her leg though and that was going to be the real challenge.

And once the cast came off there would be nothing stopping her from flying home and she wasn't quite sure where that left her.

She needed to decide what she was going to do about her job, and at some point she was going to have to go and retrieve her stuff from the house she had one shared with Tom. The idea of doing either of these things made her head spin.

As if Lando had sensed her inner turmoil, despite being fast asleep, his arm tightened where it was draped across her waist and pulled her tighter into his side.

She tried to push down the realisation of how much she enjoyed the feeling of his arms around her. It felt safe, it felt like home.

And that was a worrying realisation for her indeed.