Save Me | Aaron Hotchner x Female OC

Chapter 11 - Red Wine

Elena

I enjoyed hanging out with Aaron, but I realised I perhaps enjoyed it too much.

I undoubtedly had a thing for him, and that was making simple interactions increasingly difficult, as I often found myself getting distracted by the veins in his hands or the depth of his eyes. And after having seen glimpses of that wonderful smile, I was a complete goner.

We were opposites in most ways, in fact nearly all of them as far as I could tell, but that made for a very interesting dynamic between us. I liked it. I liked him.

After the movie ended, and the bottle of wine was finished, I offered to order us food and Aaron let out a sigh.

Oops. Maybe I'd overstayed my welcome.

"Uh, actually I think I'll head off. It's getting late." I said, standing up.

Aaron remained seated as he said, "It's half nine."

"Well, you know what I mean. You must be exhausted after work."

"I slept when I got back, and I'm off tomorrow."

I really didn't know what he wanted from me. Everything about his unspoken communication said that he wanted me to leave, but his verbal communication was hinting that he wanted me to stay.

After our 'not date' night almost two weeks ago, all I could think about was how much I wanted it to be an actual date. Then I felt really bad because I'd promised him that we would just be friends.

I was genuinely happy to be his friend, I was honestly just made up that he'd agreed to spend time with me at all, but I couldn't shake the unfortunate attraction I seemed to have developed.

His muscular arms, his domineering frame, his powerful voice...they were all things that I was pretty eager to experience more of, and they were all things that were haunting my every waking moment. The excitement of potentially seeing him carried me though each day, and I felt like a fucking fool because of it.

I was like a silly little school girl with a crush on an older man.

Aaron barely tolerated me, let alone wanted to sleep with me or date me.

So with that in mind, my main focus was just being in his life. I was more than happy to overlook the feelings, as best as I could, if it meant we got to hang out. Because weirdly, I enjoyed his company.

He didn't say much, didn't really make jokes and didn't really do anything special, but I found myself very relaxed around him. I felt able to be myself, no pressure to 'perform' or be someone the other person wanted me to be. Aaron was unapologetically himself, and that made me feel like I had the room to do the same.

"I'll order the food," he stated, also standing up. "You go and get the bottle of wine from the kitchen."

"Uh...okay."

I returned with the corkscrew and the pretty fancy looking bottle of red that had been sitting in his wine rack, because of course he had a wine rack - although it was now empty due to the fact I had the last bottle in my hands - and handed it to him.

"This is your last one and it looks pretty expensive – are you sure you want to waste it on me?"

He took the corkscrew and began twisting it in to the top of the bottle. "It's not a waste."

I felt stupid for how his words made butterflies sprout in my stomach.

"Well, thank you."

He handed me the glass and the heady aroma of the drink filled my nostrils. I offered my glass in a 'cheers' motion, and to his credit Aaron only looked mildly irritated as he returned the gesture.