Scared to love

Chloë's POV

I get up in the middle of the night, thinking of the envelope that's still laying on our kitchen table. I get out of bed and decide to go read the papers. One of the papers contains a contract of the bar I work at. If I would sign it, it would mean that all the money the bar earns would go to me. I'd just recieve the money while Richard, Alice's dad, would still make sure everything goes as it needs to go. I look at the cheque that's in there too and notice that it's for another ten thousand dollars. I sigh and sit with my head in my hand at the table when I hear a door open. "Can't sleep?", Jake asks me when he notices me sitting there. "These papers were hunting me", I say, "what about you?" "I heard you come here a while ago so I came to see how you're doing", he answers. "It's stressing me out, all of this", I say while waving around. "You know that you don't have to make a decision in this moment right?", he asks me. "Yeah I know but if I don't then all of this will drag out more than it needs to and I'm not willing to let that happen", I respond.

"You should go back to bed", I tell him when I see him trying his best to stay awake. "I'm not going if you're not going", he says. "I'll go soon, don't worry about me", I reply. He looks me in the eyes before asking me something. "Can we cuddle tonight?"  I sigh and look at him. "Will that make you feel better?", I ask him. "Yeah it would actually, because I'll make sure you can't leave the bed until your alarm rings", he responds. "Let's go to bed then", I say. He smiles, takes my arm and walks to my bedroom. We get in my bed and he instantly wraps himself around me like some sort of koala. "You'll make the right decisions soon angel, don't worry and try to get some sleep", he says before kissing me on the cheek. The warmth, closeness and size of his body compared to me makes me feel safe. I fall asleep quickly and for the first time since we came back from Spain, I feel like I slept well.

"Hello sir, it's me Chloë." "Hey kiddo, how have you been doing? I've heard you had a rough time dealing with the extra envelope", Richard responds. "Yeah I'm fine now because I finally figured out what I want", I reply. "I'm all ears kiddo." "Well together with the guys I'll be moving in the house and we decided to rent out the apartment. I've sold one of the cars and Matthew bought the other one for his own use. I've also sold a lot of stuff that we won't need from the house so that we have more space", I explain. "That's a very good decision kid. So what did you decide to do with the other paperwork?", he asks. "As much as I apreciate the offer, I'm not going to sign the contract of the bar, I would rather keep working there until I found a job after graduating college. I will accept the cheque though and I've decided to invest it so that in the end, I'll have more. Well at least if that's alright with you", I reply. "I had a feeling you would say that about the bar. I'll make sure that you get paid the right amount of money for your work. And about investing the cheque, that's a very smart decision. Alice always said that you're smart and this just proves it more", he says. We talk for a little while before we end the call. I feel relieved that he thinks I made the right decisions about everything.

"Well I guess now that everybody chose a room, bought a bed and a closet, we can start moving in", I say while we're in the house. It's been two weeks since the call and about three weeks since I discovered that I own the house. I've been working on sorting through everything to see what we can throw out or sell so that we have more space for our own stuff. I got rid of almost all the clothing from my parents except a few things the boys took from my father and a few pairs of shoes I took from my mother since we were the same size anyway. I started driving the motorcycle and it was indeed pretty easy to learn how to handle it. We made sure that we had enough keys for the four of us and all the things they ordered for their rooms will come in the next few days. I decided to move into my old room again since all of my stuff was there anyway. Just when we were about to leave the house, the doorbell rings. I open the door and see one of my uncles there.