Bound To You // LN4

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lando's POV

13th March

"You're nervous," Matt says, the first words directed my way since we got to the room and he started prepping our meals following the pre-breakfast run around the city. I roll my eyes, not dignifying his attempt at conversation with a response as I look back at my phone. Sophia's flight had landed an hour ago because I couldn't get a direct one organised given the many already coming into Shanghai but I didn't know where she was at because despite getting it confirmed by Flo that she had boarded the first flight, she hadn't messaged me any updates. I didn't want to look like a needy weirdo either and so I hadn't messaged her either, especially since the reason was coming we that I begged her to come back out to play buffer between me and Matt when she wouldn't have left in the first place if I hadn't kissed her. I didn't feel confident enough to message her and so Matt's question was probably prompted by the fact I kept on checking my phone before turning it face down before turning it back over and checking it again less than thirty seconds later. "Mate... I'm trying."

"Well, stop then. No one is making you do anything and I'm just trying to fix what you broke," I remind him, finally looking over at him to make sure that he saw my glare before looking back at my phone, the only new notifications coming from Instagram to say she had posted.

Oooh, she had posted!

I swipe across the notification and bring up her profile, finding several new stories demonstrating the fact she was getting a flight - no location disclosed. She was very good at playing this game. I didn't even need to check the gossip pages to know that they would be speculating on why she was travelling. I chuckle to myself as I watch her various stories reacting to different amenities on the plane. I type 'are you here yet?' into the bar as a message at the bottom of her last story and right before I'm about to press send, I'm saved from looking like one of her many stalkers.

Just got to the hotel - don't suppose you know anywhere for breakfast?

"Got to go, I'll be at the gym later," I tell Matt, getting up from the table and walking out the door before I can hear his disagreement or refusal and I do feel a little bad given he was about to have finished cooking breakfast but not bad enough to go back.

She's the first person I see when I step out of the lift and into the hotel lobby as she stands with her bags at the desk. I jog over to her, failing to do so under the radar given there's already a lot of attention on her but it also means that she sees me before I get to her and she's ready for my hug as I basically collapse over her, immediately feeling better for the fact she's here.

"Thank you for coming!" Is all I can come up with to say, relaxing when she doesn't instantly step away from me but wraps her arms back around me too. I take a deep breath, enjoying a break from the drama that I'd likely been the cause of and find that when I step back away from her embrace, I'm significantly calmer than I'd been for the last week. She smelt of vanilla right now which was different to normal but very homey... and I'm very glad she can't read my mind or else she'd be out the door I suspect.

"Thanks for asking me to come back out - Shanghai is on my bucket list," she says, holding me back and it takes me a moment to fully convince myself but I do let go. I see the person on the other side of the desk has stopped working as she watches us until she sees me waiting for her to check Sophia in and hurriedly goes back to typing, her eyes down as she avoids me. "Should just be a couple more minutes..."

"Yeah, no problem. There's a place I walk past every year that's a couple of streets around the corner, so can we store her bags before she checks in?" I ask the lady at reception and she nods, eyes wide as she looks at me before looking back at Sophia and agreeing.