Beyond Desire

39-I thought you were all surface.

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Khalid's POV

There's a thin line between adoration and obsession. I used to know where I stood. But now, my heart is running ahead of me, and I'm struggling to keep up.

I have read the little note that came with the flower more times than I could count on both hands. And even now as I stood in the kitchen, waiting for my sausage rolls to bake, I found myself reading through the paper which has now found its place in my wallet.

"You said you came for me. I don't know what to do with that yet, but I think I like that you did.
Ps: I know I am not this brave in person, so if you find this embarrassing, no, it's not! If it still is, then pretend you never read it.
Lily."

The first time I read it, I smiled.

The smile came uninvited, tugging at the corner of my mouth before I could stop it, it was mostly due to amusement. That dry, helpless kind that comes when someone has said something honest and then immediately tried to cushion it with humor, as if laughing at herself might soften the impact of what was said.

Then I read it again.

The words were still the same, still carefully casual, still pretending they didn't mean as much as they did. She'd managed to sound brave and unsure in the same breath, like she'd written it quickly and then stared at it for a while, debating whether to tear it up.

By the third read, I could almost hear her voice. That nervous lilt, the way she rushed when she was embarrassed. The way she filled silences with jokes she didn't quite believe in.

"If this is embarrassing, no, it's not."

I shook my head once, a quiet huff escaping my mouth. She's......adorable. That's the word. Not in a way that diminished her, never that, but in the way someone becomes disarmingly human when they let you see the soft, unguarded parts of them. And the highlight of that, is how she doesn't even notice she was doing it.

I folded the paper carefully and slid it back into my wallet. For a moment, my mind drifted to the secret she kept just as carefully out of sight. I planned to bring it up today, maybe over lunch. Watching her keep walking straight into danger was getting harder to pretend I didn't see. I still didn't get why she'd gotten into his son's car at all.

Just as fast, I reined my thoughts in and focused on the note again. It was only then, standing there with flour dusting my fingers and the kitchen unusually quiet, that it really hit me, even after reading numerous times.

She hadn't signed her full name. She'd signed it the way I call her. The way I'd said it once, absentmindedly, and then kept saying it because I liked the way her eyes reacted every time.

"Lily."

The smile on my face faded, not because the feeling left, far from it. But because something warmer replaced it.

Of all the things she'd written, of all the courage it must have taken to write any of it at all, that was the part that undid me. Without directly saying it, she'd automatically told me she has accepted the name and is willing to keep it, she has accepted me in her life.

I closed my wallet, pressing my thumb against the leather for a brief second, before exhaling sharply.

Damn, I really liked this girl.

The oven's beep pulled me out of my thoughts. I slipped my hands into the oven mitts, opened the door, and pulled out the pan as heat rushed out. Steam curled into the air. Two sausage rolls sat golden and smoky on the tray.