The Nanny

Late Night Talk

Somewhere between Aria sipping on her hot chocolate and me fighting an internal battle over my feelings for her, we ended up sat on opposite sides of the couch watching the depressingly limited late night television.

Even though she was a good distance away from me thanks to my rather large sofa I was completely aware of her toes nearly touching my thigh due to her legs being curled up beside her. It was such a small part of her, but I almost wanted to reach out and pull her small feet onto my lap just to feel the contact.

We had been watching some ridiculous adverts for things that no one would ever need for hours now but Aria was laughing and I was the only one around so I was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

At the moment I could almost pretend we were more than just quasi friends.

I had a feeling she was just trying to keep the dreams away and I just happened to be here but that was the thing.

I was here.

And I didn't mind sitting on the sofa with her well into the early morning hours watching the worst over acting in any advert ever.

"Oh man. My mom has one of those." She managed to get out between giggles as she watched some woman on TV vacuum out ear wax.

But my eyes were on her because that was the first time I had heard her mention her family, besides Jamie, and it sparked my curiosity.

I stared at her wondering if I should even bring it up at all, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I knew nothing about her. Nothing important anyway.

I knew she was an experienced nanny and that she came highly recommended by her past employer. I knew she had no criminal record thanks to the background check my mum ran on her before even meeting with her but I didn't know a thing about Aria herself, and I wanted to.

"Aria?"

She turned her head my way, a bright smile still spread across her lips even as her eyes looked tired. Suddenly I didn't know how to ask what I wanted to ask or even if I should.

"Do you.. is your..." I looked away from her to take a deep breath because it was hard to focus when she looked at me like that. "You don't talk about you're mum too much. Or really ever."

When I looked back her smile had fallen. So had her eyes as she stared at her hands.

"So?" She mumbled out.

I wished I hadn't said anything when she uncurled her legs and placed them on the floor, pushing herself up into a proper sitting position.

"I was just wondering..." I tried to go over the best way to continue on with this without pushing her away, I didn't want our time to end just yet but I had already started this so now I had to follow through. "I don't know anything about you?"

Her eyes snapped up. "Yes you do. You know enough."

I scoffed despite myself. "I know your favorite color and that you don't have a criminal record. But I don't know a thing about you."

She narrowed her eyes at me and it made me feel like I went back in time to three days ago. All friendliness was lost from her eyes and I did not like it at all.

Maybe I had moved too fast, asked this too soon. Maybe I should have given our budding friendship a bit more time. I wasn't really known for good timing though.

"I don't want to talk about it Harry." She hissed out, pushing forward until she was sitting on the very edge of the cushions. I was sure she was going to get up and end... whatever this was.