Arranged

Ten

Chapter Eight - Back Home Honey![edited]

Beginning of September 2015

Someone is watching

Malek's words haunted me. I heard them everywhere, saw them everywhere, they plagued not only the daytime but my sleep also. The unknown was eating away at me as I waited for Alex to finally explain everything, but I never brought it up, knowing it would only lead us to fighting. Our arguments were the last thing either of needed knowing that we were already on edge.

I had fallen chin deep into a spell of paranoia that I couldn't, not for the live of me, get out of. I refused to go anywhere unless Malek, Ben, or Alexander were with me. I spent most of my days and nights locked in the study with Alexander while he worked. We even slept together every night, though there was still never much talking. We would just lay together like we used to and fall asleep. We haven't talked much since the night of his breakdown even though we are never apart, unless I'm training with Malek. When in the office, we usually spoke of work, and the ever so often, "What do you want to eat for dinner?" or "What are you thinking about?" Our conversations at night were usually more personal and even slightly intimate. Alex never fails to shock me when he says, "I will protect you, you don't need to worry." It is as if he can detect when I am uneasy, looking out of the window every so often, checking the balcony. He has even started closing the shades so the I cannot see out of them and other little things that make such a difference.

I found comfort in his words, I believed he would protect me, not because he had to but because a part of him was the same old Alex. I could feel it in his touch, the way his hand rested on the exposed skin of my waist and hip, or the way his fingers tangled in my hair like he has never touched it before, and every morning, he's holding onto me tighter than he had when we first fell asleep. I could feel the promise of his words in his actions, when he saw that I needed to get to bed he stopped everything to go with me, no matter if he was swamped in work or not, and every morning he was right next to me when I woke up. The image of him in the morning popped into my head; his hair slightly messy, his glasses on, and his eyelid still slightly heavy, reading over contracts and business papers. We had grown closer, and I began to depend on him, emotionally, and I could tell it was the same for him.

Like clockwork Ben and Malek checked in every hour, making sure we were okay and if we needed anything. I liked Ben, he was an older British gentlemen, but oh did he have the energy of a ten year old boy. He was especially sweet to the both of us, and even though Alex wants everyone to think otherwise, I know he likes Ben as much as I do. Whenever it's only him and I, he will go on and on about how dashing of a pair Alexander and I are, and how we are going to make the most beautiful children the world has ever seen. He was really a sweet man.

The construction company was working on an office building project in Tampa, Florida and Alexander seemed especially interested in that particular one. They were finished but he was making sure the all of the little details were covered and to the utmost perfection. Our parents even left to check out the building, he said it was for some law firm that his parents' friends had opened. Nothing interesting. Yet he insisted on going to see it for himself and no amount of protesting from me could change his mind. I wanted to keep a low profile and just stay in his penthouse all day, it's where I felt the safest, with him, Ben and Malek.

"When do you leave?" I asked Alex, as I watched him tuck his ties neatly into his suitcase, "And when will you be back?"

"I leave first thing in the morning and return Friday afternoon." I guess he wasn't one for details.