One Shot (Ruby Rose/Adele fan fic)

ELEVEN

"Chris, can you help me?"

Without saying a word I go upstairs with her nipping at my heels and I open the door of the room I use to store things and that's stuffed with cardboard boxes from floor to ceiling: books, clothes, souvenirs of trips, surfboards and snowboards, my uncle's stuff... Thinking about this room always made feel lazy, it never seemed like a good time to classified things, keep some valuable family heirlooms and get rid of the rest but I think today is the perfect day to do it: I need to keep Chris busy.

We got home late last night and we went to bed immediately. My girl fell asleep exhausted in my arms but with a happy smile on her lips and I lay awake a few hours, in fact I slept on and off checking my security system with my phone and my gun at hand on the nightstand. Today we got up and had breakfast like any other morning but the feeling that someone is going to attack us imminently never leaves me and I'm getting really nervous. I've seen Chris casting a longing look at the beach where the sun was shining on the sea and some kids were playing with a ball but I'm not letting her going out the house for any reason at all. I needed to find a pretext and the cardboard boxes from the disastrous room seemed the best idea.

"Set aside everything you think it's important and we'll put the rest in these boxes, then I'll take them to the church where the clothes and the books will be appreciated, I'm sure."

Chris nods and starts working, there's just enough space for us to sit down on the floor surrounded by bits and bobs but I'm not complaining: I like having her around. I hear her laughing from time to time when she finds some of my treasures of childhood, and some of my nightmares too, like that Barbie ice skater that a neighbour gave me for my ninth birthday thinking that all the girls in the world must like dolls with glitter dresses. I set aside my uncle's journals, I'm keeping them of course, but I'll get rid of all his clothes; suddenly, my companion burst into laughing and makes me look at her startled: she has an old picture in her hands. "What the hell...?" I think while looking over her shoulder. A 6-year-old Adele with pigtails and a yellow dress looks at me with her lips pursed in an angry gesture.

"You were so cute," Chris tries to hide a mocking smile unsuccessfully. "You didn't look happy, though."

"No, that day my mom forced me to wear a pink dress because grandma came to visit us and my jeans and T-shirt weren't considered the proper attire for her birthday party."

"Pink? This dress is yellow." My girl seems confused.

"I know. I threatened with rolling around in the mud and ruin the dress but it was summer and it hadn't rained for weeks so I made my own mud with a bucket of water and some soil from a flower bed in the garden. My mom, that knew me well and was expecting something like that, kept the yellow dress in her wardrobe just in case: she took me to the shower and she forced me to wear it five minutes before the guests arrived and we took that picture. I was livid but now I'm happy that I wore it, my grandma died some months later and that was one of her latest happy memories."

"Your mom was so beautiful... you look just like her."

"Have you just called me beautiful by comparison?" Chris blushes sitting next to me and I can't help laughing before kissing her. I feel the familiar spark when our lips meet sending a shiver down my spine, the reaction of my body every time she touches me is amazing. I've never felt like this before with anyone... I think I'm falling for her...

A knock on the door pulls me out of my trance before I can examine deeply that last thought. I have no idea who that might be since I'm not expecting any visitors, so I ask Chris to stay in the room while I go downstairs grabbing my gun firmly. I look through the peep-hole... "Shit!" I whisper. It's Eric, my uncle's best friend and Helen's father. I respect him very much but this isn't the right time for a social visit. I open the door reluctantly.