Heartbreaks And Her

Chapter 12

"Mhmm... This is so good. Can't believe I have never tried this before."

"Perks of eating with me." Charles boasted.

"Now you're just being too cocky." Delilah felt at ease conversing like this with Charles, and he too didn't mind. Still, Delilah was a little unsure that why now of all time did Charles choose to offer a hand of friendship or whatever it was; and wasn't it too early to act like this.

"Am I?" Delilah rolled her eyes at this while slurping her double chocolate and double cream cold coffee.

As they were about to finish up their coffees, Charles asked a waiter to bring up their bill.

"Well, since you did so much for me today, let me at least pay for it."

"It's not really gentlemanly to allow a lady to pay for the bill, so don't worry too much and let me take care of it."

"No, seriously Charles, let me pay it. You've already done too much today. It'll be many years till I pay off your debt so don't add on to that sum, I request."

"Come on Delilah, it's okay. Nothing much. And you don't have to pay it off. Just consider it a gift from a well-wisher. Okay?"

"Charles..." Delilah said in a serious tone.

"Okay fine. But let's just go dutch. I won't let you pay for the whole thing. You pay yours, and I'll pay mine. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough." Delilah answered with a smile.

After a lot of arguing and insisting on taking the bus, and forcing Charles to go and finish off his remaining work, Delilah sat at the bus stop waiting for it to arrive. Getting on and settling herself and her bags on the window seat she reflected back on the day. It had been a hell of a day but surprisingly enjoyable. Never in her wildest thoughts had she imagined that the important matter Charles was referring to would be to take her formal-clothes shopping.

And it wasn't that he just did it out of unavoidable obligation but because he actually wanted to do it. During the whole time Delilah never saw him getting irritated or even bored out of wits, he unpredictably enjoyed it, which was really questionable because she had never thought of Charles as a person who enjoyed shopping so much even if it wasn't for himself.

All through the shopping spree Charles was all about, "hey Delilah, check this out!" and "hey I think you should try this on, it will totally go with the trousers you just tried on," or just randomly going through clothes in general while Delilah was in changing. He looked really concerned about Delilah's choice of office clothing.

Every time Delilah came out of the changing room with trousers/skirts and shirts on, Charles couldn't believe his eyes. She looked astonishingly gorgeous, not that she wasn't normally but, just by putting in a little more effort into her styling, she could instantly make men line up in front of her.

Delilah walked in through the dimly lit hall with her hands full of heavy bags.

"What's it that you've got there, sweetie?"

"Oh my god!! You gave me a scare. Mom!!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Lisa said while laughing at her daughter's bewildered face.

"Anyway, there's clothes in there. My boss thought I should keep up with the office dress code because other employees didn't like it, so... he personally went ahead and... bought me some clothes."

"Wow, that's a nice boss you've got there. Is he into you?"

"Pfft... what? No way, mom. Good night. I'm really tired and not hungry."

"Good night."

He isn't into me, right? Haha, who am I kidding, he could date anyone in this whole world, I'm being unreasonable!

Closing her eyes, Delilah again started reflecting back on the whole week. After going through so much all she wanted was a little holiday for herself where she could just laugh and enjoy herself which she hadn't done for quite a while. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't felt refreshed and recharged with Charles. He somehow had made her forget all about James and she was thankful for that.

Wonder what James is up to now that I've left him. Must've started dating that other girl. Why do I even care!

Delilah shifted to her side and thought about all the ridiculously magical moments she had spent with James, but maybe it was all a joke to him. Maybe it was just because of her body, or maybe even her money. But it definitely wasn't something serious for him.

Stop thinking about that jerk! Think about something nice like... Arthur! Arthur?

Well Arthur was definitely the embodiment of nice. His manners, his etiquette, his whole demeanor was mightily nice. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to kill him, and so cruelly too. Even if he had wronged someone which in itself seemed quite unlikely, yet stabbing a knife to his heart was just too much. But who was she to say that given her own thoughts every time James used to come home drunk and lift his hand on her.

Arthur was quite different and intimidating yet Delilah found something vaguely attractive about him. Maybe it was his eyes, cold and icy, or his smile warm yet sad, or maybe even his whole aura was so captivating that she couldn't put her finger on any one thing. Whatever it was, Delilah was unable to control the lightness in her stomach as she lay in bed deep in thought about a ghost which quite possibly might be just a figment of her imagination.

~~~~~~~~~~

Love,

Anshara.