Till Death Do Us Part

Ch. 7 - Friends With (Monetary) Benefits

**Just because I love ya'll so much!! Here's a bonus update  - yes there will STILL be an update on Friday as well! Please don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what you think!**

Roxie's POV

I can confidently say that the relationship Ezekiel and I have developed over the last month was one of the weirdest I've ever been involved in.

For starters, we had become scarily good friends. I'd discovered that he and I have the same sense of humor and tend to agree on a decent number of topics. He used to have a tendency of letting his hands wander whenever I was near him - which was almost always when I was inside the Rouge building - but that habit faded the closer we became. Even during the time when he would touch me, it never got out of hand - something I was deeply grateful. Sometimes he would grace me with light, teasing touches or strokes every now in then because he thought it was funny when I squirmed in discomfort.

At first, our typical seating arrangement had been the same as the second night I worked in his VIP lounge; him sitting on the love seat with me positioned on his lap. After about two weeks and a deep heart-to-heart one particular night, I started sitting next to him instead.

I was surprised he didn't throw me out on my "beautiful ass" when I'd poked fun at him for not spending a night away from Rogue for the last 38 days (yes, I counted and yes, he did make fun of me for it, but the specific number was crucial for making fun of him).

When I'd grown concerned that he didn't have anyone else in his life to be spending his long nights after work or on the weekends with, he scoffed and laughed at me before saying, "I have plenty of people I could be spending my nights with, but I choose to be here blowing my money on you."

"Wow, I feel so honored," I had shot right back, making him laugh.

"You know what I mean. You've helped me out a fuck ton when I've been stuck on designs that I just couldn't seem to finish. My business and the empire I've built is my passion. After all the help and all the jokes you cracked to make me laugh when I've been particularly stressed out, I want to help you pursue what you're passionate about, too," he'd said with a genuine smile. The comment had made my cheeks blush a bright hot red color at the time, unsure of how to take the compliment.

During that one night we'd spent just talking about our lives, he asked me about my past; how I'd ended up where I was, where I wanted to see myself in ten years, things of that sort. I'd gone off on a tangent about putting myself through culinary school and how cooking had always been the one thing I'd loved more than almost anything. My 'almost' had intrigued him, which led to me shutting down and refusing to share more - until he offered me a thousand dollars to spill the beans, so I did. That was how he found himself comforting me as I sobbed into his shoulder an hour later. I told him about my mother, how my father had written me off, and the situation with Jedrek and Tori (though without mentioning names. I wasn't sure who Ezekiel knew through club affiliation and didn't want to risk causing an issue - if Waylon had been here before, who was I to say Jedrek hadn't?).

He'd told me the words I needed to hear that night; "I've known you less than even a fraction of the time he has, and I already know that you're a special woman. Fuck him if he's dumb enough to throw all that away."

The help he was talking about with his designs actually had to do with the blueprints he'd brought in one night. It was a 'stay quiet and just provide quiet moral support' night, but I wasn't able to help myself. When I saw the fucked up layout of the room he was trying to decorate on his 3D computer software, I had to step in. I asked to see the hardcopy of the blueprint and immediately noticed some major red flags in the way the actual building structure was set up. I wasn't sure how in the hell the architect in charge had gotten away with it, but I immediately took a pencil and started sketching a layout that made much more sense in regards to where all the plumbing and heating-slash-cooling aspects were placed throughout the building. I also helped in making the entire floor plan flow much more naturally than it would've before.