Princess °° Freddie Highmore [dd/lg]

chapter twenty-two:

-- C H A P T E R
T W E N T Y - T W O --

"Oh," I reply, now fully understanding. "I see."

Freddie digs into the chest pocket of his blazer and grabs his wallet. He tosses a small stack of bills and abruptly rises to his feet.

"I'll be back in a second, Ms. Helgard." he says as he excuses himself.

As I watch him turn into a nearby corner, I find myself sitting there; wondering if I did something wrong.

I didn't fully understand what was going on with Freddie, but I'm determined to find out.

Hopefully it's nothing bad...

°°

About ten minutes later, Freddie returns. As he sits across from me, the stench of nicotine wavers through my nose. He must have smoked at least five cigarettes.

I furrow my eyebrows, scrunching my nose up in disgust. I usually didn't mind him smelling like cigarettes, however the smell was a bit intense. I wasn't used to it.

"You okay, Mr. Highmore?" I finally ask, catching a breath after coughing a few times.

Freddie nodded. "Yes," he mumbled. "I'm fine." He looks up at me now, his eyes softened and are no longer darkened by whatever emotion clouded them.

"Ye ready?" Freddie questions after a moment.

This time, it was my turn to nod.

He gets up from his seat again, steps closer to where my seat is, offers his hand out to me, and I clasp my hand onto his. In seconds we were out the door and in his car; ready for the night to take us to its unfulfilled destiny.

°°

We stop in front of a large house. Although it was dark, I could tell the building, itself, was made out of brick and some form of rooftile on the roof. Freddie unbuckles his seatbelt and opens his door, shutting it behind himself.

I take off my seatbelt, too, seeing his shadow tower over my illuminated figure. Opening the door, I step outside of the vehicle; hearing it close behind me.

"Where are we?" I ask as he walks in front of me.

"This, Ms. Helgard," Freddie begins, craning his head back at me with a smirk. "is my humble abode."

My jaw nearly fell to the floor. "You're kidding, right?"

We are now at the front door. Freddie jiggles the keys to its knob, and once it clicks to unlock, he turns to me once again.

"If I was kidding, would I be doing this?" He picks me up like a bride on her wedding night, causing me to burst into a fit of giggles. He spins around with me in his arms and I tilt my head back, laughing. I feel like I could fly.

"Okay, okay!" I exclaim after I run out of breath from laughing so much. "I believe you, Mr. Highmore!"

Freddie finally puts me down and closes the front entrance. "Good," he replies. "because if you didn't, I would recommend you getting a cat scan."

I playfully shove his arm and end it with a punch. "You're mean!"

"Bloody Hell!" Freddie exclaims. "You punch like my grandmum during Thanksgiving!" He rubs his arm to soothe the impact.

"She punches you on Thanksgiving?" I inquire, quirking an eyebrow.

"No," Freddie spat. "she punches my dad when she doesn't get her turkey leg!"

I chuckle, then let it die down. "So, Freddie," I start, trying to get accustomed to saying his first name. Although I had only worked for him for maybe a day and a half, addressing him as Mr. Highmore rubbed off on me quite a bit -- and that was my choosing. "why did you take me here?"

Freddie pours himself a glass of water from the water dispenser in his living room area. The house was quite quaint from its rather large upbringing. The living room had beige carpeting, white sofas with black throw pillows, a fireplace, and a coffee table resting between the sofas. It was really nice. There was a set of stairs accompanied on the left side of the room, and an entrance to what I believed to be the kitchen. Or the dining room. Or both.

He returns back to where I was and handed me a cup he so graciously poured for me.

"I figured we could talk a bit more about my proposition," Freddie replies. "the resturaunt was closing anyway and," he steps closer to me, his nose touching mine. "I wanted to have you to myself for a bit longer." he purrs. "I hope you don't mind, Ms. Helgard."

With his words lingering in my ears, I felt my heart flutter. He was smooth, I'll tell you that much. I take the paper cup from him and take a swig of the cool beverage. I smile back at him and press a kiss on the tip of his nose.

"I don't mind at all, Mr. Highmore." I reply smugly.

"Good," Freddie states. "Let's go sit on the sofa, yeah?"

I nod. "Yes, sir." I take his hand in mine as he guides me ten feet from the door. "Let's."

°°°