AN ONC 2020 ENTRY- SHORTLISTED
A Wattpad Romance, Stories Undiscovered, General Fiction, Cupid and AmbassadorsUK featured story.
Art in the cover by @CutoutsCo on Etsy.
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"Dear Miss Clara Abbott,
I am delighted to inform you that...
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CHAPTER TWELVE: ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
I love you.
Three words that have always shot fear into Clara's heart. Those words were still something that Clara struggled to say, and something that she found even harder to hear.
That's why she never told Adrian that she was awake.
Clara lay there, pretending to sleep while a very clueless Adrian ran gentle fingers through her fair hair, catching and untangling a few knots as he did so.
With a reluctant sigh, Adrian was able to drag himself from the bed and lazily slipped into his dressing-gown before heading downstairs to make breakfast.
The sound of his soft footsteps descending towards the kitchen promoted a very uneasy Clara to open her eyes, one at a time for added caution, as the cogs in her head began to turn. She had not been expecting that confession from him for a long time, and hearing those three words sent waves of shock and fear over Clara as the gravity of them began to sink in.
Love.
Love was just a mix of three seemingly innocent neurotransmitters coming together to form something that she had never wanted to believe in. How could three neurotransmitters have such an impact on someone?
She was about to find out.
It was lying there in bed listening to the combined sound of the soft hum of traffic and the calming call of a bird that Clara decided what she would do. She would pretend that she never heard him.
The thought of not telling him that she knew that he had said those powerful words caused a dull ache in her chest. It was true that Adrian had no idea that she had heard him, but she knew him well enough to know that that he would have hoped that she would let him know if she was awake.
Deciding that it was finally time to join him downstairs, Clara grabbed a soft throw and draped it over her shoulders as she made her way to the kitchen.
Adrian heard a small thump, followed by an annoyed 'damn it' come from the hallway before Clara reached the kitchen.
"Morning," he greeted her with a small smile as he noticed her sleepy state. "Did you trip over your blanket again?" Adrian continued with a chuckle.
"I did. But it's comfy, so it's worth a broken bone or two."
"You know, I'm not sure that's what the product design team envisioned when they created that blanket." Adrian's amusement grew as Clara clutched the blanket tighter as if she was afraid it would disappear.
