The Ties That Bind Us

CHAPTER 11: Proposition

Warning: EXPLICIT CONTENT [+18]

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That morning Bruce woke up to the smell of freshly squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs and toast. He looked to the side to find the bed empty and smiled amused, stretching his arms above his head and getting up. The clothes scattered across the floor were practically already part of their house decoration, given that they rarely spent the night—and sometimes the day—in any. He bent down to pick up some black trunks to put on and exited the room.

It had been a week since the "incident" on the beach, and weirdly, he'd never felt closer and farther away from Selina. Closer because now he knew he knew her better than anyone else in the world—and even then she remained a mystery—, and farther away because they'd never talked about it ever since. But he was fine with it. Never once he would've thought their relationship was going to be simple and that she was an ever easygoing person, but he didn't care. He was determined to be patient and empathetic, giving her her own time to deal however she felt like—she'd had enough complications in her life for a lifetime, and probably more.

Yet, he was really surprised at how she was handling it. He didn't quite get the meaning behind her response, though.

Selina had already acknowledged in her mind that she hadn't been acting much like herself, and that part of the reason why was that she was feeling a very weird, formerly unknown and predominantly absent sense of guilty conscience. She was trying to compensate the fact that she had probably dumped too much on Bruce at once only to leave him hanging right after when he most needed her to speak. But trying to be a bright and shiny person turned out to be way harder than she would have guessed. It was a look she did not recognize in herself, and she knew it was probably freaking out Bruce just as much as it was freaking her out.

Bruce came down to the kitchen to find Selina on the tip of her toes reaching up to the top cabinet to look for something, making his black shirt lift and let show a bit of her butt. He smiled looking at her from head to toe. Her long stretched up legs were one of his favorite things on earth. She turned around to catch his eyes on her and grinned.

"Hey," she said, walking towards him, "I made us breakfast."

"I see," he responded, hugging her waist and smiling down at her, "Do we have time for some quick pre-breakfast 'workout' or not?"

"Not, because it'll get cold", she said and let go of his arms, pulling his hand to sit down on the island with her, "Come on, let's eat."

Bruce looked at the plates in front of him, full of eggs, bacon (on his), toast, and a variety of fruits and biscuits, alongside a cup of coffee and another of juice. He flung his eyes up to her smiling curiously, "Seriously, Selina, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?", she asked in a terribly forced innocent tone. When she couldn't even fool herself, she rolled her eyes and Bruce saw a glimpse of her actual self in her expression. "I know, I'm trying too hard... I don't know how to do this," she replied, shoving an apple in her mouth and pushing her plate away a bit.

"Do what? And you don't have to do this..."

"I know," she quickly replied, "I'm only looking to see if I can be not too dark and twisty."

"And...?"

"I don't think so. I was just trying to be a daisy-fresh, normal girlfriend, I guess."

Bruce smiled widely, but she pretended not to notice. It had felt weird coming out of her mouth, but it did and she barely had time to try and stop herself. So instead of dwelling over it and overthinking herself into embarrassment, she simply pretended like it was nothing, or like nothing had happened. Bruce knew her well enough to just let go and let her be and didn't pressure her or comment on it, although he was dying to.